Name_Caroline Caplen_____________________

Bridgewater College - Music Lesson Plan

Class/Ensemble: __HS Intermediate Womens Choir___ Date: __Fall 2016___

Lesson 1/3

National Standards and/or VA SOL(s):

HCI.4 The student will sing expressively, including
- 5. demonstrating consistent use of phrasing;
- 7. consistently using facial and physical expressions that reflect the mood
and style of the music
HCI.7 The student will explore historical and cultural aspects of music by
- 1. describing the cultures, musical styles, composers, and historical periods
associated with the music literature being studied

Materials/Equipment:
Whiteboard
Copies of music
Internet access
Pencil/paper
Slip of paper with sentences and a treble staff

Prior Knowledge:
Students should be able to sing the majority of their part with piano accompaniment

Objectives/Goals:

Lesson Goal: Students will be able to define what text painting is and identify it in
their music.

Unit Goal: Students will be able to use knowledge of the piece and its context to add
stylistic interpretation to their performance and knowledge of repertoire

Accommodations:
- Music will be made available in large print or on an electronic screen if
needed.
 - Daily class agenda will be written on board or handed out on a slip of paper
for the student.

Content/Procedures:
Time: Sequence:

11:00- Students enter and prepare for class

11:05 - Things are stowed by seat neatly, music gathered, attendance
taken etc.

11:05- Teacher leads the class in warm-ups

11:20 - Breathing exercises
- lip-buzz/tongue trill on 1-2-3-2-1
- Vocal warmups
- scalar
- interval
- melodic
- Melodic warm will focus on using proper
technique and doing something with the
warm-up; not just going through the motions
Repertoire Rehearsal
11:20- - Morning Moon, Philip Silvey
11:40 - Building chords with dissonant harmonies
independently. Focus on vowel matching and listening.
- Rehearse transitions in piece
- Lyric study
- What is this piece about
- How does the composer make the melody match
the lyrics?
11:40- - Introduction to text painting
12:00 - Discussion
- What is text painting?
- Why do composers use it?
- How does it help us as performers?
- Creating
- Students are split into small groups, given a
sentence, and asked to come up with a musical
interpretation that uses text painting
- Examples do not have to sound pretty,
they simply need to express the text
musically
- Identifying
- Sing through first portion of Morning Moon
12:00- - Raise hand whenever we encounter an
12:15 example
- Did that help us in our run through?
Sectional
- Students will split into their sections (S, S, A) and work on
areas that they feel they need to work on - from any piece of
repertoire
- Teacher gives reminder to think about the text painting
discussed today
12:15- - Teacher can rotate around the sections to give more
12:30 individualized instruction and help keep students on
task
- Ubi caritas arr. Ola Gjeilo
- Work on first two phrases, focus on developing style of
the piece
- Search music for examples of text painting
- Students will have to refer to the translation
- Sing through examples students have found
- Focus on developing good tone and adding
meaning to the song

Closing:

Teacher will ask students to find an example of text painting in popular music to
share for next class. Example should include a copy of the text (portion of text is
fine) and have a written explanation of what the text painting is

Assessment:

Informal: Participation Assessment- Participation/Presence in discussion. Ability to

stay on task during sectional
Lesson 2/3

National Standards and/or VA SOL(s):

Unit:
HCI.4 The student will sing expressively, including
5. demonstrating consistent use of phrasing;
7. consistently using facial and physical expressions that reflect the mood
and style of the music
HCI.7 The student will explore historical and cultural aspects of music by
1. describing the cultures, musical styles, composers, and historical periods
associated with the music literature being studied

Materials/Equipment:
Copies of music
White board
Internet access

Prior Knowledge:
Students should be able to define what text painting is and identify it in the music
based on the lesson given previously

Students should have a strong sense of notes and rhythms of the music and should
be able to sing their own parts confidently with piano accompaniment

Objectives/Goals:

Lesson Goal: Students will be able to identify characteristics of the repertoire being
worked on and will gain knowledge of history and purpose of the pieces.

Unit Goal: Students will be able to begin to add stylistic interpretation to the
repertoire being studied

Accommodations:
- Visual: Music will be made available in large print or on an electronic screen if
needed.
- Visual/Kinesthetic: Daily class agenda will be written on board or handed out
on a slip of paper for students in need of it.

Content/Procedures:

Time: Sequence:

