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Music is an aural artform.

The notation is a way to preserve the sounds, but the notation of the music is not the music.

How can we teach elementary general music in a way that centers music as an aural artform, and focuses on hearing and understanding?

What is Sound Before Sight? “Sound before sight,” or “sound before symbol,” or “sound-to-symbol” teaching is a principle many music education approaches follow, like Orff Schulwerk, the Kodaly Concept, Music Learning Theory, Suzuki, and Feierabend.

With a sound before sight approach, we begin learning music through participatory interactions (listening, singing, speaking, playing, moving) before we introduce visual notation and classroom vocabulary.

When notation is introduced, students have already built the meaning of the notation through experiences.

Learning Music Like a Language Sound before sight is the way students learn to read a language, and while music is not a language, we can learn it the same way.

When a child is learning how to read, they have many years of experience just hearing language all around them. They also have years of speaking, and having interactive conversations in that language. When it is time for children to learn to read and write, they have an aural and oral context for the written language.

Imagine if we had children wait to speak until they could read and write. Imagine if children were only allowed to speak and have conversations using words they could read and write orthographically.

In the same way, we want young musicians to have time to interact with the aural and oral transmission of music in a true way before we add an unknown visual. We can use the sound before sight approach to emphasize musical experiences that lay a foundation for notational literacy.

Learning to hear vs to read: Is Sound Before SIght still Relevant? To me, there’s something magical in sound-before-sight which I think makes it highly relevant in today’s music programs: this approach is much more about learning how to hear rather than learning how to read.

The emphasis is on developing students’ aural skills, which will serve them well in any field of music. Regardless of which musical pathway students end up on outside of class, the ear training as the foundation of the sound-to-sight approach will be useful.

When students engage in something like an informal learning processes, they’ve developed the aural discrimination to hear a song and learn it by ear, or read a chord chart. If they go on to be an audio mixer, they’ve honed their aural sensitivity to specific musical qualities of each track. If they go on to be an instrumentalist playing a film score reading standardized Western notation, they have the aural training and a way to mentally link the aural event to a visual representation.

To me, this approach is highly useful and very relevant because it develops aural skills and analytical thinking that students can employ in any field of musicing.

Learn more about the National Standards for Music Education

Pestalozzi and Sound Before Sight Source

The importance of a “sound before sight” approach was developed through the work and followers of Heinrich Pestalozzi. Pestalozzi was a Swiss educator in the 18th and 19th century. He believed in the importance of experiences and sensory-based learning, called Anschauung.

In music education, our use of this principle has evolved from its early use in American public schools which focused primarily on singing and vocal development as the entirety of the school music program.

Today Pestalozzi’s principle continues to be applied differently in music programs with music education approaches such as the Kodaly concept, Orff Schulwerk, and Music Learning Theory.

Sound Before Sight Examples: Experience First Pestalozzi advocated that children should learn through direct, concrete experiences. This experiential education focused on “Anschauung,” or sense intuition, and learning through observation, exploration, and hands-on activities.

In this constructivist model, the student is an active participant in their own learning, as opposed to a passive participant who receives information from the teacher.

What Does Experience First Look Like in Music Education? In practice, we can think of sound before sight as actually active experience before sight.

In this approach to teaching and learning music, we center learning experiences around active musicking. That is, active involvement in musical tasks like singing songs, speaking rhymes, playing games, playing instruments, and moving.

The way to learn music is through musicking - embodying musical experiences. Musical comprehension is built in an active embodied experiential context.

When it’s time to actually pull musical knowledge from these experiences, we need a place for the melodic or rhythmic or form or textural understanding to live aurally.

Experience Example 1: Apple Tree Game    This is one application out of many possible uses of *sound before sight:* let’s imagine that in 1st grade we want to teach a tritonic melody, in this case *sol, la,* *mi.*

Instead, we’re going to start with an active experience - in this case, a singing game.

Directions:There are many different versions of this singing game!

In the one I use, two students connect their hands above their heads to create a tree. The rest of the class walks in a circle under the tree while they sing the song.

At the end of the song, the players creating the tree lower their branches and capture one student. That student becomes an additional tree with the teacher and the game begins again. Each round of the game creates more and more trees.

Experience Example 2: Vocal ImprovisationWe can also use improvised singing conversations to experience *sol, la,* *mi* without using those names.

• Singing the question with a sol, la, mi melody, we’ll ask students what they would do with all the apples that fell from the tree.
• Students sing their response back with a sol, la, mi toneset. Examples might be, “I would take them to my grandma,” or “I would share them with you,” or “I would peel them,” etc.

At this point in the teaching and learning process, students are using the toneset to sing, move, and improvise. Our emphasis is on creating contextual musical experiences.

Sound Before Sight Examples: Known to the Unknown Interconnected to the idea of experiencing first, another central belief from Pestalozzi that we use today is moving from the known to the unknown. It was Pestalozzi’s belief that Anschauung needed to be experienced before the key word in the lesson was used.

Moving from the concrete to the abstract, and the familiar to the unfamiliar, learning begins with an existing set of knowledge and experiences. We use those existing sets of knowledge and skills to make comparisons and connections to new things we encounter. We use our known informational landscape to investigate an unknown element.

What Does Known to Unknown Look Like in Music Education? We want student musicians to link known musical concepts to new musical sounds.

Using this strategy of known to the unknown, students figure out new rhythmic and melodic elements by first categorizing them into what they are not. Does the melody go higher than the pitches we know? How much higher? How much lower? We can hear that a piece of melodic information is missing because we compare the new sounds to known sounds.

The sequence we use becomes the set of known musical concepts students will compare new musical sounds to.

Learn more about a Scope & Sequence for elementary music here

Known to Unknown Example 1: Aural DecodingLet’s imagine we want students to aurally identify a **new pitch** higher than their *known* pitches, *sol* and *mi.* This is where we will link the new sound (*la*) to the known sounds (*sol* and *mi*) and where our musical sequence is so useful.

• Sing the song and play the game to Apple Tree
• Standing still, sing the first four beats on a neutral syllable while “painting” the melody (tracing the melodic contour in the air)
• The teacher sings the question with a sol mi toneset: Those sound like pitches we know. In this class, what do we call them? (sol and mi)
• Sing the first four beats on solfege with body solfege signs or Curwen hands signs
• Sing the next set of four beats on a neutral syllable while “painting” the melody
• Were all of those pitches sol and mi? (no) What was different about that melody? (answers may be divergent - the melody went higher)

• Sing the first eight beats on a combination of solfege and a word students choose to describe the new pitch, like “up,” “sky,” etc.

  • Sol sol mi, sol sol mi, sol sol up up sol sol mi

  Known to Unknown Example 1: VIsual RepresentationStudents have analyzed the melody and found a new high pitch in the phrase.

At this point they might link the new sound to a visual representation of the sound.

* Looking at the board, students work with a shoulder partner to decide which image shows the melody most accurately. Students show their answer by holding up a 1 or a 2, then turn to a shoulder partner and discuss their answer.

