ROSE TREE MEDIA SCHOOL DISTRICT
COURSE CURRICULUM
COURSE TITLE: / VOCAL MUSIC: The Upscale SingersGRADE LEVEL: / High School
CREATION DATE: /
November, 2003
Essential Question, Concept or Theme: I. Performing: All students perform independently and within an ensemble using various textures and styles within the voicing of a well-balanced SSAA choir. / Approx. Time Allotment: /PA Standards: PA 9.1, NS 1 /
Benchmark/Skills / Assessment / Aligned Materials/
Resources/Technology / Instructional Strategies /
I. PERFORMING
The students will:
· Explore, describe and refine the individual singing voice through recording and listening to themselves on tape. (1/9.1)
· Develop pure vowel placement. Identify by sight and sound.
· Integrate diaphragmatic breathing and extend the vocal range in an appropriate manner.
· Sing, with accuracy, in small ensembles with one person on a part. (1/9)
· Demonstrate well-developed ensemble skills. (1/9.1)
· Sing with expression and technical accuracy a large and varied repertoire of vocal songs performed from memory. (1/9.1)
· Sing music written in 3, 4, 5 and 6 parts, with and without accompaniment. (1/9.1) / · Routinely provide a taped recording of him or herself in the performance of vocal music from three to six minutes in length. The student is asked to use a rubric to identify characteristics for quality performance in terms of musical accuracy, vocal quality and expressiveness.
· Identify by sound and be able to employ International Phonetic Alphabet symbols for the pure vowels.
· Perform with good breath control throughout his/her singing range and chart the development of the singing range on the staff throughout the course of the year.
· Perform in a quartet of mixed voice parts with one person on a part, twice a year for assessment purposes.
· Understand definitions and descriptions, and be able to identify aural samples of a variety of tone qualities. Graph changes in personal tone quality as an ongoing process throughout the year.
· Participate routinely in rotating sectional rehearsals.
· Participate in 4 annual mandatory
concerts:
1. Winter Concert
2. December In-School Concert
3. December Concert for Visiting
Elementary Students
4. Spring Concert
· Participate in School/Public/Community concerts, in Choral Festivals, Adjudications, and Master Classes as scheduled. / Materials
· Essential Musicianship (A Comprehensive Choral Method) Books 1,2,3
· By Emily Crocker and John Leavitt: Hal Leonard Corporation, 1995.
· Teacher generated materials: rubrics, worksheets, quizzes, critiques
· Mirrored wall in classroom
· Individual hand-held mirrors (100)
Resources
· Visiting Artists
· Exchange concerts with other choirs
· Field Trips
· Choir Tours
Technology
· Pianistic/Sequencing Keyboard
· Multi Track Tape Player
· Microphones with directional pickup (6)
· CD Burner
· Blank Compact Disks (3 per student)
· Tape recorders (a minimum of 25)
· Blank cassette tapes (2 per student)
· Audio/Visual Tapes / · Participate routinely in group sightsinging exercises.
· Sightsing as part of a formal assessment a minimum of twice a year.
· Complete notation worksheets and quizzes.
· Musically notate his/her composed warm-up exercise.
· Analyze a selection of twentieth-century music, identifying and describing the notation symbols used.
· Participate routinely in rotating sectional rehearsals.
