In my musical experience design for high school students, I imagine them playing around with the technologies Makey Makey and Scratch. My goal for them would be to create a melody with three different instruments that they have originally created. I envision a classroom full of groups of three people who have not interacted much before designing their own instruments using whatever objects they can find, whether it be humans, fruits, vegetables, or Play-doh. They can model their instruments after actual instruments, like a celery and carrot stick piano, or they can create something new using Play-doh. They should then be giving their instruments different sounds to help make their melody. Once their instruments have been designed and named, they are free to make a short melody and record it. The students have a wide range of possibilities of what they can use; they free to squish Play-Doh or tap on bananas to create their melody. The sky is the limit on what they use as their musical instruments. This should be a stress free experience full of laughter and enjoyment as students get to know each other and see an example of the kinds of technology available to them and realize how anything can be music.
These technologies are facilitating the students breaking the ice within their groups and creating an open area for conversation. It is also allowing them to put different sounds to inanimate objects, such as a cymbal crash for a piece of Play-doh shaped like a C. Through these technologies, students can work on their more audial skills by imagining different sounds and hearing them, rather than focusing on notation. As a teacher, I would be there to ensure that good conversation is occurring and that relationships are being built. If a student needs help with the technology, I would be there to answer a question, but my goal would be to stay mostly hands-off and allow the student to ask their peers for help before coming to me. I would also be there to help start ideas, but afterwards let the students take those ideas and either develop them or be inspired to create something different. Though this experience is nothing ground breaking and not having it would not be detrimental to the students, I believe it would be a great ice breaker and conversation starter about how easily anything can be music. I want the students to realize not only that everything can make music, but how different objects can be manipulated to produce different sounds that also create music in a way that they did not imagine before. The public good of this experience is building relationships with others in their class and sparking conversation and interest in music combined with technology. For those students who do not love music, my goal would be to start a seed of love and interest because it is so interesting and applicable to their daily life because they are using everyday objects to produce a melody. For those who are involved in music, my hope would be to provide a different perspective that takes them out of the minutia of technique and theory and simply allows them to appreciate music for its sounds. In this experience, students will only need a basic knowledge of music. They should know that instruments produce sound and they should have a basic knowledge of rhythm to ensure that they can keep a steady beat to their melody and so that combining the other two parts in their melody is easier. They need the skills to hit objects and the creativity to build different instruments by putting together different objects. Through this experience, their ear should become more attuned to what pitches or noises sound prettier together and what sound harsh. To make sure they develop this, I would give students feedback on how their melodies sounded as they were a work in progress. I would ask why they decided to put certain sounds together and their overall goal, and then ask and give feedback if that goal was met by me, the listener. I will know that they have developed this skill adequately when they can give each other effective feedback and improve upon their own melody without my help. Another skill these learners will develop is how to use the programs of Makey Makey and Scratch. The students will be able to plug in the different wires to different objects and choose their own noises on Scratch. I will help them along if they are confused about how to use the technologies, but I will allow them to ask one another for help first. I will know when they have adequately developed this skill when they can do it on their own for their other instruments after I may have given them help with one. The next steps and extensions for this experience would be to design a notation for their melody so that others can replicate it. They could give certain noises pitches and notate it on staff paper or they could create a graphic or comic book style of notation, like George Crumb. More instruments could also be added to make the melody more complex and longer. There could also be a performance aspect or they could try recording their piece live and then adding loops to their melody to make it more interesting. I entirely enjoyed our first day of class getting to work with all the different technologies that I had never heard of before and Makey Makey and Scratch stuck out to me because of how versatile and easy it was to use. I enjoyed having that conversation starter and building relationships through music and technology. I also have noticed how dull some of my high school music classes were and wanted to spark some life into them. High school can also be a very stressful environment, so I wanted an experience that was simplistic and could allow the students to enjoy music and school without a stressful activity. |
Davina MiawOn this page, I will present examples of my leadership through videos, lesson plans, and reflections. Archives
December 2019
Categories |