Other Ways to Visually Represent a MelodyThere are so many more options for visually representing a melody in a sound-to-sight model!

Here are a few extras to consider….

• Students can trace the melodic contour in the air. (They’ll do this without the teacher’s assistance.)

• Students can place manipulatives like small erasers or lego blocks to show the melodic contour on the floor in front of them.

• Students can use a pencil to write the melodic phrase above the words of the text in an exit ticket. (When I do this, I also like to ask students why they chose to write the melody the way they did.)

• Students can help the teacher or another student drag the target pitch higher or lower on the board by pointing up or down. Here are a few examples of what that can look like with la, do, and re:

  After these interactions, students have (1) used the new pitch in a singing game (2) improvised with the new pitch (3) aurally identified the new pitch, and (4) notated the new pitch.

When the teacher introduces the classroom vocabulary for the new pitch, la, and how to write it on the staff, students have already constructed what the new solfege pitch means in a melody.

Sound Before Sight in Music EducationThis experiential process allows students to connect musical components like melodies, rhythms, and dynamics with their existing auditory experiences. As a result, students develop a solid foundation in aural skills because they internalize music before they encounter its visual symbols. Whether those symbols are in the form of chord charts, tablature, the Nashville Number System, or standardized Western notation, sound before sight helps students interpret notation meaningfully when the time comes.

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Here is a list of books to sing from Epic Books! At the time of this post, all these books are live, and available on the free plan.

This is an accompaniment post to this podcast episodeabout how to create activities around picture books.

Let’s get singing!

Singing Books about Animails, Insects, and Arachnids

Cat Goes Fiddle-I-FeeBy: Harriet Ziefert

Illustrated by: Emily Bolam

This cumulative song is so fun to sing! Throughout the story we collect more and more animals, making our song longer and longer.

The Itsy Bitsy Beetle By: Artie Bennett, Wes Magee

Illustrated by: Tomislav Zlatic

After Itsy Bitsy Spider goes up the waterspout, Itsy Bitsy Beetle has his own adventure in the snow!

The Itsy Bitsy Spider By: Scarlett Wing

Illustrated by: Rob McClurkan

Scarlett Wing extended the story of The Itsy Bitsy Spider to be a tale about perseverance. At the end of each page the author wonders if Itsy Bitsy Spider goes up the spout again… read to find out!

Mary Had a Little Lamb Illustrated by: Hazel Quintanilla

Quintanilla has a knack for reimagining the story of children’s songs through her illustrations. In this classic song and nursery rhyme, Mary is a lamb herself, going to a school run by a hen and playing with bunny, bear, and dog friends.

Oh Where Oh Where Has my Little Dog Gone Illustrated by: Hazel Quintanilla

This song is well-loved by many children already, but Quintanilla gives it a new story with the illustrations. Join a loveable family of dogs as they play a fun game of hide-and-seek. Where could the little dog be?

Over in the Meadow Illustrated by: Jill McDonald

This is one of my all-time favorite books to sing! I love using it on the first day of school. Students quickly pick up on the call-and-response form of the dialogue.

The Wheels on the Bus By: Scarlett Wing

Illustrated by: Jannie Ho

This classic children’s song gets a fun twist from author, Scarlett Wing! In this version step on the bus with circus animals, and sing all through the town.

Sing a Book Up in the Sky

Star Light Star Bright * By: Artie Bennett, Melissa Everett * Illustrated by: Oksana Pasishnychenko

This book extends the classic nursery rhyme, adding different things a parent wishes for their child.

In the classroom, we can choose a few pages to sing together, then students can take turns singing their own wishes.

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star * By: Ann Taylor and Jane Taylor * Illustrated by: Katherine Duffy

Duffy illustrates the classic text of “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” by sisters Ann and Jane Taylor. This is a great opportunity to introduce students to the poem’s full text!

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star * By: Scarlett Wing * Illustrated by: Stacy Peterson

Author Scarlett Wing adds charming additional verses to this well-loved children’s song. Each page is set in a different children’s story: Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, Jack and the Bean Stalk, etc.

Sing a Story about Nature

Jack and Jill Illustrated By: Hazel Quintanilla

Hazel Quintanilla has illustrated several books in this collection! This is the classic text of Jack and Jill, acted out by two adorable mountain goats.

I Love the Mountains Illustrated By: Haily Meyers

Speaking of mountains, Haley Myers set the classic song, ‘I Love the Mountains” to beautiful illustrations in this book! In addition to singing the song, we can also consider creative movement opportunities by asking students to act out the different scenes in the book: mountains, meadows, water, etc.

Sing About Water

There’s a Hole in the Bottom of the Sea By: Jessica Law

Illustrated by: Jill McDonald

Jessica Law took a different spin on this classic children’s song! This time, Law uses each new verse to sing about a different animal: snail, squid, shark, etc., and each new animal has a different place in the food chain of the ocean!

Rain Rain, Go Away By: Melissa Everett

Illustrated by: Carrie Wendel

In this book, children start the song by singing about how they wish the rain would go away so they could play outside. By the end of the book, the children realize they can play outside in many different kinds of weather! They decide the rain can stay after all.

Down by the Bay By: Kim Mitzo Thompson, Karen Mitzo Hilderbrand

Illustrated by: Roberta Collier-Morales

This is a well-loved children’s song, and such a fun way to work on echo singing! Collier-Morales illustrated the book cumulatively, so each time we sing about a character, they stay on the page. By the end of the book, we have collected a host of silly characters down by the bay.

Down by the Bay By: Kim Mitzo Thompson, Karen Mitzo Hilderbrand

Illustrated by: CIA Students

This second installment of “Down by the Bay” is only slightly shorter than the first version, which is great for classes where we are short on time!

Books to Sing On the Farm

A Farmer’s Life For Me By: Jan Dobbins

Illustrated by: Laura Huliska-Beith

While this isn’t technically a book to sing, the rhyming text is delightful. Dobbins added the repeated refrain, “1 2 3 it’s a farmer’s life for me” throughout the book. Take this opportunity to compose a simple melody to this repeated phrase and have students sing it with you!

Old MacDonald had a FarmBy: Kim Mitzo Thompson, Karen Mitzo Hilderbrand

Illustrated by: Patrick Girouard

The classic! Sing this lively and well-loved song at the end of class, and then consider exploring the variations listed below.

Old MacDonald Had a Band By: Scarlett Wing, Dan Taylor

Illustrated by: Dan Taylor

Students may already know that Old MacDonald had a farm… but do they know about the band? Join these animals as they get ready to put on a show at the end of the book. In a future reading, consider talking about what students notice about the book, and how the instruments make sounds.

Old MacDonald Had a…. Zoo?By: Iza Trapani

Iza Trapani has several delightful children’s stories to sing, and luckily for us, this one is available on Epic Books! In this story, students follow Old MacDonald as he tries to go about his day, taking care of his cow as well as his kangaroo, elephant, zebras, and more!

