Jenny Bjoin

TPaCK Lesson Plan #3 (High School Chorus- online activity as extension

from class)

Standards: (Common Core- Music is in a transitional period of

standards right now- So Im trying to make my lessons now match up
with the Common Core standards.)
MU:Cr3.2.E.8a: Share personally-developed melodies and rhythmic
passages- individually or as an ensemble- that demonstrate
understanding of characteristics of music or texts studied in rehearsal.
Students will be creating infographics or word clouds to depict
their ideas of home and things that remind them of home or
going home, as a response to their analysis of the text in our
piece The Road Home.
MU:Pr4.3.E.IIIa: Demonstrate how understanding the style, genre, and
context of a varied repertoire of music informs prepared and
improvised performances as well as performers technical skill to
connect with the audience.
By analyzing the text of the piece and finding their own subtext,
the students will be able to truly connect to the emotion behind
the piece, understand the composers intent, and create a more
expressive performance for themselves and the audience.

Objectives:

Students will be able to analyze the meaning of the text of our

piece, The Road Home and think about why the composer
might have chosen this particular text.
Students will be able to draw connections from the text to their
own lives, creating a subtext for themselves while rehearsing and
performing.
Students will be able to express their ideas in writing on the
discussion board on our Blackboard page.
Students will be able to show good digital citizenship skills while
commenting on their peers posts and discussing the discussion
questions.
Students will be able to create an infographic or word cloud
depicting images and ideas of their home to be displayed in
the classroom.

Resources:

A computer for each student

Internet access
A copy of the text of our piece in block format
A copy of the piece, The Road Home

Blooms Taxonomy Level (s):

Analyze (metacognitive): Students will be analyzing a piece of

text and its meaning, while also make connections between it
and their own lives, reflecting on their own thinking and
experiences.
Analyze (metacognitive): Students will be reading their peers
responses and commenting on their writing, seeing if the
thinking of their peers line up with their own or where they vary,
based on their individual life experiences.
Create (metacognitive): Students will create an infographic or
word cloud based on images and ideas of what home or going
home means to them personally, reflecting on their life
experiences.

SAM-R Model: Modification: The technology used in this lesson allows

for the task to be redesigned in order to meet the needs of more
students. Rather than holding a discussion about this in class, only
allowing a few more confident students to discuss their ideas, allowing
students to write their thoughts in a forum on our classes Blackboard
page not only helps to improve the students writing ablility, but also
gives every student an opportunity for their ideas to be heard, in
perhaps a more non-threatening environment. Most high school
students care a great deal about what their peers think of them, so
allowing them to share their ideas in an online written format may
bring about new ideas some might have been to scared or shy to share
in class, as well as may elicit more thought-out responses. Creating the
infographic would also be a task redesign, as they could make a poster,
but the infographic makes many more ideas and designs possible, as
well as makes them look quite clean and polished. This is also
something they could keep on their computer for as long as they
wanted, while a poster is hard to carry around and falls apart over
time.

Learning Plan:

During class, I would rehearse The Road Home, but somewhere

in the weeks leading up to the performance, after we are

accurate on most of the pitches and rhythms and are in the

process of making it more musically expressive, I would
introduce this assignment.
I would discuss this assignment both in class, as well as have
directions posted on Blackboard.
The students would be given a copy of the text of the piece
(http://stephenpaulus.com/blogs/news/17806884-work-story-theroad-home) and asked to use it to answer three discussion
questions on the discussion board of our classrooms Blackboard
site.
Question 1: What line of the text strikes you the most, and why?
What did the composer, Stephen Paulus, do with that line
musically? Question 2: When is a time in your life that youve felt
un-centered or like youve wandered away from home?
Question 3: What does home mean to you?
Students will be taught in class, as well as reminded on
Blackboard of how to be good digital citizens when
communicating with their peers online.
Students will be required to make insightful comments on three
of their peers posts.
Students will be assigned a project to create an infographic or
word cloud depicting images and ideas of what home means to
them. (Ex: family, football, apple cider, Disney World, etc.) They
must include at least 20 words in their final project. The students
will submit these to me, and I will display them in the classroom
for their peers to look at. This will also help the choir to become
closer, as they start to learn more about their classmates.
I think I would have this be a week long assignment, so if I
assigned it on a Monday, the discussion blog post would be due
Wednesday, the comments to peers on Friday, and the project
due the following Monday.

