6th Grade General Music Lesson Plan

Teacher Name: Grace Kenny Date: 12/5/19

Lesson Topic and Grade: 6th grade music (movement unit)

PA Academic Standards (Benchmarks/Indicators) or National Standards of Music addressed:

MU:Cn11.0.6a Demonstrate understanding of relationships between music and the other arts, other
disciplines, varied contexts, and daily life.

Instructional Objectives:

Students will understand how to use place, level, time, and energy/shape to relate movement and storytelling
to music.

Materials:

Spotify (from phone or computer)

Bluetooth speaker
Dry-erase board and marker

Opening/Introduction Activity:

Creating stories to music

Learning Opportunities/Procedure:

● T will ask students if they can think of an art form that uses movement to tell a story. T will listen to
students’ suggestions and will guide the answer to “ballet” if needed.
● T will say, “I’m not going to have you do ballet right now, but we are going to be creating our own
stories with movement to music.”
● T will have students listen to “Great Escape” from Spotify and will encourage them to come up with
ideas for what they think could be happening in the music, or what story might be going on because
“sometimes music can tell stories, too.”
● After listening to the piece of music, T will explain that the students will make groups of five or six
people and will create a story to the music. Before they move into the groups, T will say that there are
expectations for the story.
● T will explain that we want to make the movement interesting, so the students should be thinking
about a few things. The students should think about moving around in the story, or not staying in one
place, using different levels, using fast or slow movements, or sharp or smooth movements. T will
demonstrate a few examples of these elements of movement and will write them on the board; T will
write, “Moving around, Different Levels, Fast or Slow, Sharp or Smooth.”
● T will say, “I would like you to come up with your story, while also using creative movements to
 convey what is happening.” T will explain that it doesn’t have to be a dance, but it can have dance
elements if they want, and it should incorporate the different ways of moving that we discussed and
that are written on the board. T will also mention that students can briefly explain their story to the
class after they have performed if they would like to, but T will emphasize that they shouldn’t explain
the story before they perform it.
● T will have students choose their groups and students will move to separate locations in the room for
each group.
● T will play “Great Escape” again as students explore movement ideas in their group.
● T will give students a few minutes to discuss their ideas and choose what story they would like to tell.
T will walk around to listen to what students are doing. T will assess whether or not they are thinking
about and employing the things we discussed by observing their interactions with one another. If they
are lacking one of the elements, T will ask how they plan to incorporate it.
● T will announce that she will play “Great Escape” one more time to give students a chance to practice
their story before performing it for the class. If students absolutely need more time, T can play it
again, but only if necessary.
● T will ask for a group to volunteer to demonstrate their story first. Each group will then perform with
applause in between.

Specific Differentiation Strategies:

UDL:

● T will write vocabulary words from aural discussion on the dry-erase board
● T will allow for multiple means of expression in the movement, based on ability. If some students
cannot coordinate many different movements, T will accept the movements that they can do.
● T will use multiple means of engagement by discussing ideas one-on-one with some students and
letting other students work independently from the teacher in their groups.

Assessment:

● T will call on different students to show their prior knowledge of how movement connects to music
when briefly discussing ballet.
● T will look for students who might not be initially incorporating the multiple different ways of moving
that we discussed and will help individual students.
● T will walk around while students are practicing to see if they understand how to incorporate different
kinds of movement as well as storytelling.
● T will watch the performances in front of the class to see if students are incorporating different ways
of moving.