World Music (Bossa Nova) Unit Plan (using Classroom Instruments)

A 10-week unit plan for teaching Bossa Nova groove which can culminate into a performance for a school concert or assessment etc

Content:
- Bossa Nova Groove Sibelius File
- Bossa Nova Groove notated score
- 10 week Unit Plan with details on each lesson (Musical Concepts taught, Lesson Activities, Rationale)
- Video of expected end product

At the end of the unit, students will be able to:
●Perform instrumental music [Bossa Nova] in groups.
●Improvise instrumental music [Bossa Nova] rhythmically
●Listen and respond to the music [Bossa Nova] through movement [creating movement to match the groove].
●Appreciate music [Bossa Nova] in global cultures [Latin America] through understanding its role and value in the society.
●Understand musical elements and musical concepts [culmination of all they’ve learnt in the past 4-5 years].

Resources required:
●Congas
●Triangles
●Tambourines
●Shakers/Maracas
●Piano/Keyboard
●Claves
* Teacher can replace these instruments with others of similar Timbre depending on what the school has. It is important that the Timbre is similar so that the sounds can be recreated as close to the original as possible.

The Bossa Nova Unit Plan spans over a duration of 10 weeks, with each lesson lasting 30 mins – 1 hour. Within each lesson, students will learn different rhythmic patterns in a Bossa Groove, play in large class ensembles and develop their ensembleship as they progress towards the concert. Students will also be exposed to various skills such as active listening, performing/playing and improvising. Since students are in the upper primary, students should have already been taught the concepts in a standalone manner in the previous years. Hence, the concepts for this Scheme of Work are integrated and woven into the lessons as a whole to allow students to build on whatever they have learnt about musical elements in the previous years. The concert will be a culmination of students’ learning experiences.

There are also opportunities for collaborative learning to take place in the form of peer teaching when the class is practising their rhythms, which allows learning to take place through the More Knowledgeable Others (Vygotsky). It is encouraged for the teacher to assume the role of keyboardist within the ensemble. This would allow greater interaction beyond a mere teacher-student one through musical collaboration. Students will also be able to draw inspiration from seeing and performing together with the teacher.
Another important rationale for this lesson package is the availability of instruments in the General Music Programme (GMP) Classrooms. As most of the available classroom instruments (e.g. Triangle, Claves, Maracas/Shakers etc.) belong to the Latin American Genre, utilizing these in a lesson package would allow any teacher with difficulty in getting resources to still produce a concert using the bare minimum.

*As a possible followup to this lesson package, the Samba Percussion can be introduced to the students as they progress to higher grades. This is also aligned with the Spiral Curriculum Approach since Samba is more advanced and it has elements of Bossa (e.g. 3-2 clave, shakers, etc.) within the rhythmic structure.