Through the first half of the course, students will begin by reviewing musical concepts including note naming and rhythmic reading and writing. They will practice creating patterns using these concepts, complete assignments and short quizzes to show understanding. From there they will move onto creating song parodies by writing new lyrics. Students will use Google Docs to write out new lyrics. They may also use WeVideo to create a lyric video for their performance. Students will have the choice of using Noteflight, Soundtrap, or BeatMaker during this stage of their song parody creations. If they have access to GarageBand, they may also use this and submit it. While working on their song parodies, students will have to choose a theme based on a significant community figure (somewhere or someone who plays a role within their lives; i.e. school, church, the Island, Flood Wall, Partners in Education, etc.)
As I was designing this course, I ended up using it as more of a blended learning environment where students who do not have technology access outside of school are still able to complete it. The materials within the online portion of the course help reinforce what has been previously taught. The discussion boards allow students to post questions when the teacher is not readily accessible, allowing peers to also help. Below are screenshots of the course layout:
When thinking through different courses currently at school that could be redesigned into online courses, I think there are many that could be. Depending on what subject you wanted to tackle in the elementary setting, there are many possibilities. Since I am a music teacher, I would love to design a summer music course that would help build upon previous concepts that have been introduced throughout the school year (music basics like note reading, rhythm reading, terminology, basic composition, etc.). It would help to refresh and reinforce basic music skills that sometimes get forgotten over the summer months. A second course that I feel would be great to design would be a music appreciation course. It could be taken throughout the school year or over the summer. It would cover different music genres, composers, singers, etc. while meeting National Standards. By using this as an online course, it wouldn’t take away from regular class time and would allow more hands-on creating and performing to happen in the regular class setting during the school day.