INTASC Standard #7
Instructional Planning Skills
The teacher plans instruction based on knowledge of subject matter, students, the community, and curriculum goals.
Headings for INTASC standards are taken from - Campbell, D.M. et al. (1997). How to develop a professional portfolio: A manual
Lesson planning is one of the most vital components of good teaching. Planning allows you to self-evaluate as your lessons unfold and as a sequence of lessons unfold over a few weeks. What is going well? What skills have I neglected? Where am I in relation to my long-term goals for this grade level? Am I being successful? Additionally, lesson planning helps with the pacing of lessons, allows you to organize your short-term plans within your long-term goals and helps you as the teacher remember what each class has accomplished, given that sometimes different classes of the same grade level can get ahead or behind for various reasons.
Long-term planning is planning your goals and objectives for a year, semester or grading period. This is usually accomplished before the period has arrived and should take place for each ensemble. In long-term planning teachers must consider the music schedule (i.e. will I see these students twice a week or five days a week every third week?), the expectations of the program and also what resources are available. In long-term planning, teachers need to take a look at what resources are available, including the availability of instruments, what literature is available, what technology is available in the classroom. Lastly, teachers need to consider who the students are and what kind of background they have. For example, can you start with more advanced material or do you need to go back to “ground zero”? Additionally, teachers should have a way of keeping track of their use of the National Standards to be able to see which skills are lacking in instruction. This could be as simple as a tracking chart at the bottom of day-to-day lessons that can be reviewed as lesson sequences progress.
Short-term planning is often what is thought of when teachers think of lesson planning. It is the planning of individual (daily) lessons, weekly lesson or unit lessons. In the short-term lesson plan, several components are necessary for short-term planning to be effective. In a lesson plan teachers should include, before even the actual “planning”, the material so as to not duplicate musical materials with students, the lesson sequence number to show if specific lessons are meant to go together as a unit and the grade level and ensemble (also to avoid duplication or omission of activities). Next teachers should include several large umbrella statements about the lesson. First, what the concept you are addressing is; the primary concept. Secondly, any additional concepts that could be taught with this material later on. Teachers should also include the materials needed (to reduce teacher forgetfulness) and behavioral objectives. The behavioral objectives are observable and assessable and are written from the perspective of what the students will do. Finally, in the short-term lesson plan should be the procedure, which is a detailed description of what will happen in the lesson. Lesson plans should always include a “follow-up” or idea of what could come next in a sequence. Additionally, at the end of a lesson plan would be a great place for a Standards tracking chart to help with the fulfillment of long-term planning goals.
The teacher has a very big decision to make when planning instruction and that is the approach that he or she will take. There are several approaches, all of which are valid if still maintaining comprehensive musicianship (educating through music). Teachers can approach planning from a conceptual perspective (starting with the concept to be taught), a materials perspective (starting with the materials) or a skills perspective (starting with the specific skill to be practiced). Any of the approaches will serve the same purpose; it is simply teacher preference as long as comprehensive musicianship is the goal. Not only does the music educator have to choose the approach that they want to use, but they also must be willing and prepared to utilize state and district curriculum guides. I am prepared to do so in my consideration of curriculum for my classroom.
When planning instruction for instrumental music, there are several factors that can influence and potentially overwhelm the instrumental music educator. At all times the focus must be on providing a sound music education for students through the instrumental music medium. Since music is our medium, our choice of repertoire is vitally important and the ability of the music educator to choose appropriately challenging repertoire is a necessary skill to develop. However, instruction must be planned with consideration given to the students, the community and the curriculum. Consideration to students includes adapting instruction for individual students as well as considering the engagement of students when selecting repertoire for your ensemble.
Long-term planning is planning your goals and objectives for a year, semester or grading period. This is usually accomplished before the period has arrived and should take place for each ensemble. In long-term planning teachers must consider the music schedule (i.e. will I see these students twice a week or five days a week every third week?), the expectations of the program and also what resources are available. In long-term planning, teachers need to take a look at what resources are available, including the availability of instruments, what literature is available, what technology is available in the classroom. Lastly, teachers need to consider who the students are and what kind of background they have. For example, can you start with more advanced material or do you need to go back to “ground zero”? Additionally, teachers should have a way of keeping track of their use of the National Standards to be able to see which skills are lacking in instruction. This could be as simple as a tracking chart at the bottom of day-to-day lessons that can be reviewed as lesson sequences progress.
Short-term planning is often what is thought of when teachers think of lesson planning. It is the planning of individual (daily) lessons, weekly lesson or unit lessons. In the short-term lesson plan, several components are necessary for short-term planning to be effective. In a lesson plan teachers should include, before even the actual “planning”, the material so as to not duplicate musical materials with students, the lesson sequence number to show if specific lessons are meant to go together as a unit and the grade level and ensemble (also to avoid duplication or omission of activities). Next teachers should include several large umbrella statements about the lesson. First, what the concept you are addressing is; the primary concept. Secondly, any additional concepts that could be taught with this material later on. Teachers should also include the materials needed (to reduce teacher forgetfulness) and behavioral objectives. The behavioral objectives are observable and assessable and are written from the perspective of what the students will do. Finally, in the short-term lesson plan should be the procedure, which is a detailed description of what will happen in the lesson. Lesson plans should always include a “follow-up” or idea of what could come next in a sequence. Additionally, at the end of a lesson plan would be a great place for a Standards tracking chart to help with the fulfillment of long-term planning goals.
The teacher has a very big decision to make when planning instruction and that is the approach that he or she will take. There are several approaches, all of which are valid if still maintaining comprehensive musicianship (educating through music). Teachers can approach planning from a conceptual perspective (starting with the concept to be taught), a materials perspective (starting with the materials) or a skills perspective (starting with the specific skill to be practiced). Any of the approaches will serve the same purpose; it is simply teacher preference as long as comprehensive musicianship is the goal. Not only does the music educator have to choose the approach that they want to use, but they also must be willing and prepared to utilize state and district curriculum guides. I am prepared to do so in my consideration of curriculum for my classroom.
When planning instruction for instrumental music, there are several factors that can influence and potentially overwhelm the instrumental music educator. At all times the focus must be on providing a sound music education for students through the instrumental music medium. Since music is our medium, our choice of repertoire is vitally important and the ability of the music educator to choose appropriately challenging repertoire is a necessary skill to develop. However, instruction must be planned with consideration given to the students, the community and the curriculum. Consideration to students includes adapting instruction for individual students as well as considering the engagement of students when selecting repertoire for your ensemble.
Artifact 1- High School Band Sample Curriculum
This artifact is a sample curriculum for high school band that I put together as part of my Band Literature course. For this assignment, we were asked to program for a concert that is eight weeks away and create a weekly and daily overview of how we would accomplish our goals and objectives with the chosen literature. This artifact shows my ability to plan instruction over a long period of time and create a cohesive, comprehensive curriculum with quality repertoire. I would use this artifact in the future as a potential curriculum for use in high school band.
Artifact 2- Intermediate Jazz Improvisation Lesson Plan
This artifact is a lesson plan that I created and implemented as part of my Practicum experience with a high school jazz band. My cooperating teacher, asked my partner and I to work on jazz improvisation and we created a series of lessons that worked on developing jazz improvisation vocabulary and skills. This artifact demonstrates my ability to plan on the micro level of daily lesson planning and to create a comprehensive, interactive and engaging lesson based on content, the needs of the students and the curriculum within which I was working. I would use this artifact in the future by repeating this lesson if I ever had the opportunity to work with an intermediate jazz band.