Ballad of Our TownJames and Sheri Higgs

EDCI6304LESSON PROJECT

USING FACTS DESIGN

THEORETICAL FOUNDATIONS

Theoretical Foundations

1. Constructivism: Students will perform a Multi-week,

Problem-Based Learning activity during which they will develop a better understanding of the history, culture, values and ideas of their community.

Theoretical Foundations

2. Content-Based Learning: Students will learn the basic methods of

research within the framework of a music project.

Theoretical Foundations

3. Content-Based Learning: Students will learn the basic rudiments of

music theory in order to create / improvise a song /story.

Theoretical Foundations

4. Content-Based Learning: Students will use the basic concepts of

grammar, composition and poetry in the creation of a poetic / lyrical ballad and in the creation of a research paper.

Theoretical Foundations

5. Content-Based Learning: Students will use modern technological

tools to create an interdisciplinary, constructionist project.

Theoretical Foundations

6. Social Learning: Students will work in groups and with

partners to create the collaborative project.

Theoretical Foundations

7. Social Learning: Students will interview community

members, family members and friends in order to create a historical accurate picture of the community.

STUDENT PROFILES

Student Profiles1. Lesson is appropriate for Students in

grades 6-12.2. This Lesson is designed for Social

Studies classes, Music Classes, English classes or as a study project for gifted and talented.

3. Class size is a normal size secondary class divided into groups of 2-4.

Domenico Scarletti

FOUNDATIONSProblem Solving

FOUNDATIONS

Problem-Solving: Developing a "Ballad of Our Town“. A story

song representing the people, experiences, history and cultures of our school / community.

FOUNDATIONS

Every culture and people group has shared their history, beliefs and ideas through a music form known as the Ballad.

A ballad will tell of the heroes of times past, the great challenges that were faced, and the great deeds that were done.

FOUNDATIONS

It tells of the hope for the future past generations held.

Everything important to a people that should be passed down to future generations is told by musical ballads.

FOUNDATIONS

By creating a ballad about "Our town" we will create a greater sense of continuity between generations as we understand where we came from and what our forbearers endured so that we could have what we have today.

FOUNDATIONS

The ballad should help unify "Our Town" around a common heritage.

It should challenge us to create a better tomorrow just as our forbearers created a better today for us.

FOUNDATIONSStudy Questions

Study Questions

1. What historical event(s) happened in our community?

2. Who was involved?

3. What did they do?

Study Questions

3. Where did they come from?

4. Why did they do what they did?

5. Where they alone or did they have help?

J. S. Bach

FOUNDATIONSLiteracy

FOUNDATIONS

Literacy1. Ability to read and write musical

notation

2. Ability to express ideas in poetic form

3. Ability to express emotion through words and music

FOUNDATIONS

Literacy4. Ability to read for comprehension

5. Ability to use critical thinking skills for historical research

6. Ability to understand and manipulate computer software and online software

FOUNDATIONSKnowledge

FOUNDATIONS

Knowledge Disciplinary Structure: The framework used to create music.

The student will develop the ability to use musical notation, chordal progression, and rhythmic background to develop a ballad.

FOUNDATIONS

Knowledge Disciplinary Structure: The framework used to create music.

The student will express ideas, emotions and evoke a sense of place through words tied to music.

FOUNDATIONS

KnowledgeDisciplinary Processes: How we create music.

The student will use the creative process of inspiration.

Narrative inspiration will be based upon research into the history of the school / community, the people who live there and have lived there and the life experiences of these characters.

FOUNDATIONS

KnowledgeDisciplinary Processes: How we create music.

The student will use the creative process of inspiration.

Musical inspiration will be based upon the historical time period of the research and the cultural background of the subjects.

FOUNDATIONS

KnowledgeDisciplinary Narrative: How we talk about Music.

The student will use musical performance to present the culmination of their research

FOUNDATIONS

KnowledgeDisciplinary Narrative: How we talk about Music.

The student will use a PowerPoint® Presentation to present a more detailed report on their research into the community’s history.

FOUNDATIONS

KnowledgeDisciplinary Narrative: How we talk about Music.

The student will create a Digital Photo Story in order to marry the visual, aural, and cognitive intelligences into a single strand that produces a deep emotional response in the audience.

