This year, after inspiration from my World Music course, I structured my year around a different world culture each month or so. My third and fourth graders have learned about Australia and watched a video describing how to play the didgeridoo. They learned about Indonesia and created a 30-second ensemble piece in the style of Gamelan. They listened to various African pieces on Spotify and the fourth graders are about to learn some west African percussion by rote, after watching an authentic video from Ghana. The fourth graders learned last month about the Underground Railroad via Ritchie Havens on Spotify.
I can't describe how invaluable these resources are to expanding my musical knowledge and confidence in teaching about other cultures. As for tutorial type videos and things on YouTube, I see things all the time as I fall down the rabbit hole that I can learn from and my students can watch in class.
I created a video for my trumpet students to demonstrate oiling their valves. They watched it, we discussed it, and they could reference it later (if they had access to the Internet). I am going to use the video we had to crest this week for my class next week - learning how to put the mouthpiece, barrel, and reed together on the clarinet. I will be out at a conference (CMEA) so I want to give the sub tools to facilitate the classes I am missing.
I was pleased to read that elementary students have more open listening experiences than adolescents (Bauer, 2014). I can attest to that as my Kindergarten students enjoy anything I play for them. The first graders are about the same, with some individual exceptions. Second grade can be a little silly, third grade is mostly respectful and thoughtful while listening, and the fourth graders identify sounds as "different," "strange," or "weird" if it is an unfamiliar culture. I do not use listening maps or call charts. In fact, I had never even heard of a call chart until this week. Instead, my students come into the music room following a leader's movements to the music. I encourage them to respond to the music they are hearing - starting with a steady beat, then exploring different levels, then letting them express what they hear.
In the older grades (3rd and 4th), we discuss the music answering these questions:
The students discuss with partners while listening to the musical selection a second time (not the full length) and looking at the world map. They think about the instruments they are hearing, what function the music may have, and can get very creative with their answers to the second question :). At the beginning of the year, I would share my impressions of the music after they discussed theirs, as a model for them. Now, I simply tell them the genre and country after their discussion.
In terms of vocabulary, I try to use correct terminology whenever appropriate. For example, my second graders just started working with determining the meter of a song while listening. We first talked about putting the steady beat into groups, and then I told them METER. I feel that if we want them to be musically literate, we need to give them as many tools as possible from the very beginning. I am a firm believer that they can do whatever we can teach them, whether in general music or in instrumental music. They are sponges for vocabulary and new learning, so let's give them what they want!
Bauer, W. (2014). Music learning today: Digital pedagogy for creating, performing, and responding
to music. New York, NY: Oxford University Press
[I apologize for the initial short post - I was writing it on my phone since I had no wifi access Friday night. I hope you have a chance to read the edited one :) ]
I was pleased to read that elementary students have more open listening experiences than adolescents (Bauer, 2014). I can attest to that as my Kindergarten students enjoy anything I play for them. The first graders are about the same, with some individual exceptions. Second grade can be a little silly, third grade is mostly respectful and thoughtful while listening, and the fourth graders identify sounds as "different," "strange," or "weird" if it is an unfamiliar culture. I do not use listening maps or call charts. In fact, I had never even heard of a call chart until this week. Instead, my students come into the music room following a leader's movements to the music. I encourage them to respond to the music they are hearing - starting with a steady beat, then exploring different levels, then letting them express what they hear.
In the older grades (3rd and 4th), we discuss the music answering these questions:
1) Where might you hear music like this?
2) What does this music make you think of?
3) What genre of music is this?
4) What country is this from?
The students discuss with partners while listening to the musical selection a second time (not the full length) and looking at the world map. They think about the instruments they are hearing, what function the music may have, and can get very creative with their answers to the second question :). At the beginning of the year, I would share my impressions of the music after they discussed theirs, as a model for them. Now, I simply tell them the genre and country after their discussion.
In terms of vocabulary, I try to use correct terminology whenever appropriate. For example, my second graders just started working with determining the meter of a song while listening. We first talked about putting the steady beat into groups, and then I told them METER. I feel that if we want them to be musically literate, we need to give them as many tools as possible from the very beginning. I am a firm believer that they can do whatever we can teach them, whether in general music or in instrumental music. They are sponges for vocabulary and new learning, so let's give them what they want!
Bauer, W. (2014). Music learning today: Digital pedagogy for creating, performing, and responding
to music. New York, NY: Oxford University Press
[I apologize for the initial short post - I was writing it on my phone since I had no wifi access Friday night. I hope you have a chance to read the edited one :) ]
I use YouTube almost every day and Spotify is going to become a larger part of my classroom. It was interesting though; we had Tom Chapin, a well-known folk singer/songwriter come to our school this past week. He was explaining to us how detrimental sites like Spotify and Pandora to the artists. They get a ridiculously low amount each time their songs are played. It’s tough because as teachers, we spend so much of our money to begin with and using these sites is one area to save. At the same time, it is important that some of the folk artists who create family friendly music are able to continue to make music and be successful.
ReplyDeleteWe have essentially created all of our own tutorials for our students so that they can learn how to play the note over the week and we can focus on playing more of the music in the lesson.
I love watching my first graders come in when I have music playing. They are always walking, marching, skipping in to go with the music. I like what you described with the listening activities and the partner discussions. Those all sounds like great ideas. Thanks for your post!
Kathleen,
ReplyDeleteThanks for another great post! I love using YouTube to inspire my students as well! Not that long ago I was using a TED Talk about making a clarinet out of a carrot. It was a fun video, and it inspired my high school band students to try it (the woods and metals shops are just across from the band room. It's videos like that that help us look beyond our normal routines and bring up interesting discussions about what categories and qualifications determine instrument classification. The reality of seeing instruments as a long evolving spectrum helps spark my students to innovate and seek out new outlets.
Thank you for a very thoughtful post! While call charts might be new to you, Spotify is brand-new to me! I am so excited to use it in my classroom! I absolutely love your idea of featuring a different World culture every month in your classroom. I am going to use your idea, and create specific playlists for this purpose. I think it may be time to hang up the old CD player for awhile, which will also save so much time, as this is such an intuitive interface.
ReplyDeleteI like the questions that you posted that help students reflect on the music. I think that through answering those questions students are well served in enriching their understanding of your selected pieces.
I hope that you will also give call charts a try. While they do take a bit of advance planning and preparation, I have found them to be especially helpful in guiding my students' listening experience to aspects of the music that I wish for them to have a deeper understanding.
Thank you so much for such a thoughtful and engaging post!
This is a really great post this week! While I do not teach elementary music I love your idea about focusing on a different world culture each month. There are so many great videos and listening examples on the internet now it makes it very easy to include them in the classroom on a regular basis.
ReplyDeleteYou gave a great example for how to incorporate video tutorials as well. As I was thinking about what I wanted to do for our tutorial project this week I considered demonstrating how to properly oil valves for brass instruments. Beginning band students would benefit a great deal from videos like the one you mentioned.
Before we start our beginning band students next year I am hoping to put together a series of tutorial videos that are relevant to beginners. How to properly put together an instrument, oiling valves, proper hand positions are all something I would like to include in this series. So much potential!