Gettysburg College Teacher Education
Instructional Planning Format
Title of Instructional Plan: Program Music and the Creative Writing
Process
Unit Title: Exploring Language Art Skills Through Music
Listening
Program Name: Vida Charter School
Your Name: Alex Schweizer
Section 1: Learning Goals and Essential Questions
Overall Unit Learning Goals What will your
students know and be able to do at the end of the
unit?
The students will be able to develop a narrative writing inspired by their interpretations
of a piece of music that they listen to.
Specific Learning Goals
What will your students know and be able to do at
the end of this lesson? (You can refer to certain
vocabulary, grammar points, concepts, and skills).
The students will be able to generate ideas about what they think the short segments of
music they hear is portraying.
The students will be able to come up with adjectives to describe what they hear in the
music.
The students will recognize the genre of program music and Vivaldi’s Four Seasons as an
example of the genre.
Essential Questions
How does this lesson address questions the heart of
the subject area or topic of your program?
What is Program Music, and how can you use the creative writing process to come up
with a story for a specific piece of music?
What adjective describe Vivaldi’s Four Seasons (Winter) and how can these adjectives be
used to improve a story?
Rationale/purpose statement
Describe why it is important for students to learn
the information contained in this plan. How does
this lesson plan connect with your unit goals and
what students have learned in the lessons prior to
this unit? How will the information and or skills
that students learn in this lesson benefit the
students in their lives outside of the class?
Vida Charter school lacks a music education program and so I feel that it is important for
students to gain awareness of this topic and to allow them a chance to expand upon their
past musical experiences. The Language Arts aspects will help to focus on improving and
developing analysis, narrative writing skills and presentation skills. Students have
expressed interest in music and narrative writing, and this lesson will help the students to
work on their writing proficiency levels. For the student who lacks English language
proficiency, I will ask a student to translate the writing prompt for her, allow her to write
her narrative in Spanish and ask a student to translate it for the group if she is
comfortable with that. By having a listening component to our lesson, this allows
students of various linguistic backgrounds to understand, be involved and participate at
an equal level. (I will be playing examples instrumental music, so language will not be a
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Gettysburg College Teacher Education
Instructional Planning Format
barrier.) The students have written creative narratives before, so they are familiar with
the writing process, and this lesson will help them to develop their writing skills. Music
listening is an important skill that students can use outside of class whenever they are
listening to almost any genre of music. It will also improve their sense of creativity if
they can visualize the story that the music is telling.
Section 2: Student Knowledge and Background Information
Students’ Background and Interest
How does your lesson meet the interests, (social,
cultural academic, and linguistic) needs, and
academic and language proficiency level of your
students?
Since Vida does not have a music program, many students have asked to do an activity
that it related to music, as many have experience with music at home. All but one of the
students are at speaking and writing levels 5 and 6, and that one student is at level 1 or
below.
Student Knowledge and Experience
What prior knowledge and skills do students need
in order to be successful in reaching the goals of
this lesson? How do you know if students have the
knowledge and skills they need in order to be
successful?
Students need the previous knowledge of English grammatical concepts such as
sentence structure to write a narrative, and a bit of extended vocabulary to come up with
descriptive adjectives for the story. Students do not need any experience with music,
but a previous exposure to Vivaldi or other Western Classical music may help them
understand the concept of Program Music. Since the students are in 5th and 6th grade,
they have already written several narratives, and even those students whose first
language is not English have a general knowledge of descriptive vocabulary. Only one
student does not speak any English, but I will ask her to write her responses in Spanish,
and have a student translate the prompts for her.
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Gettysburg College Teacher Education
Instructional Planning Format
Section 3: Assessment
Student performance tasks/ Authentic
Assessment
What will students need to do to demonstrate that
they have met or made progress toward the learning
goals? Briefly summarize your authentic
assessment and other evidence that you will use to
determine how students are progressing toward
your learning goals.
To show that they have progressed towards the learning goals, students will actively
participate in the lesson by answering questions posed by the teacher, providing
adjectives to describe the music they hear, and creating very short stories to go along
with what they hear in the music.
Section 4: Learning Environment
Identify the components of the classroom environment (room arrangement, grouping patterns, learning resources, and materials) needed for teaching the entire
planned lesson. Provide a strong rationale for each of the environmental decisions made.
Room arrangement
How will you organize your learning environment?
How does this room arrangement support your
students’ learning?
The classroom will be arranged as it always is: with the students sitting in their paireddesks in rows facing front towards the whiteboard. I will teach the majority of my
lesson from the front at the board, but I will also walk around during the points where I
am not talking, to help out and answer any questions as needed. This arrangement will
encourage the students to focus and answer questions during the instructional aspect of
the lesson, and collaborate during the activity section of the lesson, since their desks are
pushed together in pairs.
Grouping patterns
How will you group students for your instructional
activities (whole group, pairs, small group)? How
does this grouping support your students’
participation in the activity? If necessary, use this
space to list the specific grouping of students.
Most of this lesson will be individual student work, but for the activity portion students
can work in pairs. Like always, the 6th grader’s desks are grouped together and the 5th
grader’s desks are grouped together, but this will not be as pertinent since they all are
participating in the same activity.
Learning resources and materials, including
technology
What specific materials will you be using during
your lesson?
I will be using several hand-outs (info sheet on Vivaldi, adjective worksheet, and
prewriting worksheets) to supplement the lesson, and I will play musical excerpts either
from my laptop and speakers or from the desktop computer and speakers.
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Gettysburg College Teacher Education
Instructional Planning Format
Section 5: Instructional Activities
For each section of your instructional activity procedure you need to include: a thorough, sequenced description of the activity, specific questions that you intend
to ask the students, and the time allotted. Adjustments made to ensure that all students have an opportunity to learn the information contained in the lesson
should be included here as well. Consider: multiple means of representing content and multiple ways students may express knowledge of content. How will the
plan promote active student engagement in worthwhile learning?
