Teacher Broderick Lemke

Title Dynamics in Arrangement and Performance

Central Students will create and perform music with incorporation of the piano and forte
Focus (CF) dynamics and analyze how dynamics change the affect of music.
Learning Students will arrange a poem to incorporate dynamics, tempo and texture changes to
Target (LT) change or enhance the affect of a poem.

Students will apply their knowledge of dynamics by singing a song with the marked
dynamics.
Academic Dynamics How loud or soft a piece of music is
Language Forte Italian/Musical term for loud
Piano Italian/Musical term for quiet
Sound Composition An arrangement of noises, words, and other elements based on
the arranger/composers intentions/creativity
Arrange Combine or change pre-existing elements into a new form
Fermata A musical symbol that tells the performer to hold the note for a long time
Instruction Teacher Does: Students do:
Inquiry Invite the students to listen to the teacher read the Students will listen to the
poem Cats by Elanor Farjeon. The teacher will ask poem as it is read to them and
the students to listen to the poem and form a think about what the poem is
mental picture of what is happening in the poem. about.

Cats sleep, anywhere,

Any table, any chair
Top of piano, window-ledge,
In the middle, on the edge,
Open drawer, empty shoe,
Anybody's lap will do,
Fitted in a cardboard box,
In the cupboard, with your frocks-
Anywhere! They don't care!
Cats sleep anywhere.

The first time, the teacher will read the poem at an

even dynamic level throughout the text. The teacher Students will share their ideas
will ask students what the poem was about. of what the poem was about.

The teacher will ask students to listen to him read

the text a second time and to listen for what he Students will listen again to the
does differently. The teacher will read the poem, text being read and identify
starting at a piano dynamic and growing in volume that the teacher uses differing
throughout the poem. After the line Anywhere! dynamics.
They dont care! the teacher will drop back down to
a piano dynamic. The teacher will then ask the
students what changed in their performance. He will
reintroduce the terms dynamics, piano, and forte.
 The teacher will ask students if they know why he
used different dynamics. He will ask the students
why musicians or people who read poems might
change their dynamics. The teacher will ask which
reading of the poem the students preferred, the one
with dynamics or without.
Practice The teacher will pass out copies of the poem Cats
Activity Tongue by Eve Merriam. The teacher will ask
students to follow along as the teacher reads the
text once for the class.
Students will brainstorm why
the teacher used different
dynamics in the text and share
which performance of the text
they liked better.
Students will follow along with
the text on their handed-out
copy of the poem.

The teacher will ask students what this text has in Students will share that both
common with the other poem to make sure they poems are about cats.
comprehend the overall idea of the text.

The teacher will then say that they are going to

work with the students to create a sound
composition The teacher will explain that a sound
composition is a piece of music that doesnt
necessarily include melody and singing, but rather
still uses other musical elements to portray
expression and feeling. The teacher will share some
elements that can be used in creating a sound
composition including dynamics, texture and tempo.
The teacher will remind students of his expressive
reading of the poem Cats and how that piece
started soft and got louder and quicker through the
middle until the end. That is an example of a sound
composition. The teacher will also share that the
sound composition is going to need to have at least
3 dynamic changes in it.

The teacher will then guide the students to find the Students will identify the
form of the poem by asking if there are any sections repetition in the poem and
that repeat themselves or almost repeat share their ideas on whether or
themselves. The teacher will then label the form of not both A sections should
the piece as A B A based on student discovery of the have the same expression.
form. The teacher will ask if students think the They will vote by raising their
expression should be the same in the repeated hands for the choice they
sections or change. The teacher will take a class vote would like.
by having students raise their hands and vote for
which way they want their piece to be written.

The teacher will then ask students whether they

should start quiet or loud in the first part of the Students will share their ideas
poem, and get a students choice and reasoning. The for dynamics, texture and
teacher will then have all of the students make a tempo throughout the piece.
note of that with a p or and f for piano or forte. The
 teacher will continue asking students if they have They will make notes on their
any ideas of where they could change any of the copy of the poem.
items they talked about. If there is a student who
seems shy about the process the teacher will call on
the student and ask them a more direct question
Do you think that we should get louder or quieter
or stay the same dynamic here? or Should we
start the piece slow or fast?
Informal The teacher will then ask the students to perform Students will recite the sound
Assessment the sound composition with him. He will run composition with the teacher
through the form and remind students of the and follow the markings they
decisions that they have made as a class. The made as a class.
teacher will then recite the sound composition with
the students and will assess whether students use
the correct dynamics as well as previously covered
ideas including tempo and texture.
Introduction The teacher will introduce the piece But the Cat Students will identify the
of the Came Back by Josef Marais. They will say that they dynamics from the dynamic
performance know a lot of the information they need to know symbols at the verse and the
aspect about the piece. The teacher will ask students what refrain.
dynamic the song begins at and what dynamic the
refrain is at.

The teacher will introduce the fermata and ask a Students will listen to the
student to read the definition on the page with the definition of fermata.
refrain.

The teacher will demonstrate this by having
students say the word Fer-Ma-Ta holding the last
syllable for a long time until the teacher gives a
signal to stop. The teacher will then invite students
to come up to the front of the class and help
everyone practice the fermata in the same way that
the teacher just demonstrated.
Students will participate in the
teachers activity, holding the
last syllable of fermata until
give the signal to stop. Student
will then take turns leading the
class in following the fermata.

The teacher will then teach students the refrain of Students will listen and repeat
the song and make sure to remind them that the the refrain of But the Cat Came
dynamic is forte so they need to use a nice strong Back
full tone when they sing.

Lesson would continue here, but the micro teach

SHOULD be done by now.