Lesson Plan

Name: Laura Edwards

Grade/Class: 6-8

Date: 09.29.15

1. Measurable Objective: The students will be able to identify and accurately perform
simple repeats, 1st / 2nd ending repeats, DC al coda, and DS al coda.
2. Required Prior Knowledge and Skills: The students should have a basic knowledge
of notation (staff, clef, 2/4 time signature, etc.).
3. Review Needed: None
4. Materials, Repertoire, Equipment needed: Recording of Jingle Bells, white-board
markers, sheets for the student with a verse: Roses are red, violets are blue, skunks are stinky,
and so are you! x2
5. Agenda: Jingle Bells, Shortcuts in Music, Skunk Poem, Different Types of Repeats

6. Lesson Sequence

Pacing

A. Brief Opening:
Play Jingle Bells as children enter the room.
Encourage everyone to sing along.

1 min

B. Learning Activities:
1. Jingle Bells composer, James Pierpont,
was a busy man. He spent his days in the midlate 19th century living in Boston and
composing music. He kinda looks like Abe
Lincoln. Composers are too busy to write the
same thing over and over.
2. (In reference to repeat sign) Does anybody
know what this is? What does it do?
3. Musicians like to use shortcuts when they
write music. If a portion of a song is going to
be sung or played twice the composer will use
different variants of the repeat sign.
4. Show copy of Jingle Bells chorus. Sing
through chorus x2 while looking at music.
Did these shortcuts help you get to the end?
5. Pass out poem hand out and write it on the
board. Speak the verse with students. Find
where the strong pulses are. The pulses are
grouped together in sets of..? (two) Everyone
should write a a next to the first line (meter)

1. 1 min

2. 2 min
3. 1 min

4. 3 min

5. 5 min

(and on the board). Everyone should then

draw vertical lines to separate the words into
two beat units (measures). Lastly, draw a
circle around all the words that repeat.
6. How can we write a shortcut so we dont
have to write all these repeated words twice?
Draw on the board what it would look like in a
piece of music (one repeat sign on each end).
7. Students should now add a third line,
reading Roses are red, violets are blue,
skunks are stinky, and teachers are too! Add
1st and 2nd ending on board to demonstrate.
Go back to Jingle Bells, show connection.
8. Other shortcuts people use are the DC al
Coda and DS al Coda. Draw a coda; explain
what it does.
9. Explain DC al Coda vs. DS al Coda.
10. Show them Jingle Bells re-written using
each of the shortcuts then have them read
the text using the shortcut.

6. 1 min

7. 4 min

8. 2 min

9. 4 min
10. 4 min

C. Assessment:

Informal: Evaluate how well the students are

able to follow the symbols when reading in
class, and their responsiveness to questions.
Formal: Homework

D. Closing/Wrap-up: Review Questions

2 min

E. Assignment: Find a song that has

repeated words. Write the words like we did
today; add measures and a time signature,
and then write in the repeat or DS / DC al
Coda where appropriate.

1 min

7. Accommodations: For a class with some slower students, I might cover less topics. For
instance, only cover simple repeats and maybe 1st and 2nd endings, and save codas for
another class. For ESL students, I would try to be very visual: pointing to the board as Im
singing, etc.
8. Teacher Reflection/Self-Evaluation: (a. Reflect on the process and include student
responses b. Rethink & Revise - what could you have done differently to improve the
outcome of this lesson)
9. National Standards: (Creating, Performing, Responding)
10. State Standards: (Singing, Reading & Notation, Playing Instruments,
Improvisation & Composition, Critical Response, Purposes & meaning in the arts, Rose

of artists in communities, Concepts of style, stylistic influence & stylistic change, Inventions
technologies & the arts, Interdisciplinary connections)