Concept
The Classroom Resource Pack has been created to help school teachers around the world to teach Music in the classroom using modern computer music technology.
Typically the Music curriculum is based on the fundamental activities of performing, composing and listening, and schools around the world today adopt a traditional approach to the teaching and learning of these fundamental skills.
Computer music technology is fast becoming an essential element of the 21st Century school music curriculum. It is itself a highly effective tool to nurture those same fundamental skills of performing, composing and listening but additionally provides the opportunity for learning discrete recording, sequencing and production skills. Students thereby study music with a contemporary perspective reflecting a real world technology context.
This approach poses a significant challenge for many teachers. Unfamiliarity and lack of experience with the technologies, combined with a lack of time and resources to satisfactorily produce a scheme of work and range of lesson materials, are the biggest challenges. Additionally it is the time to think, the time to prepare, to create, or to produce classroom teaching materials that are precisely the resources that teachers simply do not have. And this is exactly what we give them with the Classroom Resource Pack!
Therefore the Classroom Resource Pack answers the needs of teachers the world over by giving them a huge range of pre-prepared learning activities which can be selected by the teacher and either used in part and inserted into their existing scheme of work, or used in its entirety to form the basis for a brand new programme of study.
The CRP’s units of study or learning activities (or LA’s) are arranged into collective themes or topics called Projects and provided at graduated difficulty levels. These difficulty levels have been developed with the intention of teaching children between the ages of 11 to 18. The LA’s are however mainly focused towards the elementary to intermediate levels, allowing the teacher to draw upon the widest range of resources to satisfy the majority of students.
Last, but not least, the Classroom Resource Pack is of course based on the integral use of Cubase or Cubase Studio, arguably the most widespread, easy to use, and professional music composition and production software package available today. It is also one of the most commonly used applications in the study of music and music technology in education, and therefore provides both teacher and student the confidence of building a solid foundation with learning technical and practical skills which have real world value and longevity.
Content
The Teacher Manual
The Teacher Manual is the core information source the teacher will use to plan and deliver music lessons on a daily basis. Supplied as a durable spirally-bound hard backed book it is intended to be a long-lasting source of reference for the teacher to use both outside the classroom when planning lessons (at home for example) and inside the classroom when delivering lessons. Each of the 11 CRP Projects and their associated Learning Activities are detailed in the Teacher Manual, and a comprehensive Cubase Concept Map identifies how each Project makes use of specific Cubase skills and understanding of Cubase technology. The Teacher Manual is presented in A4 landscape format to provide an optimal viewing layout, and is printed in full-colour on 370 sides of high-quality paper.
The Resource File
Accompanying the printed Teacher Manual in the CRP folder is the Resource File, a range of printed reference sheets. These include examples of generic worksheets and assessment tasks found on the DVD2 (see below) so that teachers are introduced to the style and range of materials provided by the CRP. In addition a table of the entire CRP contents, along with basic set-up recommendations is supplied. And usefully the Resource File contains all of the support materials and worksheets needed to deliver Project 1 - Introduction to Cubase.
The DVD’s
The Classroom Resource Pack contains two DVD’s. Both have been custom made to run using the Director TM environment, which means that there is an easy-to-use graphical interface directing the user to simply and quickly find the files required.
DVD1 – Classroom Project Files
DVD1 contains all the files that students will use when undertaking the practical tasks within the 11 projects. It is structured with direct correlation to the Projects and Learning Activities themselves, and the graphical interface provided guides the student with a very simple and consistent method to find the Cubase Project file associated with the lesson they are undertaking. Once located the student simply clicks on the link, Cubase is automatically started and the correct Cubase project will be opened along with most of the content files needed to complete the Learning Activity.
DVD2 – Teacher Support Materials
This DVD also operates via an easy to navigate custom-made Director TM graphical interface. It contains all of the additional information the teacher will need to know, and all the support materials the teacher will need to use, to satisfactorily carry out the Learning Activities. DVD2 includes Student Worksheets, Teacher Support Sheets, Assessment Sheets, Project Learning Records, Cubase Tutorial Videos and other ressources.
