Overview and Background: Unit: Jazz Legends

 

Theresa Walker : Cheney USD 268

Art, Drama, Music. : Art, Drama, Music. : Art, Drama, Music.

Cheney : Grades 4 - 4 : Aug. - Jun.

 

Title:

Jazz Legends

Topics:

Music, Jazz, Composers

Time Frame:

5-10 days of 20-25 minute sessions

Start Date:

-

Status:

Draft

Date Revised:

 

 

Other Designers:

 

Summary:
This unit is learning about jazz and why it makes us want to dance or tap our feet to the music so much. The students will be listening, singing, performing, and creating in this unit. They will learn about several jazz legends and their music and instruments of choice. Hold on for a wonderful introduction to the world of Jazz!

 

Print Materials Needed:

Resources:
Ferris, Jean. America's Musical Landscape. McGraw-Hill Co. Boston. 1998.
Kamien, Roger. Music: An Appreciation. McGraw-Hill Co. New York. 1996.
Share the Music-3rd grade. McGraw-Hill School Division. New York. 1998.

 

Resource Attachments:

Internet Resource Links:

 

Notes:

 

 

Stage 1: Identify Desired Results

 

State:

KS       1,3,5,7,9

Title:

KMEA Standards

Standard(s):

1.Singing, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music.
3.Improvising melodies, variations, and accompaniments.
5.Reading and notating music.
7.Evaluating music and music performances.
9.Understanding music in relation to history and culture.

 

Understandings:

Overarching

Musical elements are combined in various ways to create different sounds and shapes. (overarching understanding)

 

Unit

Unit understandings: Several types of music originated from folk tunes and spirituals.

 

Essential Questions:

How do you improvise music?

What is scat singing?

What is syncopation?

What is jazz?

What is the difference between swing, ragtime, and boogie-woogie music?

 

Knowledge and Skills:

K
-Improvisation is the creation of music at the same time it is performed.

-Jazz is the music rooted in improvisation and characterized by syncopated rhythm, a steady beat, and distinctive tone colors and performance techniques. Jazz gained popularity in the early twentieth century.

-Scat singing is the vocalization of a melodic line with nonsense or neutral syllables.

-Syncopation is the accenting of a note at an unexpected time, as between two beats or on a weak beat. Syncopation is a key sound to several types of music, including jazz.

-Swing is jazz style that was developed in the 1920's and flourished between 1935 and 1945, played mainly by "big bands". Also verb for what jazz performers do when they combine a steady beat and precision with a lilt and a sense of relaxation.

-What life as a jazz performer is like, including what instruments they play.

-How to create, count, and clap syncopated rhythms.

-About jazz performers such as Charlie "Bird" Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Louis Armstrong, Benny Goodman, and Ella Fitzgerald.

S
The letters and numbers in front of each of these are the MENC Content Standards broken down into Achievement Standards:
1a. Students sing independently, on pitch and in rhythm, with appropriate timbre, diction, and posture and maintain a steady tempo.

1b. Students sing expressively, with appropriate dynamics, phrasing, and interpretation

1e. Student sings in groups, blending vocal timbres, matching dynamic levels, and responding to the cues of a conductor.

3a. Students improvise "answers" in the same style to given rhythmic and melodic patterns.

3c. Students improvise simple rhythmic variations and simple melodic embellishments on familiar melodies.

3d. Students improvise short songs and instrumental pieces, using a variety of sound sources, including traditional sounds, nontraditional sounds available in the classroom, body sounds, and sounds produced by electronic means.

5a. Students read whole, half, dotted half, quarter, and eighth notes and rests in 2/4, 3/4, and 4/4 meter signatures.

5b. Students use a system (that is, syllables, numbers, or letters) to read simple pitch notation in the treble clef in major keys.

5c. Students identify symbols and traditional terms referred to dynamics, tempo, and articulation and interpret them correctly when performing.

5d. Students use standard symbols to notate meter, rhythm, pitch, and dynamics in simple patterns presented by the teacher.

6c. Students use appropriate terminology in explaining music, music notation, music instruments and voices, and music performances.

6e. Students respond through purposeful movement to selected prominent music characteristics or to specific music events while listening to music.

7a. Students devise criteria for evaluating performances and compositions.

7b. Students explain, using appropriate music terminology, their personal preferences for specific musical works and styles.

8b. Students identify ways in which the principals and subject matter of other disciplines taught in the school are interrelated to those taught in music.

9a. Students identify by genre or style aural examples of music from various historical periods and cultures.

9d. Students identify and describe roles of musicians in various music settings and cultures.

9e. Students demonstrate audience behavior appropriate for the context and style of music performed.

 

Stage 2: Determine Acceptable Evidence

 

Assessment Summary:
The students will create their own version of improvisation for a jazz song that we have been singing together in class. After they write it down and perform it, they will be asked to improvise a verse, this time without writing it down or thinking about how they will sing it. This is the true meaning of improvisation.
Key Criteria:
How will you know when they reach understanding? They will perform their End Performance Task as described below, and I will grade it according to a rubric that the students and I have created together in class including rhythm variance, steady beat, unique/creative/appropriate, lyrics, melody, and written directions.

