Today I completed the outline for the unit of work for year 12. It has taken a little longer than I thought but I am happy with the flow of the lessons and the material covered.
I have based the unit off the idea of "Telling Stories through Music" and the various ways music can portray a theme or specific storyline. It extends over 7 weeks of 3 hours (split into 2 lessons of an hour and a half per week).
The unit starts off by focusing on creating the "Big Picture" of a story - the setting, the mood etc. and then I focused on how music can create specific representations of feelings, events and movements.
The unit focuses on developing formal analytical skills through listening activities and score reading, as well as moving towards the depth of analysis needed for the final question in the HSC exam. A few extended response questions will be set at different stages through the unit and aim at giving students the best chance by having a scaffold for how to answer them.
Composition is also a focus in this unit in that students will begin their mandatory composition. There will be four baby step-styled activities in week 4 to help students actually start and "avoid the blank page". Performance isn't a focus, however improvisation, experimentation and arrangement in individual and group contexts is used to help students transition into being able to create their own composition.
Students will maintain regular blog submissions including reflective work on activities and experiences as well as composition and analysis work which will be marked and will also form part of their composition process diary for their mandatory composition.