Teaching Notes, 20120223

It's my 100th post!

After two weeks outside, it was time to have class fully in the room again, and get the students ever so closer to music literacy.

Teaching Peace	Teach song, and first stanza
After the students were seated, I sang through the chorus once with a guitar, and then I had the students echo my singing of the chorus one line at a time. I asked the students what part of the song keeps showing over and over again, and a few students remembered the term "chorus". I then asked what the other part of the song was, and no one remembered in either class. After re-introducing the term "stanza", I pointed to lyrics on the board that represented the stanza of the song. Only part of the stanza is echoed, and so where there was no echo, I had written an ellipsis; we practiced the first half of the stanza twice, with the partial echo. The end of the stanza has no echo whatsoever, but I wanted the students to do something here; I had written "1,2,3,4", and I wanted the students to chant the numbers (like a march) for the last four beats of the stanza. Since I didn't really expect the students to know when to come in, I had them practice the chant with me pointing to them to initiate the chant. We then practiced the whole stanza with the cue for the 1,2,3,4 chant - after which, I finished with the chorus. The students in either class never really sang the chorus together; we still did the final iteration in echo, and that's fine; we'll cover the chorus continuously in a later class.
Tommy Tinker	Continue rhythm exercises
I had recreated the beat and notes that were written on the moving whiteboard from last week, although I had centered Do at middle C this time instead of G. I proceeded to have the students finish the placement of the notes of the 2nd half of the song; when doing that, I realized that the students really didn't have a good grasp of the difference between beat and rhythm. So, I reviewed beat for a bit, including walking steadily while singing Tommy Tinker. I then proceeded to sing Tommy Tinker while stepping to the rhythm, and I asked both classes if anyone normally walks like that to the rhythm. On the board, I then wrote vertical bars separating each measure and we talked about how each measure contained 4 beats. I also pointed out that in some cases, notes (like "cry" and "guy") spanned multiple beats. We didn't really spend time discussing the different kinds of note duration, but I wanted to have the students feel comfortable enough to understand that notes did have duration of some sort.
A Yodeling Song	Teach quickly, get students to spontaneously take solos
A Yodeling Song was another song from Ella Jenkins that I found to be so simple yet so extensible. As sort of a transition to the next item, I simply started singing this song, and after two iterations, enough students were singing so that they could carry the song as a class. I then stopped the singing and I said that when I pointed to the class, it was their turn to continue singing. Like the recordings of A Yodeling Song that I have, I pointed to the class at the word "Yodeling", and they sort of seemed to get it, after an iteration or two. Next, I informed the class that when I pointed to a particular *student*, it was that student's turn to sing. I then proceeded to start the song again, pointing to individual students at the word "Yodeling". Eventually, I asked the students to raise their hands if they figured out what to sing, and that allowed me to choose plenty of students who presumably also wanted a turn. Again, this was simple and fun, without much rigor and concentration required from the students.
Austrian Yodeler	Go right into the song
Going from A Yodeling Song to the Austrian Yodeler is so easy, it's almost like cheating, but I did it anyway. I pointed to the map on the moving whiteboard where Austria was, and we were off! This time, I did have the students do a knee tap-clap-clap to the song, and they happily obliged. After singing about the avalanche and grizzly bear, I asked the students what the clap/tap pattern was, and how many clap/tap's there were in each iteration - behold a pattern of 3! I usually tell students that the most important number in music is 4, but here was something that was definitely based on 3. Anyhow, after that little diversion, we continued with the St. Bernard, followed by the skier (three whooshes) and Santa Claus (three ho's). With the tap/clap pattern, students were keeping tempo and singing together more effectively (although in the second class, there seemed to be an enclave of students who didn't want to participate at all), and with the skier and Santa Claus parts, I kept the tempo going rather than breaking for the encounter sounds.
Sarasponda	Teach Song
I had a little extra time with the first class, and since they hadn't covered Sarasponda yet, I decided it was time for them to learn it. I purposefully spent a little more time getting the students to say the words rather than sing it, and when they were repeating the words reasonably well, I simply added it to song. I glossed over the fact that the words meant little, as the song was meant to simulate the sounds of a spinning wheel. I had just enough time to go through the song once through without echoing, but by the time the class was over, it was clear that the students needed more practice.

