Gettysburg College Teacher Education
Instructional Planning Format
Title of Instructional Plan: Drafting Short Stories Influenced by
“Spring” by Vivaldi
Unit Title: Exploring Language Arts Skills
Through Music Listening
Program Name: Vida Charter School
Your Name: Meghan Riley
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 lesson?
Students will write a short narrative based on the connections they make
to and their thoughts about “Spring” from “The Four Seasons” by Vivaldi.
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).


Students will be able to express their thoughts about a piece of music
through narrative writing.
Students will listen to and describe various pieces of music.
Students will develop narrative writing inspired by various listening
examples.
Essential Questions
How can music relate to everyday/real life situations? How can we use
the brainstorming process to help our writing? How can we create a story
based on a piece of music? How can we connect music and writing?
Rationale/purpose statement
I believe that it is important for students to have an understanding of
music because it is a universal subject that can tie many cultures together
and can be understood and received by many different types of people.
(This understanding will be developed through music listening but some
form of understanding already exists within the students). It is important
to work on writing narratives/stories so that students can develop their
writing abilities. This lesson will also strengthen their ability to relate two
different subject areas, music and Language Arts. This skill of drawing
from two separate subject areas and being able to link common ideas will
How does this lesson address questions the heart of the
subject area or topic of your program?
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?
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Gettysburg College Teacher Education
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be an important skill for students to have throughout their academic
career and their life in general.
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?
I am working with a group of 5th/6th grade students at Vida Charter
School. There are six 6th graders and fourteen 5th graders. They are
about 50% native English speaking students and about 50% native
Spanish speaking students. All but one of the students are proficient in
both languages. (I have a student who recently immigrated to the United
States from Puerto Rico and lacks proficiency in English. Although she is
able to speak several words and short phrases and demonstrates the
ability to follow along during class discussions and readings in English.)
The students express an interest in music. The school does not offer a
music program, however the majority of the students have all played an
instrument before and all actively engage in music listening. I have
spoken with the class as a whole about hteir musical experiences and
have interviewed them for further evidence of this. By tying an outside
interest (music) into an academic facet (writing) the students will be able
to learn and develop through a different lens.
By using music listening as the focus of my lesson, I am giving the
opportunity for comprehension and understanding to all students. The
music will be purely instrumental. So without any speaking or singing,
the music does not designate a language and can be understood by
everyone, regardless of language. This is why I feel that music can be
effectively and successfully taught in a multi-lingual classroom, such as
the one I will be teaching this lesson in.
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
In order be successful in this lesson, students will need to have the
ability to make connections between music and writing. Students will
also need to be able to write short pieces and brainstorm ideas. These
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Gettysburg College Teacher Education
Instructional Planning Format
you know if students have the knowledge and skills they
need in order to be successful?
are all ideas that will be taught the day before during Alex’s lesson. The
students will bring that knowledge into my lesson. However, these are all
skills that can draw upon past experiences and do not require another
lesson to be able to obtain. Students write regularly in class in journal
entries and have recently written creative short stories. While
brainstorming may be often done in the students’ heads, I believe that
with a demonstration of how to write out this process, students will be
able to do this on their own. As students have worked through their
book, “Hatchet”, they have done worksheets that require them to make
connections between the text and real life situations. (Such as taking a
scene about a bear and using it to research more to find out the speed
and characteristics of Black Bears). These are some examples of past
experiences that the students can draw upon in order to participate. I
know that students will be able to do this because I have worked with the
class on assignments that ask them to utilize all of these skills. Students
were very active and engaged in Alex’s lesson. They were able to
describe and understand the piece ‘Winter’ by Vivaldi using adjectives
and writing two sentence ideas. These will lead into my lesson where
students will be writing longer stories. They do creative and personal
writing in class so this will not be a new experience for them but will
develop a current skill. Since students will have freedom with their story I
am just looking for a type of written work that demonstrates their
understanding of the musical representation of spring. This may be done
by setting a scene, describing characters, describing how a memory
relates to the listening, etc. Students will need to make sure that they
clearly state their connections to the music within their stories.