Opening
How will you hook
student interest,
connect to earlier
lessons, and/or
determine their prior
knowledge?
Main Activities
Your main
instructional activities
should tie your
learning goals to your
assessment. Use this
section to describe the
specific details of your
learning activities.
Remember to plan for
transitions between
activities.
Introduction/Hook
Description/procedure
Groups
Specific questions to ask
Materials needed
Transition to main activities
1.


Adjectives: (10-15 minutes)
Teacher will ask students if they know what adjectives are, and if they can name some.
Teacher will explain that adjectives are descriptive words that are used to provide more details to a
sentence.
 Teacher will pass out the adjective worksheet. Students will complete individually.
 Once students are finished with the adjective worksheet, teacher will ask student volunteers (by raised
hands) to share their answers. Teacher may or may not collect worksheet.
 Teacher will transition to next activity by playing short (10-20 second) excerpts of Vivaldi’s _______ and
asking students to come up with adjectives describing the music.
Assess by observation: student participation and accuracy of responses
Materials needed: Adjective worksheet
2.


Program Music and Vivaldi: (15-20 minutes)
Teacher will ask students what type of music they like to listen to (volunteer by show of hands)
Teacher will explain to students that a genre of music exists called Program music. Program music is music
that is set to and tells a specific story. It is most often instrumental music.
 Teacher will explain to students that Antonio Vivaldi was a composer (ask what a composer is) from
Venice, Italy, who lived from 1678 to 1741 (ask how old he was when he died (63)), and wrote many pieces
of music including the Four Seasons (1725—289 years ago) (ask to name the four seasons).
 Teacher will play excerpts from Vivaldi’s Winter, and ask students what they heard.
 Teacher will read poem about Winter, and play examples again.
Assess by observation: student participation and completion of worksheet
Materials needed: Vivaldi worksheet, recording of Four Seasons
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Gettysburg College Teacher Education
Instructional Planning Format
Closing
Use your closing both
to check for
understanding and to
help students make
connections between
what they have
learned and future
lessons.
Conclusion: (5 minutes)
 Teacher will play the last Allegro section of Vivaldi’s Autumn and ask students to write down adjectives
while they listen.
 Teacher will ask students to use these adjectives to create a very short (2 sentences or fewer) story or
summary of the piece.
 Teacher will explain the Ms. Meghan will continue with the lesson on the following day, and go into more
detail about the creative writing process.
 Teacher will ask students if they have any questions regarding the material covered.
Assess by observation: student participation
Section 6: Application of Four Principles of Language Acquisition
How did you incorporate four principles of language acquisition in your lesson?
1. Comprehensive input:
While I am talking about information, I will be sure to speak clearly enough so that everyone will be able to understand what I am saying. I
included the worksheets and hand-outs so the students could follow along with what I am saying, in case they do not understand a specific
part of my lesson. I will also draw upon their previous music listening experience to help them create stories for and describe Vivaldi’s
music.
2. Meaningful engagement
Students are using the skills they already have to create a narrative, but this time they are choosing all of the details of the story based on what
they hear in the music. This is a skill they can use outside of class so that they can understand (or be creative and imagine) the story behind
the piece of music they are listening to.
3. Low anxiety environment:
The entire lesson is laid out in a very low anxiety environment. While students are strongly encouraged to participate, they are not forced to
answer every question if they do not feel comfortable doing so. The worksheets are designed so that students can follow along if they have
trouble understanding a certain aspect of the lesson. The act of music listening, especially with Vivaldi, will create a very relaxed
environment in which the students will be able to come up with very creative ideas and descriptions.
4. Contextualized instruction
I included the hand-out on Program music and on Vivaldi so that the students could have some background information on the music they
were listening to. The students will also be sharing their ideas with the rest of the class, and the students can discuss why they feel a certain
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Gettysburg College Teacher Education
Instructional Planning Format
way about the music.
Section 7: Accommodation for ESL Students
1. What is the proficiency level of your students? (If there are students who belong to multiple proficiency levels, list all)
In Listening English Language Proficiency: the majority of students are level 5. The student who lacks English proficiency is level 1. In
Speaking English Language Proficiency: the majority of students are level 5. The student who lacks English proficiency is level 1. In
Reading English Language Proficiency: the majority of students are level 5. The student who lacks English proficiency is level 1. In
Writing English Language Proficiency: the majority of students are level 4 and 5. The student who lacks English proficiency is level 1.
Write MPI’s (Model Performance Indicator) for students. If you have students who are at the varying proficiency levels, write at least
one MPI for each level.
Level 5 MPI’s for writing (for majority of class)
 Write narrative responses to listening examples with teacher guidance.
 Describe their thoughts about listening examples in a class discussion after listening to them.
 Edit and revise their written narratives after receiving peer and teacher feedback when presenting their narrative drafts.
Level 1 MPI’s for writing (for student who lacks English language proficiency)
 Write words, short phrases and/or draw pictures that represent thoughts and interpretations of listening examples. (Although she will
be writing her story in Spanish)
2.
3. What additional support will you give to the students for each proficiency level? Provide appropriate support for each level.
*Be sure to submit instructional resources (e.g. visual support, translation, and graphic organizer)
I will give an example of the types of descriptions that can be used to express thoughts and reflections about listening examples. This will be
done by using a sample listening example and providing both a narrative example (for the students with English proficiency) and word, phrase
and picture examples (for the student without English proficiency).
I also will ask another student to translate for our level 1 student when necessary. This is something they regularly do in class so it will not be
disruptive.
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