Music - Linking with other KLAs

This week in music we discussed how to link music with other KLAs. When talking about this with other people, I found that most of us had some vague ideas about how to link music with other subjects, but since we didn't know either the Creative Arts syllabus, or most of the other syllabuses, well enough, we weren't sure if the ideas we had fitted in with the syllabus content, or if there were appropriate outcomes for the appropriate stages for our ideas.

My favourite idea for linking music with other KLAs was creating a musical instrument in science and my goal for this journal entry will be to work out how I can fit this in with the Science and Creative Arts syllabus content.

My first thought is that there might be something in stage 3 science about how the size of a sound wave effects the pitch of the sound created. So I'm going to start by looking in that part of the syllabus.

I decide to look in the Draft NSW K-10 Science syllabus, as that is the syllabus that I will need to use when I am teaching in schools.

Unfortunately, I can't find anything in Stage 3 science  related to sound. I also can't find anything in Stage 2 related to sound. But in Stage 1, under the Physical World outcome I find:

Science Understanding

• Light and sound are produced by a range of sources and can be sensed.

Students:
- use their sense of touch to feel vibrations from familiar objects and infer that sound is made when an object vibrates such as vocal chords, a stringed instrument, rubber bands
- produce different sounds from familiar objects using actions such as striking, blowing, scraping and shaking
- compare the loudness and pitch of sounds made by musical instruments and the actions used to make the sound

These all link quite clearly with music and have potential for a joint science/music lesson!

Next I need to go to Stage 1 Music in the creative arts syllabus and see which outcomes or indicators might link best to these science indicators. The following indicators seem appropriate:

MUS1.2
- explores ways of making different sounds on instruments or sound souces.
MUS1.4
- identifies simple musical features of music eg. pitch, tone colour etc.

Using the science and music indicators I could possibly plan lessons around:

• Rubber band orchestra.
  Students can, as a class, pluck rubber bands to perform a piece of music together and then can write up a procedure about how to get the best sort of sound from a rubber band (this would show the students' understanding of how vibrations create sound).
  
  
• Music storeroom exploration.
  Students need to pick three instruments from the music storeroom and play with the instruments, working out two different ways to play each of the instruments. This can be followed by a class discussion about what made a strong sound, what made a weak sound, and what exactly it is that happens to the instruments when a sound is made.
  
  
• Sort the instruments.
  Students are grouped, and each group is given a number of pitched musical instruments. The students must then sort the instruments by pitch, either into groups (high, medium, low) or along a scale, depending on ability.
  
  
• Make a recycled instrument.
  Students are given jars, sticks, rice, string, rubber bands and other recycled equipment. They are to design and make their own musical instrument, then are to present their instrument to the class, using appropriate language (pitch, timbre etc.) to describe the sound their instrument produces and how it works.
  
  

Drama - Mantle of the expert + teacher in role

I really enjoyed exploring teacher in role and mantle of the expert this week, and these are tools that I would like to use in my own classroom.

As a student in the tutorial, I loved the sense of sponteneity and freedom that came with donning the mantle of the expert. I felt like I had the freedom to express whatever crazy ideas I came up with, no matter how bizarre, because everyone was in role (including the teacher!) and so nobody could tell me I was wrong.

In chapter 4 of Beyond the Script, we are warned that this sort of lesson requires careful planning. A lot of this planning comes from knowing your class, what they're interested in, how they'll behave in certain circumstances etc. This isn't exactly something I can think about just yet, as I don't have a class :)

But other parts of the planning come from setting the scene appropriately in a way that clearly defines the teacher's role, sets up the setting and the problem, and gives the students an idea of their roles.

This week, we saw two examples of scene-setting. The contaminated spaceship and the DEC advertising campagin. Each of these examples

• Gave us (the students) a context: Where are we? When are we?
• Gave us a problem: What are we doing here? What do we care about? Where is this all going?
• Gave the teacher a role.
• Gave us a role - but an open-ended role, so that we know what type of person we are (someone who works at an advertising company) but are free to fill out the specific details.

