What did colonists do for fun in 18th century Virginia? Let us explore the music and dance of Colonial Virginia and why they were so important to know. What happens when we take those 18th century dance moves and combine them with the trending moves today? Let us find out!

Students will learn about cartoonists Charles Schulz and Jackie Ormes, and the correlation between their comics and current events of their time. Inspired by their work, students will create their own comic strips to share their perspectives on a current event they feel a personal connection with or that they have interest in.

This instructional plan will help teachers guide students’ composition of rhythmic variations. In this lesson, students will listen to musical examples of variations, discuss the aesthetic and artistic value of musical arrangements, and write their own rhythmic variations on scales and melodies.

This instructional plan will provide the instructor with the outline and resources to guide students in the composition of original music. Composition incorporates different aspects of music education including creativity, critical thinking, and the application of musical techniques. 

This instructional plan will take an instrumental ensemble through the process of learning or improving their ability to follow the conductor. This process will include demonstrating different conducting patterns and playing as an ensemble in response to the conductor’s gestures.

Students will learn historical facts about William Shakespeare and apply those facts to hip hop music/spoken word. Students will identify contemporary grammar and vocabulary influenced by Shakespeare.  Students will create an original spoken word expressional/rap final performance. 

Students will explore copyright and intellectual property standards as they relate to music, music technology, and digital citizenship. Students will identify and apply their knowledge of copyright law and licensure to select appropriate licenses for an original work. Students will then analyze copyrighted material and understand how to obtain appropriate permission to use the material.

Students will engage in active listening to Yoko Shimomura’s “Dark Star Battle” from the video game Mario and Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story. The students will discover key elements to the composition and explore those elements through composition using Orff instruments.

Students will investigate ways that choral music can influence the community. Using project-based learning, students will research organizations in their community to be the beneficiary of a benefit-type concert. Students will select level-appropriate repertoire and create advertising. This project is imagined to be used for collaborative small groups, but could be adapted to work as an individual project.

In this lesson unit, students will explore how dance can function as a courtship ritual to strengthen ties in a community. Students will observe, learn and practice dances from different time periods and examine how community and culture are reflected in the movements they learn. 

Students will explore how styles of dance are influenced by culture. They will learn simple movement phrases from the Pavane, an English court dance, and Alingo Lingo, a Mexican Folk Dance.

This plan will allow percussion students the opportunity to demonstrate their understanding of how to properly hold a drumstick and approach the drum. The teacher will be able to model exactly what the students describe, resulting in classroom discussion and a pedagogical experience.

Students will learn about the history of portraits throughout time and the use of various media and techniques such as fiber arts to create them. Students will be creating their own yarn portraits while learning about the history of fiber arts, portraits throughout time, and illustrating from observation.  

This plan will introduce students to a clear and consistent method for practicing and performing sight reading. Students will evaluate and assess sight reading of their peers and gain experience in listening and error detection.

This is an introduction to foundational drawing and observational skills, through a series of practice drawings that culminate into a creative still life project. The still life projects focus on foundational observational drawing skills, basic composition, and allow opportunities for student collaboration.

The exercises in this plan are designed for students to exercise improvisation skills and creative thinking in dance movement. The exercises could be used as warm-up activities, or could lead to a larger choreographic project. This instructional plan is designed to be used in parts or whole.

Dancers will learn to choreograph dance using the chance method. The basic elements of dance will outline each step of the project, and dancers will roll dice to land on movement choices in each category to create their phrase. 

Digital Media is a growing artistic element in Theatre Production. This unit covers common film/media terminology, introduces the career field of the theatrical digital media director, provides instruction on best practices for filming using cell phones or a laptop, introduces editing strategies, and culminates in a creative product by the student.

Students will demonstrate knowledge of rhythmic literacy by playing Disappearing Rhythms. Students will identify and perform simple rhythms, and improve audition skills, as well as accuracy and fluency of rhythmic music literacy, through repetition in a fast-paced environment.

This sample lesson is designed to enrich student exploration of existing class choreography.  Students will explore each of Laban’s effort actions and understand how each action engages time, space, and weight. Students will practice a choreographed movement phrase, manipulating effort actions to perform in a qualitatively rich manner. This lesson offers students the opportunity to demonstrate creative agency within a predetermined structure (the original choreography).