Teaching Notes, 20100322

I had two weeks in between lessons again, so I had a little bit of extra time to plan for my next class. It turned out that I had so much momentum in one song that I scrapped most of my lesson in favor of the one area. Again, I had the children sit in a horseshoe formation which is quickly becoming my favorite. Here's how the class unfolded.

Everybody Oughta Know	Lead students into the room while singing w/ items related to spring
When I sang this in the first class, the response seemed rather muted, and it was hard to get them to continue. So, I stopped the song, talked about it, exhorted the class to sing loudly, and I got a somewhat better response. The second class responded a little better. In both classes, I stopped the song abruptly after the 3rd line, and in both cases, students kept singing along using the zipper used in the previous iteration. I then practiced with them to get them to stop and listen for the leader, and this became a bit of a game. I reminded the class that a few months ago, we did this before where students themselves supplied suggestions for the song. Both classes got the hang of it, especially after I exaggerated the wait (and used hand symbols to stop the group).
Hey, Ho, Spring Is Here	Teach song lyrics quickly, sing in parts and round
This is of course the 3rd edition of the same song we've used before, and so students knew the song, although the first class again was not as responsive as the second initially. I first walked them through the song, and then we sang it one time through. Next, I asked if the class remembered what we did to the song, and a few students in both class remembered that we sang the previous version in parts, and in a round (although few remembered the term "round"). I had the song prewritten with the 1st and 4th line in green, the 2nd in blue and the 3rd in red. For each class, I split them in evenly (both classes now appear to have 18 children), and had one side sing blue, the other side sing red, and everyone sing green. (Amusingly, in the second class, the 9th and 10th children in the horseshoe wore blue on the left and red on the right!) After singing in parts (which was very successful), I then split each side, so that the 1st and 4th groups had 5 children, and the middle two groups had 4. This way, I hoped for a strong finish and strong start, although it turned out that in both classes, the 4th group was pretty quiet. Anyhow, we sang the round and recorded it during a second singing. For the second class, to my delight, I gave them a whisper start, and they aced it!
Hey, Ho, Spring Is Here rhythms	Have students explore the rhythms (Kodaly) in the song
Here is where I extended Hey Ho ad nauseum. I wanted to continue building from the Kodaly rhythm concepts from the class two weeks ago, so we quickly reviewed ta/ti/tiki, and talked about the time relationship bewteen each of them. For the first class, I illustrated out the relative speeds of the parts by walking/stomping in beat (ta), and then tapping with one had the ti's, and tapping with the other hand the tiki's. A few students in the first class tried it, but I knew it was pretty hard to do. For the second class, I had them do this in place, and they had a lot of fun with it, even if few were able to pull it off. I tried to make it easier by having students tap tiki's using their hand tapping their opposite shoulder. (I figured that would be better then having them tap their heads.) Anyhow, in both classes, I said that they should be able to figure this out by the end of 2nd grade. Back to the song. I then had them work out the (easy) rhythm to the first line of Hey Ho. However, I them stumbled onto the fact that the 2nd (and 3rd) line was pretty difficult with a tikiti right from the start. It took a bit of time, but eventually I think I got them to understand how to figure it out - I had to have them try tapping out ti's while speaking the lyrics in time, and most seemed to understand how some of the syllables were indeed faster. When we had to do the 3rd line, I simply gave them the titiki that starts the line, and the students finished it up with the 3 titi's. We then wrapped it up by clapping the entire song while singing.
Eia Makou	Teach by Rote, translate as needed
I had no intention of teaching Eia Makou, a song that's not hard to learn and something I've been practicing with my son's pre-K class, but since Montclaire had a Hawaiian-themed fundraiser coming soon, I figured I'd teach Eia Makou in the short few minutes I had left. It's pretty easy, and while I didn't have everything all that well memorized, the students were able to sing along. At first they didn't quite know what they were singing (other than the fact that they were singing Hawaiian words), but when I moved to the English section of the song, I think the students better appreciated the lyrics. There was enough time for me to explain that Hawaii has no native 'w' sound, and so I had them say it with a 'v'. I even talked very briefly how there was something that looked like an apostrophe in Hawai'i, but I didn't talk about the Okina by name. Anyhow, this was a nice way to end the class.

So, what was the original lesson plan? Well after doing rhythms with Hey Ho, I actually wanted to try to put the notes of the 3rd line (which includes a small partial scale) on a staff. I also wanted to throw in la and ti (the note) to complete our scale. Both will have to wait for another day. I also had ready the St. Patrick's Day Dance (Paddy O' Furniture) which we did two weeks ago, and as St. Patrick's Day was only 4 days ago, I thought I'd give it another try. And then, I also had Iz's Somewhere Over The Rainbow ready, which I will have to do next week. On top of all that, I also had Wimoweh, Zemer Atik, and The Longer The Faster ready in the backpocket.

One of the neat things from this was that I was able to see math in music in action. For instance, kids at 2nd grade of course know that 2 x 2 is 4, but to have them understand that tiki's are 4 times faster than ta's because tiki:ti is 2:1 and ti:ta is 2:1 was pretty cool.

Teaching Note, 20100308

The rhythm sticks went so well last week that I decided to bring the sticks back for another week. But, I did want to do something special at the end for St. Patrick's Day.

Pay Me My Money Down	Lead students into the room while playing the song
I brought my family to see Dan Zanes the Saturday prior, and DZ entered the theatre while singing this jig, so I went ahead and tried it. I repeated the chorus a few times, and then I stopped to talk a little about the song, and how the phrases had the response "Pay Me My Money Down". The song lyrics drew some curious looks ("Pay me or go to jail!"), and so I don't know if I would use it again. Ironically, perhaps the song is better suited as a K-1 song, since the students wouldn't care so much what the words meant. I had a little trouble remembering some of the regular phrases, which probably didn't help the momentum.
Rhythm Sticks	Teach rhythm patterns, both via echo and on the board (Kodaly)
I wanted to experiment a bit with some different rhythms, so after reviewing rules regarding the sticks, I had the students follow me with some different, varied rhythms. I then wrote some rhythms on the board, using Kodaly symbols and names. I was able to introduce the ti's and tiki's, but I didn't got as far as talking about quarter/eighth/sixteetnth notes. (That'll be for a later class.) I also managed to get the 1st class to play the first measure of one of the main rhythms used by the LSJUMB (Stanford Band) drum section. When the students had enough with trying to play written rhythms, I had them follow me to a song ("Sunshine and Lollipops" by Lesley Gore, also found on the Cloudy With a Side of Meatballs soundtrack). The song is actually pretty fast, and I warned the students that they had to keep up with me; if they got lost, they were to try to rediscover the beat and go from there. The students kept up reasonably well, although at some point I started playing to the drum hit (which is on the upbeat, not the beat) and I found that some students kept playing on the beat; perhaps they thought they were lost and were trying to find it. I had planned on also doing a rain pattern, where one person does what the person to their left does, but I completely forgot to try.
Wimoweh	Review, get that 3rd part in
The sticks took so much time that I didn't get a chance to do this at all. The next time, I should just try to get the students just to sing the "In the Jungle" line.
Paddy O' Furniture Dance(Sanna Longden)	Teach, dance to music!
I have no idea if the real name of this dance is called "Paddy O' Furniture", but this is the Irish circle jig dance that Sanna Longden taught during her workshop earlier in the year. This involved grouping the students in 3 or 4; the first class I had 18 (yay!) but the 2nd class had 17, which meant two groups of 4. I sort of rushed the teaching of the dance (especially for the second class, where I found myself very short on time), and I noticed that the dance as taught is actually pretty hard for 2nd graders, as it changes the pattern quickly. Instead of walking and doing everything that the dance prescribed, I had the students walk in one direction, then reverse direction (which was hard as they tried to turn the entire group of 3 or 4 in a gate fashion), then do a left hand star, then a right hand star, and then the leprechaun jump. I had the students change patterns only after they all pretty much had the current pattern established, andt the leprechaun jump was a simple leprechaun move to the next group, rather than have the same twist. I did this twice with the 1st class, but only once with the 2nd class because of time. I did want to try to give as many children as possible the chance to be a leprechaun. The sticks took so much time that I didn't get a chance to do this at all. The next time, I should just try to get the students just to sing the "In the Jungle" line.

While I spent an unusually long amount of time on sticks, I felt it was worth it. At some point, I will want to introduce toned instruments like the metallophones or xylophones in the room. Backpocket items included Down By The Sea, and another run through Somewhere Over The Rainbow.

Teaching Notes, 20100301

Happy March!

For this class, I really wanted to try to keep the students' attention, and several months into the class, I thought it was time to bring in some instruments, finally. And so, today we had sticks! As such, I had the mats arranged before the class in a U or 3/4-circle, so that the side closest to the chalkboard was open. I call this my "theater" setup.

