EXPLORING HABITATS THROUGH MUSIC COMPOSITION

LESSON INFORMATION

EXPLORING HABITATS THROUGH MUSIC COMPOSITION

Learning Description

Through composition of original speech pieces, students will develop skills and understandings in science, language arts, and music. Teamwork and creativity are necessary to create a chant that demonstrates understanding of plant and animal life in various habitats. Musical skills addressed in this lesson include improvising, composing, listening, speaking, and moving.

Learning Targets

GRADE BAND: 2-3

CONTENT FOCUS: MUSIC & SCIENCE

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"I Can" Statements

“I Can…”

I can create and accurately perform an original speech composition in rondo form about my assigned habitat.
I can create and accurately perform a body percussion ostinato to accompany my speech composition.
I can aurally and visually identify rondo form in musical compositions.

Essential Questions

How can music composition help us understand and remember habitats?

Georgia Standards

Curriculum Standards

Grade 3:

S3L1. Obtain, evaluate, and communicate information about the similarities and differences between plants, animals, and habitats found within geographic regions (Blue Ridge Mountains, Piedmont, Coastal Plains, Valley and Ridge, and Appalachian Plateau) of Georgia.

Construct an explanation of how external features and adaptations (camouflage, hibernation, migration, mimicry) of animals allow them to survive in their habitat.
Use evidence to construct an explanation of why some organisms can thrive in one habitat and not in another.

Arts Standards

Grade 2:

ESGM2.CR.1 Improvise melodies, variations, and accompaniments.

ESGM2.CR.2 Compose and arrange music within specified guidelines.

ESGM2.PR.2 Perform a varied repertoire of music on instruments, alone and with others.

ESGM2.RE.1 Listen to, analyze, and describe music.

ESGM2.RE.2 Evaluate music and music performances.

ESGM2.CN.1 Connect music to the other fine arts and disciplines outside the arts.

Grade 3:

ESGM3.CR.1 Improvise melodies, variations, and accompaniments.

ESGM3.CR.2 Compose and arrange music within specified guidelines.

ESGM3.PR.2 Perform a varied repertoire of music on instruments, alone and with others.

ESGM3.RE.1 Listen to, analyze, and describe music.

ESGM3.RE.2 Evaluate music and music performances.

ESGM3.CN.1 Connect music to the other fine arts and disciplines outside the arts.

South Carolina Standards

Curriculum Standards

Grade 3:

3-LS3-1. Analyze and interpret data to provide evidence that plants and animals have inherited traits that vary within a group of similar organisms.

3-LS4-3. Construct an argument with evidence that in a particular habitat some organisms can thrive, struggle to survive, or fail to survive.

Arts Standards

Anchor Standard 1: I can arrange and compose music.

Anchor Standard 2: I can improvise music.

Anchor Standard 4: I can play instruments alone and with others.

Anchor Standard 6: I can analyze music.

Anchor Standard 7: I can evaluate music.

Anchor Standard 9: I can relate music to other arts disciplines, other subjects, and career paths.

Key Vocabulary

Content Vocabulary

Habitat - The natural environment of an organism; place that is natural for the life and growth of an organism
Organism - A living thing, like an animal, plant, fungus, bacterium, or protist
Adaptation - How organisms change or adjust to new conditions
Environment - All external conditions, influences, and factors that affect and interact with living organisms

Arts Vocabulary

Rondo - A form of composition in which the first section recurs throughout the piece, alternating with different sections (e.g., A-B-A-B-A or A-B-A-C-A, etc.); this form is found especially in compositions of the Baroque and Classical eras
Ostinato - A repeated pattern (plural: ostinati)
Body percussion - Sounds produced by striking or scraping parts of the body; typically includes snapping, clapping, patting, and stomping
Phrase - Musical sentence or unit, commonly a passage of four or eight measures; a dependent division of music, much like a single line of poetry in that it does not have a sense of completion in itself; usually two or more phrases balance each other
Texture - The thickness or thinness of sound

Materials

Habitat cards (individual cards with one habitat on each)
Cutouts of shapes (or shapes can be written on the board)
Visual of A section text (to be displayed after chant is learned)
Sound source (computer and speakers)
Recording of musical composition in rondo form (this could be a song that is structured verse-chorus-verse-chorus)
Large paper and markers

Instructional Design

Opening/Activating Strategy

Classroom Tips: Arrange groups so that students can move away from each other during the creating process to enable careful listening and minimize distraction from other groups.

