Copyright Infringement Lesson Reflection

This afternoon I presented my new (and hopefully improved) lesson regarding copyright. In general, there were many things that I felt were much better here than in my trial run back in April. In today's lesson, I hit four national standards (singing, reading, listening, evaluating), but more importantly I adapted the lesson so it was more active. While the trial lesson was mostly lecture, today's implemented collaborative work, individual work, listening and performing. I feel really good that I was able to do all of this in a lesson regarding copyright. It also helped to consider the many facets of what music copyright is - I honed in on infringement and derivative work as these topics are more approachable and engaging than legal definitions.

The one major self-criticism I have is that I spoke too much and still tried to fit in too much material. At the beginning of the lesson I told a story that I think helped to engage the students. Had this been a group of middle schoolers and not grad students, I'm sure I would have juiced up the drama and really put on a show. In this portion, I felt OK about blabbing - I was storytelling. After this intro, I could have backed off on the number of words I used. I would guess that I said more than a thousand (in ten minutes).

I feel somewhat confident that the students understood that their goal was to use musical elements to determine whether or not the musical example can be considered a derivative work. Within that objective is a secondary goal, that the students would understand basic definitions of copyright infringement and derivative work. I had the definition of copyright infringement on their worksheet and used repetition of "derivative work." Still, I have no good reason for not writing that objective on the board or on the handout.

Another improvement from the trial run was that I chose a newer piece of music for my example - something that young students would know and have an easier time relating to (Domino by Jessie J vs Bright Red Chords by Loomis and the Lust). The solfège syllable assignment and listening activity served as analysis, though in a real middle school classroom, we would have spent more time on these activities. 

I concluded with a worksheet that gave students the opportunity to rate the similarities of the two pieces and come up with a verdict about the copyright infringement case. This verdict and the last question on my worksheet (what musical element(s) helped in making your decision) served as the final assessment of my objective. I could have also added a place for the students to define derivative work using their own words. 

I am sorely disappointed that I forgot to mention my homework assignment! It was simple, but valuable. Had I remembered to assign it, the students would have gone home and found an example of music copyright infringement to share in the next class. With this assignment, I'm sure a few of the students would have dug deeper into this interesting topic and potentially made more of a personal connection to it. 

All in all, I think the lesson went well. It is not yet perfect, but with some tweaking and adaptation, it will be an interesting lesson on a topic that can seem boring when poorly presented. If nothing else, this assignment has peaked my personal interest in the topic of music and copyright.