Video Analysis and Reflection 3

Kelsey Georgesen
6th Grade at Fall Creek Intermediate
Lesson taught on October 7th, 2015
Youtube Link: https://youtu.be/Y36IOnZZDBE
This Lesson in Context: This lesson is a continuation of the unit on
the decades of the 1920s and 1930s, and an introduction to the blues
as a style, genre, and form. I have taught portions of this lesson to the
previous two rotations of 6th in a combined class with sixty students. In
this lesson, learn the Charleston Stomp and review what they know
about the 1920s and 1930s, connecting this early line dance and its
surrounding cultural movements to their own line dances (such as The
Cupid Shuffle) and their own cultural experiences today. We also
discuss why dances like these are relevant and what benefits they
have to the students. A listening activity draws attention to blues form
while introducing students to some characteristics and history of the
blues. Only a portion of students know what roman numerals are, so
those must be explained before they understand the purpose of
labeling form with them. After students can sing the blues form with
numbers and letters in the key of C, they play the roots of the form on
their iPad Real Piano apps before learning a walking bassline that
follows that pattern. This is the last segment of the 20s and 30s unit,
and the following week is entirely dedicated to studying the blues and
creating and performing with the blues.
INTASC Standards: The INTASC Standards covered include:
Standard 1: Learner Development
The teacher understands how children learn and develop, recognizing
that patterns of learning and development vary individually within and
across the cognitive, linguistic, social, emotional, and physical areas,
and designs and implements developmentally appropriate and
challenging learning experiences.
Standard 4: Content Knowledge
The teacher understands the central concepts, tools of inquiry, and
structures of the discipline(s) he or she teachers and creates learning
experiences that makes these aspects of the discipline accessible and
meaningful for learners.
Standard 5: Innovative Application of Content
The teacher understands how to connect concepts and use differing
perspectives to engage learners in critical/creative thinking and
collaborative problem solving related to authentic local and global
issues.

Standard 7: Planning for Instruction

The teacher draws upon knowledge of content areas, cross-disciplinary
skills, learners, the community, and pedagogy to plan instruction that
supports every student in meeting rigorous learning goals.
Standard 8: Instructional Strategies
The teacher understands and uses a variety of instructional strategies
to encourage learners to develop deep understanding of content areas
and their connections, and to build skills to access and appropriately
apply information.
Music Standards:
6. Listening to, analyzing, and describing music.
8. Understanding relationships between music, the other arts, and
disciplines outside the arts.
9. Understanding music in relation to history and culture.
MU:Re7.2.6b: Identify the context of music from a variety of genres,
cultures, and historical periods.
MU:Cn10.0.6a: Demonstrate how interests, knowledge, and skills relate
to personal choices and intent when creating, performing, and
responding to music.
MU:Cn11.0.6a: Demonstrate understanding of relationships between
music and the other arts, other disciplines, varied contexts, and daily
life.
MU:Re7.2.6a: Describe how the elements of music and expressive
qualities relate to the structure of the pieces.
MU:Re8.1.6a: Describe a personal interpretation of how creators and
performers application of the elements of music and expressive
qualities, within genres and cultural and historical context, convey
expressive intent.
MU:Pr4.2.6c: Identify how cultural and historical context inform the
performances.
Objectives: My objectives, listed below
-Students will dance the Charleston Stomp and find connections
between this dance and the dances that they learned previously, as
well as connections to modern line dances, such as the Cupid Shuffle.
-Students will learn about early blues artists and style, and will figure
out what the lyric form of a blues is.

-Students will sing the roots for a 12-bar blues and then learn a walking
bassline for the 12-bar blues on their real piano apps.
Setting or Environment created: This lesson was taught as a
combined class which promotes the social engagement that
encourages comfort with dancing, and opens the floor for a
collaborative discussion and contributions of ideas. We like to give
students the freedom to move around and find their own space and
time to learn and process new things, but I am becoming more and
more active in my process of monitoring behavior and reminding
students of appropriate participation. These are not things that I focus
on or stress out about anymore, so it was interesting to notice in the
video how casually I confront small disruptions in the classroom- a
contribution to discussion without a raised hand, or a student laying on
the floor unable to see the screen required for the activity. Until
watching this video, I had forgotten about my reminders for these
students, and watching the video it is awesome to see how they
respond and change their behavior accordingly.
Questioning used: Questioning is used as a means of assessment
and review at the beginning of the lesson, and is used as a directive
during the listening activity. Assessment of answers to this questioning
includes individual responses and thumbs-up verses thumbs-down
surveying.
How were all learners engaged, responding, participating, and
represented:
The use of questioning engages all students when the response
required is a survey of thumbs-up and thumbs-down, or a sort of vote
as to which answer they believe is correct. This prompting kept all
students engaged during the listening activity. The segment of the unit
requiring dancing was an easy assessment, and I moved around the
room as the students had a grasp on the moves so that I could assist
those who needed more guidance and prompt the students who were
attempting to opt out of the activity. The use of the iPads to
immediately connect information that was discussed and then
practiced with singing allowed us to immediately assess student
understanding as we walked around the room and guided individual
practice on the Real Piano apps.
Personal Idiosyncrasies and Solutions: This lesson was not my
most seamless lesson of the day, as it was the first of three. In the
morning, I find that my last lesson of the day is the most practiced,
from the act of teaching it three times that day, and I am able to
predict student responses and anticipate best ways of teaching
segments. For example, in later lessons I used proximity while teaching

the lesson, instead of after it was taught and while it was being
practiced, because I realized some of the students in the back (who
were apt to be less comfortable dancing, anyway) were not receiving
as much attention or information in the back of the room, which added
to their reluctance to dance. Similarly, in later lessons that day I
modeled a walking bassline in the 12-bar blues earlier in the lesson,
and used it as a hook instead of an example added in-between singing
the roots. This increased interest and engagement. With experience, I
realize that these anticipations and adjustments to my lesson will
happen faster, and that I will begin to plan for these simple things
instead of discovering them mid-lesson, or in a reflection afterwards.
Progress and Growth Demonstrated: While I continually need to
work on anticipating student responses to lessons and music, I have
improved a great deal in just the last two weeks of teaching this lesson
in pacing and necessary information. While I did not plan for added
proximity from the beginning of the dance activity, I noticed it was
necessary and added it in as I taught the lesson. This flexibility
happens as the class learns about the roots, and I realized that we
could play the roots before playing the walking bassline in entirety, and
I also realized that students needed to see the explicit connection
between the roots and all of the other notes.