Music History... cut short but not dead
Well...since testing took so long I simply ran out of time to finish the last planned unit of Music History. We are now in a phase of the school year where I will have odd combinations of students in my classes (grade level field trips, award ceremonies, celebrations by specific populations on campus and a school wide celebration) which means that I will only have a complete set of students on two more days...which is simply not enough time to complete the final music history unit. I seriously contemplated a final test that verify all that we have learned but... that feels like what a math or science teacher would do so I needed an alternative was to assess what my student have learned. Introducing the...Music Preferences Assessment.
Students were asked to go into the Computer lab (as a class we had one day to do this but students can also go on their own over three days). Students were asked to look up on You Tube their favorite piece of music. The song could have lyrics but...the lyrics or performer could not be why they like the piece. These pieces also have to be school appropriate.
Student s were then challenged to find a cover of that piece that featured their instrument (often young kids recording themselves playing their favorite piece). The instruments available to my students are:
Band Orchestra
Percussion Violin
Flute Viola
Clarinet (B-flat & Bass) Cello
Sax (alto & tenor) Double Bass
Trombone
Baritone/Euphonium
Trumpet
Mallets
If a cover could not be found that features their instrument students then found (with my approval) a cover of their song that appealed to them.
As an instrument section (all flutes, all trumpets, etc...) students were randomly assigned two genres of music: i.e. Jazz, Ska/Reggae, Classical, Pop, R&B, Hip Hop, Dance/Electronic, Country/Blue Grass, Irish/Folk. Then the students had to find a piece featuring their instrument and the assigned genre.
Each piece (all four) had to have a musical term as the reason that the student liked the piece (rhythm, harmony, melody, dynamics, etc...) and they had to be able to say that at a specific time the musical term or a historical reference could be heard. Students then presented one minute of their favorite song and one of the genre songs and stated, out loud, their term and/or the historical reference.
Today was the first day of presentations. Since this Blog is due tomorrow (a Saturday) I can only reference the presentations from today...all 13. The musical terms have been easy and the Baroque Era has been popular. Students really like a fugue (so far not strictly fugues but you can hear what they thought was a fugue) and could easily find them in pop music. Several student also found Program Music in Animé music (we found English translations for the Japanese) and could make out songs of love, anger, revenge...all rather epic).
I am looking forward to doing this assignment next year with a few revisions... more time in the computer lab. Directions more thoroughly written. My grading rubric more defined. I will also need to find an alternative to presentations (perhaps a simple paper) for my SEVERELY shy students (I have three) this year they are presenting to me at lunch with a slight dip in their grade.
After one day I can say that students have learned something from our time looking at Music History. I still have about 100 more presentations but...from what I saw today they learned and enjoy sharing what they like, even if it is limited to my idea of "acceptable" music.
