During the working stages of the process, I used informal assessment to see which of my students were struggling and needed extra assistance from me. During the vocal harmonization lesson, the students were given a checklist for a the verse they had to vocally arrange that was used as an assessment. For their mashup projects, the students were also given a checklist they had to adhere to. I used this checklist as an assessment during their projects to see if they incorporated all required aspects of their mashup arrangements. When reflecting upon the process, I used informal assessment during our discussion to gauge how the students felt about the experience. On their own time, I had students fill out a more formal Google Form to reflect upon the skills they have learned, what did and did not go well in their arrangements, and how they will use the skills they acquired during this process going forward.
Going into this Series of Lessons, my expectations for students' learning was that they walked away from this experience with an understanding of how chord progressions function, how melodies are based off of chord progressions, an understanding of basic harmonization techniques, and the ability to synthesize this information into a final product in the form of a mini mashup arrangement. I communicated these expectations at the beginning of the unit the Series of Lessons is pulled from. Students were given an overview of upcoming lessons at the beginning of the unit and we listened to an example on the first day of the unit of a final mashup example so they knew what their ultimate goal was.
During the first lesson on vocal harmonization, students were successful in understanding how to combine their knowledge of solfege with their new knowledge of chords to create vocal harmonies. This can be seen in the video as students sang through a I-vi-IV-V-I chord progression on solfege. They then took those skills and had half of the class sing an Adele melody while the other half of the class accompanied them on solfege chords. The video then shows one of the groups that vocally arranged a pop song verse. This group incorporated all elements they were supposed to according to the checklist. For the final mashup arrangements, each group incorporated all of the required elements according to the given checklist. Some of the groups, such as groups 2 and 4 incorporated components from the “above and beyond” section of the checklist by including songs in their mashups that were not in the given packet. Although each group completed the given checklist, each group interpreted the assignment differently. Some groups, such as Groups 3 and 4, used their two required songs by doing a verse from one going into the chorus from the other. Groups 1 and 2 took a different approach by using one of their songs to harmonize the other. However, neither of these approaches can be rated as better or worse than the other as there was no requirement on the checklist for complexity or how the two songs were to be used. Instead, I had just asked students for a reasonable creative effort. Some students have a hard time coming out of their shells, so the fact that they were all able to be vulnerable and create a mashup to perform for their peers is an accomplishment in and of itself.
Going into this Series of Lessons, my expectations for students' learning was that they walked away from this experience with an understanding of how chord progressions function, how melodies are based off of chord progressions, an understanding of basic harmonization techniques, and the ability to synthesize this information into a final product in the form of a mini mashup arrangement. I communicated these expectations at the beginning of the unit the Series of Lessons is pulled from. Students were given an overview of upcoming lessons at the beginning of the unit and we listened to an example on the first day of the unit of a final mashup example so they knew what their ultimate goal was.
During the first lesson on vocal harmonization, students were successful in understanding how to combine their knowledge of solfege with their new knowledge of chords to create vocal harmonies. This can be seen in the video as students sang through a I-vi-IV-V-I chord progression on solfege. They then took those skills and had half of the class sing an Adele melody while the other half of the class accompanied them on solfege chords. The video then shows one of the groups that vocally arranged a pop song verse. This group incorporated all elements they were supposed to according to the checklist. For the final mashup arrangements, each group incorporated all of the required elements according to the given checklist. Some of the groups, such as groups 2 and 4 incorporated components from the “above and beyond” section of the checklist by including songs in their mashups that were not in the given packet. Although each group completed the given checklist, each group interpreted the assignment differently. Some groups, such as Groups 3 and 4, used their two required songs by doing a verse from one going into the chorus from the other. Groups 1 and 2 took a different approach by using one of their songs to harmonize the other. However, neither of these approaches can be rated as better or worse than the other as there was no requirement on the checklist for complexity or how the two songs were to be used. Instead, I had just asked students for a reasonable creative effort. Some students have a hard time coming out of their shells, so the fact that they were all able to be vulnerable and create a mashup to perform for their peers is an accomplishment in and of itself.
|