Since I am not currently teaching, I am not able to completely fulfill this portion of the lesson. However, I will share a part of a lesson plan that I am currently brainstorming.
Lesson Title: Analyzing the use of motives in composition.
Grade Level: Eight Grade
LEARNING OBJECTIVES The students will understand the purpose of using motives; have the necessary skills to find them in compositions, and be able to demonstrate their learning through short compositions.
LESSON OVERVIEW We will analyze famous examples in which composers used motive development to construct the framework of their works.
TIME FRAME Three sessions, 1:20 minutes each. (Monday, Wednesday, Friday)
TEACHER RESOURCES Computer-Tablet (With Internet connection), projector, full compositional scores, notation software.
STUDENT RESOURCES Computer-Tablet (With Internet connection), notation software, full compositional scores.
TEACHER PREPARATION Update personal teaching website to list all of the links that students will need to access to work on this assignment. Break down score-motives onto a notation software for students to analyze with more ease and make them available on personal website.
TEACHER DIRECTIONS FOR LESSON
Day 1: After concluding the regular rehearsal for upcoming performances, the students will listen to themes by Wagner, Schumann, and Beethoven and aurally analyze reoccurring motives. Their first intro homework assignment will require them to search for a piece of music or song that they believe uses reoccurring motives. They will write a paragraph on Google Docs describing their discovery.
Day 2: After concluding the regular rehearsal for upcoming performances,we will discuss some of the student findings on the previous assignment and observe a few examples in class. The next portion of the class will consist of analyzing Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony’s introduction on the projector as a group. For their homework assignment, the students will be given a list of links which provide selected scores which will demonstrate developmental motive. On a Google doc, they will write a paragraph or two about their findings. They will attach a screen capture of two separate areas in a piece where they see developmental motives being used into their document. The screen capture will also be posted to my personal teaching website where each student will comment on similarities between each others choses example.
Day 3: After concluding the regular rehearsal for upcoming performances, we will discuss and analyze several other composers’ works in which developmental motives are prominent. These examples may be based off student findings from the previous homework assignments. Having previously worked on basic compositional techniques, the students will already have the necessary software and skill to produce short compositional exercises. Their next homework assignment will involve the students creating a twelve to sixteen measure piece in which they use a short motive to form the melody. They will upload a PDF file of their work on my personal teaching website. Their final writing assignment will consist of three or four paragraphs about the process in which they used to create the melody.
Assessment: Assessment will be given to each Google doc sent before the next class period on developmental motives. The grade will be based on participation since the assignments are strictly opinion and subject to individual choice.