ACO Collective – Local Heroes Post-Concert Activities (Primary)

Primary Schools Resource

LOCAL HEROES CONCERT Post-Concert Activities

PRINCIPAL PARTNER: ACO COLLECTIVE

Contents REFLECTIONS ON THE CONCERT

3

CONCEPTS

4

THE HERO CURRICULUM LINKS

5-6 7

The Local Heroes concert performed by ACO Collective explores through music the life of a person from your town who has lived an exceptional life in some way. Our facilitator introduces students to the instruments of the orchestra before using musical storytelling to transport them back in time to learn about the life of their hero.

Now that you’ve completed the pre-concert resources and attended the concert, work through these activities so that your students can create their own musical story.

How to use our resources This is a two-part resource. The pre-concert activities introduce students to musical concepts and guide students through the process of learning to play a melody and learning to play an accompaniment. Students then watch the ACO Collective Local Heroes concert which tells a story through music. Using the post-concert activities after the performance, students use the skills they learned in the pre-concert activities to compose and create their own story through music.

This resource is suitable for students in years 3 to 6 and is relevant for the Australian Curriculum area of The Arts (Music) with cross-curricula links to English, Humanities and Social Sciences and Technologies.

Teachers should consult the WA School Curriculum and Standards Authority for details on their currently endorsed curriculum/syllabus subject material.

page 1

Reflections on the concert 1. Which musical instruments were being played on stage?

What were some of the main differences amongst the instruments? Which was your favourite?

2. How was it different listening to the Four Seasons in a real LIVE concert, instead of just with YouTube on the computer?

3. What did you think about storytelling in music? Did it help you understand the music?

page 3

Concepts This sequence of activities builds on the concept of music telling a story through emotion, as demonstrated by the ACO. Students use their melodies they learned prior to the concert.

Some revision of concepts used: Phrase A musical sentence. English is written in sentences: Music is played in phrases.

Melody The part of the music that you sing: the main part.

Accompaniment The music underneath the melody. Important, but not as important as the melody.

page 4

The Hero Revision A short session aimed a refreshing students’ memories.

Revision

It can be teacher directed via call and response, or it can be group work, with students returning to their group to play through their performance from last session. At the end of this session, students should be able to play what they performed pre-concert.

Phase 1

The Hero

Phase 2

The Hero Students can use their local hero, choose their own hero, or create a fictitious hero for this activity.

Students break into small groups and come up with a story about their hero. Their story should answer the following questions: WHO is your hero?

What DIFFICULTY did the hero face?

How did it end?

Who is your hero? page 5

Storytelling through Music

Storytelling

Phase 3

This section is left fairly open ended, as students will inevitably complete this task in different ways. A concrete scaffold is given below for students having trouble incorporating music into storytelling.

Students move into groups. In their group, they need (at least) one storyteller to speak while other students become musicians to put in the music and sound effects.

Students move to instruments. They combine their story about their hero with their composition. Students are to tell their story about their hero and use music to illustrate. Students can use the music they performed last lesson as a starting point, or may choose to come up with something new.

Students may use this scaffold: “Our Hero is …” (short melody for their hero) “One day, our hero … (faced a challenge) Music plays reflecting the challenge, perhaps adding sounds effects through the story “Our hero beat this challenge by …”

Short heroic melody to finish.

It is up to the students and teacher how complex this story becomes.

Don’t forget to give your composition a title!

Students perform their compositions for the class.

Performance

Phase 4 page 6

The teacher may like to scaffold a reflection after the performances finish. Were the students nervous? Was it easy?

Was it difficult? Which part of music did you enjoy the most?

Why? Additional task: Next time you go to the movies, listen to the music. Someone is telling a story through music, just like the students did.

General capabilities and curriculum links Teacher’s Notes for reference to the Australian Curriculum: The Arts.

This table identifies general capabilities and cross-curriculum links for pre and post concert lessons sequences.

General Capabilities Critical and Creative thinking (CCT)

English

Personal and Social Capability (PSC)

Humanities and social sciences

Intercultural Understanding (ICU)

Technologies

Literacy (LIT)

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Cross Curriculum Links

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PRINCIPAL PARTNER: ACO COLLECTIVE