http://www.lessonplanspage.com/MusicComposition5up.htm
Lesson Plan
Subject: Music
Lesson
Plan Title: Composition in Seven Steps
The
lesson plan:
------------------------------------------------------------
COMPOSTION
IN SEVEN STEPS - 5th grade & above
For this
lesson, I would do this example as a class,
give them a copy and then a worksheet like this with appropriate spaces and
blanks.
(Student(s)
has(have) chosen a 2-4 line singularly metered poem excerpt - though teacher
may want to control this by offering the choices to simplify meters, language,
etc.,) (For e-mail: Rhythm: // = 2 eighth notes; i = one quarter note; b = one half note; b-b
(whole); /// = triplet; z = quarter rest; /z = eighth rest / = 1 eighth note)
COMPOSITION
IN SEVEN STEPS by Sandy Toms
1. "Speak your lines several times to yourself and mark the
accented words (heavy beats) with a ">" over the accented
syllables of words. (Might be advisable to
have student write out words with dashes between syllables.) example: > > > >
Early to bed and early to rise
2. Insert bar lines before accented words except the first word.
(Here I'll use /)
example: > > > >
Early to / bed and / early to / rise /
3. Figure note values by first marking short lines under words
for each beat. (Have student tap lightly on knee or desk a steady beat while
marking the dashes under words; warn them that some words will have more beats
than others and some one syllable words will have
more than one word.
example: > > > >
Early to \ bed and \ early to \ rise
\
- - - -
- - - - - - - -
How many beats do you have in each measure? Write in your meter
signature. (2 = 2/4, 3 = 3/4, 4 = 4/4, 6 =
6/8) to the left of the first word.
example:> > > >
3 6 4 Early to \...... or 8
Early to bed \
4. Now put note values under the marks for beats; any notes
'held' for more that one beat should have that value:
the word "rise" has 3 so value = dotted half
(Here I would put each rhythmic symbol , "=" & number of beats as a
crutch)
(# of beats: // = 1, i
= 1, b = 2, b-i = 3)
example: > > > >
Early to \ bed and \ early to \ rise
\
- - - - - - - - - - - -
i i i
b i i i
i b-i
5. a. Write the words under the staff; b. Draw bar lines on
staff between words where bar lines should go(I
can't do that here); c. Draw note values right over the words.
________________________________
________________________________
(Clef)____________________________
________________________________
________________________________
i i i
b i i i
i b-i
Early to bed and early to rise
6. Now compose a melody to fit the rhythm (Try to have the
melody "fit" the words.) Try working with the key of C. Start on either E, G, or C and end the
phrase on one of those three notes. Work with only half the phrase at a time. ("Early to bed" then "and early to
rise.")
As you pencil in possible notes over words, do it lightly (so
that you can erase if you want) and be sure to use note values that you wrote
in below the staff.
(Note: if students are using xylophones and are not adept with
note names, have a cheat sheet with names & spaces marked)
7. When sure about the melody, ink it in; practice and perform!
(This lesson can be extended or picked up later when doing a
unit on chord structure. They can decide and write in chords (I, IV, V7) for
the measures.
Andrew Hilliker
Kayla Jean Kummerow
Lesson Plan Analysis
The first thing that we realized right away after going through this lesson plan was that the teacher was using deductive learning. Although she said that she would do this lesson first as an example for the class and then give them the worksheets and they could do it on their own, it still was deductive learning. This is simply because she was giving them the steps to create a composition. She wasn’t letting them figure out how to write a composition by themselves. We think for learning how to write a composition, deductive learning is the way to go. Composition is very complex, and if you would just tell middle schoolers to write a composition, they would not learn the fundamentals and therefore be overwhelmed with all the possibilities of writing. The exercise helps the middle schoolers because it is a simplified example, which gives them the fundamentals of how to compose a simple composition, which they can use later when composing a more complex work.
The second thing that is very apparent is that this lesson is a form of scaffolding. It uses very slow steps from speaking your words of your poem rhythmically, to actually notating a melody. It uses steps that they know and recognize, and slowly lets them expand on their knowledge. The steps given are a structured set of certain specific keys, starting notes, and form that the students use to create their composition, but was set by the teacher to have a similar outcome in most of the students’ compositions. The specifications of these elements are not always the same without this exercise. While this set of steps allows the students to have a structured plan for composition, once they become comfortable with these steps and composition itself, they do not even need to use them anymore.
