Understanding Goals

• How do musicians bridge time periods?
• How does music serve as a bridge in society?
• Are there specific musicians who have created bridges in history?
• Why have certain people/certain music bridged elements of society or times in history?
• What was happening in society/the country/world during the time you're examining? How is the music related to this?

Performances of Understanding

• Create a piece of music using GarageBand that represents the musician, time period, style, or "musical bridge" you've examined.
• Using mindmapping software such as Inspiration or MindMeister, create a mind map timeline of the events you've investigated and how they fit in history/society.
• Create a spreadsheet or mindmap of the different elements of the musician/song/style that bridged society or musical development so you can keep track of your information.
• Create a PowerPoint or Keynote presentation of your musician/style, etc. including YouTube (or similar) videos of performances (if at all possible) as well as audio recordings related to your discovery.

Ongoing Assessment

• As the project progresses, share your findings on the class Wiki. You should regularly comment on your classmates' postings and should update your findings consistently.
• Periodically, different elements of the project will be due to be shared on the Wiki such as your musician/style/time period, your timeline mindmap, your spreadsheet/mindmap, your GarageBand composition (in various stages of progress - shared as mp3s) and ultimately your PowerPoint/Keynote and final presentation.

Reflective Collaborative Communities

• You can work individually or in groups. Using a Wiki, communicate with your classmates (whether you're working alone or in groups) about your findings and progress.
• Comment on each other's findings, and add suggestions whenever you can. *(I would create a class Wiki ahead of time that all students would have access to.)
• I will be commenting on the Wiki as well.

General Progression of the Project (obviously tailored by each class and teacher)

• Teacher presents generative topic to the class.
• Class brainstorms on how much and bridges might coincide.
• Class does an online research session or two on the subject, and students ultimately form groups or work individually using broad topics.
• Students share the musical artists/pieces they have found with the class, and they discuss elements of the music, how this artist/music is a bridge in society or music history. *Note: Prior to now, students have studied a variety of styles of music from classical through jazz, rock, and 20th Century, so they have a background of styles. They have also composed in various styles as well.
• Students begin posting on the class Wiki (teacher-created before lesson started) to help form groups and streamline ideas.
• Once topics are chosen, students create rubrics various stages in the project as well as the end product that align with overall goals of the project and unit/curriculum.
• Students continually post on the Wiki (teacher too). Students share progress on their projects including GarageBand mp3s, PowerPoint/Kenote slides, mindmaps, etc. Students make comments on each other's posts.
• Students share their presentations and fill out feedback forms for each group/presentation.

A Example of an Idea for this Project Might Be:

• Jimi Hendrix's Star Spangled Banner and the political and social statement made by this interpretation.
• How did society feel about this?
• What doors did his interpretation of this piece open for music and society?
• Student might create their own version of the Star Spangled Banner in GarageBand using a variety of loops, tools, live instruments, etc.
• Was Jimi Hendix a key musical figure of his time? How? Why? Why not?
• What was going on in our country/the world during Hendrix's life and musical career?
• How did Jimi Hendrix serve as a bridge (musically) in society?