Rock on Pentatonic!
This project was assigned to my Secondary 3 students who are currently learning about Chinese traditional composition "Butterfly Lovers". In order for students to reinforce their understanding about pentatonic scale, students were asked to compose an original 8 measure duet with melody and harmony using Flat (https://flat.io/en).
One class prior giving out the project paper, I formatively assessed student's overall knowledge about pentatonic scale by asking them to complete the following handout. I included both treble clef, bass clef, and image of piano keys to make sure the handout can accommodate all types of learners:
One class prior giving out the project paper, I formatively assessed student's overall knowledge about pentatonic scale by asking them to complete the following handout. I included both treble clef, bass clef, and image of piano keys to make sure the handout can accommodate all types of learners:
Students were given a checklist with a "pentatonic scale cheat sheet" to help them keep tracking of their work.
A sample rubric that I created were also provided to the students for them to double check if their work is well aligned with the grading criteria:
In order to grade creativity, I asked the students to included a creative title and 2-3 sentences of artist statement with their composition to explain their logistic behind the composition. Here is an example of a student's composition and his artist statement:
And he wrote:
"This piece is based on curiosity. Curiosity is an extremely important tool we use to learn. The song is joyful and happy like a kid asking their parent a question that they are curious about."
"This piece is based on curiosity. Curiosity is an extremely important tool we use to learn. The song is joyful and happy like a kid asking their parent a question that they are curious about."