I ended the class with another rendition of the donut song, this time with a little more motion. Yet again, few students remembered to sing "goodbye" at the end, and I had to sing the ending twice.

There was a whole lot of noise outside, particularly during the second class, and that might have led to a more challenging class. In fact, the first class, even with a substitute, did remarkably better than the second class, and over the past few weeks, I definitely see a dramatic change and improvement with that first class in terms of focus and willingness to try new things. Of course, the flip side is that perhaps I'm slowly losing members of the second class, and so I'll have to figure out ways to re-include everyone. The teacher offered to have music class in the regular classroom if there is too much construction noise outside the music room.

Ultimately, I didn't do a lot in terms of music literacy, and I need to find some way of achieving some level of readability without making it an academic exercise. Maybe I'll get a chance to do it next week.

Teaching Notes, 20120216

Last week, I had mixed results trying to have music class outside for the first time. One class did well, while the other class struggled. This time around, I wanted to try dancing again, as last time I was unable to have either class do a Valentine's Day dance successfully. Today was also a no-uniform day (due to class pictures) and so I wanted to do something special with all those colors.

You'll Sing A Song, and I'll Sing A Song	Lead class while singing the song
This was almost exactly like last week's intro - I had the students walk in while I hummed the tune and played it on the ukulele. When I started singing, most of the class started followingm me. I didn't spend too much time on this song, as it was just a way to get the students in the mood for more singing.
Jenny Jenkins	Immerse students into the song, insert their names
Before diving into the song, I asked the students why they were dressed in all different colors. That of course makes a very easy transition to singing this song, with a student's name inserted that matches the color being sung. After two iterations, I knew that I wasn't going to have many students following the Roldy Foldy chorus, so I revealed the words to the chorus (hidden behind the moveable whiteboard/map) and continued picking out students and colors. In both classes, I managed to include the teacher, which the kids really enjoyed.
Tommy Tinker	Recap song with body solfege, recreate notes and rhythm
Tommy Tinker, arguably a K-1-maybe2nd grade song, actually works well for this sort of activity, where I had the students try to write out notes on a staff and add rhythm. After reviewing the song with body rhythms, I gave the students a starting note on a predrawn staff as "Do" (it happened to be G, so that everything would be on the staff). We then proceeded to try singing each changing note and I had the class decide (and a volunteer draw) that next note on the staff. For time constraints, we only went up the scale, drawing four notes. Next, on the portable whiteboard, I had pre-written the entire set of lyrics, with the words broken up by syllables. (The words were also drawn under a staff, but I never really did anything with the staff on the whiteboard). We then proceeded to clap a steady beat while singing the song, and I asked the students which syllables were being clapped on. This exercise consumed a few minutes before we had all of the beats marked on the board. I never really spent much time talking about the importance of the beat, and so I had them try singing the song to various tempos based on me clapping a beat: normal, fast, slow, and accelerating.
Heel Toe Down The Line	Teach dance moves inside, then try it outside
This was the same dance that failed badly with the second class during the previous week. However, this time I decided to go through all of the steps and motions inside. But, before I even tried that, I turned the portable whiteboard around to reveal the map, and I talked about another country named Germany (while pointing to it on the map). We then practiced saying "Ya" and "Nein", and I encouraged the students to cross their arms when saying (abruptly) "Nein". We continued to go through the motions, and like last time with the 2nd class, I had the students turn in place when singing "Would you be my valentine". We went through two iterations of the words before marching back outside. This time, I had the students stand around the innermost circle (of concentric painted circles), and I picked two students out for demonstrating the proper way to change positions. I had to remind students that no handholding was required, but for the second class (again!), there was still a fair amount of squeamishness. There were also a few cases where some students simply didn't want to partner with whoever was next to them, even though they were told that they'd end up changing partners. When going through the motions for the first few times, I would chant, rather than sing, the song, and I think that helped a lot, as the students didn't have to worry much about singing while they were familiarizing themselves with the movements around a circle. After each "Nein" and subsequent half-turn-jump, the students would shout out a playful mini-scream; I'd then give a count to 4, and start the chant again. Eventually, I would start singing instead of chanting, and many of the students sang along. My first class got comfortable with the dance pretty quickly, and so we stopped to talk about where the students were compared to their starting positions. I also ditched the 4-count in between iterations, and I had that class do the chant three iterations in a row. The second class wasn't as successful outside, but I was able to get the class to complete 5-6 iterations before time ran out.