The CRP Projects
The CRP’s 11 units of study are called Projects. Project 1 provides students with the opportunity to gain an understanding of a range of the fundamental features and working practices of Cubase and/or Cubase Studio. Projects 2 – 11 focus on different aspects of music, with each designed to provide about 8-12 hours of classroom study.
Each CRP Project with its own musical theme introduces a unique set of aims. These are clearly identified in the Project Overview at the start of each Project. The Project context is then outlined, allowing the teacher to understand more about how the Projects’ aims and Learning Activities might interact with other themes in a scheme of work. The prior Skills, Knowledge and Understanding required to undertake the Project work is also listed, allowing the teacher, and therefore the students also, to be fully prepared. Learning Outcomes then describes the result intended once all Learning Activities have been undertaken from the Project – an invaluable reference tool for the teacher.
The Learning Activities (LA’s)
Each CRP Project is divided into a number of individual elements called Learning Activities. Most Projects contain between 6 and 8 Learning Activities, most of which are intended to last between 1 and 2 classroom lessons (assuming each lesson has duration of approximately 45-50 minutes). There are 74 Learning Activities in total in the CRP, generating over 100 hours of classroom teaching time.
Like the Projects, each LA has its own specific aims and learning outcomes - teachers may choose to select individual LA’s for inclusion into any desired scheme of work. It is not therefore a requirement for students to complete every Learning Activity within each Project of the CRP - the teacher may ‘mix’ any assortment of LA’s to ‘match’ any particular study requirements. This degree of flexibility is one of the key advantages of the CRP – since this makes it possible for the CRP to be integrated in teaching schemes anywhere in the world, in different curricula or syllabi, at various difficulty levels, and for any group (although we recommend optimal age range is 11-18 based on UK schools and education standards).
The Learning Activities also allows for assessment of the students work. Assessment types vary, but largely they can be practical (such as assessing ‘the performance of a melody line’, or ‘the ability to apply effects processing and audio manipulations as a creative compositional tool’) which would be captured as evidence by submission of the related Cubase project file. Or they can be written (such as ‘identifying the common interpretation markings found on a score’, or ‘the ability to record mixer settings and production techniques on a track sheet’) which would be captured as evidence by completion of a CRP student worksheet. Homework can be set, tests are also available, and there are some group assessments – but mainly the classroom activities will lead to assessment activities for individual students - largely of a practical nature, and often mixed with written completion of student worksheets. And usefully most LA’s include a section on Differentiation – which offers suggestions for ways to adapt the activities either for more able or less able students that might be in the class group.
Cubase Concepts, Features and Skills
Each Project and its associated Learning Activities contain reference to Cubase Concepts. There are specific concepts, features or skills that students will develop or learn in the course of completing the Project. A detailed mapping of such Cubase Concepts is provided in the Teacher Manual (an example is shown on the left), so the teacher can easily refer to it and understand the demands for each Project, and then further investigate the teacher support materials (such as Teacher Support Sheets and the Cubase Concept Tutorial Videos) to acquire the necessary knowledge and/or skills.
Cubase Concept Tutorial Videos
In order to provide a better demonstration of some of the more complex Cubase Concepts, 34 clear and informative video tutorials are included on DVD2 as embedded Quicktime movie files. Finding the tutorial you need and navigating forwards or backwards through the video content is simple - and basic controls including ‘pause’, ‘mute, and ‘full screen’ allow the teacher to even use the videos as part of their lesson if desired.
Student Worksheets
DVD2 contains a very large number of itemized Student Worksheets that can be printed out and given to the students. Each Student Worksheet is named according to Project and Learning Activity, and so they are easily to be found and printed in the correct quantities prior to each class.
These can include:
- Learning Activity instructions
- Background explanations of technical or musical processes
- Homework tasks
- Assessment tasks
- Evaluation forms
- Cubase screenshots for annotation
Teacher Support Sheets
DVD2 also contains a very large number of Teacher Support Sheets that provide background information about:
- technical processes
- music styles and genres
- analysis of specific examples of music
These sheets are to be used by the teacher in building up their understanding of the themes introduced by the Projects, and thereby support the teacher in their own activities.
