Lesson Information Form

Lesson: 1/4 Date of lesson: 3/13/20

Objectives

Students will demonstrate their ability to:

 Understand basic chord structure and progressions in pop songs.
 Use simple music notation software.
 Brainstorm a song to arrange.
Activities/Strategies:
 The class will begin with me giving an overview of our arranging project.
 Next I will give a brief lesson on how chords are built, and then how they often are used
in chord progressions in pop music. I will use their feedback and the Chord Worksheet
to assess how familiar they are with chords and whether or not to devote more time to
this. (A)
 Next I will introduce the music notation software (NoteFlight) and walk through a basic
tutorial with the chromebooks.
 We will finish the class by beginning to brainstorm on which song to arrange. I will
provide suggested categories to facilitate the discussion (pop music, TV theme songs,
Disney Songs, etc.) (C)

Assessments: Chord Worksheet

Materials:
 Worksheet
 Pencil
 Chromebooks (NoteFlight)

Class Groupings: Full Group

 Lesson Information Form

Lesson: 2/4 Date of lesson: 3/20/20

Objectives

Students will demonstrate their ability to:

 Choose a song to arrange.
 Figure out a melody by ear.
 Understand basic arranging techniques and put them in use.
Activities/Strategies:
 We will start the lesson by making a decision on which song to arrange.
 Now the students figure out the melody on their own instruments with some guidance
if necessary. Based on the range of the melody we will decide on which key to put our
arrangement in. I will write out the melody on NoteFlight as they figure it out by ear to
use as a template. (A,C,P)
 Next we will look up a lead sheet for the song to get the chord progression. (A)
 I will give a short lesson on arrangement techniques. (A)
o Pass around the melody between verses and choruses for color change.
o Adding harmony/unison for impact.
o Ways to write interesting accompaniment using the chord changes (rhythmic
ostinato, arpeggios, chorale style).
 With any remaining time we will start arranging the song together on Chromebooks
using some of the techniques I taught. This will get them started and then they can feel
free to work on the arrangement outside of class if they wish (NoteFlight is all cloud
based and allows sharing projects). (A,C)

Assessments:
Informal performance assessment

Materials:
 Instruments
 Pencil
 Chromebooks

Class Groupings:
Full Group
Lesson: 3/4 Date of lesson: 3/27/20

Objectives

Students will demonstrate their ability to:

 Collaborate on their own arrangement
 Understand arrangement tools and ideas
Activities/Strategies:
 I will check in on the progress on the arrangement and make some suggestions using the
arrangement checklist. Students should bring instruments again so we can play through
sections to see how it works. (A,P)
 I will give a brief lesson on extended arrangement techniques such as adding
countermelodies and tags during repeated sections, key changes, and how to finish an
arrangement.
 The rest of the class will be guided work time where the students work on the
arrangement and bounce ideas off of me and each other. I will offer suggestions and the
students can feel free to use their instruments to experiment. (C)

Assessments:
Informal Assessment of Arrangement, Arrangement Checklist

Materials:
 Pencil
 Instruments
 Chromebooks

Class Groupings:
Full Group
Lesson: 4/4 Date of lesson: 4/2/20

Objectives

Students will demonstrate their ability to:

 Assess and complete their own arrangement.
 Perform their own arrangement.
Activities/Strategies:
 The focus of this class will be finishing up the arrangement. We will start by assessing, as
a group, what still needs to be done to complete the arrangement. Add any finishing
touches such as dynamics, articulations, multi-measure rests, any other aesthetic tasks.
We will work together to finish up the arrangement. (C,A)
 Next we will perform for ourselves to test the arrangement. Students will then fill out
the Reflection Questions. We will use that to make any small tweaks needed. (P,A)
 Print the arrangement and prepare to perform it for the class later. (P)

Assessments: Reflection Questions/Self-Assessment

Materials:
 Pencil
 Instruments
 Chromebooks

Class Groupings: Circle all that apply:

Full Group