Welcome to your class portfolio!! The purpose of this site is to show CAPE the development of your arts integration partnership, as guided by your big idea and inquiry question. 

Make sure you have the following:

1. Planning Form: You must fill out the planning form by October 15th

2. Reflection Questions: Make sure you have your reflection questions filled out for each semester

3. Class Documentation: Include your best documentation with captions. Note about videos: upload videos to your designated folder (click on link here), and then embed the video on this page by clicking "Drive" (under "Insert") on the right-hand side menu, then selecting your video from that folder under "Shared with me." 

IMPORTANT: 

• Please do not edit any other pages other than this, your class' page!

• Please make sure that all media that you upload only displays students whose parents have given consent to their documentation through the signed Media Release Form. Should you upload images of a student who has not given their consent to be documented, please make sure to blur their face.

Reflection Questions

How do you understand the concept of sensemaking in relation to your teaching practice?

One relevant way that sensemaking bears on the practice at NGHS Music Club is through an emphasis on listening. We listen in many ways: as performers, as audience members, in rehearsal, for play, for pleasure, and for curiosity. As improvisers, listening is a way of gathering information such that we can make musical decisions: when to step up or step back, when to mimic or contrast, when to change or repeat. Listening also brings us to expressive understandings of sound-- what feelings come up, what emotions or ideas are being expressed (intentionally or unintentionally), what vibes are we getting-- which in turn helps us make more creatively detailed musical choices. Thus, listening seems to me to be a form of sensemaking, insofar as it involves a process of sensory experience informing action. 

Another, perhaps zoomed out form of sense making happens before we even sound-- what experiences, memories, emotions, talents, and questions do we bring into the classroom with us and how do they inform our positionality in relation to music? How was your day and how do you want to sound about it? These questions help contextualize student experience and musical interests, as well as help steer us towards exciting and reflective creative projects.

What is something that you’ve learned about your students (and their funds of knowledge) that has influenced your class projects or class structures?

Most of my students this year are juniors or seniors, and as such have lots going on in their lives. Juniors are starting to seriously ideate about life after NGHS. Seniors have more concrete plans: one student is planning to join the military, another is considering a pathway in music and recording. Students are involved in swimming, tutoring, culinary, other music making, and still need time for video games! In a more grim vein, ICE activity has been a serious destabilizing presence in the community this semester. All of these things bear on our capacities, and as such the structure, flow, and artifacts of our classroom. 

We've talked about and experienced the value of a fluid, improvisatory approach in our work. While we have written some original music this semester, we have needed to think on the fly rehearsal to rehearsal on how to move forward, given sometimes erratic attendance, a shifting roster, and varied moods/capacities on a given day (standardized testing and rehearsing hard rhythms don't always mix well!). Sometimes open jamming or casual group listening is the best strategy for creating an atmosphere conducive to creativity and belonging.

Over the course of the semester, we've gradually landed on a core group of 4 students who are at almost every rehearsal. Our sound as a group has become much more cohesive and refined over semester. It is my hope that in the next semester that core group will continue, and our relationships can continue to deepen and inform our creative practice.

How have you investigated your teacher inquiry questions thus far? 

We've explored several structures for improvisation -- learning and experimenting with scales to create melodies, playing off of a rhythmic foundation or riff, experimenting with process (e.g. start by playing with lots of silence and gradually fill out the texture), and using quotes from other songs, for example. After improvising, we reflect on our choices-- what felt interesting, energetic, good? What felt uncomfortable and strange? What were the social challenges (improvising can be scary!) and what were the musical challenges?

With these exercises and tactics under our belt, the biggest project that we've undertaken this semester is preparing a performance for NGHS's winter concert. Two students brought in the beginnings of original compositions, and we spent the better part of two months sculpting them into more fleshed out songs. Often this process would involve improvising on the chords with different ideas or parameters in mind. Sometimes we would shuffle the orchestration or the form to try and arrive at a version we liked best. We even attempted to play one song in several different genres to see if we could find the best fit. Throughout, students were encouraged to be flexible in relation to the material-- we can always try it a different way! Expansive experimentation is our friend, and will help us determine an exciting path forward. 

Leading up to the concert, students decided that they wanted to perform one original composition and one cover (we chose "Notion" by the Rare Occassions). Every other band on the winter concert would be performing covers, and students felt like this would contextualize our original and also provide audience members with something more to latch on to. However, we still brought an improvisatory approach to our arrangement-- we tried out different instruments, we arranged things in different ways to see what we liked, and students were encouraged to bring their own ideas and licks to their parts. The skills that we built through improvisation totally apply, as they have become foundational to our sound as a band and culture as a club.

Class documentation: 

The three recordings above document the trajectory of a first sketch of an original composition to its near complete form. Daniel N. brought in some chords for us to learn, which you can hear in the first recording. Once we were comfortable with those notes, we started to play around with different textures, orchestrations, and rhythms. We also chose some different (but related) chords as a group and created a B section. 

The second recording features a synth arpeggio, a semi improvised guitar part, and a pointillistic B section. None of these components made the final cut, but the recording here nicely communicates the way we would stretch and play with our material. 

The final recording showcases the full version of the song, recorded about a week before performance. It features a new section where students improvise on the original chords, but start sparsely and gradually play more and more notes. A through line in this section is a slowly evolving synth melody, largely improvised. This recording also shows Elijah (drums) working on counting in the band-- students continued to explore these leadership roles in the band, fostering greater ownership over the creative process and their work!

Reflection Questions

Class documentation