Episode #143: Primary Lesson Segments (Recipes for Success, Part I)
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Main Theme: Primary Lesson Segments (Recipes for Success, Part I)
We are starting up a new series all about lesson planning called Recipes for Success and today's episode is all about lesson segments for primary grades. Think of daily lesson plans as a layer cake and the lesson segments are like the foundational layers of the cake.
What are lesson segments?
Lesson segments are the foundation of your lesson and include the songs, games, and activities you do in your room. Lesson segments can be tied to a specific conceptual focus, or can just be for joy and musicking. In a Kodály-inspired classroom, the songs and conceptual focus of lesson segments are chosen from song lists and concept plans and are laid out time-wise from your yearly plans and/or district pacing guide.
How many lesson segments should there be? How long should they be?
In a Kodály-inspired classroom, a typical 45-minute lesson will contain multiple lesson segments tied to at least 5 different songs. A good rule of thumb is to keep the minutes of a lesson segment equal to the age of the child. For example, lesson segments in 1st grade should generally not be longer than 6 minutes. Keep in mind that lesson segments can be different activities drawn from the same song, but we'd never recommend building entire lesson around one song. Below are examples of lesson segment ideas for specific songs that could be tied planned over multiple lessons.
Lesson Segment Examples for Black Cat (as learned from Amy Abbott):
- Sing the song while moving around like cats. Have some students playing a bourdon (D and A) on barred instruments.
- Tap the rhythm or pat the beat while singing. Teacher or student leader uses a sign the indicate if the class should do beat or rhythm.
- Do a rhythmic dictation lesson with cat mini erasers on a beat chart to decode if there is one, two, or zero sounds (ta, ti-ti, or rest).
- Students could use the mini erasers or another medium to compose a new rhythm with ta, ti-ti, and rest that becomes a B section in a rondo where the Black Cat song is the A section. Could then be played on instruments.
Lesson Segment Examples for Miss White:
- Chant while patting a steady beat. Use ghost icons to represent the steady beat.
- Practice using the 4 voices (speaking, singing, whispering, shouting/calling) with the chant, using picture signs for each voice. Use a different voice for each of the 4 phrases of the chant. Students can help arrange the phrases by having 4 students hold the signs in front of the class.
- Play a 4 corners game by placing the 4 voices posters in corners of the room and students walk to the poster of the voice the teacher is using. This also could just be a random 4 corners game where students choose a voice and then the teacher spins a wheel (use Wheel of Names) and the students who are at that poster are now out.
- Do a Seesaw or paper/pencil assessment activity where student identity which voice they are hearing OR arrange and perform the voices themselves.
Resources we mention in this episode:
- Lesson Planning in a Kodály Setting: A Guide for Music Teachers by Rita Klinger
- First We Sing! Activity Cards for Preparation and Practice by Susan Brumfield
- An American Methodology by Lamar Robertson and Ann Eisen
- Previous Music Teacher Coffee Talk Podcast episodes about planning:
Know Better, Do Better
Check out this incredible new Master's degree concentration at the University of St. Thomas!
Work Smarter, Not Harder
Coda
Tanya recommends "Stop Making Sense" - the music documentary and concert movie by the band Talking Heads
Carrie recommends the Social Studies podcast by Joe Dombrowski and Gaspare Randazzo.
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