Plan in detail a lesson you will be teaching in the next few days. Make sure that you have identified the following episodes within the lesson, and signal them clearly to pupils as you teach the lesson.

How to engage pupils

• Have you established what musical activity pupils will be engaged in at the very start of the lesson?
• Have you identified whether this builds on previous work?
• Will it simply act as a starter activity that will help pupils understand the main learning for the lesson?
• How will you introduce the learning for the lesson, and relate it to the wider learning of the unit? Will this introduction just be spoken, or will it involve more music?

How to help pupils learn

• Have you considered the best way of introducing the learning: by modelling the processes involved in the activities, by using examples that pupils listen to, or by demonstrating key issues with ICT resources?
• Will pupils know how to learn? Have you set the challenge in such a way that pupils will know how to address the problem?
• Will pupils know how long they will have to work on the activity?
• Have you identified where the likely issues are to be? As a consequence, do you know what you are likely to be doing and saying to pupils at the end of this episode? Pupils will need to know how to improve or complete the first part of learning, what the next challenge is and how to meet it.
• How many episodes will be needed to deliver the intended learning? If there are several short episodes, what strategies will you use to introduce the new learning for each one (e.g. verbal explanation, demonstrations from pupils, listening activities)?

How to review the learning

• What kind of musical ending will the lesson have, and how will this support the learning?
• Will you be able to draw out key points of learning, and help pupils to understand where their strengths and weaknesses lie at this stage in the unit?

Plan another lesson which has a very different focus and activity from lesson A in Task 8 (i.e. if that lesson was about a genre and involved composing, now look at a lesson focusing on a style that involves ensemble performing).

Go through the same processes as you did for Task 8.

Compare the impact on learning of the two lessons: did particular episodes need more or less time? Was it easier to establish challenge in some episodes than others? Did one lend itself more easily to a particular kind of engagement or plenary?

What does this now suggest about the ways that you structure different sorts of music lessons?