Essential Question, Concept or Theme: I. Performing: All students perform independently and within an ensemble using various textures and styles within the voicing of a well-balanced SSAA choir. / Approx. Time Allotment: /
PA Standards: PA 9.1, NS 1 /
Adaptations/Inclusion Techniques / Enrichment Strategies / Remediation Strategies / Multicultural/Interdisciplinary
Connection /
· One on One vocal sectional
· Recorded voice parts for repertoire
· Adapted rubrics/worksheets/quizzes
· Teacher Aide
· Private lessons / · Sectional rehearsals
· Visiting artists
· Festivals
· Community performances
· Concert tours
· Choir Tours
· Field trips
· Adjudications
· Private lessons
· Technology/Electronic resources / · One on One vocal sectional
· Recorded voice parts for repertoire
· Adapted rubrics/worksheets/quizzes
· Teacher Aide
· Private lessons
· Peer Coaching / · Authentic repertoire from multicultural composers
· Visiting Artists
· Students with diverse backgrounds
· Audio/Visual tapes
· Interdisciplinary Strands: Foreign Language, Language Arts, Social Studies, Mathematics, Physics
Essential Question, Concept or Theme: II. Listening/Responding: All students critically assess music performances that reflect a wide diversity of peoples, styles and times. The student will apply data from these assessments to their personal and ensemble performance of vocal/choral music. / Approx. Time Allotment: /
PA Standards: PA 9.2, 9.3, 9.4, NS 6, 7, 8, 9 /
Benchmark/Skills / Assessment / Aligned Materials/
Resources/Technology / Instructional Strategies /
II. LISTENING/RESPONDING
The students will:
· Demonstrate the ability to perceive and remember music events by describing in detail significant events occurring in a given aural example. (6/9.3, 9.4)
· Demonstrate extensive knowledge of the technical vocabulary of music. (6/9.3/9.4)
· Identify and explain compositional devices and techniques used to provide unity and variety and tension and release in a choral/vocal work and give examples of other works that make similar uses of these devices and techniques. (6/9.3/9.4)
· Develop specific criteria for making informed, critical evaluations of the quality and effectiveness of choral/vocal performances, compositions, arrangements, and improvisations and apply the criteria in their personal participation in music. (7/9.3,9.4)
· Evaluate a choral/vocal performance, composition, arrangement, or improvisation by comparing it to similar or exemplary models. (7/9.3, 9.4)
· Evaluate a given choral/vocal work in terms of its aesthetic qualities and explain the musical means it uses to make it unique, interesting and expressive. (7/9.3, 9.4)
· Analyze aural examples of a varied repertoire of choral/vocal music, representing diverse genres and cultures, by describing the uses of elements of music and expressive devices. (6/9.3/9.4)
· Compare characteristics of the choral/vocal arts with other arts within a particular historical period or style and cite examples from various cultures. (8/9.2)
· Explain ways in which the principles and subject matter of various disciplines outside the arts are with those of choral/vocal music. (8/9.2)
· Classify by genre or style and by historical period or culture unfamiliar but representative aural examples of choral/vocal music and explain the reasoning behind their classifications. (9/9.2)
· Identify and describe music genres or styles that show influence of two or more cultural traditions, identify the cultural source of each influence, and trace the historical conditions that produced the synthesis of influences. (9/9.2) / · Identify and explain compositional devices and techniques used to provide unity and variety and tension and release in a choral/vocal work currently being prepared and give examples of other works that make similar uses of these devices and techniques. `The student will be asked to construct a rubric illustrating these devices/techniques and the repertoire’s relation to the compositional devices.
· Identify music terminology by sight, by listening and by demonstrating vocally.
· Identify and explain compositional devices and techniques used to provide unity and variety and tension and release in a choral/vocal work currently being prepared and give examples of other works that make similar uses of these devices and techniques. `The student will be asked to construct a rubric illustrating these devices/techniques and the repertoire’s relation to the compositional devices.
· Provide a taped recording of him or herself in the performance of vocal music from three to six minutes in length. The student is asked to listen to the recording, and write an evaluation on the performance on the basis of its (1) technical accuracy, (2) expressive or musical qualities, and (3) overall effectiveness. (The assessment is based not on the
· quality of the performance but rather on the student’s ability to evaluate the performance.)
· Evaluate a school choral performance of a selection, comparing the performance to a recorded or live PMEA Choral Festival or college performance of the same or similar selection.
· Evaluate a school choral performance based on the quality of musicianship and stage performance.
· Describe musical characteristics/elements of music and expressive devices that make certain songs appropriate for specific situations.
· Critique choral/vocal performances of varying genres based on a rubric and a set of open-ended questions.
· Analyze works in two or more arts based on the same event or phenomenon. In groups, the students will present aurally how the elements of the various arts are used to convey the same specific meanings or feelings and cite two examples in each work. Attention should also be given to the creators, performers, and other professionals involved in the production and presentation of these arts, comparing and contrasting their roles. This is most effective when the choral literature being currently taught can be used as one of the examples.
· Evaluate, through the use of a rubric, the historical period, genre and style of each musical selection being taught that semester.
· Analyze representative works that show the influence of two or more cultural traditions, identify the cultural source of each influence and trace the historical conditions that produced the synthesis of influences. Use current or very similar repertoire. The analysis can be presented aurally or through the use of a written paper or a poster/flow chart. / Materials
· Essential Musicianship (A Comprehensive Choral Method) Books 1,2,3
· By Emily Crocker and John Leavitt: Hal Leonard Corporation, 1995.
· Teacher generated materials: rubrics, worksheets, quizzes, critiques
· Mirrored wall in classroom
· Individual hand-held mirrors (100)
Resources
· Visiting Artists
· Exchange concerts with other choirs
· Field Trips
· Choir Tours
Technology
· Pianistic/Sequencing Keyboard
· Multi Track Tape Player
· Microphones with directional pickup (6)
· CD Burner
· Blank Compact Disks (3 per student)
· Tape recorders (a minimum of 25)
· Blank cassette tapes (2 per student)
· Audio/Visual Tapes / · Vocally imitate various genres, styles and cultures of choral/vocal music through the use
· of clinicians, in-house teachers and CDs
· Demonstrate the usage of music terminology contained in the repertoire.
· Listen to professional recordings of vocal music of various genres, styles and cultures.
· Routinely view/listen to a video of the ensemble’s performance using a rubric to evaluate the quality of musicianship and stage performance.
· Attend concerts, professional and non-professional, comparing and contrasting the quality of the school’s ensemble and the individual’s vocal technique through the use of a rubric.
· Routinely critique the ensemble’s performance using a rubric to evaluate the quality of musicianship and stage performance.
· Listen to professional recordings of vocal music of various genres, styles and cultures.
· Categorize the current repertoire of choral selections based on historical period, composer, style, genre and form.
· Compare and contrast choral/vocal masterworks to other forms of art.
· Participate in Master Classes conducted by artists of various genres, styles and cultures.
· Compare and contrast choral/vocal masterworks to other forms of art.
Essential Question, Concept or Theme: II. Listening/Responding: All students critically assess music performances that reflect a wide diversity of peoples, styles and times. The student will apply data from these assessments to their personal and ensemble performance of vocal/choral music. / Approx. Time Allotment: /
PA Standards: PA 9.2, 9.3, 9.4, NS 6, 7, 8, 9 /
Adaptations/Inclusion Techniques / Enrichment Strategies / Remediation Strategies / Multicultural/Interdisciplinary
Connection /
· One on One vocal sectional
· Recorded voice parts for repertoire
· Adapted rubrics/worksheets/quizzes
· Teacher Aide
· Private lessons / · Sectional rehearsals
· Visiting artists
· Festivals
· Community performances
· Concert tours
· Choir Tours
· Field trips
· Adjudications
· Private lessons
· Technology/Electronic resources / · One on One vocal sectional
· Recorded voice parts for repertoire
· Adapted rubrics/worksheets/quizzes
· Teacher Aide
· Private lessons / · Authentic repertoire from multicultural composers
· Visiting Artists
· Students with diverse backgrounds
· Audio/Visual tapes
· Interdisciplinary Strands: Foreign Language, Language Arts, Social Studies, Mathematics, Physics
Essential Question, Concept or Theme: III. Creating: Students manipulate music entities to compose original music ideas. These ideas are developed and realized through personal and ensemble performance. / Approx. Time Allotment: /
PA Standards: PA 9.1, NS 3, 4 /
Benchmark/Skills / Assessment / Aligned Materials/
Resources/Technology / Instructional Strategies /
III. CREATING
The students will:
· Compose an original vocal warm-up that enhances a technique required in one selection of the current repertoire. (4/9.1)
· Improvise stylistically appropriate harmonizing parts in a variety of styles. (4/9.1)
· Improvise rhythmic and melodic variations on given pentatonic melodies and melodies in major and minor keys. (3/9.1)
· Improvise original melodies in a variety of styles, over given chord progressions, each in a consistent style, meter, and tonality. (3/9.1) / · Compose a vocal warm-up that directly enhances an area of work within a selected piece of the current repertoire.
· Improvise vocally over a short familiar melody with clearly implied chords. The student is given one minute to prepare, but may not sing aloud.
· Improvise a rhythm or melody over a pentatonic or major/minor chord progression. The student is given one minute to prepare, but may not sing aloud.
· Improvise a melody to a twelve-bar blues or another given progression. The student is given one minute to prepare, but may not sing aloud. / Materials
· Essential Musicianship (A Comprehensive Choral Method) Books 1,2,3
· By Emily Crocker and John Leavitt: Hal Leonard Corporation, 1995.
· Teacher generated materials: rubrics, worksheets, quizzes, critiques
· Mirrored wall in classroom
· Individual hand-held mirrors (100)
Resources
· Visiting Artists
· Exchange concerts with other choirs
· Field Trips
· Choir Tours
Technology
· Pianistic/Sequencing Keyboard
· Multi Track Tape Player
· Microphones with directional pickup (6)
· CD Burner
· Blank Compact Disks (3 per student)
· Tape recorders (a minimum of 25)
· Blank cassette tapes (2 per student)