Keep the beat: a music and interpretive dance lesson on practicum

At the last minute, my prac teacher asked me to plan and run a lesson on music and interpretive dance. Having at this stage not studied either of these strands of Creative And Performing Arts at uni, I was somewhat apprehensive, to say the least!

I planned a few options, in case some went belly up. The other constraint my prac teacher enforced was that the lesson was to be 'quiet'. I scratched my head wondering how to devise a 'quiet' music and dance lesson. Needless to say, the lesson was far from quiet and I ended up with quite a headache by the end of it!

CREATIVE ARTS LESSON PLAN

UNIT TITLE: Music and Dance			TIMING: Friday 13/9 (1:10-2:00) 50 mins
LESSON: Keep the beat		STAGE: 1 Year 2
RELATED LESSON OUTCOMES: Music: Repertoire - Student compositions, movement; Concepts – Duration, dynamics, structure MUS1.2 Explores, creates, selects and organises sound in simple structures MUS1.1 Sings, plays and moves to a range of music demonstrating awareness of musical concepts Dance: DAS1.2 Explores and selects movement using the elements of dance to express ideas, feelings or moods.		ASSESSMENT/EVIDENCE OF LEARNING: A student will: ·  Explore a range of sounds, beats and rhythms that can be produced by the body and the voice. ·  Accurately imitate the sounds, beats and rhythms created by others ·  Be attentive and repond appropriately to the conductor’s hand gestures to alter the volume and start / stop the sound as directed ·  Keep the beat to a range of songs with different tempos.
Before the lesson: Have students move chairs and tables aside to create more floor room. Have songs loaded ready on computer.
PART AND TIMING	TEACHING AND LEARNING STRATEGIES (HOW)			RESOURCES
Introduction (2 minutes)	1.     T enters classroom and sits on chair. Tell them we are going to experiment with beat – making and copying different sounds and beats, and moving to them in time. 2.     Explain that if Ss misbehave they will be given two warnings, and the third time they will have to sit alone at their desk and miss out. 3.     Instruct Ss to sit in circle
Activity 1 (10 minutes) Body percussion sounds in circle	1.     T makes a sound with body percussion. Ask all Ss to copy the sound. 2.     First student in the circle makes a sound and all Ss copy. Next student makes a different sound etc…. 3.     After one round, tell them that this time they need to make a sound, but that as T walks around the circle and taps a student at random on the head, only that student can copy the sound the lead student is making, everyone else must be silent.
Activity 2 (10 minutes)	1.     Keep Ss sitting in circle 2.     Tell Ss you will play a piece of music and make a beat. Watch me carefully as I will change the body percussion beat and sound throughout the song. 3.     Play J'y suis jamais allé song, performing different beats and sounds throughout. 4.     Play We’re going to be friends song, performing different beats and sounds throughout. 5.     Play funkytown, performing different beats and sounds throughout.			Computer with J'y suis jamais allé song loaded
Activity 3 (10 minutes) Soundscape	1.     Break students into groups of 3. Give them 1 minute to work out a sound or beat each group will make. 2.     Tell Ss that the teacher is the conductor. Every time the conductor points at one group, that group must make their sound. If the teacher points at two groups, both make their sound. Once the teacher stops pointing at a group, those Ss must be silent. 3.     Practice each group in turn, then try two groups, then try at random. 4.     Show Ss the signal for increasing volume and lowering volume. Conduct the soundscape again, signalling for groups to change volume and start/stop as conducted. 5.     Repeat with another sound.
Activity 4 (10 minutes) Clapping sticks and animals	1.     Have students sit on floor. Explain that I will clap a rhythm and call out an animal. Everyone has to move around like that animal, to the rhythm. I have to be able to tell what animal you are by how you move. You cannot make any sounds. 2.     Clap a rhythm with the clapping sticks. Have Ss move around the room depending on rhythm, pretending to be a mouse. Freeze. Tell Ss they are now tigers, and change the clapping rhythm to suit. Freeze, then try another animal etc: elephants, birds, fish, snakes.