Music Sample 3: Grade 4

Topic:

Prescribed Learning Outcomes:

Structure (Elements of Rhythm)

• reproduce rhythmic patterns while maintaining a steady beat
• use standard or invented notation to represent familiar rhythmic patterns

Structure (Elements of Melody)

• identify the form and principles of design in melodic structure
• use standard or invented notation to represent ascending and descending melodic phrases

Thoughts, Images, and Feelings

• identify thoughts, images, and feelings derived from a music experience

Context (Self and Community)

• demonstrate responsibility to themselves and the group while experiencing music
• use established criteria to analyse their work

Overview

Planning for Assessment and Evaluation

• The teacher introduced the recorder as a vehicle for making music and teaching musical concepts. This was done in the last half of Grade 4, after the teacher determined that students had developed the necessary fine motor co-ordination, rhythmic competency, basic notation skills, and physical maturity (e.g., big enough hands).
• Over a four- to five-month period, the teacher provided beginner lessons in hand position, posture, embouchure, fingering technique, breath co-ordination, and articulation. Students learned to play a G pentatonic scale: G A B D E (do, re, mi, so, la; 1, 2, 3, 5, 6).
• The teacher put 8 beats on the board ( | | | | | | | | ) and asked students to randomly assign notes from the G pentatonic scale to each beat. The teacher helped them discover which melodic lines would be considered questions and which ones would be better as answers. Students concluded that a question has 8 beats and does not end on the home tone. The answer also has 8 beats, with the last beat a rest, and ends on the home tone. For example:

• Students had many opportunities to experience and explore different melodic and rhythmic patterns within this framework. They transcribed their patterns using standard and invented notation.
• The teacher selected recorder songs in G pentatonic (G AB DE) from classroom repertoire and added a simple accompaniment:
  • Orff instruments (creating a chordal, broken, arpeggiated or level bordun using G and D in do-based pentatonic and E and B in la-based pentatonic)
  • guitar or ukulele (basic strum pattern; G major chord; E minor for la pentatonic)
  • autoharp (G chord; E minor)
  • tenor recorders (G and D; E and B)
  • non-pitched percussion instruments (creating ostinato)
  • taped or compact disc accompaniment
• To help achieve correct phrasing, students sang the words of the song as well as the note names, fingered the numbers, and practised a solfège while doing fingering on their recorders. For example:

  Words	hel	lo	hel	lo
  Note Names	B	G	A	G
  Finger #	1	3	2	3
  Solfège	mi	do	re	do

• The teacher provided a score and posed questions to help students analyse it. (e.g., How many Bs are there? As? Gs?)
• Students played only one note (e.g., all of the Bs) while the teacher played the rest of the notes. This process was repeated with different notes.
• The teacher formed groups and assigned one note (e.g., B) to each group. The class played the song, and the groups each contributed their notes whenever they appeared on the score. The notes were rotated among the groups, and the score was played several times.
• The teacher took a familiar recorder song, "Old McDonald," and cut it into one-bar patterns. Students put the patterns in order to play the original song. Then they randomly interchanged the one-bar patterns to create a new song.

Defining the Criteria

Composing

• identifies repeated patterns
• applies conventional pattern in constructing 8-beat question-and-answer phrases

Notating and Reading

• accurately transcribes a song in standard notation
• accurately reads a song in standard notation
• shows originality in questions and answers
• demonstrates the difference between questions and answers
• includes part of the question in the answer
• incorporates rhythmic and melodic ideas that are challenging, interesting, accurate, and based on known concepts
• shows awareness of connection between fingering and the names, notations, and sounds of the notes

Ensemble Work

• shows beat competency
• demonstrates ability to blend with the rest of the group
• maintains rhythmic accuracy
• maintains independent part within the context of the ensemble

Assessing and Evaluating Student Performance

Key: 4­Outstanding. Consistently demonstrates criteria at a proficient level.
      3­Good. Demonstrates most criteria at a proficient level. Might be inconsistent.
      2­Satisfactory. Progressing toward most criteria. Performance might often be uneven.
      1­Undeveloped/In Progress. Shows minimal progress toward required criteria.

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