K-4 Rhythm Improvisation

Teacher: Me

Subject: General Music class

Grade Level(s): K-4 (2-3)

Topic: Rhythm Improvisation

Description: Students will improvise rhythm “answers” to rhythm “questions”

Goals (“what do you want them to know…)	How to keep a steady beat. How to improvise rhythms within a structure. How to listen and respond creatively.
Objectives (…and be able to do”)	Students will improvise rhythm answers on body percussion or hand drums in response to “rhythm questions” played by a teacher or classmate.
National &/or VT Standards addressed	3. Improvising melodies, variations, and accompaniments.
Prior Knowledge	Students have experience echoing rhythm patterns of various lengths and in different meters using unpitched percussion and body percussion. Students have experience playing hand drums and other drums available in the classroom.
Materials	Hand drums
Lesson Procedures
¯ Introduction	Initiate a series of body percussion echoes with the students. Tell the students that instead of imitating you exactly, they are going to improvise their own rhythms in question/answer style. Before starting the musical question/answer improvisations, ask students for possible answers to the question, What did you have for lunch today? After listening to their answers, give students some additional choices to demonstrate the relationship between questions and answers. For example, Giraffes are my favorite animal could be an answer to a question, but not to the question asked. I had bacon and eggs for breakfast is closer, but still not an answer to the question asked.
¯ Activities	1. Demonstrate the question/answer idea and the relationship between question and answer using rhythms. Clap a possible question rhythm and then show students examples of good answers (for example, similar rhythms and same length) and not-so-good answers (for example, different tempo, a much longer rhythm, or a triple meter answer to a duple meter question). Ask students to describe why they think some of the possible rhythm answers you gave were better than others. 2. Return to the body percussion echoes and invite students to improvise their own answers in response to your questions. Begin with one body sound and simple rhythms; gradually add more sounds and complex rhythms. 3. Invite students to find a partner with whom they will improvise. Have one student clap the question and another clap the answer. After several minutes of practice time, divide the class into two groups and ask each group to line up behind one of two drums. 4. Using a third drum, play a question to the first student in the first line. After the student plays an answer, play a question to the first student in the second line. Have students rotate to the end of the line after they have played, so the question/answer sequence can continue uninterrupted. Have students who are awaiting their turns pat the beat on their thighs during the questions and tap the beat on their shoulders during the answers. This will help students feel the length of patterns as their turn approaches. 5. As students become more comfortable with improvised rhythms, designate one drum as the question drum and the other as the answer drum. Invite the students to line up behind the two drums as before and improvise questions and answers to each other. Students rotate to the end of the opposite line after they have played. While students are waiting for their turn, have them keep a two-beat pattern, such as pat-snap, or pat on thighs and shoulders.
¯ Closure	Have students echo again. Ask questions about what the difference is between echo and improv. How did they feel? What did they learn?
Accommodations	Children can accomplish task at their own level
Formative Assessment (checking for understanding)	Participation. Engagement. Steady beat? Creativity?
Summative Assessment (how did they do)	Students improvise new rhythms to given questions rather than imitating what they hear. (Checklist with comments) (Or simple rubric – 3 columns – checking degree to which they succeeded)
Lesson/Teaching Evaluation	(Mostly needs to be filled in after the lesson) How can I deliver this idea more interestingly? Were the kids engaged? Are there follow up activities to continue this lesson?