
gr_7_b2_composition_rubric_1516.pdf |
The unit is attempting to be a transdisciplinary unit for grade 7 Humanities' Tourism unit. In Humanities, the kids get into groups of 2 or 3 students and plan a tourism booth that promotes a particular country. In music, we've been looking at how locations provide inspirations for musicians. Our Criterion A "hooks" focused on "Frankfurt, I'm Sorry," by Spirit of the West. In this song, the band sings about how when they first went to Frankfurt, they hated it a lot, but then realised they were wrong and wanted to apologise. Next, we looked at The Beatles' "Back in the U.S.S.R.," which is actually a joke song written with The Beach Boys when the two bands were on holidays in India. For the first creative cycle, the kids had to choose a song about a location and perform it for the class. They choose Sweet Home Alabama (America) and Verde Vino (Brazil), etc. For the second creative cycle, we looked at lyrics and different songwriting techniques to help get messages across. The kids *loved* the lesson on why Eminem is one of the greatest lyricists of our time. Finally, they had to get into groups of two and compose a piece of music about a specific place.
Why do I say we are "attempting" to be transdisciplinary? It's because our school works on the semester system for some subjects (including music) and has electives for some subjects (including music). This means that some kids may not choose music or may choose it in the wrong semester. We just figure... if the kids take music in the first semester, they enter Humanities in second semester already knowing how to write a song, but if they take it in the second semester, they will be in music when Humanities starts their tourism exhibition. Perfect timing on way, pretty good timing another.
This is me procrastinating on my reports... I'd better get back at it!