Simplifying lesson planning actually makes your life as a music teacher easier. When you’re lesson planning, a lot of times you want to have it perfect. Then, you get bogged down with being a perfectionist while trying to all the things. There are several ways to make lesson planning easy as music teachers, and in this blog post I want to share 6 of those ways with you.
I originally shared these tips and go into even more detail in part 1 and part 2 of The Elementary Music Teacher podcast. Be sure to check out those episodes after reading the post.
1. Ways to use old textbooks and other resources
The first thing you can do is decide what you want to teach. After you do that, decide how many lessons you’ll want to center around those topics. Then, think about what resources you already have available to use in planning out your lessons.
You may be able to relate to my story, where you only have old textbooks and a few resources at your disposal. Don’t be afraid to crack open those old books and you will see lessons you can either follow right along or change them up to make them your own.
Along with the old textbooks, you may have other resources either left behind by the previous music teacher or that you’ve purchased on your own. After deciding what lessons you’ll teach from the textbooks, look through the other resources to find other lessons you’re wanting to teach about a certain objective. For example, if you’re wanting to teach 5 lessons to 1st grade about melody, and you’ve found 2 in a textbook, you know you’ll need to find 3 other lessons somewhere else.
2. Combine lessons for multiple grade levels
One thing I wish someone had told me when I was starting out, is that it’s ok to teach the same content to multiple grade levels. (Insert all cars coming to a screeching halt right here…) When I started doing this, it simplified things so much. Just because your 2nd graders learned a certain song already, doesn’t mean they wouldn’t enjoy doing it again as 3rd graders. Kids really do love repetition and will ask you to repeat a certain song or activity year after year.
But, if you do repeat a lesson, you can add more to the lesson with those students as 3rd graders because the song is already familiar to them and because their standards a little bit different. If you enjoy planning different lessons each week for K-5th, then by all means do. But, if you’re looking to simplify lesson planning even just a little bit, it’s ok to repeat the same song with multiple grades and to change it up a little bit with each grade level.
3. How to organize your lessons by teaching standards
After you’ve decided what lessons you want to teach, you need a way to organize them. Grab some 3 ring binders and some dividers at any office supply store. After you do that, divide the lessons up by topic, so all you have to do is turn to that section, pull a lesson from it, and you’re ready to teach that topic.
You’ll have lessons you’ve printed from various resources on the internet, from workshops you’ve attended, and other lessons you may already have in your classroom. Go through all of the various lessons and either organize them into binders like mentioned above, or label lessons with sticky notes so they’re easy to find.
This method will take some work up front, but after you do it once, all your lessons are organized and ready to go throughout your school year. Don’t get so focused on trying to get through every single piece of content that you’ve found that you forget to just enjoy teaching. I describe this in a lot more detail in part 1 of the podcast.
4. Keep planning and teaching the lesson simple
If you’re a new teacher, new to teaching elementary music, or at a school that doesn’t have a lot of resources, don’t compare yourself to other teachers. Stay in your own lane, focus on your classroom and your teaching. Don’t get overwhelmed by teaching everything, but know that keeping it simpler is better.
The simplest way to start planning is to have a beginning, middle, and end each time you see your students. The beginning will include anything related to getting your students in your classroom, any warm-ups, review a previous song or lesson, asking them questions, and waiting for them to settle in. The middle of your lesson will be the chunk of your teaching. This is when you’re teaching a new concept or skill and includes instruments, movement, singing, rhythm writing, centers, or anything else you’re teaching. The end of your lesson is when you’re asking the students about what they learned that day, reading them a story, lining them up, a fun end of the class period filler activity (like the free printable above).
5. Stop yourself from over planning
My suggestion is to include no more than 2 activities per class period. For example, if you’re introducing a new song, you don’t need to teach the song, add instruments, do a folk song, count the rhythms, and learn it in another language. You and your students will become frazzled messes trying to get through the lesson.
I was completely guilty of over planning and once I simplified things, everything just flowed so much smoother. So, if I introduced a new song from Ghana, I would just teach the song and then add movement. That is two activities. If I then wanted to add instruments, I waited until the next class period. Leave time for creativity for you and your students.
6. Re-use lesson plans from last year
Yes, it’s ok to re-use lesson plans from last year. You worked so hard on these lesson plans, so why not use them more than once. If you want to create new lesson plans each year, by all means. But, your 3rd graders have never seen your 4th grade lesson plans before, so it will still be new to them. If you’re getting bored teaching the same lesson plans year after year, then just tweak them a little bit so it still feels new. We talk more about all of this in detail in part 2 of the podcast.
Are there ways you simplify lesson planning in your music classroom? I’d love to hear all about it in the comments below or share your thoughts on social media as you share this post.
Also, I’d love for you to share this post or any of the resources on my website with a friend or colleague who you know NEEDS to see it.
P.S. Are you feeling frustrated or stuck as an elementary music teacher? Check out these free resources to help you teach elementary music with confidence!
Also…I wrote a book called “Make A Note: What You Really Need To Know About Teaching Elementary Music” to help music teachers move forward in your teaching career. You can get your copy here.