G. F. Handel

FOUNDATIONSUsing Information

FOUNDATIONS

Using Information Students will conduct research through the

internet, old newspapers, old yearbooks and through interviews with community members to create a database of information about the school and community.

FOUNDATIONS

Using Information

The students will record oral histories of community members to add to the data base.

FOUNDATIONS

Using InformationThe students will organize the information

gathered in a way that they determine in order to create the "Ballad", the Digital Story and the PowerPoint® Presentation.

FOUNDATIONSCommunity

FOUNDATIONS

CommunityThe students will research the different

cultures, backgrounds, people groups and languages that currently make up their community and that have made up their community.

FOUNDATIONS

Community The students will show how each of the community stakeholders have influenced the school / community of today and will project what changes will occur in the future.

FOUNDATIONS

Community The diverse background of the school /

community will be explored, appreciated and celebrated as an important part of the integrated culture of the school and community.

W.A. Mozart

ACTIVITIES

ACTIVITIESAuthentic Activities

Authentic Activities:

The students will research the history of the school and community. The research will include archival search of newspapers, yearbooks, public records and online research through search engines, metacrawlers, etc..

Authentic Activities:

Students will record the oral histories of a minimum of 20 different school and community members from different age groups, ethnicities and social-economic status.

Authentic Activities:

Students will use the creative process of inspiration to create words for the ballad.

Inspiration will be based upon research into the history of the school / community, the people who live there and have lived there and the life experiences of these characters.

Authentic Activities:

Students will use the creative process of inspiration to create the music for the ballad.

Musical inspiration will be based upon the historical time period of the research and the cultural background of the subjects.

ACTIVITIESBackground Building Activities

Background Building Activities:

Students will listen to musical examples of ballads from different cultures and time periods.

Background Building Activities:

Students will read and examine the words of ballad songs such as Chaucer’s "Robin Hood", the old English ballad "Barbara Allen" and the words to "The Ballad of Jed Clampett“.

The themes and ideas that are common in each of these ballads will be discovered and used for the "Ballad of Our Town."

Background Building Activities:

Students will view video tutorials on the use of Finale® music composition software.

Students will utilize Finale® music composition software to experiment with creating their own songs.

Background Building Activities:

Students will research the "Living History Project" to discover how to conduct and record living history interviews .

Background Building Activities:

Students will view a tutorial on and practice the use of digital recorders in order to familiarize students with how to record digitally.

Background Building Activities:

Examples of Photo Story® projects will be shown and students will work in pairs to create short Photo Stories about themselves in order to learn the software.

Background Building Activities:

The librarian will be asked to explain how to use newspaper archives in order to find articles about important events from the communities past.

Background Building Activities:

Students will brain storm ideas of what type of events should be in the ballad, who should be interviewed, where other information can be found about the events and how to check the sources for accuracy.

Background Building Activities:

Students will learn the basis for a good newspaper article by taking newspaper articles and identifying the who, what, when, why, and how.

Background Building Activities:

Students will visit chosen Wiki sites and blog sites to develop an understanding of what these items are.

Background Building Activities:

A tutorial (either online or video or PowerPoint®) will be presented and students will complete the steps necessary for successful creation of a Wiki and a blog site.

Background Building Activities:

Video interviews with composers will be shown as they talk about the art of inspiration, how they use, and it what it means to them.

Background Building Activities:

Students will write short poems on selected subjects in order to practice the art of inspiration.

Students will be given the opportunity to use musical instruments / software to create short (8-12 measure) melodies.

Leonard Bernstein

ACTIVITIESConstructing Activities

Constructing Activities:

Students will develop a Photo Story® Presentation about the history of school and community.

Students will create a PowerPoint® Presentation detailing research.

Constructing Activities:

Students will create a musical piece with the title "Ballad of Our Town“.

(a ballad-type song based upon the histories, experiences and characters of people from the school / community)

Constructing Activities:

Students will create a musical piece with the title "Ballad of Our Town“.

The ballad will include the narrative story or words of the song and the actual musical melody and harmonies.

Constructing Activities:

Students will produce the Ballad using voices and instruments. This can be recorded or synthesized.

Students will create newspaper-type articles summarizing the research.

