COMPOSER READING
Meet Florence Price
Introduce students to Florence Price, a composer with Arkansas roots. Keep the reading task distinct from the listening task so students practice both finding information and observing musical details.
Customize this worksheet ↗ORIGINAL SAMPLE READING · GRADES 4–5
Meet Florence Price
Florence Price was born in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1887. She was a composer and pianist. In 1933, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra performed her Symphony No. 1.
Composers make decisions about melody, rhythm, and the sounds of instruments or voices. A musical idea may return or change as a piece continues. Listen for a familiar idea, then notice whether its sound or mood changes. Support your description with a detail you heard.
Biography reference: Florence Price biography. This reading and its teaching prompts are original Music Paper Maker text.
A simple way to teach it
- Read the grade-appropriate passage. For older students, identify which statements are historical facts.
- Choose a short recording of a work by Price. Ask students to listen for one musical feature, such as the sound of an instrument or a returning idea.
- Discuss how a listening observation differs from something learned in a biography. Allow more than one supported interpretation of the music.
Take it a little further
Create a class composer map. Add the birthplace stated in each reading, then discuss how studying several composers broadens the music students encounter.
Open the starter, choose the grade band, then check the reading level and answer space for your class. Each printed page is US Letter. Choose 100% print scale and turn off browser headers and footers.
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