Megan

Hendrix
MUED 273
Four Lesson Plan Unit
Middle School Concert Band (probably 8th grade)
Unit 2 Architecture
Lesson One What is Architecture? Sight-read and analyze music

Objectives

Procedures

Students will understand what architecture means in a musical context

Students will be able to determine the form of the music that we play in class

Warm up with regular daily routine (tuning exercises, Bach chorales, and scale
technique exercises) to get playing and settled down a bit
Discuss what Architecture means in a musical setting
o What is Architecture?
o Does anyone know how this could relate to music?
o Form and texture of a piece are important to the overall characteristic of
the piece maybe play a few examples to let them hear it
Hand out music to sight read
Sight read the music all the way through, stopping only if there is a train wreck
Analyze the piece
o What overall patterns were there? ABA? AABA?
o What was the instrumentation?
o What dynamics were used?
As we read more pieces, compare the analysis
o Are marches similar in form?
o How did the piece evoke similar emotions?

Assessment

Students show they understand the way architecture is involved in music:

receive credit for participation
There will be a short quiz at the end of the lesson to assess whether students
fully grasp form or not

Lesson Two Sight read/analyze music to refresh, get in groups to create outline for music

Objectives

Procedures

Warm-up with regular daily routine

Hand out music to sight read (less than last class)
Sight read the music all the way through, stopping only if there is a train wreck
Analyze the piece
o What overall patterns were there? ABA? AABA?
o What was the instrumentation?
o What dynamics were used?
Discuss similarities between pieces of music and their structures
Get into about 4 groups
Start to experiment with how to create a piece of music based on architecture
o What form do you want?
o What instrumentation?
o What dynamics and tempos will help you evoke certain emotions?
o How is your piece similar to one of the pieces we played in class?

Assessment

Students will recall how to find the form of a piece

Students will find the similarities between all the pieces of music we are reading
in class
Students will start to explore ways they can build a piece of music just like
building a structure

Students demonstrate their knowledge of structure of pieces of music

(explaining things like form, texture, instrumentation, dynamics, and shape)
through participation in discussion
A short quiz on architecture similar to last class wouldnt be a bad idea
Informally assess how students are coming along in their groups just by walking
around and assisting

Lesson Three Create an outline for a piece of music (in groups)

Objectives

Procedures

This class period will be spent mostly working on paper and brainstorming rather
than playing music as usual
Students will work in their groups to create a piece of music for any
instrumentation they want (band, orchestra, chamber ensemble, etc)
Class will be predominantly group-work rather than teacher-led. I will use this
time to grade quizzes from earlier and answer any and all questions there might
be

Assessment

Students will apply their knowledge of architecture to create an outline of a

piece of music
Students will affectively work in groups as a team

By the end of class, groups are expected to have the structure of their piece
completely finished. Details like dynamics, tempos, instrumentation,
articulation, style, and emotion should be included in each section
If students would feel comfortable turning in their work and still being prepared
to present next class, have them do that. If not, let them keep it.

Lesson Four Present our scaffolding of music for the class and analyze each others ideas

Objectives

Procedures

Students will present in groups their ideas for pieces of music

Students who are listening to the presentation will be able to identify how their
pieces are similar to the music we have played in class

Groups will present their ideas one at a time

After the students explain what they have as far as an outline of a piece of music,
I will ask a few questions to those listening regarding the piece
o This could include, What type of piece is this, a song or a dance? How
is this similar to another piece we played in class? Why do you think
this group chose that instrumentation?
The next three groups will repeat with that same general procedure
Students will have a discussion at the end about what they learned over the
course of the last few days talking about architecture

Assessment

Groups will be graded based on a rubric provided making sure all components
we talked about are included in their outlines
o This includes everything we talked about earlier: dynamics, tempos,
instrumentation, articulation, style, and emotion
Students will complete a group assessment so I can determine whether they
worked well in their groups/ if everyone contributed equally.