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It's My Life


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Keywords: Timeline
Subject(s): Social Studies
Grades 5 through 7
School: Grayson Elementary School, Grayson, LA
Planned By: Penny Buckalew
Original Author: Penny Buckalew, Grayson
1. Play the song, We Didn't Start the Fire, for students. Ask them to listen the first time. The song may be found at www.its.caltech.edu/~yel/Fire.html (Cover up the computer screen as it has pictures to go with the lyrics.)
2. Discuss Billy Joel and the phase of his life (1949-89) covered in the song. Review the Billy Joel PowerPoint.
3. Have student listen to the song again. This time allow them to take notes, listing persons, places, events, things, etc.
4. Have students create an individual timeline reflecting what they heard in the song. (a minimum of 2 places, 2 events, 2 people, 2 things will be required for most students.)
5. Have students exchange timelines and using search engines, check the timeline for accuracy.
6. Using Timeliner or one of the above timeline web sites, have students enter the selected item and year from the song. Print this item for the class to view in perspective.
7 Group students cooperatively, have each group select one year from the 1949-1989 time span. Each individual in that group will choose one item from the song from that year.
8. In a computer lab, students will use search engines to locate information on their chose topic. They will fill in the research guide answering the questions: who, what, why, when/where.
9. The group will complete the Time/Order chart for selections from the chosen year.
10. The group will give a presentation to the class.
Comments
Students enjoy this lesson both in learning about important historical events through the eyes of an entertainer, but also in being able to determine historical events within their own lives. Additional time in computer labs might be needed for some classes.
Cross-Curriculum Ideas
Have students listen to or read the words to the song "19 Somethin' ". (http://www.letssingit.com)Discuss the types of memories that are in the song, i.e., people, things, events, etc. Compare this song with that of Billy Joel. In their journals have students discuss why they prefer one song over the other.

Have students, either collaboratively or individually, create verses for the song from 1989 through 2008 or later. Have students create a timeline of their own lives indicating what events, people, products, etc. they would include. Then have them write verses for thier own history. Have students write a story, create a play, etc. based on one or more of the items from the song.
Follow-Up
(WORDS TO SONG)
We Didn’t Start The Fire
Storm Front Released: 1989
Harry Truman, Doris Day, Red China, Johnny Ray
South Pacific, Walter Winchell, Joe DiMaggio

Joe McCarthy, Richard Nixon, Studebaker, Television
North Korea, South Korea, Marilyn Monroe

Rosenbergs, H Bomb, Sugar Ray, Panmunjom
Brando, The King And I, and The Catcher In The Rye

Eisenhower, Vaccine, England's got a new queen
Maciano, Liberace, Santayana goodbye

We didn't start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning
We didn't start the fire
No we didn't light it
But we tried to fight it

Joseph Stalin, Malenkov, Nasser and Prokofiev
Rockefeller, Campanella, Communist Bloc

Roy Cohn, Juan Peron, Toscanini, Dancron
Dien Bien Phu Falls, Rock Around the Clock

Einstein, James Dean, Brooklyn's got a winning team
Davy Crockett, Peter Pan, Elvis Presley, Disneyland

Bardot, Budapest, Alabama, Khrushchev
Princess Grace, Peyton Place, Trouble in the Suez

We didn't start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning
We didn't start the fire
No we didn't light it
But we tried to fight it

Little Rock, Pasternak, Mickey Mantle, Kerouac
Sputnik, Chou En-Lai, Bridge On The River Kwai

Lebanon, Charles de Gaulle, California baseball
Starkwether, Homicide, Children of Thalidomide
Buddy Holly, Ben Hur, Space Monkey, Mafia
Hula Hoops, Castro, Edsel is a no-go

U2, Syngman Rhee, payola and Kennedy
Chubby Checker, Psycho, Belgians in the Congo

We didn't start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning
We didn't start the fire
No we didn't light it
But we tried to fight it

Hemingway, Eichman, Stranger in a Strange Land
Dylan, Berlin, Bay of Pigs invasion

Lawrence of Arabia, British Beatlemania
Ole Miss, John Glenn, Liston beats Patterson

Pope Paul, Malcolm X, British Politician sex
J.F.K. blown away, what else do I have to say

We didn't start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning
We didn't start the fire
No we didn't light it
But we tried to fight it

Birth control, Ho Chi Minh, Richard Nixon back again
Moonshot, Woodstock, Watergate, punk rock
Begin, Reagan, Palestine, Terror on the airline
Ayatollah's in Iran, Russians in Afghanistan

Wheel of Fortune, Sally Ride, heavy metal, suicide
Foreign debts, homeless Vets, AIDS, Crack, Bernie Goetz
Hypodermics on the shores, China's under martial law
Rock and Roller cola wars, I can't take it anymore

We didn't start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning
We didn't start the fire
No we didn't light it
But we tried to fight it
Materials: Word Processor, Worksheets, Timeline, English and Language Arts, Social Studies, Keyboarding
Other Items: 1 Billy Joel Song -"We Didn't Start the Fire", $0.99 each, total of $0.99