Planning for lessons and the semester are crucial to effective sequencing and teaching of concepts. The more prepared you are, the more you can adjust your lesson plans according to your classes and not feel overwhelmed and forget something.
To create an effective lesson, the music educator must plan for instruction that includes concepts, materials needed, the procedures of the lesson/experiences the students will take part in, theme of the class, and the design of the lesson plan. Educators of all disciplines must plan for the long term, semesters/academic years/ curriculum units, and plan for the short term, week to week/day to day. Planning should include thoughts about, approach to teaching, methods used, what musical experiences will be created, how many lesson are linked together, what are the objectives, and how will to assess the students understanding. Taking all of these personal goals, and the mandated National and State Standards into consideration will lead to effective lesson planning.
Artifact:
Lesson Plan (Lesson is over the concept of phrasing)
Rationale: This lesson plan is an example of planning silence into a lesson. The tonal and rhythmic warm up of the lesson is done in silence from the teacher because sometimes a teacher plans very well for a lesson, but the execution is blocked because of too many words. Removing the words from the beginning of the lesson helped with the pacing of the lesson because there were small transitions without the words and then the up beat pace continued throughout the lesson, even after words entered the lesson again. I put this lesson plan here because it is an excellent example of my ability to plan and keep my words as on a leash and not let them become a hinderance in the lesson.
Artifact:
Lesson Plan I (Lesson is the first lesson plan of a lesson at Winchester HS)
Lesson Plan II (Lesson is the second lesson plan of a lesson at Winchester HS)
Rationale: I put these two plans up because planning for an individual lesson is one thing, but taking the assessment and feedback from one lesson and planning for another lesson that works on what did not work and what did work in the previous lesson. These two lessons show my ability to reflect on one lesson and put into action different strategies in another lesson at a later time. (In this case, Lesson I was on Tuesday and Lesson II was Friday of the same week).