Ashley Squires
Pennfield School District, Battle Creek, MI
Pennfield Band Program, 5-12th Grade
“Create a lesson plan…”
 “Warm-ups, scales, and songs.”
 Why do I need to lesson plan? What is there to do?
 “The foundational contexts of education don’t apply to
music classrooms.”
 How do MEAP scores and reading/writing skills apply
to what I do in my classroom?
What’s First in Lesson Planning?
 Consider the instrumentation of your ensemble…
Picking the Right Music…
 What music is currently at their technique level?
 What can they realistically achieve in a semester?
 What are the goals for this music?
“Well, I can push them farther if…”
 Directors who purposely choose music that’s beyond
currently student technique level…
 Students will feel they have failed
 Set single, short-term semester goals:
 Clarinet section masters light-tongue articulation
 More expressive legato playing for baritone student
For Example: The Marching Band
 2009: Chose music that was technically too hard,
marching suffered as a result
 2010: Chose music at current technical level, marching
made vast improvements, earned 1 rating at festival
Another Example: The MS Band
 Chose song at technical level:
Portsmouth Overture
 73 students – 8 trumpets –
3 first trumpets
 Used compositional software to
compose additional parts
 Added five additional musicians
to the melody
 Back-up plan: Add middle-range
bassoon voice to the mix
“Listening and Learning”
 The teacher’s perspective
 Key signatures, rhythmic patterns,
note fingerings, breath support,
articulations…
 “. . . students who are speaking six
different languages at the same time
. . . you’re the only one responsible
for interpreting them all.”
 Understanding the strengths and
weaknesses of your program
A Right or Wrong Way?
 Pre-service Teachers vs. Experienced Teachers
 “[Teachers] with more-structured plans give significantly
more approvals, and their students have significantly
higher achievements when compared to those using lessstructured plans.”
 “Experienced teachers used fewer words than
undergraduates but revealed the same number of strategies
and level of detail, on average.”
-Ruth Britten, Preservice and Experienced Teachers’ Lesson
Plans for Beginning Instrumentalists, Journal of Research
in Music Education, vol. 53, no. 1, 26-39.
 “Teacher-educators often use pre-service teachers' lesson plans
and post-teaching reflections as windows to understand their
thinking about teaching and, ultimately, their observed teaching
behaviors. While a cycle of planning, teaching, and reflecting
after teaching may seem straightforward, it can be difficult for a
beginner to enter the cycle.”
 “The paradox of learning a really new competence is this: that a
student cannot at first understand what he needs to learn, can
learn it only by educating himself, and can educate himself only
by beginning to do what he does not understand.” (Sch[Formula
Omitted]on, 1987, p. 93)
-Margaret Schmidt, Preservice String Teachers’ Lesson-Planning
Processes: An Exploration Study, Journal of Research in Music
Education, vol. 53, no. 1, 6-25.
 “My lesson plans serve as an outline for my rehearsal
days. I already know what music needs the most
attention and I divide up my rehearsal time
accordingly.”
-16 year experienced teacher
 “I find that, with materials I am familiar with, I don’t
need to spend much time pre-planning. However,
when I’m working with new materials . . . I find I take
more time to review and prepare for my upcoming
lessons than I would normally need.”
-9 year experienced teacher
Bibliography
 Ruth Britten, Preservice and Experienced Teachers’ Lesson Plans for
Beginning Instrumentalists, Journal of Research in Music Education,
vol. 53, no. 1, 26-39
 Margaret Schmidt, Preservice String Teachers’ Lesson-Planning
Processes: An Exploration Study, Journal of Research in Music
Education, vol. 53, no. 1, 6-25
 Timothy Oliver, Score Study and the National Standards: Partners in
the Planning Process, Teaching Music, vol. 14, no. 2, 45-50
 Jane Bradley, The Short Music Lesson: Success in Half an Hour a Week,
The American Music Teacher, vol. 51, no. 5, 20-23
 Mark Waymire; Todd Snead, From Good to Great: 9 Tips for Motivating
Your Band, Teaching Music, vol. 15, no. 1, 28-32
 5 music educators/professionals active in the field
Thank you for listening
and
learning
with me!