Unit Plan Template

Modified UL ED 3601 Music

Generative Topic. Topics that are interesting to both students and teacher and have the capacity to generate further learning by stimulating questions, thinking,
discussion, activity, curiosity, and creativity and that enable students to make connections with what is important within a topic or domain (i.e. big idea).
Generative Topic:
Learning Simple Rhythms
Unit Title (Based on a Generative Topic):
Feel the Rhythm
Synopsis. Summarizes the unit (i.e. the unit in a nutshell) and lists the
Culminating Activity/Products.
following information:
Briefly describe the culminating activity and products (e.g. a composition,
a. Central focus, theme, topic, big idea, generative topic;
performance, recording) explaining how these are authentic performance
b. Grade, musical program of study (i.e., band, orchestral, guitar, etc.);
tasks and how they bring the unit to an appropriate closure.
c. Time allotment (minutes/hours/periods) for the unit; and
d. Rationale explaining its relevance to achieving the aims and goals of the
provincial music curriculum.
Synopsis:
Culminating Activity/Products:
This unit will focus on learning simple rhythms, whole notes, half notes, quarter The culminating activity of this unit will have two parts. Students will write
notes, eighth notes, sixteenth notes, whole rests, half rests, and quarter rests in their own four bar rhythms using the note values and rests we have learned as
a grade five music class. These concepts will be taught using vocalization
a class and will be marked on the rhythms being the correct value for a 4/4
(Kodaly), clapping, and rhythm sticks. We will have approximately 6 classes
time signature. They will then perform their rhythm for me using rhythm
of 20 functional minutes to complete this unit. Teaching rhythm explicitly to
sticks or clapping while counting out loud. I will mark them on their
this group of students meets many curriculum outcomes in the Alberta
accuracy.
Program of Studies including, but not limited to, Rhythm concepts, Reading
and Writing Skills, and Creating Skills. Learning rhythms on their own will
also set students up for success in their next recorder unit, where they will be
expected to read notes and rhythms at the same time.
Aim/big idea. A concept, theme or issue that gives meaning and connection to facts and skills and leads to deeper understandings and appreciations. Based on a
generative topic.
Aim/big idea: By the end of the unit, students will understand . . .
That there are four quarter notes in 4/4 time.
Four sixteenth notes equal one beat in 4/4 time.
Two eighth notes equal one beat in 4/4 time.
One quarter note equals one beat in 4/4 time.
One half note equals two beats in 4/4 time.
One whole note equals four beats in 4/4 time.
One quarter rest equals one beat in 4/4 time.

Essential questions. (Two to five per unit) Important, overarching, thought-provoking questions that guide the inquiry throughout the unit.
Essential questions:
1. How does reading rhythms help us in music?
2. How does vocalizing and clapping rhythms aid in being able to read rhythms?
Desired Results/Learning Outcomes (Scope & Sequence)
General & Specific Musical Learner Expectations/Outcomes
Unit Learner Expectations (Goals)
By the end of the course students will develop:

By the end of the unit, students will be able

to . . .

Assessment/Evaluation
(Summative i.e. assessment of
learning at the end of the
unit)

ULE: 1.1.1
Compose a four bar rhythm using whole,
half, quarter, eighth, and sixteenth notes,
and quarter rests.

I will use this as summative

assessment, marking students
on having the correct value of
notes per measure.

ULE: 1.1.2
Perform their written rhythm.

I will use this as summative

assessment, marking students
on their accuracy of reading the
rhythms they wrote.

ULE: 2.1.1
Identify whole, half, quarter, eighth, and
sixteenth notes when clapped.

I will formatively assess

students as they clap back to
me a whole, half, quarter,
eighth, and sixteenth note
pattern.
I will formatively assess
students as they perform whole,
half, quarter, eighth, and
sixteenth notes while reading
them from the board.
I will formatively assess
students as they perform whole,
half, quarter, eighth, and
sixteenth notes while reading
them from the board.

GLE/GLO: 1
Self-expression and creativity
SLE/SLO: 1.1
Students will develop concepts, skill and attitudes that relate to rhythm, form
and melody for the grade 5 level of the Alberta program of studies.

GLE/GLO: 2
Musical skills and knowledge
SLE/SLO: 2.1
Students will develop concepts, skill and attitudes that relate to rhythm, form
and melody for the grade 5 level of the Alberta program of studies.

ULE: 2.1.2
Read whole, half, quarter, eighth, and
sixteenth notes.
ULE: 2.1.3
Perform a rhythm using whole, half,
quarter, eighth, and sixteenth notes.

Master List of Major Learning Activities and Experiences

1. Students will learn how to vocalize whole, half, quarter, eighth, and
5. Students will compose a four bar rhythm using whole, half, quarter, eighth,
sixteenth notes.
and sixteenth notes with a partner.
2. Students will learn how to clap whole, half, quarter, eighth, and sixteenth
6. Students will compose a four bar rhythm using whole, half, quarter, eighth,
notes.
and sixteenth notes.
3. Students will learn how to read whole, half, quarter, eighth, and sixteenth
7. Students will perform a four bar rhythm using whole, half, quarter, eighth,
note rhythms.
and sixteenth notes.
4. Students will compose a four bar rhythm using whole, half, quarter, eighth,
and sixteenth notes as a class.
Master List of Materials, Equipment, and Resources
3. Pencils
4. Paper rhythm templates
Special Considerations
Modifications and accommodations for learners with special
Social context issues. How you will address any relevant social context issues
needs/Adaptive strategies. Strategies used to accommodate the needs of
in your planning. For example,
exceptional learners. For example musically gifted, ADD, ADHD, Asperger,
! students unable to dance or perform or listen to patriotic or particular
or Tourette Syndrome. Identify and briefly describe the diagnosed condition
religious music for religious and/or cultural reasons
and the strategies you will use to meet the needs of these student and why.
! school is a faith-based institution
! large number of FNMI students
! a large number of ESL students
! inner-city issues, etc.
Modifications accommodations to be made for learners with special
Description of strategies to be used or steps to be taken to address social
needs/Adaptive strategies in the teaching of this unit:
context issues in the teaching of this unit:
Adaptations that could be made for students in this unit would be the
I did not find that there were many, if any, social context issues that related
simplification of the rhythms taught and the methods used to perform. For
specifically to this unit. One thing that I had to be careful with for the
example, having the student compose a rhythm with only quarter notes and
movement lesson was one student who was not permitted to dance, for
eighth notes, instead of whole, half, quarter, eighth, and sixteenth notes.
religious reasons, and I had to make sure that the movement would not make
Another adaptation could be having the student clap the rhythm instead of
the student uncomfortable.
using rhythm sticks as it may be harder for them to control the rhythm outside
of their immediate extremities.
1. Rhythm Sticks
2. Smartboard presentation

Lesson

Topic

Introduction to
rhythm.

Summary of Lessons
Learning Objectives
Assessment/Evaluation
By the end of this lesson TSWBAT . . .
Formative &/or Summative
(i.e. assessment as, of, for
learning).
1. Demonstrate knowledge of length of
1. I will evaluate how well
notes using ta, ti-ti, rest.
students understand ta and ti2. Play rhythms that are written on the
ti by observing them

Learning Activities/ Instructional Strategies

1. In a circle we will do a repeat after me activity

using ta and ti-ti to introduce the concepts to the
class.

board with rhythm sticks.

3. Compose a four beat rhythm as a class.

throughout the class.

2. I will formatively assess
students understanding of 4/4
time by evaluating their
composition as a class.
1. I will formatively assess
the class in their
understanding of eighth and
quarter notes when we
compose a four beat rhythm
together.
2. I will formatively assess
individual students as I
observe them composing
their own rhythm and sharing
it with a partner.
1. I will formatively assess
students as they perform as a
class.

Quarter vs. Eighth

Notes

1. Identify the difference between eighth

notes and quarter notes.
2. Perform eighth notes and quarter notes.

Playing and
Moving

1. Read rhythms accurately

2. Perform rhythms accurately
3. Play rhythms in time.
4. Move while playing assigned Rhythms.

Sixteenth Notes

1. Identify sixteenth notes when clapped.

2. Read sixteenth notes.
3. Play sixteenth notes either clapping or
using rhythm sticks.

1. I will formatively assess

students as they clap back to
me a sixteenth note pattern.
2. I will formatively assess
students as they play
sixteenth notes while reading
them from the board.

Composing With
a Partner

1. Compose a 4 measure rhythm pattern

with a partner.
2. Correctly put four beats in a measure.
3. Play their composition with another
students rhythm.

1. I will formatively assess

the four beat pattern they
write down ad hand in.
2. I will formatively assess
students as they present their
compositions to me.

2. We will go over note values on the board.

3. Using the Smartboard workbook, we will create a
four beat rhythm.
1. We will review rhythms as we sit in a circle and
do call and response with the rhythm sticks.
2.We will make a four beat rhythm as a class on the
smartboard using quarter notes and eighth notes.
3. Students will create their own rhythms using
quarter notes and eighth notes and then share with a
partner.

1. We will practice rhythms in call and response

format with rhythm sticks as we sit in a circle.
2. I will review the written rhythms on the board,
and introduce half notes and quarter rests.
3. We will compose rhythms as a class and perform
them while walking around the classroom.
4. Students will be split into two groups to play
complementary rhythms.
1. On the Smartboard we will review what types of
notes we have already done, then introduce the
sixteenth note and its value.
2. Students will come up to the board and create
rhythms with sixteenth notes (and other notes
learned before).
3. Students will play the rhythms off the board with
rhythms sticks.
1. We will review all the notes we have learned on
the board and their value.
2. We will compose a four bar rhythm as a class,
emphasizing that a specific number of beats must
go into a measure.
3. Students will get into pairs and compose a four
bar rhythm with their partner, and then perform it
for each other and then for me.

Solo Composition

1. Compose a four bar rhythm using

whole, half, quarter, eighth, and sixteenth
notes, and quarter rests.
2. Perform their written rhythm.

1. I will use this as

summative assessment,
marking students on having
the correct value of notes per
measure.
2. I will use this as
summative assessment,
marking students on their
accuracy of reading the
rhythms they wrote.

1. We will review the notes we have learned so far

on the board, and compose a four bar rhythm and
clap it as a class.
2. Each student will receive a piece of paper on
which they will compose their four bar rhythm to be
handed in to me.
3. Each student will perform his or her rhythm for
me as summative assessment.