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
I will informally assess students brainstorming process by leading a
short group discussion after listening to the piece for the first time.
Students will be invited to share thoughts about the piece (how it made
them feel, if it reminded them of something, etc). I will accept any ideas
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Instructional Planning Format
summarize your authentic assessment and other evidence
that you will use to determine how students are progressing
toward your learning goals.
that will be able to provide students with a topic to write their stories
about. Students’ effective contributions to this discussion will help me
assess their understanding and participation in the assignment. For
those students who are not comfortable sharing, I will be walking around
to make sure students are jotting down ideas in the brainstorming part of
their worksheets.
Students’ drafts of their stories will give a physical representation of
completion of the assignment. (Complete/Incomplete will be assessed
based on having a written piece at the end of the class). I will walk
around during the writing process to make sure that students are able to
connect a story to the music that they listened to in order to help them
along with fulfilling this task.
I will also be informally monitoring progress based on student
contributions, walking around to answer questions, checking students
brainstorming sheets and allowing students a chance to present their
drafts for further feedback.
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
The students sit in desks that are grouped in twos, facing the front of the
room. I will maintain this classroom arrangement. The students will be
working individually at their desks while writing their stories. When the
time comes for students to share their drafts, I will ask them to come to
the front of the room while the other students remain at their desks. I
think that by maintaining their normal classroom arrangement, it will be
an easier transition for the students to adapt to someone different
teaching them.
Grouping patterns
Students will be working individually and so no grouping patterns will be
How will you organize your learning environment? How
does this room arrangement support your students’
learning?
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Gettysburg College Teacher Education
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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.
necessary.
Learning resources and materials,
including technology
I will be using the laptop and speaker system available in my classroom
to play the listening example, included here
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRxofEmo3HA
I will be playing the Allegro movement of Spring from 0:00 – 3:32). I
have contacted my teacher to make sure I will be able to connect my
laptop to her electronic system. If not, I will be able to use portable
speakers to play the example. I will also be passing out brainstorming
worksheets that allow students to gather and jot down ideas prior to
writing. (I will include the worksheet at the bottom of this lesson plan)
They will then be given lined paper for the writing process.
What specific materials will you be using during your lesson
(i.e., handouts, markers, LCD projector for video, 4
basketballs, cones, pinnies). If you are using materials
available at the school, you need to communicate with the
program coordinators at least 3 days before you teach.
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?
Introduction/Hook (10 minutes)
Description/procedure – Students’ normal routine of entering the classroom is to put their book
bags and jackets in their cubbies and then come to sit on the carpet. At this time, their teacher
gives them general announcements. I will then ask the students to sit at their desks and we
will begin the lesson once they are all seated and quiet.
 I will ask for volunteers to tell me what they learned about when working with Alex the
day before. I am looking for students to talk about activities, listening examples and
perhaps their overall reaction to the lesson. (Alex’s lesson and my lesson coordinate.
His lesson introduces how to describe, gather thoughts and reflect upon music
listening in order to transition those ideas into writing. My lesson works to further
develop that by engaging students in a more dedicated portion of writing).
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Gettysburg College Teacher Education
Instructional Planning Format
 I will then explain to the students that my lesson is going to be more focused on writing.
We will use the ideas and methods that Alex helped to develop. We will be listening to
a different piece of music, by the same composer, and using it to write a short story.
Students are going to get to write a story that they think inspired or goes along with the
music.
Groups – The class will be working together as this portion is discussion/lecture based.
Specific questions to ask – “What did you get to do in Mr. Alex’s lesson yesterday?”, “What did
you learn about connecting music listening and writing?”, “Is there anything else important
from his lesson that you want to share?”
Materials needed – None.
Transition to main activities – I will ask students to start thinking about the season ‘Spring’.
