Sarah+Germain+Plan+and+Rationale

EDLS 307: Arts Lesson Plan & Rationale Format Fall 2012 LESSON

I. Overview: This lesson is based on the Fibonacci Sequence and its appearance not only in nature but in art, architecture and everyday life. I am teaching this lesson so that students can understand the connection between math and music. This lesson is focused toward high school students in a general music classroom. Ideally, this lesson will sync up with students learning about the Fibonacci Sequence in their math class.

II. Learning Objectives: After completing this lesson, students will be able to:
 * Understand and explain the concept of the Fibonacci Sequence
 * Identify the Fibonacci Sequence in musical examples
 * Compose a piece based on the Fibonacci Sequence

III. Standards Addressed: State which learning standards connected to your area will be addressed by this lesson.

 4. Composing and arranging music within specific guidelines.

 5. Reading and notating music.

6. Listening to, analyzing, and describing music.

 7. Evaluating music and music performances.

 8. Understanding relationships between music, the other arts, and disciplines outside the arts.

 9. Understanding music in relation to history and culture.

IV. Instructional Plan

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">a) Preparation/Anticipatory Set: Students need to have a basic knowledge of piano and music theory as well as mathematics to understand this lesson. I will capture their attention by showing them a picture of a piano and asking how it can relate to the Fibonacci Sequence. This will also allow me to see what interests them and it may bring the lesson elsewhere as the students will guide it.

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">b) Procedure & Activities: > <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> c) Literacy and Metaphor/Analogy Links:
 * <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Lead discussion on Fibonacci Sequence
 * <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Relate Sequence to music, nature and every day life.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Show students musical examples of Fibonacci Sequence.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Students compose pieces based on sequence.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Duckworth talks about connecting your lesson to what students already know. This lesson incorporates student’s knowledge of math and music to expand and connect them using the Fibonacci Sequence. Also, students come to realize that this sequence can be found everywhere, including places they are extremely familiar with, like their own hands!

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">V. Assessment: My assessment will consist of mostly observation, and checking student’s compositions to make sure they understand the assignment. For the discussion portion of the lesson, every student will share their thoughts on the sequence and how it occurs in their life, so it will be easy for me to assess each student’s understanding of the concept.

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">VI. Materials & Resources: Manuscript paper, pianos, projector

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">VII. Research Support: <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Reilly, Ann. "Amazing Fibonacci: How the Hidden Life of Numbers Make Memorable Music." (2012): n. page. Web. 9 Dec. 2012. <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">[|ARTSEDGE] <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Article Summary: <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">This lesson plan is based on the Fibonacci Sequence and how it appears in music. It gives students a background history of the sequence and the man who discovered it. The lesson teaches students about the “Liber Abbaci” and how it changed the way we look at numbers. Students will also consider all the factors that go into the Fibonacci Sequence, such as recurring patterns in both math and music. <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">The Fibonacci Sequence has been used in music many times before, and you can provide students with numerous examples, such as Bartok’s “Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion.” <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">To teach this lesson, students must have a basic knowledge of piano and music notation. A good leading question would be, “What do pianos and Fibonacci have in common?” The students will surely have a multitude of different answers. What you will be looking for is the fact that pianos are broken down into numbers in the Fibonacci Sequence. In a C scale, there are 13 notes, 8 white notes and 5 black notes, broken up into groups of 2 and 3. <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Students can explore this on the piano and eventually compose their own pieces based on the Fibonacci Sequence. Whether it be by using pitches, rhythms, intervals or number of notes, there are countless ways to incorporate the sequence into music.

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">RATIONALE: <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">My lesson is based on a brief introduction to the Fibonacci sequence and how it is used in ways other than mathematics: throughout nature, art, architecture and music. Using texts of every reading level from children’s books to textbooks, I will take the students on a journey through the history of the sequence and show them how it can be found in almost every aspect of their life. Since the goal of this lesson is ultimately to connect music and literacy, students will make connections between what they are reading in their texts and the music we are studying. In fact, the scores we will be studying throughout this lesson, such as Bartok’s Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion, will also have examples of the Fibonacci sequence. Also, students will create examples of the Fibonacci sequence in their own original compositions. <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Throughout this lesson, placed strategically (and ideally) while high school students are learning about the Fibonacci sequence in their math class, students will study the sequence and its occurrence in art, nature and music. Students will be introduced to numerous examples of the sequence found in each category. They will construct their own equiangular spirals and compare it to the examples they were provided with as well as those they find on their own. Also, they will become aware of the many instances in which Fibonacci is ever-present in their everyday lives. Students will identify the occasions where they use a tool that was created through Fibonacci’s “Liber Abbaci.” In addition, students will point out examples of Fibonacci in the music provided to them. They will study and explore all the different ways in which Fibonacci can be translated through music. <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">The focal point of this lesson is to have students compose their own pieces based on the sequence. Thus, my lesson will incorporate standards 4-9 of the National Standards for Music Education. (4. Composing and arranging music within specified guidelines. 5. Reading and notating music. 6. Listening to, analyzing, and describing music. 7. Evaluating music and music performances. 8. Understanding relationships between music, the other arts, and disciplines outside the arts. 9. Understanding music in relation to history and culture.) <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">This lesson focuses on not only literacy in language, but also through music. This lesson teaches students music just as a word search can teach students vocabulary. Both guide them and teach them to be observant and to look for things that they may have never seen before in this context. As stated in Duckworth’s “Tell Me More,” teachers need to give students a foundation of what they already know to build upon. This lesson will enable students to analyze pieces in a new and different way. They will be provided with the tools not only to identify patterns in music, but also to create their own.