| The Tale of
Sudan and Zimbabwe |
|
XIII. |
| The students are now ready to start writing their own rhythms according to
guidelines that you set up for them. This can be done through a differentiation method called “tiering.” The objective is to have the students know and understand what a measure is and what notes add up to the assigned time signature. Therefore, you can assign one measure of music and have options for students to include more measures of music and music terminology. This will give you an assessment of what students know at this point and this also allows you to challenge the gifted students. The students will take ownership and be proud to show you their rhythms and will want to play them for you. Another option to carry forward is to have the students play their rhythms as solos and then
ensembles with various percussion instruments. |
|
 |
|
XIV. |
Have the students act out the story, using instruments of their choice for
the environmental sounds. Differentiate parts at this point. Have some of the
students become the characters in the story. Some students are more creative and
some want to act things out, while others want to be behind the scenes. The giant
can have the garbage can covers strapped to his/her feet and walk in when the giant appears. Rhythm patterns can be used at this point to perform rhythms of the rain or rhythms of the people getting scared or rhythms of happiness, etc.
|
|
|
|
XV. |
| Older students can perform this story for younger students. I have done
this with middle school students performing for grades 1 through 4.
The students can start out the performance with echo drumming. The echo drumming can start with the performers and lead into involving the audience by
the performers playing a rhythm and the audience echoing. These rhythms can be done through improvisation, with the students identifying
the rhythms. Another option is for the students to read your created rhythms or their
created rhythms from cue cards. |
|
|
|
If
you have access to a Snare Drum
and/or Cymbals, you can
incorporate
these different sounds for the various
environmental sounds in the story. |
|
