CHANGES HIGHLIGHTED IN BLUE
Lesson Plan
Duration: 10 minutes
Topic: whistling and humming at the same time
Goal: To teach the group how to whistle and hum at the same time and understand the connection to different phonetic categories.
Required Background: The students must already know how to whistle.
Lesson Breakdown:
Introduction to IPA and the difference between voiced and unvoiced consonants (2 minutes): Go over some basic sounds that all of the group members can make such as 'f' and 'v' and point out how when you make these sounds your mouth is in the same shape but your vocal chords are doing something different. The 'f' sound is 'unvoiced' while the 'v' sound is 'voiced.
Practice going back and forth between voiced and unvoiced consonants (3 minutes): Practice going back and forth between making the 'f' sound and the 'v' sound or the 'b' sound and the 'p' sound. Do this for a bit so that the group members get a feel for the difference, something they probably haven't paid attention to before.
Move on to considering whistling in this same context. Demonstrate whistling and humming and have students try (3 minutes): Work with students to try to replicate the whistling and humming sound. Some students will get it right away and other students will struggle for a bit longer. At this point students that get it right away can help out students that are struggling.
Trouble shooting and playing with the new skill (2 minutes): Give students time to play around with their new skill or to troubleshoot if they still haven't figured out how to make the noise. Assess at this point whether or not each student can make the sound.
Lesson Play:
Teacher: "Ok, let's begin. How many of you are familiar with the IPA?"
Student: "It sounds familiar but I don't quite remember what it is."
Teacher: "The IPA stands for the International Phonetic Alphabet. It is an alphabet designed specifically to capture all of the vowels and consonants that humans use across all spoken languages. Each character in the language can be sorted out into various categories that determine how that sound is made. For example, the sound that 'f' makes is called an unvoiced labiodental fricative. Let's make the 'f' sound now."
All: "fffffff"
Teacher: "Unvoiced means that your vocal chords are not vibrating (i.e. it is a sound that you can whisper). Labiodental means that the sound is made with your teeth against your lip. Fricative means that the sound is made by friction when area is forced through a small-ish opening. For today we will focus just on whether or not a sound is voiced. The voiced version of 'f' is 'v', so let's practice making the 'v' sound."
All: "vvvvv"
Teacher: "Great, now let's go back and forth a few times, 'f' then 'v', then 'f', then 'v'."
All: "ffff - vvvv - ffff - vvvv"
Teacher: "Ok great. Now can anybody tell me what the voiced version of 'p' is?"
Student: "p - p - b - b... I think the voiced version of 'p' is 'b'."
Teacher: "Amazing, you're getting it now. Let's get to the fun part. Can everybody whistle for me, just an easy steady note."
All: *whistle*
Teacher: "Whistling, even though it is a sound that we can make, is not a part of the IPA because it is not a phoneme in any known natural human language. People clearly use it to communicate but you'll never find it as a part of a word with other sounds. However, we can still wonder: What if we tried to do a voiced whistle? That's what we are going to do now. I'll demonstrate." *hums and whistles at the same time* "Who would like to give it a try?"
Student: "I'll try, I think I can do it." *struggles to hum and whistle, alternates back and forth.*
Teacher: "If you are struggling to get it try practicing switching back and forth between voiced and unvoiced consonants that you know and really pay attention to what your body is doing. How does an 'f' feel different from a 'v'? How does the 'th' sound in 'math' feel different from the 'th' sound in 'the'? How does the "sh" sound compare to the 'z' sound in 'azure'? Go back and forth a bunch and then try it with whistling."
Student A: "sshh, zzhh - p, p, b, b - s, s, z, z - f, f, z, z..." *whistles* - *whistles and hums at the same time*
Student B: "... I'm still struggling. I'm not quite getting it."
Teacher: "Let's try another way of getting there. First whistle. Then stop whistling and hum. Notice that you can 'hum' (humming is not just making the 'm' sound) with your mouth in any variety of positions: open, closed, pursed, smiling, tongue out, etc.. Now try doing the following. Whistle, stop whistling, hum, stop humming, and then start doing both simultaneously. Once it clicks you'll be able to do it forever."
Student B: *whistles and hums at the same time* "Woah that is so weird!"
Assessment: Did they successfully whistle and hum at the same time?
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