Lesson Plan 1
Student Teacher: Christina Komosinski
Grade Level: 3rd Grade
Central Focus of Unit: Composition
Date: Wednesday, February 4th, 2015
Subject: General Music
Time Allotted: 30 minutes
Lesson Objective: By the end of the lesson, students will become familiar with and learn
the meaning of numerous key terms and symbols used while composing music. They will
show me they can do this by participating in class discussions and answering terms
correctly in a review game.
 Learning goal 1: I can understand and recognize vocabulary/symbols used in music.
 Learning goal 2: When given a definition, I can name the correct musical term.
Focus Question: Do you know music vocabulary terms used for composing a song?
Connection: This lesson is the basis for the following lessons in this unit. The information
taught in this lesson will act as the groundwork for what students need to know about
composing music. It will be used and built upon in future lessons.
Prior Knowledge: Students have previously spent time learning and studying how to read
notes on a staff. They are also familiar with the terms rhythm, staff, treble clef, and have
learned about quarter notes (du), eighth notes (du-day), half notes (du-u), and quarter
rests (rest).
Materials: Interwrite board, computer, flashcards
Key Vocabulary: staff, treble clef, measure, bar line, double bar line, repeat sign, 4/4, 3/4,
2/4, time signature, composer, resting tone, quarter note (du), quarter rest (rest), eighth
note (du-day), half note (du-u)
NYS Learning Standards:
 Standard 2: Knowing and Using Arts Materials and Resources
Music National Standards:
 Standard 5: Reading and Notating Music
Common Core Standards:
 RI 3.4: Determine the meaning of general academic and domain-specific words and
phrases in a text relevant to a grade 3 topic or subject area.
 SL 3.1: Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in
groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grade 3 topics and texts, building
on other’s ideas and expressing their own clearly.
 SL 3.3: Ask and answer questions about information from a speaker, offering
appropriate elaboration and detail.
 L 3.1.a: Explain the function of nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs in
general and their functions in particular sentences.
 L 3.3: Use knowledge of language and its conventions when writing, speaking,
reading, or listening.
Procedure:
 Students come into the music classroom and sit on the rug facing the Interwrite
board/white board
 Review the learning goals that are displayed on the Interwrite board
 Quickly review terms: staff, treble clef, quarter note (du), quarter rest (rest), eighth
notes (du-day)
o Display pictures of terms on the Interwrite board
o Ask students what they see/ask them to describe terms in their own words
o Staff: 5 lines, the canvas for where we draw/read notes
o Treble clef: symbol drawn at the beginning of the staff, our starting point for
when we read music
o Quarter note (du): a note that makes one sound per beat
o Quarter rest: a beat of silence, a pause or break
o Eighth notes (du-day): when there are two sounds in a beat
 Introduce and explain terms: measure, bar line, double bar line, repeat sign, time
signature, 4/4 time
o On the Interwrite board, display a template of a staff containing all of the
terms above
o Go through and circle each term and talk about its meaning
o Time signature: the numbers written after the treble clef to tell the
musicians how many beats are in each measure, look at the top number,
ignore the bottom number for now
o 2/4: there are 2 beats in a measure
o 3/4: there are 3 beats in a measure
o 4/4: there are 4 beats in a measure
o Measure: the space between two bar lines used to organize music, where we
draw our notes and rhythms according to the time signature
o Bar line: a line used to separate measures, multiple bar lines in each piece
o Double bar line: two lines drawn used to mark the end of the piece of music
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o Repeat sign: indicates to the performer that the music should be played
again and repeated, go back to the beginning and play again, the dots are
two eyes looking for you to go back to the beginning
o After all terms are introduced, teacher can call out terms and have students
come up and circle that term, teacher can then ask another student to
describe that term
Quiz-quiz-trade Kagan structure
Review game- Who am I?
1. Stand up, hand up, pair up
o Using the Quiz-quiz-trade Kagan structure
2. Partner A quizzes
method, students quiz each other on the terms
3. Partner B answers
just discussed in class
4. Partner A praises/coaches
o Students each receive a card with a musical
5. Partners switch roles
term and its definition on the same side
6. Partners trade cards
followed by the words: Who am I? Some cards
7. Hand up, find new partner
will have a picture on one side with its
(repeat steps 2-6)
corresponding term on the other.
o Students will find a partner using the Kagan
structure to the right and read partner their card followed by the words
Who am I?
o When students find a partner they should sit facing their partner, after they
have both answered, they should stand up- a good way to assess who needs
more time
o Teacher collects cards and has students sit on the rug facing the Interwrite
board
Review the learning goals again. Were students successful during the lesson? Ask
students to “Show me what you know”- give a thumbs up, sideways, or down
according to their assessment of themselves throughout the lesson. Do you feel
really confident (up), ehhh- you know some of it but it was challenging (sideways),
or do you need more time and practice with these words (down)?
Introduce unit project
o Give students a preview of what is to come. Tell students that they will be
composing a 4-measure song for recorder.
o Ask them: What are ways we can become composers?
o Ask them: What are things we can do to write our own song?
Determine if the class won their star (for good behavior) and have them line up at
the door
Ticket out the door: Before leaving the room, students have to name one term that
they learned today.
Assessment Strategies:
 Informal:
o Observations- through discussion and review of the terms, students can be
assessed through observation to see who understands what is being taught.
When students come up to the board, teacher will be able to tell their level
of understanding by observing if they circle the correct term or not.
o During review game teacher can walk around and listen to the interactions
taken place by students
o At the end of the lesson a review of the learning goals will allow student to
reflect on their goals. Giving a thumbs up, sideways, or down will give
students the opportunity to personally assess their success throughout the
lesson.
o Ticket out the door: asking students to name a term they learned today will
allow teacher to see what information they retained
Closure: A final wrap-up discussion of the lesson will allow students to summarize and
reflect on if they achieved their learning goals. At the conclusion of the lesson, students can
be asked to give thumbs up, sideways, or down depending upon how successful they
thought they were throughout the lesson. Also, by introducing the unit project to students
at the conclusion of the lesson, students will be able to connect what they learned today to
what they are going to learn in the future. The “ticket out the door” will give students a final
reinforcement of the terms before leaving the room.
Indicators of Success: Students will show success at the start of the lesson by
participating in the class discussion about the musical terms. They will show their
understanding of these terms by circling and labeling terms correctly on the Interwrite
board. During the review game, they will show success by correctly answering numerous
flashcards.
Next Step: Moving forward, students will use terms taught in this lesson and their
understanding of these terms to create their own musical composition. Students will begin
to compose a 4-bar song for recorder by using knowledge of all the terms discussed today.