Opera!Megan WestUnit plan

Curriculum-Framing QuestionsEssential Question: What makes music good music?Unit Questions: What is opera? What makes opera so popular?Content Questions: What are the differences in each type of Opera? Italian vs French vs German?

Unit summaryOpera is known throughout the world. They are beginning of singing entertainment. Because there are so many types of opera and different places that it comes from, one needs to know what makes them different and the composers that wrote them.

ObjectivesWith given listening examples as well as examples of specific attributes that are seen in opera SWBAT identify the composer as well as what type of opera the example is considered. The students will also create a project with a group that explains each composer and some of the main operas that we study.

Week One: opera overview Have a KWL chart so they can write down things they know about opera and the composer that they are studding in their group presentations.Have them listen to an opera Overture and then start giving the vocab that will be covered. This way they know the words and will at least be familiar with them when they come up in the following weeks.Quiz at end of the week on what we have read and gone over.

Week two: Italian OperaGo over the four main composers that need to be known (Puccini, Verdi, Mozart, and Rossini)Introduce the different operas that are the best known from each composer, and let them watch clips of them in class.Have them for homework come up with ideas that would make a good opera, as well as go over the vocabulary and info about the composers.Have them make a PowerPoint trying to sell their ideas on what makes/ made opera sell, and present them

Week three: FrenchGo over the style of French opera and Bizets Carmen and let them see a production via the internet from the Met so they can see what it means by Grand Opera.Put the groups together for the project, that will have them working in groups to do an opera in 10 minutes based on the themes that they picked, and assign an Opera to each( Carmen, The Barber of Seville, Cosi Fan Tuti, Aida, La Boheme, and Tristan and Isolde)

Week Four: German OperaTalk about Wagner and Weber and the operas that they are known for.Do a recap on everything that we have learned

21 century learning toolsThe students will have to make a power point about what they think makes/made opera sell.In a group, the students will have to use windows movie media and make a short video portraying in 10 min., the opera they are given and get the point of the opera across.

AssessmentThere will be a rubric that will assess the students on their video and how well the material came across.They will be assessed by tests that will be given after we talk about each composer. I will have the other classmates assess the groups on if the video projects were entertaining. There will be a Unit test over everything that we learned.