Lesson 1: Getting Acquainted

Lesson Plan:

Grade: 3

Concept:  Rhythm

Time: 30 minutes

Element:  Beat

Materials: A happy smile, a willing singing voice, your lap for patting, and your hands for clapping!

National Music Standard: Perform-Rehearse, Evaluate, and Refine

Specific National Standards: MU:Pr5.1.3a - Rehearse to refine technical accuracy, expressive qualities, and identified performance challenges.

Objectives: Students will be able to perform the body percussion in the piece Jambo with accuracy.

Procedure:

1. Gain Attention
1. Have students all stand in a circle and do the 7 Habits of Highly effective singers.
2. Warm up the body. (Movement)
3. Warm up the breath. (What happens when you put more air into a balloon? It gets bigger!  Pretend your tummy is a balloon!)
4. Vocal play.  Can you sing what I sing and follow my finger?
5. Sing one pitch on a neutral syllable.  (Pitch matching on "loo")
6. Sing two pitches. (Pitch matching)
7. Sing a short phrase. (Jambo)
8. Save adding words (the 7th habit) for #3 below.
2. Inform learners of objectives
1. Today we're going to learn a song that will help me learn your names!  Then will start learning a welcome song.
3. Present the content
1. Sing Jambo, inviting the students to keep the beat.
4. Guided learning
1. This time listen for some interesting words you hear.
2. Have the students say the words they hear.
3. Repeat the words of the song phrase by phrase, then sing one more time.
4. Explain that now we are going to make the clapping a little harder.  Demonstrate, saying "pat pat, left left, pat pat, right right, pat, left, pat, right, pat clap snap."
5. Practice
1. Repeat the hand clapping and chanting 3 or 4 times until the students feel comfortable.
2. Ask the students if they can keep clapping while you sing.
3. Sing Jambo and do the clapping do it a couple of times.
4. Explain that 4 people will say their name in time with the beat, and then the whole group will repeat all four names.   Ask the 3 students names who are sitting next to you.
5. Sing Jambo again, keeping the beat, and then demonstrate saying the names in beat.
6. Ask  the students if they feel comfortable we can do the body percussion and say 4 names around the circle.  Tell the students to just focus on the clapping and saying their names, inviting them to sing if they feel comfortable.
7. Do it!! Go all the way around the circle, don't stop between repetitions.
6. Provide Feedback
1. Comment on the students performance.  Such as "I love how so and so stayed with the beat when saying their name."  "I liked how you keep going even when you made a mistake and were able to get back on the beat.
7. Enhance retention and transfer to new learning.  PROCEED AS TIME ALLOWS.
1. Now we are going to practice a new song.  Listen and count on your fingers how many different languages you hear in this song.
2. Perform "Hey, Hello."  Ask students how many languages they heard (4).
3. Ask the student to do the motions they see you do.  Repeat "hey, hello" again.
4. This time, invite the students to hum or sing if they feel comfortable.  Repeat the song 2x without stopping.
5. If the students are comfortable, add the loco motor movement.  Demonstrate first, then do the song 2x without stopping.
6. Invite students to come back to their circle, then ask them if they have ever sung in a round before.
7. Explain that a round it when 2 groups sing the same song, but start at different times.  So I will start the first group, and then you will keep going while I sing with the 2nd group.  Ms. Grgich will stay with the 1st group.
8. Divide the class in two, and then sing Hey, Hello as a round (2x through without stopping).
9. If the two part round goes well, add the locomotor movement (2x without stopping).
10. If that goes well, audiate the piece.  Explain that this means that we will do the locomotor movement, but not make any sound.
11. Continue next lesson if time does not permit finishing.

Reflection:

This first lesson was a bit of a struggle for me, and I think the beginning was hard for the kids, too.  I am learning about the students' skill level, what engages them, and how they respond to challenges.  I learned a lot from teaching this lesson because it did not go as smoothly as I would have liked.  I will start by listing a few overall observation, then continue by describing my lesson more specifically.

Overall observations, a few things I noticed and would like to address/improve on next time:

• Some students were singing/making noise when I said to "listen."  We could talk about what listening looks and sounds like.
• Students were moving/making noise when I asked them to "watch."  Talk about what watching looks and sounds like.
• Waiting your turn to speak.
• The circle was too small, there isn't room for a big enough circle to enable movement.  This made it difficult  for students to see me and for me to watch them.  It caused some chaos as the students moved so that they could see me.

