"Keep Your Hand on the Plow" (Classes 2 and 3)

With classes 2 and 3, I had the opportunity to redeem myself from my first lesson! These next lessons went a lot better because they were better sequenced to help the students.

Some of the major changes I made were:

• Splitting up the review of expressive qualities by reviewing a particular quality, then listening to recordings of "Keep Your Hand on the Plow" to identify that particular quality. Then I'd move on to the next quality, listen again, and so on.
• Giving students a physical way to identify expressive qualities. For example, when identifying tempo, students would keep the beat in their bodies. When identifying dynamics, students would "measure" the dynamic of what they heard with their hands. When identifying articulation, students would conduct in a legato style or a staccato style.

(See the link at the end of the post for a full lesson plan and the corresponding google slides)

Here's an example of class 3 "measuring" the dynamics of "Keep Your Hand on the Plow":

After I taught this lesson to class 3, Mrs. Hamilton pointed out a really cool moment that had happened with a student who usually caused trouble in class. In the middle of the lesson, when I had been asking about differences in a particular expressive quality between performances of "Keep Your Hand on the Plow," this student raised his hand. He offered an answer that showed he had completely comprehended what had been taught and he was able to compare the two performances correctly. I was satisfied to know that the class seemed to be understanding, but hadn't thought much more of it. However, Mrs. Hamilton said this was a rare occasion for this student. Although this student got distracted later in the lesson, it was really cool that the music had been able to engage this student for a moment and he was able to learn.

My lesson wasn't perfect of course (for instance, you can see one student in the video who didn't participate in "measuring" dynamics), but I was really proud of taking a lesson that hadn't worked well and making it much more successful.

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Link to view Lesson Plan

Link to view Google Slides

"Keep Your Hand on the Plow" (Class 1)

For the next set of classes, Mrs. Hamilton said she would love to explore the Civil War. After toying with some ideas, I decided to use a spiritual called "Keep Your Hand on the Plow" (also known as "Hold On" and "Gospel Plow") to teach about slavery in the United States as a precursor to the Civil War. My musical objective for the students was to be able to differentiate expressive qualities such as dynamics, tempo, and articulation between two performances of "Keep Your Hand on the Plow."

Here are the performances that we listened to:

Mahalia Jackson - Keep Your Hand on the Plow

Odetta at Carnegie Hall - Hold On (Gospel Plow)

I spent a long time putting this lesson together and was very excited to teach it. I mean, everyone loves spirituals, right? However, when I taught the lesson, it did not work out. It was obvious that I only had about a third of the class engaged at any given point.

Afterwards, Mrs. Hamilton and I talked for a while about the lesson. I could tell that Mrs. Hamilton wasn't feeling particularly optimistic, and I was also a little frustrated that the lesson hadn't gone as I imagined.

However, I was determined to fix the lesson so that it would work. I felt that I had lots of great content, but the sequence of activities had disengaged the class. We had spent too much time sitting and reviewing expressive qualities before we ever got to listen to the music. Furthermore, part of the reason we spent so long talking about expressive qualities was because I hadn't effectively scaffolded the review of expressive qualities. Instead of a review, it felt like I was teaching the students about these expressive qualities for the first time, even though they did know a lot already!

Just because a lesson doesn't go well doesn't mean that it should be thrown out. In the case of this lesson, I had lots of great ideas, but I just didn't present it in a sequence that worked for the students. By analyzing what went wrong, I was able to fix this lesson and try it again with a new class! Stay tuned for the improvements.