Rebecca Carroll

Music in Special Education/ Maher

Lesson Plan Modification
5/2/15

This project was much more difficult than I had anticipated. I had initially chosen a
different lesson plan to modify than the one that was completed. The first was a lesson plan I had
written during AP music theory on the analysis and composition of Secondary Functions, to be
taught to the kids in first level of music theory (although I thought this topic was too difficult for
them to grasp, my teacher had me write it anyway). As we were going thought the lesson plan
during the workshop, we realized this would be VERY difficult to because it was a very dry
lesson plan to begin with. I had planned to alter this for someone who has a lower IQ, or who is
not as cognitively advanced (we had discussed changing it for someone who is autistic, but that
would have involved making a Secondary Functions lesson plan multi sensory and less lecture.
Because of this, we picked the only other lesson plan I had which was written during my Strings
Praxis class on playing a G scale pizzicato, and then incorporating those notes into a simple
song.
The first modification that I made were the objectives. I had originally wanted the class to
be able to master the G major scale pizzicato (and be able to identify what that meant), but for
this group of students, I would like them to proficiently be able to play the first three or four
notes, because a lot of concentration is required to be able to move your fingers to the correct
spots. My second original objective was for the class to be able to learn a song that I supplied,
pizzicato, but for this group, MAYBE by the end of the lesson they can play hot cross buns, or a
much simpler song, because the song that I supplied would have involved sight readings
considering this is an introduction to the Scale itself, and the notes within it. My last original
objective was to be able to have the class also sing the scale, and by the end of the lesson have
half of the class playing it while the other half sings it and vise versa. I believe that singing helps
engrain notes distances and relationships in a students brain because of the active concentration
that is involved in using your voice as an instrument. For this group of students, I would like
them to be able to sing a G the starting pitch of the scale that we will be working with.
In the original lesson plan, one of my first steps would have been to ask the students to
play the song that I supplied. We would identify things we noticed from the scale in the
repertoire, and sight read this pizzicato. In the modified version, I will go around the classroom
the ensure that each student can properly identify the G string and place finger on it it correct
position. In the original plan, To make sure that they could understand the notes itself and were
not just using muscle memory, I had half of the class read the song on the violin and half of the
class will sing it on solfege (do do ti, la la ti, do ti la ti, do do do). This was to ensure growth in
note reading, internal intervals and practice on the violin, all at equal paces. For the modified
plan, half the class will sing G and half the class will play the g string. I want to maintain the
simultaneous progression of all of the skills required to be a good musician, together. At the end
of the original lesson, If all went well, we would add the bow, but if it was messy, we will do it
pizzicato again. For this group, I wont add the bow, so that I am not mixing concepts. If they can
master this within adequate time, I would repeat this process with the second a third notes in the
scale. The next lesson would include a review of these notes and possibly towards the end, hot
cross buns. I tried to minimize the speed of progression that the original plan included, but not

the progression of skill overall. This will still add to the skills that they came in with, but wont
be an overwhelming amount of new information.