Four Composers, Four Eras: Mini-Biographies and Timelines

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Arts · Music (General / Band / Choir)
SP-MUS-005 · Free to print and use in your classroom · substituteplans.com
Page 2
Four Composers, Four Eras: Mini-Biographies
and Timelines
Arts · Music (General / Band / Choir) · Grades 8-12 · 50 minutes
Time needed
50 minutes (one class period)
Prep
Copy the 2-page worksheet (one per student). Write the three era names and dates on the
board.
Technology
None.
Student
independence
High. Silent reading, then individual work and a quiet partner check.
Copies to make
One 2-page worksheet per student
Materials
Pencils, Worksheet, Whiteboard or chalkboard
Goal for today: Students will compare four composers by birth year, country, era and one key fact and use dates to
reason about who lived at the same time.
Before the bell
☐ Copy the worksheet, one per student (2 pages).
☐ Write on the board: Baroque about 1600–1750. Classical about 1750–1820. Romantic about 1820–1900.
(These dates are approximate.)
☐ Keep the answer key on your desk. You do not need any music knowledge.
Say this to start
Today you will read four short biographies of composers and compare them in a chart. Then you will use their dates to
work out who could have met whom. At the end you will write a short radio introduction for one of them. Everything
you need is in the reading. Work on your own at first, then compare answers quietly.

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Arts · Music (General / Band / Choir)
SP-MUS-005 · Free to print and use in your classroom · substituteplans.com
Page 3
Run of show
Minutes
What you do
What students do
0–5
Take attendance. Hand out the worksheet and write the
three era names and dates from the board.
Look over the worksheet.
5–17
Ask students to read the four biographies silently and
underline each composer’s birth year and one important
fact.
Read and underline.
17–27
Tell students to complete the Comparison Table using the
biographies.
Fill in birth year, country, era and a fact for
each composer.
27–38
Tell students to answer questions 1–8. Partners may check
the date math quietly.
Answer the multiple-choice, date-math and
true/false questions.
38–47
Tell students to do questions 9 and 10 (order and radio
introduction). Invite one or two students to read their
introduction aloud.
Write the order and a three-sentence radio
introduction.
47–50
Collect all worksheets in a stack for the teacher.
Hand in the worksheet.
If things go wrong
• If students say they have not heard of the composers, tell them the biographies are written for beginners and
that no music background is needed.
• If students ask which era Beethoven belongs to, tell them historians often place him between Classical and
Romantic and either answer is acceptable.
• If a student finishes early, ask them to reread their radio introduction and check each fact against the
biography, then use the early finisher list.
• If the room gets loud, switch to silent work until the date math is done.
Early finishers
• Write three questions you would ask one composer if you could interview them.
• Make a number line from 1685 to 1896 and mark each composer’s birth and death years.
Support and challenge
• Support: Let students underline the birth year in each biography and copy the years into the table first.
• Challenge: Use the birth and death years to find which two composers were alive at the same time for the
longest stretch. Show the dates.

SubstitutePlans.com
Arts · Music (General / Band / Choir)
SP-MUS-005 · Free to print and use in your classroom · substituteplans.com
Page 4
Notes for the teacher (you fill this in)
Jot a few lines before you leave. A full Daily Sub Report is in the free Sub Survival Kit at SubstitutePlans.com.
How far the class got / what to pick up next:
Students who were especially helpful:
Anything the teacher should know: