Lydia Baranoski
Unit Plan:
While student teaching in my emphasis placement of general music I had the chance to do a unit plan with the 4th grade classes. In this unit plan the students got to explore preforming pop music in an ensemble like setting with the popular song "Try Everything". They learned the melody, learned about chords, studied and learned the harmony part through playing Orff styled instruments, and put the piece together as an ensemble. It was a great learning experience for the students and was a blast to teach!
Instructor: Lydia Baranoski
Unit: Chord Structure and Melody and Harmony in Pop Music
Grade Level: 4th grade general music
Unit Goals:
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Students preform in class the song “Try Everything” by Shakira, with singing the melody and playing the Harmony part on Orff styled instruments
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Students can explain the basics of what a chord is and how it pertains to pop music
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Students can identify the melody of a song versus the harmony of a song
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Students understand what it means to play within an ensemble and how their own individual part can fit into the bigger picture.
Student Objectives:
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Students will be able to sing the song “Try Everything”, by Shakira, by demonstrating accurate pitches and rhythms after being taught the song by rote.
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Students will be able to show concept of steady beat, rhythm, chord changes and reading by playing xylophone, boom whackers, and auxiliary percussion with each chord change
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Students will be able to demonstrate concepts of basic ensemble playing by counting rests and keeping a steady beat to play their part when it is their time to play
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Students will be able to show concept of steady beat by keeping the melody part in time with the harmony part
Week One:
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Students listen to the song “Try Everything”
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Students discuss what they heard in the recording of the song, what instruments where heard, what were the lyrics saying
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Students lean the melody of the song by method of call and response singing with lyrics projected on board
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Teacher explains to students what chords are
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Students sit in groups and tap out steady beat of song with certain groups tapping when certain chords appear in song
Week Two:
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Students review singing the melody of the song and the concept of chords
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Students are assigned to instruments, xylophones, boom whackers, and aux percussion
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Teacher goes over proper playing technique with students on each instrument
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Students read notes presented on board that correspond with each chord and find it on the xylophones
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Students play their instruments in correspondence to the music on the board
Week Three:
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Students start on instruments and play through chord changes following music on projector
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Students spend time switching instruments and trying new parts
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Teacher takes volunteers of students that want to try singing the melody over the harmony part
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Students put together melody part with singing and harmony part with playing and preform the song as a whole
Assessment Tools
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Students will be assessed through direct assessment techniques of the teacher asking students questions based on what the student has learned in this lesson, previous lessons, or experiences
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Students will be assessed by asking each student to write down three new things they learned about in this lesson
National Standards addressed in this unit
MU:Pr4.2.4a Demonstrate understanding of the structure and the elements of music (such as rhythm, pitch, and form) in music selected for performance.
MU:Pr4.2.4b When analyzing selected music, read and perform using iconic and/or standard notation.
MU:Pr6.1.4a Perform music, alone or with others, with expression and technical accuracy, and appropriate interpretation
Pa National Standards for Arts and Humanities addressed in this unit
9.1. Production, Performance and Exhibition of Dance, Music, Theatre and Visual Arts
A. Know and use the elements and principles of each art form to create works in the arts and humanities.
Music: • pitch • form • genre • harmony • rhythm • texture
B. Recognize, know, use and demonstrate a variety of appropriate arts elements and principles to produce, review and revise original works in the arts.
Music: • sing • play an instrument • read and notate music
Lesson Plans and Materials
Reflection
I loved teaching this unit to 4th grade! I came up with this unit because I love the song “Try Everything” and what the song is about. The song only uses a total of three chords throughout so I knew it would be a good one to have the students learn as an introduction to knowing what chords are and playing in an ensemble format. This song is also one that kids love. When teaching it, there were many students that were dancing around when listening to it and had smiles on their faces when singing it. It was overall a fun and exciting experience for me and the students.
I felt that the students came away from this unit with a great deal of new information. We started out with learning about singing in a pop style, counting rests, and feeling a steady beat throughout the song. When it got to adding the instruments, we then dove into what makes a chord, proper playing techniques for the instruments that were being played and how to stay in time and follow a steady beat within an ensemble. The students were able to answer direct questions pertaining to what they’ve learned throughout and asked great questions about information that was being taught. In a future classroom I’d love to teach this unit again with more time and add in more elements such as ukulele playing and small group performances of the song with self and peer assessments. I think this unit was an overall success and I enjoyed teaching it to the students at Park Forest Elementary!
Link to the google drive slides used with the unit