Unit Plan 26 (Grade 6 Vocal Music): Vocal Storytelling
Grade 6 students create short vocal soundscapes and musical scenes that tell stories, express emotions, and represent places—then explain how choices like tempo, dynamics, pitch, and tone connect to the narrative and their personal experiences.
Focus: Create vocal sounds and short musical scenes that tell stories or represent feelings and places, and explain how musical choices show the story and connect to personal experiences.
Grade Level: 6
Subject Area: Vocal Music (Creating • Connecting • Expression)
Total Unit Duration: 5 sessions (one week), 45–55 minutes per session
I. Introduction
In this unit, students explore vocal storytelling—using voice, sound, and simple musical patterns to represent characters, actions, and settings without needing a full song. They listen to examples of vocal music that tell stories or paint scenes, then create their own short vocal story pieces in small groups. Throughout the unit, students reflect on how their personal experiences, interests, and imaginations shape the kinds of stories and sounds they choose.
Essential Questions
- How can vocal sounds (pitch, rhythm, dynamics, tone, words, and non-words) tell a story or show a scene?
- In what ways do our interests, personalities, and experiences influence the stories we want to tell with our voices?
- How do choices like tempo, volume, and vocal color change what an audience understands or feels?
- Why is it important to be able to explain our musical choices when we create and perform vocal stories?
II. Objectives and Standards
Learning Objectives — Students will be able to:
- Identify how tempo, dynamics, pitch, and tone can represent different characters, actions, or moods in a story.
- Plan and create a short vocal storytelling piece (30–60 seconds) that represents a simple scene, emotion, or sequence of events.
- Rehearse and refine their vocal story to make the intent clearer for listeners (what is happening, how it feels).
- Present their completed vocal creation and describe at least two musical choices (e.g., loud vs. soft, high vs. low, smooth vs. choppy) that communicate the story.
- Explain how their personal experiences, interests, or feelings influenced the story they chose and the sounds they used.
Standards Alignment — Grade 6 Vocal Music (custom, NAfME-style)
- VM:Cr3.6b — Present a completed vocal creation and describe how musical choices communicate intent.
- Example: Students perform their song and explain how tempo and dynamics support the text.
- VM:Cn10.6a — Describe how personal experiences and interests influence vocal music choices.
- Example: Students explain why they enjoy singing certain styles or genres.
Success Criteria — Student Language
- I can create vocal sounds and patterns that match a story, scene, or feeling.
- I can explain how my choices of tempo, dynamics, and tone show what is happening in the story.
- I can present my vocal story so that listeners can tell what I am trying to represent.
- I can describe how my own experiences and interests helped me pick my story idea and sounds.
- I can work with my group to revise our vocal story so the intent is clearer and more expressive.