Music lesson plans are an indispensable tool for music teachers. They are critical to the success of one lesson, the whole terms lessons, and the teachers life in general.
Have you heard of all the proverb, “If you don’t prepare, then you prepare to fail.” Once you have a bit of experience under your belt however, then preparing music lesson plans does not have to be as onerous as it is at first.
For those who are just starting out, here are a few guidelines for creating compelling music lesson plans:
1.Put into mind the student’s age group that you will teach.
A very good starting point when you are preparing a music lesson plans is to think about the maturity of the children you are teaching. What are their quirks and fancies? What type of music do they have on their music player? What are the other factors in society that can affect them? Were they at their age they already feel confident of themselves?
These are the questions that you need to think about when writing lesson plans. That’s why instant, ready-made music lesson plans would not work. Music lesson plans have to be created with the student’s need in mind. After a teacher gained some experiences, they should be able to adapt to the methods instantly, sorting out their music lesson plans and being able to fit in as they go. However, when you’re just beginning, a good plan should be able to research the age group you will handle and knowing how you’ll be able to reach out to them.
2.Always plan more than you’ll need
Often you’ll prepare a lesson with (say) ten activities. Sometimes you’ll only get up to the fourth one and the bell will ring for the end of the lesson. Just another day, for the same lesson in a different classroom and you might still have 20 minutes! You’re unsure and that’s why it’s always good to have a secondary plan. Have an extra interactive game in your bag just in case there would be some minutes to spare.
3.Include a mixture of activities
Most music lessons are usually segregated into set activities. Sometimes a week lesson would focus on theory, then practical, aural and then history. Quite often this is bound to happen because of some other issue or the span of the covered text, so it might be good to twist it around sometimes. If rooms won’t be a problem, you can spend half of the lesson in theory and then you can freely move to aural. It’ll be appealing to your pupils and it keeps them on their toes.
4.Start simple – simpler than you might think!
Its always a good idea, particularly if working with younger students to have the simplest version as a backup of your complicated idea. For example if you’re introducing a new piece of music in a practical lesson you may wish to plan for the scenario of it being way too hard for the students. This happened to me many times, and I found that if I had ready a small little section or part of the piece which I knew was very easy, that going and doing that bit would be enough to get them in and enthuse them about the piece. It’s not always a good idea to begin at high point! You can begin with something they can smoothly breeze by, then you can return on the hardest parts later.
5. Listen to feedback
Your pupils can give feedback – in the smallest ways. Seniors in particular will never tell you “Mrs.Fox , you’ve been doing a wonderful job in our class, you’re lessons are quite entertaining and much more livelier” Perhaps you might have a dream that your student says that – but its not going to happen in real life! The students you’ll meet are those happy to come to their class and would share some laughter with you at a right time. You might notice some student forming their own orchestra group much ahead than the activities of the class. When you this transpire, you’ll know that the music lesson plans you’ve been preparing have worked.