Title of Unit / Music in Culture / Grade Level / Middle School
Curriculum Area / General Music/Band / Time Frame / 1 week (daily, 45 minutes)
Developed By / Stephanie Wubbena
Identify Desired Results (Stage 1)
Established Goals:
Students will select a musical time period and collect artifacts that represent its influence on the culture of the time.
Understandings / Essential Questions
Students will understand that… / Overarching
Music is impacted by the surrounding culture.
This culture is also impacted by music. / How does music reflect the culture of the time?
Related Misconceptions / Topical
Music is unrelated to the world around it and happens in a vacuum or is only based on the whims of the creator.
Knowledge
Students will know… / Skills
Students will be able to…
-How music and history shape each other / -Select a particular musical time period
-Collect information that highlights what occurred in history and in music during that time period
-Arrange the gathered data into a web diagram
-Create a museum box with the gathered information
Assessment Evidence (Stage 2)
Performance Tasks:
Students will select a musical time period to examine.
Students will collect artifacts that represent its influence on the culture of the time or vice a versa.
Students will create a diagram of 6 important piece of information about their time period.
Students will create a museum box using the 6 pieces of information.
Other Evidence:
Students will complete this assignment with a better understanding of how music and culture are related and be able to take this knowledge and evaluate howmusic from their time period is a reflection of the culture as well.
Student self assessment & reflection:
Learning Plan (Stage 3)
Where are your students headed? Where have they been? How will you make sure the students know where they are going? / Students have studied different music time periods and need a way to synthesize this information to make it applicable to today. To do this, students will focus on one musical era and examine ways in which music and culture influenced each other. If students complete this assignment, they will also be able to evaluate their own current culture and the effect of music on their own generation.
How will you hook students at the beginning of the unit? / Students will be given quick musical pieces of the some of the more “outrageous” examples of music from each of these eras. By listening to excerpts of these, students will be asked to brainstorm what was going on during these points in history that led to the creation of these unique pieces.
What events will help students experience and explore the big idea and questions in the unit? How will you equip them with needed skills and knowledge? / Using the in-class listening “hook” examples as a starting point, students will be encouraged to explore similar composers of their required time period to understand how these individuals were being affected by the world around them. Students will be given the dates for each of the requested musical eras as a starting point for investigation. From there, they will collect and assemble information about the music and history of that era through internet searches using a brainstorming software tool such as “bubbl.us”.
How will you cause students to reflect and rethink? How will you guide them in rehearsing, revising, and refining their work? / When students are done with their initial investigation, they will exchange information with a different era group to read through their findings. The new group will provide questions based on the findings of the first group to help focus thought on what was occurring during their time period and vice-a-versa.
How will you help students to exhibit and self-evaluate their growing skills, knowledge, and understanding throughout the unit? / Similar to above where the students exchange era information form questions, students at this point will complete their own evaluation rubric that will be used to grade their research project and organization of this research by the teacher. This self evaluation at this point in the project will allow for students to evaluate their own work and make any changes at this point in the process before they submit their final research organizational web.
How will you tailor and otherwise
personalize the learning plan
to optimize the engagement
and effectiveness of ALL students,
without compromising the goals
of the unit? / Students that need an extra challenge can have two options. They can examine their chosen time period as compared to our current day and age to compare and contrast the influences of music on culture.
Students that need accommodations based on language difficulties may decide to examine the influence of music on their own native culture instead of the culture they find themselves in now. If possible, they may also be able to compose their project in their native language as long as there are other students or teachers who can translate for final evaluations.
Students with IEPs may partner with another student who can read the research information out loud for them and they can together create their brainstorming map using whatever means comfortable for that student.

Rationale:

The rationale for this lesson is based upon Bloom’s Taxonomy of educational thought. Bloom created six levels of increasing thought for students to progress through towards the goal of more higher level thinking skills. Up until this point, Bloom had observed that much of the questions asked of students was on the lowest level of cognitive thinking in that they were asked to merely regurgitate information and facts. By stressing the importance of higher level thinking and collecting verb examples of what this higher level thinking would look like at each of his six levels, Bloom helped move education beyond simple call and response to true inquiry based learning.
This then is also the attempt of this lesson. To have students start out with one of the lower levels of thought, “comprehension”, through the selection of a musical time period. This type of thought process, which is merely recollecting one of the time periods discussed in class, starts a student out on their initial thought progression. Once students have chosen their particular musical time period, this is when higher level thinking and inquiry skills come in to play as students must collect artifacts that represent their choice of time periods. This is where individual synthesis must occur as students attempt to visually represent a time period with items they have deemed importantthrough their own careful inquiry and examination.

Standards Addressed:

National Standards for Fine Arts:

NA.5-8.8:Understanding Relationships between music, the other arts, and disciplinesoutside the arts.Students describe ways in which the principles and subject matter of other disciplines taught in the school are interrelated with those of music (e.g., language arts: issues to be considered in setting texts to music; mathematics: frequency ratios of intervals; sciences: the human hearing process and hazards to hearing; social studies: historical and social events and movements chronicled in or influenced by musical works)

NA.5-8.9: Understanding music in relation to History and Culture:

Students classify by genre and style (and, if applicable, by historical period, composer, and title) a varied body of exemplary (that is, high-quality and characteristic) musical works and explain the characteristics that cause each work to be considered exemplary

Common Core State Standards:

Integration of Knowledge and Ideas:

7. Draw on information from multiple print or digital sources, demonstrating the ability to locate an answer to a question quickly or to solve a problem efficiently.

9. Integrate information from several texts on the same topic in order to write or speak about the subject knowledgeably

NETS-S Standards:

1. Creativity and Innovation: Students demonstrate creative thinking, construct knowledge, and develop innovative products and processes using technology. Students:
a. apply existing knowledge to generate new ideas, products, or processes.
b. create original works as a means of personal or group expression.

3. Research and Information Fluency: Students apply digital tools to gather, evaluate, and use information. Students:
b. locate, organize, analyze, evaluate, synthesize, and ethically use information from a variety of sources and media.
c. evaluate and select information sources and digital tools based on the

appropriateness to specific tasks

4. Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, and Decision Making: Students use critical thinking skills to plan and conduct research, manage projects, solve problems, and make informed decisions using appropriate digital tools and resources. Students:
b. plan and manage activities to develop a solution or complete a project.

c. collect and analyze data to identify solutions and/or make informed decisions.

5. Digital Citizenship: Students understand human, cultural, and societal issues related to technology and practice legal and ethical behavior. Students:

a. advocate and practice safe, legal, and responsible use of information and technology.

6. Technology Operations and Concepts: Students demonstrate a sound understanding of technology concepts, systems, and operations. Students:
a. understandand use technology systems.

b. select and use applications effectively and productively.

Required Materials:

  • or other brainstorming tool
  • Writing utensils
  • Evaluation rubric
  • Internet search tool for background information (google search, etc.)
  • Classroom blog site

Background Knowledge:

  • Students must have a rudimentary knowledge of the eras of musical composition
  • Students should have basic computer skills (open a web browser, navigate web pages for information, cut and paste functions, etc.)
  • An understanding of what is or makes up “culture”

Assessments:

  • Self-evaluation rubric by students of the brainstorming diagram
  • Teacher evaluation rubric of the brainstorming diagram
  • Alternate student group questions and answers
  • Final project self-evaluation of Museum Box
  • Final project teacher evaluation of Museum Box
  • Blog discussion on thoughts after the project on their chosen culture and musical era as well as supporting statements on how music and culture are interrelated today

Resources: