Veronica Amandola & Billy Huyler

Dr. Gault
EDUC-M342
9 April 2014
Concept Lesson Plan
Lesson Plan: Dotted-Quarter-Eighth Notes
I. Overall Goals:
a. Singing, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music (National Standard 1)
i. Students will sing independently, singing on pitch and in rhythm, using
appropriate diction, posture, and maintaining a steady tempo
ii. Students will be able to sing a dotted-quarter-eighth note rhythm
b. Reading and notating music (National Standard 5)
i. Students will recognize and identify familiar rhythms and compare them
to the ostinato that utilizes the unfamiliar dotted-quarter-eighth note
rhythm
ii. Students will learn and be able to recognize the dotted-quarter-eighth note
rhythm as it applies to the learned ostinato and sung piece
c. Listening to, analyzing, and describing music (National Standard 6)
i. Students will hear an unfamiliar rhythm in a sung piece/spoken ostinato
(dotted-quarter-eighth note) and compare it to familiar rhythmic cells
(quarter notes/eighth notes) and see the differences
ii. Students will discuss what makes them different and understand the ways
to notate the new dotted-quarter-eighth note rhythms
II. Behavioral Objectives:
a. The students will match the rhythms played on the drum with their walking feet as
well as walk to the changing beat of the drum
b. The students will sing the song Little Liza Jane by rote
c. The students will learn and understand the dotted-quarter-eighth note both aurally
and visually
III. Materials:
a. Hand drum
b. Board with Marker/Chalk
c. Open Space for Movement
d. Little Liza Jane Sheet Music
e. PowerPoint Presentation
f. Projector
IV. Procedures
Opening
1) The teacher will begin by having students echo various rhythmic cells on a ch
sound while keeping a beat elsewhere on their bodies with their hands
2) The teacher will then keep a beat on a hand drum and have students walk to the
beat of the drum; the beat of the drum will constantly be changing and students
will follow the beat as it changes through walking
3) The teacher will use a hand drum and play a variety of rhythms (varying quarter
notes, eighth notes, and even dotted-quarter-eighth notes) spanning four beats
4) The students will then echo the rhythms by walking them around the room with
their feet
5) The teacher will then have students come up with musical answers via walking to
the rhythms they play on the drum
6) The teacher will then lead students in a quick vocal warm-up by having roughly
three students come up to the board and draw roller coasters (aka various
contours) on the board with a marker/chalk
7) The other students will then mimic the contour using a high yawn sigh
8) The teacher will then have students echo him or her on solfege syllables and hand
signs using the pentatonic scale (the syllables used in Little Liza Jane)
Main Body
Dotted-Quarter-Eighth Notes with Little Liza Jane
1) The teacher will sing the song Little Liza Jane for the class, asking the students
to keep a steady beat while the teacher sings
2) The teacher will then sing the song phrase-by-phrase and have the students echo
sing each phrase back, clapping the syllables for O, Eliza
3) The teacher will then sing two phrases at once and have the students echo sing the
two phrases back, clapping the syllables for O, Eliza
4) The teacher will sing the song in its entirety and have the students echo sing the
full song back, clapping the syllables for O, Eliza
5) The teacher will then isolate the part of the song that goes O, Eliza as it utilizes
the dotted-quarter-eighth note rhythm
6) The teacher will ask the students to keep a beat will they all sing O, Eliza
several times
7) The teacher will explain to students how something about this rhythm is strange,
and that everyone needs to figure out what it is
8) The teacher will pull up the PowerPoint presentation that shows familiar rhythmic
possibilities that the students already know to represent the O, Eliza rhythm
(which is dotted-quarter-eighth note followed by two quarter notes)
9) The teacher will show a slide that notates the rhythms as two eighth notes
followed by two quarter notes (the incorrect rhythm); the teacher will ask students
to listen for the extra note in the rhythm that is notated on the slide
10) The teacher will clap the rhythm on the slide while the students sing the O,
Eliza rhythm
11) The students will hopefully hear that the extra note lies in the first eighth note of
beat two
12) The teacher will then explain that this rhythm utilizes a new rhythmic possibility
13) The will explain that just as eighth notes hold hands when together (beamed),
quarter notes can also hold hands with eighth notes; however, because quarter
notes are bigger than eighth notes, the eighth note looks really small, like a dot
next to the quarter note, and the remaining eighth note is left by itself
14) The students will then sing O, Eliza a couple of times to make sure retention is
gained
Closure
1) The teacher will lead students in a basic hand game, by speaking through the steps
of the hand game while students echo, phrase by phrase
2) The students will then speak the motions while also performing the motions
slowly, phrase by phrase
3) The students will then stop speaking the commands (such as clap, right, left,
together), and actually start singing the words to the first to phrases of Little Liza
Jane that match with the motions
4) The students will then speak through and execute the motions for the part of the
song that utilizes the dotted-quarter-eighth note rhythm (O, Eliza)
5) The students will then sing the words to this section while doing the motions
6) The students will then partner up with someone, and put the whole thing together,
singing the song with the motions for the hand game
V. Assessment
1) The teacher will watch and listen to students to make sure they are appropriately
walking the correct rhythms played on the drum
2) The teacher will listen to students to make sure they are singing solfege syllables,
vocal warm-ups, and Little Liza Jane both with correctly pitch and rhythm
3) The teacher will ask questions to make sure students comprehend the concept of
the dotted-quarter-eighth note and have every students raise their hand if they
understand the concept
4) The teacher will watch to make sure all students are learning the motions for the
hand game correctly and in proper time
5) The teacher will observe students and listen to students to make sure everyone has
sung the proper notes and rhythms while doing the hand game in time