In July 2007, Deep Roots Music Project founder Chris Gragg led the first Deep Roots Workshop for teachers. The workshop was hosted by  Portland, Oregon's Lewis and Clark College. Right now, there are no specific plans for a second workshop. We'll keep you posted.

Course Description
Drawing on the experience of the teacher and volunteers responsible for the 10-year-old Deep Roots Music Program, this weeklong course for high school teachers demonstrates an effective curriculum model used to help students produce their own song lyrics and music CDs. Participants will explore the creative medium of songwriting and examine its potential impacts on self-expression, classroom community-building, and the general improvement of students’ writing skills. Both in the classroom and during visits to a local recording studio, we will collaborate with professional musicians and recording engineers in order to design and implement effective songwriting lesson plans, write original song lyrics, and craft and record our new songs on a finished music CD. Participants will receive two semester credits. Possible scholarships available.

Together Workshop Participants . . .

1. Collaborate with professional songwriters to create and demonstrate dynamic and effective songwriting lessons for high school classrooms.

2. Write and revise original song lyrics, which professional musicians will help us publish as finished songs on a compilation music CD. 

3. Learn and help execute the basic steps of creating a music CD with high school students; including recording, mixing, mastering, marketing, and manufacturing.

4. Consider ways to incorporate songwriting and the creation of music CDs into our high school English curriculum in a manner that helps achieve personal, district, and state curriculum guidelines and goals.

5. Create individual time lines and plans of action to help our students create their own songs and music CDs.

Workshop Contact Information:
 

Chris Gragg (course instructor)         chris_w_gragg@yahoo.com

Portland musician, writer, and volunteer Madgesdiq visits with students at Roosevelt in 2007
 

The Curriculum

A Brief Summary of How Deep Roots Works
We enlist local professional musicians as mentors to high school writers. These musicians visit classrooms and share their real-life writing lessons, and then the young writers put their newly learned skills and strategies to work as they craft their own song lyrics. Once the students supply the words, our large, established network of bands and musicians to transform the words into finished, recorded songs, each of which is featured on a professional quality music CD. The students are directly involved throughout the entire process; visiting the recording studio, writing press releases, creating cover art, singing and playing on the CD, organizing publicity and sales campaigns, and hosting a free public concert at the school. Sales of the CDs generate money used to pay production costs for the next year's student-generated CD, and in this manner the program becomes ongoing and financially self-sustaining at the school site level.

How Deep Roots Benefits Student Learning

1. Helps students establish a life-long appreciation for writing, music, and their own creative potential
2. Improves the level of student engagement in their school work
3. Help students establish strong writing habits and skills
4. Assists students in making real-life connections between their school work and real-world applications
5. Reinforces important techniques and processes schools stress in writing and art composition
6. Helps students discover the power of individual voice and style in writing and artwork
7. Inspires students to create their best work
8. Provides students with an important sense of purpose
9. Gives students an opportunity to express themselves through the powerful medium of music
10. Involves reluctant writers, ELL students, and special education students who may otherwise feel alienated
11. Involves a wide-range of community volunteers
12. Build community by involving students and volunteers in close, multi-discipline collaboration

What Deep Roots Can Do To Help At Your School

1. Train new teachers
2. Help schools connect with resources, including musicians and engineers, in their own communities
3. Help secure seed money through grants and grant writing materials
4. Supply curriculum materials
5. Provide email updates with curriculum ideas and project timeline reminders for teachers
6. Lend organizational and technical support via phone and email
7. Maintain the project website
8. Supply marketing help and online retailing

The Manual

Program founder Chris Gragg has written a comprehensive manual to help educators who are interested in making CDs with their students.  If you're interested in purchasing a copy of  The Deep Roots Music Project: An Extensive Overview and Manual for Teachers  for $25, please email Chris Gragg at chris_w_gragg@yahoo.com

Gragg is working on a second edition of the manual, with an expanded lesson plan section and other new ideas and information.

The Deep Roots Music Project: An Extensive Overview and Manual for Teachers includes detailed chapters on the following subjects: