Teaching Notes, 20100111

Finally, a class a week after the previous week! This week was going to be followed by a break, and because there is a Red Grammer concert coming up on 1/31, I would have only this and one more class to teach Red Grammer material in case any of my students attended the concert. And so, I flip flopped pretty heavily with the lesson plan, and decided to try to introduce at least two Red Grammer songs into the class. I also took the opportunity to introduce the guitar to the class, as an accompaniment instrument. (I had taken the 6-week guitar course offered through MFM, and armed with my own 3/4-sized guitar, I figured that RG songs were a perfect excuse to bring the guitar to class.)

Hello World (Red Grammer)	Entrance song - have students echo chorus and follow me into the room
Similar to the previous week's introduction, I had one student hold the door, while I sang and played the guitar. The students I think were a little stunned at the guitar (I had made no hint that I could play anything), and so they were a bit full of giggles when I started playing and singing along. What was interesting to me was that when I sang the the song, I found myself really singing strongly into the song, which may have been why some students were enjoying watching rather than singing much. I stayed within in the key of the original recording of the song, which meant that I had to get the students to match octave with me. That didn't work out so well, as a lot of the students tried to sing low to match me. For the second class, I spent a little bit of time reviewing the octave concept from the previous class, and I even tried to sing explicitly an octave, leaving the students at the top of the octave while jumping back down, but the students followed me down. Oh well. In all, the students were able to echo acceptably, even if they were singing lower than I wanted them to. For the verse, I had written the first stanza ("Bikes to ride...") on the board, alternating colors. For the first time through, I sang the whole thing and just gestured to the board. The second time around, I had the class sing 2nd, 4th, 6th and 8th lines of the stanza (I didn't try the second stanza; I simply repeated the first.) and without worry about tone, I just wanted the class to respond with something that wasn't an echo. It seemed to work ok, but the class wasn't all that into it.
Guitar introduction	Introduce students to a guitar
After singing Hello World, I talked a bit about the guitar. I showed them the usual things - 6 strings, body, neck, etc. We also talked about the hole in the body and what would happen if we covered it up. We also talked about how the larger string produced a lower sound, while the higher strings produced higher pitches. One student exclaimed, "that's physics!". I then also talked about what happens when fingers held down strings, and what happened when those fingers got closer to the bridge.
I Think You're Wonderful (Red Grammer)	Immerse students into song, talk about 3-beat songs
I had the students close their eyes and move to the song as I sang it. I was hoping that some students would start swaying, and only a few did. I illustrated it out while singing it again. Then, I had the students tap their knees at the start of each measure; then, they were asked to fill in beats in between with claps. Most realized that there were two beats, not three between the knee taps. I had the students try to sing the song with me while keeping the rhythm with their bodies. I had hoped to try to have the students split the word "new" in "the same thing to somebody new", where half the students went up to la while others went down to fa, but it was clear that I wasn't going to have time to do that. I'll leave that for a later class.
Fish and Chips and Vinegar	Quick review, then record class singing all 3 parts simultaneously.
Students remembered the song reasonably well. With the class divided into three again, I had the students sing the song (with a recording) first one part at a time in isolation. Then, I tried to get the "Fish" group to start and repeat indefinitely until told otherwise. Then, I added "Dustpan", and then eventually the "Bottle Pops". I then silenced the groups in the same order, one stanza at a time. It started out ok, but it was a little messy, especially when I tried silencing individual groups. I tried this twice for both classes, and there was some improvement in the second class. Similar to the previous class, I used a rhythm stick to help conduct the groups ("what is my stick doing?") and it was moderately successful keeping the students all together. I used this song to exit the students. For the second class, I replayed the song to the group, and when each part started, the group of students responsible for the part lined up to leave.

This class I felt was not as successful as my previous class. In general I think I had a harder time trying to tie the songs together; had I been using RG songs earlier in the year, I probably could have prepped the students a little more; instead, it felt a bit like I was trying to rush in a lot of RG material without any good reason. As for the guitar, I'm sure I'll use it again, but over the course of the next few months, I do hope to be able to bring in a variety of other stringed instruments that I own.

I had a few different backpocket items ready to go ("Oh My Goodness, Look At This Mess", "Wimoweh" (Red Grammer), "I'm So Glad" (Persuasions)), and I know I'll be able to use them later.