Scheduling: Your Thoughts

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Your last concert is over...now what? Thoughts on post-concert activities

This post is dedicated to Jennifer Antonetti. She was one my cooperating teachers during my student teaching and the person who gave me this great idea.

If you're like me, your spring concert was planned somewhere in the middle of May. Personally, I think this time frame is rather ideal. It gives you ample time to prepare your students for their concert, but you stay on your co-worker's good side because it doesn't interfere with finals and other end-of-the-year events.

This time frame tends to leave you asking the same question every year "What do we do for the rest of school?" When I was going through school, this was the time reserved for sight-reading music new music, watching videos that were "curriculum based" (Drumline is about band, right?), or in high school, this was when we had our music theory "test." This test always looked eerily similar to the test we had taken the previous semester/year.

Is this a good use of your time or, more importantly, is it a good use of the student's time? I can definitely understand the benefits of reading music mid-year to get a jump on 2nd semester literature, but I don't see the use of it at the end of the year. You're fried, the students are fried, and everyone's counting down the days until summer. There's got to be something more fun and educationally stimulating than a theory final or another showing of Mr. Holland's Opus, right? My answer: composition.

Over the last two years, I've found that this is a perfect time for the students to synthesize the skills they've learned over the year and create a new piece of music with these skills. Not only are you able to cover/assess  NAfME Standard 4 (which I don't think gets addressed enough in music classes...that's for a different post though), but you give the students a chance to let their personalities and creativity shine. 

Here's how it all works for me:

Step 1: Help them make a plan!

As with many creative pursuits, if given too many options, most people can't make any decisions. Instead of just saying, "Write me a piece of music!" I give my students some guidelines by making them fill out a project plan.

Below is the form I use to help students start their project (credit Jennifer Antonetti!). It has been tailored for use with my 6th grade students who have been learning guitar this semester. 

This year I just printed the form out and had the students write the answers, but I'm moving to a 1:1 school next year, so I've made this into a Google Form also! This will allow me to keep all of the data in a spreadsheet.

As you can tell, I let students work by themselves or in groups of up to four, and encourage the students to be as creative as possible, especially regarding question 9! I also don't require them to play their primary instrument. I've had singers and beat-boxers and am currently exploring music tech options as well. Each of the questions can be tailored to match topics you've covered throughout the year, and the "Other" option always leaves room for your stronger students to try something more challenging.

I've found that it's very important to make the students stick to their original plans once they finish the form. I do this purely because of time constraints. Most teachers are looking at a 2-3 week time frame for this project, and if the students are able to continually change their plan, they tend to change their mind too much and run out of time to compose good music.

Step 2: The Rubric

On the first day of the project, I show them the following rubric:



I found that this rubric leads to great questions (see next step) and class discussions of how to make better music without me having to require the use of "2 dynamic markings" or "4 different rhythms" in their piece. 

We get to have discussions about why music needs to be neat and readable. We talk about writing 4- or 8-measure phrases with musical syntax, using different instruments and textures to boost the uniqueness of their composition, and using dynamics and different rhythms to make the music more appealing. 

Step 3: Make them ask questions

From the very beginning of the project, I encourage the students to start writing down any questions they may have about the project or creating music in general. As they are working, I go around and try to answer as many as possible during class. This helps me to do a few things:

• Reinforce music concepts already taught
• slurs vs. ties
• dynamics
• form
• phrasing
• musical road signs
• Help students learn new things that I haven't covered in class
• texture throughout registers
• counter-melodies
• modulations
• Assess any weaknesses in topics I have covered throughout the year

Some example questions I've had:

• How do I notate percussion instruments (drum set, multiple percussion, beat-boxing)?
• Why do the beats have to line up? (referring to vertical alignment in scores)
• Can I write a song that uses instrument x, y, and z? (to which, my answer is always WHY NOT?!)

Step 4: Let them run with it!

After the initial planning stages, I try to stay hands-off and let the students figure out things on their own. I encourage the students to listen to each other's drafts and offer feedback. I also offer feedback to those students who ask, but I never write any music for the students.

Step 5: Perform!

ALWAYS have the students practice/perform their compositions. Use your school's auditorium and have an in-class performance day. Why not give them a chance to work on their small ensemble skills? Why not make them more comfortable performing by giving them one more performance opportunity?

***TECHTIP***Digitize this project

1. Record performance and upload the performance to Youtube 
• iPads make this EXTREMELY easy!
2. Synchronize the student's Noteflight Score to their Youtube video
3. Save the synchronized performance/score to the student's digital portfolio!

I'm actually trying to digitize the project for the first time this year, so I'll update this post when I have some samples. 

I hope you found this post useful and can use it to energize your music class rather than end it with a lull that I often hear of in music programs. I'd love to hear your thoughts on this or hear about other composition assignments you've had your students try!

