Unit 1: Music in Film – (CC NAfME 1, 2) (NAfME 2, 3, 6, 7, 8, 9)
Unit Objective: Students will explore the world of sound in movies and will develop a better understanding of how film score and sound effects add to film. Using a short silent film imported into Garage Band, students will analyze and create background music and sound effects with a focus on the emotional impact the music has on the film.
*See below for how this unit aligns with the Common Core General Music Standards and the National Association for Music Educators Standards
Unit 2: Beginner Music Composition and Beginner Midi Keyboard– 5 Classes (CC NAfME 1, 2) (NAfME 2, 5, 7, 9)
Unit Objective: Students will be introduced to song composition and the ABA song form. Students will also explore the Midi Keyboard and use this technology to compose original musical ideas as a part of their composition.
*See below for how this unit aligns with the Common Core General Music Standards and the National Association for Music Educators Standards
Unit 3: Modern Musician Research Project – (CC NAfME ) (NAfME 8, 9)
Unit Objective: Students will gain a better understanding of what steps current successful modern musicians have completed in order to gain fame within the music industry. Students will choose a modern musician currently making music and will create a presentation that emphasizes the musician's childhood and "what they were doing in middle school." The project will include information, photos, and a youtube of their musician.
Unit 4: Composing a Rap Song
Unit Objective: Students will explore the process of writing a rap song. Students will brainstorm topics, create a hook and verses, add a chorus, and learn about rhyming and rhythm. Students will create beats on Garageband, record their rap and ultimately create a music video where they will perform their rap. Students will share their rap videos with the class and receive feedback.
*See below for how this unit aligns with the Common Core General Music Standards and the National Association for Music Educators Standards
*Common Core National Standards for Music Education (CC NAfME)
1. Artistic Process: Creating
A. Process Component: Imagine
Anchor Standard: Generate and select among multiple musical ideas relevant to a personal experience, interest, or specific purpose.
Enduring Understanding: The creative ideas, concepts, and feelings that influence artists’ work emerge from a variety of sources.
Essential Question(s): How do artists generate and select creative ideas?
B. Process Component: Plan
Anchor Standard: Develop a plan for using/presenting selected musical ideas.
Enduring Understanding: Artists’ creative choices are influenced by their experience, context and expressive intent.
Essential Question(s): How do artists make creative decisions?
C. Process Component: Make, Evaluate, Refine
Anchor Standard: Develop and modify selected musical ideas to create a work that meets appropriate criteria.
Enduring Understanding: Artists make, evaluate and refine work through openness to new ideas and feedback (self-generated and external), flexibility, and persistence
Essential Question(s): How do artists improve the quality of their creative work?
D. Process Component: Present
Anchor Standard: Share creative work that realizes the creator’s intent and demonstrates craftsmanship and originality.
Enduring Understanding: Artists’ presentation of creative work is the culmination of a process of creation and communication.
Essential Question(s): When is a creative work ready to share?
2. Artistic Process: Performing
A. Process Component: Select
Anchor Standard: Select work(s) to present based on interest, knowledge, ability and context.
Enduring Understanding: Performers’ interest in and/or knowledge of a work(s), understanding of their own abilities, and the context for a performance influence the selection of repertoire.
Essential Question(s): How do performers select repertoire?
B. Process Component: Analyze
Anchor Standard: Analyze the structure and context of work(s) and their implications for performance
Enduring Understanding: Analyzing how creator(s) manipulate elements within the historical/cultural context provides insight into their intent and influences performance.
Essential Question(s): How does understanding the structure and context of music influence performance?
C. Process Component: Interpret
Anchor Standard: Create personal interpretation that considers creator’s intent.
Enduring Understanding: Performers make interpretative decisions based on personal understanding of the work and the creator’s intent.
Essential Question(s): How do performers interpret music?
D. Process Component: Rehearse, Evaluate, Refine
Anchor Standard: Develop, evaluate and refine personal or ensemble performances individually or in collaboration with others
Enduring Understanding: To express their musical ideas, performers analyze, evaluate and refine their work(s) over time through planned practice, feedback, reflection, and collaboration.
Essential Question(s): How do performers improve the quality of their performance?
E. Process Component: Present
Anchor Standard: Perform expressively, with appropriate interpretation and technical accuracy, and in a manner appropriate to the audience and context.
Enduring Understanding: Performance is judged based on quality standards that vary across time, place, and cultures.The context and how a work is presented influence the audience response.
Essential Question(s): When is a work judged ready to perform? How do context and how work is presented influence audience response?
3. Process: Responding
A. Process Component: Select
Anchor Standard: Support the choice of music for a specific purpose or situation.
Enduring Understanding: Individuals' selection of work is influenced by their interests, experiences, understandings, and purposes.
Essential Question(s): How do individuals choose music to experience?
B. Process Component: Analyze
Anchor Standard: Explain how your analysis of the structure and context of the work influence your response.
Enduring Understanding: Analyzing how creator(s) or performers manipulate elements within the historical/cultural context enhances response to the work.
Essential Question(s): How does understanding the structure and context of the music influence our response?
C. Process Component: Interpret
Anchor Standard: Support an interpretation of a work that reflects the creator’s/ performer’s expressive intent.
Enduring Understanding: Through their use of the elements and structures of the art form, creators and performers provide clues to their expressive intent.
Essential Question(s): How do we discern the creator’s and/or performer’s expressive intent?
D. Process Component: Evaluate
Anchor Standard: Support their Personal evaluation of work(s) and/or performance(s) based on analysis, interpretation, and established criteria.
Enduring Understanding: The personal evaluation of artistic work and performance(s) is informed by analysis, interpretation, and established criteria.
Essential Question(s): How do we judge the quality of artistic work and performance(s)?
*National Standards for Music Education from NAfME; National Association for Music Education
1. Singing, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music.
2. Performing on instruments, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music.
3. Improvising melodies, variations, and accompaniments.
4. Composing and arranging music within specified guidelines.
5. Reading and notating music.
6. Listening to, analyzing, and describing music.
7. Evaluating music and music performances.
8. Understanding relationships between music, the other arts, and disciplines outside the arts.
9. Understanding music in relation to history and culture.
Pinterest 6th Grade General Music