Singing Books About People

Diddle Diddle Dumpling By: Melissa Everett

Illustrated by: Imodraj

After John goes to bed with one shoe off and one shoe on, we learn about other children in this nursery rhyme adapted by Melissa Everett.

I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly By: Alan Mills, Rose Bonne

Illustrated by: PisHier

In this silly (and somewhat morbid) children’s classic, the old lady swallows a fly and proceeds to swallow a host of other animals.

This Old Man By: Kim Mitzo Thompson, Karen Mitzo Hilderbrand

Illustrated by: Laura Ferrar-Close

Students will love helping us count to ten as we tell the story of an old man who loves to play his rhythm sticks all over town! This is a great story to lead into or out of another rhythm stick activity in class. Students can also quickly pick up the repeated refrain at the end of each page and sing along.

Bonus: Sing a Book About a Beat! We Got the Beat By: Charlotte Caffey

Illustrated by: Kaitlyn Shea O'Connor

This book deserves to be in a category all on its own!

The text of the Go-Go’s song “We Got the Beat” is set to lively illustrations. Read the book, then sing along with the recording and move!

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Singing games are a beautiful way to increase student participation and teach musical skills in any grade level!

When we choose games for upper elementary students, we can look for engaging and active games that incorporate competition in a student-friendly way.

Let’s look at examples of singing games that upper elementary students love: Deedle Deedle Dumpling, Doña Araña, Vamos a Jugar, El Florón, and Big Fat Biscuit.

Then, we’ll explore two research studies about singing games in upper elementary music. These two studies can help us frame why these games are so important to students in this age group, and they can have implications for the way we approach learning activities for upper elementary students in general.

Let’s sing!

To find these songs, we’ll set our game level to *upper elementary* and then select the categories:

• Chasing / tagging / racing
• Elimination
• Jumping
• Objects

Deedle Deedle Dumpling This is an old nursery rhyme with two games for chasing, tagging, and racing.

Chasing, Tagging, & Racing Game: The game is an addition from another song.

Formation: Students take hands to form two concentric circles. A single shoe is on the floor inside the smaller circle, and two students (John 1 and John 2) stand outside the circle.

Directions: Secretly, the teacher chooses two pairs of students to be the doors to the house.

All students sing the song and walk around the circle in opposite directions. At the end, the secret pairs of students raise their hands to create an entry to the middle. Both Johns race to get to the shoe first.

Alternate Game: Aimee Pfitzner shared a different game in her book, “Sing a Song, Play a Game.”

Formation: Students stand in a circle.

Directions: Students sing as one student walks around the outside. At the end of the song, the person lands behind two people. Those students each take off one shoe and race around the circle in opposite directions. The person who gets back to their place and puts their shoe on first wins.

Listen to Aimee Pfitzner share more about her favorite singing games here

Doña Araña I love this song for many grade levels, including upper elementary!

You can read about how to use Doña Araña for different grades here.

Chasing, Tagging, & Racing Game: Formation: Students create a circle (spider web) and connect hands. One student is the fly inside the spider web. One student is the spider outside the spider web.

Directions: Secretly, the teacher chooses a pair of students to create a doorway at the end of the song.

Students sing and walk around the circle with hands connected. At the end of the song, the chosen students raise their hands to create an opening in the circle.

The fly must escape the spider web through the opening and get to the safe zone before being tagged by the spider.

Vamos a Jugar This clapping elimination game is one of my favorites! It’s so easy to get started, and students love it.

Clapping Elimination Game: Formation: Students sit in a circle with palms face up. The right hand goes on top of the neighbor’s left hand.

Directions: As the class speaks the rhyme, the steady beat is clapped around the circle. At the end of the rhyme (at the word, “diez”) the person on whom the beat lands is out unless that person pulls their hand away in time.

El Florón There are several variants of this well-loved song from Puerto Rico, and several different versions of the game!

Here’s a version for upper elementary.

Object Passing Game: Formation: Students stand in a circle.

Directions: Students pass a ball around the circle while singing the song. At the end of the song, the person holding the ball sits down and is out of the game. The rest of the class sings the song again, continuing to pass the ball over the empty spaces left by students who sit down.

• To increase the difficulty, students who are seated may reach their hand up to try to swat the ball away from those who are passing (Newlin, 2016).

Big Fat Biscuit This song from the Sea Islands is a huge hit with upper elementary!

When I introduce the song, I normally begin by having students sing an ostinato as I sing the main song:

   Jumping Game: **Formation:** Three students line up shoulder-to-shoulder.

Directions: Students sing the song. At each “chew-belew,” students take turns jumping out as far as they can. At the end of the song, the person who has jumped the furthest is the winner.

Why Singing Games?When we use singing games in upper elementary music, we can increase students’ motivation, engagement, and participation.

More strategies for increasing student engagement

Why is that?

Let’s frame our thinking around two studies that may have some implications for our work in upper elementary music: both in how we approach singing games, and how we approach learning activities for this age group in general.

Competitive vs Non-Competitive Singing Games: In this 2016 study from Christopher Roberts, the researcher wanted to know if 4th grade and 2nd grade students preferred competitive or noncompetitive singing games.

What do you think he found?

Students in this study preferred competitive singing games over noncompetitive singing games.

That finding may feel intuitive to us - we may have expected students to prefer competition based on our own experience teaching this age group. However, what may be more interesting is why students said they enjoyed competitive singing games more. And that reason was kinesthetic activity - the movement piece was the reason students gave for enjoying these games more.

Even for the students who said they preferred the non-competitive singing game, the reason was the same - they liked the movement.

The Importance of Movement: This was what the same researcher found in this earlier study when he wanted to know when 4th grade students were the most interested in music class.

Here’s a quote from one of the 4th grade participants in the earlier study describing their experience with moving in music class:

“You know, because we’re kids, we like to be active, instead of just sitting there, saying sol-la-do. *And you notice how all of us, most of the time, are moving around, not sitting still.”*

This researcher also used videos of class as part of the dataset.

Reviewing the videos, one of the things the researcher noticed is that when students were preparing for a concert, there was more off-task behavior - staring into space and not singing, playing with shoelaces, etc. Then when the researcher switched to an active singing game, the engagement level went way up. More students were singing, students seemed to be more focused, and more of the class was engaged.

MOvement in MusicWhat might this research suggest to us as upper elementary music teachers?

Movement is really important to this age group!

When we construct learning activities for upper elementary, we can choose to center movement as one of our teaching strategies. These students are not too old to move in music class - in fact, engaging and active singing games are exactly how many students enjoy spending their time with us.

How to Cite this Post:Boler, V. (2024, May 9). Singing games for upper elementary.

Research Cited: Roberts, C. (2015). Situational interest of fourth-grade children in music at school. Journal of Research in Music Education. 63(2). https://doi.org/10.1177/0022429415585955

Roberts, C. (2016). ‘Wanna race?’: Primary student preference for competitive or non-competitive singing games. British Journal of Music Education 33(2).https://doi.org/10.1017/S0265051715000236

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Let’s look at some ways to introduce the instruments through a few different pathways: a fingerplay, a circle dance, and a picture book.

