Lesson plan: Housewifes Lament

Content and Achievement Standards

Singing, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music.

c. sing music representing diverse genres and cultures, with proper expression and articulation
manifest in the song.

Class Goals and Objectives

Continue to develop students skills through various singing activities.

Enable students to aurally identify, describe, and perform songs that include Crescendos and
Decrescendos.

Materials

Document camera and a copy of Housewifes Lament

Procedures
1. Students and instructor will discuss various types of chores the students do at their house for their
parents.
QUESTION: What chores do you all have to do? How long does it take you to do the chores?
Do you get paid an allowance after finishing the work? Do any of your parents do
specific chores around the house?
PROMPT:
I am going to sing a song of a wife/mother who has had a rough day and feels her
need to sing away her troubles while doing chores. Please keep a steady beat as I
sing and keep tabs of all the things shes complaining about.
2. Students will keep a steady beat and listen as the instructor sings/models Housewifes Lament.
QUESTION: So what all is bothering the wife at this time?
PROMPT:
Lets now learn the song together.
3. Students will echo Housewifes Lament in small segments as modeled by the instructor in an effort
to learn the song by rote. The instructor will repeat this process many times, gradually increasing the
length of the phrase, providing enough repetition so that students will be able to sing accurate pitches,
rhythms, and lyrics.
PROMPT:

Now lets sing the whole song together.

4. The students and instructor will keep a steady beat and sing Housewifes Lament. The instructor
will be sure to intone the starting pitch to make sure students can start together and sing accurately.
PROMPT:

I bet you can sing Housewifes Lament without me this time. Lets see.

5. The students will keep a steady beat and sing Housewifes Lament. The instructor will be sure to
intone the starting pitch to make sure students can start together and sing accurately. The instructor
will evaluate students ability to sing accurate pitches, rhythms, and lyrics as they sing.
PROMPT:

This time, I am going to sing Housewifes Lament differently. I want you all to

Lesson plan: Housewifes Lament

keep a steady beat for me and try to determine how my singing is different, pay
attention to where my hands are.
6. Students will keep a steady beat and listen as the instructor sings/models Housewifes Lament, this
time with a crescendo from measures 1-4 and 9-12 and a decrescendo from 5-9 and 13-16. Through
the dynamic changes the instructor will raise and lower their hands to as high as they can for loud and
then down low for soft and steadily changing with consistent movement.
QUESTION: How would you describe the way I sang Housewifes Lament this time? What
was my hand doing? How was my singing different from the way we learned it?
PROMPT:
Now lets have you try to sing it with me in this new way. Also doing the hand
motion
7. Students and instructor will keep a steady beat and sing Housewifes Lament with proper
crescendo, decrescendos and hand movements. The instructor will be sure to intone the starting pitch to
make sure students can start together and sing accurately.
QUESTION: If you were a composer and you wanted your song sung this way, what symbol
might you use in the music? What key words might you use?
8. After students have had the experience of singing crescendos and decrescendos as well as speculated
on how a composer might indicate this in the music, the instructor will introduce the concept of
crescendos and decrescendos to his/her students, and using the document camera and a copy of
Housewifes Lament, show the standard way to notate crescendos and decrescendos.
QUESTION: What do you think would be the need for these weird, in-between and changing
levels of volume? Why not have everything loud? Have you heard anything that
does this type of change before?
PROMPT:
Now that we know the proper term for this type of singing, lets sing
Housewifes Lament one more time with crescendos and decrescendos but
watch me for the changes as it will be different from the first time we sang it
together.
9. To end the lesson, students will keep a steady beat and sing Housewifes Lament with crescendos
and decrescendos at the instructors discretion of location and speed. The instructor will be sure to
intone the starting pitch to make sure students can start together and sing accurately. The instructor will
evaluate students ability to sing accurately with the application of crescendos and decrescendos as they
sing.
PROMPT:

As you leave class, please fill out your Exit Ticket and tell me something in
your life that changes like crescendos and decrescendos.

Assessment of Goals and Objectives

Assessment of singing skill will be informal and achieved by monitoring students during singing
activities. The instructor will utilize a checklist to indicate which students are singing with accurate
pitch, rhythm, and articulation. Knowledge of crescendos and decrescendos will be assessed using the
Exit Ticket strategy, having students tell me something in their life that changes like crescendos and
decrescendos.

Lesson plan: Housewifes Lament

Follow up Lessons
Future lessons will bring back songs that they have learned specific dynamics on and have them change
smoothly between specified volumes rather than have immediate changes.