Module 4 Lesson Plan/Rubric

Middle School students will build upon their knowledge of musical notation to compose a four-measure piece of music using a free notation demo on www.noteflight.com. We have just finished exploring how composers use music to tell a story or express emotion. As part of this assignment, students will compose their music with a particular story or emotion that they would like to portray. Once the compositions are finished, students will listen to three other student compositions and give constructive feedback: at least one thing they liked and one thing that could be better. Once the compositions are completed, students will write a short essay describing what emotion or story they chose and how their piece of music expresses it.

	0	1	2	3	4
Composition: Notation	Student did not satisfy any of the required criteria.	Student completed some of the required criteria. (Three or more beats or rests and two or more pitches)	Student completed some of the required criteria. (Six or more beats or rests and three or more pitches)	Student completed most of the required criteria. (Nine or more beats or rests and four or more pitches)	Student completed all of the required criteria. (Twelve or more beats or rests and five or more pitches)
Feedback	Student did not give any other students feedback.	Student only gave one students feedback.	Student only gave two students feedback.	Student gave three different students feedback, but did not give one good thing and one that needed room for improvement.	Student gave three different students feedback, one good thing and one that needed room for improvement.
Essay: Justification	The student did not complete the assignment.	The student attempted to express the story or emotion their composition portrayed but left out key information.	The student attempted to express the story or emotion their composition portrayed and how it portrayed it, but I was confused and some information was left out.	The student expressed the emotion or story their composition portrayed but did not fully explain it or did not explain how the composition did so.	The student clearly expressed the emotion or story their composition was to portray and how the composition portrayed it.
Essay: Quality of Writing	The student had more than 15 grammatical errors or did not complete the assignment.	The student had between 10-15 grammatical errors and/or the essay was not clearly written.	The student had less than 10 grammatical errors and/or some ideas were not clear.	The student had less than 5 grammatical errors and/or some ideas were not clear.	The student had less than 3 grammatical errors and ideas were clearly written.