ENTRY 7: Planning for Instruction
The candidate plans instruction that supports every student in meeting rigorous learning goals by drawing upon knowledge of content areas, technology, curriculum, cross-disciplinary skills, and pedagogy, as well as knowledge of learners and the community context.
The candidate should complete a unit of instruction and submit for this entry a unit plan detailing content knowledge, use of technology by teachers and students, integrative content, and multiple pedagogical strategies.
The candidate should complete a unit of instruction and submit for this entry a unit plan detailing content knowledge, use of technology by teachers and students, integrative content, and multiple pedagogical strategies.
Planning is a crucial part of the education process at both the elementary and secondary levels. The first step necessary in planning each and every lesson is the consideration of both students’ prior knowledge and students’ ability level. Then one moves on to activity selection and pacing before presenting to the students.
Elementary units and lesson plans generally take a great deal longer than secondary units to plan. While there is a degree of flexibility about them, elementary lessons have more activities per lesson and require you to stick to a much shorter time block than secondary. Elementary students need several different components in a lesson in part because of their attention spans. They need to be permitted to move with frequency during a lesson and need to move from one activity to the other quickly. Additionally, elementary units are the building blocks to music and these lessons take careful planning and consideration.
In elementary units, I typically like to include visual aids, even if this isn’t notation yet, as well as some kind of game or movement at some point in the lesson to cover all of the types of learning. The concept is next isolated and presented to the students. The students here are usually learning a song or a musical concept. Here, students hear the concept and repeat it aurally – most often using echo or fill in the blank strategy. The concept is repeated as many times as needed to ensure that the students are comfortable with the music. After there is some familiarity, we often add back in movement so that students bring back that kinesthetic aspect and continue to refine their motor skills. The last thing we generally add to an elementary lesson are visuals. The visual allows students to see how music is written and represented.
Secondary lesson plans take a fair amount of time as well, but there is an added degree of flexibility and responsiveness required. Many elementary lessons are scripted and planned to the minute, whereas secondary lessons are more general. As these are often ensemble rehearsals, there is a structure to them – announcements/reminders, warm up, rehearse. However, the focus of the rehearsal and how much time spent on each piece will vary from class to class and piece to piece. The timeline is to be considered, given the performance date, but there is much more flexibility necessary.
Elementary units and lesson plans generally take a great deal longer than secondary units to plan. While there is a degree of flexibility about them, elementary lessons have more activities per lesson and require you to stick to a much shorter time block than secondary. Elementary students need several different components in a lesson in part because of their attention spans. They need to be permitted to move with frequency during a lesson and need to move from one activity to the other quickly. Additionally, elementary units are the building blocks to music and these lessons take careful planning and consideration.
In elementary units, I typically like to include visual aids, even if this isn’t notation yet, as well as some kind of game or movement at some point in the lesson to cover all of the types of learning. The concept is next isolated and presented to the students. The students here are usually learning a song or a musical concept. Here, students hear the concept and repeat it aurally – most often using echo or fill in the blank strategy. The concept is repeated as many times as needed to ensure that the students are comfortable with the music. After there is some familiarity, we often add back in movement so that students bring back that kinesthetic aspect and continue to refine their motor skills. The last thing we generally add to an elementary lesson are visuals. The visual allows students to see how music is written and represented.
Secondary lesson plans take a fair amount of time as well, but there is an added degree of flexibility and responsiveness required. Many elementary lessons are scripted and planned to the minute, whereas secondary lessons are more general. As these are often ensemble rehearsals, there is a structure to them – announcements/reminders, warm up, rehearse. However, the focus of the rehearsal and how much time spent on each piece will vary from class to class and piece to piece. The timeline is to be considered, given the performance date, but there is much more flexibility necessary.
ARTIFACT 1: Elementary Unit Plan
An entire unit, which is several weeks of instruction, planned for the beginning of first grade.
ARTIFACT 2: Secondary Unit Plan
A unit on a piece, planned for the upper secondary classroom, for the spring semester.
ARTIFACT 3: Middle School Unit Plan
A unit plan written and used during my secondary placement of student teaching.