Ms. Houston
Madrigals
Highland High School
B114 | 801-484-4343 ext. 254
katie.houston@slcschools.org
Madrigals
Highland High School
B114 | 801-484-4343 ext. 254
katie.houston@slcschools.org
Course Description
In Highland High School Madrigals, students will further develop their skills in music theory, sight-reading, and appropriate choral tone. They will demonstrate their skill mastery through 30-40 performances throughout the school year.
In Highland High School Madrigals, students will further develop their skills in music theory, sight-reading, and appropriate choral tone. They will 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:
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.
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 must bring the following three things every single class period:
2. Folder
3. A Winning Attitude
Students must bring the following three things every single class period:
2. Folder
3. A Winning Attitude
Uniforms
Causal Uniform: Madrigals sweatshirt or performing arts t-shirt and long jeans.
Formal Uniform: Madrigals girls’ uniforms have already been purchased. If we decide to do jewelry, girls must commit to wear the jewelry to every performance! Guys must get their own black tuxedo pants, white shirts, black tuxedo jacket, and bow tie before our first concert at the end of September. Both guys and girls need to wear completely black shoes to every performance. No tennis shoes!
Causal Uniform: Madrigals sweatshirt or performing arts t-shirt and long jeans.
Formal Uniform: Madrigals girls’ uniforms have already been purchased. If we decide to do jewelry, girls must commit to wear the jewelry to every performance! Guys must get their own black tuxedo pants, white shirts, black tuxedo jacket, and bow tie before our first concert at the end of September. Both guys and girls need to wear completely black shoes to every performance. No tennis shoes!
Assignments
and Procedures
Participation: 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, or else be subject to losing points:
- Refrain from chewing gum and/or eating
- Have all materials ready (folder, notebook, pencil, etc.)
- Be on time (students automatically lose 2 participation points per tardy)
- Work hard and participate in all class activities
- Refrain from texting
- Refrain from talking while teacher is instructing
--To
make up a tardy, a student must practice for 15 minutes and log it in to their
practice log on Charms. 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.
Practice at home: 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: Students will sing alone or in a group
for their in- class performance. Students will be graded individually for this
assignment, even if they perform with other people. 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: For Sing to Serve, students will serve
the community through music and write a one-page reflection about their
experience. I will announce musical service opportunities throughout the year. This assignment is due twice, once in term 2
and once in term 4.
Holiday
Performances: 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 our Temple
Square performance). 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/Festivals: We have one big concert at HHS each term
(worth 100 points). A
concert absence must be 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 by telephone or in person,
the student will have 2 weeks do his/her paper after the concert is over. Additionally, we perform at Temple Square
each winter (worth 50 points) and in a choir festival each spring (50
points). The same concert absence policy
applies for these two performance.
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 concerts are listed on the choir
website and on Charms and will also be listed on the board at least a month
prior.
Additional
Policies
Cell Phones: The only time you should be on your cell phone is when I ask you to pull it out during Announcements for calendar review. I reserve the right to take a phone if it is being abused during class.In order to get your phone back at the end of the period, you will need to do one of the following things: 1) Sing, “For She’s a Jolly Good Teacher” or 2) Do 10 minutes of classroom service during lunch.
Folders: If you leave your folder out when you leave instead of putting it in your assigned cubby, it will go in the dungeon. You can get it back one of two ways: 1) Sing, "I'm a Little Teapot" or 2) Do 10 minutes of classroom service during lunch.
Cell Phones: The only time you should be on your cell phone is when I ask you to pull it out during Announcements for calendar review. I reserve the right to take a phone if it is being abused during class.In order to get your phone back at the end of the period, you will need to do one of the following things: 1) Sing, “For She’s a Jolly Good Teacher” or 2) Do 10 minutes of classroom service during lunch.
Folders: If you leave your folder out when you leave instead of putting it in your assigned cubby, it will go in the dungeon. You can get it back one of two ways: 1) Sing, "I'm a Little Teapot" or 2) Do 10 minutes of classroom service during lunch.
Important Websites
o www.highlandhighschoolchoir.blogspot.com
This website will include important choir dates, pictures/performances, notifications about concert report options, info about local voice teachers, assignments that can be printed off, and more. This year, I will keep all calendar items and copies of assignments on the blog rather than charms. Please check it often!
o www.charmsoffice.com
You
will need to UPDATE YOUR INFO and ADD A PARENT in the Charms system in order to
get credit for this assignment. Many of you already have a Charms account
already and just need to log in and make sure your info is correct. For instructions on how to do access Charms
and update info, please refer to the Highland High School Choir website. Charms
is how I communicate with parents and students and track makeup practice for absences and tardies.
FOLLOW US ON INSTAGRAM! @highlandhighschoolchoir
Please visit this website
and complete the survey in order to get credit for reading the disclosure
document.
