TitleIII Learning Experience

LE Title: Iditarod Music Trail	Author: Cyndy Hennessy
Grade Level: Grade 5	School : Colton-Pierrepont Central School
Topic/Subject Area: Music	School Address: 5 Maple Street Colton, NY 13625
Email: hennescy@cpcs.k12.ny.us	School Phone/Fax: 315-262-2100

LEARNING CONTEXT

Purpose or Focus of Experience

Students will demonstrate the capacity to listen to and comment on several styles of music. They will relate their critical assertions about the music to its aesthetic, structural, acoustic, and psychological qualities. They will use concepts from other disciplines to enhance their understanding of the music.

Connection to Standards

Art Standard 3: Responding and analyzing works of art.

Essential Question

Are different forms of music more appropriate for one setting than another?

Content Knowledge: Declarative, Procedural

DECLARATIVE;

• Students will demonstrate the capacity to listen to and comment on music.
• Students will describe their understandings of a particular selections of music and how they relate to their understandings.
• Students will explain how the music can set mood in a particular setting along the Iditarod Trail.

PROCEDURAL:

Students will listen to music of several composers and describe the music's content in terms of use with the Iditarod Trail .

PROCEDURE
(Chronologically ordered description of all teacher & student activities and interactions.)

Students were given the following information as a hook. "You have been hired by a movie company to select music for a video to be made for the year 2000 Iditarod Race. You will need to select music that will be appropriate for different sections of the trail (example the dangerous terrain of the Basin, the windy conditions along the Bering Sea, and other examples discussed and decided upon in class).

1. Students then listened to many examples of available music on CD or tapes kept in the music room over a three-week period. They also were asked to bring in CDs or tapes from their own home collections. CD and tapes were also lent to the interested students to listen to in detail at home.
2. Class discussions included justifications of why a certain piece of music or example was or was not suitable for a section of the trail.
3. Students were given forms to complete with predetermined trail conditions.

INSTRUCTIONAL/ENVIRONMENTAL MODIFICATIONS

A child who did not own a CD player at home was given tapes of use at home, to remove the equity issue.

TIME REQUIRED

The Launch took one class period. Twelve class periods were devoted to listening and discussing music for the trail, the trail with all its beauty yet dangers. Rough draft and final copy, along with rubric development were included in the twelve day period. Students were given several days to complete the rough draft

RESOURCES

Classroom CDs of all musical periods and several different styles, along with CD/Tape players owned by the students for home use. CD player was used for the classroom.

ASSESSMENT PLAN
(Include samples of rubrics, checklists, etc.)

STUDENT WORK
(Include samples of student work showing different levels of performance.)
Student work to be displayed at peer review.

REFLECTION

This was a wonderful way to present and develop music listening skills, and at the same time have students analyze music within the music classroom. It was clear that the students enjoyed hearing, selecting, and visualizing appropriate music for the Iditarod Trail. They were also studying it in their math, reading, and spelling classes, which immersed them totally. Technology also provided access to the data about the mushers and the trail conditions on a daily basis.