Blog #4

 6th Grade Objectives (Ukulele lesson)

Students will be able to perform one- and two-finger ukulele chords with a steady beat and play along with a recorded ukulele play-along to demonstrate rhythmic consistency and chord accuracy.

ISTE Student Standards 

1.6.c Empowered Learner - Students use technology to seek feedback that informs and improves their practice and to demonstrate their learning in a variety of ways.

1.6.c Creative Communicator - Students use digital tools to communicate complex ideas to others visually.

Part 1 

Is it well aligned with the objectives and ISTE standards? 

The lesson is well aligned with the objectives and ISTE standards. Students are engaged in activities and discussions focused on chord accuracy, ukulele posture basics, and rhythmic accuracy. Also, students are using youtube playalongs to demonstrate their learning, which covers both ISTE standards. This lesson is rigorous and reflects similar lessons I’ve designed and taught throughout my time as a middle school general music teacher. Within this 40-minute lesson, students learn how to properly form a chord, play with a steady beat via a metronome, perform with a recording, and ukulele posture. The lesson is appropriately paced, initial questioning is used, and there are multiple opportunities for purposeful feedback throughout. 

The assessments are aligned with the objectives and content. The checklist formative assessment checks for one- and two-finger chords, a steady beat, and the ability to demonstrate this with 8 measures from a playalong of their choice. The summative assessment is correctly aligned with my content, as students will have to perform 16 measures from a play-along that assesses chord accuracy and steady beat. I’d suggest deleting the “ensemble/timed entry” section from the assessment category, as it isn’t essential to measuring the objectives for this unit. Also, throughout the lesson, students tune their ukuleles, but there isn’t a section to teach them how to tune a ukulele correctly. I’d either delete this section and tune the ukuleles myself or include a section where I teach students how to tune. 

Part 2

This tool helps create rigorous lesson plans. MagicSchool employs advanced instructional and assessment methods and is knowledgeable about content-specific nuances that are vital to creating material appropriate to each content area, ensuring a successful learning experience. This lesson reflects the readings we’ve had so far. Students engage in hands-on activities and reflect on their learning through informal questioning. Also, students are demonstrating their knowledge through a creative avenue, such as performing with YouTube play-alongs, rather than simply learning chords and playing them for a grade to show mastery. 

I use Magic School AI often, as my district rolled it out last year. In my class, I create rooms for the Song Generator tool. Students use this tool for the song remixing project I teach for 7th graders. This tool allows students to choose an existing song and change its lyrics with a topic provided by the student, or to provide details for the tool to create lyrics for an original song. This is very useful because it can help students generate lyrics for a song remixing project, such as the one I teach, or for an original song. Also, in most situations, students will use the generated lyrics and change a couple of words in various sections. I enjoy using this tool because it helps students find a starting place if they are struggling to develop lyrics for a project. 

6th Grade Ukulele Lesson Link:

https://app.magicschool.ai/tools/lesson-plan-generator?share=2a91fa8d-c9eb-4574-a1a5-4b3f58291853

Part 3

Magic School AI is a fantastic resource that my district allows teachers and students to use. Over the past school year, I’ve used it for rubric development, email generation, song generation for students working on their song remixing project, and podcast scripting for students working on their music podcast projects. This resource has been used by a majority of teachers in my district, and the response has been positive as teachers have found it helpful for their administrative tasks and as an instructional aid in the classroom. My superintendent is intrigued by AI and has led us in PD on integrating AI into our practice through ethical services such as Magic School and School AI. 

The only concern I have is teachers using the tool without proofreading the results and making edits. In my experience using this resource for rubric development, I needed to edit the results because they included material that wasn’t entirely aligned with the objectives and standards. The majority of the rubric was accurate, but a few sections needed an edit. After reviewing the Oklahoma AI Guidelines and Considerations, I read that a framework was created to ensure AI is being used effectively and responsibly. Guidelines similar to this are needed to assist educators in the responsible use of AI. My district hasn’t provided a formal handbook or guidelines document, and I think it would greatly benefit my colleagues in the professional use of this tool. The other AI tools I have experience using in the classroom are SchoolAI. I created a room for my advisory students to use the tutor bot to support them with math. As someone who isn’t the best at math, the resource has helped my advisory students with their homework. 

References 

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Digital Learning. Oklahoma State Department of Education (265). (2026). https://oklahoma.gov/education/services/standards-learning/artificial-intelligence--ai--and-digital-learning1.html

ISTE standards: For students. iste.org. (2024). https://iste.org/standards/students