I ended the first class back inside the music room with another iteration of the Donut Song, while the second class marched directly from the outside to the classroom while doing the Team Chant. Overall, the class went pretty well, but the second class, as successful as they have been during most of the year, still has a while to go before the class is comfortable doing dances. One student last week asked about playing on instruments, and so perhaps we'll revisit instruments again.

Teaching Notes, 20120209

Indeed, it's been yet another two week gap since my last class, and I really wanted to make the most of my time. So, I decided, for the very first time, to have class partially outside. It's been an unusually dry winter, and since I don't have access to the gym this year (due to construction), I figured I'd take advantage of the weather and try to teach a dance.

You'll Sing A Song, and I'll Sing A Song	Lead class while singing the song
I recently downloaded a Ella Jenkins CD, and this song seemed like to be a pretty easy song, and so I decided to just try the song to see if the students could pick it up. It took three iterations of the (very short) song to get the kids fully into the room into the two lines, and I used 3 of the 4 variations ("sing a song", "play a tune", "hum a line") up. However, after everyone was in, I asked the students to "just sing along", and so I re-used the same 3 variations, while eventually throwing in "whistle high" at the end. About 1/3 of the students got the tune and pattern right away after I asked them to sing, and by the 4th variation, I pretty much had all the kids who wanted to sing, singing. I felt that this was also a pretty appropriate song; it was winter, and it was warm outside.
Do Re Mi	Review hand signs, introduce body signs
I did a quick review of the scale with signs, including a short question of what the sung pitches were going as we moved up the scale. I then took them down the scale and reminded the students that each consecutive note was indeed higher (or lower) but not excessively so. One of the things that I picked up at the last MfM workshop was the full-body solfege signs. So, after we reviewed the regular hand signs, I stood on the piano bench so that all could see me, and I had the students stand up and mimic my movements while I sang the scale. The students seemed to do a lot better with the whole body signs than they originally did with the hand signs; it's a lot more dramatic and requires more deliberate movement. This was also a nice segue into my next song…
Tommy Tinker	Teach song w/ body solfege signs
I had the students echo me line by line while I did the movements, and the students picked this up pretty quickly. So quickly, that I felt it was ok to start varying the tempo, and I managed to get the students moving and singing pretty quickly. We also tried singing only the Solfege note names to the tune while doing the body signs. Ultimately I wanted to do a round with this song with the students, but clearly not the same day that they learned the song. They'll clearly be ready the next time I have them sing this.
Paw Paw Patch	Teach the dance outside!
Before we went outside, I sang the first line of the Paw Paw Patch, substituting the name of the student closest to the back door leading (eventually) to the outside. I sang the line twice, and when the students started chatting that the student being sung about was right in front of me, I told the stduent to follow me as I quickly walked through the back door while singing the 2nd verse. As the students poured outside (rather excitedly), I had to re-form the two lines. I set out two groundrules: no crashing, and students had to stay in order. I then proceeded to teach the activity. This particular activity takes a lot of patience on the part of the students, as initially there isn't a whole lot to do for the majority of the students, particularly the line that doesn't involve the student who was the focus of the song at the time. During the 2nd verse practice I had to have one student sit out as he crashed pretty blatantly into the kid in front of him. By the time we had to do the third line, I had the leads of the two lines practice making the bridge, and when we attempted the 3rd line (with the "peeling of the banana"), I had to really help out making sure that the two leads reached the back of the hopscotch squares so that they could make a good but quick bridge. Eventually the students started to understand what was going on, and I do think it helped that only a few students initially were moving around for the earlier parts of the song. We talked about what changed (e.g. who's in front was now different), and so that really got the students excited. I changed the name and started singing again, leading the new leader of the same line around; the students behind the new leader followed immediately, so we had to review the three stages of the song. We proceeded to do this a few times before I switched over to having the other line be the one that had the moving leader. I probably got through 2/3rds of the two lines (really only 1/3 of the class got to be a leader), when I decided to add a little twist: I had, at phase 2, the nonleader line follow the leader. That sort of led to a lot of confusion, and well, that effectively ended the activity outside. But, I still thought that we were able to get the dance done reasonably well, and later we'll extend this a bit or introduce similar dances that involve lines. Yay! There was one little twist to this exercise, though - I only did this with the first class. Next week, before the next class, Valentine's Day would take place, and I wanted to get something Valentine's Day-related in…
Heel Toe, Down the Line	Teach the dance outside!
For the second class, I tried teaching them this particular song since it was relevant to Valentine's Day. However, this didn't turn out quite so well. I still sang Paw Paw Patch while leading the students outside, and that was fine, but this particular class didn't seem as focused. There was also a substitute teacher for the class that day, and that usually means more squirmy kids. The outside area also had pre-painted concentric large circles, which would have been perfect for this activity. I had the students stand in between two circles - it seemed reasonable, although I had momentarily forgotten that the song includes stomping on a line, which meant that the students had to move inwards. I taught them how to say "Ya" and "Nein", which I needed for the song, and while the students understood the two words, I didn't really give them a good reason why we were learning how to say Yes and No in German. I then proceeded to teach the movements; for the part of "would you be my valentine", I had them turn around in place, as I didn't have the students paired up yet. That's when things got funny. The students for the most part had no desire to be paired up in dancing, and particularly so for a Valentine's dance. Even when I convinced them that there was really no need to have to hold hands, students squirmed, chatted, and really were not into the activity. I never really got a pair of students to demo a dance together at all, and so rather than try to force down the original plan, I just had the students come back inside. While we were inside, we talked about why we were back so soon, and students did acknowledge that they weren't really paying much attention.
Union Team	Teach chant to 2nd class
I had a little extra time with the second class, and since we talked about the effect of how one disruptive person could have on the class, I made a nice transition to talking about a team chant for the class, just like I did for the other class during the previous week. It could be that the students were still tired from the failed dance attempt, but the second class didn't seem to take to the chant as enthusiastically as the other class. I even tried writing the chant responses on the board, but that didn't seem to help. I'll try it again next week. For the first class, I have the students do the chant just as a transition to the last activity…
Thank You in many languages	Teach chant, add room number
Another pickup from the Ella Jenkins CD was a track where Ella Jenkins says "Thank You" in many different languages. The first class did well, so it was very easy to say thank you, and I had the students guess what languages I used (Arabic, Hebrew, Japanese, Korean, French, Spanish, Swahili, Mandarin). For the second class, I had the students guess what I was saying, which they eventually did whenI got to French. In all, it was a nice, calm way to end the day.

