The Classical Period.

The Classical Period

This didactic unit of Music is intended to be taught to students of the second year in the secondary education.

The D.U will be developed after a D.U in which the Baroque period had already been worked on by students.

In addition, the D.U is aimed to be developed during 4 sessions being the 5^th one entirely dedicated to the final project.

The objectives that I expect my students to reach with this didactic unit are the following ones:

• Comprehension and acquisition of the basic contents about the Classical period: main characteristics, authors as well as their main works and new forms of works.

• Distinction and comparison with the previous movement :the Baroque period.

• Elicit the main ideas of a text.

• Promote learn to learn strategies thorugh a number of analytical activities

• Encourage oral communication in the room.
  
  

1^st Session

Therefore in the first session I will challange my students making them remember main characteristics of the previous movement, the Baroque. I will show them a number of picures that I will take from www.Pixabay.com a free images website. Students will discuss with their partner about the differences between both styles. Some expressions will be suggested in order that they use them.

After this activity, students will face a text with the main characteristics of the classical period. The text is an adaptation from two main resources :

Wikipedia contributors. (2019, March 31). Classical period (music). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 17:38, April 6, 2019, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Classical_period_(music)&oldid=890259116

La Música del Clasicismo. 30.12.2013. <http://www.ciudadjardin.org/musica/musicajardin/Apuntes_files/4%C2%BA%20ESO%20Clasicismo.pdf>

Then I will show them the following video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSY9ARx6HqM to add more info about this period . Once they have watched the video and elicit the main characteristics of the period, they will have to creat a summary chart where they will summarize the main points of the text and of the videos they have read and seen.

2^nd Session

This second session will be devoted to the study of the main authors of the classical period. Firstly I will go through a Kahoot activity to ensure that my students are aware of the differences between the classical period and the baroque period.

https://create.kahoot.it/share/classical-period-vs-baroque-period/97923924-b217-48bb-87e2-2a892c4d8670

Once we have refreshed our memory with the Kahoot activity, we will move on to the main authors of the classical period. I will provide them some texts with the main facts of Beethoven, Mozart and Haydn. These texts have been adapted for them from these sources:

Vieitez,Almudena. Classical Music. <http://www.juntadeandalucia.es/educacion/webportal/web/aicle/contenidos/>

"Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart." - Wikipedia, La Enciclopedia Libre. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Dec. 2013.

"Lugdig van Beethoven" - Wikipedia, La Enciclopedia Libre. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Dec. 2013.

"Franz Joseph Haydn" - Wikipedia, La Enciclopedia Libre. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Dec. 2013

Students must read carefully the text. I will answer some questions about vocabulary that may arise. However I will provide them a little chart with the trickiest words for them. Once they have read the texts , It will be very useful for them to complete a chart with the main characterictics of each of them. After that, we will play to : Guess Who. They will play in groups of 3 / 4 and they will have to presh a push button when they know the answer.

1) Many of his compositions are from his latest period of life

2) He was influenced by his father

3) He was Austrian

4) He was considered as the "Father of the Symphony"

5) He became deaf

6) He performed before European royalty when he was only a child.

7) He composed over 600 works

8) He was born in Bonn

9) Moonlight sonata, Für Elise, Symphony No.5 are some of his most relevant works.

3^rd Session

Students will start reviewing some of the main facts of the authors that were developed in last session. They will do it in pairs. Student A will start talking about some of the facts and the Student B must ask some questions. However, Student A can only say YES/NO .
For example :
*Was he born in Germany? Yes he was/ No he wasn't
* Did he compose over 600 works? Yes he did, no he didn't
Questions/Answer in the past simple

Secondly, we will work on the instruments and the main works and new ways of composing : Symphony, Sonata and Concerto. To begin with, students will discuss about the instruments that they think they were popular at that moment. They will use expression of indicating their opinion :

I think... / I believe.../ from my viewpoint ...I don't think so... etc

Once they have discussed and expressed their opinion we will move on to a Listening activity. They will listen to certain fragments of the main works of the authors . They will have to write down as many instruments as the hear, as well all the peculiarities they find about rhythm, sounds... https://archive.org/details/MusicOfClassicalPeriod this website will be so useful for this task.

Then , we will do a wordsearch that I made where they will have to look for the main instruments that we have been talking about.

https://es.educaplay.com/es/recursoseducativos/4429710/html5/instruments_of_classicism.htm

Una vez que los conozcan, completarán la siguiente tabla :

Instruments
	Metal wind		Percussion
Violin		oboe

In case there is something wrong with any of the charts, students will help eachother and they will have the opportunity of searching for info on the internet to complete the missing information.

4^th Session

In this fourth session we will start with a brainstorming. Students will take turn to run to the board and write information about what we have been working on during the last sessions. They will be divided in groups (¾ each) The team who remember more facts about the period will be the winner.

The session will focus on the different formats: Symphony, Sonata and Concerto.

They will read a adapted text about these two forms and then I will play them the main works of the authors that were played in the previous session to confirm what we have read. Again I will use this website:

https://archive.org/details/MusicOfClassicalPeriod

With all this information, students must be able to creat a summary poster with the main characteristics of the period as well as the authors and forms, which is the final project thought for this Didactid Unit.They will develop it in a fifth session. Finally the instruments of evaluation for these sessions will be :

Observation during sessions

• Active participation in class

• Notebook

• Unit test

• Final Project
You can have a look at my template in the following link :https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1B_oojh8f7EBsh9pxnjmu8lrge4Hq0FUy  

María Cristina Porra González