This will be done silently as a ‘warm-up’ before they are introduced to the piece of music. This
will also allow the students an opportunity to recall memories and thoughts about Spring that
will help them as they listen to a music excerpt directly related to this season. I will begin
passing out worksheets as the students are thinking.
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.
1. First activity (5 minutes) – Music Listening (“Spring” from “The Four Seasons” by Vivaldi)
Description/procedure – I will be playing an excerpt from “The Four Seasons” for students.
 I will finish passing out the brainstorming work sheets to the students. I will write the
name of the piece on the board so that they can copy it down onto their sheets, along
with their names.
 I will then ask students to list some adjectives or words they associate with Spring. I will
put these on the board so students can reference it while doing their own
brainstorming during the listening.
 I will read through the questions with the students. I will encourage them to use words,
short phrases and/or pictures to answer the questions. As long as they are using a
method that makes sense to them and can be used to transition into writing then they
can be creative with their means of gathering ideas. “How does this piece remind you
of Spring?” “How does this piece of music make you feel?” “What does this piece make
you think of?”
Groups – Students will be working individually as they listen and jot down ideas.
Specific questions to ask (check for understanding) –
Materials needed – “Spring” recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRxofEmo3HA
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Gettysburg College Teacher Education
Instructional Planning Format
I will be playing the Allegro movement of “Spring” from 0:00 – 3:32. I believe that this
movement will be easiest for the students to reflect upon and has the longest sonnet to go
along with it so it will give the students a lot of options for what they can write about.
2. Transition – I will ask the students to wrap up their brainstorming and start picking out ideas
that they would like to share.
3. Second activity (5-10 minutes) Brainstorming Discussion
Description/procedure – We will be having an informal group discussion to share and bounce
ideas off of one another in order to connect our ideas with something that we can write about.
 I will first ask students to share their general ideas about the music before we get into the
specific questions. These can be any thoughts: opinions about the music, if they’ve
heard it before
 I will then ask for students to share their answers to the questions. We will answer one
question at a time. Students will raise their hands to answer and can feel free to
present a new answer of respond to one of their peers’ answers.
 We will then discuss different forms of writing that students could use. I will suggest a
short story, writing in first person as if they are in the scene, describing the scene that
the music creates. Students will be encouraged to be creative with their writing. I will
also ask the students to give suggestions
Groups – The class will be working as a whole to discuss ideas.
Specific questions to ask (check for understanding) – “How does this piece remind you of
Spring”, “How does this piece of music make you feel?” “What does this piece make you
think of?”, “What type of writing do you think you will be doing?”
Materials needed – Brainstorming Worksheets (included at the bottom of this document)
Transition – I will be playing the excerpt again. Students can either brainstorm more or go
onto writing.
4. Third Activity (15-20 minutes): Writing
Description/procedure – Students will begin writing their pieces. I will allow my student that
speaks very little English to write her paper in Spanish. What is important to me is that she
can connect the music and the writing process, even if it is not in English it is an idea that can
be translated to many languages. I also fear that she will not be able to participate in the
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Gettysburg College Teacher Education
Instructional Planning Format
lesson if she was required to only write in English. I will encourage her to brainstorm in English
though. Vida does not have a strict policy against using Spanish when in the English portion of
the day, and so I feel that in order to get the best take-away and understanding of the lesson,
it will be acceptable for her to write in Spanish.
Groups – Students will be working individually to write their pieces.
Specific questions to ask – Guiding questions for students that may be struggling: “What do
you think of when you think about Spring?” “Did you hear any of those ideas in music
example?” “Did any of the sounds of the music remind you of anything in nature or about
Spring?” If students are unable to relate the music to Spring I will let them come over to my
laptop and quietly listen to the example again. If they truly cannot relate the music to Spring, I
will ask them to write a description of a Spring day or write about a memory related to Spring.
This does not allow them to experience to connect music and literature but by experience both
subject areas and understanding that one can write compositions and pieces of music about
the same topic will still be an effective take-away from the lesson.
