Activity Resource 1: Reflecting on your current practice

Think about any KS3 music lesson you have recently taught. It may be useful to write down here the learning objectives, the overall structure of the lesson and the main activities undertaken.

Learning objectives
Overall structure of the lesson
Main activities of the lesson

A version of this proforma is also available for download  59kb

Now reflect on the extent to which:

• the learning objectives were mainly about:
  • musical learning (e.g. ‘learning how the cultural context of music from South America influences the music’)
  • a mix of musical learning (‘learn how to improvise … ’) and musical activity (‘learn to play Morning Blues’)
  • musical activity (‘to sing 3 gospel tunes in parts’)
• the learning objectives were made explicit to pupils;
• you made it explicit how the learning related to the previous lesson(s), and how it will relate to the next lesson(s);
• the start of the lesson immediately engaged pupils in musical activity or primarily involved you as teacher talking to them;
• the overall structure of your lesson defined clear episodes of learning, each of  which allowed pupils to ‘engage’ (using musical engagement, starter and introductory techniques), ‘learn’ (including introductions to new learning and development of learning) and ‘review’ (with an explicit focus on how to crystallise pupils’ learning);
• you used a range of specific teaching strategies such as modelling, chunking, strategic use of plenary, identifying appropriate time slots and group work/group talk.

After this reflection, you may want to

• develop your exploration of these key principles by reading more;
• continue with this unit by exploring good practice in lesson planning.