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GRADE 3 ESSENTIAL EXPERIENCE IN: FORM UNIT TITLE: SINGIN THE BLUES UNIT FOCUS: 12-BAR BLUES HOOK: The Essential Experience is set-up through the following hook activity: Watch the Brainpop! Blues video together as a class on www.brainpop.com CENTRAL IDEA What is our purpose? LINES OF INQUIRY What do we want to learn? KEY MUSIC CONCEPTS: Blues follow a 12-bar pattern with a distinctive harmony. The Blues is a style of music that was influenced by historical events and other types of music. The Blues follow a 12-bar pattern with three different chords. PYP ELEMENTS: LEARNER PROFILE Open-Minded to learning about new musical genres. Risk-Takers for composing their own pieces and performing them.

ASSOCIATED SKILLS: Demonstrate proper vocal technique. MELODY Develop a repertoire of songs, multicultural. Demonstrate proper mallet technique. HARMONY Experience ostinato (in Blues in G.) Demonstrate Phrase. FORM Prepare for Grade 4: Experience 12-bar blues.

PYP ATTITUDES Creativity to composing and improvising in a new style. Confidence to perform solos in front of an audience.

Concepts and Skills are learned and assessed through the following Learning Experiences in Listening, Creating and Performing LISTENING Listen to Good Mornin Blues, sung by two different artists and compare and contrast their interpretation of the song. Listen to several examples of Blues: Robert Johnson, Ethel Waters, BB King, Bessie Smith. Use movement to show the different sections of a 12-Bar Blues pattern and the blue note during listening examples. CREATING Play the 12-Bar Blues chord progression on Orff instruments (in G) while improvising blues verses and patterns. Sing improvised responses to given questions in the blues scale. PERFORMING Play Blues in G on Orff instruments. Sing blues songs with piano and CD accompaniment. MATERIALS NEEDED Brain-Pop video, LCD and computer Orff instruments prepared for G pentatonic. Listening examples of Blues singers found and ready+any youtube footage available. 12-Bar Blues Composition worksheet.

ASSESSMENT TARGET How will we know what has been learned?

SUMMATIVE ASSESSMENT: CREATING: The students will use the 12-bar blues pattern to create their own Blues verse. PERFORMING: The students will perform their 12-bar blues verse in an informal performance for each other. ASSESSMENT TOOLS: Video of performance, and self-reflections about their performance. Composition worksheet, which will help ascertain students understanding of Form and pattern.

2 National Standards for Music Education

1. Singing, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music. 2. Performing on instruments, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music. 3. Improvising melodies, variations, and accompaniments. 5. Reading and notating music. Lesson Outlines Sing hello using Curwen hand signs. (Adding Fa and Ti this year.) G5CD10:12 Good Mornin Blues Have the students listen and move to this piece the way Im moving. Ask them what they know about the song. What did they hear in the lyrics? The students will watch the BrainPop video about the Blues. If needed, they will watch it a 2nd time. (The speaking is very fast!) We will answer the quiz questions. The students will learn Good Mornin Blues using the echo my movements approach. If there is time at the end, I would like the students to sing with the accompaniment on the CD. I will have the students think of a topic or emotion and see if they can improvise a sentence about it vocally. I will also have the students come up with a response to sing after each person. I will play the blues progression on the guitar while everyone is improvising in a circle. Improvise Goodbye!

LESSON 1: Sing Hello Lesson Hook 5 minutes

LESSON 2:
Sing Hello Lesson Hook 3 minutes

Sing hello using Curwen hand signs; try to add a Blue Note to the Hello. G5CD10:12 Good Mornin Blues Sing and move. EXTEND: Add movement when a Blue note is heard. We will review instrument procedures with Orff instruments. The students will need to put C and F off to maintain pentatonic patterns. They will learn the blues in G through listening to my voice (notation hopefully to come next couple of weeks.) We will improvise patterns using the Orff instruments, while hoping to respond to directions aurally. This is a review of what we accomplished yesterday with 3W, but only touched upon with 3S. Reminding students to be risk-takers.

Unit Hook 10-15 minutes

Playing Blues in G 15-20 minutes

Week 1 Lessons 1&2 5-9 September

PIC Good Mornin 5 minutes

Improvisation 5 minutes

Improvisation 5 minutes

Call and Response Goodbye

Week 2 Lessons 3&4 12-16 Sept.

