Subject Pedagogy Assignment - Learning & Recording A Cover - Year 9 Music Technology
For this assignment, focusing on my specialist subject pedagogy (Music), I planned and delivered a four-week scheme of work to class 9BMU2. The class of 15 pupils consisted of a mixed gender cohort of primarily Afro-Caribbean, Indian and Pakistani ethnic backgrounds. The department had three different Year 9 classes, and this class were believed to be the most challenging. All of the pupils were well below their expected target grades for music, and most pupils in the class were known to have challenging behaviour. This group overall had low musical ability, low musical confidence, low self-esteem and low motivation.
The unit created for the assignment focuses on the concept of 'student voice'. I was aware they would be a difficult class to motivate hence my decision to give them ownership of their own scheme of work. I met with the pupils and discussed possible projects and allowed them to design their own musical repertoire. We ultimately decided on a project in which the pupils would learn the individual parts of a popular song, and then use their pre-existing skills in Reason 9 to record a multi-track cover of the song.
Supporting Documentation
Here I have attached all the relevant documentation for the lessons, included all four lesson plans, the BCU scheme of work and the supporting lesson slides. I also created a 'mock' Rock School style brief to present the project criteria to the pupils. The brief discusses what is required from the pupils in order to achieve a 'pass merit distinction' grade should this have been a real RSl unit of work. This was done in order to prepare them for the style of assessment criteria they will be working to next year.
- BCU unit of work
- Lesson plans 1 - 4
- Lesson 1-4 Supporting Slides
- Mock RSL Brief
Student work samples - Recordings
Once pupils had finished their recordings they were able to put them into a shared google drive folder where they could listen to each other's work. This was encouraged, and pupils were asked to listen to their peers' recordings and give written or verbal feedback giving them a WWW and suggesting an EBI.
Audio samples of the work created by students are available here. Some of the recordings are audibly more successful than others, however, taking the musical ability into account, all students were able to engage in the unit of work with a significantly higher level of interest whilst creating something that was their own.
Observation feedback
My mentor carried out a formal observation during the first lesson of the unit and whilst highlighting some of the positive aspects of the lesson she also suggested techniques that could be used to enhance the pupils' engagement in future lessons. These changes included implementing 'Do It Now' tasks and timers that gave fixed time constraints to certain activities, the changes in response to the feedback can be seen in the supporting lesson slides.
Song Options
During my meetings with pupils before the start of the unit, I asked the pupils to pick a song each they thought would be a good choice for them to learn and record. A number of songs were picked, however, two songs were put forward a number of times from pupils. The two tracks were - 'Samantha' By Dave & 'Ispy' By Kyle. These two tracks worked well, not only in a musical sense but they also helped with differentiation, as 'Ispy' only uses two chords, whereas 'Samantha' has a complex melody and utilises black keys in the chord parts.
'Ispy' by Kyle
'Samantha' by Dave
Google Form Results
I utilised the google forms resource to collect data on the classes progression. Between lessons, pupils completed an online google form that I had designed to collect evidence on their general progress and see how far they were with their recordings. I was also able to ask pupils how confident they felt with the task and if they wanted extra support. The data is available from google forms in downloadable spreadsheets and graphical representations.
Lead Sheets & Other learning Materials
I used a number of different methods and forms of media to help the pupils learn the parts to their chosen song. This included online video tutorials, modelling and specifically designed lead-sheets that I created to be easier for the pupils to digest and read.
The pupils in this class had no formal understanding of how to read music, with that in mind I had to create resources that they were able to engage with and understand. As well as differentiated lead sheets, some pupils learnt best from copying video tutorials. A mix of resources were used and they were all accessible to the pupils. Pupils were able to pick and choose the ways they learnt the parts.
'Ispy' piano tutorial -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcrx5xRcep0
'Samantha' piano tutorial -
Outcomes & Supporting Essay
It is important to realise that the musical ability of the class was very low at the start of this assignment and the pupils, in general, did not engage in their lesson activities and their motivation was very low.
The actual musical content produced by the pupils at the end of the unit was not to the level you would expect from a year 9 class 'GCSE' level class. However, it would be inappropriate to judge the outcomes of the assignment from the final responses. The successful outcomes can be measured by the level of engagement from the pupils. The pupils were mainly left to their own devices and worked independently on this project and needed very little reminding to stay on task. Through this, they were able to produce their own product that they were proud of.