UbD Planning Template (based on Figure D.1, p. 44), adapted from Dr. Jesse Gathgeber.

Make a
copy of this and adapt it to your ukulele content.

Project Name: How to Play a Song on the Ukulele with Three Chords

Describe your future students. What might they know? What music might they like? What might they be
interested in?
My future students will be avid learners who desire to expand upon their musical knowledge by
experimenting with “new” instruments (in this case, the Ukulele). At the high school level, my future
students will (hopefully!) be well-versed in note-reading. It’s likely that the students will want to learn
some of the songs that they hear on the radio to share what they’ve learned and to impress their friends
and family members.
Stage 1 - Desired Results
Materials: Goals: EMPHASIZE EXPLORATION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
What is necessary for What do you want students to understand and why is it important? In the short
your students to term? In the long term?
participate? Be as  I want my students to feel confident in their knowledge of the three
specific as possible. chords that will be used in the group song that we play. (Building
A Ukulele confidence helps the students to have an easier time transitioning
A chord chart between the three chords in whatever specified order that they appear
A pencil in.)
A positive attitude  I want my students to be confident in their strumming pattern, to transfer
what they’ve learned to other pieces in the future to expedite the learning
process.
 I want my students to be able to teach what they’ve learned to others to
further solidify their understanding of the musical concept that they’re
learning.
Generative (Essential) Questions: Broad questions. Learners will work toward finding personal answers.
These questions encourage learners to reflect.
What am I learning from this activity that I can transfer to my ukulele playing in the future?
Stage 2 - Evidence

Be as specific as possible to articulate what a quality piece of evidence might look like. How can we
determine if learners learned? How can we know if they succeeded in the goals? How and what does this
change when we can’t see the evidence?
 Students will demonstrate their knowledge by identifying and applying the correct fingering/strum
pattern outside of the initial class activities. (Ex. Students can confidently sightread any songs that
utilize the three chords learned.)
 Students will be able to confidently demonstrate the learned concept by teaching their peers.
 Students will begin to “feel” for chords instead of using visual cues to determine what fingering to
utilize.
Stage 3 – Learning Plan

Discuss the specific process by which learners will make progress toward the goals. Specifically address
the ways you, as a teacher, will support, challenge, and wind and unwind for the learners. Build in
scaffolding. What workshops, lessons, projects, or experiences will you guide learners in to help them
develop tools needed to grow? How will you support individual learning and growth?

 Assess what students already know about the three chords being learned before beginning the
activity to have a better understanding of the students’ abilities.
 Share what is hoped to be accomplished within the meeting time with the students to ensure that
everyone in the room is aware of what is expected of them (with flexibility as needed).
 Provide the students with an opportunity to think-pair-share the specific chord fingerings to allow
the student to locate the fingering independently before identifying the fingering in a pair and then
going over the correct fingering placement as a group.
 Encourage students to reflect on prior activities to transfer concepts into newer pieces.
 Encourage students to discover the answer independently to strengthen their self-guided learning
abilities.
 Provide audio clips of the songs that are being learned to provide the students with an additional
resource to aid in their understanding of the chords and their placements within the piece.