In all the subjects and assignments of this degree so far, we get to practice designing and planning activities that engage and extend all students. And while we have done quite a lot of this in previous subjects through the emphasis of aural and informal learning, and non-traditional notation, Rebecca Ly’s visit discussing Game Theory in education in TME inspired me to try incorporate a new approach to planning for differentiation in the classroom. Instead of only accounting for differences in ability to read traditional notation, preferences for aural learning and taste in music, I decided to try account for differences in personality (according to Rebecca’s discussion of Game Theory in the classroom). According to this theory, gamers/students fall into four categories – explorers, achievers, socialisers and killers.
Catering for the achievers is inherent in most lesson planning, and is inherent in the task, as the final goal of the composition, and the completing steps in the process clearly gives direction for these achievers. To include the explorers and socialisers, I decided to format the composition process as a “choose your own adventure” where students can complete “chapters” of their choosing. Within this, there is an emphasis on exploring as a group. For example, after exploring the sounds they can make on their instrument, students “Play the pitch combinations together - mix and match the extended techniques on each instrument.” This is deeply social, explorative and works towards a clear goal (to achieve different atmospheres). The killers are accounted for from the very beginning, as students are told “be ready to share your composition to the class” and are motivated to create “the ultimate composition”. These types of students will implicitly compare their compositions to others, therefore motivating them to make theirs the best.
In addition to this I accounted for the usual differences in learning style and experience with notation by providing non-traditional notation that lent itself to students recording their ideas with flexibility (reflective of the model composition and intended composition task), while also making the parameters of the composition clear to the students (limiting the pitch sets they use). With this system of notation, students can easily record their part and also see them in relation to their group members’ parts.
Moreover, I made colour coded scores with each note assigned a specific colour (by taking screenshots of the score after highlighting it on an iPad with an apple pencil and adding it to line up with the audio in Final Cut Pro) to emphasise the main analytical points (how the sounds change when a certain number of notes are used, and how we can change the sound using the same notes). Throughout the “chapters”, I made videos to illustrate the points so that students did not have to rely on reading about the words (e.g. showing the swell and phrasing as it was heard). Additionally, I created short tutorial videos to help students set up their recording process through GarageBand (with more time I would have created these for Soundtrap too, and would have added sound to the existing videos). To tie together and organiser all the concepts explored in the chapters, I created the structure sheets that allowed students to plan their overall structure (based on the mood/atmosphere they wanted to create) and then plan the structure within these sections.
While there is always more to do (e.g. spend more time editing the audio and video footage, adding more chapters for students to explore), I found it interesting to apply this different framework when designing this activity.