We’ll prioritize using them respectfully and playfully.

We’ll highlight playing technique to students who are new to these instruments, or to students who need a refresher.

Let’s jump in!

• JUMP TO ACTIVITIES Dona Arana (fingerplay)

“Come Back, Ben” (picture book)

I Don’t Care if the Rain Comes Down (singing game)

Barred Instrument Exploration: Setting the ToneHere is a quick guide to getting started with barred instruments.

Instrument Mechanics Which is the high side? Which is the low side? Students who are new to the barred instruments can need guidance on how to tell the difference.

Barred instrument exploration allows us time to get acquainted with how the instrument is constructed.

Our instruments are shaped like a mountain. The narrow side is on top, the wide side is on the bottom. Even when we move the instrument around, no matter how we look at it, the high and low sounds of the instrument stay the same.

Holding the Mallets I ask my students to pinch the mallet with their index finger and thumb, then wrap their other fingers around the mallet, then turn their elbows out slightly like they’re riding a bicycle.

We want to avoid students playing the instrument with their thumbs facing up. Instead, we want the top of their hand to face the ceiling as they play.

Playing TechniqueWhen we give space for barred instrument exploration, students have time to figure out how they need to maneuver their hands in order to get the best sound.

Students should play with a gentle bounce in the middle of each bar. Periodically dropping in verbal cues with this imagery can be helpful. For example, instead of exclusively saying “play this rhythm on G,” we can say “gently bounce your mallets to this rhythm on G.”

Getting to the Instruments Take time to model and practice how to physically get to the instruments.

We always walk around the instruments. We don’t walk over. We don’t walk through.

Care and Respect These instruments are very special! They may have made a journey to get to the music classroom, and were perhaps helped by grant funding from a particular organization, school funding, community donations, etc. Telling students the story of the instruments - how they got to be here, how valuable they are, etc. sets the one for how we approach them with care.

These instruments are tools we use to express musical ideas. We’re ready to use them when we show that we’re ready to treat them with care.

Culture of Play In our first invitations at the barred instruments, we can infuse the interactions with a tone of play. Through the activities we’ll talk about today, students have opportunities to “noodle” around, and create their own sounds within our parameters.

Barred Instrument Exploration with Dona Arana It’s no surprise that I’m excited to use Dona Arana!

In this sequence, after we sing the song with the fingerplay, we’ll use mallet exploration as the first step.

Dona Arana Overview * Mallet exploration * Barred instrument exploration * Barredinstrument sound story improvisation

Step 1: Mallet Exploration Sing the song and act out the story with mallets

* The teacher sings and acts out the story with mallets. Students follow along.

• A few students at a time use mallets and imitate the teacher. At the end of the song, they pass the mallets off to someone who was following along.
• Eventually, every other student has a set of mallets.
• Perhaps in another class, the teacher wonders, how could you tell the story of Dona Arana with your mallets, but change how you move your mallets? Still copy me, but find some small changes.
• Repeat the activity, students find their own way to gently use the mallets to tell the story in a different way

Step 2: Barred Instrument Exploration With a few instruments set up vertically, the teacher models what it sounds like for Dona Arana to walk at the bottom of the instrument, then spin her web up, then dance at the top of the instrument, then gently come back down.

* A few students at a time come to an instrument and play the song with the teacher.

• Doña araña se fue a pasear.. Let’s go for a walk on our instrument. You can do what I do, or you can walk a different way.
• Hizo un hilo y se puso a trepar…. Let’s spin our webs up….. You can spin your web like mine, or do something different.
• Students pass off their mallets to another student in the circle
• Eventually, set up the instruments vertically so every third student (or so) has an instrument in front of them.
• Repeat the activity. Add in playing position and rest position. Students at the instruments play the story while the rest of the class models without mallets.
• When they’re done, students put down the mallets and the whole circle moves over one spot.

Step 3: Barred Instrument improvisation What shape did Dona Arana make as she was spinning her spider web?

• The teacher plays a short fragment, then echoes the fragment vocally.
• Students take turns playing a short spider web song, then pass the mallets to someone who echoes.

Doña Araña Feedback Doña Araña: This activity is.... Too advanced for my students Just right! Too simple for my students Comment: Thank you!

“Come Back, Ben” These activities are framed around the book, “Come Back, Ben” by Ann Hassett and John Hassett.

Using a curricular lens, we’ll narrow in our melodic focus to sol mi, and sol mi la patterns.

“Come Back, Ben” Overview Read the story * Movement and vocal exploration * Mallet exploration * Barred instrument exploration * Sing, move, and play* the story

Step One: Read the Story This is a delightful book about a boy who leaves his house on a balloon. The text is simple, but imaginative and playful.

In this step, we’ll read the story to students.

Step Two: Movement and Vocal Exploration In the next reading, students find an empty space in the classroom to sit and listen to the story.

We’ll create our own illustrations of the story through movement and vocalization. Students follow the teacher’s cue to show their ideas, while staying in their spots.

* The teacher reads the story again, and prompts students to use vocal and movement exploration throughout the book:


+ “**Ben’s balloon went up**” - the teacher makes a vocalization that goes up on a neutral syllable, and motions for students to echo the vocalization. Students move up as they echo
+ “**Come back, Ben**” - the teacher sings on a *s m l s m* pattern, and motions for students to echo
+ **Bees** - Choose one bee on the page to illustrate with your voice. Make gentle buzzing bee sounds as you trace the bee’s pathway in the air
+ **Tree** - Choose an apple from the tree. With your voice, make the apple gently fall from the tree, then roll down the hill. Staying in your personal space, show what that looks like by moving high to low as you vocalize
+ **Kite** - Trace the pathway of the kite’s string. Find a way to show that wiggly shape by laying on the ground in your own personal space.
+ **Hill** - Make your voice start at the bottom of the hill and climb up, then start at the top of the hill and climb down
+ **Rainbow** - Choose one color of the rainbow to *slide* down with your voice
+ **Stars** - Make twinkling star sounds with your voice while you twinkle your fingers in the air
+ **Moon rocks** - Make gentle rock sounds with your voice. Could you make gentle rock sounds by clicking your fingernails together? Tapping the floor? Scraping your shoe?

Step Three: Mallet exploration Let’s transfer the vocal and movement exploration to mallets.

As a class, we’ll explore how the mallets can help show the story using a few selected pages from the book.

• Demonstrate how to hold the mallets.
• Seated in a circle, a few students at a time use their balloons (mallets) to help illustrate the text as the rest of the class continues to vocalize and move.
• Students with mallets pass them to the person next to them.

Step Four: Barred Instrument Exploration * Look at the image of the hill. Notice that the high side of the hill is narrow. The low side of the hill is wide. This matches our instrument! * Hold the instrument up and demonstrate the high side and the low side. Notice that whichever way the instrument is placed (horizontally, vertically, upside down, etc.) the high side is always the narrow part of the hill, and the low side is always the wide side of the hill. * Place barred instruments vertically in the middle of the circle. Students sit behind the instrument in a row of three. * Each player in the row takes a turn making their balloon mallets gently move up the instrument, then back down, when the teacher prompts.

+ “**Ben’s balloon went up…**” Students play from low to high as the rest of the class vocalizes and moves in place
+ “**Ben’s balloon went down…** “ Students at the instrument play from high to low as the rest of the class vocalizes and moves in place
+ “**Ben’s balloon floated right in the middle of the air…**” Students play in the middle of the instrument as the rest of the class vocalizes and moves in place.

• Students with the mallets pass them to the person behind them, then move to the back of the line.
• Repeat until all students have had a chance to play

Step Five: Singing and playing the story * Place instruments horizontally in a circle. Students sit behind the instruments in a group of two or three. * As the teacher reads the story, the students behind the instrument continue to vocalize and move in place. * Students holding the mallets play their vocalization on the barred instrument. * “What would it sound like if you were a tiny bee buzzing gently on your instrument?” “What would you sound like if your mallets were gentle twinkling stars?” “How could you gently slide down the rainbow?” * Periodically, prompt students to hand their mallets to the person behind them and move to the back of the line.

“Come Back, “Ben” Feedback This activity is... Too advanced for my studens Just right! Too simple for my students Comment Thank you!

I Don’t Care if the Rain Comes DownThis activity has been adapted from the takadimi concept plan in the 2023 - 2024 Older Beginners Planning Binder.

“I Don’t Care if the Rain Comes Down” Overview Read the story * Movement and vocal exploration * Mallet exploration * Barred instrument exploration * Sing, move, and play* the story

Step One: Circle Dance I developed this circle dance for upper elementary students. With scaffolding, it’s an absolute blast! Especially for students who are new to this type of movement, take the time to work up to the full routine at tempo over several interactions.

Formation: Two concentric circles, students facing a partner

• “I don’t care if the rain comes down” - both circles step to the right (face a new partner) the first time. The second time we sing that phrase in the song, step to the left.
• “I’m gonna dance all day” - switch places with partner
• “Hey hey carry me away” - play the rhythm of the words with snap, clap, pat pat pat pat clap

Introducing the Song: * Seated, the teacher sings and students pat a steady beat. Play body percussion to the rhythm of the words of “hey hey carry me away.” * How many times do we sing and play “hey hey carry me away”? (2) * Students sing and play that section of the song instead of the teacher. * Gradually, release more of the song as students’ responsibility

Scaffolding the dance: * Sing the song standing in a circle. Continue to play the rhythm of the words of “hey hey carry me away.” * Imagine there is an invisible partner standing in front of you. The teacher demonstrates switching places with an invisible partner at “I’m gonna dance all day,” then playing the rhythm of “hey hey carry me away” on body percussion. * All together in a single circle, students practice switching places with an invisible partner, and playing “hey hey carry me away.” When students switch places with their invisible partner, the whole circle will be back-to-back instead of facing forward. * Students find a partner in a scatter formation and practice on their own * One partner from each group moves to create a single circle. The other partner stands in front of them, creating a double circle. * Add a step to the right and to the left at “I don’t care if the rain comes down”

+ I find it helpful to change the words of the song “I don’t care if I step to the right” and “I don’t care if I step to the left”

• Do a slow walkthrough, then add the song

Step Two: Body percussion improvisation As a B section, add an improvisation invitation.

• Students speak “hey hey carry me away” and the teacher models improvising four beats on body percussion. Repeat three more times.

• The teacher speaks “hey hey carry me away” and students improvise four beats of body percussion.

  Step Three: Barred Instrument Exploration Now we move to playing barred instruments!

  • The teacher shows the high and low side of the instrument, like the instrument is a mountain, with the high narrow side at the top and the low wide side at the bottom. Turn the instrument in several different positions to demonstrate that the sides are always the same.

  • Seated in pairs at barred instruments set up in C pentatonic, students explore gentle raindrop sounds with their fingertips. As students play, the teacher prompts different images….

  • What does it sound like for the raindrops to gently fall from high to low? What does it sound like for the raindrops to fall low to high? What if someone splashed in a puddle in the middle of the instrument? What if someone slipped?

  • Eventually transition to bouncing mallets gently instead of fingertips. As students play, encourage them to verbalize their improvisation choices and explain their thinking to their neighbor.

Step Four: Barred Instrument Improvisation Next, we’ll ask students to improvise four beats in call-and-response, linking our improvisations back to the body percussion in step two.

• Recall the body percussion improvisation from earlier.
• Students speak and play body percussion to “hey hey carry me away,” and the teacher models improvising a four-beat rhythm on one bar of the instrument. Repeat three more times.
• Switch jobs. The teacher speaks and plays body percussion to “hey hey carry me away” and students improvise four beats on a single bar. Repeat three more times.
• The teacher models moving improvising a melody by moving the mallets around the instrument
• The teacher speaks “hey hey carry me away” and students improvise a four-beat melody at their instrument.
• At the end of the activity, students turn to their partner and discuss what the activity was like for them - what is it like to make up your own rhythm and your own melody?

Step Five: Barred Instrument Rondo In this rondo, half the class sings and moves to the circle dance. Half the class sings and plays barred instruments.

• A section - All students sing the song. Players at barred instruments play a bordun and sing while players in the circle dance and sing
• B, C, D, E sections - Students in the circle speak and play “hey hey carry me away.” Players at the instruments improvise a four-beat melody while their partner improvises four beats with body percussion.

“I Don’t Care if the Rain Comes Down” Feedback This activity is... Too advanced for my studnts Just right! Too simple for my students Comment Thank you!

Barred Instrument Exploration in elementary general musicToday we’ve looked at several pathways for exploring barred instruments in elementary general music.

In these activities we can prioritize a tone of respect and playfulness. With a fingerplay with lower elementary, a book with middle elementary, and a circle dance with upper elementary, we have examples of the many avenues we can take to creatively explore these instruments.

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There are some gems in our repertoire collection we can use over and over, with several grades to highlight different musical concepts. Dona Arana is one of those for me.

Today we’ll look at Dona Arana in three different contexts: Kinder and 1st, 2nd and 3rd, and older beginners.

• JUMP TO ACTIVITIES Vocal Exploration (Kinder & 1st)

Creative Movement (2nd & 3rd)

Chasing Game (4th & 5th)

Dona Arana: THe Song This is a delightful Hispanic fingerplay!

Because of the nature of how folk music spreads, and because of the prominence of the Spanish language and culture around the globe, it can sometimes be difficult to trace the exact people from whom a song originates. For that reason, the source notes this song as “traditional.”

Translation:

Dona Arana went for a walk

She spun her web and began to climb up

Along came a wind storm that caused her to dance

Along came the rain that made her come down

Concept-Based Lesson Planning When we lesson plan from a concept-based lens, each activity is threaded together over a series of lessons.

When the activity is over, there is a logical and artistic next step. The next lesson plan is a continuation - at a deeper level - of the same concept.

A concept-based approach is a central part of the process inside The Planning Binder.

Learn more in these podcast episodes…

>>> Organizing the Music Lesson Plan: Concepts vs Activities

Nesting Concepts for Active Music-Making and Active Meaning-Making

Vocal Exploration: Kindergarten & 1st gradeThis activity is so simple, and so fun!

I shared a variation of the activity on this episode of Teaching Music Tomorrow.

These activities would take place over several lessons, and each interaction would be somewhere between 3 and 5 minutes long.

VOCAL EXPLORATION Overview Introduce the song with the fingerplay * Echo vocal improvisations at the end of the song * Tell the story* with vocal improvisation

Vocal Exploration Process1) Introducing the Song To introduce the song, we’ll sit on the floor in a circle with students, and mime out the actions of the song.

• Dona Arana se fue a pasear - Our hands walk out in front of us, like a spider going for a walk
• Hizo un hilo y se puso a trepar - Our hands spin up in front of us, like a spider climbing up a thread
• Vino el viento la hizo bailar - Our hands dance around at the top of the thread
• Vino la tormenta la hizo bajar - Our hands come back down

That’s it!

Students don’t sing at this point, they only copy our motions with simultaneous imitation.

2) Vocal Exploration At the end of the song, the teacher sings a vocalization of Dona Arana’s thread, and students echo.

• There are so many vocal shapes we could make! Did Dona Arana move from high to low?
• What about low to high?
• What if she made her thread loop around and around?
• What if she was jumping on the thread?

3) Singing the Story After a while, we might refine our vocal explorations to create an illustration of the story.

• Could we paint the story with our voices by moving them high and low, and using different combinations of long and short?
• At the beginning of the song, Dona Arana goes for a walk. What could that sound like?
• What could it sound like for her to spin her web and climb up?
• There was a part of the song where she was dancing at the top. What could that sound like?
• What could it sound like for her to go back down the thread?

In this activity, we might choose that we want students to create their own vocalizations of the whole story.

Alternatively, if we want to give a few more parameters, we can have students echo our vocalizations for the walking, climbing up, and coming down parts of the story (lines 1, 2, and 4). When Dona Arana dances at the top of the thread in the third subphrase, students can create their own dancing vocalizations.

We Sang the song. Now What? After we sing the song and tell the story with our voices, what variations could we do? How could we extend this activity?

With a specific focus on high and low, and vocal improvisation, there are many possibilities for extensions!

• At the end of the song, the teacher does a vocal improvisation and students choose if they’ll echo the teacher or do something different.
• The teacher shares a vocal improvisation, and one student responds with an echo or improvisation
• One student does their own vocal exploration idea, and the teacher improvises something different
• One student does their own vocal exploration idea, and the whole class responds with an improvisation
• One student does their own vocal exploration idea, and one other student answers with an improvisation.
• Transfer vocal improvisations to barred instruments

Creative Movement:2nd & 3rd GradesI spoke about this song in this podcast episode about planning 2nd and 3rd Grade music, and again in this episode about what we can do when students sing a song inaccurately.

From a musical concept lens, our melodic concept is mi re do.

Even though we’re doing a creative movement activity, we’ll keep the focus on the pitch relationships of high, middle, and low.

CREATIVE MOVMENT OVERVIEW Trace melodic contour * Students create spider webs in self-space * Students create spider webs by connecting* with a partner

Creative Movement Process1) Introducing the song We’ll introduce the song by asking students to listen to it several times, both as they’re stationary and as they move in open space. If you’re interested, you can listen to a podcast episode about open space here.

1. The teacher sings and uses spider fingers to trace the melodic contour. Students copy the motions
2. Students make a spider web as they move around in open space

2) Creative Movement: ConnectionsAs a B section, let’s create some spider webs with our bodies. We’ll start the process with some open-ended creative movements. Then eventually we’ll ask students to think about a high, middle, and low spider web they can create.

Creating high, middle, and low spider webs to connect to mi re do patterns later is a nice example of physical preparation, which you can read about here.

1. How could you make a spider web with your body? Think about all the different connection points a spider web has . Think about how interwoven and interconnected it is.
2. Could you stick your arms out in front of you and connect your fingers together? …. Could you curl over to the side so your hand is touching your shoe while your other hand goes through the circle you just made with your arm? ….. Could you sit down and put your feet together and fold over your legs?
3. With a set of finger cymbals, or another bright instrument, the teacher signals for students to change to three different spider webs as a B section.
4. During the A section, students continue to move in open space with their spider web melodic contour.

5. When students are ready, we can refine their B section movements by asking them to choose a high spider web shape, a middle spider web shape, and a low spider web shape.

   3) Creative movement with a partnerWhen they’re ready for the next step, ask students to find a way to connect with a partner, and create new versions of their spider web shapes.

   • How could you find a safe way to connect your spiderweb shape with someone else’s? Could you create a connected shape on a high level? On a low level? On a middle level?
   • Students have a few moments to collaborate, then we put it with the song.
   • During the A section, students walk around in open space spinning their spider webs to the melodic contour. By the end of the song, they should be with their partner.
   • As the B section, students show their high, middle, and low spider web shapes with their partner, following the teacher’s finger cymbal signals and vocal cues.

We did the activity. Now what? What happens after we sing the song and do the movement activity? How does this creative movement prompt move us to other musical and educational experiences?

This is the beauty of planning from a concept-focus lens. Every activity we do builds, grows, and connects to another experience!

There are many extensions from here when we look at this activity as a starting place for mi re do in 2nd and 3rd grade.

• Inner Hearing: Students can inner hear the melody as they move around the room in open space
• Matching the Melody: The teacher draws two spider web melodic contour shapes. One matches the melody of the song, the other doesn’t. Students figure out which one is the visual representation.
• Singing on Solfege: Students can sing the melody on solfege with hand signs
• Barred Instrument Exploration: For students new to the barred instruments (or as review), they can explore how to play Dona Arana’s story on the bars
• Playing by Ear: When students have analyzed mi re do in this melody, they can figure out how to play the melody by ear with a partner

CHASING GAME:OLDER BEGINNERSEverything here is from the 2023 - 2024 Planning Binder.

Like the 2nd and 3rd grade activities, this focus is still on mi re do. You’ll see that in the introduction of the song, and then again in the extensions we use later.

With older beginners especially, we have an opportunity to pair competitive play with musical skill-development. Traditionally in children’s musical culture, singing facilitates cooperative and competitive games, and is an important part of learning social interaction. This is one of the ways we can increase overall musical participation, and develop “analog” social skills in the parameters of the music room. Even though this game is an addition, it is in the spirit of play-based interactions that are consistent with children’s singing culture across many musical traditions.

