Jenny Hoye

29 October 2017
MUED 376
Lesson Planning

Weve been getting a lot of real time experience in lesson planning through our work

with Direct Instruction and planning our lessons for VMRC this semester. Additionally, reading

over the lesson planning materials in Canvas contained some valuable points that expanded upon

what weve been experiencing and added to it. Below are a few of the key things that I took

away from the materials:

- the Golden Mean of a rehearsal I think theres so much truth to the idea that there is a

golden mean in a rehearsal where the choir is at their peak to get their best work done at that

time. 0.618 of the way through sounds right based on all of my years of being in choirs, and

keeping this in mind when lesson planning will make a big difference in getting the biggest bang

for your buck, so to speak, when thinking about getting the most out of your choir and the

rehearsal time that you have with them.

- rehearsal threads Even if it seems that your lesson is full of random bits and pieces

that need to get done, creating an underlying theme or thing to focus on throughout the rehearsal

will help ground the lesson in something and pull it all together. I think that helps the director

when planning the rehearsal and helps the choir contextualize all of the things they might do

throughout a rehearsal. Giving a lesson plan direction through a few rehearsal threads makes it

much more organized and cohesive versus a lesson with random, unrelated activities with

nothing to tie them together.

- options/backup/intuition While Direct Instruction and scripting out your lessons gives

you a really thorough, detailed, organized plan, the reality is that the rehearsal might not go

according to your plan. The importance of having multiple options, backup plans, and using your
intuition as a teacher to go off-script cannot be understated. If youre able to write out multiple

options depending on how the rehearsal goes, thats ideal because youll be able to turn to them

in the moment and still maintain an organized rehearsal thats been planned ahead of time.

However, its important to be flexible and intuitive enough to be able to head in a different

direction if thats whats called for in the moment, even if its not planned out. Your teaching

behaviors should be developed enough that going off-script shouldnt derail the rehearsal.

While lesson planning is essential, adapting to your students needs in the moment is, as well.

- pre-class and post-class One thing that caught my eye in one of the documents on

Canvas that we havent really touched on were small sections for small to-do lists for pre and

post class. This struck me because it reminds you that teaching involves so much more than

being present in the hours that actual class is taking place. The preparation before class and the

reflecting after class, as well as all the logistical things that happen outside of the classroom to

make a successful choir deserve attention in addition to the lessons youre planning for actual

class time.

- teaching for transfer - This concept was interesting. As college students, if we reflect

on things were doing in class, we can probably make transfers, but I hadnt given much thought

to the structures that teachers can set up in their lesson planning to make transfer easier. Such a

simple example is having warmups correlate with the material youre planning on covering in the

lesson. Ive seen plenty of teachers use the same few warmups every class, and they might not

match the music in the choirs repertoire at all. Connecting everything as much as you can will

make it easier for students to see those connections and see how everything in your lessons relate

to each other and are there for specific reasons.