napualani Posted July 3, 2016 Share Posted July 3, 2016 Hi there, Our family went to NYC last month, and my daughter and I went to three Broadway musicals. She LOVES musicals, probably knows most songs to most of the popular shows, and we're planning to see at least three more Broadway shows in the next twelve months in our home city. We were tossing around the idea of creating an elective around the subject of theater and Broadway shows, and I'm wondering if anyone else has done something like this and can offer some ideas. She has on interest in acting or participating in any local theater troupes, but she loves watching them. :) Thanks! Darlene Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quark Posted July 3, 2016 Share Posted July 3, 2016 (edited) The Great Courses has a lovely musicals-themed lecture series presented by Prof Bill Messenger. Edited July 4, 2016 by quark 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pistachio mom Posted July 3, 2016 Share Posted July 3, 2016 I have been working on the same thing. I have a musical loving daughter too. I am thinking of calling it survey of Broadway musicals, Introduction to Broadway musicals, maybe even as a music history..... One of the things I like to do is to do web searches for college course descriptions for a topic to get some ideas. For now, I am keeping track of all the library lists of what she checks out related to the topic. My girl also likes to participate in musicals, but I am told these look better as an extra curricular rather then yet another music performance credit. I will do some research on this. It is something I have wanted to get to anyway. I do have one half of one of the great courses lecture course about musicals. What I am thinking though is a survey course that will include any musicals we are able to go and see; as well as the video performances I just found this: a book that might make a good spine. https://www.scribd.com/book/109068764/The-Broadway-Musical-A-Critical-and-Musical-Survey http://www.newyork.com/resources/broadway-and-theater-history/ This looks promising! It has loads of links that will give you ideas for titles for your course. Basically, what I am planning is a "delight -directed course," borrowing from Lee Binz' terminology. I will log the multitude of musicals my daughter checks out from the library, listens to on her iPad, and the ones in which she sings locally, and anything we are able to attend in person. I will require at least one paper on any related topic of her choice. She is always comparing the different performances of her favorite musical... or discussing the composer's musical elements that help carry the story... I might require reading either online or in a particular book too. I still have not decided. If any of the local summer Broadway camps work out for us, I would count that participation time as a percentage of her grade.This is what I have in mind. As you can see, I am still developing ideas for this elective. Here is a college course description for ideas: http://english8.fsu.edu/Courses/LIT4044_F10/ This one is much shorter: http://www.monroecc.edu/etsdbs/MCCatPub.nsf/Web+Course+Descriptions/262D1DB5E27A26CC85257E90006DEE2F?OpenDocument Wow, a PBS series on Broadway Musicals: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/broadway/about/episode-descriptions/ Well, I am seeing a lot on the searches I just did in the last 5 minutes. I hope this can give you some ideas. I am finding several college courses with this content. So, if you include the words course description or syllabus - you might get more specific information on what you are looking for. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
napualani Posted July 4, 2016 Author Share Posted July 4, 2016 MMMMMwhaaaaaah to quark and Pistacio Mom! I am looking all of this up. Very excited that both the Great Courses lectures and the PBS videos are available through out library. Thank you so much; I've never created a high school level course and am finding my way... Darlene 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pistachio mom Posted July 4, 2016 Share Posted July 4, 2016 In my state, however the elective is planned, you need to come up with a way to have a numerical average. So, as long as you log everything all the musical titles, any primary texts, secondary texts, papers, video or online watching informational content - you can come up with your own list of percentages that add up to 100%. For example, I will probably do something like: instructional DVD's and reading 25%, listening and attending musicals 55%, paper(s) 20%. I will adjust these if we can afford a local Broadway camp to include a percentage for the instructional content of the camp. Even when the course credit is earned by Carnegie hours, you can still come up with a way to have a numerical percentage. Just keep good records so you can later write an accurate course description. I write titles on sticky notes, index cards, and keep the library receipts and stuff them into a labeled envelop. Then, later I make stacks and group similar content together to make a course description for a student directed study. Most ed websites I have seen translate a Carnegie credit as 120 -150 hours of student work. So a half credit would be half, and that is what I am aiming for. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JennW in SoCal Posted July 4, 2016 Share Posted July 4, 2016 In the dark ages (8-10 years ago) before there was such a plethora of Great Courses, I developed an American history course for my ds around the PBS Broadway series, though the scope of the course wound up incorporating Hollywood, too. The series is excellent, by the way, providing historical context to productions of the day. I can't remember all the details of my course, but he also read some biographies and plays as well as the companion book to the PBS series. I can't tell you what exactly made up the history component -- his high school years are now a blur! Some titles I can recommend: Act One by Moss Hart which provides a vivid picture of early 20th century New York City, and the theater scene of the 1920s-WWII. But He Doesn't Know the Territory by Meredith Wilson, a must read if your dc are ever involved in a production of Music Man Home: A Memoir of my Early Years by Julie Andrews Edwards because, well, Julie Andrews! There are of course many, many other memoirs out there. I had read Moss Hart's memoir as a teen and it really stuck with me. It is unusual in that he was a playwright and director while most memoirs seem to be by performers. There are nice film adaptations of many shows and traveling productions of current shows. And of course your local community theater productions would love to have your business! You can have your dd read reviews and write her own, or have her read a novel that has been adapted, watch the adaptation then analyze the decisions made in making that adaptation. One fun comparison would be between Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew and Cole Porter's Kiss Me Kate. Or Romeo and Juliet and West Side Story. Or to just go super in depth on American history and Hamilton. Of course you are just wanting an elective, so keep things simple and help her start watching with a more critical eye by focusing on some of the details of each production -- think about what makes it a successful production. Was it the pacing of the show? The staging (lights, positions of the actors, the sets or costumes)? The choreography? My ds was heavily involved in theater in high school and was aiming towards a career on the tech side of things, so there were theater related projects in almost every subject he did in high school. That's what I mean about it being a blur -- it was seemingly all theater all the time. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pistachio mom Posted July 5, 2016 Share Posted July 5, 2016 JennW, I just added these titles to my research list. Thanks for sharing. These are exactly the kinds of projects I had in mind for my student too. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vonfirmath Posted July 5, 2016 Share Posted July 5, 2016 I took a class at South Seattle Community College back in 1998/1999 that was about different styles of music in America. One of the units covered was Sondheim musicals. It included a book that had samples of the different types of music attached and I remember doing a paper based on one of the musical masters? (Or maybe I remember Sondheim so well because that is who I did my paper on. It was a LONG time ago) It was a 1 semester course that fulfilled a fine arts needed credit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted July 5, 2016 Share Posted July 5, 2016 I just read a fantastic book, that I think all musical lovers will like: "The Secret Life of the American Musical". It helps explain the standard structure of musicals with lots of examples. Maybe not a spine, but a great read for what sounds like a very fun class. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theelfqueen Posted July 5, 2016 Share Posted July 5, 2016 OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH I so wanna do this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EppieJ Posted July 5, 2016 Share Posted July 5, 2016 At the risk of repeating myself (I've posted similar on more than one other thread) I use this program http://homeschoolskedtrack.com/ to keep track of everything. You may find it very helpful in organizing resources, percentages, assignments/activities, etc. You can also generate a transcript from it if you enter all of your subjects. And it's free! Just a thought! Sounds like a great course, btw - have fun! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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