National Music Standards

The unit I will be designing for my middle school general music class focuses on creating an original composition of music. The students will be working in peer groups to write original lyrics (two verses and one chorus), create a rhythmic “loop” using the application GarageBand on their laptops, and create a music video using their final original song. This unit will relate to many of the National Music Standards, and the students will have choice and will incorporate the use of technology, group work, and performance. For this unit, the assessment format I feel will be most practical to utilize is the “performance-based format” listed by author Larry Ainsworth in Rigorous Curriculum Design (2010, p. 138). I feel this format will be the best choice because the students will be presenting their projects to the class and myself as their end-of-unit assessment, thus will be scored based on their overall performance of their composition. I will have a rubric to use as a scoring guide, which the students will receive prior to grading so they understand the expectations and grading categories. The standard I have included in this assignment is National Music Standard 4.c. …show more content…
The students will have to use their voices (traditional sound sources), and accompaniment created in GarageBand (electronic media) to fulfill the requirements of the unit. They may choose to use additional sources of sound in their compositions, which would result in extra points towards creativity for the final grade. By incorporating both traditional and electronic sound sources, the students are creating a diverse sound, and adding the use of technology into their learning. I want my students to be able to understand that technology does have a place in music education, and the exciting resources it can provide are