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What Are We Going to Hear? Writing Program Notes for the Spring Concert
Description:
The choir, band, and orchestra have been working hard for a whole semester on music for the spring concert. They need one last thing to make the evening perfect: a program! Eighth-grade Language Arts classes will listen to recordings of the music to be performed and conduct research using a variety of print and electronic resources in preparation for writing descriptive program notes. This is the first of a two-part lesson, to be conducted in the library. The second part will take place with the Language Arts teacher in their classroom at a later date.
Goals & Objectives:

Instructional Goals:

 

Students will be able to identify music from diverse styles and periods and use appropriate resources to research background information. Students will synthesize this information and produce a program note to accompany the piece in the spring concert.

Learning Objectives:


  1. Eighth-grade students will identify the style, composer, and time period of a piece in the spring concert.
  2. Eighth-grade students will write brief reactions to a piece of music.
  3. Eighth-grade students will use at least one online resource and one print resource to research their chosen piece.
  4. In groups, eighth-grade students will write a brief informative note to accompany a piece of music that will appear in the spring concert program.


Motivational Goals:

 

  1. Students will build confidence in their ability to learn and use information skills.
  2. Students will develop a sense of satisfaction in their research accomplishments.
Materials & Sources:
  1. Tapes or CDs of concert music, stereo
  2. Music dictionaries
  3. Computers connected to the Internet
  4. Example of concert programs
  5. LMS-generated worksheets
  6. Names of songs on slips of paper
Procedures:

Collaborator(s): Choir director, band director, orchestra teacher (to provide lists of songs to be performed and recordings of the material and to incorporate finished notes into concert program), Language Arts teacher (to co-teach lesson and complete revisions of written work in class)

Introduction (15 min.):
1.Recordings of music from the concert will be playing as students enter the library.

 

2.The Language Arts teacher will divide the students into groups and seat them at tables.

 

3.The LMS will quickly describe the project while passing around examples of a program from last years' concert and formal concert programs. Students will take a few minutes to skim these.

 

4.The LMS will handout the advance organizers for the project and point out the research stations that students will move through.

 

5.Each group will select at random a piece to work on.

Body (50 min.):
6.The students will move through three research stations and complete a section of the advance organizer at each one. There are three stations: a listening station, where students can play a recording of their song and note their reactions on the worksheet; a print resource station, where students can look through music dictionaries to find information on the composer, style, and form of their piece; and an online resource station where students can use Google to track down specific information on their piece and its composer. Three groups will work at stations at a time, while the other two groups brainstorm ideas and share research and reactions at tables.

 

7.Groups will switch stations at 10-minute intervals.

Conclusion (15 min.):
8.The LMS will recap the importance of the project (these program notes will actually be used in the spring concert) and take questions about the project.

 

9.The Language Arts teacher will briefly discuss the next step, in which students will use their research to write concise and informative notes in Language Arts class.


10.The LMS will invite students to return to the library in their free periods to continue their research or listen to additional recordings before the concert.

Assessment:
Learning Assessment Method(s):

1.The students will complete a three-part worksheet guiding them through the three research stations: reaction to the music heard at the listening station; relevant information from, and at least one print reference to, a music dictionary; and relevant information from, at least one online reference to, a music-related web site.
2.The LMS and Language Arts teacher will circulate between the stations providing motivational and instructional feedback for each group as they work.
3.The students will ask and respond to questions about the assignment during the debrief at the end of the lesson.
4.The end result of the project will be a written program note acceptable for publication in the spring concert program.
Sources:
Print this Lesson Plan
Presented By: melissa Ahart
Website by Data Momentum, Inc.