Grade 7: Introductory Band

Grade 8: Second Year Band

Grade 9: Third Year Band

Introduction

Guiding Curriculum Document: British Columbia Fine Arts 7, 8, and Music 9 Curriculum

Other curriculum documents referenced: Nova Scotia Band 7, 8, and 9 Renewed Curriculum

Curriculum Model(s) Referenced: John Dewey and Malcolm Skillbeck, (Inquiry and activity based learning - DOING) Jay McTighe and Grant Wiggins (Backward Design)

Given that instrumental band class culminates in term-end and year-end performance assessments, we will use backwards design methodology to plan learning outcomes and experiences for the students. This will make sure that learning will be scaffolded in such a way as to build the necessary skills and concepts for students to achieve mastery and be successful with the final performance assessment. Concepts will also be learned through experience and activity, taking concepts and skills and applying them to musical performance as often as possible. In order for students to fully connect with the language of music and to reach ARTISTRY, this practical application is key.

Backwards design:

• Identify desired results. In the case of this unit, it will be the performance of chosen repertoire while demonstrating the musical concepts and required skills embedded within

• Determine the evidence: This will be concert performances, in-class performances, recordings, and written representations of learning.

• Plan - series of activities and lessons to synthesize technique and concepts required for the artistic performance of the piece(s)

Skilbeck model: The situational analysis of your class can help you to choose repertoire that is appropriate to instrumentation and knowledge base. It can draw on their strengths and help to address their areas of weakness. The feedback and assessment stage can allow students to analyze their performance. Teachers can assess the process and result and make adjustments where appropriate.

Dewey model: Students will employ technique and concepts necessary for the repertoire. They will learn by doing. They will practice these skills/concepts through activities/lessons and also apply them into a final product (performance).

Background

Expectations and Approaches to this course

Course Description

Second Year Band is a course designed to follow after a young musician’s first experience in instrumental music. It is the expectation that this course will incorporate and cultivate respectful musicianship, lifelong learning, leadership, and student input. It will take basic skills already learned and guide students towards increased independence and lead to an artistic and personal relationship with music. When choosing repertoire, all students should be able to succeed and contribute, have input into the process and expectations, and be able to extend the skills learned to other musical examples. Through collaboration and an understanding and respect of the many different unique and varied learners in the course, participation in this ensemble class should aim to enrich the student experience far beyond the musical outcomes.

Spiral Curriculum (Bruner)

Students learn best and retain information through constant repetition of concepts and skills. As skills are practiced and concepts are revisited, students will be expected to approach tasks and performances with increased independence and at gradually increasing levels of difficulty and complexity. Throughout this process, students will be expected to reach mastery at all stages and eventually become more and more independent and intrinsically motivated. The skills/concepts addressed in the repertoire will be revisited routinely throughout the learning process to solidify understanding and emphasize the importance of their synthesis for the performance.

Encouraging higher order thinking (Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy)

Activities/learning experiences will be designed around the achievement goal (successful performance/interpretation of repertoire). Lessons will allow for 1. The understanding of skills/concepts and how to achieve them 2. The application of the skills/concepts to the performance of music and 3. The evaluation of the final performance and evidence of intrinsic value and ability to transfer learned skills to other areas.

Value and Transfer (Lonis and Haley):

Guiding students through the performance preparation process with a clear understanding of the goal, creating a positive performance opportunity, and analyzing the result aims to 1. inspire students to take on more responsibility in the process and 2. automatize performance skills so they can be transferred to other pieces.

Habits/Metacognition

Students will also receive instruction to develop good habits for music learning. This will include use of metacognitive reflections on performances and class participation, development of practice strategies and goal-setting, and instruction on growth-mindset philosophies. The ‘Due but not Done’ (Lonis and Haley) approach, which encourages students to celebrate accomplishments and identify and work to improve areas of weakness after feedback, will be the guiding philosophy on assessment.

Performance

Since music is a performance art, students will be expected to demonstrate learning in various performance settings, whether this be through in-class performances, for the school, or at community concerts with parents in attendance. Performance is a skill that is best learned through practice, and learners will be given opportunities to gradually scaffold their performance opportunities outside of their usual comfort zones. Additionally, students will be guided through the performance preparation process with clear and co-constructed goals.

Teaching Meaning in Music

Students will be given opportunities to create music through improvisation, personal compositions, and performance of works created by others. Through this varied process, students will be able to experience the different roles of music in their own lives and the lives of others. This includes understanding different cultural expressions of music.

Instructional Design Philosophies:

20% Cognitivism/Constructivism

Instructions should be organized, sequenced and presented in a manner that is understandable and meaningful to the learner. Every student begins with preexisting knowledge and experiences and further knowledge is built on to that. Learning from others is important to building knowledge (group discussions, activities, research, problem solving, sharing experiences). Teachers act as facilitators in constructivism. Classes allow students’ prior knowledge to lead them to understanding by learning from others and researching to discover answers to their questions.

20% Humanism

Learning is self-directed by students. Students are motivated to learn, and gradually build the skills to know how to learn. Self-evaluation is the most meaningful form of evaluation. Emotions and knowledge are equally important in the learning process. A safe and caring environment needs to be established and maintained.