Somewhere Over The Rainbow (Iz)	Play a shortened version of the song, lead students into an informal hula.
One of my long term goals for the year is to get the students to sing this song reasonably well on their own, and in order to do that (it's about a 5 minute song!), I know I'm going to have to work in the song several times during the year. When I introduced the ukulele to the class, I briefly sang the introduction to Iz's version, but the students didn't sing along. This time, as the music started up (the vocals don't come in until the song is well underway), I had the students walk into the room and quickly find a spot. By the time the "oooo" part of the vocals had started, I had the students stand up, and follow my motions. My motions were all from the waist up, and a lot of times, I used flowing, exaggerated ASL signs ("rainbow", "dream", "birds fly", etc.), and sort of made up pseudo-hula for the kids. I didn't want the children to move from their mat location, so I didn't really move my legs in any sort of hula-like motion, although I did move around in the middle of the circle a bit just to emphasize the arm movements. I only used half of the song from Iz - before he gets into the "It's a Wonderful World" part, as without that part the song was already 2.5 minutes long. The students seemed pretty entertained by the song, and a few of them recognized that (1) it was Hawaiian, (2) the song was the same song as the one from the Wizard of Oz.
Human Rhythms	Do an assortment of taps, claps, etc.
This really was something I wanted to do to ensure that I had the full attention of the class. I made no announcement, and issued no instructions; I just started some simple patterns of clapping and tapping. Eventually, I did some patterns such as clap-left tap (on floor)-clap-tap right, which would be relevant for the stick exercise later. In fact, just about everything that I did translated well into motions with the rhythm sticks.
Rhythm Sticks	Repeat similar taps/claps but use rhythm sticks
I first passed out a single stick, and talked about the sticks, as well as some ground rules. The first stick was a smooth stick. I then had them follow me in a few different motions with the single stick, so that I still had their attention. Next, I passed out a grooved stick, and then asked the class to describe the stick. I then demoed rubbing the two sticks together, illustrating how the grooves are able to make a sound that the smooth sticks alone could not. The movements I had them do included some tapping in the air, followed by tapping on the ground. I also had them move the sticks around without any tapping at all; during those movements I told them that the "trick" was to ensure that the sticks never touch. Before I moved onto playing with a song, I had the students also move their arms to the sides to see if they might hit someone else. I emphasized the importance of not hitting someone, so I had people move around a little bit to give each other room. In the second class, one student, even with one stick was playing with the stick inappropriately (bouncing it on the ground, etc.), and so I removed the stick from the student. I still passed out the second stick to everyone including the stickless student, and the student felt silly enough to try to play with only one stick, and so I had that student's attention pretty well for the rest of the class. When the students were ready, we played the sticks to...
Grumpy (David Weinstone)	Play sticks to the song
Grumpy is nothing terribly special other than being a fun song to listen to, and being a song with a relatively simple rhythm. There were enough breaks that allowed me to do things like drum rolls, air rolls, sudden stops, etc. The pickup to the start of each stanza also has a distinct tuba 3-eighth note sequence which led perfectly to 3 double-taps on the ground. The students seemed to have a lot of fun with this, and they followed me pretty reasonably. I started with a pretty basic pattern, but by the end of the song, I felt that I could change things up pretty quickly on the students without losing most of them. The second class had such a good time with this that they asked to do it again (something that I didn't do with the first class!), and during the second iteration, I added a few other wrinkles such as some sixteenth notes. The next time that I pull out the sticks, I'll likely write out Kodaly rhythms on the board so that the students know how to write out a rhythm.
Oh My Goodness, Look At This Mess	Sing during stick cleanup
After we were done with the sticks, I had the students put the sticks in front of them. Then, I sang the chorus to "Oh My Goodness", but it was clear that few students in either class knew how to sing the song. I repeated the chorus, then sang a stanza. Then, I had the students try to follow me into the chorus, and they did an ok job. I then sang a second stanza, and the students were able to sing the chorus somewhat better.
How Do You Do Todee (Sanna Longden)	Intro the chant to the second class, do the exercise
While this was a review for the first class, the second class never got a chance to do this exercise, so this was an attempt to get the two classes back to parity (while learning a fun activity). I used the same approach to introducing the activity to the second class that I did with the first class during the previous week. In all, I think both classes are close to each other in experience and familiarity with this. The one difference that I noticed was that the first class worked together a bit better to try to get a workable circle with hands crossed and linked.
Wimoweh	Review, try to get to 3 parts
The students in the first class had significantly more time to do this than the second, but I still only did parts 1 and 3. During the first class, I had split the class such that about 1/3 of them sang part 3. I also asked both sections to come up with some motions, but the motions that they came up with weren't all that effective. I figured I'd try to provide them with something the next time I try this. Having the ukulele really helps with the song, as it provides a rhythm for the students and a melody at the same time. One student in the first class asked if we'd record the song, and I think I might try it. I will have to do the song earlier in the lesson, however, in order to get the students enough time.

I didn't really do a closing song in either class; Wimoweh provided that for me.

The rhythm sticks really provided a good change of pace for the class, and I might use them again for the next class. Backpocket items included Down By The Sea and Tuwe Tuwe.