Technology:
1) Text analysis and connection to life experiences
a. Define briefly:
i.
What will you be teaching? I will be teaching
the students how to analyze a piece of text in
relation to its history, culture, and context,
examine how the text is set musically, and how
to connect the meaning of the pieces we are
singing to their own lives, helping them to
create subtexts and more satisfying musical
experiences. These are very affective and
abstract goals.

ii.

What are your learning objectives and goals?

After practice in analysis and musical
connection as a class with other pieces we
have sung throughout the year, students can
become more independent with their critical
thinking when determining composers intent
and connection. Students can use their ideas to
communicate with their classmates in a polite
manner and create a visual representation of
what home means to them.

2) Pedagogical Knowledge
a. Define briefly: What pedagogical strategies will you
employ to meet your goals? Since these goals are so
abstract and are incorporated not only as knowledge goals,
but affective goals, I think the students would succeed the
most and provide more insightful responses if this project
was worked up to throughout the year. I would hold
discussions and practice analysis throughout the year on
pieces we are rehearsing (because, of course, you want the
students to understand what they are singing about and
have a connection to each piece in some way, shape, or
form, hence subtext). I could even bring their English
teacher in one day to talk about steps in analyzing poetry
and text. I would always ask them throughout rehearsals
about the connection between the text and the music and
why they think the composer did what she/he did.
3) Pedagogical Content Knowledge
a. Define briefly: Why will these educational strategies
work well in presenting the content and achieving your
goals? I think if I didnt build up to this process throughout
the year by starting out analyzing together then gradually
releasing responsibility to them as the year went on,
leading up to this project later in the year, they might be
overwhelmed by this task and not provide well-thought-out
responses. What were looking for here is critical analysis,
paired with a connection to their lives and experiences, but
if they havent been taught how to think critically, this isnt
going to happen. Its been proven that helping students to
create a subtext means much more expressive singing and
far more memorable and satisfying moments for your
students in the music-making process. Music class is far
more than showing up, banging out pitches on the piano,
and getting ready for a concert. Its about finding real
beauty and meaning in life.

4) Technical Item:
a. I chose: Blackboard website and infographic/word cloud
websites
b. Why? The Blackboard site provides a safe space for
our class, where students can share ideas and piggy back
off of one another. It can teach students how to be good
digital citizens, as well as give them a place to get into
discussions about the music we are working on. It can also
be a place for me to deliver announcements, reminders,
and provide more resources for my ensembles. The
infographic/word cloud websites allows them to be creative
(something I think we are not getting enough of in our
school system today, frankly), think even deeper about
their personal definition of home, and create a visual
representation of their ideas to be displayed in the
classroom.
infogr.am
piktochart.com
canva.com
wordle.net
etc.

Assessment:
How will you assess the students:
For the discussion blog, Ill assess the students based on the
content and quality of their original post to the three discussion
questions (I could provide a rubric ahead of time for them two, if
needed).
Ill assess the students on the quality of their comments on their
peers posts, as well as take into consideration it they are being
considerate of each others ideas.
For the infographic project, Ill assess on the creativity of their
design, as well as if they included at least 20 words related to
their home.
Will you be using technology as part of your assessment? Yes
Ill be using a computer and Blackboard to read each of their
responses, as well as a computer to receive, assess, and display their
infographic projects.

Reflection:

Teaching students how to be critical thinkers can be quite challenging

and frustrating for the students if they are being asked to do
something they dont yet feel comfortable to do on their own or are
confused about the process. Im hoping that by gradually releasing this
responsibility over to them throughout the year, little by little, by the
time we reach this project, they will feel comfortable enough to share
ideas with one another freely and think deeper about the context of
the text and our music.