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Lesson Plan on Constructing Sentences with Technical VocabularyEmily Wilbourne, Queens College, CUNY, Music

Music 121 or 122

Lesson objective(s): Students will practice using technical vocabulary to describe music.

Total estimated time: 45 minutes.

Additional outcome(s): These sentences will seem formulaic at the outset, but ideally they should help the student to integrate unfamiliar terms into their papers in a comfortable and natural-sounding way.

Course work or assignment underway: This exercise is intended to be used early in the semester. No specific piece of work need be underway, however in MUS 121 and 122 students are required to complete a descriptive assignment; this exercise is a useful preparatory task.

Work and/or reading completed before class: A previous class should have discussed a set of technical musical terms (for example, tempo, crescendo, dynamics, timbre). Students may have been required to compile written definitions for these terms and to bring them to class.

Sequence of Classroom Activities:

1. On a handout or on the board, provide an example sentence or two for each of the vocabulary words. (15 mins). Be sure to differentiate between noun and adjectival forms of the terms where appropriate.

For example:

“At the end of the first section, the tempo changes dramatically,” or “The shift is marked by a new tempo.”

“the timbre” vs “timbral shifts”.

2. Play two or three musical examples, one at a time. (20 mins). For each example, have students

a. identify the three most striking musical features (with reference to their list of terms).

b. write a sentence describing each of the three features identified above, closely following one of the model sentences provided on the handout.

NB You will need to chose relatively short musical examples; it will be easier for students if you pick music that is either very, very familiar (such as Queen, “Bohemian Rhapsody” [extracts]), or very, very distinctive (such as Gregorian chant).

You will also need to play each example several times—as many, perhaps, as four or five times.

3. Ask for volunteers to read out the sentence they felt most happy about. Discuss the relationship between the new sentence and the model sentence.Ask for other examples that differed more (or less) from the models. (5 mins).

4. Discuss the use-value of model sentences such as these in longer descriptive projects.(Where this is a preliminary exercise for a piece of descriptive writing, talk about how these models can serve in the paper they need to write. (5 mins).

Reflection on the lesson’s success or alternative approaches:

It is likely that someone will bring up the issue of plagiarism in regard to this exercise. Ideally this will provide a really nice opportunity to discuss fair use, common usages and questions of sentence structure more broadly. Be prepared that this discussion, if it does arise, is likely to add and extra 10 minutes to your lesson plan.

Lesson Plan on Musical EvidenceEmily Wilbourne, Queens College, CUNY, Music

Music 121 or 122

Lesson objective(s): Students will focus on the scholarly conventions by which musical sound can be adduced as evidence in an argument.

Total estimated time: 50-55 minutes.

Additional outcome(s): N/A

Course work or assignment underway: A major piece of writing (preferably an historical/musicological project).

Work and/or reading completed before class: This assignment works best early on in the writing process.


1. Hand out extract from Wendy Heller, Emblems of Eloquence. Students should read the extract marking up their work to identify (1) musical description, (2) analysis, and (3) argument. (10 mins).

2. Discuss the reading (as a class). Note the particular details that Heller chooses to focus on; discuss the details that she doesn’t bother to mention. [It could be useful to play the extract that she discusses in score; depending on the musical literacy of the group, it may be necessary to explicate which elements of the graphical representation are at issue here]. Discuss the way that she links those details to her argument. (10-15 mins, depending on the literacy of the group).

3. Play a musical example, provide a score. Have students generate a dot point list of four notable musical details. Play the example at least twice. (5 mins).

4. Posit a possible argument that could be made about the music at hand. Have students identify which musical details on their list would support that argument. (3 mins).

5. Draft a paragraph that moves from musical detail, through analysis, to argument. (15 mins).

6. Exchange your paragraph with a colleague. Read the draft PAYING ATTENTION TO THE USE OF MUSICAL DETAIL. Which sections were the most convincing? Which sections were too vague? Write a brief paragraph for your colleague explaining your answers. (7 mins).

7. Return to a group discussion, focusing on the way in which these techniques could be used in their individual papers. (7 mins).


This assignment could also function as a take-home written exercise. This could be done at home for the first time, or, after having completed this exercise in class, students could be asked to repeat the process using a piece that is relevant to the argument of their class paper.