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Singers went very well.  I forgot to warm up the breath, but the pitch matching was good, although the students needed to listen to the pitch more than one time.  They listened well when there was just one pitch or a short phrase, and then repeated it back with pretty good accuracy.

Jambo was not my best teaching.  I think I rushed through it a little two fast because I am used to teaching adults in my music education courses.  The students did well with keeping the beat, although they did rush the tempo a little bit the longer they went.  I think that is common with children through.  Teaching the melody of Jambo went well until we got to making the clapping more complicated.  I forgot to start with simplified pattern of "pat pat, left left, pat pat, right right," and instead jumped right into "pat pat, left left, pat pat, right right, pat, left, pat, right, pat clap snap."  I realized this, but decided to keep practicing, chanting the pattern while performing the body percussion.  However, no matter how many times we repeated it, and although the students were chanting the pattern with me, it did not seem to get any better.  Part of the students struggling came from sitting in a circle.  "Left" and "right" were complicated by the fact that the students were supposed to be moving in what appeared to be the opposite way from their classmates across the circle.  I had them all raise their left hand into the air, and even turned around to show the students on the other side of the circle.  But for some students, the still really struggled with their left and right.   Most students were competent at patting each way twice, but when the pattern switched to one time each way, they got confused.

After trying consistent practice, I saw that the pattern was not getting any better.  I simplified the body percussion and instead had the students only do the first part of the pattern (pat pat, left left, pat pat, right right).  However, the problem with knowing left and right continued for about 25% of the students.   The majority of the class was able to accurately perform this new pattern.  So I soldiered on, we hoping that the students would follow their neighbor and catch on.

I sang while they did the body percussion, then I explained how to add our names.  I thought my explanation was clear, and I demonstrated with the 3 students next to me, but after finishing singing Jambo, the students didn't know they were supposed to keep patting their laps to keep the beat, nor did they join in to repeat the names a 2nd time.  The latter problem was probably due to my forgetting to demonstrate that part, although I did address it in the original instructions and again when I admitted by forgetfulness to the students.  Sometimes the students didn't realize it was their turn, and in conjunction with the students not understanding that they were supposed to continue keeping the beat after the singing ended, there was often a pause.  I tried to continue by patting my lap and pointing to the children whose turn it was to say their name.  However, the students took a moment to realize it was their turn.  Sometimes it was very difficult for me to lead the group in repeating their names because the students didn't say their names loud enough for me to hear.

Amidst all these difficulties, however, there were students who performed the body percussion pattern well, said their names in tempo, and most students were singing along with some, if not all, of the song by the end.  I considered doing the whole thing again, going all the way around the circle one more time, but I think some of the kids were feeling frustrated

When I looked at the clock to see how much time there was left to do "Hey, Hello" (I was anticipating about 5 minutes), I saw that the 7 Habits and Jambo had only taken 15 minutes. I was shocked, and worried about what to do next.  What if the students were not able to do the round for "Hey, Hello" and I had two failed activities in one day?  If we started learning the piece and I felt that they wouldn't be able to do it, should I end my lesson early and turn time back over to the classroom teacher?

Despite my worries, "Hey, Hello" was a success!  When I started singing, a few students were singing with me.  I had not anticipated this, so I asked them if they had heard the song before, the responded that they had learned it from Mrs. Jones, their music teacher.  I invited them to sing along if they knew the song.  I was impressed that they were able to tell me how many and which languages were in the piece.  They learned the movements, both stationary and loco motor, with ease and the whole class was singing once we had done it 4 or 5 times.  With 5 minutes left of class, I decided to try doing the piece as a two part round.  The first time the students in the first group were a little confused after I stopped leading them and turned to the 2nd group.  I responded by asking for a student who knew the song really well to lead that half of the class.  After that, the round was very successful and we were even able to do it with the loco motor movement.  Another reason "Hey, Hello" was very successful was due to the students being more engaged, less confused, and were not becoming frustrated.  I hope to follow up with this success by doing it in three parts next week, and perhaps audiating the piece the week after that.