I thought it would be fun (and good practice) to do some scene-setting of my own (with the goal of including all the relevant information, in an engaging, natural way).

The green children
I want to let you all know that the Sunday Times really appreciates you all coming here. We're hoping to publish a special edition focusing on the mystery of the green children and I know all of you have something to offer. Some of you have been intimately involved with those poor green children, and I'm really looking forward to hearing what you have to say. I've also invited some scientisits, folk-lore experts, priests and historians to this meeting. The head editor is hoping that by the end of today we'll have gotten to the heart of the matter, and the Sunday Times will be able to let the world know all about what's really going on.

Designing a new uniform
As the representative of _______ school I'd really like to thank Zing Design for taking on our project. We've been wanting to have our school uniform re-designed for a while now and we're delighted to be working with such talented fashion designers! The school principle asked me to pass the following on to you all:
- We want both a summer and a winter uniform.
- The uniform should be modern and trendy.
- But, the principle can be a bit old-fashioned, so the uniform also needs to look like a standard, traditional uniform and needs to use the school colours (blue and yelllow).
- We want the overall cost of the uniform to remain as low as possible, so please keep this in mind when choosing materials.

By the end of today I'd like to have five draft designs to take back and show to the school community.

Antarctic blizzard
I'm afraid I have bad news. This blizzard is so strong that we've completely lost all outside communication. I haven't been able to contact the main base at all. So I guess we'll just have to wait the storm out. We all knew there was a risk of this when we came to the inland Antarctic outpost. I'll be spending my time trying to get the communications system back online, which means that everything else will be up to you guys. You're all scientists, and all specialists in the field, so I'm sure you can work out how to make our food and water supplies last. We'll also have to sort out how to generate enough heat and electricity until the storm is over. Perhaps the best way to start would be to compile a list of supplies. I'll be heading back to the communications room, best of luck to all of us.

To build or not to build
Local council members, we've gathered here today to vote on Cole's proposed new shopping centre. I'm sure you've all seen the proposed plans [perhaps a sheet with the details may be handed out as part of the drama] but just to summarize - Coles is seeking development approval to build a new, five-level shopping centre in the area that is currently Queen Elizabeth Park. They've proposed to include a children's play area as part of the shopping centre, though they have no plans to replant the trees they will have to cut down.

After discussing Coles' proposal, we'll hold a vote at the end of this meeting. We can either vote to accept the proposal, to reject it outright, or to reject it and suggest some changes. There's no need to write anything down during the meeting as I will be taking minutes.

Final note
Both of the examples of mantle of the expert that I've seen this week have been structured as discussion forums, where the students get to take on a role and speak with authority about a certain subject, possibly arguing for a certain point of view. I am not sure if there are other ways to give students the mantle of the expert, and to challenge them by taking some authority away from the teacher. A quick google finds me mantleoftheexpert.com but it currently appears to be down. I also found this website, which has ideas for using mantle of the expert as the scaffold around which an integrated unit of work is planned. This looks really interesting and is something that I'd love to try implementing in the classroom.

Dance - Stimuli

In this week's dance tutorial we explored choreographing dance with intent, inspired by a stimulus. We've also talked previously about how stimuli can be visual, kinesthetic, auditory, tactile or ideational.

So for my journal entry I thought I'd pick some stimuli, and come up with some activities for a dance lesson.

Stimulus 1 The Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister.

I've selected this story for three main reasons.

1) The themes of pride/envy/arrogance and friendship/sharing/belonging could be easily used as the message behind a dance (ideational).

2) It has some interesting movements - fish swimming, starfish scuttling, the octopus emerging from the cage - which could form the basis for movements when dancing. (kinesthetic)
3) The gorgeous pictures could also inspire action, space and dynamics (visual).