Lesson Plan on Musical Auto-EthnographyEmily Wilbourne, Queens College, CUNY, Music

Music 121 or 122

Lesson objective(s): For students to connect a musical “work” with a rich emotional and semantic context in their own lives.

Total estimated time: 25-30 mins.

Additional outcome(s): Ideally the act of auto-ethnography will lead to a richer understanding of the complexities of musical signification. This will have an impact on all future writing for the class.

Course work or assignment underway: A major piece of writing (any).

Work and/or reading completed before class: This exercise is designed to be undertaken early in the process.


1. Students should take a piece of lined paper and a pencil (or pen). Number the page from one to ten down the left side. Generate a list of ten pieces of music that were important to you in high school (or middle school). Do not worry about what the pieces are, just write down the first ten that you can think of. (3 mins).

2. Choose the piece of music from you list for which you can remember the most vivid experience. Imagine that you are having that experience again. Describe what you can see in front of you, describe what is behind you, describe what is to either side of you. If there are other people there, describe what they are doing and perhaps what they look like. Do not stop to think too closely about what you are writing. Do not let your pen stop moving. (7 mins).

3. Describe how you felt at that moment. What relationship did the music have to that feeling? Did it intensify it? Contradict it? Were the words important? Were you listening to the music? Were you performing? Was the music playing in the background? Were other people paying attention to it? (7 mins).

4. How did that event change your relationship to that particular piece of music? To other music? To other people? (5 mins).

5. Re-read what you have written. How many words did you write in this time (19 minutes of actual writing)? Pick out the sentence you like the most of what you’ve written and

underline it. (3 mins).

6. Return to the group for a discussion of the exercise. (10 mins). Have students volunteer to read out their favourite sentences. Discuss the deeper questions about music and context that the exercise brought to the surface; discuss this process of generating writing in the context of the larger essay that the students will produce later in the semester.


This exercise borrows from the generative techniques of Lynda Barry, What It Is (Drawn & Quarterly, 2008).

Lesson Plan on Intro to IntrosEmily Wilbourne, Queens College, CUNY, Music

Music 121 or 122

Lesson objective(s): Students will focus on the purpose of an introduction.

Total estimated time: 10 or 30 mins (depending on whether students have a draft in hand or not yet).



Work and/or reading completed before class: This exercise can be done at the very beginning of a writing assignment, or after students have a draft in hand.


1. Handout three sample introductory paragraphs for a hypothetical paper about Handel’s comic opera, Partenope. This handout is included on the following page. Have students take turns in reading sections aloud. (5 mins).

2. Discuss why the third example is so much more effective than the first two. (5 mins).

(Example 1 tries to contextualise the paper within the entire sweep of world history; this is not necessary. Example 2 launches into some of the background material for the essay, without clarifying what the point or argument is. Example 3 is relatively good, if a little overblown.)

Note that I regularly get versions of intro 1 and intro 3, even in final versions of student papers.

3. If students have already completed a draft of their paper, have them re-read their introductory paragraph and assign it to one of the three categories presented here. (10 mins).

Have them list any information that is missing from their introduction (this might be thesis, historical context, etc.).

4. In pairs or groups up to four people, students should discuss their current intro. They will need to read it aloud for their group and then invite comments on what is missing/unnecessary.


This exercise can be used in tandem with “deep-end intros”; if so, this should be the first of the two.Introduction to introductions WILBOURNE, 2013

Below are three sample introductions to a hypothetical essay on the topic of Handel’s comic opera, Partenope.

EXAMPLE 1:

For as long as humankind has existed, people have used their voices to communicate and to create music.

They have not, however, always done so in the same way. Opera is one of the important ways in which

humans have used their voices to simultaneously tell a story and yet to entertain others with spectacular

musical ability. Invented at the beginning of the seventeenth century as a deliberate attempt to re-create the

aesthetic ideals of ancient Greek drama, opera began as a fairly dry, academic entertainment for Italian courts

and educated men. Over time, this changed, and opera became a popular public entertainment, particularly in

Venice, where Carnevale drew large crowds. Each generation had new ideas and new musical layers to add to

the genre, and eventually opera seria—otherwise known as “serious opera”—developed. Many people loved

to go to the opera and were huge fans.

