High School Musical Lesson Plans

By janice | May 16, 2008

If you were thinking of using the film “High School Musical” in your lesson plans, there is a whole teaching resource available- completely free!

The resource is called ” The Music In You” and is 28 pages of colour, crammed with information about the show and activities your students can do.

So thankyou to the Disney team behind High School Musical and these excellent resources - they deserve to be congratulated!
The materials are put together and are in pdf format so you can print and teach using them.

Simply Click Here to get to the materials

 

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Topics: Music Teaching, music lesson plans | No Comments »

Make Music Lessons Fun with printable materials!
 
. Ideal for small group lessons, individual tuiton or for activities in a larger group setting.
 
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The Benefits of Using Flashcards in Teaching Music

By janice | May 14, 2008

Loads of music teachers use them, most have them in their “Kit bags” and the kids just love using them, but why??
What makes using flashcards so valuable to our learning and why do so many teachers and parents already use them worldwide. Here are four strong reasons why using flashcards should be an essential part of every music teacher’s curriculum.

 
Reason#1- Using Flashcards in music lessons allow you to learn “Bite Sized” pieces of relevant information at a time.

Too much information or having to wade through too much irrelevant information can be really distracting to anyone trying to learn about a new concept.

Just as an example, How many times have you tried to find some information on the internet only to get distracted with something else that catches your attention on the way. A job that should take minutes can sometimes turn into hours, just because the information is hard to find or you get distracted on the way to finding it.

Flashcards allow you to place small amounts of focussed and relevant information on them at a time which are easy to access anytime you want them. You can learn the material you need to learn without any distraction or extra time spent.

Reason#2 - You can review the same information over and over again using flashcards and then later use them to review learned material.

There are many ways and systems of using flashcards in your music lessons which enable you to repeat the same content and information in various ways. After all, our students all learn in different ways and have different ways of connecting with materials learned.

You can use flashcards as a deck of cards that gradually gets smaller as you know more information or you can use them as games or quizzes. The possibilities are endless and vary to suit your students and their learning styles. The point is that the same information is taught in different ways through repetition- a highly effective way of communicating new information.
Reason#3 - Flashcards “actively” involve you in the process of learning.

Think about the times where you enjoyed learning and learn’t the most. Were you

sitting in a “passive” style lecture where you sat and listened, nodded off to sleep in between and woke up to find you had still another hour to go….

or….

Were you  “actively” involved in an activity where you may have been asking questions, shouting out, getting excited about the content and playing games.
In this style of learning you often catch yourself saying something like “time fly’s when your having fun” and it does’nt feel like you’re having to work hard to take in and remember the new information.

The advantage of this active style of lesson is that you actually retain up to 80% of the information presented instead of the usual 10% in a lecture style “passive” session.

Flashcards are an excellent tool to encourage highly “active” learning. They encourage a student to see the information, use it hands on straight away and then recall the information later. They are also self checking so that it gives your students the confidence they need when learning information. Best of all they’re FUN!

Reason#4 -Flashcards provide you with Immediate Feedback on results.

I remember this scene vividly in my beginning years as a teacher.

It was the last lesson before one of my very hard working students had their first exam. We’d worked really hard all year on the pieces and technical issues and scales, so I thought I’d just run through a little bit of general knowledge…

 I pointed to a crotchet/quater note and said “What’s that?”….

Well the student gave me a blank look and every other possiblity except for the correct answer!….

Of course I spent another hour that lesson explaining it to my student and making sure that they understood and could talk about it in their exam, but it could have all been solved if I had used flashcards consistently throughout that exam preparation time and it would have been a lot less stressful at the last minute.

Needless to say from that time on, that’s exactly what I did.

Flashcards let you  know exactly what information your student does know and helps your student explain it exactly in the way in which the examiner wants to hear it.

Flashcards  give you insight into what you need to work on further way before it’s too late like I experienced way back then.

If you are interested the Fun Music Company offers a complete range of Printable Music Flashcard, called the Ultimate Flashcard Set, which is also available as a bonus in our Printable Music Games product.

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General Music Lesson Plan

By janice | May 9, 2008

Here are three ideas for games you can use in your next general music lesson plan to help encourage knowlege of the Instruments of the Orchestra. This game is especially designed for teachers without any musical knowledge and can be used in small groups or for a whole class activity.

While I was researching this topic, I realized there was a real need for more worksheets and other general activities relating to the Instruments Of the Orchestra which can be accessed instantly. Please feel free to add feedback and comment on your own needs and sucess stories and I will keep posting more info in this area as well. Here’s a few ideas to get you started;

Idea#1 - Instrument Detective

Preparation:
Divide your group/class into two teams.
Have a set of Clue Flashcards describing the instruments of the orchestra, a separate set of picture flashcards to match.

Directions:
The teacher (or a leader student) reads a clue from a clue card. Teams have to identify which instrument the clue is talking about, and put up their hands to answer. If they get it right, they get a point. If they are not correct, they lose a point! The team with the most points wins!

Just visit musical-clipart.com if you would lik to make your own flashcards.

Idea#2 - Instrument Of the Orchestra Crossword

It’s just great when you can make some relevant crosswords easily and quickly ready for filling a few minutes in class or for homework. I found a lesson plan site that will let you customise a crossword to suit your needs.

To visit the crossword which is relevant to the topic of Instruments of the Orchestra, just visit this page for a crossword maker which can quickly make you a music instruments of the orchestra crossword.

Idea#3 - Instrument Of the Orchestra Activities

I found a reproducible group of general Orchestral Instruments Information and activities to do containing colour pictures and self checking quizzes for teachers. It’s called “You’ve Got the Music in You”. It also has a section of basic music fundamentals in it. Click here  to Check it out.  It’s all in pdf style so you can print out relevant pages straight away and is written specifically for a general teacher.

 

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Topics: Music Teaching, Uncategorized, lesson ideas, music lesson plans | No Comments »

Turn Theory Lessons into enjoyable times for your class!
 
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