"What can I do to make the most effective lesson plan?"

There are two things that a brand new teacher needs to be sure of when they start teaching: When their daily prep periods are, and how they will format their lesson plans.

Here’s what my first lesson plan for my very first class I ever taught looked like:

Class: Music, Grade 5

Week 1

Objectives:

To establish classroom rules and procedures with students. Assess where their learning is, as a class.
Analyze music taught to them by ear (4-5.Mu.2.1.4)

To have students perform separate rhythms in sync, on percussion, while vocalizing an independent part. (4-5.Mu.3.1.1,2,3)

Materials/Prep:

• "Shabooya Roll Call" written on the board

• 1 large tubano

• 2 smaller tubanos

Procedure:

• Arrange students on the floor. Create seating chart.

• Introduce self, go over the rules posted at the front of the room, as a class, as well as expectations.

• Go over lining up (coming into the room, and going out) procedure.

• Introduce Line Up Song “Give Me a Line”

• Go through the plans for fire drills and lockdowns.

• "Roll Call"

• All: "Shabooya, ya, ya, Shabooya roll call
  Solo: (claps) "My name is _____ (Yeah) I'm in fifth grade (Yeah)
  I like (to) _______(Yeah) (rhymes with "grade") (Roll call!)
  Shabooya, ya, ya, Shabooya roll call...

• Write the form on the chalkboard, and give everyone a few minutes to come up with a rhyme. Start with self. "I'm Miss Chavarria/I'm your music teacher/I like to read/About imaginary creatures!"

• Go through "Shabooya Roll Call"

• Once the entire class has gone, I will ask, "Can anyone tell me the time signature of Shabooya Roll Call? Think of just the part where you clapped."

• Examine the claps. Which ones are eighth notes? Quarter notes? How about rests?

• Get the rhythm dictated onto the chalkboard (student volunteer)

• Divide the class 4 lines. Get out the largest Tubano, and 2 smaller Tubanos. Instruct the class:

• Large Tubano: Downbeat

• 1st smaller Tubano: w/ claps

• 2nd smaller Tubano: 4 beats of eighth notes

• The person who finishes playing Tubano in the 3rd line will move up to the front of the class and do "Roll Call" then move to back of the first line.

• When it is time to go, begin Line Up song (“Give Me a Line”).

And here is the reflection I did moments after the lesson ended:

Classroom Management skills are a must!

Did not get to Tubano’s – work on that next class.

Expectations need to be laid down in place, and following them is a must.

What to do if 75% of the class is loud and obnoxious? Reprimand the whole class. Lights out. Talk to [their homeroom teacher]. Call parents, even.

I was obviously terrified. For a long time, I thought that what happened that day had little to do with my lesson plan. The activity was fun, but a lot of students couldn’t (and wouldn’t) coordinate it. It was a good assessment of students’ behavior, as well as their musical skills.

Since then, I made sure my lessons were detailed as far as procedure went so that my steps were guided the entire time. My objectives were Idaho State Standards, and my materials required were listed out completely. For a while I added an “Assessment” section, but decided against it after a few weeks because it was music class, and performance is assessment.

I continued to have the same lesson format for the entire year. I was happy with it, and it made it easier for me to teach.

Then in March 2016, my principal did a formal observation of one of my second grade classes. We learned a Mexican lullaby, and added xylophone accompaniment to it. I wanted students to begin reading rhythmic notation on instruments, as well as be exposed to music in a foreign/very familiar language.

In his observation, he stated: “You communicate clearly with students but you do not specify the particular expectations you have. You also congratulate them for sounding really good singing and playing but you don't specify what they were doing to show you that.”

In the post-observation meeting, we talked more about that.

PW: “What was it you wanted the students to accomplish in this lesson?”

Me: “...(hesitating, because I knew what I wanted was very different from what happened in the lesson) I think I put more expectations into my lesson than I could fit in a half hour, because I wanted students to be exposed to and learn a song in Spanish, and I also wanted them to read music notation.”

PW: “I think you had different expectations than you imagine, and they proved to be easier and not a challenge to students.”

It was at this point that I realized my objectives and expectations were not clear, and I didn’t know exactly how to make them clear without sounding like an awkward tape recording; I didn’t know how it was naturally done.

So that was my focus for the rest of the year: objectives, bringing them to life.

My next formal observation was of a third grade class, as we were beginning our hip-hop unit. Because the skill of rapping is not intrinsic, and heavily focused on internalizing rhythm, I knew that there had to be bullet-pointed instructions, and guided steps. Here’s what that lesson plan looked like:

And the comments were much improved:

“You did a nice job identifying the 3 key skills to emphasize in this lesson.”

“1c. Setting instructional outcomes: Key ideas are on the board labeled "How to Rap": Did I enunciate? Did I keep the beat? Did I project my voice?”

“1e. Designing coherent instruction When you enunciate, you say every sound. Next, the beat. You keep the beat. You get them started patting their leg as they sing. You use "Twinkle Twinkle" to have them keep the beat. You tell them they are going to choose a Dr. Seuss book and they are going to make it into a rap. You model with a book about bringing the rain to the Kapichi Plain. As you do this a couple kids look at you with wide eyes, as if you were doing magic. Did I enunciate? Did I keep the beat? Did I project my voice? Kids gather in groups of 4 or 5 around a book. You put on the beat and they begin looking at the book. They read them out loud wiht the group. They begin picking up on the beat. They are pretty animated. A couple are a little out of control, scampering around,versus actually reading.”

I was pretty happy with that lesson, and so were the kids. They came back the following days wanting to work on their group raps and improve them, so we added more to them like drums and xylophones.

My problem, however, was making this consistent with every single lesson. So I asked my principal and the instruction coaches if I could tour different classrooms, and watch lesson plans unfold from beginning to the end. I wanted to see how grade teachers stated objectives, and how they kept on track to meet them in the course of an hour.

In May, this was set up. I arranged to get a substitute for a half day while I visited 3rd, 4th, and kindergarten classes. The following are some of the notes I took from class, and the commonalities all classes shared:

The Summary:

The objectives should be brought to the forefront of every lesson. Begin each day with, “Today I will be able to…” or something more natural sounding (“Today we will be able to play sixteenth notes)”. Stating the objective at the beginning is a great way to give students a daily target to work towards, instead of them (and me) feeling like they’re randomly being thrown into activities.

In order to make sure this practice of objective-centering is kept up, it is important to refer to the objective when giving feedback throughout the lesson. “Yes, four sixteenth notes are played faster than eighth notes. If you show me how, we will meet our daily goal.”

And of course, it will be incredibly important for students to understand what they walked away with at the end of each lesson. So on their way out, I will come up with a creative way for them to state their objective. Perhaps an objective song, a call and response where I sing (in my most rockstar/operatic/jazzy/poppy voice, “What did you do today?” and the class responds in the same style, “I can ______”.

I will implement this practice next year (2016-17), and report the success and learning rate across all grades.