Name: Juan Rivera

District: LAUSD
School: Los Pollos Locos Middle School
Subject: Choral Music
Grade: 6th Grade
Date: June 8, 2017
Lesson Plan Number: 2

National Standards for Music Education

Performing: Rehearse, Evaluate and Refine- Evaluate and refine personal and ensemble

Performing: Analyze- Analyze the structure and context of varied musical works and their
implications for performance
MU:Pr4.2.5b When analyzing selected music, read and perform using standard notation

California Visual and Performing Arts Content Standards

1.0 ARTISTIC PERCEPTION
Students read, notate, listen to, analyze, and describe music and other aural information, using
the terminology of music.

1.2 Read, write, and perform rhythmic and melodic notation, using standard symbols for
pitch, meter, rhythm, dynamics, and tempo in duple and triple meters.

1.4 Analyze the use of music elements in aural examples from various genres and
cultures.

2.0 CREATIVE EXPRESSION

Creating, performing, and participating in Music: Students apply vocal and instrumental musical
skills in performing a varied repertoire of music.

2.1 Sing a repertoire of vocal literature representing various genres, styles, and cultures
with expression, technical accuracy, good posture, tone quality, and vowel shape (level of
difficulty: 3).

2.2 Sing music written in two, three, or four parts.

Objectives:

By the end of the lesson, student will be able to:

1. Sing with a legato sound through Amazing Grace
2. Sing Im New Born Again with correct rhythmic inflections (Syncopation)
3. Sing unison and 4-part harmony with proper intonation
4. Sing with proper use of English dialect according to the performance practices of African
Spirituals.
Procedures:
1. Greet class
2. Physical Warm up (Stretches) Activity: Copy Cat
a. Have students stand up with feet shoulder width apart. Ask choir to imitate my
movements as if they were looking at a mirror the following:
b. Reach for the ceiling
c. Reach for the floor
d. Give yourself a tight hug, relax and repeat once more
e. Shake arms like a horizontal windmill
f. Shoulder rotations
3. Vocal Warm-up:
a. Breathing:
i. In for 4 beats, out for 6. Repeat once
ii. in for 2, out for 8. Once only
b. Vocal Sigh
c. Legato Exercise
i.

d. Vocal sigh
e. Diction
 f.
g. Vocal Sigh
h. Vowels

The Gospel of Grace

1. Ask class to take out Gospel of Grace.

2. Begin singing Amazing Grace and stop at m. 39.
3. After initial run through, please go over these specific sections:
i. m.9 m.16
ii. Mm.17- beg. of m.24
iii. Make sure choir are singing the correct rhythms, correct pitches, correct
slurs, have mouth open and relaxed. Go over these areas and repeat if
needed.
iv. Give singers starting pitches and begin at m. 25. Make sure choir is
pronouncing Twas and other words correctly in accordance with the
performance practices of spirituals.
v. Sing mm.33-39 and fix any issues. Give starting pitches and make sure
harmonies are in tune and fix and diction problems if need be.
vi. Skip to m. 43 and again make sure students are pronouncing dialect
correctly. Words to look out for are Talkin and bout. Stop at m. 55 and
repeat if needed.
 vii. Make sure students sing correct syncopation rhythms and harmonies.
viii. Go over the syncopation rhythms and have class vocalize without pitch
using a neutral vowel like la. Then, add the appropriate pitch and words.
ix. Have class sing one harmony part at a time so they understand how each
line functions.
x. Have class sing their parts, respectively. If there are passages that sound
challenging for the student, ask choir to sing the selected passage one note
at a time as to work on getting good intonation. Once the teacher hears the
desired sound, play the passage once more in its original rhythms. Make
sure to either give proper starting pitches or accompany them so students
can hear the relationship between the notes.
xi. Play from the beginning up to m. 55 and fix any additional problems.

Extension:

If I had the time, I would like to show the class a rendition of these spirituals in the correct
performance practices that are more in line with how they would have been sung when they were
written. The following video would be presented to the class:

YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZoJz2SANTyo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aaKf6P2nhKg

After that, I would have asked the class to try to recreate it to get to the heart of the music. That
means, we would need to learn it without accompaniment and incorporate call and responses of
which I would arrange something for this. I would also spend some time in working on the
harmonies and dialect on these spirituals.

Regarding learning the dialect, I would present the class with a poem from The Book of
American Negro Poetry by James Weldon Johnson and have class recite it together.

Evaluation:

Overall, my performance regarding this lesson plan was much better than my first one back in
the beginning of the quarter. My piano skills were good enough to be able to look at the choir
more than my hands which I was working a lot towards. I still felt that my explanation and
gestures were not clear which I will be working to improve. My warm-up exercises were more in
line with the overall objectives of my lesson but I could have done the same with the actual
rehearsal of the spirituals. I took too much time on the warm-ups that I didnt have time to get
into the music which I will also work on. I will keep working on time management and to have
better rehearsal techniques.