A significant goal of this series of lessons was to use students’ prior experiences to unlock their understanding of their own musical knowledge. Teaching the lessons to a full ensemble allowed me the benefit of hearing multiple interpretations of student understanding in the same setting. In light of this, much of my assessment strategy involved informally addressing students in real time, both in smaller groups and one-on-one as we utilized the circle arrangement. Other assessment strategies included the repeated use of a checklist of composition rules. By the end of the lessons, the students were able to identify the criteria on the checklist within their compositions. In addition to these checklists, students filled out a more formal written assessment at the end of the project to assess how well they retained what they created, what they struggled with, what they found most interesting, and how the lesson could be improved for greater clarity.
My expectation was that students would be able to create simple songs as a class without the aid of written sheet music. Throughout the series of lessons, my expectations for them evolved, as more of the agency required to create the song was transferred from the teacher to the students. Each lesson began with a brief discussion reviewing our past experience. These discussions ended with a new learning goal for that day’s composing session.
Students accomplished the goals for the lesson series by creating a “circle song” every day as a class, composing parts both in small groups and individually, ultimately transcribing their parts into music notation. In the beginning stages of the video, they can be seen learning to play parts by ear, without the aid of notation. After working through this stage with a sense of accomplishment and hearing examples of improvisation, some students were successful in writing parts on the spot, aided by a teacher. All students composed their own parts in small groups, with only peer support. Through these scaffolding experiences, students wrote musical figures individually and performed them in a circle song format, without the support of peers or a teacher. This can be seen in the final stage of the third lesson.
Examples of students' transcribed melodies can be found in the next section of STP, "Reflection on Teaching and Learning".
My expectation was that students would be able to create simple songs as a class without the aid of written sheet music. Throughout the series of lessons, my expectations for them evolved, as more of the agency required to create the song was transferred from the teacher to the students. Each lesson began with a brief discussion reviewing our past experience. These discussions ended with a new learning goal for that day’s composing session.
Students accomplished the goals for the lesson series by creating a “circle song” every day as a class, composing parts both in small groups and individually, ultimately transcribing their parts into music notation. In the beginning stages of the video, they can be seen learning to play parts by ear, without the aid of notation. After working through this stage with a sense of accomplishment and hearing examples of improvisation, some students were successful in writing parts on the spot, aided by a teacher. All students composed their own parts in small groups, with only peer support. Through these scaffolding experiences, students wrote musical figures individually and performed them in a circle song format, without the support of peers or a teacher. This can be seen in the final stage of the third lesson.
Examples of students' transcribed melodies can be found in the next section of STP, "Reflection on Teaching and Learning".