EXAMPLE 2:

George Frideric Handel was born in 1685, and died in 1759, having amassed a huge fortune and an enviable

reputation as a composer. Handel was a success in a number of musical genres, not least that of oratorio

(which he revolutionized for the tastes of the burgeoning English middle class) and opera. Handel’s particular

musical talents benefited from an international education, which allowed him to synthesize a variety of

musical idioms and national musical languages into his own work. Unlike Johann Sebastian Bach, who was

born the same year, Handel wrote works that were aimed at the masses, not only travelling far from the city

of his birth, but also representing the metaphorical and geographical distances he had come in his

compositional style.

EXAMPLE 3:

George Frideric Handel’s Partenope, first performed in 1730, is an exception in the body of his operatic works.

While most of Handel’s operas conform to the stylistic constraints of opera seria, Partenope takes a comic

subject—as elaborated in a libretto by Silvio Stampiglia—and illustrates a lighter side of Handel’s musical

personality. The switch from one genre to another, however, is not complete, for Partenope borrows many of

the hallmarks of seria performance. In this paper, I will examine the comic elements of Handel’s Partenope,

focusing on the composer’s ability to meld the comic to standard staging devices and musical devices of the

seria tradition. The combination of elements that characterize this opera create a fluid and engaging exemplar

of the operatic tradition, anticipating, in many ways, the shift to a more “naturalistic” operatic style that was

to follow in the work of Handel’s successors.

Lesson Plan on Deep-End IntroductionsEmily Wilbourne, Queens College, CUNY, Music

Music 121 or 122

Lesson objective(s): Students will write an introduction in class. Though they may not end up using this piece of writing in their final paper, it should—at the least—encourage them to think about the way in which they begin their work.

Total estimated time: An entire class period (1h15mins). It would be possible to divide this class into two sections; the possible point of division is identified below.

Additional outcome(s): This lesson incorporates a reading-for-structure exercise, which has its own benefits.


Work and/or reading completed before class: Students should come prepared with an event or specific happening that typifies the central issue of their paper.


1. Handout three sample introductions from scholarly sources, each of which employs an opening sentence modeled on the formula, “In the year XXXX, this happened . . .”Include the first three or four paragraphs in your example (ideally enough to get beyond the descriptive section of the piece).

Students should read the excerpts, marking up which sections are DESCRIPTIVE, ANALYTIC, or ARGUMENTATIVE. (15 mins).

2. Discuss the patterns that students have noticed. (7 mins).

[If this lesson is to be completed over two separate days, break here. The benefit of this approach is that it allows students to pick the “event” they wish to use for the introduction with a clear idea of why and how the event will feature in their work.]

3. Have students draft an introduction for their own paper, using the event they chose in advance. They should follow the template: (1) description of event, (2) analysis of broader/deeper issues raised by the event, (3) articulation of how their paper will address these issues. (30 mins).

4. Students should exchange their drafted introduction with a colleague. Having read the intro, the student should paraphrase the thesis of the paper and then return the draft and the thesis statement to the author. (7 mins).

5. Does the thesis statement (as derived by a reader) match the one the author had in mind? Is this the ideal “moment” to have chosen for the introduction? If not, why not? If so, why? Students should answer these questions in writing. (7 mins).

6. Return to the group for a discussion of the exercise (10 mins). Note that the questions they just answered should be enough to generate a group discussion. If not, you may wish to brainstorm other ways (interesting and/or boring ways) to start a paper.


This exercise can be used in tandem with “Intro to intros”; if so, this should be the second of the two.

Lesson Plan on Reverse OutlinesEmily Wilbourne, Queens College, CUNY, Music

Music 121 or 122

Lesson objective(s): This exercises is intended to aid in the revision process.

Total estimated time: ca. 45 minutes.



Work and/or reading completed before class: Completed draft of paper.


1. Have students read through their work and construct an outline that accounts for every paragraph. This should look like an outline, but instead of describing their intentions, this should accurately represent what they wrote. (20+ mins; the length of this exercise will depend on the length of the papers written).

2. With the reverse outlines in hand, ask students what they saw as the purpose behind the exercise. What did they notice about the structure of their papers that they hadn’t noticed beforehand? (5-10 mins).

3. Working alone or in pairs, students should consider the relative length of the various components of their paper. How much space is given to the introduction? The examples? The conclusion? (3 mins; 6 mins if they work in pairs).

