Name Doug Nanzer

Lesson # 1/3
Date (including day of week) Tuesday 11/28/2023
Grade Level & Class Title 8th Grade Band
Period or Block (# of minutes) 20

Instructional Context
o What do I know about my students that will inform this lesson? Are there any
particular student strengths, interests, background, needs related to the
lesson?
I know that I will have a range of familiarity with improvisation. Some students are
in Jazz Band, and some are not.

o How does this lesson connect with and build on the previous lessons?
This is my first lesson on improvisation and the Blues, but I am hoping to use some
of their knowledge from Concert Band to introduce some topics that they may be
unfamiliar with.

Central Focus
o What is the central focus or “big idea” for the content in this lesson?
The central focus of this lesson is to introduce the blues progression and discuss the
importance of rhythm in improvisation.

Standards
o List state, national, and/or Common Core standards addressed in the lesson.
ART.M.I.8.5
ART.M.II.8.1
ART.M.III.8.2

Learning Objectives and Assessments

List the specific content learning objectives for the lesson. What do I want my
students to know, understand and do? How will I assess these objectives?
Learning Objectives Assessment Plan
Students can listen and identify We will listen to a recording and have a
characteristics of the blues. discussion where I will be able to get
answers from students verbally
Students can play the root notes of a 12 I will accompany the group on piano and
bar blues progression listen to see if any adjustments need to
be made
Instructional Strategies and Learning Tasks (Procedures & Timelines)
o Launch/Hook—How will you start the lesson to engage and motivate
students in learning?
Time Instructional Rationale/Research & Theory
Strategies/Learning
Tasks/Questions to Ask
6 To start the lesson we will Assessing:
Sonny Ro… listen to a recording of One of the most important ways of
SonnyMoon For SonnyMoon For Two by learning how to play something is
Two by Sonny Sonny Rollins. After listening to the greats. This
Rollins listening we will have a introduces the style of the blues
discussion about some of and gives a great reference .
the characteristics of the
blues. What is the
instrumentation? Is it
straight or swing? What is
the tonality? I am hoping
to have the students make
discoveries of their own
without me explicitly
telling them

o Middle of the lesson—What will you do to engage students in developing

understanding of the lesson objectives?
Time Instructional Rationale/Research & Theory
Strategies/Learning
Tasks/Questions to Ask
8 After our discussion we Creating:
will look at the chord Having the students sing and play
progression for the 12 bar the root throughout the blues
blues. I will start by progression helps students begin to
playing it on the piano and internalize the progression. It is
having the group sing the much easier to improvise over
root. We will then something when you are aurally
transition to playing the aware of the root of each
roots through the progression.
progression. If this goes
well we may add other
chord tones such as the
3rd, 5th and 7th, but the
main priority is the roots.
5 In the last part of the Creating/performing:
lesson I will have the Licks are important for developing
group look at lick #1 on ideas when improvising and it is
the handout I am giving key to use licks that are appropriate
them. After learning the to the style of music that you are
short lick I will have them playing. Changing the rhythm is an
play it over the easy way to create interest when
progression. If there is improvising.
time I will ask them to play
the same lick but change
the rhythm.

o Closing the lesson—How will you end the lesson?

Time Instructional Rationale/Research & Theory
Strategies/Learning
Tasks/Questions to Ask
1 The last minute will be I like to give students time to ask
designated for packing up questions and I find if I don’t give
and questions. them time at the end to pack up the
end of class is hectic.

Lesson 1 Reflection

In lesson one my students learned some of the characteristics of the blues

and the progression. This can be seen in the video where we are talking about
the recording of SonnyMoon For Two that we listened to. Something I liked about
our discussion was that I allowed students to make discoveries on their own
before giving context. One thing I would change about this activity is I might
probe them with a few questions to guide their listening. In this case I assessed
their learning by listening to what stood out to them. Because of this I was able to
identify what elements they were and weren't noticing. As shown in the video,
The group was able to play through the root notes of the 12 bar blues
progression fairly confidently. I realized quickly though that adding other chord
tones such as the third was not as successful. This was a moment where I had to
change my plan a little bit, as I didn’t consider how it might be challenging to play
through the different chord tones in the progression if it isn’t explicitly written out.
My worksheet has the chord tones and it has the progression, but not combined
in one place. Because of this I backed up and tried to have the group sing the
roots. This was something that they were not fully comfortable with, but I
emphasized the importance of being able to sing and audiate, even as
instrumentalists. Lastly I had the group play lick #1 from the worksheet and this
was successful for them. I noticed that they enjoyed playing it over the chord
changes and it helped show that certain phrases can be played over the entire
progression and sound good.
Overall I felt like I may have tried to pack too much into just twenty
minutes. I would have loved to spend more time on each concept, and I could
have achieved that by not trying to cover so much content. There were even
things that I planned on doing that I wasn’t able to get to. For my next lesson I
hope to be able to keep the lesson more focused. The period I am working with
the students is the last twenty minutes of the school day, so it is important for me
to stay engaging so that I don’t lose the students' attention.