Tyrone school news: TAHS students ‘rock’ music elective – huntingdondailynews.com
Tyrone school news: TAHS students ‘rock’ music elective huntingdondailynews.com
“Popular American Music in the 20th Century” is a semester-long music elective offered to TAHS students. It runs during eighth period. In this course, students learn about the evolution of popular music in the United States and make connections about its ties to our history.
This year proved to be different while the class was running via the hybrid model. While in-class instruction continued to harbor class discussion, at home students were able to continue to work through the curriculum in a similar fashion thanks to electronic resources. Canvas kept the course organized by chapter units. The student resource site that coincides with the course textbook What’s That Sound? Volume 4 also provided additional support for students. The resource site contains outlines for each chapter along with playlists and informational videos to supplement instruction. Listening examples are posted to Canvas for student access at home; YouTube and Spotify playlists allow students to watch and listen for free on virtual days. Canvas discussions and the Google Suite allowed for class interaction even when not all students were together synchronously.
Another resource utilized is a site called teachrock.org. This free site provided interactive tech tools to allow students to try out different recording technologies for themselves. These include various microphones and sound mixing tools like those found in a recording studio. These resources were utilized both in class and at home. During class time, students also analyzed pop songs, outlining the form based on standard structures found in rock and pop music.
Student feedback on the content has been positive; students like to give their input on the music from throughout the 20th century. Listening and responding is a key element of the course, and almost every class involves listening to songs from the evolution of pop music here in the United States. One of the most rewarding parts of this course has been seeing students’ reactions to familiar and unfamiliar music as they learn the history that has shaped American music.