Teaching East Asian Music in the Elementary Classroom

Lesson Plans from 2005 Workshop

“Chinese Music: An Upper Elementary Unit Plan”
(Grades 4-6)

Teacher: Jane Rinard

Major Objectives:

1. Students will be able to locate China and Taiwan on a map

2. Students will accurately pronounce text of “Liuyue Moli”

3. Students will sing and perform percussion parts of “Liuyue Moli”

4. Students will read rhythm of “Caiqiu Wu: Flower-ball Dance” (version 1) and identify

that the other two versions have the same melodic outline, but are more ornamented

5. Students will play “Caiqiu Wu: Flower-ball Dance” on the recorder

6. Students will create a performance of “Caiqiu Wu: Flower-ball Dance” (version 1),

with one group playing recorder, one playing percussion, and one group doing a ribbon

dance

Unit Length: These activities would take place over the course of 6 music lessons, as components of a larger general music lesson

Resources Needed : a member of the community willing to come to class to help teach pronunciation in Taiwanese dialect to the students; CD from The Lion's Roar; CD player; ribbons, scarves or pieces of crepe paper; woodblocks; triangles; woodwind player(s) (optional)

Unit Plan:

Activity #1: Introduction to “Liuyue Molie: Jasmine Flowers of the Sixth Moon”

1. Students listen to recording of “Liuyue Molie: Jasmine Flowers of the Sixth Moon” and discuss what instruments are playing, the mood of the music, any images it brought to mind, etc.

2. Teacher asks if anyone has any idea where the song might be from, then confirms or explains that it is from Taiwan , and shows its location on map.

3. T. introduces a special guest (hopefully a parent or other Taiwanese American member of the community) who will share some information about him/her self

a. Speaks the text and then gives a translation its meaning

b. Teaches students to pronounce the text of “Liuyue Moli”. (T. records this for future reference.)

Activity #2: Learning to Sing “Liuyue Molie: Jasmine Flowers of the Sixth Moon”

1. Students listen to the instrumental recording as they enter the classroom and recall that the song is from Taiwan , as well as what the song is about

2. Teacher shows hand-signs for the first section of the song, leading class to sing with solfa

Students identify this as the song they previously heard

Teacher proceeds to teach the rest of the song singing with text and having students echo

Students sing entire piece with text

Activity #3: Learning to Play “Liuyue Molie: Jasmine Flowers of the Sixth Moon”

1. Students listen to the instrumental recording while following the score with the rhythm of the woodblock

Students read and clap the rhythm

Students memorize the rhythm, as teacher covers one section at a time

Small groups perform on woodblocks as class sings, with one other student playing the triangle

Switch parts

Activity #4: Introduction to “Caiqiu Wu: Flower-ball Dance”

1. Teacher leads students in making the ribbon forms for the flower dance, as shown in The Lion's Roar , as students listen to the music

Activity #5: Singing “Caiqiu Wu: Flower-ball Dance”

Students read the rhythm of version one, then listen to the recording and discover that each version becomes more ornamented

Each student receives a piece of paper with two measures of version one written in staff notation (each of the four pieces should have a different color of paper)

Teacher sings each section with solfa, and the students whose paper matches sing it back

Students group themselves by color, and then count off to create groups of four, so that each group has one of each of the four colors.

Teacher sings the song again, and then students arrange their papers to reflect the correct order of the song

The class sings with solfa

Students may choose to play on recorder while others work on percussion or ribbon dance

Activity #6: Culminating Experience of “Caiqiu Wu: Flower-ball Dance”

In this lesson students will make a final decision about whether they will play the recorder, play percussion, or dance in the performance. Groups have time to practice together, and then perform for their first grade buddies at the next lesson. If desired, this performance could also include performance of “Liuyue Molie: Jasmine Flowers of the Sixth Moon”.

References

The Lion's Roar: Chinese Luogu Percussion Ensembles by Patricia Shehan Campbell and Han Kuo-Huang. World Music Press. Second Edition, 1996.

TOP