Warm-up activities

• Isolation stretches could be done to music that contains water sounds (eg. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ybbp91bnZk&feature=related), or the sound of rain/water could be overlaid on top of normal warm-up music.
• Tag games related to water eg. octopus tag
• Movements used for a cardio warm-up could be inspired by the book eg. movements could be small and soft to mimic The Little Blue fish's appearance, or sharp and broadway-esque to mimic the Rainbow Fish's appearance.

Exploration activities

• Students could travel across the room to music, using movements based on underwater creatures eg. swim like a fish, crawl like a starfish. The movements could also be based on the emotions in the book eg. pride, loneliness, companionship.
• Follow the leader School of fish. Instead of following the leader in a line, students could follow the leader in the shape of a school of fish.

Then, possibly using the movements they developed earlier in the lesson, students could get into pairs or small groups and compose a dance inspired by The Rainbow Fish. The focus of the dance composition could be the message of the book, the different characters in the book, or just general underwater movements. Alternatively, each group could be given a different scene from the book to use as inspiration.

Stimulus 2 Riverdance

I think just about any musical or dance troup could serve as a stimulus for a dance lesson. I've selected Riverdance for two main reasons:
1) The music associated with Riverdance is fast paced, with a strong beat, and a very specific style that could serve as inspiration for movement (auditory).
2) There is also a very specific type of movement associated with Lord of the Dance (controlled, quick fast movements, stiff body, rhythmic beating with feet) that could similarly serve as inspiration (kinesthetic).

Warm-up activities

• Warm-up music (and all the music used for the lesson) should be from Riverdance, Lord of the Dance etc. or should have similar melodies and beats.
• Isolation stretches should involve short, sharp movements with an extra-strong focus on keeping the rest of the body still.
• Students could move across the room focusing on the rhythm that their feet make (teacher could pause the music every now and then and clap out a new rhythm).

Exploration activities

• Students walk across the room in a line, with a specific movement, with a strong focus on keeping in the line and stepping at exactly the same time.
• Students move around the room and are challenged to convey specific emotions (happiness, sadness etc.) or images (businessman, cat, river) using only their legs and feet, keeping the rest of their body still.

Students could then get into small groups and, after selecting one of the emotions or images that they had conveyed earlier, they could design a rhythm and series of movements for a short (maybe 32-beat) dance sequence.

Stimulus 3 - Rubber gloves

I wanted to challenge myself by selecting a tactile stimulus to inspire a dance lesson. I selected rubber gloves because:
1) They have a very specific feel, which could inspire a series of movements. But composing a dance based purely on touch might be difficult for some students and so...
2) Rubber gloves convey a series of images - cleaning up, doctors etc. - that could also be used to inspire a dance (visual).
3) Rubber moves in a stretchy, slightly clunky way, which could similarly inspire a dance (kinesthetic).

Warm-up activities

•  Free-movement to music. When the music stops, students must get into groups of five and form a 'rubber glove' with their bodies.
•  Students move around the room, following a series of actions called out by the teacher (spin, walk, crawl) but ensuring that at least part of their body is touching the floor to mimic the way that a rubber glove fits on a hand.

Exploration activities

• Students move around the room, pretending that they are light and made of rubber. The teacher tells them how wet they are (dry, soaked etc.) and they have to change their movements accordingly.
• Students are each given a rubber glove. They are told to put it in a specific position (hold it in your right hand, wear it on your left hand, put it in your pocket) and need to walk across the room, in a line, in a way that draws attention to the glove.
• Students play follow the leader while holding hands. The students need to pretend that they are made of rubber, and so when the leader makes sharp turns, they need to move appropriately.

There are then numerous ways that students could develop a dance. More advanced classes could simply be given a glove each, put into groups, and told to go for it! Less advanced classes might require specific instructions eg. the teacher could teach the entire class a 32-beat dance, then the students are put in groups and are told to change the dance slightly, using the rubber gloves as inspiration.