Merriam Big Ideas:

Music as expression and aesthetic

Music as physical response
Music as communication

Essential Questions:
What are different ways we can communicate the meaning of a piece?
How do artists express themselves?
In what way does the structure of a piece of music affect the emotional response?
How can we represent our expressions?
Why should we communicate our responses to music with each other?

Objectives/Content/Dispositions:
Discussing our emotional responses to music
Creating soundmaps of our original compositions
Performing skills (instrument performance)
o Technical and musical understandings
Open-mindedness and democracy
Evaluating performances
Describing and analyzing
Problem solving and grit
Cultivating 21
st
century dispositions (creativity, innovation, critical thinking,
collaboration, communication)

Service Components:
Peer mentoring
Donating time and talent

National Core Arts Standards:
Anchor Standard #7 Perceive and analyze artistic work.
Anchor Standard #8 Interpret intent and meaning in artistic work.
Anchor Standard #9 Apply criteria to evaluate artistic work.
Phase One
How do artists
express
themselves?
Phase Two
In what way
does the
structure of a
piece of music
affect our
emotional
response?
Phase
Three
How can we
represent our
expressions?
Phase Four
Why should
we
communicate
our responses
to music with
each other?

Assessment:
Informal classroom discussions
Daily informal written self-assessment to assess dispositions:
o What problems did you solve today to achieve your goals?
o How hard did you work today?
Peer critique for compositions and performances:
o To what extent is your work expressive?
o To what extent is your work innovative?
o To what extent does your work exhibit quality craftsmanship?
Peer critique of soundmaps
Performance of original composition

Phase One: How do artists express themselves?
Brainstorm:
o What is the purpose of communicating our personal responses to art?
o What value does this have in our community?
o What can we learn from each other?
Explain the project overview (goals and activities).

Phase Two: In what ways does structure affect our response to music?
Brainstorm:
o What impact does the musical structure have on our response?
Investigate music with different structures, listen, and share our personal
responses how the music makes you feel.
Students will perform their original compositions from Project 1 for each other
with the purpose of investigating structure

Phase Three: How can we represent our emotions?
Using each others original composition and performances, students will create
soundmaps representing their physical and emotional response to music.
Other students will interpret the soundmaps of their peers and perform them for
each other.
o Peer critique regarding the interpretation of the piece Was this
performed as you intended? What did you like? What would you change?

Phase Four: Why should we communicate our responses with each other?
Students will share and discuss their soundmaps in the context of the orchestra
setting
Performance of original compositions with peer review posted on edmodo