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 for teachers.   Boston: Allyn and Bacon.]

    Throughout the past few years at Ball State, we, as students, have tried to accumulate as much knowledge and resources when it comes to planning lessons for our own classrooms.  In MUSED 352, we were asked to make a lesson file that contains a sample of 10 lessons that we could eventually use in our classrooms.  My lesson file is made on index cards and is in a filing folder.  These index cards include names of songs, resource books, musical elements, prior knowledge, skills needed, grade level, extention lessons, and learning objectives for each entry in this lesson file.  This is beneficial to us when we begin to teach because we will have at least 10 lessons that we have started to plan that we can pull out and use if  need be.  I especially like the idea, because I think it could become very resourceful as a teacher, if I chose to keep this lesson file up to date.  If everytime I create a new lesson, I file it away on an index card, I will have it literally at my fingertips the next time I choose to use it.  Also, I would be able to jot down notes from presentations and other teacher's lessons and file them away as well for future reference.  Eventually, this would allow me to pull out lessons I have already taught and revise them so that they will be appropriate for the current class I would be teaching.
I had to take a recorder competency, singing competency, and accompaniment competency during the Fall 2001   semester for MUSED351. I had to   choose a variety of literature for each of these competencies that reflected   a variety of music. For each   piece that I chose, I had to not only be able to perform it, but discuss what   concepts could be focused on in conjunction with the lesson as well as what   the student’s abilities were and how it related to what music chose for that   age level.  Also, I team taught a lesson for this class with two of my peers.  We directed this lesson around a variety of activites that would all incorporate the concepts we were teaching but would also engage a variety of learners.  (The lesson plan and evaluation are included.)

In Choral Literature class we talked about upholding some of the school and community traditions and goals through the type of music sung and the type of programs put on throughout the year. However, we also talked about the need for some of these traditions to be changed or slightly altered. Students and parents might be a little weary to any changes until the teacher proves that they are capable and know what they are doing. We talked about literature that could be used to help struggling choirs and literature that can help boost confidence of students. We also talked about the development of part-singing in young students and the process that needs to be followed to help them develop step by step. Also in this class, we designed a unit plan and a thematic concert that can provide insight on planning instruction based on subject matter and students. We wrote a lesson plan for the unit plan that incorporated the unit’s overall goals in the one lesson plan. We also had to think of student abilities to choose required readings for the unit that would be appropriate and accomplishable for the students. In the thematic concert, we were asked to choose literature for various ensembles that all incorporated the same theme. We had to think about student abilities when choosing the music and the difficulty level of the music; just fitting into the theme wasn’t enough.

People learn new things everyday; we should not exclude ourselves from this. I filled out a self-assessment of myself for several classes at the beginning of the semester and then updated it towards the end. In this assessment, I identified areas I needed to work on and ways I intended to approach these hurdles. Since I first did this assessment, I have strived to learn and become both better and more experienced, which I feel I have in some of these areas.

I have used a variety of lesson plan styles throughout my classes. Some of these lesson plans proved to be more beneficial to me because they are more in depth such as one from Mused200. However, one I was given absolute freedom, my lesson plans severely decreased in quality such as one from Mused356. Through the semester, I have improved. Yet I feel there is still room for improvement. I have come to the decision that until I can produce a well-written lesson plans on my own; I need to use a form such as the one from Mused200.

In one of my music education classes, I was required to develop an 18-week curriculum. This curriculum focused on the music fundamentals: rhythm, pitch, dynamics, timbre, texture, and form. It includes several units with lesson plans for each week that is supplemented with worksheets and handouts. The entire curriculum is not present here, however an example unit is included. The other units are available upon your request.