In this series of lessons students learned how to create and assess music, and also to perform

their original pieces of music. The middle school students at Mason had a good start in the
process of creating through the improvisation and orchestration of music that has been taught in
their class, so I was pleased to be able to teach them something new through composition. They
learned how to build and notate music, which is a skill I hope they continue to use in the future.
By learning what elements are used to create a melody students will be able to use that
knowledge to successfully assess music. They will know what components to listen for in music
and have the means to identify how those components were used and varied. The students will
also be able to determine how skillful the composer is by listening to their music. Through
performing their own music students learned how to write music that is playable. They needed
to write a melody that was possible for them to play, not something that would be unattainable.
Every musician has played a piece of music that was very difficult to play because the composer
did not fully understand their instrument. It may be a fingering, break-crossing, range, or
register issue that is particular to that instrument that makes the piece incredibly hard to play. By
performing music that they have written students are learning the inherent challenges of their
instrument and how to compensate for it.
Knowing that my musicianship will affect the students learning has made me more aware of
how I sing and play. I want to be a good model for my students in order to maximize their
learning of performing, composing, and expression. Performing with a good tone, strong
rhythmic understanding, and with sensitivity to expression and shaping will help them achieve
those aspects in their own playing. Being a strong performing model can be seen in the Lesson 3
video.

The environment that I foster in my classroom is one of positivity, encouragement, and caring. I
always want my students to feel welcome in the classroom so I like to speak to my students
about their interests outside of band and keep up with the events in their lives to show them that I
care about them as individuals. Positivity is extremely important to me in the classroom. I
always strive to find something positive to say about a students work, to encourage them to
continue and work even harder in the future. This can be seen during the performance day video
where I give a positive comment after each student plays. Encouragement is also very important
because during this project some students were unsure and insecure of their abilities to compose.
Working with them and being supportive of their efforts was important in order to foster
confidence and interest in continuing composing.
Based on this analysis I would improve my lesson design and implementation by setting a higher
goal for the first lesson, reviewing how to use notation correctly in the first lesson, and adding
instruction on basic harmonic function. I set a low goal for my first lesson because I expected
more students to be insecure and reluctant to trying composition. Therefore, I designed the
lesson to have low expectations and I just wanted to have students write something on the staff
paper. I didnt give much guidance in writing a melody in that lesson because I didnt think the
students would be ready for that step. My students surprised me by embracing the assignment
and beginning to write melodically right away. I think the class would have benefitted from
receiving instruction on how to write a melody in the first lesson of the sequence. The class
would also have benefitted from receiving instruction on how to notate correctly in the first
lesson instead of in the third lesson. This would have prevented many notation errors that I saw
in the second and third lessons. I also would have liked to include some harmonic instruction,
specifically on the I-IV-V-I progression. This would have helped students write melodies that

made sense harmonically as well as melodically. I didnt include this in my lesson plans and
teaching because I didnt have enough time to teach it to the extent that student would achieve
mastery of the concept. However I will definitely include it in the future while teaching this unit
where I will have more instruction time.
I will continue to develop lesson plans for this unit that will effectively teach composition in an
enjoyable manner. My overall goal for this unit is to introduce students to composition and to
foster a passion for composing and performing their music that will lead them to becoming
composers in the future.