4. Looking at the reverse outline of a colleague, does this seem like the most logical way to lay out the information? Are there any obvious changes that should or could be made to the structure? Write them a paragraph outlining your thoughts. (10 mins).

5. Return to the larger group. How can this help to identify places for revision? (5 mins).

NB This might be a good place to discuss the purpose of revision: to remove irrelevant material, to condense lengthy (but still relevant) material, to expand on missing material, to add supporting material, to shift material around, to improve the written expression, etc. (Revisions should always have a purpose). [This would probably extend the time beyond 5 mins to 15 mins].


This exercise works best on the day in which students hand their draft in or on the day in which the instructor hands their drafts back.

Lesson Plan on Quotation FramesEmily Wilbourne, Queens College, CUNY, Music

Music 121 or 122

Lesson objective(s):


Additional outcome(s): This is a writing exercise, but it is also a reading exercise that should make students more aware of the way in which authors shape their arguments.




1. Using examples taken (where possible) from that week’s reading, discuss the way in which subtle cues about a source are given by the author. (5 mins).

2. On an overhead or a handout, provide multiple different versions of the same quotation, embedded within the same sentence, but using different verbs to introduce the quote.

Provide a list of possible introductory verbs and sentence fragments. (7 mins).

3. Have students examine their own draft and find three places where they introduce a quote. (3 mins).

4. In each of these three instances, what impression does the quotation frame give? Is this the ideal way to frame the quote? Assess all three quotation frames; re-write at least one (do all three if you have time). (10 mins).

5. Once students have a “new” version of their chosen paragraph(s), they should exchange their work with a colleague. The colleague should read the original version AND the new version. Note down (in point form) the impressions each one gives. Which version do you prefer? Return the comments to the author. (7 mins)

6. Return to the group for a discussion of the exercise. How effective were your changes at clarifying the purpose and meaning of the quotes? (10 mins). Ideally this discussion will emphasise the extent to which subtle cues help to build an argument and to shape the readers’ opinion. Such cues can be far more successful than overt statements.


N/A.

Lesson Plan on SourcesEmily Wilbourne, Queens College, CUNY, Music

Music 121 or 122

Lesson objective(s): Students will think about the various types of academic sources within the context of their own research project.

Total estimated time: 30 minutes.

Additional outcome(s): This can be a useful pre-cursor to an annotated bibliography, or as part of the preparation for a research project.

Course work or assignment underway: A major piece of writing (any) or an annotated bibliography.

Work and/or reading completed before class: N/A


1. Review Gordon Harvey’s topology of source types (3 mins):

Sources: persons or documents, referred to, summarized, or quoted, that help a writer demonstrate the truth of his or her argument. They are typically sources of (a) factual information or data, (b) opinions or interpretation on your topic, (c) comparable versions of the thing you are discussing, or (d) applicable general concepts. Your sources need to be efficiently integrated and fairly acknowledged by citation.

2. Use Harvey’s categories as a framework to generate possible materials for the project under way. If students have already prepared a list of sources they should sort them according to this system.

Students should generate a list of possible material that might exist in each of these categories that they haven’t yet found. (10 mins of individual work).

3. Return to the group for a discussion of the exercise. (10 mins). With the individual topics in mind, are there categories that seem difficult to locate material for? Have the class brainstorm information that might exist out there for students who are stuck.

4. Consider how each student would go about actually tracking down the hypothetical new sources that have been suggested. What are the search terms that they might need to put in to the databases? What other approaches might prove fruitful? (7 mins)


Are there other categories that might prove more pertinent?

Lesson Plan on Tightening Sentence Structure(“Loose Sentences Sink Papers”)

Emily Wilbourne, Queens College, CUNY, MusicMusic 121 or 122

Lesson objective(s): Students will learn to identify loose sentences in their own work and to cut unnecessary words in order to tighten their prose.


Additional outcome(s): Ideally the process of cutting words will result in a shorter draft, that will then enable students to develop the ideas they already have and add in new material before the final draft of their paper.




1. On an overhead or on the board, work through a sample student paper sentence. (7 mins)

Here is an example:

“Burford’s purpose in writing this article is to, in a sense, reinvent Cook as a pop album artist.” (18 words)

“Burford’s purpose in writing this article is to, in a sense, reinvent Cook as a pop album artist.” (15)

“Burford’s purpose in writing this article is to, in a sense, reinvent Cook as a pop album artist.” (11)

“Burford’s purpose in writing this article is to, in a sense, reinvents Cook as a pop album artist.” (8) [Note that you could also get rid of the word “album”, however that might begin to change the argument.]