Another thing that we believe this exercise gives students is a way to organize and attach meaning to composition and song writing, so that they can move it from each level of their memory until it is stored in their long term memory and easy to retrieve. These steps are organized in a way so that it will be easy for them to retrieve when composing simple, intermediate, and advanced compositions throughout their life. The organization of these steps can be linked to scaffolding as well, because they are a tool that students can use until they feel comfortable. Then they can take them away and be able to accomplish a similar outcome, without having to think about it and being creative with it as well. A way for this teacher to implant it further in their long-term memory is to have repetition of this exercise until the students know what to do when she asks them to compose. Also, this exercise allows the students to attach meaning to composition because the teacher designed the exercise to allow the students to create their own composition, not just simply watch the teacher create one.
The lesson plan has a lot of visual learning involved in it. Visual learning is helpful for students. When a teacher gives them a visual to what they are explaining, they can link the information that they are receiving to the visual picture in their mind. And then when they are trying to store it in their memory it will be easier to store and retrieve if it has a visual image linked to it. The teacher designed the worksheet in such a way that the students first learn how to put rhythm to their composition by simply putting a tick mark every time that there is a new syllable in their poem. This visually allows the students to see how many possible beats that can go with each word in their poem, and then from there they can decide how long they want each note to be. Another example of visual learning in this plan is having the students put stress marks over the words or syllables that they want to be emphasized. Because music is very visual, this introduces a way of notating when to emphasize certain syllables. This is something that they can use for the rest of their lives, so that when they need to emphasize a certain note in music, they will recognize the stress mark without hesitation.
This exercise helps the students build their musical schemas that already exist, and create new ones. The teacher allows the students to use schemas that already exist to help them start out. For example, by having them speak their poem and realizing where the natural accents of the words fell, she started to develop their rhythm, by strengthening their previous schema of language. Then she slowly let them develop new schemas and expand their existing ones. This lesson gives the students a new way to look at music, and to think about how it was created. It helps the students to develop new ways of organizing music at a more complex level then just passively listening, and seeing written notes on a page. After doing this lesson several times, they can analyze simple compositions and actively listen to music. These are examples of possible new/revised schemas that they can take from this lesson.
This lesson plan starts out with the teacher modeling. She knows that she cannot just hand them the sheet of rules and expect them to understand what she is talking about, so she first uses modeling and class participation as a tool to help the students understand what needs to be accomplished. In this modeling process, the teacher uses verbal and visual examples to help the students further grasp the idea. She is a constant example of modeling in this lesson because she models what to do in the beginning, and it’s available during the process to further model examples that some students did not comprehend. She is also available at the end of the process to evaluate the finished product by giving written notes and feedback on the composition, and possibly addressing major problems with the finished product to the class by modeling once more, so that they understand how to do better next time.
When creating the lesson plan, we think that the teacher did a nice job of presenting and preparing at the appropriate grade level of the students. She made it so that it was in their zone of proximal development, simple enough concepts, while expanding their knowledge on the subject. She designed the lesson so that it was comprehensible for the more advanced students, and still obtainable with the help of the teacher for the grade level students. We believe if we presented this lesson to a group of middle school music students, they would be able to successfully accomplish this lesson with help from us.
Something that was lacking in the lesson was the use of peer modeling. If she had had students who had taken the class before come in and model how they approached this project, we feel it would have been more helpful to the students, not only because they can see kids their own age doing the project, but because the older students could give tips and a more clear description that the kids in the class could comprehend better. They could also tell the students how they struggled, and give examples of a way that they looked at it that made it easier for them to understand. Peer modeling is a great tool to use when the teacher lets the students create something on their own because it is still controlled but it also lets the students use their own ideas to create something original. It is also a good way to improve self-efficacy for both sets of students because the students coming into the class will feel appreciated and valued in the teacher’s eye, and the students in the class will feel like they can do the project and be successful.
Overall, we think that this lesson plan is very well thought out and a good lesson plan. The teacher understands what students at the middle school level can handle, and she understands how to make sure that this information can stick with them in the long run. She also designed it in a fun and engaging way, so that the students could have a good experience for their first composition.