CEP Lesson Plan Form

Teacher: Liesl Bryant Date: 5/2/17

School: RMHS Room #: 105 Content Area:

Music

Title: Socratic Seminar Lesson #: 2 of 2

Lesson Idea/Topic and I am teaching my students the importance and

Rational/Relevance: application of proper breath support and most of the
What are you going to Italian IPA vowel sounds and symbols. This lesson is
teach and why is this important because it provides students with tools to
lesson of importance to help strengthen their own personal singing as well as
your students? How is it unify the choirs vocal tone quality and resonance. I am
relevant to students of teaching this lesson now because the students are
this age and background? vocally mature enough to handle more sophisticated
Why are you teaching breathing and phonation definitions and techniques, and
this lesson now (what they have a solid foundation in singing. I will be using a
came before/what will lot of interactive activities where the students mimic
come after)? What me/my directions, and team building exercises where
teaching they must match each others vowel shapes to succeed.
methods/strategies will This is to help them become more aware of each other
you use and why? as a group and keep them engaged and invested in the
lesson.

Content Standard(s) addressed by this lesson: (Write Content Standards directly from
the standard)
1.1.a Incorporate all musical symbols, tempo indications, expressive indications, and technical
indications, while maintaining consistent tone quality, intonation, balance, blend, diction, and
phrasing.
1.2.a Sight-read, observing all musical symbols, tempo indications, and technical indications,
while maintaining consistent tone quality, intonation, balance, blend, and phrasing.

Understandings: (Big Ideas)

The International Phonetic Alphabet is a system widely used to help singers (especially in foreign
languages) to produce sounds that are unified and accurate.
Breathing/breath support is the motor with which the vocal chords produce sound. When in
balance the breathing mechanism provides the baseline for excellent tone quality and sound
production.

Inquiry Questions: (Essential questions relating knowledge at end of the unit of instruction,
select applicable questions from standard)
What contributes to a supported vocal sound?
How is IPA relevant and useful in singing solo and choral repertoire?

Evidence Outcomes: (Learning Targets) AND (Success Criteria)Using ABCD Objective

I can: Explain the qualities of inhalation and balanced exhalation, and can identify
seven IPA vowels used in Italian song.

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CEP Lesson Plan Form

This means: I have the tools to assess my own breath quality, and can use the IPA
symbols to effectively match tone quality with my classmates to produce a superior
vocal sound.

List of Assessments: (Note whether the assessment is formative or summative)

A near-identical pre- and post- test (formative)

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CEP Lesson Plan Form
Name and Purpose of Lesson
Should be a creative title - Think of the
purpose as the mini-rationale
Approx. Time and Materials
How long do you expect the activity to
last and what materials will you need?
Anticipatory Set
The hook to grab students attention. To
put students into a receptive frame of
mind.
To focus student attention on the
lesson.
To create an organizing framework
for the ideas, principles, or
information that is to follow
(advanced organizers)
An anticipatory set is used any time a
different activity or new concept is to be
introduced.
How do you intend to engage your
students in thinking during the
Anticipatory Set?
Why are you using it at this point in
your lesson?
How will you know they get it?
Procedures
(Include a play-by-play account of what
students and teacher will do from the
minute they arrive to the minute they
leave your classroom. Indicate the length
of each segment of the lesson in minutes.
Indicate whether each is:
-teacher input
-modeling
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Planned Lesson Activities
Breathing and the International Phonetic Alphabet
60 minutes, slides, pre- and post-test on separate sheets of paper
Think-Puzzle-Explore
On the back of the pre-test, I will have students write in the spaces
provided answering the following questions:
1. What do I think I know about the International Phonetic
Alphabet?
2. What question(s) do I have about the International Phonetic
Alphabet?
3. How can we explore these questions?
I will have students who wish briefly share out to the class.
I plan to do this at this point because it will start the students thinking
about the IPA we are about to learn and practice as a class, will give
them some context for the pre-test, and if they have never heard of IPA,
it will engage their curiosity.
Teacher Actions Student Actions
Lead warm-ups with three specific Participate in warm-ups and follow
breath exercises to help engage teacher directions. (8 min)
relaxed inhalation and active
exhalation.
Take pre-test (2 min)
Distribute pre-test and O Bella
Fusa with post-test on the back.
Collect pre-test
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CEP Lesson Plan Form
-questioning strategies
-guided/unguided:-whole-class practice,
group practice, individual practice, check
for understanding, other
Colorado State University College of Health and Human Sciences
Participate in lecture, take notes if
Put slide show on board and go desired.
through interactive lecture on IPA (8 min)
vowels having students repeat
vowels as a group, individually,
and sing matching vowels around
the room. When the opportunity
arises that students are exactly
matching the vowels in tune,
explain how singers experience
the overtone series, and pause to
experiment with one or two
singers singing a different vowel,
then matching as a group to help
students listen for when the tone
locks in. Explain that there are
many different IPA systems for
languages from around the world,
but Italian is a great place to start
because it is easiest to pick up Sing and take notes on solfege if
and applicable to many other desired focusing on breathing and
languages as a baseline. support.
(5 min)
Guide student learning of notes
and rhythms on first page of O
Bella Fusa referring back to proper Repeat words after instructor
inhalation and exhalation. Participate in discussion about
which IPA symbol should represent
Speak words of O Bella Fusa in the vowel sound in each word. (8
small sections and lead discussion min)
of matching IPA vowels to each
Italian word. Sing, focusing on vowels, then on
breathing where instructor
indicates, further ingraining the
Lead singers through first page mouth shape with the IPA symbol
paying close attention to vowels as it is sung.
(maybe taking out consonants (4 min)
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CEP Lesson Plan Form

