JenniferF+Permission+letter

﻿Dear Parents;

The 5th and 6th grade general music students will start the new year with our unit on African drumming. This has always been an exciting time for the students. New this year will be an Interactive Multimedia Project (IMP) related to African drumming. The drumming patterns that we use in class are primarily from six countries in western Africa; Ghana, Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Togo, Gabon and Nigeria. Students will be working in small groups and choosing one of six countries to research. They will select areas of interest that might include traditional foods, housing, schools and education, climate, celebrations, dance and drumming. Understanding the culture will help us understand and experience the music!

In the next couple of days, I will be taking the students to the computer lab or using our mobile computer carts for orientation on the software they will be using in their project. Building an Interactive Multimedia Project requires patience and persistence as students learn and apply new skills. Using the Internet in researching their topic will increase the student's ability to understand which sites and sources are reliable as well as understand the copyright issues when using information, photos and music. Students will have time to work on this project with computers and in their groups during the school day, yet, working on their project at home as well as school can provide more time to experiment and will help the students to improve their understanding of Web 2.0 software. This also gives parents a chance to see what we are doing at school with computers and music and maybe learn something new as well!

Each student will have a timeline that will be kept in their group IMP planning folder. This folder also contains a rubric for the IMP as well as due dates for each step. Also included in the folder are suggested topics that are compatible with our Fine Arts Performance Descriptors and the National Educational Technology Standards.

Your student's IMP assessment will be based on:
 * Group Bubbl.us organization
 * Showing mastery of new Web 2.0 skills - Animoto
 * Gathering information/works cited
 * Draft
 * Peer reviewing and feedback between groups
 * Final Product

Sincerely,

Jennifer Fox Music Teacher

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

Please tear off this bottom strip and have your student return this form to me by Monday, January 8, 2011

My child and I have reviewed this letter and the IMP packet and are familiar with all of the Interactive Multimedia Project requirements.

Parent Signature_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Student Siganture_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _