MUED 380 Leadership Portfolio Project - Unit Design Starkston 1

Inspiration and Interpretation:

A Third Grade Music Unit on the Influence of Interpretation and Inspiration on
Musical Ideas

Ashley Starkston
MUED 380: Music in Elementary School
Fall 2017
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Context Statement: The school I am using as the basis for this unit is a small, older elementary
school in a more rural location. Both the school and the county are about 80% caucasian, with
the second highest population being Hispanic students. There are 470 students in the school
with a student/teacher ratio of 15:1, which makes it a fairly small school (the average size of a
school in the state is 532). It is 55% male, 45% female which also differs from the state average
which is close to even. Participation in the National School Lunch Program at this school is
higher than the state average by 7%. The school has a high SOL passing rate of 84.6%, which is
higher than average for the state. This school has a fairly low percentage (about 3%) of students
with limited English proficiency. The county has an average graduation rate of 89%. The school
building itself is quite small and used to be a high school. Because of that, the music room was
previously a chorus/band room. This makes it hard to use because there are different levels of
the floor which does not leave any large spaces for activities. It also makes it non-accessible for
students who are handicapped. However, in the near future, the room is being renovated so
that it is all one level, which will be a great benefit to the music program.

Transfer Goals

Students will be able to use their learning to:

Recognize the importance of interpretation and inspiration on art
Connect different forms of art through themes and ideas
Appreciate the value of other peoples ideas

Acquisition Goals

Students will know . . . Students will be skilled at . . .

What inspiration and interpretation mean and
how they apply to different forms of art
How to make connections between different
artistic mediums
That all art has value and it is okay to disagree
with what something means
How to represent ideas through multiple mediums
(singing, creating, moving)
Discussing musical ideas and the value of others
ideas
Creating music based on their own inspirations
and explaining them
Thinking critically about different types of art and
what they are representing
Working together to form ideas and create music
with them
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Theme

The theme of this unit is connections between different mediums of art, the concepts of inspiration and
interpretation, and creating music from your own inspirations. These concepts are important because all art is
inspired by something, whether it is tangible or just a thought. Also multimedia art is becoming more and more
prevalent with the use of technology so it is important to be able to draw connections between things. The unit
will encourage critical thinking, respect of others opinions and creations, and creation from inspiration.

Overview of Unit

*Day 1: Read Imagine a Night by Sarah L. Thomson, talk about nights that students imagine, listen to music
inspired by the night and discuss differences in sounds followed by introducing a song to be used on day 4.

*Day 2: Starry Night by Van Gogh song study with movement

*Day 3: Imagine your own night. In groups, students will come up with their own short description of a night
that they imagine within the painting View of the Eruption of Mount Vesuvius by Pierre-Jacques Volaire and
create a soundscape to go along with it.

Day 4: Begin with bringing back Oh Watch the Stars which was introduced in day 1. Follow with an original
song hook about night and have students create verses

Day 5: Culminating project: students will be given a piece of art inspired by night and will write a brief Imagine
a Night paragraph and create an accompanying song

* Asterisk indicates days with complete experience designs in this document.

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Experience Design for Day 1

Overview

Read Imagine a Night by Sarah L. Thomson, talk about nights that students imagine, listen to music inspired
by the night and discuss differences in sounds followed by introducing a song to be used on day 4.

I Can Statements (learning goals)

I can discuss the ways in which music represents different meanings and very different sounds can
represent the same idea (VA 3.10, 3.11, 3.12)
I can discuss how music reflects peoples ideas and value those ideas (VA 3.14, 3.16)
I can recognize differences in the styles of music

Materials

Imagine a Night by Sarah L. Thomson

Songs about Night
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebt0BR5wHYs I Love a Rainy Night
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9T4WB2zfmps Silent Night
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCEDfZgDPS8 Night on Bald Mountain
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Tr0otuiQuU Moonlight Sonata

Detailed Process

Time Required
2 mins 1) Entrance Activity: what is your favorite time of day?