Discuss how the excisions change the feel of the sentence. Reference the tone (and the authority given to the writer)

2. Have students select a paragraph or two (ca. 250 words is a good guide) from their draft and tighten the sentences as much as possible. NOTE that the purpose here is to be absolutely brutal with words. Perfect the skill of cutting out excess words; leave finding a healthy balance for later. (15-20 mins)

3. Once students have a “new” version of their chosen paragraph(s), they should exchange their work with a colleague. The colleague should read the original version AND the new version. Write a brief statement identifying which of the two versions is more successful and why. If there is a noticeable shift in argument (not just tone) between the two versions, point that out, too. (7 mins)

4. Return to the group for a discussion of the exercise. (10 mins). You may wish to take a show of hands for (1) how many students liked the new version of their own work better and (2) how many students like the new version of their colleague’s work better.

Other points you may wish to bring up in the discussion: a. This process of identifying material that is unnecessary to the sentence can also be

extended to the structure as a whole: are there paragraphs that are unnecessary? Whole sections of the paper?

b. What about moments in which you wish to appear less authoritative, or in which you wish to show that there are qualifications to how a statement should be understood?Are there ways in which you can do that without “wasting words”? What is the difference between a vagueness or uncertainty that comes from loose sentences and an authoritative claim to uncertainty?


Optional variant for students who can’t process the idea that any of their words are superfluous: have them re-write a key paragraph using sentences of seven words or less; no sentence fragments are permitted. Again, this is an exercise in brutality (and hopefully one which teaches them how to construct a direct, declarative statement), not a means to necessarily arrive at the ideal final product.

Lesson Plan on OrientingEmily Wilbourne, Queens College, CUNY, Music

Music 121 or 122

Lesson objective(s): Students will revise their drafts with an eye to orienting the reader.






1. Review Gordon Harvey’s definition of “Orienting” (5 mins).

Orienting: bits of information, explanation, and summary that orient the reader who isn’t expert in the subject, enabling such a reader to follow the argument. The orienting question is, what does my reader need here? The answer can take many forms: necessary information about the text, author, or event (e.g. given in your introduction); a summary of a text or passage about to be analyzed; pieces of information given along the way about passages, people, or events mentioned (including announcing or “set-up” phrases for quotations and sources). The trick is to orient briefly and gracefully.

2. Working with their own draft or that of a colleague, students should identify one place where orienting is necessary, and one place where the work of orienting fails to be “brief” or “graceful.” (7 mins).

They should make a dot point list in answer to Harvey’s central question: What does the reader need here? (Focus on identifying the minimum amount of extra information.)

3. Turn to the place where orienting could be managed better and redraft the section. This may involve cutting large swaths of text (remember that you can store some material in footnotes, either because you’re not yet convinced that it’s superfluous, or because it’s interesting but tangential to the argument). It may involve rewording or restructuring sentences. (10 -15 mins).

4. Once students have a “new” version of their chosen paragraph(s), they should exchange their work with a colleague. The colleague should read the original version AND the new version. Write a brief statement identifying which of the two versions is more successful and why. If there is a noticeable shift in argument (not just tone) between the two versions, point that out, too. (7 mins)

5. Return to the group for a discussion of the exercise. (10 mins). You may wish to take a show of hands for (1) how many students liked the new version of their own work better and (2) how many students like the new version of their colleague’s work better.


Some authors have trouble working out what is “missing” from their own work; having students choose the problematic sections from a colleague’s work can therefore work better. It will probably require that students have read each other’s drafts in advance.

If students complete the written component quickly they can move to drafting the other identified problem area. At this stage they should not feel concerned about not having the sources to hand, they can put in blanks or asterisks for cited material that they will complete the references for later. This is a useful skill for them to develop as it can reduce distractions and interruptions in the writing process.

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collegewriting2.qwriting.qc.cuny.educollegewriting2.qwriting.qc.cuny.edu/files/...LessonPlans_Wilbourn… · Web viewtakes a comic subject—as elaborated in a libretto by Silvio