Taking on the task of teaching my students first how to sight read and then start guiding them into discussing what they are seeing on the page.
By no means have I reached an iron-clad approach to this because with each new group of students comes new challenges and for my ELL students, step-by-step is proving to be the best approach.
I have based this approach to music analysis off of how I teach my students to sight-read. You can find the PowerPoint lesson on sightreading in my store (http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/STARS-Method-Modified-for-Sight-Reading-711155). I also try to incorporate as much cross-curricular content as I can and wanted to help encourage my students in using correct writing in all their content areas.
By 6th grade my students have gone through all of the musical elements they need to identify when preparing to sightread. This worksheet simply has them approach analyzing music in the same way but in written form.
The Level 1 worksheet uses a very basic musical example so students do not feel overwhelmed. This is also a good assessment tool for evaluating how well students can use music vocabulary.