CHASING GAME OVERVIEW Introduce the song with body percussion * Scaffold game with a single circle * Play game with a double circle*

Chasing Game Process1) INTRODUCING THE SONG with Body pErcussionOur song introduction highlights mi re do through body percussion. We’re also including some opportunities for student choice as students learn the song.

The main thing to emphasize is that the body percussion pattern students have been playing matches the melodic contour of the song - when our melody goes up, our body percussion goes up. When our melody goes down, our body percussion goes down.

1. The teacher demonstrates a body percussion pattern, and all students join in when they can.

1. When students have the body percussion pattern down (or mostly down), the teacher adds the song. Students continue following the pattern as they listen.
2. The teacher displays questions on the board and students choose a question to answer in their heads. Repeat the activity, with students playing body percussion and the teacher singing the song.
3. After a few more rounds, students share what they noticed.
4. Eventually students have heard the song multiple times, and we can teach it by rote. Students sing the first prase, the teacher sings the rest. Gradually over time, we’ll release more phrases to students for them to sing instead of us.

2) Scaffold the Game Eventually this game is a double-circle chasing game, which I pulled from another folk song. This game is not in the original source.

1. Students sing the song and walk in a circle (spider web). Switch directions at each 8-beat phrase.
2. Students create a double spiderweb by facing a partner, so there is an inside circle and an outside circle.
3. Repeat the activity, with the inside circle and the outside circle moving in opposite directions. Continue to change directions at each phrase.

4. Add chasing game: One student is the spider. The spider stands outside the circles. One student is the fly. The fly stands in the middle of the circles.

   • At the end of the song, the fly tries to get out of the circles, and away from the spider. The spider tries to tag the fly on the shoulder. The whole class counts to ten as the spider chases the fly.

3) CHASING GAME After students have played the game and they’re ready to move on, we can point out that the game isn’t quite tricky enough. The spider can get out anywhere! What could we do to make this game even more challenging?

1. All students in find a way to connect (take hands, link elbows, link pinkies, etc.).
2. The teacher chooses a pair of students in each circle to raise their hands at the end of the song, creating an opening through which the spider and fly can move. The spider and fly can only enter and exit the circle through those openings.
3. But wait I just thought of an idea……
4. From the single circle, students move to stand in front of a partner. This creates an inside circle and an outside circle.
5. The inside circle connects with each other and the outside circle connects with each other. The teacher chooses a pair of students from each circle to raise their hands at the end of the song. Now, the spider and fly can only move in and out of the web through the raised hands.

We Played the Game. Now What? What’s next?

Because we’re using this with the lens of a musical concept, and not just a fun activity (even though the activity is fun!) we can do a lot of extensions with this song.

Inside The Planning Binder we extended this song to work on do re mi and mi re do patterns.

• Physical Prep: Students play the body percussion pattern with a partner
• Visual Prep: Students help the teacher drag icons to show the melodic contour of the song
• Present: Students establish a classroom vocabulary for the high, middle, and low sounds.
• Read: Students read the melody on the board with solfege hand signs
• Play: Students figure out where mi re do would live on the barred instruments
• Arrange: Students use rhythmic building blocks to arrange a rhythm, then add a mi re do melody to it

Finding New Activities or Threading Musical Concepts?When we lesson plan, it can be so helpful to look at activities through a concept lens!

What is the purpose of the activity? Where does it lead? How does this activity help us build skills and understandings over time?

Thinking about a conceptual focus can help us extend the fun of songs like Dona Arana across many different lessons, throughout many different grades.

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Our repertoire in Kindergarten serves multiple purposes at the same time.

From a musical standpoint, these songs and rhymes form the basis for all the other musical work we’ll do in later years. Musical expectations about things like phrasing, tonality, meter, and form are constructed through active musical experiences in Kindergarten.

But perhaps more importantly, this is also where we learn crucial skills about how to interact with each other in a group setting. What is it like to make music in a collaborative, collective ensemble? What will the overall tone of music class be?

Ideally, in addition to building music foundations, we’re also building a love for music class, a joy from being together, and the capacity to engage with many different types of musics on many different levels.

Teaching Music Tomorrow: Kindergarten Music Series In the new Kindergarten Music series on Teaching Music Tomorrow, Anne Mileski and I are talking about active Kindergarten experiences for developing musicianship skills in a play-based way.

Click here to listen and learn more.

Action Song: All Around the Brickyard What a great action song for entering the classroom, or any time throughout the lesson!

This song has been well-loved across many places in America, but was collected in Illinois as a circle dance (McIntosh, 1957).

Song Activity: In the classroom today, it’s more commonly sung as a follow-the-leader, action game in which students suggest movements to replace the text.

For example, “I’m gonna jump it and a jump it,” “I’m gonna wiggle it and a wiggle it,” etc.

Consider starting with the teacher as the line leader, leading the class around the room and calling out different movements with each iteration. After a few rounds students can suggest their own motions, and eventually be the line leader instead of the teacher.

Ball-Bouncing Game: Bounce High Bounce Low This is a Kindergarten classic!

It’s a great game to use at the beginning of the year, or after a break, especially when learning names.

Singing Game Directions: To play the game, students stand in a circle with one student in the middle. That student in the middle bounces a ball on the strong beats of the song as the whole class sings. Instead of “Shilo,” the class sings the name of another student in the circle. The person in the middle bounces the ball to the chosen student and the two switch places. Repeat the activity wth different student names each time.

To save time with choosing which student’s name the class will sing in the next iteration of the song, I have also modified this game to have a solo singing component. The whole class sings the first four beats (“bounce high bounce low”) and the student in the middle sings “bounce the ball to __(student name)___.”

Circle Game: Old Bald Eagle A classic play party, this singing game has been re-imagined for young music students in a classroom setting.

In an interview, Jean Ritichie (1957) commented that Old Bald Eagle was often the last song they would sing at their “singing plays” before it was time to go home. This can make it another great song to use at the end of class, like “Caballito Blanco.”

Singing Game Directions: Students create a circle with one student on the inside. That student walks around the inside of the circle as the class sings the song. At the end, the student in the middle chooses the student they are standing next two, and both students walk around the middle of the circle as the class sings “two bald eagles sail around.”

Cumulative Song: Juanito Quando Baila How does young Juan like to dance? He dances with his feet, his hands, his fingers, his elbow…. Just like this!

This Spanish song has been loved by many children across many Spanish-speaking countries, making it difficult to pinpoint an exact location for its origin. Kindergartners can add themselves to the collection of children across the world who love singing and moving to this Spanish song!

additional Verses(2) Con el pie pie pie (foot)

(3) Con la rodilla dilla dilla (knee)

(4) Con la cadera dera dera (hip)

(5) Con la mano mano mano (hand)

(6) Con el codo codo codo (elbow)

(7) Con el hombro hombro hombro (shoulder)

(8) Con la cabeza eza eza (head)

Song Activity: Sing the song and dance with each new addition to the text.

This is a cumulative song. Each time through, add on one more body part to dance with!

