Unit Plan 17 (Grade 7 Vocal Music): Preparing a Vocal Work
Grade 7 choir unit focused on rehearsal strategies to improve accuracy, diction, and phrasing while building ensemble unity and musical detail.
Focus: Rehearse a vocal work with intentional focus on accuracy, diction, and phrasing, using rehearsal strategies and feedback to improve ensemble unity and musical detail.
Grade Level: 7
Subject Area: Vocal Music (Choir • Rehearsal Skills • Ensemble Musicianship)
Total Unit Duration: 5 sessions (one week), 50–60 minutes per session
I. Introduction
In this unit, students dig into the day-to-day work of preparing a choral piece for performance. Rather than just “running” the song, they learn and apply specific rehearsal strategies to improve pitch and rhythm accuracy, blend, balance, and clear diction and phrasing. Students work in sections, use peer and teacher feedback, and track their own progress across the week. By the end of the unit, they will perform an in-class run-through of a selected piece and reflect on how focused rehearsal choices made the music more unified and expressive.
Essential Questions
- What rehearsal strategies help a choir move from “just learning notes” to polished ensemble singing?
- How do accuracy, diction, and phrasing affect the audience’s understanding and the overall quality of a performance?
- How can peer and teacher feedback help us become more accurate, more expressive, and more unified as an ensemble?
- How can we track our own growth over time as we prepare a vocal work?
II. Objectives and Standards
Learning Objectives — Students will be able to:
- Apply rehearsal strategies (sectional work, slow practice, clapping/counting rhythms, tuning intervals, looping tricky spots) to improve pitch and rhythm accuracy in a vocal work.
- Rehearse in sections to improve blend, balance, intonation, and rhythmic precision, then recombine as a full ensemble.
- Mark scores with diction reminders, breaths, and phrasing to support clarity and musical shape.
- Use teacher and peer feedback along with rehearsal recordings to set at least one personal/section goal and check progress.
- Perform an in-class run-through of the selected piece demonstrating improved accuracy, diction, and phrasing.
- Reflect on how intentional rehearsal strategies and feedback contributed to ensemble unity and expressiveness.
Standards Alignment — Grade 7 Vocal Music (custom, NAfME-style)
- VM:Pr5.7a — Apply rehearsal strategies to improve ensemble blend, balance, intonation, and rhythmic precision.
- Example: Students rehearse in sections, tune intervals, then re-combine to improve intonation.
- VM:Pr5.7b — Apply teacher and peer feedback to improve accuracy, expressiveness, and ensemble unity, tracking progress over time.
- Example: Students set one weekly goal (intonation, diction, blend), then reflect after a rehearsal recording.
Success Criteria — Student Language
- I can use specific rehearsal strategies (like sectionals, counting/clapping, looping) to fix musical problems.
- I can help my section sing with better intonation, blend, and rhythmic precision.
- I can mark my score to show breaths, diction, and phrasing and actually follow those markings.
- I can listen to feedback and recordings and use them to set and reach a rehearsal goal.
- I can perform our piece with noticeably improved accuracy, diction, and phrasing compared to earlier in the week.