11:00- Students enter and prepare for class

- Things are stowed by seat neatly, music gathered, attendance taken
11:05
etc.
11:05- Teacher leads the class in warm-ups
11:25 - Breathing exercises
- lip-buzz/tongue trill on 1-2-3-2-1
- Vocal warmups
- scalar
- interval
- melodic
- Melodic warm will focus on using proper technique
and doing something with the warm-up; not just
11:20- going through the motions
Review
11:30
- Through volunteers, five or so students will share their examples
- Discuss: What made you choose it? What is the example?
How does it help the artist convey their message?
- All examples collected at the end
11:30- Repertoire Rehearsal
11:55 - The Seal Lullaby
- Pg. 3, mm 23- 31
- Give students a minute to think about text painting
and interpretation
- Have students listen to just accompaniment
- What is the accompaniment doing?
- Text painting
- Sing through portion with accompaniment
- Pg. 1, mm 1-13
- Sing through section with piano
- Work on vowel matching
- Sing part in small circle
- What kind of imagery does this piece evoke?
- Water, mother singing to baby
 - Have students paint a scene they imagine
through self-conducting
- Sing through piece imagining finding a treasure
- Sing through piece imagining singing a child to sleep
- What are the differences in the two
interpretations?
12:55- - Which do you prefer, why?
12:15 - Run through, add mm. 15-23
- Give feedback
- Run mm. 1 - 33
- Ave Maria, Guy Forbes
- Mm 20-31
- SI, AI together
- SII, AII together
- Tutti
- Stretto on Jesu
- Why written like that? - Longing
- Sing like The Seal Lullaby
- Sing like a church hymn
- What kind of images do we want to evoke as
12:15- performers?
12:30 - History of text
- What message are we conveying?
- Run 20-31 again
- Sometimes I feel like a motherless child, DeCormier
- What is the message of this song?
- Spiritual, traditional
- Slavery, hopelessness
- Where is home?
- Mm. 5-14
- Everyone on solo
- Sing to/for yourself
- Pg. 5, first 2 systems
- Vowel matching on oo
- Connecting, smooth sound
- Listen to how it fits in with melody

Closing:
Im glad were taking such big steps to develop our music! Were sounding so good
and were starting to add some extra to our music, its sounding really exciting!

Assessment:
Informal Assessment: grading of text painting examples
Participation assessment: Participation/presence in discussion; creativity/presence
during the paint the scene activity.
Lesson 3/3

National Standards and/or VA SOL(s):

Unit:
HCI.4 The student will sing expressively, including
5. demonstrating consistent use of phrasing;
7. consistently using facial and physical expressions that reflect the mood
and style of the music
HCI.7 The student will explore historical and cultural aspects of music by
1. describing the cultures, musical styles, composers, and historical periods
associated with the music literature being studied

Materials/Equipment:
Copies of music
White board
Internet access

Prior Knowledge:
Students should have a basic understanding of some of the characteristics of the
piece and be working on creating a meaningful interpretation.

Students should be able to define what text painting is and identify it in the music
based on the lesson given previously

Students should have a strong sense of notes and rhythms of the music and should
be able to sing their own parts confidently with piano accompaniment

Objectives/Goals:

Lesson Goal: Students will work on their choral interpretation of the music by
working and listening to each other, not always relying on teacher to point things
out.

Unit Goal: Students will be able to begin to add stylistic interpretation to the
repertoire being studied
Accommodations:

- Visual: Music will be made available in large print or on an electronic screen if

needed.
- Visual/Kinesthetic: Daily class agenda will be written on board or handed out
on a slip of paper for students in need of it.

Content/Procedures:

Time: Sequence:

11:00- Students enter and prepare for class

- Music gathered, things stowed neatly
11:05
- Attendance is taken, announcements are given
- Have students arrange themselves in a circle
11:05- Teacher leads the class in warm-ups
11:25 - Breathing exercises
- lip-buzz/tongue trill on 1-2-3-2-1
- Vocal warmups
- [u] 1-2-3-2-1; repeat on [a] D to B Major
- 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 1, 5, 4, 5, 3, 5 etc. (on numbers)
- Chord building/vowel matching
- Crescendo, decrescendo
- Change chord by half steps, one part at a time
11:25-
Repertoire Rehearsal:
11:45
- Sometimes I feel like a motherless child, arr. De Cormier
- Run beginning to end
- Have students discuss what they could do better, particular
focus on stylistic interpretation (i.e. enunciation, phrasing,
attitude, etc)
- Beginning - mm 26.
- Start/stop as needed
- Clearly shape phrases
- Listening: Sing as if its a lullaby, and then as if its a
spiritual
- What are the differences, what do we prefer?
- Run section
- Mm. 27 - 36
- Phrasing
 - What should the oos emulate? (they should be the
air underneath the eagle)
- Run section
- Mm. 37-39
- Sopranos only, focus on light, open space
11:45- - Run piece again
11:55 - Coach through what was talked about during run
through
- Reminder to keep light, open space at mm. 37.
11:55- - Morning Moon, Silvey
- Mm. 55 - 61
12:10
- Same light tone
- Discuss interpretation
- Ubi caritas, Gjielo
12:10- - Mm. 16 - 27
- Instruct students to do something musical with it
12:20
- Mm. 28 - 36
- What is the shift in mood from 32 to 33?
- Ave Maria, Forbes
- Mm. 28 - 40
12:20-
- Encourage students to do something musical
end - What is the shift in mood?
- Dont share, sing.
- Start auditions for Ave Maria and Motherless Child (will finish the
following day)
- Others will work in sectionals
- For solo, looking for ability to interpret personally, make
musical decisions

Closing:
Some really great work today, guys! Be sure to keep practicing and thinking about
interpretation? Why are we singing this piece? Why do you like it? How can you
make your audience like it?

Assessment:
Formal: Students will be assessed in the form of a journal entry at the end of the
week/unit.