Lesson Information Form

Directions: Please write a narrative (1-2 pages) that contains the information below. Use a new
form for each of the three lessons taught and documented for the portfolio. The form is an
option to help you organize lesson information. Feel free to include any other forms or
resources that demonstrate your ability to prepare for and plan instruction (bubble plans,
annotated scores, notes, etc.)

Place these materials in your portfolio after the Introduction to the Series of Lessons.

Lesson # : 1/3 Date of lesson: _4/3/2019_

Objectives: Teach students how they can reimagine sounds to create compositions

Students will demonstrate their ability to: Think creatively about how they can edit a sound to
re-purpose it for something new
Activities/Strategies*: indicate how the lesson addresses each of the three required
competencies (creating, performing, assessing), if applicable
I will talk about the process for sampling sounds and creating new pieces with the samples We
will listen to samples that I have already edited and they will practice assessing what the
samples were originally and what I did to modify them to make them sound that way (A). We
will start by going through some basic steps of creation together as a class by picking out a
sample from freesound.org or from the BBC Sound Archive. We will edit the sound together for
use in another context and then talk about how to export that sound from Audacity (C). Once
exported we will pull the sound into Soundtrap and manipulate it on the timeline to give it a
sense of pulse. I will play an example of a drum track that I created using this process from a
sample of an old fashioned camera taking a picture. They will listen to this sample and assess
how I used different parts of one sample to create a completely new and unique track (A).

Assessments**: Informal assessment where we are creating a new sound together and I will be
monitor the contributions from the students to ensure they all understand the concepts that
have been presented in this lecture

Materials: Laptop, audacity, freesound or BBC sound archive

Class Groupings: Circle all that apply:

Full Group
Small Group(s)
Section(s)
Individual(s)

Other:
Lesson 1 Reflection:

In this lesson I am doing some lecturing to help them understand how to sample sounds
to create a new sound that can be utilized in an original composition. They learned where they
can find sounds on the internet and going through different steps in audacity to modify the
sounds. We talked about the specific steps that are helpful when working in this way. Starting
with having a specific idea of what you hope to create from the sounds. How to pick part of the
sound that you want and then finally using different effects to modify it. I monitored their
learning by going through the procedure with them and having them make all of the decisions
from picking the sound to how we wanted to manipulate it as a class. They had a variety of
ideas on how to go about editing the sound and working with it to make it something that is
new and unique.
We stuck mostly to the plan that I had for the class and everything worked well. We did
take some time talking about other things that were related to what we working but not exactly
part of the lesson. We spent some time talking about different file types because we working
with exporting sounds from one program to another. I think that these detours helped them to
understand the concepts I was talking about because sometimes I take the knowledge I have
for granted and forget that the students don’t know as much as I think they do.
To monitor their engagement during the class I was just making sure that they
understood all of the work that I was doing in audacity. I had them direct what I was showing
them so I knew if they were comprehending or just watching me work. I was also paying
attention to their facial expressions and body language. Especially in a really small class it is
easy to watch each of the students and try and discern from their facial expression and body
language whether or not they are focused on the lesson and understanding. I think in hindsight
something that would have been useful during this lesson would be to have the students direct
even more of what I was doing in audacity. Making sure that they understood how to work with
the interface of audacity is something that I think I needed to do a better job with because they
have understand of the process of working with the sounds but not necessarily the skills of how
to interact with the Audacity interface.
 Lesson Information Form

Directions: Please write a narrative (1-2 pages) that contains the information below. Use a new
form for each of the three lessons taught and documented for the portfolio. The form is an
option to help you organize lesson information. Feel free to include any other forms or
resources that demonstrate your ability to prepare for and plan instruction (bubble plans,
annotated scores, notes, etc.)

Place these materials in your portfolio after the Introduction to the Series of Lessons.

Lesson # : 2/3 Date of lesson: __4/10/2019__

Objectives: Give out rubric and work on project

Students will demonstrate their ability to: Understand the requirements for the final project of
the class, finding a sound on the internet to base their project on, and doing some basic edits
using audacity.
Activities/Strategies*: I will go over the assignment that they are going to complete for the
class. We will spend time going over the instructions and answering any questions that they
might have. I will then use the project that I completed as a model of what the work that they
complete is supposed to sound like. The students will spend the rest of class doing some
individual work on their projects and I will be there to assist them with any questions that they
might have in the process (C). At the end of class I will ask some of the students to play the
work that have completed for the rest of the class (P).

Assessments**: Informal assessment of me helping them with aspects of their projects,

listening to any portions of work they completed, and answering questions about the rubric

Materials: Laptops with Audacity

Class Groupings: Circle all that apply:

Full Group
Small Group(s)
Section(s)
Individual(s)

Other:
Lesson 2 Reflection

In this lesson students received the rubric that they is going to be used to grade their
projects that they will turn in and perform for the class. In addition they also got to see my
example of work so that they have an idea of what the projects they complete are going to look
and sound like. We had looked at part of the composition I made in the previous class but they
had the chance to listen to the complete composition with the knowledge of what the rubric
was and how that fit into the requirements.
I had to make some adjustments to the lesson plan because technology was not
cooperating with us at all during class. I was planning to let a student use my laptop because he
only had a computer at home that he could work on, but my computer just completely froze so
I had to restart it. During this I spent some time asking them if they had any other questions
about the project, and answering any clarifying questions that they had about what the
expectations were for the project.
While I was going through the rubric I was making sure that I was looking at the
students in the room to see whether they looked like they were understanding what was going
on with the rubric. They all seemed to understand what the expectations for the project were
and I shared the rubric with them all via Google drive so that they could look reference it any
time while they were working on the project.
 Lesson Information Form

Directions: Please write a narrative (1-2 pages) that contains the information below. Use a new
form for each of the three lessons taught and documented for the portfolio. The form is an
option to help you organize lesson information. Feel free to include any other forms or
resources that demonstrate your ability to prepare for and plan instruction (bubble plans,
annotated scores, notes, etc.)

Place these materials in your portfolio after the Introduction to the Series of Lessons.

Lesson # : 3/3 Date of lesson: __4/17/19_

Objectives: Perform their compositions for the rest of the class

Students will demonstrate their ability to: Perform their compositions for the class and give
feedback to their peers about their work.
Activities/Strategies*: Everyone will talk about their compositions and then play for the class as
a performance, and we will all give them some feedback on the pieces they created (P, A).

Assessments**: Completing the rubrics for the final composition and some verbal feedback
after their performances

Materials: Computer and speakers to play for everyone

Class Groupings: Circle all that apply:

Full Group
Small Group(s)
Section(s)
Individual(s)

Other:

*C = Creating, P = Performing, A = Assessing (Note all that apply.)

**Using a short phrase, identify assessment strategy used. (For example, “written
worksheet”, “vocal performance assessment”, “instrumental performance rubric”, etc.)
Lesson 3 Reflection

In this lesson the purpose was to give each of the students a chance to perform their
work for everyone else in the class. We spent time talking about the projects that the students
created, what sounds they used, how they manipulated them, and what they were going for.
You can hear that students did spend some time working on the tracks coming up with some
interesting sounds, even though they had some technical difficulties. After the performance
they were able to ask some more insightful questions after they had spent some more time
working with the program and it seemed like they were really starting to get comfortable
working with Audacity.
This lesson for the most part went as I had expected it to go. The biggest problem was
that I had students who technology that was not working so they could not finish the
assignment as I had explained it to them, and some who just did not do the work at all. This led
me to not get to spend as much time listening to different compositions as I had hoped, but
then I was able to spend a little bit of time wrapping it all up and asking some questions at the
very end of class about what they have learned in this class. They all agreed that they had
enjoyed working with the program and learning some new skills which was very exciting for me
to hear.
This lesson was focused on assessment because we were listening to the work that the
students had created. So I was giving them some feedback about what they had created as a
way to monitor what they had actually learned in the class. Also after we were done doing
performances they asked me some questions and these questions showed me that they had
needed maybe some more reinforcement on some of the topics that we had covered in earlier
classes. But it seemed like they all learned that sometimes the best way to learn about how
things work with audacity and other music programs is to just mess around and try stuff
because it is very easy to undo anything that you do in the program.