Unit 4 — Connecting
Description
Students make connections to real world interests and experiences, applying personal experiences to compositions to create unique and individual pieces of work. Students are encouraged to make connections to social issues that matter to them when creating music. The unit shows examples of other musicians creating music and discusses how their differences impact their creative process. Students understand how personal interests, experiences, ideas, and knowledge relate to creating, performing, and responding. Students demonstrate understanding of relationships between music and other arts, other disciplines, varied contexts, and daily life.
Essential Questions
- How do musicians make meaningful connections to creating, performing, and responding?
- How do the other arts, other disciplines, contexts, and daily life inform creating, performing, and responding to music?
Learning Objectives
- Demonstrate how interests, knowledge, and skills relate to personal choices and intent when creating, performing, and responding to music
- Demonstrate understanding of relationships between music and other arts, other disciplines, varied contexts, and daily life
- Apply personal experiences to compositions to create unique individual pieces
- Make connections between music and social issues that matter to students
- Discuss how individual differences impact the creative process
Supplemental Resources
- Staff paper and compositional materials
- Sticky notes for recording ideas during brainstorming
- Lined journals for reflecting on connections between music and personal experiences
Music - Connecting
Students apply mathematical thinking through rhythm patterns, counting, and structural analysis of musical compositions.
Students explore scientific inquiry and design thinking when investigating sound, acoustics, and the physics of musical instruments.
Students develop literacy skills through reading and interpreting musical notation, writing about musical choices, discussing artistic intent, and analyzing text in songs and compositions.
Students examine how music reflects cultural, historical, and social contexts, including the contributions of diverse musicians and composers from various backgrounds and communities.
Students develop mind-body awareness through musical performance, breath control, posture, and the health benefits of musical engagement and expression.
Students encounter and perform music in different languages and explore diverse global musical traditions and cultural expressions.
Formative Assessments
- Teacher observation of student composition and creative choices
- Group discussion about personal connections to music
- Skill testing on ability to articulate connections between music and experiences
- Question and answer exchanges about interdisciplinary relationships
Summative Assessment
Students create a blues composition with their own lyrics that relate to something that matters to them, demonstrating personal connection to the creative process
Benchmark Assessment
Group work, projects, discussion, question and answer, teacher observation, and skill testing
Alternative Assessment
Students may demonstrate understanding through a recorded oral explanation of their composition choices and personal connections, supported by visual aids such as a storyboard or image sequence representing their ideas. Simplified composition templates or graphic organizers may be provided to help organize thoughts before creating or performing.
IEP (Individualized Education Program)
Students may benefit from graphic organizers or visual prompts that help them identify personal experiences and emotions before beginning the composition process. Providing sentence starters or structured frameworks for developing lyrics can support students who find open-ended creative tasks challenging. Teachers should allow multiple modes of expression — such as verbal explanation, drawing, or recorded performance — in place of or alongside written lyrics to demonstrate personal connection. Frequent check-ins during the composition process can help students stay focused and receive timely feedback as they work toward their final piece.
Section 504
Students should be given extended time to develop and refine their compositions, particularly during the lyric-writing and reflection phases of the unit. Preferential seating during group discussions about music and social issues can reduce distraction and support fuller participation. A quiet or low-distraction space may be made available for students during independent composition work.
ELL / MLL
Teachers should provide visual supports — such as images, short video clips of musicians, and illustrated vocabulary references — to help students connect unit vocabulary like 'composition,' 'lyrics,' and 'social issues' to meaning. Simplified directions for creative tasks, paired with a visual model of the composition process, can help students understand expectations. Students should be encouraged to draw on their home culture's musical traditions and experiences as valid and valued sources of personal connection when developing their work.
At Risk (RTI)
Teachers can help students access the unit by beginning with concrete personal experiences — such as a feeling, a place, or an important event — before asking them to translate those ideas into musical form. Reducing the scope of the composition task, such as focusing on a single verse or a short melodic idea, allows students to experience success and build confidence in the creative process. Connecting the blues form to familiar storytelling traditions can provide an accessible entry point for students who may not yet have background knowledge of the genre.
Gifted & Talented
Students can be challenged to explore how the historical and social context of the blues has shaped its musical characteristics, and to consider how their own composition fits within or intentionally departs from that tradition. Encouraging students to investigate how musicians across cultures use their art to respond to social issues — and to reflect that research in their own creative choices — adds meaningful depth to the unit's connecting theme. Students might also experiment with layering multiple musical elements, such as melody, harmony, and dynamics, to more precisely express the personal or social message they intend to communicate.