Christopher Whiteford

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Mus 240: Orientation in Music Education for Grades K-12

Unit Lesson Plan: Jazz and Its Many Forms

Lesson Plan for Sixth Grade: The Great American Art Form

Week 1, Day 1

I. Overall Objectives- 6. Listening to, analyzing, and describing music.- 7. Evaluating music and music performances.- 9. Understanding music in relation to history and culture.

II. Behavioral Objectives- Students will describe in detail the origins of jazz music.- Students will understand the cultural ripples jazz has had in popular culture today.

III. Materials- a computer with internet access

IV. Procedure- Teacher has Youtube opened with the song “Salt Peanuts” playing in the

background.- Teacher asks how they would describe the song using these concepts: tempo,

texture, rhythmic patterns, and style.- Teacher begins to talk about jazz: the American art form and its origins with

African spirituals that slaves would sing.- Teacher explains how this translated into rhythm and blues and how jazz split off

of that. - Teacher then plays a recording of Jelly Roll Morton’s “Jelly Roll Blues” and talks

about Jelly Roll Morton’s importance to the jazz movement.- Teacher plays a clip of Louis Armstrong performing “A Kiss to Build a Dream

On” and talks about his aid to popularize jazz in America.- Teacher discusses the transition into bebop and plays a short clip of “Blue Train”

by John Coltrane.- Teacher talks about the revolution in arts that bebop created and that artists like

Coltrane and Davis helped to push forward.- Teacher finishes lesson with a recording of “Mumbles” by Clark Terry.

V. Assessment- The assessment is based on the curriculum discussed and will be administered as

a quiz the following class. Questions may be along these lines: “Name an important figure in shaping bebop jazz.”

Lesson Plan for Sixth Grade: Miles Down the Road

Week 1, Day 4

I. Overall Objectives- 6. Listening to, analyzing, and describing music.- 7. Evaluating music and music performances.- 9. Understanding music in relation to history and culture.

II. Behavioral Objectives- Students will understand Miles Davis’ background.- Students will be able to clearly describe Miles Davis’ sound.- Students will be able to describe why his style changed so drastically.

III. Materials- Computer- Projector- Microsoft PowerPoint- Recordings of the following by Miles Davis: “Boplicity,” So What,” and “Bitches

Brew” IV. Procedure

- Teacher begins lesson by playing the first three minutes of “Bitches Brew” and asks the class to visualize a scene to go along with the music.

- After a few students share their visualizations, the teacher asks who they think created the song.

- Teacher explains that it was Miles Davis and that it wasn’t anywhere near where he started his career.

- Teacher then begins talking about his life in Illinois and his move to new York to pursue music.

- Teacher explains that is where he met a lot of famous musicians.- Teacher asks students to snap their fingers along with the next song the teacher

will play, “Boplicity.”- After the song ends, teacher talks about Miles Davis’ life in New York around the

time that this was released.- Fast forwarding almost ten years, teacher talks about his recording sessions of

“Kind of Blue,” and how Davis wanted to depart from bebop jazz to hard bop jazz.

- Teacher explains the difference between bebop and hard bop jazz.- Teacher plays “Bitches Brew” again and explains Miles’ interest in jazz fusion in

his later years.- Teacher then assigns the class a worksheet on Miles Davis’ life to be completed

outside of class

V. Assessment- The assessment will be the worksheet, which will outline the different forms of

jazz that Miles Davis played throughout his lifetime as well as some of his background information.

Lesson Plan for Sixth Grade: Scat 101

Week 2, Day 1

I. Overall Objectives- 1. Singing, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music.- 3. Improvising melodies. Variations, and accompaniments.- 6. Listening to, analyzing, and describing music.- 7. Evaluating music and music performances.

II. Behavioral Objectives- Students will improvise on top of a rhythm section playing key changes.- Students will be taught the fundamentals of scat singing.- Students will be able to listen to the different scat singers and tell me something

distinct about each of them.III. Materials

- Recordings of the following songs: “How High the Moon” by Ella Fitzgerald; “Heebie Jeebies” by Louis Armstrong; “Mumbles” by Clark Terry; “Cottontail” by Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington; “West End Blues” by Louis Armstrong; “Them There Eyes” by Anita O’Day; and Bb Blues Progressions from a Jamey Aebersold CD.

- Chalk- Chalkboard

IV. Procedure- While the class files in from their previous class, teacher has a recording of

“Cottontail” playing at just about the point in which Louis Armstrong is scat singing.

- Teacher asks who the singer is and what he is doing.- Teacher plays “Heebie Jeebies” and asks the class to pay close attention to

whether or not his scat singing seems intentional or not.- Teacher then explains the origin anecdote of scat (Louis Armstrong forgot the

words to “Heebie Jeebies” during the recording session)- Teacher then plays “Them There Eyes” and asks the class to listen for a musical

quotation from a classically composed song. - Teacher tells them it’s Bolero and plays it again to make sure everyone catches it.- Teacher begins to play the Jamey Aerbersold background music and scat solo on

top of it and invites everyone to join in. (Tells them “Don’t be shy!”- Teacher tells the students to pick someone near them who is singing well and if

those people choose, they can sing by themselves in front of the class.- Teacher concludes lesson with a listening of “Mumbles.”

