This lesson utilizes Classical and Disco music to teach about Beethoven's life while integrating many language arts standards at the same time. Music, art, and math were also incorporated into the theme unit. The main objective of this unit is to teach fact and opinion. There is no right or wrong answer to what makes music, music. It's a matter of opinion.
Students will be able to identify Olivier Messiaen's Oiseaux exotiques. Students will acquire some knowledge about the composer and how he replicated real bird calls musically in this composition. Students will be able to create a drawing of their own exotic bird and describe it in great detail so that another student will be able to recreate the drawing. Students will learn the importance of accurate description in writing and following directions in drawing.
After learning about the discovery of nuclear radiation and the development of nuclear weapons, students will create a claymation video to illustrate nuclear decay, fusion, fission and nuclear chain reactions. Student write scripts and story boards, create backdrops, clay characters, and add music, voice over and text to demonstrate their understanding of the subject.
Students will improve vocabulary and writing skills by writing a sensory/descriptive story utilizing elements of both art and music as their inspiration. Students will pay close attention to the six traits of writing - editing our first drafts and making improvements in ideas and content, organization, voice, word choice, sentence fluency and conventions. Students will demonstrate an understanding of general musical terminology.
In this lesson, students are introduced to spirituals - songs created and sang by enslaved African Americans for many reasons including: expressing values, a source of inspiration and motivation, an expression of protest and coded communication. Students will listen to spirituals and sing a spiritual, then identify characteristics of spirituals. Students will decode a spiritual.
Compare and contrast Stravinsky's Rite of Spring to Vivaldi's Four Seasons, La Primavera (Spring). Pair the music of Stravinsky with the art of Edvard Munch. Pair the music of Vivaldi with the art of Claude Monet. Discuss the similarities and differences. Discuss Josef Albers’ Homage to the Square entitled “The High Spring”. Discuss how color and mood are connected. Create a color square in the style of Josef Albers to represent the pairings of Stravinsky & Munch and the pairing of Vivaldi & Monet.
Students will be able to name and describe the following tempo markings: adagio, andante, moderato, allegro, and presto. They will be able to move kinesthetically at each named tempo, and be able to identify the tempo of a piece of music they hear by moving to the rhythm.
Students will listen to Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring, discuss what spring time means, and create a list of adjectives for the music. Then, they will watch the part of the Disney film Fantasia that re-interprets the same music. Students will add to their list of adjectives, retell the film's story, and compare the original music to the film's story. After listening again, and moving to the music, they will write and draw a response.