Materials needed – Lined paper, pencils, the listening example on my laptop
Transition – I will have approached students individually to see if they are comfortable
presenting. I will have checked to make sure the students that are volunteering have reached a
stopping point in their writing and ask them to come to the front of the room to share.
5. Fourth Activity (5-10 minutes): Presentations
I am aware that there may not be time for this portion of the lesson given the length of time
students will need to work on their writing. If time permits, I would love to give students the
opportunity to share what they wrote. If time does not permit, I will move to my closing activity
instead. I will monitor students as they work and if I see that one or two students have finished
more quickly, I will ask them if they are comfortable sharing. We may have time to present one
or two examples.
Description/Procedures:
 I will ask individual students as they are working if they would feel comfortable sharing. I
will be asking students who have made progress in writing their narratives so that they
have gotten to a stopping point by the end of the writing period. For my student who
speaks little English and has written her story in Spanish, I will ask if she would like
someone to translate her story for her and read it. (I understand that this may not be
doable given the limited time, but would like to offer her the opportunity if she is
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interested.)
 I will ask the student volunteers to come and read their story to the class. I will
encourage them to use a voice that will be able to be heard by students in the back of
the classroom. This portion of the lesson will be used to get students used to presenting.
Students have recently done presentations as a final project for their book “Hatchet” so
this activity will allow them to develop their presentation skills.
 The student’s peers can then feel free to offer constructive feedback, their thoughts on
the student’s writing, etc. This feedback portion should be used to give students the
opportunity to understand their writing from someone else’s perspective. By hearing
his/her listeners’ feedback, the student may then choose to add or change something
from his/her story.
Groups – Students will be working individually to present (these will be volunteers chosen by
myself as I ask around the classroom for students who would feel comfortable sharing).
Students will then work as a group to offer positive feedback.
Specific questions to ask – “What did you enjoy about __’s story?” “Is there anything that you
think ___ could add?” “How did this story remind you about Spring?”
Materials needed – Stories near completion.
Transition – I will explain to the students that this piece of music actually has a poem that goes
along with it. It was used to inspire the music. I am going to read it to them and then we will
listen to the example again so that they can hear how the music relates to the writing that goes
along with it.
Closing
Use your closing both to
check for understanding
and to help students make
connections between what
they have learned and
future lessons.
Closing/ Wrap-up (10 minutes)
Description/Procedure – As a closing, I will share with students the sonnet that goes along
with “Spring”. By sharing this with them, they will be able to understand the composer’s exact
inspiration. If they are interested, they can also mentally compare their writing with the
original written inspiration. If time permits, I will play the music example again for them while
pointing out the particular parts of the music that represent various aspects of Spring. (For
example, trills in the Violin part are meant to represent birds.)
 I will also be collecting students’ brainstorming sheets and writing samples so that I
may reflect on them, check connections and assess students’ progress in the lesson.
I will return them to the students the following week. I will collect the writing samples
as students re-listen to the piece of music.
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Gettysburg College Teacher Education
Instructional Planning Format
Specific Questions to ask – “Were you able to tell what parts of the music represented parts
of Spring after listening to it again and reading the sonnet?”
Materials needed – “Spring” Sonnet:
Springtime is upon us.
The birds celebrate her return with festive song,
and murmuring streams are softly caressed by the breezes.
Thunderstorms, those heralds of Spring, roar, casting their dark mantle over heaven,
Then they die away to silence, and the birds take up their charming songs once more.
Section 6: Application of Four Principles of Language Acquisition
How did you incorporate four principles of language acquisition in your lesson?
1. Comprehensive input – I am connecting my lesson to previous experiences by having a class discussion to
relate my lesson with Alex’s lesson that the students experienced the day before. By giving them another
opportunity to use what they learned yesterday, I am incorporate past, current and future experiences. I will
also incorporate repetition by playing the example numerous times. I will also allow students to request
listening to it additional times. By walking around the class during the writing process and answer questions
and offering assistance, I am making sure that students understand the directions.
