Today is the day for observing other music and non-music classrooms. I am visiting a 5th Grade class, a CDC A class (special needs, students with severe disabilities), and a 1st Grade class. Yesterday, I observed Brenda Swinson's 3rd, 4th, and 5th Grade music classes (the after-lunch blocks.) I may observe her again today.
My first adventure: 5th Grade.
This class is full of well-behaved kids. The discipline style of this particular class is very similar to Tracy Ward's (my mentor teacher's) style of teaching and discipline. She has the ability to command her classroom in a way that the students actually listen. They answer questions attentively, ask questions attentively, and are fascinated (at least while I am observing) with the topic. They are having a discussion about the Civil Rights Movement through short stories. I am excited to say that Mrs. Ward is teaching Civil Rights, too, to these 5th Graders. They are singing with their first choral piece (two-part treble) called The Promised Land, a spiritual. It is so important to African-American culture, and it ties in with the Civil Rights/Black History that are being taught in the classroom. We call that cross-curricular activities. This is something that I want to be able to do when I teach. I want students to learn more about the topics (tying into music) that are being learned in other classes. From a previous post, I spoke of how we are learning of Marian Anderson, the first African-American to ever sing at the Metropolitan Opera. This also ties into our topic. I'm a little amazed, actually. I love to see how interested these 5th Graders are in their English classroom. It can only benefit the class topics in music class.
Second fun activity: Special Education A
If I could not teach music, I would teach special education. The ways of discipline focus on simply keeping the students interested in tasks at hand. This particular class is categorized by students who are in the low-functioning range (but don't get me wrong--they are so smart!)
Today was a day for farm animals during group activity. All six to seven students sat at a table around a teacher's aide, who told stories of farm animals while using visuals such as books and animal figurines. All the while, activities inspired simple songs, such as Bingo, Old MacDonald, Little Bunny Foo-foo, and many more. They were all nursery-rhyme songs or songs that could be learned in pre-school, but they had a truly positive effect on the kids. They didn't necessarily sing them, but they enjoyed them and got the point. It was marvelous!
Third amazing class: Mrs. Arning's 1st Grade Class
I wish I could take a picture of this classroom. It is decorated in ways to learn, which are exciting and colorful--visually appealing. It is organized into different categories of learning while also being exciting and interesting. As far as discipline goes, Mrs. Arning also commands her class and is able to question calmly and receive calm answers from her students. They are excited to learn--which is pretty wonderful since they are currently talking about math. In cross-curricular learning, math is extremely important to music. I love music not only because it sounds great, but because it is full of patterns, like math. We have to count the beats in a measure, add up measures, divide portions of notes in the measures, and figure out what scale degrees pitches are on. Today, in this hour of observing, the students are learning how to add (which is huge in the music world.) They use real-life questions with real-life answers. I wonder if music teachers could give music information for their students to learn in their daily class time with their main teachers?
A stop in with Tracy Ward's 3rd Grade Music Class
My favorite music lesson thus far: William Tell Overture (Form)
Intro, ABABCDCBA, Coda may look confusing, but look at the patterns! It is the form of William Tell Overture, and here's a great activity. Play William Tell and show them the form by use of visual posters. If you use different rhythms for each section (ABCD) that can be repeated, you simply show the students the rhythms first in ta-di-ta-di, then with body percussion, and then with instruments. You can therein create an "orchestra" with your third graders. To aid the lesson, you can read a book or tell the story of the legend of William Tell (or overview of the opera) before or after the mini-orchestra. This lesson seems to be the most fun for the students thus far in observing and aiding Mrs. Ward!
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