 

Task/Prompt: Scat singing

 

Type: Performance Task

Topics: Music, Jazz, Singing

 

Summary:
The students will create their own version of improvisation (scat-singing style) for a jazz song that we have already been singing together in class, "Old Man Moses". After they write it down and perform it, they will be asked to improvise a verse, this time without writing it down or thinking about how they will sing it. This is the true meaning of improvisation.

 

Print Materials Needed:

 

Resources:
Ferris, Jean. America's Musical Landscape. McGraw-Hill Co. Boston. 1998.
Kamien, Roger. Music: An Appreciation. McGraw-Hill Co. New York. 1996.
Share the Music-3rd grade. McGraw-Hill School Division. New York. 1998.

 

Resource Attachments:

 

Internet Resource Links:
Link 1:
Link 2:
Link 3:
Link 4:
Link 5:

 

 

State:

KS       1,3,5,7,9

Title:

Music

Standard(s):

1a. Students sing independently, on pitch and in rhythm, with appropriate timbre, diction, and posture and maintain a steady tempo.
1b. Students sing expressively, with appropriate dynamics, phrasing, and interpretation.
3c. Students improvise simple rhythmic variations and simple melodic embellishments on familiar melodies.
3d. Students improvise short songs and instrumental pieces, using a variety of sound sources, including traditional sounds, nontraditional sounds available in the classroom, body sounds, and sounds produced by electronic means.
5a. Students read whole, half, dotted half, quarter, and eighth notes and rests in 2/4, æ, and 4/4 meter signatures.
5b. Students use a system (that is, syllables, numbers, or letters) to read simple pitch notation in the treble clef in major keys.
5c. Students identify symbols and traditional terms referred to dynamics, tempo, and articulation and interpret them correctly when performing.
5d. Students use standard symbols to notate meter, rhythm, pitch, and dynamics in simple patterns presented by the teacher.
7a. Students devise criteria for evaluating performances and compositions.
7b. Students explain, using appropriate music terminology, their personal preferences for specific musical works and styles.
9a. Students identify by genre or style aural examples of music from various historical periods and cultures.
9e. Students demonstrate audience behavior appropriate for the context and style of music performed.

 

Notes:

 

Student Directions:
You are a performer with the world's best jazz band. The director wants you create your own version of (scat-singing style) improvisation for "Old Man Moses" (a jazz song that we have already been singing the melody on together in class) for an upcoming concert that the President of the United States will be attending. You will write an 8-measure "improvisation" of melody, rhythm, and nonsense word-syllables you created on staff paper and then perform it for the class. Then they will be asked to improvise a different verse for 8 measures again. But, this second time you will not write it down or think about how you will sing it ahead of time. This is the true meaning of improvisation. The director of the jazz band (and the audience made up of the students in the class), will critique both performances and give feedback to each performer.



 

 

Other assessment evidence to be collected:

Product check

 

The students will create, count, and clap syncopated rhythms.
 

Selected Response/Short-answer test/quiz

 

Listen to music and identify jazz.
 

 

Stage 3: Plan Learning Experiences and Instruction

 

Learning Activities:

1. When the students are entering my classroom, I will have jazz music playing, and will let them move around the room, creating their own movements to the music. Then, I will have them sit down, and we will discuss jazz music, and why it makes us want to constantly be on the move.

Background:
Jazz has different sounds. Some of those categories are: Ragtime (derived from minstrel shows), Blues (African-American origin with a subject matter dealing with self-pity or loss of some sort.), Swing (danceable music played by big bands, including about fifteen musicians, from the 1930's to the 1940's), Boogie-Woogie (fast tempo style played with strong rhythmic ostinato in bass clef), and Bebop (returning to "original" jazz, performed difficult music by a small ensemble).

2. The students will listen to several songs, including "Hotter Than That" by Louis Armstrong (use Listening Outline below) to demonstrate improvisation. They will listen to "Take the A Train" by Billy Strayhorn (performed by Duke Ellington) (use Listening Outline below) to identify swing/big band music. The students will listen to "Maple Leaf Rag" by Scott Joplin to identify ragtime style.
3. Sing "Old Man Moses" (page 225).
4. Read pages 246-247.
5. Listen to "It Don’t Mean a Thing if It Ain't Got that Swing" by Duke Ellington and Irving Mills. [Share the Music-3rd grade]
6. The students will listen to George Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue" and "I Got Rhythm" to recognize the unusual way he and many other American composers used syncopation.
7. Listen to other jazz tunes to identify instruments.
8. The students will clap syncopated rhythms. We will create them together on the board, count them out, and they will clap them together.
The students will clap question/answer syncopated rhythms back to me.
9. Together we will read "The Bremen-town Musicians" by Jack Kent and "Mama don't allow" by Thacher Hurd.
10. The students will discuss the differences in the lives of many performers or composers, and those of jazz musicians.
11. They need to reflect on how their improvising was completed after they sang their first verse to the song. After that, they will be asked to come up with a verse, without having time to prepare (truly the meaning of improvisation on the spot in music performances).
12. The students will create their own version of improvisation (scat-singing style) for a jazz song that we have already been singing together in class, "Old Man Moses". After they write it down and perform it, they will be asked to improvise a verse, this time without writing it down or thinking about how they will sing it. This is the true meaning of improvisation.