Do “The Loco Motion” by Gerry Goffin and Carol King

Title for Your Identification and Filing

GRADE LEVEL: PREK-2 3-5 X 6-8 X 9-12 ___X_____

NYC ARTS BLUEPRINT STRAND or BENCHMARK; STATE STANDARD

For more information:

Respond to and incorporate directions.

LITERACY OR SUBJECT AREA STANDARD:

For more information: or

Identify details.

ARTISTIC AIM:

Students will perform “The Loco Motion” dance according to how it is described in the lyrics of the song.

LITERACY/ MATH/ OR SUBJECT AREA AIM:

Students will be able to distinguish between lyrics that describe the steps to the dance and lyrics that are descriptive but do not describe dance steps.

Motivation:

  • Anticipating kids’ possible criticism of an old song, introduce song by describing it as a bit of a corny old song.
  • Talk a bit about the history of the song, i.e., performed by someone who was not a trained singer but they had her sing it anyway, etc.

MATERIALS:

CD, way to play CD (CD player, computer with speakers, etc.), copies of lyrics

Procedure:

  • Warm up Routine (STARRR Infrastructure)
  • Mindfulness / Awareness of muscles, breath, heart beating, thinking
  • Vowel Play / Emphasize rhythmic vowels, progressive volume from soft to strong
  • Play the song. Direct students to listen and imagine how to do the song from what they hear.
  • Ask students to describe the directions they heard for how to do the dance.
  • Also ask what was descriptive, i.e., “My little baby sister can do it with ease” vs. what were directions for how to do the dance.
  • Pass out copies of the lyrics and listen to the song a second time.
  • Pick out directions, underlining the words in the lyrics.
  • Go over what words the students underlined.
  • Change an actual dance direction slightly and see if they can spot what was incorrect based on identifying the correct directions in the lyrics.
  • Break into groups to work on putting together the dance from the lyrics.
  • Each group performs their version of the dance for the other groups.

CLOSE:

“So when you go home tonight, you can teach your parents or siblings the steps to this old, corny dance, ‘The Loco Motion.’ Many people know the lyrics, but probably almost no one has taken the time to figure out how to do the dance. So now you can teach it to them.”

Assessment:

Rubric and Performances

  • Ask the students, “What steps must be included according to the lyrics of this dance?”
  • This creates your rubric
  • Evaluate each group’s performance according to the rubric created by the class.

RESOURCES; LINKS

The Loco-Motion

Lesson Plan Developed By:Amy Heller (from Howard Katzoff’s lesson) Email Address: