ND Curriculum Initiative

Subject & Standards

Understandings & Goals

Enduring Understanding: I want the students to understand music well enough that they can enjoy it in their lives forever, and have a sufficient knowledge base on which to appreciate their future musical experiences.
Goal(s): 1. Students will become familiar with notation Students will understand why notation is important to their music education. Students will be able to use notation to create music that can be enjoyed Students will be able to use their notation learning to improve their own musicality

Questions Answered

Essential questions:  1.What skills do the students need to have to understand the notation of music? 2.  Does notation have to be the only way music is “created?” 3. When learning notation skills, why is it important to be accurate? 4. In what ways can the learning of notation of music be used to “compose” music on your own?
Objectives: 1. Students will be able to compose a melody line using proper key signatures, time signatures, and range.  2. Students will be able to demonstrate understanding of 4 part harmony through the transcription of hymns. 3.  Students will be able to create sound files of various children’s songs so that elementary students may sing to them.  4. Students will be able to recognize errors in a piece of music. 5. Students will be able to notate music and aurally evaluate a piece of music, placing chords where appropriate

Assessment

What quiz and test items (e.g. simple content-focused questions that require a single, best answer) will provide evidence of understanding? Acceptable Evidence will be shown by the notational and composition work the students create.
What academic prompts (e.g. open-ended questions or problems that require students to think critically and then to prepare a response / product / performance) will provide evidence of understanding? 1.  What are some things that were difficult for you when you completed the assignments?  2. When you work with various time signatures, what do you need to remember?  3. What happens to your notation when there are more than one rhythm pattern for a group of notes in a measure?  4. What processes did you need to go through to complete the assignment?
What performance tasks and projects (e.g. complex challenges that are authentic, mirror the real world and require a performance or product) will you include that will provide evidence of student understanding?  1. Can students identify various notational terms/ notes?  2. How can the work that was done be used further? 3.  Where have you seen or heard anything like this before?  4. Where might you use this information again?
What other evidence (e.g. observations, work samples, dialogues, student self-assessment) of understanding will you collect?  1. I will collect work samples from their file-portfolios. 2.  I will continually discuss and observe their progress on each project, to make sure each student is learning.

Instructional Strategies

The Learning Strategy that will best promote higher-order thinking on this unit is project-based. The students demonstrate their learning, creativity, and can DO the projects. Students “create” and students “place” their work to be evaluated. Students will do the assignments. Students will select the best work they’ve done, students will discuss how learning this way has taught them to use music notation compared to other ways they’ve been taught in the past, students should be able to answer “why” they did this unit and how it taught them more about music notation, students should be able to “Play” their compositions for friends and for the teacher.