Enhancing Our Free Digital Resources
In response to feedback from teachers and S’Cool Sounds (SCS) Teaching Artists (TAs), our full collection of free digital resources now includes Google Slides presentations for each lesson. Teachers and TAs requested ready-made ways to cue up lessons—to efficiently show objectives, media, discussion questions, and calls-to-actions for students to demonstrate their learning. As a result, each lesson now includes a Google Slides presentation that aligns with the SCS approach (Explore, Learn, Perform, and Share).
The goal of these new presentation materials is to empower classroom teachers to lead their own lessons confidently using SCS resources. Combining music with other subject areas such as history, social studies, and geography helps teachers deepen their approaches to a unit and broaden student understanding through creative, artistic connections.
Featured Resource: New York Stories
Within the SCS Learning Resources site is our New York Stories Unit, which features different NYC neighborhoods and the histories of their communities. These materials align with NYC learning standards, centering music to teach themes and key ideas tied to the evolution of local communities from the past to present day.
In anticipation of Italian Heritage/Indigenous Peoples’ Day (October 13) and Thanksgiving (November 27), for example, teachers might look for resources to support a unit on Native American groups and the environment. They can use the first New York Stories lesson, which focuses on the Lenape people, the original inhabitants of Manhattan, NY. Students learn about Lenape musical traditions and use body percussion to follow along with Lenape music.
Your generosity makes it possible for SCS to create accessible music instruction materials in response to teachers’ needs. Please consider donating today!
VIDEO OF THE WEEK
Watch the SCS New York Stories video about the history, culture, and musical traditions of the Lenape people of Manahatta.