2. Meaningful engagement – Students will be meaningfully engaged with their language through the multiple
opportunities for group discussion. Students will also all be asked to use English in their brainstorming
process. This process will only use words, short phrases and drawings thought so students will be able to use
the language in a more informal manner. This will help the ELL students because they can just jot down ideas
and don’t need to focus on proper sentence structure. This is purely to get ideas down and have them
practice writing in English.
3. Low anxiety environment – The students are comfortable with me as I have been visiting their classroom for
over a month and have worked with them in their classroom. By having discussion to talk about brainstorming
ideas before writing, I am helping the students feel comfortable attempting the task at hand as they will be
armed with ample ideas for writing. I have worked with my student who speaks little English before so I
believe that she will be comfortable working with me. By allowing students to use words, short phrases and
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Gettysburg College Teacher Education
Instructional Planning Format
diagrams in brainstorming, I think that she will also feel more comfortable brainstorming with less stringent
writing requirements. I also think that students feel more comfortable writing since this is just a draft and not a
finalized version, they can feel comfortable taking risks in their writing or making mistakes because these
assignments are just being checked for completion, not graded.
4. Contextualized instruction – My lesson falls under “Quadrant B” meaning that it incorporates higher order
thinking skills but still provides support for completing the tasks. By using a music example, I am providing a
support that does not require certain language proficiency in order to understand. Therefore, students will be
able to understand the example regardless of their proficiency levels. By having group discussion, they will be
able to work with their peers to gather ideas that will spark their narrative writing.
Section 7: Accommodations for ESL Students
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Gettysburg College Teacher Education
Instructional Planning Format
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. Our student who lacks English
proficiency is level 1. In Speaking English Language Proficiency: the majority of students are level 5. Our student
who lacks English proficiency is level 1. In Reading English Language Proficiency: the majority of students are level
5. Our student who lacks English proficiency is level 1. In Writing English Language Proficiency: the majority of
students are level 4 and 5. Our student who lacks English proficiency is level 1.
2. 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 down ideas from brainstorming while listening to “Spring” by Vivaldi using guided questions.
 Write narrative responses to “Spring” by Vivaldi with teacher guidance.
 Describe thoughts and reflect about “Spring” by Vivaldi in a class discussion after listening to them.
 Edit and revise written narratives after receiving peer and teacher feedback when presenting their narrative
drafts. (If time allows)
Level 1 MPI’s for writing (for student who lacks English language proficiency)
 Write words and short phrases in Spanish and/or draw pictures that represent thoughts and interpretations of
“Spring” by Vivaldi.
 Write a short narrative in Spanish after a brainstorming session and discussion with peer and teacher input
and feedback.
3. What additional support will you give to the students for each proficiency level? Provide appropriate support for
each level. (Instructional resource is listed at the bottom of this document).
 I will play “Spring” by Vivaldi multiple times because the repetition will help students to develop an
understanding of it.
 I will give students guiding questions to help them with their brainstorming.
 Students will be allowed to brainstorm using words, short phrases and drawings so that they may ease into
their use of the English language.
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

I 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.
I will allow my level 1 student to write in the language that is most comfortable to her after brainstorming in
English. I feel that it is important for her to practice her English but then to utilize the more comfortable
language so that she can understand and practice the connection with music and writing more effectively.
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Gettysburg College Teacher Education
Instructional Planning Format
Brainstorming Worksheet:
Name:
Piece of Music: (“Spring” from “The Four Seasons” by “Vivaldi”)
You can you words, phrases and pictures in your brainstorm and responses to the following questions.
What do you think of when you think about the season Spring?
How does this piece of music make you feel?
What does this piece make you think of?
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How does this piece remind you of Spring?
Write down any ideas that you get from our class discussion about the piece of music:
What do you think you are going to write about? Use the space below to plan ideas and then use the lined paper to
start writing you draft.
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