ACTIVITIESSharing Activities

Sharing Activities:

Students will complete/create a(n):• public performance of their Ballad• public presentation of PowerPoint® • publish on You Tube® • publish on School Website

Sharing Activities:

Students will complete/create a(n):• article about the research and submit

to local newspapers• Wiki with the research and allow

others to add to it

Sharing Activities:

Students will complete/create a(n):• blog with stories about developing the

ballad, the problems encountered, solutions found, what the students individually learned, how they feel about the project.

Richard Wagner

CONTENTSMusic TEKS

Contents: TEKS

§117.60. Music, Level I. (1) In music, students develop their intellect, making connections among music, the other arts, technology, and other aspects of social life

Contents: TEKS

(2) By reflecting on musical periods and styles, students understand music's role in history and are able to participate successfully in a diverse society.

Contents: TEKS

(4) Creative expression/performance.

The student creates and arranges music within specified guidelines. The student is expected to:

(A) create a variety of musical phrases;

and (B) arrange a variety of musical phrases

Contents: TEKS

(5) Historical/cultural heritage.

The student relates music to history, to society, and to culture. The student is expected to:

(A) listen to and classify music by style and/or by historical period;

Contents: TEKS

(5) Historical/cultural heritage.

The student relates music to history, to society, and to culture. The student is expected to:

(B) identify and describe the uses of music in society and culture;

George Gershwin

TOOLS

Tools

• CD Player • Computer with headphones,

instrument mic, internet connection • Smart Music® Subscription

Tools

• Overhead Computer Projector • TV / DVD player / VCR• Sound system with mic• Finale®, Band in a Box®, Siberaus® or

comparable music writing software• Access to old yearbooks

Tools

• Access to old newspapers • Portable recording devices (to take oral

histories) • PowerPoint® Software • Word Processing and or Desk top

Publishing software

Tools

• Photo Story 3® or comparable digital story making software

• Tutorial software, videos, power points on how to create a Wiki and a blog site

• Microsoft Office®

Tools

• Examples of Ballads from across the ages both narrative style and song style and performance examples of these ballads

SYSTEMS OF ASSESSMENT

Proper Conduct

Assessments:

Public Performance - rubric on quality, use of instruments and voices, enjoy ability

Written arrangements of Composition - assessed for musicality, originality, standards of harmony

Assessments:

Digitized recordings of the composition - rubric on use of music editing / composition software, available in at least 3 ways ex: cd's, You Tube, pod cast, some type of downloads.

Assessments:

PowerPoint® presentation of research about project- Content reliability, clarity of presentation, enjoyably of presentation, depth of work

Assessments:

Photo Story® Presentation - Rubric on the use of software, use of background music, choice of pictures, whether it tells the story .

Assessments:

All rubrics will have 4 columns: with 4 being the best grade: 4- meets all objectives, 3-almost all objectives, 2-most objectives, 1-some objectives

Assessments:

Each objective in the rubric will be chosen and defined with class participation and then a copy of the developed rubric will be given to each participant so that they can measure their work against it as they progress.

FINAL QUESTIONSClosure

Final Questions: Closure

What historical event(s) did you research in our community?

How does this effect you today? What one thing did you learn which you

will remember?

Final Questions: Closure

Which one of the people you studied do you wish you could be most like and why?

Can we make the same difference as those people you studied did?

LEARNING ENVIRONMENT

Environment:

The Classroom will be arranged for groups of 2 -4 to be able to work together as needed.

Stations will be placed around the classroom to help facilitate work and allow several groups to work at once.

Environment:

Example of stations: *a computer with internet access, *a musical station with a computer, composition software piano or midi-keyboard controller, headphones *desktop publishing area *recording area for interviews and editing of recordings *a open area for whole group meetings *long work table

Environment:

Teacher will be able to move from group to group, station to station freely through the open center area and students will also be able to move freely in the same manner.

Environment:

Teacher and other "experts" will be available for conferences and to ask questions to help keep the groups focused and going.

Environment:

Smart board® will be available so students can project their projects and make changes suggested by other class members.

The project will be a six project with at least 2 days a week of class time devoted just to the project.

Environment:

Technologies and content from the project will be integrated into lessons during the 3 days not devoted to the project.

CREDITSCreated using Microsoft PowerPointAll graphics from Microsoft Clip ArtFACTS Design developed from

Norton, P., & Wilburg, K. (2003). Teaching With Technology: Designing Opportunities to Learn (2nd Edition ed.). Belmont: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning.