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Week 6: Grade 63/26/2020 In grade 6, students have most likely grown out of the 'hello song,' so performing one and forcing them to perform one will most likely have a negative impact on the education of those students. They will not be engaged and could even lash out. Instead, it might be beneficial to sing a song, they choose to sing. Whether this be a popular song on the radio or just a song they enjoy listening to. This way, the students are engaged in the lesson while still singing and making music. As such, the beginning song for this lesson will be Can You Feel The Love Tonight by Elton John (this being a song the students 'chose') The next point of emphasis in the lesson will be on rhythm. The Grade 6 Curriculum dictates that students will be learning about the concept of 9/8. A good stepping stone to 9/8 is the familiar rhythm of 6/8, so the song we will be using is The Ants Go Marching In. The pulse of 6/8 is very strong in this song. It is a good idea for the class to clap along to the pulse ("One and a, Two and a"). A good activity is to have one half of the class clap the 'one' and 'two' while the other half claps all the beats. That way the students are understanding the rhythm much better as they must focus on their task while understanding the underlying pulse. A good way to introduce 9/8 would be to simply "add a pulse." The same activity can be done except this time students can clap to the 9/8 pulse (One and a, Two and a, Three and a). Another element of the grade 6 curriculum is the pickup note. In this song there is a pickup note. A good question to pose would be "When does this song start?" By asking that question, the students will be forced to truly listen to the pickup. It can also be mentioned that the pickup bar is made up at the end of a song. The final concept to discuss is the key. The song is clearly in a minor modality, something the students would have discussed in grade 5. In grade 6, they begin to learn about intervals like the perfect 5th, major 3rd and minor 3rd. The minor key can be explained using interval, as the space between the notes of the minor scale are different from the major scale. Here is my attempt at teaching a grade 6 class: (Please forgive the singing)
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Week 5: Grade 53/18/2020 The Grade 5 section of the Ontario Arts Curriculum outlines a few key elements. The first being pitch. In this section, "major, minor, and perfect intervals" are included. Although the students familiar with the major scale and its pitches, they are just being introduced to the idea of an interval. It is important to build on the knowledge they already possess in pitch. Although perhaps appearing simple for a grade 5 class, I feel as though the song is a fantastic stepping stone to convey certain aspects of the curriculum. Firstly, the concept of an interval can be explained as the minor 3rd interval (SOL-MI) is found in the first two measures. Also, The perfect 5th interval (SOL-DO) can be found in measure 5. While explaining the concept of an interval, a good exercise would be to do some improvised solfege within the major triad as it possesses all the intervals (P5, M3, m3). In addition to intervals, the implied harmony is very useful for helping students understand fundamental progressions using the IV, V and I chords. When explaining these chords it is always good to refer to the one as the home chord. Also, it is useful to have some method of playing these chords (ukulele or guitar) in order for the students to take in the harmony. A good exercise would be to have the students guess which chord is which or for them to raise their hand when they hear a certain chord being played. Dynamic control is also a possibility this song. Explaining pianissimo and fortissimo, the dynamics outlined in the Ontario Arts Curriculum, can be done by singing different sections in different dynamics or by guessing which dynamic the teacher is singing. Structurally, the song can be used to convey the idea of second endings by perhaps altering the ending of the song. A good question could be "What was different about the ending?" The theme and variations form is a fantastic way to have students demonstrate creativity by creating their own variations on the theme. Depending on how advanced the class is, the theme could be as simple as the first two measures. The Curriculum claims that teachers should be asking, “How will you change your theme to create a set of variations?” Here is my attempt at teaching grade 5:
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Week 4: Grade 43/11/2020 Grade 4 is the beginning of the primary levels. Within the Ontario Arts Curriculum, the C1 section (Creating and Performing) states that students should be exposed to varying cultures and historical periods by "perform[ing] folk songs with syncopation and traditional songs with a simple harmony part," (Ontario Arts Curriculum p. 104) As such, the emphasis of this lesson will be a song entitled "Little Birch Tree." This song is a traditional folk song in Russia and it speaks of the power and spirituality present in birch trees. As with any other songs in the classroom, it is important to highlight the historical context in order to properly do the song and the culture justice. Note: The balalaika is a stringed, traditional Russian intstrument This song offers many different educational outlets. The first being the key. Since students are being introduced to major and minor modalities in grade 4, this song (being in d minor) is a fantastic opportunity to demonstrate the