Technology & Pedagogy

My goal for this post is to fully examine a lesson plan in order to see clearly the goals, teaching strategies, and technologies used. After some research I found that most of the online resources for music lesson plan were uninspiring. For this reason I chose to analyze my own lesson plan. This way, I can begin to grasp a knowledge of the requirements necessary to make a good lesson plan, but also see where some of my thinking falls short.

The lesson plan itself is a sort of open canvas for work. Originally, I only chose the standard 1.4.P.A.3 which is to “Describe feelings and reactions and respond in an increasingly informed manner to stories and dramatic performance”. But, as I continued to look through the NJCCCS I found a couple different standards that either could be applied to this lesson or could easily be tailored to incorporate. In my analysis I included two standards that could be incorporated.

One aspect of the lesson that was lacking was the use of technology. Though there are some technologies used (markers, whiteboards, sound system, etc.) I would hesitate before saying that this lesson plan integrates technology to its fullest extent. Some changes would have to be made to the overall structure of the lesson to accurately incorporate these ideas. For example, this lesson could be changed into a project where students have listening assignments. They would go on the internet to research aspects of the piece (composer, styles, and compositional reasons). If these changes were to be made the goals and standards would either change or more would be added since different concepts are being added. As it stands right now, the lesson uses technology in a way that facilitates learning. We want to keep this aspect, but the only way I see is to add more concepts to the lesson itself.

My analysis can be found here.