Film Music Unit

One of the goals we've had at my school this is year is to increase collaboration across subjects and to document it in our unit plans that we have to turn in. There was definitely already collaboration happening around school, but not to the extent that a visitor would be able to immediately tell after observing a couple of lessons. However, I've noticed a marked improvement in our teacher collaboration after this goal was set.

The first collaborative effort that I took on after this goal was set turned out to be quite the undertaking. The art teacher and I decided that we would combine efforts and have our students create original stop-motion videos (without sound) and original soundtracks to go along with them. These final videos would then be presented as part of our next concert.

The students' masterpieces began in art class, where they learned about what stop-motion was and how to create the videos. They then worked on creating original storyboards and then how to act out and film their ideas. I can't go into great detail about exactly what they learned about while shooting these videos, but I was very pleased with the results!

The art teacher and I decided that the videos should be finished before the soundtracks were started. So, while the students were creating their videos in art, I took the time to prep them for the music portion of the project. Here's a short list of activities that I did:

1. A brief presentation on the history of film music
• The presentation was based on information I found in a film music resource packet on Share My Lesson
2. Students gave presentations on famous composers and their music.
• Each student gave a brief history of the composer's life, then shared three examples of the composer's music. The students were asked to describe the scene, the emotion intended in the scene, and then explain what musical elements were used to create said emotions
3. Introduction to Noteflight
• How to enter notes/rests, change key/time signatures, dynamics, etc.

By this time, the videos were almost done, so it was time to prep them for my portion of the project. The students would be required to create a music storyboard, use sync points to highlight parts of the video, compose the score on Noteflight, and then combine their video and audio together. 

***TECHTIP***The storyboards were created in GoogleDrive, and I had the students open the sharing settings on their storyboard and Noteflight score then share the links to these documents in an Edmodo assignment. That way, I was able to monitor progress and offer feedback along the way.

For many of my students, I am their first music teacher. Because of this, many lack the technical capabilities (and instruments) required to play some of the music they were writing, so I decided that they would just use the exported WAV file from Noteflight to accompany their videos instead of having to play the music they write.

Since this was the first time I've done this project, I decided an example would be extremely helpful for the students to understand what was required, so I composed my own score to a scene from an old Charlie Chaplain film.

Here's the link to my storyboard and my Noteflight score. Below you will find the video for my example.

After showing my examples, I let the students loose. They were given a due date for their storyboards and final project and little other group instruction. I wanted to see where the students would go, offering individual feedback and support where necessary. With some of my students who struggle with music, I was able to reinforce using scales in music and then about creating logical phrases with their melodies so they didn't sound like they were lost and wandering. I was able to talk about texture and harmonies with others, and I even got to help a student learn about how to use sequences to change keys (hello freshman-year music theory!).

The rubric I used to grade their storyboards and compositions is heavily based on creative output, as I've been trying to read a lot about measuring creativity lately. I don't think it's a perfect rubric, but I felt like it accurately reflected the time and energy they put into making these.

What I received in final projects varied greatly. Some videos were terribly difficult to get through, while others blew me away. Here are two examples of the later:

Story of a Loner

The Triangle

I think the best things about this project were the differentiation for all abilities and student "discoveries" that happened throughout the project. Each student was able to grow musically in some way without boring the advanced students or losing the struggling students.

I do feel like the composer research project was a bit over their heads. The concept of analyzing music in the way  I asked them to seemed to be a bit too tough. Also, all of my students are non-native English speakers, so the advanced vocabulary was hard for them to handle. Next time, maybe I need to look into getting my hands on some scores or other similar material, so they can have better visual examples of what makes good film music.

I feel like this was definitely a fun project for my students, and I know it was a fun project for me! To take this one step further, I think it would be neat if the students were able to perform the music they composed. It could even be it's own concert event, a Silent-Film Festival, where students perform their music while the audience watches the projected silent film, similar to how the first films were enjoyed!

If you're interested in hearing more specifics about what I did, or have questions or comments for me, please feel free to leave comments below. Any and all advice is always appreciated!

-Kevin

About Me

I think the best way to describe me is a "music teacher who caught the travel bug." A fantastic study abroad experience during college left me with the burning desire to figure out how I can travel and get paid to do it. 

The answer was international school teaching! 

I've spent my first two years out of college teaching middle school (grades 6-8) general music at an international school in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, and let me say, I haven't regretted my decision for a minute! The experiences I've had so far make me certain that, at least for the foreseeable future, the life of an expat teacher is for me!

However...

When I arrived two years ago, I was told to "teach music." 

No curriculum to follow, no resources, and not a lot of guidance from veteran teachers. I had an electric piano, and that was about it. 

A combination of all these factors has led to lots of trials, tribulations, and wonderful "learning experiences" which I hope to catalog in this blog. 

As with most teachers who start to blog, I hope to use this as a tool for reflection and growth as a music educator. All feedback and comments are more than welcome!

Cheers,

Kevin