Kennedy Burgess

MTL Essay

Curriculum Project Synthesis Essay: Grade 1

In this curriculum project, first grade students will learn about

different countries and cultures through their music and dance over the
course of ten weeks. These lessons are designed to be balanced
lessons, as well as being vibrant for the students in the class.
We designed the lesson plans to be generative, and vibrant for the
students in order to create lasting residue. We wanted the students to
be able to apply the things that they learned in the lessons to their
own life and to relate it back to their own culture. As stated in The
Musical Cultures of Children, Children and adults alike use music for
many things such as emotional and cultural expression.
The first graders will listen to three different songs from three
different countries: Ireland, Mexico, and America. They will be asked
questions in order to respond and think about the music. They will be
asked where they might hear this music, the different instruments that
might be in it, and what kind of movements they can make to the
music. This will help them to generate some thought about the music
and how it might relate to each other.
After they discuss the music, they will be asked to improvise a

piece of music in the style of one of the songs as a class. This can be a
vibrant experience for students, because they will be creating
something that is their own. They will use classroom instruments,
which can be especially fun for children. This will also alls the teach to
know if the children understand the material by the choices they make.
As the second part of their phase two, they will learn dances to
the songs they previously listened to. The teacher will guide the class
through this, and they will be able to create dance moves as a class.
This allows the students to foster curiosity and to work together
collaboratively while the teacher still guides them through the process.
As they can work together, this will help them to further their
understanding of the material.
In the final unit, they will perform their creations for an audience.
After this, they will discuss as a class they things they learned and
anything else they discovered about the unit.
This lesson covers many different topics that allow the students to
discover and learn many things. They will learn about other countries
and their culture in a logical, balanced way. This is very relevant to
their life, because as they get older they will meet many people from
many different places. This will also help to teach them how music
plays a role in other cultures or their own cultures without even
realizing it. This lesson also allows students to be creative and open
with each other when improvising and creating dances to go along with

the songs. These dispositions are very important for kids to have
throughout their life. They will work with many people and enjoy being
creative as they get older.

Bibliography

Campbell, P. S. (2002). The musical cultures of children L. Bresler & C.

M. Thompson (Eds.), The arts in children's lives (pp. 57-69). Dordercht,
The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers.

Da Ros-Voseles, D. and Fowler-Haughey, S. (2007). Why children's

dispositions should matter to all teachers. Beyond the Journal: Young
Children, NEYAC

Curriculum Project Synthesis Essay: Grade 4

In this curriculum project, fourth grade students will learn about

four different countries and cultures through their music and dance
over the course of ten weeks. The lessons are designed to be balanced
and vibrant for the students.
We designed the lessons to be generative for the students, as well
as being vibrant to create lasting residue. We wanted the students to
be able to apply the things they learned to their own life and to music
as they learn more. As stated in The Musical Cultures of Children,
children and adults use music for enjoyment, dance, and cultural
expression.
The fourth graders will listen to four different songs from four
different countries: Japan, Mexico, America, and Ireland. They will be
asked questions in order to respond to the music. They will be asked
questions such as, Where might you hear this music, Which

instruments are playing in this song, and What movements might

you create to this music. This will allow the students to think about
the music and to be exposed to music of other countries.
For phase two, the students will be split into four groups. Each
group will be assigned a country. The job of each group would be to
learn about the country they are assigned, and then to create a dance
to the song of their assigned country. This allows the students to act as
anthropologist and musicologist. The teacher will guide them through
this creating and discovering process. The students will have to be
creative and collaborative together in order to learn about their
country and to create a dance.
The students will write their ideas down and rehearse their dance.
For phase three, they will give an informance to the rest of their class.
They will tell the other students what they learned about their country,
and then perform the dance they created. After this, they will discuss
as a class what they learned during the unit, and how the countries are
similar and different, and anything else they might want to learn.
Over the course of the unit, students will be able to foster their
creativity through being collaborative and learning about different
kinds of music. They will respond to music and learn and perform at
they end of the unit. They participate in vibrant experiences, which
they will hopefully remember throughout their life.
The lesson builds on the prior knowledge the students have about

other countries, rhythms, and dance. Through this lesson, they will
foster life skills, as well as be able to apply what they learn to other
aspects of their life.

Bibliography

Campbell, P. S. (2002). The musical cultures of children L. Bresler & C.

M. Thompson (Eds.), The arts in children's lives (pp. 57-69). Dordercht,
The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers.

Da Ros-Voseles, D. and Fowler-Haughey, S. (2007). Why children's

dispositions should matter to all teachers. Beyond the Journal: Young
Children, NEYAC