Provide a metaview, lifting students into a wider view of the concept. Use another medium (not reading or writing) to connect students' personal knowing to the concept (i.e. visual arts, music, movement, metaphor, etc.) Involve learners in reflective production that blends the emotional and the cognitive.

Improvisation and Experimentation

Objective: To hear an instrumental musician using improvisational techniques, and to experiment with scat-singing.
Activity: The choir learns a simple 12-bar blues chord progression and is able to sing it in three or four part harmony using a “funky” rhythm. I notate the chord progression on the board along with the number of times each measure is repeated. Then I demonstrate the rhythm I want them to use. (Hint…Keep the rhythm simple. I use eighth/quarter/eighth tied to a half note in 4/4).
When the choir is able to successfully perform the 12-bar chord progression, invite a community musician to improvise while the choir sings back-up. Let the students ask questions about how he improvises, etc.
The last ten or fifteen minutes of class, ask the instrumentalist to play short patterns for the choir to echo. The choir echoes using “doo-ba-doo-ba” syllables. If there are brave individuals, invite them to echo the instrumentalist using syllables they are comfortable with. (This would be a good opportunity for the students to see their teacher in the role of “student.”)
Standards: 1,5,7,8