4th+Grade+General+Music+-+Tongo

This is a general music lesson I originally designed for a methods course to help students conceptualize call and response and experience harmony. "Tongo" is a fun song that is entirely pentatonic and can easily be taught by rote. It also contains extramusical aspects, so you can teach Hawaiian culture through the song and my accompanying game. Last year I revised the lesson to also include aspects of Universal Design for Learning (UDL). The use of imagery and familiar sounds really helped speed along the process of teaching young students a foreign language. Feel free to modify the words and images in my presentation to better fit the needs of your students. The lesson can be taught with or without the canoe activity (step 8), and can be accompanied by any activity that pertains to island culture.

If you wish to include this lesson as part of a larger unit, I would recommend constructing a curricular unit that implements call and response songs of different cultures. Many folk songs include call and response, including the music of the Québécois (indigenous people of Quebec) and the dance music of France. O ne could also include African-American work songs, sea shanties, or the music of Cuba. Call and response can be found in many Cuban genres (i.e. son, rumba, cha-cha-chá), and is called Coro-pregón.

John Kosch - "Tongo"

National Standards: Performing – Rehearse, Evaluate, and Refine  Performing - Analyze

Primary Focus: Call and Response/Singing in Parts

Objectives:
 * 1) Provided a visual representation and an aural model, students will sing the words to “Tongo” with 80% accuracy
 * 2) Provided an aural model, students will perform call and response with other students in a discernible rhythm.
 * 3) Provided with an aural example, students will sustain a discernible pitch different and consonant to that of their neighbors

Assessment: Informal/Formative
 * 1) While the students sing the words to the song, the instructor will watch students mouths to see if they are form the correct vowel and consonant sounds. If the instructor sees individual problems, he/she will address the group, providing strategies for correction.
 * 2) The students will keep a visual pulse (this is assuming the class can do this at this point). The instructor will watch to see if the words said are in time with the visual pulse. If not, the instructor will reinforce the pulse aurally and visually to provide students a reference. If the words are a problem, the instructor will provide additional modeling at a slower tempo.
 * 3) As students sing, the instructor will walk among the students to attempt to discern individual voices. If the group sound contains dissonant pitches, the instructor will increase proximity to aid the individual students who need assistance, providing an aural model and hand gestures to reinforce the correct pitches.

Materials:
 * Printed music of “Tongo” (for teacher)
 * PowerPoint Presentation
 * Printed picture of Mangrove
 * Tennis Balls
 * Opt. Conch shell

1. a. Opt. "Attention-getter"-The instructor will blow into a conch shell to get the class's attention. b. The instructor will show a YouTube video demonstrating the final activity to the class. Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrOiHP0e_a8 Duration: 1-2 min 2. He/she will then direct the class's attention to a picture of a mangrove, providing background information for the song "Tongo" Explanation: Tongo means mangrove. It was a canoe song, sung to communicate across the water. Duration: 1 min 3. The instructor will demonstrate the melody by itself without text, and without call and response. He/she will do so on solfege. Duration: 1 min 4. The instructor will teach the melody in units through call and response on the neutral syllable zoh, singing in the same range as the students. He/she will use a ball to reinforce the concept of call and response. Demonstrate with one student volunteer, instructing them to repeat after you when you toss/hand off the ball. Students should cradle the ball in their hands so the instructor can easily retrieve it. Students should hold their last note, only stopping to breathe when the instructor lets go of the ball. Duration: 3 min 5. The instructor will teach the text in similar units to step, using the visual aids in the PowerPoint.
 * Sequence (12-15 min+)**

Tongo = Tongue + go Chim ne ba e ba e o = Chimney + bah A bah A O M ba le kim ba yo = mmm + ballet</range id="577306201_1"> + kim + bye + O Ooh a way = Ooh away Ba le ka low a way =<range type="comment" id="577306201_2"> ballet </range id="577306201_2">+ caw + low + away

Duration: 3 min 6. Students will keep pulse by canoeing and/or tapping their feet. The students will sing the text in rhythm. Duration: 1 min 7. The instructors will split the class into two groups. He/she will ask which students can sing it without the teachers help (students should raise their hands). These students will be group 1, the others will be group 2. Duration: 1 min 8. (If time) The teachers will instruct the students to form two single file lines (preserving their groups). There will be one "leader" of each "canoe" -- the students will follow the leader while singing the song. For the first time, the teachers will be the leaders.

One canoe will sing while the other responds. Duration: 3 min

Students with limited mobility should be canoe leaders first, if able. After the song is finished, the canoe leaders will become mangroves. The mangroves will try and tag students in canoes and turn them into mangroves. Any student that does not feel comfortable moving may opt to be a mangrove from the beginning.

<range type="comment" id="577305841_2">Homework: Record the song with a friend or family member at home. Bring it to class, or share it with the teacher electronically.</range id="577305841_2">