V. Assessment

Assessment is based on the students’ ability to clearly understand and comprehend scat singing and its place in jazz history.

Lesson Plan for Sixth Grade: Swing 101: How to Swing

Week 2, Day 3

I. Overall Objectives:- 2. Performing on instruments, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music.- 5. Reading and notating music.- 6. Listening to, analyzing, and describing music.

II. Behavioral Objectives:- Students will demonstrate the ability to swing while playing their instruments.- Students will show their understanding of swing music by picking apart a

recording and saying whether or not it swings. - Students will be able to sight read music and swing it.

III. Materials:- Student’s instruments- Blackboard- Chalk- Parts to a band arrangement of “In the Mood” by Glenn Miller- Recording of “In the Mood” by Glenn Miller

IV. Procedure:- Teacher begins band by having the students play a Bb scale.- Teacher tunes band starting with an A on the piano for woodwinds and bass, then

a Bb for the brass.- Teacher asks his beginning jazz band to sight read the arrangement of “In the

Mood.”- After the song is played, teacher draws a triplet on the blackboard and ties the first

two notes in the triplet.- Teacher then explains that in swing music, this notated figure is what a band

should actually be playing in place of a two eighth notes. Verbally, this is groove is broken down into doo-dal-ee because it emphasizes the first note in the triplet.

- Teacher plays recording of “In the Mood” to demonstrate.- After listening, teacher asks the class if they could hear the sing.- Teacher then has the jazz band play the song again, this time rehearsing the

problematic rhythms and notes.- Teacher continues to rehearse piece until the bell rings.

V. Assessment:

The assessment will be the reading of “In the Mood” after the discussion. If it is played jagged and with straight eighths, the lesson worked. If it is swung, the lesson was successful.

Lesson Plan for Sixth Grade: Doo-da-lee Com-pos-ing

Week 3, Day 2

I. Overall Objectives- 2. Performing on instruments, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music.- 4. Composing and arranging music within specific guidelines.- 5. Reading and notating music.

II. Behavioral Objectives- Students will understand the concept of composing with a swing style in mind.- Students will create measures of music using pieces of paper.- Students will demonstrate basic techniques of composition using their own

materials.III. Materials

- Paper- pencils- chalk- chalkboard

IV. Procedure- Teacher begins lesson by doing stretches with the students.- Teacher hands out Orff instruments.- Teacher then instructs students to take out a piece of paper and a pencil and has

them compose two measures of rhythms using only quarter notes, quarter rests, eighth notes, and eighth rests.

- Teacher then asks six students at a time to go up to the board and put their measures together in a train using chalk.

- Teacher then asks the class to repeat the syllable doo-da-lee while teacher repeats it themselves.

- Teacher then asks the class to clap the first six measures while keeping the swing style in mind, all the while the class is repeating doo-da-lee for tempo and style.

- Every six measures the class will stop and pause. Teacher will then instruct the class to clap the entire song beginning to end.

V. Assessment- The assessment is of the student’s compositional and their concepts of how long a

measure is; this is tested with the construction of the rhythm.

Lesson Plan for Sixth Grade: Minnie the Dancer

Week 3, Day 5

I. Overall Objectives- 6. Listening to, analyzing, and describing music.- 7. Evaluating music and music performances.- 8. Understanding relationships between music, the other arts, and disciplines

outside the arts.- 10. Using movements and gestures to convey musical ideas.

II. Behavioral Objectives- Students will comprehend how songs are broken into verse and chorus.- Students will demonstrate the style of the song by dancing in the style.

III. Materials- Computer with internet access

IV. Procedure- Teacher begins talking about the importance of jazz music and its influence in

dance.- Teacher then plays a clip of Cab Calloway singing “Minnie the Moocher” for the

class, accessed from Youtube.- Teacher will then discuss the difference of a verse and a chorus, explaining that

the verses are unique while the chorus mostly stays the same each time it comes back.

- Teacher will discuss how this is often used in popular songs.- Teacher asks the students to listen for the verse and the chorus in the song

“Bigger Than My Body” by John Mayer.- After the song concludes, teacher asks everyone to stand up.- Teacher leads class in stretches.- Teacher then teaches the chorus of “Minnie the Moocher” to the class, instructing

them to be the response portion of the chorus while the teacher sings the leader portion.

- Teacher then sets the scene, telling the class to imagine themselves in a smoky bar in the 1930’s.

- Teacher then instructs the class to move freely about the classroom during the verse, but to face forward when they hear the chorus of “Minnie the Moocher.”

- Teacher begins playing the music and the students begin to dance and move around the room, stopping at the choruses to sing.

V. Assessment

- The assessment is in the dance. The assessment has everything to do with the way they imagine this style of music coming to life, but more importantly whether or not they find the choruses and verses with ease.