S13: E247 How to Pace Your Lesson Content

There is an art to designing a lesson plan. When you’re first creating lessons, it’s easy to under plan and also easy to over plan. Finding that happy medium where there’s plenty of material to teach, but not so much that you’re rushing trying to fit it all in AND not so little material that you’re left with nothing for students to do before the end of class. Learning your personal pacing and the pace that your students work at takes time and patience.

A few ideas to help you figure out how much time a musical activity will take to teach and how to pace your lesson from beginning to end.

1. How long is your class period? This may seem simplistic, but you want to plan within the confines of the time you have with students. More on that soon.

2. How old are your students? Plan for shorter pieces and more material for younger students. Students ages = # of minutes spent on each activity. Example// A five year old will often have an attention span of 5 minutes on one activity. This is a generalized statement, but can help in planning. Older students can focus for longer periods of time. Sometimes I find that my older students can focus for longer ranges of time - particularly if they’re engaged in the activity or if there’s instruments involved.

3. Make your lesson outline first. Then fill in details. Keep the steps in the lesson the same from day to day, but vary the musical content. Write down how much time each section of the lesson will take. This will help you break down the class time into bite size bits.

   Example: 45 minute class

   3 minute welcome song

   5 minute movement activity

   5 minute song

   5 minute review of previously learned material

   15 minutes playing instruments (including time to set-up and put away)

   10 minute game

   2 minute goodbye song

4. Ask yourself a few questions:

   Will students need directions and expectations regarding materials?

   Will students be using instruments? If so, include time for getting them out and putting them away. Make a plan for how you want students to help with this!

   What activity can you have ready in case the lesson goes faster than planned? (Listen in to last week’s episode 246 for several ideas!

   What are your “must get-to'“ parts of the lesson? What must students absolutely do and what activities could be put off if you’re running out of time?

5. Be aware of how much time your students spend sitting down. Build movement activities into the class. Plan for the length of the song track plus more time if you’re teaching a dance to the music.

6. When giving directions: Think about what you want students to do, what that should look like as they are doing it, and how you want them to learn the directions from you. The less you talk, the more they listen! How can you give them clear and efficient directions?

7. Plan and plan and plan again. You’ll have classes that move at a slower pace and classes that move through material quickly. Some classes will love doing movement while others connect more with singing. Get to know your students, but also learn the class dynamics and build lessons around the pace your students learn.