30% Pragmatism

Four Principals:

Utility - everything should be useful for learners to keep things practical and efficient.

Interest - include learners interests so they stay engaged in the learning

Experience - learning should involve hands on experience which allows learners to be fully

immersed in the learning

Integration - learning materials should span over subjects to take a cross curricular approach

20% Social Learning

Principles of Social Learning:

Attention - If we believe something to be new or different, it’s more likely that it becomes the focus of our attention.

Retention/Reproduction - People recall learned information when we need to respond to a situation similar to that which we first learned that information.

Motivation - Humans are motivated by someone else being rewarded or punished for something they have said or done. This generally motivates us to do, or avoid doing, the same thing.

10% Behaviourism

Through the behaviourist lens, all behaviours are learned through interaction with the environment. Positive reinforcement is a common example of this. While the GMS music program strives to lead all students towards intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation is a helpful motivator early in the educational process.

Instructional Design Models:

Merrell

Similar to problem-based learning but offers more scaffolding and guidance at the start, gradually working towards greater independence. All instruction connects to prior learning through interesting and authentic tasks. New skills are integrated and applied in other areas of life.

5 Steps:

1. Real world task/problem 4. Application

2. Activate prior knowledge 5. Integration

3. Demonstration

Backward Design:

Identify desired results, determine evidence of learning, plan learning experiences and instruction.

Given that instrumental band class culminates in term-end and year-end performance assessments, we will use backwards design methodology to plan learning outcomes and experiences for the students. This will make sure that learning will be scaffolded in such a way as to build the necessary skills and concepts for students to achieve mastery and be successful with the final performance assessment. Concepts will also be learned through experience and activity, taking concepts and skills and applying them to musical performance as often as possible. In order for students to fully connect with the language of music and to reach ARTISTRY, this practical application is key.

• Identify desired results. In the case of this unit, it will be the performance of chosen repertoire while demonstrating the musical concepts and required skills embedded within

• Determine the evidence: This will be concert performances, in-class performances, recordings, and written representations of learning.

• Plan - series of activities and lessons to synthesize technique and concepts required for the artistic performance of the piece(s)

Bloom’s Taxonomy:

Focus is on the process and not the content. End goals of instruction are application and valuing of learning in other areas of life or situations. Creativity is most important.

The lower levels of learning focus on knowledge and concepts. Learners are guided to apply what they learn to new areas of learning with the ultimate goal being to build intrinsic value of what is being learner and the ability to transfer new knowledge and skills to other areas of life.

Bloom’s Flipped Classroom:

The flipped classroom model gives learners the opportunity to access lower levels of Bloom's Taxonomy (Understanding/ Remembering) on their own time. By doing this, learners can use the knowledge and understandings they developed prior to class to engage in more challenging and engaging tasks with the teacher. Essentially, this approach allows the teacher to spend more time in the connecting, applying, and creating stages of learning.

Gagne’s 9 events of instruction:

Gagne's beliefs were similar to Bloom’s hierarchy of learning. He believed that the lower knowledge levels were important because a person usually requires a greater amount of previous knowledge to move successfully onto higher levels of learning.

He developed the 9 events of instruction:

1. Gaining attention (reception)

2. Informing learners of the objective (expectancy)

3. Stimulating recall of prior learning (retrieval)

4. Presenting the stimulus (selective perception)

5. Providing learning guidance (semantic encoding)

6. Eliciting performance (practise)

7. Providing feedback (reinforcement)

8. Assessing performance (retrieval)

9. Enhancing retention and transfer (generalization)

Both formative and summative assessment strategies (ungraded and graded) will play pivotal roles in a student’s engagement and feedback in this course. A wide variety of strategies should be used, ultimately striving to assist students to become reflective, motivated learners.

Formative assessments will occur throughout the rehearsal process and after each new concept is introduced. This will include regular check-ins with students to identify challenges as soon as possible.

Because expectations change primarily in difficulty, complexity, and expected student independence from grade to grade, the sample rubric is designed to be used for all three grade levels of this curriculum. As rubrics and expectations are co-created with the students, elements (which scales are being assessed, for example) will change. Always make sure your rubrics align with the concepts and skills being taught currently.

Formative assessments could include:

• Demonstration of skill/concept during rehearsal/class time

• Discussion of meaning/intent of piece and connections to other music or ideas

• Sectionals for ensemble work

• Self and peer evaluations.

• Thumbs up check for understanding (multiple times each lesson)

• Exit/Enter tickets

• Pair Play/Share

• Google Forms/Kahoot

• Battle of the Rows - demonstration by section

• Listening song of the day

• Dice roll for scale play

• Emailed playing feedback check ins

Summative assessments will occur several times a year, once concepts have had ample time to be practiced and formative assessment on key concepts has been provided.

Summative assessments (end of unit/term) could include:

• Individual playing assessments for technique

• Theory knowledge quizzes & composition

• Music history reflections/assessments

• Rhythmic/Melodic/Interval dictations

• Written ideas on expression and connection, and their relations to other ideas/pieces of music.

• Evaluation of the rehearsal/learning process and the performance

Sample Rubric

See Sample Rubric below to assist in co-creating rubrics with students.