Today I’m going to
show you my music didactic unit called:
“HEARING AND THE QUALITIES OF SOUND” (created
with CLIL template design).
To start with, this
unit has been designed to students in 2º level of music in a secondary school, about
14 years old, and it expects to achieve different OUTCOMES such as:
-
Knowing how the ear works so that hearing a sound.
-
Knowing the properties of sounds.
-
Distinguishing between sound, noise and silence.
-
Understanding the effects of noise pollution in our life.
-
Distinguishing different musical notes and signs.
What I’ve attempted
to do with the design of the didactic unit is to raise awareness about the
importance of silence and noise pollution in our health and how the qualities
of sound affect our experience and perception of music. In fact, nowadays is a
big problem so many children are far too much exposed to high levels of sound in
their normal life.
All new VOCABULARY that is necessary to
understand is related to qualities of sound (pitch, duration, intensity and
timbre), parts of our ear (eardrum, cochlea, auditory nerve, etc.), sound, noise
and noise pollution, and musical language (notes, notes values, flat, sharp, natural,
etc.). There are plenty of new words and for that reason I’ll give a Glossary (The qualities of sound) to the students at
first of the unit with all words classify by nouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs
and prepositions.
The TASKS that I’ve designed along the 7
sessions of the unit have specific outcomes:
1. To present
de subject we will watch specific videos in the first five minutes of the class
in order to awaken interest about the subject:
VIDEOS:
2. In order
to practice vocabulary and language structures linked to the subject I’ve
chosen interactive activities to do in class. These activities attempt to
facilitate the learning of words by heart.
3. I’ve
also prepared different activities in order to revise and make sure the
contents have been learned correctly such as “Filling the gaps”, “Set of cards”
or even an app to measure de level of volume around us.
FILLING
THE GAPS: SET
OF CARDS
APP:
4. Finally
I’ve prepared to the pupils some activities to go in depth and to
investigate, like watching an amazing music video which the performers use the
vibrations as an instrument or an activity with comics in order to draw the
effects of noise pollution in our town.
My ORGANISATION and CLASS DISTRIBUTION are prepared in seven
sessions and the methodology will be active
and participatory and we’ll attempt to train all language skills in every class
(listening, speaking, writing and reading). We will also do different
activities in pairs or in a small group in order to reinforce the co-operative
learning. I’ve included completing activities in the student’s book as well.
1-We’ll watch and
listen to the video “Auditory transduction” in order to introduce the
topic about how the ear works (5’). Next we’ll read the textbook about
sound and how is produced (30’)and after that we’ll do the video activity “The
anatomy of ear” and discuss in group about it (20’).
2- We’ll watch the
videos “How the ear works 1 and 2” (10’) and I’ll ask them about the
specific vocabulary that we’ve already learnt (20’). After that we’ll do a
writing activity about the anatomy of ear (filling the gaps)(15’). At
home they will have to revise the activity called “The interactive ear”
in order to reinforce what we’ve done in class. To finish the class we’ll watch
the video “Vibrations”(5’).
3- We’ll watch and
listen to the video “The human hearing range” (5’) and after that they
will discuss in pairs about what was their auditory threshold and comment with
the rest of the group (15’). Next we’ll read the textbook about noise and noise
pollution (15’). We’ll also use an app called “Sound level meter” in
order to find out the level of sound that surround us (5’). Right after we’ll
watch and listen to the videos “Noise Pollution” and “ Noise health
effects” with a brief discussion in the big group about it (10’).
4- We’ll watch and
listen to the video “4’33’’ and discuss with their partner about if this
is music or not (10’). Right after we will read the textbook about silence and
discuss about its importance in music (35’). I will also encourage them to do a
comic about noise pollution and silence for strengthening their knowledge about
it using Pixton (5’).
5- I’ll give them a glossary
with the main words of the qualities of sound and we’ll watch the presentation
“Qualities of sound” (15’). After that we’ll read the textbook about
that and do the writing activities in the textbook (20’). We’ll finish the
class doing the interactive activity “Musical notes” (15’).
6- I’ll give them a Set
of cards with different notes with different qualities of sound (pitch, intensity,
duration and timbre) and they will have to guess what note have their partners,
making questions such as: is your note higher than C? or louder than mp? or
less long than minim? (25’). After that we’ll do a revision activity and they will
have to explain in a group of four people one of the qualities of sound to
their classmates on the blackboard (25’).
7. The final test. The final task will consist in analyze a music score
and identify what and where the elements of sound are. Besides that, they will
have to writing a text, reading questions, listening to the video and answer oral
questions about contents. They also will do a
self-assessment.
Finally, my EVALUATION CRITERIA are described below:
- To know how the ear works and its parts.
- To distinguish
between sound, noise and silence and knowing its differences.
- To identify every
quality of sound: pitch, duration, intensity and timbre in a music score.
- To compare and
analyze different sound each other and find what have in common and what are
their differences.
- To understand the
importance of the silence and to avoid noise pollution.
- To know different
musical signs, such as notes, notes values, tie, dot, fermata, etc.