4 mins 2) Read Imagine a Night

a) Be sure to pause long enough for students to get a good look at the
illustrations

5 mins 3) Look through the book again and ask students what they notice about the pictures
a) What do you see here? Did you notice that each picture has two different
stories in it? What other things might you see in this picture?
b) Notice how there can be lots of different ideas about one picture. The same
thing can happen with stories or songs

15 mins 4) Listen to songs about the night

a) I Love a Rainy Night - what kind of feeling did you notice in this song? It was
about the night time wasnt it? What parts of the night did it talk about?
b) Silent Night - this is a very different song, but still about the night. What kind
of night was this song talking about? What did you notice that was different
from the last song
c) Night on Bald Mountain - this song is much different, but it is still telling the
story of a night. There are no words for this one to tell you what its about
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though. Do you have any ideas of what kind of story it could be telling?
i) Give info about the piece: about witches and rituals
d) Moonlight Sonata - this is another one without words. What kind of night do
you think this is representing?

4 mins 5) Discussion of different ideas about the same topic

a) Isnt it exciting that so many different sounds can be used to represent the
same thing? This is because composers and artists are inspired by many
different things and they all interpret things differently.
b) The artist who made the paintings in the book we read took lots of different
ideas of nighttime and made them into something else because he was
inspired by some part of the night. (show candlelight picture and sunflower
picture from book)

7 mins 6) Brainstorming songs

a) Can you think of a song that makes you feel happy?
i) Let students give examples and discuss how they all came up with
different ideas because they are all individuals with different
experiences
b) Repeat with sad songs
c) Talk about the importance of respecting other peoples ideas because we
are all creative and different but that doesnt make our ideas bad

10 mins 7) Introduce Oh Watch the Stars

a) Sing through twice for the students
b) Ask the students questions about the song
i) What is it about? What do you think it means when it says see how
they run? Do stars run or does that represent something else they
do?
ii) How many different lines of lyrics are there? What parts repeated?
c) Sing twice more (students may join in if they are ready)
i) Song will be used in the lesson on day 4

Assessments

Checklist:
Student participated in class discussion about differences in the music played and the things they
represented
Student listened and respected others ideas
Student sat quietly and listened to the story .

Extensions:

Students could suggest songs about the night that they know and talk about what kind of night they
represent

Adaptations
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Size Illustrations from the book can be pulled up on the projector to accommodate students who
need to see it in a larger form

Color -----

Pacing Less examples could be used if too many songs are overwhelming. Instead students could
listen to the same songs for longer in order to get a better idea

Modality Students could draw pictures or do motions to represent the music they hear if they have
trouble discussing ideas

Include any visual aids or manipulatives here.

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Experience Design for Day 2

Overview

Starry Night by Van Gogh song study with movement

I Can Statements (learning goals)

I can discuss interpretation and variation in art based on peoples interests and modern ideas (VA
3.14)
I can draw connections between music and art and relate musical ideas to colors (VA 3.10)
I can demonstrate musical ideas and emotions through movement (VA 3.6.3)

Materials

Don McLeans Vincent

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxHnRfhDmrk
Vincent Van Goghs Starry Night and variations (shown below with links)
Paper and colored pencils/crayons/markers

Detailed Process

Time Required
2 mins 1) Entrance Activity: Tell me a [happy, sad, etc] color

5 mins 2) Introduce Starry Night original painting

a) Does anyone know what this painting is called?
b) What does it look like?
c) Do you know who painted it?
i) Brief bio of Van Gogh: Dutch post-impressionist painter, painted
Starry Night in 1889, inspired by color and light

8 mins 3) Lets listen to a song inspired by this painting

a) Listen to first minute and encourage students to listen to the lyrics
b) Did you notice anything about the words? What did he talk about a lot? Lets
listen again and write down some of the colors we hear
c) Listen to the whole song
d) What are some of the colors you wrote down? How does that color make
you feel?