Lesson 3 Sing hello and pentatonic patterns and read a pattern from the board. Sing Good Mornin Blues with CD accompaniment. Blues in G: we will play the Blues in G on the Orff instruments, then moving to a circle and improvising, then playing every other person. If able, I will get students to play the bass bar parts for the chord progression.

Lesson 4 Sing hello and pentatonic patterns and read a pattern from the board. Sing Good Mornin Blues with CD accompaniment. Improvisation: How can we do it?! Try Daniels idea with one note per chord in each pattern. Give them orange rhythm cards to help. Blues in G: Play together, then expand upon the improvisation.

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If there is time left over, we will play the Baseball Hat game. Lesson 5 Sing hello and pentatonic patterns and read a pattern from the board. Blues in G: 1Blues in G accompaniment part with quarter notes. 2Split class accompaniment vs. melody. 3Improvise on accompaniment parts using cards. Sing Good Mornin Blues. PREPARE: LISTEN to me sing my Blues verse and see if we can remember what the pattern for the words is. Lesson 7 Sing hello and pentatonic patterns, clap a pattern from the board. Sing Good Mornin Blues with CD accompaniment. Listen again to MY version of the Blues. What kind of PATTERN do the words follow? If needed, use Good Mornin Blues as an example. Begin compositions, using the worksheet to help us. Lesson 6 Sing hello and pentatonic patterns and clap a pattern from the board. Listen to me sing MY version of the blues. Is there a pattern for the words? Blues in G: Accompaniment and Melody; Improvisation with cards. Begin compositions!

Week 3 Lessons 5&6 19-23 Sept.

Week 4 Lessons 7&8 26-30 Sept.

Week 5 Lessons 9&10 3-7 October

Week 6 Lessons 11&12 10-14 October

Week 7 Lessons 13&14 17-21 October

Lesson 9 Sing hello and blues patterns using the note ME instead of MI. Clap a pattern from the board. (PREPARE for following activity!) Have students move to instruments and make a blues scale with a flattened third. (Take away C and F, Bb instead of B.) Have students play around with this tonality. Bring students back to their verse. Once they have shown me their lyrics, fit into the pattern, they can go to an instrument and create a melody! This activity is going to take the rest of the unit! Lesson 11 Sing hello and blues patterns using the note ME instead of MI. Ask students what is different about Mi. Clap a pattern from the board. What is improvisation?!?! See if we can improvise and make difference between IMPROVISE and COMPOSE. Improvise on the root of each chord progression! Lesson 13 Sing hello and pentatonic patterns. Clap a pattern from the board, varying dynamics.

Lesson 8 Sing hello and pentatonic patterns, clap a pattern from the board. Have students point to their own worksheets and listen to see where the words fit into the Blues pattern. Clarify expectations about verses through this activity. Ask students to brainstorm ideas for Blues songs in case they are not sure what to make their lyrics about. Give students time to work on their verses. Play the chords in the background periodically so that students can listen and try their verses. Lesson 10 FOLLOW UP ON LESSON 9!!!

Lesson 12 Sing hello and pentatonic patterns. Clap a pattern from the board, varying dynamics. Go back to playing in groups; melody vs. harmony and improvising on certain keys.

Lesson 14 Sing hello and pentatonic patterns. Clap a pattern from the board, varying dynamics.

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Ask students which they are most interested in continuing: playing together or working on their own piece and split up accordingly. Revisit the Brainpop Blues video and decide again what improvisation is. Play Blues in G one last time, expanding our view of improvisation.

Reflection This unit had a much different outcome then last year. When I was observed by Daniel Holmstrom, Secondary Music, he challenged me to try to get the students to improvise while thinking about chord patterns, and not just improvise while playing whatever came to their heads. This was actually much more difficult then I was prepared for, and so a large portion of the class time was spent trying to get students to understand the pattern at a deeper level. Two students decided that they wanted to focus on the summative assessment, which was to write their own Blues verses: Sid and Selin. Other students focused on playing and improvising. Positive Conceptual Connections: Students could better understand the difference between melody and harmony, two key music concepts. Students read written chord symbols off of a piece of music in order to play the tonic of each chord on Orff instruments on the beat. PREPARE: This connection will prepare the students for the future unit Reading More then Words, which will come in January. Next Year: A new summative assessment and central idea is needed if I will not focus on writing our own Blues verse.