Teaching Notes, 20100222

And, after a week layoff (ski week!), we're back!

Everybody Oughta Know (Sweet Honey In The Rock)	Use as an entrance song, sit class down after entering, and then zip in suggestions from the students.
This was a pretty nice song to start with, as I was able to get the class quickly in with them singing something. I then welcomed the students back, and asked them what they did during their week off. After one student responded, I picked out the key activity/place/person, and immediately sang Everybody Oughta Know, with the student's activity/place/person zipped into the song. After doing this once, the class's attention immediately shot up, and everyone was ready to describe their entire week to the class. After a few iterations, I encouraged the student providing details of their vacation to sing their own line (a solo!) for the zippage, and for the most part, they did, with a scattered assist from the class.
Ee Yay Yay (Sanna Longden)	Review Rock/Paper/Scissor, song, activity
Two weeks ago, both classes really didn't have enough time to learn the activity, so I did this again, although I didn't have to spend a lot of time reviewing. I had the students pair up, play RPS once, and then we formed 4 trains. Despite explaining in detail a lot of groundrules, the first class after one iterations merged into two trains! Anyhow, we were able to play a few iterations of it, and by the 3rd or 4th iteration, I could clearly hear the students try to sing the song, even though it covers a pretty wide vocal range. Both classes had an even number of students, which worked out well, until I had to pull one student out in the second class for being disruptive. That sort of messed things up temporarily, and the student was allowed back in somewhat quickly.
Oh My Goodness, Look At This Mess (Sweet Honey In The Rock)	Immerse students into the song
I tried this three weeks ago with not a lot of success, but it's such a fun song that I figured I'd try it again. I had time only in the first class to do this, and after singing the chorus (which the song starts with), only a few students were able to sing with me with a lot of forte. I went ahead, sang a verse, and then instructed the class to sing the chorus again, which was a little more successful. I only covered one more verse (followed by another chorus) before moving on.
Heel Toe Down The Line	Review, replay the game
This was something the students really liked two weeks ago, so why not do it again? I noted that while Valentine's Day was over, one could still play the game with "Would you be a friend of mine" as the second line. This worked out very well. I challenged the class to try to continue with the next iteration while keeping in beat, and for the most part, they did it, with some help from me immediately and loudly vocalizing the next iteration's tune. I used two rhythm sticks also to keep the beat. After playing the game, I focused the students' attention to the board, where I had a clefless staff again on the board. I asked the students to tell me what was missing, and they were able to correctly identify the missing piece as the clef. I then wrote the song notes on the staff, and spoke in generalizations about steps and jumps or leaps. I think a lot of the interval discussion floated way over the heads of the students, so I didn't try very long to get the point across.
Jenny Jenkins	Sing the song
The students' attention was a little scattered after the musical staff mini-discussion, and so I immediately broke into Jenny Jenkins. I also had the chorus hiding behind another board, which I revealed to the delight of the class. This song always works, and students are very willing to offer the colors of their clothes as the next color in the song. What's funny is that someone suggested "tan", and I was left struggling to find a rhyme. I think I settled on something like "I'd look like I'm in a band". It was bad meter, but it still was enjoyable for the class. Similar to the previous time I used the song, I found myself reaching for the ukulele, but I never really played it.
How Do You Do Todee (Sanna Longden)	Teach chant, have students form a circle and try the activity
This was yet another Sanna Longden activity, where students would chant while holding hands while having their arms crossed. This forced the students into a pretty small circle, which is always quite the challenge with my classes. Introducing the chant was pretty easy, as I was able to tie skiing w/ Australians in Tahoe as Australia was in the middle of summer and thus had no snow. I also explained how the Australian jargon was a little different ("shifted" for "moved", etc.), and the accent was distinctive. The students got a bit of a giggle trying to speak with the Australian accent. I had to go through a few different iterations before allowing the students to walk through the circle and find a new spot and join hands in the the timespan of a single line. It's pretty impossible during the first class, and probably unlikely if I try this again. But the students did indeed try. It seemed like they had fun with this. Similar to Oh My Goodness, I had time only in my first class to try this out.

I thought I had did a closing song, but I can't remember what it was. It might have been Everybody Oughta Know, but I don't recall what I did. That's what I get for blogging more than a week after the class.

Retaining the focus of the students was a constant struggle, but for the 2nd class it was really really difficult. At the end of class, I mentioned to the class that I really wanted to cover a lot more than what we did, and in order to do that, the students had to pay attention more effectively. They're 2nd graders, though, and so I don't know if that little plea at the end of the class was going to translate into anything different behavior-wise. It just leads to a reversal compared to last year, where my first class is covering more material than the second class.