Lesson Plan #3 (Elyse Mastel, Emma Arndt, Jocelyn Dufresne)

Grade/Subject: Grade 4 Unit:Social Studies, ELA, Music Lesson Duration: 40min

OUTCOMES FROM ALBERTA PROGRAM OF STUDIES
General Learning Outcomes:
1.Music: Awareness and appreciation of a variety of music, including music of the many cultures
represented in Canada
2. ELA 2. Students will listen, speak, read, write, view and represent to comprehend and respond
personally and critically to oral, print and other media texts.
Specific Learning Outcomes:
2.ELA 2.4 Create Original Text: Generate ideas, elaborate on the expression of ideas, structure
texts
3.Music Creating 10. Notate and perform original compositions (does not have to be formal
notation). Take the poem they wrote and create a simple pentatonic song.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Students will:
1. Construct a song based off of their poem and display their knowledge of Canadian
citizens of the early 1900s and how lived on the prairies
2. Students will appreciate the rich history of Albertas past
3. Students will demonstrate how poetry can directly relate to music through the use of
songwriting.
ASSESSMENTS
Observations:
-listening/observing skills
-ability to write poem based on lesson given
-ability to apply prior knowledge (poetry lesson
from last class) to task
-abilities to follow along with powerpoint
presentation

Key Questions:
What is a pentatonic scale?
What are the basic components of a
pentatonic song?
What are the similarities between poems
and songs?
How does your song represent the lives of
Canadian citizens of the 1950s on the
prairies?

Written/Performance Assessments:
Worksheets and song notation will be collected for formative assessment.
LEARNING RESOURCES CONSULTED
Resource #1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpvfSOP2slk video about pentatonic
songs
Resource #2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Irii5pt2qE Power of the pentatonic scale
MATERIALS AND EQUIPMENT

Powerpoint Presentation
Smart Board
Staff Paper and pencils
Worksheets
Colored popsicle sticks

PROCEDURE
Introduction (_5_min.):
Hook/Attention Grabber:
Assessment of Prior Knowledge:
ASK: Do you remember last class when we learned about poems?
SAY: This week we are going to be taking the poems that we wrote and learn how to set
them to music and create a song.
Expectations for Learning and Behaviour:
SAY: Today I will need you to be patient and listen carefully while we learn about
songwriting. You will have to following along and we will have an activity on the board,
and then we will be writing our song, so it is VERY important that you are paying
attention.
Advance Organizer/Agenda:
SAY: Today we are learning songwriting 101! We will be learning about Folk songs in the
1900s and pentatonic songs. You will be given a worksheet that you will work with a
partner as we on as we go through the different parts and kinds of songs. At the end of
class I will be taking the worksheet in, so make sure you are putting your best work into it!
Transition to Body:
DO: Open up songwriting powerpoint on the smartboard and turn on smart board.
DO: Handout workbook
SAY: Clear off your desk and take out a pencil. The only things on your desk should be
the Songwriting 101 worksheet, a colored popsicle stick and your pencil.
Body ( 30 min.):
Learning Activity #1:
Assessments/Differentiation:
Students will observe and participate in powerpoint presentation to learn the basics of
songwriting and folk songs on the 1900s.
Remind students that you will be taking the workbook in SAY: Remember, I am going to
collect your workbooks at the end of class, so you will have to follow along carefully to
make sure you are answering all of the questions and you are giving me your best
answers.
Begin Powerpoint
o Slide 1: SAY: On some of the slides you will see this music note (point to music
note) Whenever you see this pencil, that means there is a question or activity to
do in our workbook. They are also numbered to help you follow along. Lets start
with #1.
ASK: What comes to mind when you think of folk music from Alberta?
What is the main genre you think of?
Why do you think folk songs are so catchy?
SAY: I will give you two minutes to write your answer in your workbook.
ASK: Would anyone like to share their answers?
DO: Record students answers on whiteboard
o Slide 2: DO: Read Slide on Folk songs
SAY: Remember when you see a music note, it means that you need to
write an answer on your worksheet.
SAY: Now we are going to watch a short video describing pentatonic scales in
other cultures.
o Slide 3: DO: Read Slide about pentatonic scales.
SAY: Look at doh and soh they are two very important parts of our activity today
and we will be learning about them.

DO: Point out pentatonic scale

SAY: This is the pentatonic scale. See the notes and how they are all placed on
the staff where they land on the staff is their home. Were going to sing through
the scale while I point at all of their homes so you have a visual and auditory
representation of the scale.
Slide 4: Pentatonic Melodies read off of slide.
DO:Point out what points are important for their worksheet.
SAY: Now we're going to watch a video about pentatonic melodies and how
common they are in our everyday lives.
DO: Click link and watch video
SAY: See how natural the pentatonic scale comes to us. It is so ingrained in our
everyday music that we can naturally follow the scale without learning it
Slide 5: DO: Read slide about Doh and Soh
SAY: Look at doh and soh they are two very important notes and we will be
using them to write our songs today.
DO: Read off of slide
SAY: We are now going to sing the scale that we sang earlier while I point to the
notes home on the screen.
Slide 6: Matching the Notes to their Home
SAY: Now we are going to take the scale that we learned and match the notes to
their homes. I need a few volunteers to come up and match the note names to
their homes.
Slide 7: SAY: Time to start writing! Get into groups with the same popsicle stick
color as you and start working on notating your song. When you have finished
your notation and have sung it though at least 2 times come see me and I will
give you an ipad so you can record your song on voice notes like we have in the
past.

Closure ( 5 min.):
DO: at 10 minutes left in class tell students they have 5 minutes left with their group to finish their
song
SAY: (at 5 minutes left in class) I will be collecting your workbooks and song notations in 5
minutes so double check that you have answered all the questions and that you have music
written for every word of your poem.
Consolidation/Assessment of Learning:
DO: collect workbooks
SAY: pass your worksheets to the last person in your row. I am collecting your
workbooks to look at how you followed along in todays class, your answers and your
song notation.
Feedback From Students:
*students will respond via thumbs up and thumbs down*
ASK: Was it easy to follow along with the powerpoint in your worksheet?
Did you feel like you had enough time to answer the questions?
How did you feel about writing your song with a group?
Do you feel like you had enough time with your group to notate your full poem?
Feedback To Students:
SAY: Thank you for following along nicely throughout class today. I look forward to
singing and playing your beautiful songs!
Transition To Next Lesson:
SAY: In the next few lessons we will be taking everything weve learned over the last few
lessons and put them together into a project! So take all the stuff you have learned and
lock it away in your mind because we are going to need that knowledge in the next
coming lessons.

How will technology enhance student learning?

Technology can enhance student learning in so many ways! It allows the students
different learning modalities meshed together. It allows the students to be
stimulated visually, auditorily, and (if the lesson is interactive) kinaesthetically.
Through the use of smartboard and notebook technology teachers are able to create
interaction through slides, games, and presentations and it demonstrates a dynamic
movement through animation that allows the teacher to highlight information in
various modes of multimedia elements. By using technology there are so many
opportunities to create very interactive and engaging lesson plans, and as we
learned in Ed Psychology 3508, when students are actively engaged they have a
better opportunity to be involved with deep rich learning. If they are in deep rich
learning they have a better opportunity to store what they are learning into long-
term memory.

The students will be viewing a presentation on the smartboard in
combination with a corresponding worksheet that follows along with the slides.
One slide, in particular, offers interaction between the students and technology. By
allowing the students to have contact with the technology it allows them to be more
actively engaged with the lesson and gives them a more interactive role in the
classroom. In slide 6 of the presentation the students are supposed to match the
note names to their homes where they draw a line on the smartboard to connect
the correct answers. This allows the students to physically participate with the
lesson, rather than just watch the teacher.

What are important considerations when integrating this technology?

In order to effectively integrate technology into the classroom there are many
important factors that come into play. The teacher who is displaying or utilizing
the technology must be well informed and know how to use the technology. The
school needs to have the means to support integrating technology and allow all
students and equal opportunity to have time and utilize the tech. If half the
students have laptops, and the other half are using a paper and pen, they will not
all understand and develop the same technological skills. A basic test to ensure
technology has been seamlessly integrated into the classroom is if the use of it
seems routine and transparent.
The climate within the classroom is very important when using technology.
If it has been seamlessly integrated then the students should know exactly what is
expected of them. In Lesson Three (the lesson in the file above), students will be
interacting with the smartboard. Often students become pretty excited to use the
smartboard, so the teacher must keep an eye on them to make sure they dont do
anything they arent supposed to do. The technology is a privilege and expensive
and if the students arent able to handle that, then they may not be allowed to use
it. In this lesson the students will be working in small groups, and this provides
students with the opportunity to chat or go off track. It is important to reinforce
classroom rules and the teacher needs to work with each group to make sure
students are doing their work. These types of activities can be refreshing for

students if they have been sitting in their desk all day. Although its great to give
students a chance to work with one another, you have to make sure their
conversation is about the lesson.


Describe any potential downsides or cautions to using the technology or the
way in wish you will be using it.

Technology should not be used as simply a digital worksheet. There are many apps
and Internet sites available that are simply a technological version of a paper task,
forcing students to practice over and over a skill that they may already have
mastered. Dont get me wrong; these kills do need to be practiced. I believe that in
order to effectively use technology students should spend most of their time using
technology for more creative purposes. Technology should not be used as a way to
keep students occupied. A small number of computers or devices in a classroom can
be an inviting center, whether it is an assigned or a self-chosen one. If you use
technology in this way, choose wisely when you decide what the students will do
with the technology. There are many, many creative options available. It should not
be just to keep students busy while you work with small groups of children.
Technology should not be used to do what can be done without it. Drawing a
picture on an app or a computer program and labeling it is a worthwhile activity,
but why bother if that activity is an end in itself? It may as well have been done on
paper. Technology should allow you to do something new with that picture, such as
sharing/publishing it in some way.