Play a musical composition in rondo form, challenging students to listen for repeated sections. (NOTE: Music with text may facilitate students’ discernment of repetition and contrast.)
Identify form heard in composition as rondo form.
Demonstrate different body percussion techniques, such as snapping, clapping, patting, and stomping. Have students follow your movements.
Challenge students to establish a simple two, four, or eight beat body percussion ostinato.

Work Session

Explain that students will now become composers of their own speech piece to illustrate rondo form.
While students perform the body percussion ostinato that they created, teach the following chant by rote (teacher speaks, students echo).

Habitats define life and growth within a place
Where animals and plants naturally live in their space.
Each is connected by the environment in which they live;

Contributing uniquely, they all have something to give.

To facilitate student success in learning the chant aurally, begin by speaking the entire chant, then speak the first phrase (first eight beats) and have students echo.
Continue speaking each phrase and having students echo. Then combine two phrases (16 beats) and have students echo.
Once students are comfortable with 8- and 16-beat phrases, speak the entire chant.
This becomes the A section of the class composition.
Analyze the structure of the chant (32 beats long with the last word on beat 31).
A visual such as follows may be helpful in guiding students’ analysis.

To help students understand the chant’s length and structure, point to each number while speaking the chant.
Analyze the rhyme scheme of the chant, marking on the visual of the chant to facilitate understanding.
Divide students into small groups and give each group a habitat card (such as mountains, marsh/swamp, coast, etc.).
Working in small groups, have students create a chant about their habitat.
Their chant must be the same length and use the same rhyme scheme as the A section.
Once students are satisfied with their composition, have them write it down (text only) on large paper.
Encourage students to write their composition in four lines to facilitate understanding of the four phrases.

Closing Reflection

Combine group compositions with the original chant to create a rondo form.
The original chant is the A section while student creations become the alternating sections.
Use shapes drawn on board or cut from construction paper (or cogni-tiles) and letters to illustrate each section in rondo form.
Allow time for students to comment on the compositional efforts of others, perhaps noticing distinctive rhythms and/or word choice.
Discuss the characteristics of each of the habitats performed.

Assessments

Formative

Teachers will assess students’ understanding of the content throughout the lesson by observing students’ participation in the activator, ability to repeat and learn the A section of the habitat chant, analysis of rhyme scheme, and collaboration with their groups to create their own habitat chant.

Summative

CHECKLIST

Students can create and accurately perform an original speech composition using the prescribed form and content (assigned habitat).
Students can create and accurately perform a body percussion ostinato to accompany the speech composition.
Students aurally and visually identify rondo form in musical compositions.

DIFFERENTIATION

Acceleration:

Have students record their creations and evaluate their work.
Challenge students to create simple melodies to accompany their text.
Have students transfer their spoken text to body percussion (e.g., clap the rhythm of the words rather than speaking the words). Experiment with and discuss various textures. For example, have half the students maintain the ostinato while the other group performs their chant on body percussion; then have only the chant performed on body percussion. Discuss what happens to the texture of the sound as other parts are added or deleted.
After students have transferred their spoken text to body percussion, have two (or more) groups superimpose (perform simultaneously) their chants. Discuss the texture changes this compositional device creates.
To connect to dance, have students create movement compositions demonstrating plants and/or animals found in their habitats. Then have other students guess the habitat demonstrated through movement.
To connect to theater, have students create dialogues between plants and/or animals found in various habitats. Dialogues should not include the name of the habitat so that after performing their dialogues, other students can guess the habitat being discussed.

Remediation:

Scaffold the lesson by working collaboratively as a class to create a chant about a habitat. Then release students to create their own.
Reduce the number of lines students are required to create in their chant.
Provide sentence starters to help students structure their chants.

*This integrated lesson provides differentiated ideas and activities for educators that are aligned to a sampling of standards. Standards referenced at the time of publishing may differ based on each state’s adoption of new standards.

Ideas contributed by: Maribeth Yoder-White.

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