Unit Plan Overview: This short unit was designed to be used in conjunction with my aiding assignment at City Middle High School Fall of 2016 as part of my Music Education experience at Calvin College in Grand Rapids MI. I chose this topic because I thought it would be the unit for study in the band program. I created the unit as part of my ongoing experience with authentic teaching in an urban school with real students. The big questions/problems I had to face were:
1) How can I make my unit engaging, interesting, applicable to the future of these students? 2) How would I deal with less than enthusiastic reception? Behavior problems? 3) How could I create a lesson for the different proficiency levels which I soon discovered were present in each classroom? 4) How should I include the International Baccalaureate standards which the school utilizes? What research into the IB should I do to find these things out? 5) Will I be able to include music which the students listen to outside of class in order to make the study of music relevant?
First, I had to consult with my aiding teacher, Mr. Schroeder, to determine what topic the unit for City High Middle's IB program would be during the beginning of November, when I would be teaching, way back in September. He told me Music Quality, with an emphasis on Aesthetics, so I begin an extensive search in Professional Music Journals towards this end. I outlined three excellent articles in my "Professional Literature" tab under "more" at the top of this page. But I read so many more articles, and searched several websites and blogs in addition to these sources, which I haven't included. I also have been able to resort to decades of experience in the field as a conductor and as a performer in community groups. So there are many personal additions which reflect my own life experiences which cannot really be cataloged so easily. I initially had my second lesson revolve around the steps to sight reading, but Mr. Schroeder said one of the lessons should have aesthetics. He explained that steps to sight reading were more along the lines of "The Language of Music" which was their current topic (October). He helped me think through a lesson on aesthetics, and to tie it in with a song which was in their lesson book. It turns out, November 9th, when my lessons were all written, that the unit was NOT Musical Quality, but Musical Time. So I adjusted my second lesson's focus slightly, but was not able to change it on this page. I detail this in my reflection, however, for the interested reader.
Overall, I believe that the times which I taught the class, I was able to engage most of the students most of the time (if not all!), I feel that I dealt with behavior issues (which were rare) in a fair, balanced way, I was able to scaffold and differentiate to help the learners in all the levels within the classes. Although I only attempted to teach one lesson of this unit, I did work with entire ensembles very often, and could apply basic teaching strategies every day. I did not have an opportunity to include music selections which were part of the student's lives, however. This is one thing I would expand upon when I teach these lessons in the future, because relevancy in music is important to secondary students.
This lesson plan connects with the broader curriculum in reading. There are definitions and explanations in the method books which require reading skills. The language of music connects with language as it contains symbols, Italian terms, and tracking skills as students follow the musical lines. When we study rhythms and their relationships in music, math concepts come into play quite directly. The concepts of musical elements, recognizing tonality, and performance are all interdisciplinary skills which will extend to other music students come into contact with, whether it is pop music, musical theater at the school or music in the community from garage bands to Grand Rapids Symphony Orchestra, Another community connection is that there are a few students which belong to the Grand Rapids Youth Symphony, and this unit's content would certainly enhance that experience for the students involved. Finally, this lesson plan connects culture and history during lesson one and all the listening examples there.