Ms. Houston
Madrigals
Highland High
School
B114 | 801-484-4343 ext. 254 | kathryn.houston@slcschools.org
Course Description:
In Highland High School Madrigals, students will continue
developing their understanding of the building blocks of choral singing and
music theory and demonstrate their skill mastery through 30-40 performances
throughout the school year.
Course Goals and
Objectives
The
Utah State Music Core divides the goals of music education into four music
standards, which are the following:
1.
Perform:
Students will use body and voice as means of musical expression.
2.
Create:
Students will improvise and compose music.
3.
Listen/Analyze/Evaluate:
Students will expand music listening skills and use musical vocabulary to
analyze and evaluate music.
4.
Discover
Meaning: Students will find avenues of understanding and
communication through connecting music to personal growth, the joy of living,
traditions, culture, and history.
Course Materials
·
Students
are required to have a pencil during rehearsals at all times.
·
Students
will be checked out a folder for the year and sheet music each term. Students are responsible to pay for lost
folders.
·
Students
must always have their music folder during rehearsals.
·
Madrigals girls’ uniforms are $62 and
can be paid online. Guys must get their own black tuxedo pants, white shirts,
and black tuxedo jackets before our first concert in October. I have a couple used tuxedos for sale/to rent.
If a student would like to sell back a uniform, he/she should bring it the first
week of school clearly labeled with his/her name and phone number so a student
can contact him/her to purchase it. I
can’t guarantee that it will sell, but I will do my best. Students are welcome
to take their old uniforms back home if it doesn’t sell. We also accept
donations if it does not sell and a student does not want it anymore.
Assignments and Procedures:
We will be learning in a variety of ways. Here is a description of each assignment and
accompanying policies:
|
Participation
(10
points per class period)
|
Participating in choir each day is the
most important part of this class.
When students are dedicated during class, they earn 10 points per
class period. To earn 10/10
participation points daily, a student must do the following:
·
Refrain
from chewing gum and/or eating
·
Have
all materials ready (folder, notebook, pencil, etc.)
·
Be
on time (students automatically lose 5 participation points per tardy)
·
Refrain
from texting
·
Refrain
from talking while teacher is instructing
Participation points for absences are
not excused, even if the absence is excused (unless student is participating
in a school-sponsored activity). Participation
points can be made up within a
month of the absence/tardy. To
make up participation points, do one of the following:
·
Work
on choir or other vocal music outside of class for 30 minutes (piano practice
doesn’t count). Enter practice time on Charms (see blog for instructions).
This counts for 10 participation points.
Students MUST indicate in the practice log under “title of song” the
date of the absence or tardy they are making up or else it will not be counted.
·
Do
some brief research on one of the pieces we are singing or one of the
composers of the pieces and type 1-2 paragraphs about what you learned. You may print it or email it to me. This
will count for 10 participation points.
|
|
Practice
at Home (10 points per half hour as needed)
|
When important performances are coming up
(especially festivals), I may assign students individual practice to be done
outside of class based on how prepared we are and how much we get done during
rehearsals. Students are responsible
to log their practice time into CHARMS by the due date I designate.
|
|
In-Class
Performances (50 points; terms 1 and 3)
|
Students will sing alone or in a group
of no more than five people for their in-class performance. Students will be graded as individuals for
this assignment. Term 1 can be any
genre of music; term 3 must be suitable for region solo/ensemble and have an
accompanist. More details on that will
be provided in January. In-class performances
must be memorized.
|
|
Sing
to Serve
(50
points; terms 2 and 4)
|
For Sing to Serve, students will serve
the community through music and write a one-page reflection about their
experience. I will keep students in
the loop about musical service opportunities that come up throughout the
year.
|
|
Holiday
Performances (20 points each)
|
All holiday performance dates and
times will be set by the first week of November. Any
performances scheduled after that date will be extra credit. The madrigals perform around twenty times
during the month of December (though some of these performances are during
school hours). Students are allowed to miss one performance during the
holiday season (with the exception of our term 2 concert and Temple
Square). If this is not feasible for a
student, he/she student must reconsider whether or not this choir is a
suitable choice at this time.
|
|
Concerts
and Festivals
(100
points each)
|
Concerts cannot be missed.
If a performance is missed, points cannot be made up unless it was
arranged with me at least three
weeks in advance by a parent due to a critical family circumstance or
region/final athletic event. If excused by me, students will write a 3-page
research paper as an alternate assignment (also worth 100 points) due the day
of the concert. If there is an emergency illness excused by
a parent, the alternate assignment will be given after the concert and
student will have 1 week to complete it. A choir festival for each choir is
held once a year at one of the schools in our region during term 3 or term
4. Students are required to
participate. See the choir website or
Charms calendar for the exact date and location of the festivals.
|
Additional
Policies:
·
Cell phones: I reserve the right to take a cell phone
from a student if he/she is using it during class during an unauthorized time.
The cell phone will be put in jail and cannot be “bailed out” until the end of
class. Bail is either singing “For She’s
a Jolly Good Lady” or doing 10 minutes of classroom service during lunch. My expectations for madrigals are very high. If a student plans on spending rehearsal
time on his/her phone, this is not the class for him/her. With the caliber of performance I expect from
the Madrigals, I will have zero tolerance for wasted rehearsal time.
·
Grades: In order to go on
tour and perform at region solo and ensemble festival, students are required to
have a GPA of 2.0 or above. This is not new. However, starting this year, if a
student gets a GPA below 2.0 on his/her term report card, he/she will be put on
probation for the following term. If the next term report card is below a 2.0,
he/she will be excused from Madrigals. Any students receiving a 2.0 on their
term 2 report card, whether put on probation previously or not, will be excused
from Madrigals, as they will not be allowed to tour or compete.
·
Class Attendance:
Attendance as a member of the HHS Madrigals is huge. Whether or not a student’s
absences are excused, it hurts our group when we don't have one of our members
there in class. Sections depend on each other heavily. After three absences in
a term (that's 4.5 hours of rehearsal time), Madrigals students will be put on
probation. After 5 absences in a term, the student will be asked to leave
Madrigals at the quarter. You are ALWAYS welcome in Concert Choir where the
committment is less rigorous. I will consider extenuating circumstances (such as
a death in the family or a severe illness), on a case by case basis.
Choir Calendar
·
Students
are expected to keep themselves informed of upcoming concerts and events. There
will be no acceptable excuses for not knowing about a performance! All performances are listed in two places.
§
This
website will also include concert reminders, due date reminders, notifications
about upcoming performances acceptable for concert reports, and more. Please
check it often!
§
You
will need to UPDATE YOUR INFO and ADD A PARENT in the Charms system in order to
get credit for this assignment. For
instructions on how to do this, please refer to the Highland High School Choir
website. Charms is how I best communicate with parents and students and track
practice for missed participation points.
Please visit this website and complete
the survey in order to get credit for this assignment.