12 mins 4) Listen to the song again (multiple times if needed), each student chooses a color
and moves in a way that they feel represents the color they chose
a) As the song is playing, ask students to mimic another students movement
b) When the song ends, ask some students to demonstrate their movement
again and ask other students to guess the color they chose
c) Try making up motions that represent emotions and having students
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demonstrate and guess these as well

d) Notice we all had some different ideas about what each movement meant.
These are called different interpretations

4 mins 5) Introduce concept of interpretation

a) Can anyone tell me what interpretation means? (explaining the meaning of
something)
b) All of you interpreted a color through movement. A lot of artists interpret
ideas through colors and a lot of musicians interpret colors through music
c) People can have lots of different ideas about art and those different ideas
are called interpretations

7 mins 6) Look at different interpretations of Starry Night

a) Remember the painting we looked at earlier? (show it again) We are going
to look at some peoples interpretations of that painting
b) Show Charlie Brown, Star Wars, New York, and batman versions of Starry
Night and talk about what the interpretations in those versions are
c) What are some ways you could interpret this painting?

10 minutes 7) Look at illustrations in Imagine a Night and talk about the interpretations of the
paintings that the author had

Assessments

Checklist:
Student actively participated in class discussion about interpretations
Student made visible effort to represent a color through their motions
Students participated in mimicking of others motions .

Extensions:

Students could create their own Starry Night scenes and discuss their interpretations of the scenes

Adaptations

Size Photos will be put on the projector and enlarged for easier viewing

Color Students will have access to colored pencils, markers, and crayons for writing or drawing
their ideas rather than just pencil

Pacing Allow space for students to think and prompt them when necessary to talk about
interpretations and ideas

Modality Students who have trouble with locomotor activity could draw or describe their colors and
emotions instead of showing them through motion
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Include any visual aids or manipulatives here.

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Experience Design for Day 3

Overview

Imagine your own night. In groups, students will come up with their own short description of a night that
they imagine within the painting View of the Eruption of Mount Vesuvius by Pierre-Jacques Volaire and
create a soundscape to go along with it.

I Can Statements (learning goals)

I can draw connections between other art and musical sounds/ideas (VA 3.10)
I can work in a team to create a musical product that represents our ideas as individuals and as a
team (VA 3.13)
I can discuss others musical ideas and realize their value (VA 3.11.3, 3.11.4)

Materials

View of the Eruption of Mount Vesuvius by Pierre-Jacques Volaire

Easily moveable instruments available in classroom
Paper and colored pencils/markers/crayons

Detailed Process

Time Required
2 mins 1) Entrance Activity: What is your favorite thing to do at night? as students walk in

3 mins 2) Review of day before

a) Who remembers what painting we looked at last class? Do you remember
who it was by? (Starry Night by Van Gogh)
b) Do you remember what its called when we have different ideas about what
art means? (Interpretation)

5 mins 3) Introduction of new topic: inspiration

a) Can anyone explain what inspiration is?
i) Process of being mentally stimulated to do or feel something,
especially to do something creative
ii) What does stimulated mean?
(1) affected or moved by something - give examples like touch
or surprise
iii) What are some things that inspire you?

5 mins 4) Show students painting: View of the Eruption of Mount Vesuvius

a) Do not tell them the name of the painting
b) Students get into groups of 2-4 and discuss what they think they could be
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doing in the painting

i) Draw pictures or write ideas

10 mins 5) Students choose instruments around the room and create a soundscape to
accompany what they imagined with the picture

15 mins 6) Groups perform their composition

a) Other groups discuss what they thought the soundscape sounded like
b) Group that performed discusses their intentions

10 mins 7) Discuss inspiration from the painting and interpretation of the soundscapes
a) Compare students ideas and discuss the value in differing opinions
b) Discuss artists intentions and title of the artwork

Assessments

Checklist:
Student (in groups) formed an original idea that would fit into the painting
Student made thoughtful arguments for why they chose the instruments for their soundscapes
(assessed by teacher questioning during their creation time)
Student worked with classmates and allowed others opinions to be heard
Student participated in class discussion about interpretation and courteously discussed others ideas

Extensions:

Students can create new soundscapes based on other groups ideas to incorporate more ideas about
interpretation and inspiration

Adaptations

Size Photo will be put on the projector and enlarged for easier viewing

Color Students will have access to colored pencils, markers, and crayons for writing or drawing
their ideas rather than just pencil

Pacing Teacher will prompt students who are struggling to come up with ideas for their night and
help them find ways of musically representing that through questions and prompts

Modality Students who have trouble with writing their ideas down concretely can vocalize them to
the teacher in addition to having the option to write or draw

Visual Aids