completely and just singing on

vowels once through). Pay special
attention to last section and
breathing, pausing to allow Participate in pop quiz and
students to take fuller, more volunteer if desired to provide an
purposeful breaths. English word for each vowel. (2
min)
Once satisfactory with both
breaths and vowel unification,
lead the students through a pop
quiz exercise pointing to different
vowels on the board and having
the students say each out loud, Complete post-test and pass it in
calling on a volunteer to say a along with music and pre-test if
correlating English word with each not already turned in. (3 min)
symbol.

Ask students to fill out post-test

How do you intend to engage your
students in thinking during the I plan to use active participation/echoing, and discussion to engage my
Procedures? students. I plan to use it in this part of my lesson because it is
Why are you using it at this point in necessary for learning the content and concepts, and I will be listening
your lesson? for supported tone quality and unified vowels to know when they have
How will you know they get it? gotten the concepts.
Closure Lead brief class discussion on why students think using IPA may be
Those actions or statements by a teacher helpful to them as individuals and in choir in the future.
that are designed to bring a lesson
presentation to an appropriate conclusion. End with funny video of mispronunciations of words (which many
Used to help students bring things students may have already seen on youtube) to end on a lighthearted
together in their own minds, to make note and tie in to why vowel differentiation is important.
sense out of what has just been taught.
Any Questions? No. OK, lets move on is
not closure. Closure is used:
To cue students to the fact that
they have arrived at an important
point in the lesson or the end of a
lesson.
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CEP Lesson Plan Form

To help organize student learning

To help form a coherent picture and to
consolidate.

How do you intend to engage your I hope to use the brief class discussion to hear from students who may
students in thinking during the not have spoken up throughout the lesson, and to use humor to tie up
Closure? the concept of IPA vowels. I plan to use it at this point because they will
Why are you using it at this point in have (hopefully) been focusing and working hard, and a little humor
your lesson? can re-energize the class as well as help students remember concepts.
How will you know they get it?
Differentiation: I will give as much time is as needed to finish both the pre- and post-
tests. I am not expecting any other need for differentiation other than
Differentiation should be allowing for slower reading and writing speeds.
embedded throughout your
whole lesson!!
This is to make sure you have
met the needs of your students
on IEPS or 504
To modify: If the activity is too advanced
for a child, how will you modify it so that
they can be successful?
To extend: If the activity is too easy for a
child, how will you extend it to develop
their emerging skills?

Assessment Reflection: (data
analysis)
How will you know if students met the
learning targets? Write a description of
what you were looking for in each
assessment.
I will know if my students have met the targets by my analysis of the
pre- and post-tests as well as using my listening and instructional skills
to diagnose misaligned behaviors/tone quality in the moment and
address them as they arise. I will be looking for full participation
throughout the lesson, and to see that each student completed the pre-
test and (hopefully) improved on the post-test.

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CEP Lesson Plan Form

Post Lesson Reflection

1. To what extent were lesson objectives achieved? (Utilize assessment data to justify your level of
achievement)

In an initial glance over all the pre- and post-tests I received from students, I feel like my objectives were
very well achieved. The students went from knowing very little about IPA (practically nothing) to being
able to say, write, and identify seven different vowels with a large percentage of success. I feel that the
students were engaged and involved in many parts of my lesson, and feel like it went very smoothly. I
was also very pleased that the students got to hear what it sounds like when vowels lock together and
the overtone series does its work (that pinging sound that happens when all the vowels align). Over
all, I am very pleased with how the lesson went and what the students were able to achieve.

2. What changes, omissions, or additions to the lesson would you make if you were to teach again?

I would hopefully move through each vowel a little more quickly and/or have more time with O Bella Fusa
to apply the concepts of vowels to an outside piece. I liked each component, however, and felt like the
addition of breathing exercises and a secondary focus on breath and breath support really worked well
for this group and their learning style. I would want to take an hour and a half to work on these concepts
instead of just 60 minutes.

3. What do you envision for the next lesson? (Continued practice, reteach content, etc.)

I would continue to review/refine the vowels and vowel shapes, working more with O Bella Fusa and also on
transferring some of the vowels into their other prepared repertoire. Ms. Hohweiler mentioned how it would have been
great to be able to look through their other music and apply the concepts to other pieces they were working. I would
hope to get to the point with the students where I could just mention a vowel shape and they could readily write it in
their music, as well as fix their mouth and tongue shape to match across the choir.

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