Maui Index

Overview:
This unit is geared for grade 4, and will encompass ideas from both geography, and music. The primary scope of this unit is music: Ostinato patterns and music history.

Geography Standards:
The students will engage in the following standards:

#15 How physical systems affect human systems

#17 How to apply geography to interpret the past

#12 Processes, patterns and functions of human settlement

Geography Skills:
Throughout this unit, all students will:

1. Acquire geographic information
2. Analyze geographic information
3. Answer geographic questions

Music Standards:
The students will engage in the following standards:

#5 Read and notate music.

#6 Listen, analyze and describe music.

#9 Understand music in relation to history and culture.

Music Concepts:
By the end of this unit, all students will experience the following:

• Duration of sound and silence are symbolized in a notation system that people understand.

Materials Needed:

1. "Hole Hole Bushi" Recording
2. Words to "Hole Hole Bushi"
3. Drums
4. Map

Objectives:
By the end of this unit, all students will

1. Clap their hands and/or play a drum to a written rhythm pattern, with each child able to clap and/or play the pattern after 3 tries.
2. State when a rhythm pattern varies from a given pattern by listening to an ostinato and raising his/her hand when the rhythm pattern varies from the given pattern, with each student able to delineate at least 1 out of 3 patterns correctly.
3. State reasons why people migrate to different lands, with each student able to state at least one reason.
4. State reasons why people create their own songs, with each student able to state at least one reason.

Procedure:

1. As the students are walking into class, play the recording of "Hole Hole Bushi" (Plantation Style). After the students are seated, ask them where they think the song originated. Write the suggestions on the board.
2. Write the rhythm pattern | | | | (dotted quarter note, eighth note, quarter note, quarter note) on the board. Have the students say and clap the pattern (ta - ti ta ta). Draw repeat signs around the pattern and have the students clap and say the pattern as an ostinato. As they are doing this task, pass out several drums to selected students, and have these students play the drums as the remainder of the class is saying the pattern. Pose the following question: If we were in Japan and doing this rhythm pattern, what would the drums symbolize? (Taiko Drum)
3. Pass out the words and translation for "Hole Hole Bushi" to the class, and play the recording of "Hole Hole Bushi" again and now ask the students where they feel the song originated. Then, discuss the origination of the song (composed in the canefields by Japanese immigrants), and the interpretation of the song (Before people knew that cane could be burned to remove the dead leaves for harvesting, the workers had to strip the dead leaves off the stalks by hands, which was caled "Hole hole". The word "Bushi" comes from the Japanese word for song. Thus, this song reflects how the workers felt and what they went through during the time of the sugar harvesting.
4. Briefly discuss the history of sugar in Hawaii, focusing on why people migrated to the islands and why they came. Pose the following questions:
   • Why did the immigrant workers come to Hawaii?
     
   • What did they hope to find and were they successful?
     
   • Are people still migrating today for the same reasons?
   • Is sugar still thriving in the same capacity? Why or why not?
5. Then discuss the areas that sugar was harvested in, concentrating on the need for water to grow sugar, and how water became, and is a determining factor in the growing of sugarcane (the building of ditches -- the first in 1856 near Lihue, Kauai, and the use of artesian wells -- the first in 1879 in Ewa, Oahu, to the use of freshwater pools or 'Lenses,' created in 1898 that are still in use today). Show the map of where the sugarcane fields are located today, having the students arrive at a generalization of why the fields are in those locations today.
6. Discuss the manner in which sugar is harvested, using pictures, if any are available, and the process of the refining of sugar.
7. Reflect back on the song "Hole Hole Bushi." Pose this question: Why would the workers create this song? After discussing this question as a class, ask them if they feel that this could be the only interpretation of the song, or if there could possibly be another? Play the Teahouse version and have the students listen carefully for just a few verses. Discuss the differences and/or similarities in the song. Review the rhythm pattern studied earlier in the lesson and have them listen for this pattern throughout the song, and when they hear a variation of the pattern they are to raise their hand. As they are doing so, assess the students (+ 3/3, / 2/3, /- 1/3, - 0/3). After the song is finished, review the term ostinato (repeated pattern) with the students.
8. Ask the students if they are aware of any other songs that reflect the toils of workers. Lead the discussion to the songs "I've Been Working on the Railroad" and "Pick A Bale of Cotton." Remind them of the lyrics in these songs and discuss the similarities of the toils and experiences of the workers in these times as in the times of the sugar workers.
9. Sing "I've Been Working on the Railroad" to end, having the students reflect on the experiences of the workers who migrate to various lands for the various reasons, as the ones discussed in this lesson, as they sing.

Extensions:

1. Map the areas that people migrated to Hawaii from for the sugar industry:
   • Use a class map and different colored yarn/string linking the countries people migrated from (use a different colored yarn/string for each country).
   • Give each student a map, and have them map the migration separately.
2. Create a timeline of the sugar industry
   • Make a fan book, using each panel to represent a specific time frame
   • Make a class book: Divide the class into groups, assigning each group a
   different time frame, and collating the pages together.
3. Divide the students into different groups, with each group studying a different migrating group.
4. Take the students to the Hawaii Plantation Village for a field trip to explore the sugar industry further.

References:

1. Hawaii's Sugar (Published by the Hawaiian Sugar Planters' Association, PO Box 1057, Aiea, hawaii, 96701).
2. Hole Hole Bushi , Harry M. Urata (M & H Hawaii, PO Box 304, Honolulu, Hawaii, 96813)