If it is dry again for the next class, I'll be trying the dances again - Heel/Toe for the first class and Paw Paw for the second class. Next week also features a no-uniform day, so I'll probably try to interject a color-themed song of some sort.

Teaching Notes, 20110126

Because my classes had field trips last week, I had no class; there were two weeks since the last class. During that time, I managed to acquire a roughly 3'x4' laminated map that I attached to a magnetic portable whiteboard in the back of the room. Over the course of the year I want to populate the map with stickers noting where each song or activity came from, or refererred to (like Austrian Yodeler, which clearly isn't a song from Austria).

We Shall Not Be Moved (Sweet Honey in the Rock)	Lead class with the song in the background
Before we entered the class, I told the students that if they recognized the words or song, they could sing along. They also could clap along, but they shouldn't be jumping or running around to the music. I then started the music and we walked in. A few students were certainly moving to the music, even after I lined them up on the two lines on the floor, but no one seemed to recognize it. I then asked the students to listen to the words carefully, and I replayed the song from the start. This time, the students realized it was We Shall Not Be Moved, but different. (One student thought it sounded like "Oprah" music, and I gave a 20 second blurb about gospel.)
Seasons (winter version)	Teach California version, alter lyrics and sing in parts
Before we dove into the song, I asked the students if they remembered what I promised would happen between the previous class and today's class. It took a while in either class before someone blurted out "Rain!" Indeed, I had promised that it would rain sometime during the past 14 days, and it did. (Yay for 10-day forecasts.) And so, we dove into the Seasons song. I had the original lyrics written on the board, which referenced snow, but of course, we lived in the Bay Area where snow gives way to rain. And so, after pointing this little meteorological fact, I replaced "snow" on the board with "rain". We then walked through the song, and then I pointed out that the 3rd line felt like it had too much going on. Here, I had the word "blustery", which provided an extra syllable and an awkward rhythm. I then deleted the 'e', leaving "blust'ry", which also consequently deleted a syllable, thus helping the rhythm. I spoke for a bit about the artistic license that some songwriters take to the English language, all in the name of good meter and rhymes. (I also tested the students if they knew what an apostrophe typically meant in a generic English word.) With the lyrics now altered appropriately, we sang through the song once. I then split the song into separate parts: first line, first half of second line, second half of second line, third line, and fourth line. Similar to past exercises, both first and last lines were sung by all, and then I had the middle parts sung by half the back line, the other half of the back line, and the whole front line, respectively. At first, it was difficult to get the students to come in with their lines in a way that preserved the beat. Without trying to hammer the beat into them (I can easily do that another day), I encouraged groups of students to come in right away after hearing the part before them end. That seemed to work, even if a student or two came in excitedly early.
Austrian Yodeler	Teach song/activity
Before I got into the Austrian Yodeler, I introduced the students to the map I had hanging near the back of the room. I talked a bit about how music comes from all over the world, including some songs that we had sung over the year already (How Do You Dootee, Sarasponda, We Shall Not Be Moved, etc.) I then put pointers to songs that we had covered and stuck them on the map. Over the course of the year, we'd continue to fill out the map with more and more songs. I then segued into the next song by asking them where students thought it was snowing now, and then pointed out that a tiny country named Austria ("not Australia") had a lot of mountains and snow. Still, before talking about a potential song, I talked about how people in Austria might yodel to the mountains, and so I had the students yodel with me via echo. I then asked the students that, if they were around mountains covered with snow, and someone yodeled really loudly, what would happen. The answer was provided quickly: an avalanche! I asked the students what it sounded like, and so we practiced the swooshing sound of an avalanche, complete with a full body swooshing while seated. I then proceeded to sing the song. When I got to the chorus, I had the students echo my yodel twice and then I had them do the avalanche sound/motion. I discovered in both classes that it was better to have the students echo the yodeling throughout the song, even as I added to the chorus after each iteration; that way, the students could focus more on getting the chorus sequence correct. The song worked well, and we had time to incorporate ideas from the students into the chorus (skier, snake, snowmobile, etc.).
Union Team (Ella Jenkins)	Teach chant, add room number
Because the 2nd class was late to the room today, I only did this with the first class, and it was a real hit. I knew that the students had moved classrooms due to construction, so I simply asked what their new room number was, and I proposed that the class have their own cheer. This particular cheer is super easy, and I intend on using it as a quick refocusing tool. During the 3rd line ("Well, who's everybody?"), I had the students respond with their room number (e.g. "Room 34!") which is unapologetically panderingly successful at getting the whole class to respond. I realize later that this is also a great exercise to introduce staccato and legato responses, as the students responses seem to alternate styles. I'll point this out the next time I try the chant.
The World is Big/The World Is Small(Ella Jenkins)	Teach song via echo
With the map still sort of fresh in the children's minds, I decided it would be appropriate to have the students sing about the world. This was a nice, calm way to end the day and while doing so, I actually pulled out my mandolin to play. I made a bit of a mistake not leaving time to talk about the mandolin, but I did point out that it was sort of a guitar, but with 4 pairs of strings, making a bit of a sharp, twangy sound. I also didn't write out the lyrics, and it was quite obvious that I had to read off of a sheet of paper, but that didn't seem to distract the students much fortunately. I felt that the students seemed to enjoy a quiet end to the day, even if it meant more listening (to me) instead of singing emphatically.

Overall, I'd say this was one of the more successful days where both classes did very well participating and keeping in control. I don't know whether or not the fact that we had two weeks between lessons had anything to do with it, but the next time I see them, it'll be again another two week gap, since I'm out of town during the next regular class day.