Teaching Artists in Paradise
Music
Creating a Community Celebration
Michael Wall / Brenda Fong
2nd grade / Pauoa Elementary
Arts teacher Brenda and teaching artist Michael collaborated on a percussion, song and dance integrated social studies experience. The pair led students in exploring how celebrations not only remind us of important historical events, but also teach core values such as gratitude and respect. The second graders learned about the role that music, song and dance play in traditional celebrations and then created their own percussion music, and a story-telling dance, for a Community Celebration of their very own. The students also wrote, memorized and practiced "expressive reading" skills on the topic of things in their lives for which they are grateful. Parents were invited to a sharing which included all the elements the students created - and the parents contributed a story-telling element, as well as a great potluck! The Enduring Understanding: "Remembering and Celebrating are ways in which people pass on their values to future generations."
The Patterns of Life
Michael Wall/Evan Anderson
Kindergarten/Voyager Charter School
Evan and Michael designed and facilitated a residency that encouraged students to think and ask questions about the world around them. The students composed simple rhythm patterns using quarter and eighth notes, then added key words that represented ways to help living things grow and thrive as mnemonics to remember the patterns. They performed their music in both as a rondo and as a polyrhythm on bells, clave, shakers and frame drums. The process of learning about appropriate behaviors needed to nurture good music was used as a metaphor to help the students understand how one's actions can affect the world we live in.
Rhythm Reading: The Life Cycle of Plants
Michael Wall/Linda Lehman-Kameroff
Voyager Charter School
Students studied the life cycle of plants, and then created sentences as a strategy for composing rhythm patterns to represent the six stages of growth. Speaking the syllables, and leaving rests between words, the students learned how to transpose their patterns into TUBS notation, resulting in musical phrases that were then performed on percussion instruments. Linda and Michael designed this curriculum around the Essential Question: "How does focus and concentration affect us as learners?” The unit integrated music, science; reading, writing, and speaking-aloud skills.
Discovering Verbs Through Music
Michael Wall
Over the course of 10 weeks the students learned about various percussion instruments, correct playing techniques, appropriate behavior with instruments and how to participate in a musical ensemble. The students created their own sound effects for the animals in the book "Over in the Meadow", and took turns reading segments of the story and performing their music based on key-word cues in the story. This process engaged the student's interest in both reading aloud and in learning about verbs. In addition, the students learned about Pitch, Dynamics (Volume) and Tempo. The "Discovering Verbs Through Music" project took place at Waianae Elementary school in the Fall of 2012 with two First Grade classes. Funded by the PALS/PLACES Project through the Office of Student Equity, Excellence & Diversity (SEED), University of Hawai'i at Manoa.