difference between a major tonality and a minor one. A good way of showing the difference would be to alter the F and C to become sharp, showing the parallel major, D major. Some questions you could ask are; "What was the difference between the two?" or "How was the first one different from the second one?" Rhythmically, the song can be used as a stepping stone to syncopation, as bars 7 and 10 are very simple examples for students to latch on to. Although the syncopation does not follow the exact 'syn-co-pa' syllable, I believe it is still quite effective in demonstrating the element. Structurally, this song is divided into verses and a chorus. The grade 4 level in the curriculum calls for the students to be able to recognize the difference between choruses and verses. To do this you can have students raise their hands or perform some kind of action when the chorus comes around. It can also be done where they only sing the chorus. Another option is to have students keeping the pulse of the at all times. Here is an example of the song being taught Now here is my attempt at teaching the song:
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Week 2: Grade 22/23/2020 For a grade 2, the Ontario Arts Curriculum states that in terms of pitch, the students should be focusing on melodic patterns and using notes from pentatonic scales as well as engaging and learning the interval of an octave through high DO. Similar to last week, the lesson will begin with a simple entrance or hello song. These activities are used to get students immediately engaged with the class. Similar to sports, warm ups are important to any activity. Hello songs are great ways to get the students moving as well, getting the kinesthetic brain ready for learning. Here is a great video demonstrating some hello songs: For this lesson, the song "Frère Jacques" will be the focal point of the lesson. It must be noted that the English translation "Are You Sleeping?" can also be used but I believe the exposure to the French language is a great way to introduce students to a different cultural perspective. The reason for the song selection is that when focused on the pitch, it utilizes many familiar pitches that the students are accustomed to while perhaps challenging them rhythmically. Here is the Solfege for the song: Note: The final two bars with the bells ringing is a fantastic opportunity to try out different intervals and perhaps work up to the octave. The low SOL can also be put up the octave. The last two bars are also fantastic ways to introduce the textural and harmonic concept of a bordun, which is an element found in the grade 2 section of the Ontario Arts Curriculum. Here is a good video explaining borduns: Another element found in the Curriculum for grade 2 is the half or whole note. The last two bars of each phrase have half notes, with the first phrase being preceded by many quarter notes making it an effective transition. The Curriculm uses the "tah-ah" sound but "two-oo" could also be used. The dynamic expressions and articulation concepts of legato and staccato are also key in at the grade 2 level. Again, the last two bars are great opportunities to have the students articulate the onomatopoeias softly or loudly. Legato can be introduced by telling the kids to have long bells while the opposite staccato, can used "short" bells. Here is my best attempt at a lesson featuring the song and the concepts found above:
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Week 1: Grade 12/13/2020 The emphasis of this lesson will be placed on the "pitch" portion in the grade 1 section of the Ontario Arts Curriculum. Pitches we will be learning / practicing: SOL, MI, LA For this lesson there is also an assumption of the most basic concepts of pitch and singing. To start off, an intro song will be played as the students walk into class. This song will engage students immediately with the pitches being taught (SOL, MI, LA) while forcing them to listen in a way. This song is done through call and response, with questions being asked to students. The exact song does not matter, as long as their are questions, and some theme of 'hello' is being echoed. Here is a good example of an intro song using rudimentary pitches (Skip to 2:38) Now that an intro has been accomplished and the kids are focused. The pitches SOL and MI will be sung with various words and actions to go along with it. After that, a short song will be sung using these pitches specifically. In this particular case, I will use "Apple Tree" because of its simplicity. Some other good options for songs with a minor third as the focus are "Rain, Rain, Go Away / It's Raining, It's Pouring" (especially if its raining that day) and "This Old Man" (this one requires a few more pitches like FA, RE and DO) Note: The Final note was changed from DO to MI to fit the grade 1 level. Here is a link to a website describing the song with a circle activity to go along with it. https://www.letsplaykidsmusic.com/apple-tree-apple-tree-circle-game/ This activity would perhaps be better suited to an older age group because of the dropping of the hands (younger children may not have high self-control) I feel as though this is a good song to sing in the classroom, because although the suggestion of violence at the cadence may be problematic, it can be humorous if delivered correctly. In addition, the song focuses on the natural environment, which is also found in the Ontario Arts Curriculum. It would not be difficult to discuss nature and its beauty with children during the lesson. Here is an example of how I would teach this skill (Please forgive the minor hiccups) |