The "First 10 Lessons" document is a possible sequence for teaching a beginning string student his/her first ten lessons. This was an excellent exercise in long-term planning. The five documents in the lower portion of the box are five of the children's songs associated with the ten lessons. These were entered into Finale by me.

 

The "Mini-Lesson" is a lesson plan written to teach "Skip to my Lou" to beginning strings players. This was done by rote, with a method where the students first conceptualize the song rhythmically with rhythmic solmization syllables, then sing it, then play it on their instruments. The lesson plan is also written with technical instruction (both for the R.H. and the L.H. and for pizzicato and arco) tied in throughout, again an important concept for comprehensive and cohesive teaching. Also notable is the addition of a root melody (bass line) to the song in addition to the main melody. This gets the students used to playing in parts. This lesson plan was written in anticipation of a teaching demonstration in front of my peers. 

The "Clinical High School Teaching Session" was the pinnacle of the Advanced (High School) Vocal/Choral Methods class. I prepared this lesson plan in anticipation of a 40-minute teaching demonstration in front of a real high school chorus in an area school district. The lesson plan breaks down the teaching of Cum Sancto Spiritu from Vivaldi's Gloria, in its entirety - from sightreading to performance readiness. I have highlighted the portions of the lesson which I accomplished in the space of the 40 minutes I had, choosing those portions so that I would have the opportunity to carry an entire chunk of the piece to performance readiness. If teaching this piece over the course of several rehearsals, I would do it in the sequence written. See the associated video in the "MUSIC EDUCATOR" page to watch this lesson in execution.

 

The "12-Minute Warm-Up" is a lesson plan for just that - 12 minutes of warm-up and technical vocal instruction! In many rehearsal situations, 12 minutes would be too long for technical instruction before repertoire is rehearsed, but could be appropriate if the rehearsal is more toward the beginning of the year. As the year goes on and a greater foundation of vocal technique is established, less time need be taken for technical instruction and more for repertoire. I designed the sequence according to the same vocal pyramid concept discussed under the Middle School Choral lesson plans, but according to a slightly different vocal pyramid which can be found on the "MISCELLANEOUS" subpage. This was in anticipation of a teaching demonstration in front of my peers. 

 

The "Clinical Session with PWC" was a lesson plan written in anticipation of a 20-minute teaching demonstration in front of Duquesne's Pappert Women's Chorale. In this lesson, I explored a slightly different method of instruction. Usually, with a high school or collegiate choir, I would attack each piece of repertoire first by having the students sightread it, then by fixing up pitches and rhythms, then adding text and articulations, and last adding expression and character. If one ignores the highlighting, they will find that the "Clinical High School Teaching Session" lesson plan is written in this way. With the PWC lesson plan, however, I proceeded differently by breaking the piece into chunks and carrying each individual chunk through a more comprehensive process that included not just pitches and rhythms, but also expression. Only after all of this was done did I move on to the next chunk. With only 20 minutes, I wanted to change my approach so that I could have the opportunity to carry these chunks of music through a more extended process - if I had gone through the process the way I normally would, I would have just drilled pitches for 20 minutes. This is very similar to what I did with the "Clinical High School Teaching Session," it is just that in this instance I also wrote the plan that way. In reality, working individual chunks until they are close to finished products before moving to the next one works best with middle school choirs; working a piece in broader strokes, but doing one thing at a time, is better for high school and collegiate level choirs.