SOPRANO/BARITONE MUSIC LESSON PLAN

Teachers Name: Adam Kishbauch Grade Level: 7/8

Lesson Title: Preparing For Everything There is a Season
Aligns with NJ CCC Standards: 1.3.8.B.1, 1.3.8.B.2
Aligns with National Music Education Standards: MU:Pr4.3.8a, MU:Pr6.1.8a

Learning Goals: What Learners Will

Be able to do (behavioral): By the end of this lesson, students in the HMS Concert Choir small
group class will be able to sing For Everything There is A Season from m. 35-43 with proper
staggered entrances and accuracy of rhythm when performing with an accuracy of 80%.

Understand (cognitive): By the end of the lesson, students will interpret the choral octavo of the
pieces by explaining where their parts are and being able to paraphrase the meaning of certain
articulations.

Encounter (experiential): Singing in an ensemble.

Construct meaning (constructivist): As a result of this lesson, students will change their
perspective on singing by considering what is considered proper breathing when we sing.

Focusing Question

In what ways will students: feel empowered to interpret their scores and sing with
confidence in future rehearsals?

Materials

Choral octavos, piano.

Assessment

Formative: Monitoring student engagement through the lesson. Improved breathing and
awareness of breath through partner checking. Increased understanding of material through
questioning and clarifying.

Summative: The students will perform the piece in a December concert showing accurate
breathing and interpretation of score.

Integrative: Teacher reflects on the following questions:

1. In what ways did the lesson process impact the students progress towards the learning
objectives?
a. The warm-ups worked well to help students begin self-monitoring and peer-
monitoring for breathing and posture issues. In addition, keeping the focus on
breathing during the teaching of each song kept the important facets of breathing
fresh in the students mind. The personalization caused many students to feel
excited about discussing their favorite artists, and as a result, students will recall
the learning goals of the lesson when listening to their favorite singer.
2. What evidence was their of student growth and progress toward answering the focusing
question?
a. Students answered questions about the score correctly for the first song which
aided them in interpreting the other octavos in the rehearsal.
3. What might the teacher change in order to deliver the information in the lesson more
effectively?
a. Vocal modeling should take precedence over my piano playing.
b. Begin to tie in other aspects of the voice that influence breathing to improve the
overall sound early on.

Process

Partner: (Honor THEIR world by beginning with an experience students bring to the classroom.
Include time for students to collaborate and respond through sharing and discussion.)

First stretch and roll shoulders. Before warming up, students will be asked to review what they
know about breathing. Q: What do you know about how we breathe? Where should our breath
come from? After discussion, practice abdicostal breathing, letting the air out on ch have
students partner up with their neighbor to be breathing monitors for each other.

Present: (Sequence the Lesson steps. Take the learning from THEIR world to the world of the
classroom. Present the information and allow time for students to practice and respond. Engage
critical thinking, problem posing, and problem solving)

Warm-up:
- CH CH CH CH Ha Ha Ha
- Hum (SMFRMDRTD)
- Sing we all Noel

During warm-ups, we will have the students self-monitor their breathing (rank their breathing for
the exercise) followed by half of the students singing the warm-up while partners monitor. Allow
short time for students to tell their partners if they were following our breathing guidelines, and
then switch.

AFRICAN NOEL: Begin to teach African Noel without scores, paying attention to rhythm.
Speak rhythm in call-response style. Discuss carrying over measures without breathing. Then
sing on pitches, teaching them the beginning of the piece by rote. Students will then open their
scores and find the part they learned in the music. Sing from m. 5-16. Afterwards, students will
turn to m. 49 and discuss the similarities as well as some of the articulations. They will then sing
through to the end of the piece.

Students will open up their scores to page 3 (first page of music). Ask the Baritones what line
they will read from and how they know (identify clef, top or second line, etc.). Ask sopranos the
same, but then turn their attention to p. 4 m. 9. Ask class which notes the sopranos read.

SEASON: Students will attempt to sing through piece up to m. 35 with the intent to follow score
properly. Only stop for train wrecks. At m. 35, ask students what changes about the refrain.
Identify staggered entrance, and continue reading through piece. At this point, remind students to
self monitor their breathing as we did in warm-ups. Make sure to point out fermata at the end.

Personalize: (Make the learning personal to the students. Provide opportunities for students to
create and be musicians. Encourage original thinking and innovations. Facilitate students
abilities to connect.)

Ask students who their favorite singers are. Students will go find videos and analyze the
breathing techniques. Would their singer adhere to our breathing guidelines?