Final Lesson Reflection

For my final lesson I decided to redo and improve on my initial lesson on national anthems from around the world.  I attempted to incorporate guitar playing and little bit of singing to make the lesson a little more musical.  While I did achieve a more musical experience, I feel like a struggled to flow from playing/singing (which was very high energy) to speaking (low energy).

I also added a KWL chart and had students write down their reaction to my video clip rather than talking in groups.  While I am happy I had the class write out a hard assessment, I feel like I lost a bit of the spontaneity I enjoyed so much in the first lesson.  Also, I do not think the video hit as hard primarily because the class had already seen the clip before and knew what was going to happen.  Also when describing the characteristics of Epic Latin Anthems, I did not allow the students to make the connection between colonization and European-sounding Latin anthems.  I felt like I lectured a little too much for my liking.

Mr. Schneider mentioned in his comments that there is one VERY IMPORTANT video clip I could have definitely shown during my lesson:

For those of you that are not familiar with this clip.  This scene is from the 1941 masterpiece Casablanca.  In the scene (which you can read more about here), the film's main character, Rick, strikes up the band for a rousing rendition of the French national anthem La Marseillaise; overpowering the Nazi Germans singing Die Wacht am Rhein,  The scene recognized as one of the most important scenes in the history of cinema and a wonderful example to remind students that they hear national anthems in cinema and television.  All students should analyze this scene in a general music or integrated arts course for its cultural and historical significance.

On the plus side, I did save a bit of time by having students write things down during the clip which kept me right on schedule amidst technical issues.  Overall I am very satisfied with my lesson and I am merely being super critical of my mistakes and flaws.  I look forward to one day teaching this lesson to my future students and continue to improve my overall flow of my lessons.