Echo Singing GAME: Charlie Over the Ocean By the time this singing game was recorded in its current version, it was no longer associated with its original social and political connotations. Like other mentions of Charles Edward Stewart in Scottish songs like “Over the River to Charlie,” Scottish songs with Jacobite references eventually became encompassed into play parties, then in children’s singing games, and transitioned into the singing games we love today.

Singing Game Directions: Students create a circle with a leader on the outside. The leader sings the song while moving around the outside of the circle, and the rest of the class echoes. At the last line (“can’t catch me”), the leader taps the student closest to them on the shoulder. Both students run around the circle, with the student who was just tagged trying to catch the leader.

If the leader makes it back to the tagged student’s spot, the student who was tagged becomes the new leader and the game begins again. If the leader is caught, they lead the game in the next round.

You can also have students walk, or jump, or hop on one foot around the circle if running doesn’t work for your situation.

Greeting Song: Bonjour, Mes Amis This activity is a hit at the beginning of my Kindergarten lessons! I’ve used it in other grades as well, and it’s just as delightful.

TranslationHello, my friends, hello!

Song ActivityThere isn’t a game or activity that accompanies this song, so this is one I have added.

In this activity, I ask students to imagine how they would greet a friend if they couldn’t use any words. We explore all sorts of non-verbal waves: waving two hands enthusiastically, wiggling fingers, Barbie wave, etc.

With a few student ideas at a time, the teacher signs and shows different ways to wave for each phrase. Students copy the teacher’s movements.

Another day, students choose their favorite three silent ways to wave. Practice switching between the three waves, following the teacher as they hold up 1, 2, or 3 fingers. Students sing the song and wave with their first, second, and third movement choices as the teacher directs.

Imaginative Play Song: Con Mi Martillo What could we build with our hammer?

TranslationWith my hammer, hammer, hammer,

with my hammer I hammer

Song ActivityIn this activity I‘ve added to the song, my Kindergarteners love suggesting things we could make.

Students imagine what we could build, the class sings the song as we pat imaginary hammers, and then we inspect our work. Each iteration of the song, the teacher discovers we have made a mistake following the directions, and have almost finished building something else entirely. Students suggest what we built by accident, and we sing the song again.

LOCOMOTOR Pathway Song: Caballio Blanco This is another hit in my Kindergarten lessons, and another song that doesn’t come with a standardized activity. Instead, I’ve added a movement activity to help us line up at the end of class.

Translation: Little white pony, take me from here

Take me to my home where I was born

Song ActivityStudents sing the song and walk in a circle. (My students sit in a circle, so it’s easy to stand and point our “noses and our toeses” in one direction.)

At some point, the teacher breaks away from the circle and the class continues to follow. Explore different movement pathways around the room such as zig-zag, straight, curvy, etc.) With each iteration of the song, ask students to suggest how much further the little white pony has to travel until we’re back home.

Eventually the teacher leads the line of students to the door.

Lullaby: Sulla Rulla Sulla Rulla is one of my favorite lullabies for Kindergarten, or any age!

It’s associated with Østerdalen, a valley in southeastern Norway. The phases, “sulla rulla,” or “sulla lulla,” are calming sounds used in many Nordic lullabies. Traditional performance practice would include an elongation of consonants rather than vowels, specifically with the “ll” sound.

This song is sourced from the collection at Nordic Sounds.

Song ActivitySing this song as you rock side to side. If you have stuffed animals in your class, have students take turns rocking them as they sing.

Move & Freeze dance: Las Estatuas de Marfil This singing game from Mexico is such a great way to practice movement and stillness! Montoya-Stier (2008) suggested that teachers might give categories of statues for students to explore (animals, etc.).

TranslationLike the ivory statues,

one, two, three, like this

Singing Game Directions There are several ways to play this game about ivory statues, all of which involve freezing in place at the end of the song.

For Kindergarten, a fun way to play is to move around a circle, or around the room in open space, while singing the song. One student stands at the front of the room, facing the other students. At the end, all students freeze in their favorite statue shape. If anyone moves the person at the front of the room calls their name and they are out in the next round of the game.

Movement Song: Just From the Kitchen This children’s ring game was shared by the beloved singer, Bessie Jones. Bessie Jones is one of the most well-known singers from the Georgia Sea Islands, and has contributed tremendously to the field of children’s music education through her preservation and dissemination of Georgia Sea Islands culture.

The phrase, “shoo lie loo” was believed by Jones to be a joyful expression of gratitude. The song references children playing in the yard who periodically go into the kitchen and come back out with a handful of biscuits.

Singing Game Directions: Students stand in a circle and sing the response. In the place of "Miss Mary", the lead singer sings the name of another student in the circle. That student improvises a movement as he or she travels to the opposite side of the circle.

Singing Story: Aiken Drum The history of Aiken Drum is fascinating!

The melody I notated here is from The melody I have notated here is from Crane (1878) and Forrai (1990), but there are many more tunes associated with the name, “Aiken Drum,” and even more stories about its origin. You can find more in the “sources and variants” section of the repertoire page.

From my reading of the sources, this is a very old Scottish children’s song that was recycled into a Jacobite ballad, and like “Charlie Over the Ocean,” this song isn’t currently associated with the Jacobite cause or Charles Edward Stuart. Some other early versions include another character, Willie Wood, before Aiken Drum is introduced.

Song Activity: In the classroom, students love changing the foods Aiken Drum was made of.

For example:

His head was made of a tomato, a tomato, a tomato....

His hair was made of spaghetti, of spaghetti, of spaghetti...

His nose was made of a strawberry, of a strawberry, of a strawberry…

Winding Game: Caracol Col Col Winding games are delightful additions to Kindergarten music, provided every member of the group shows the self control to keep everyone safe!

The text of this song is conducive to encouraging self-control, as students pretend to be very slow snails.

Translation Little snail snail snail,

Take out your horns and stand in the sun

Singing Game Directions: Students hold hands in a line, with a leader at the front. The leader moves the line in an inward circle, creating a spiral like a snail. Eventually the leader turns around and unwinds the group.

Fun & Games - where to find more I don’t think I’ve met a person who loves Kindergarten music as much as my friend, Anne Mileski.

Anne and I collaborate on the podcast, “Teaching Music Tomorrow.” If you’re interested in more songs, games, and activities for Kindergarten music, I cannot recommend enough that you jump over to teachingmusictomorrow.com to listen to our latest podcast season about Kindergarten music!

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“What will I teach this year?”

“What grade does this song work for?”

“What do I do after this unit?”

These are questions we all ask in our teaching, and we can start to explore their answers with a curriculum outline, or curriculum map.

A curriculum outline is one document that can make our planning time both manageable and meaningful.

Today we’ll:

• Look at a curriculum outline example
• Talk about how it’s constructed
• Look at other possible sequences
• Think about what’s missing in the document

Let’s jump in!

Curriculum OutlineHere is an example of the curriculum outline from The Planning Binder 2023 - 2024 school year.

This is a broad look at an entire elementary music program, at each grade level.

This document is organized by musical concepts. The emphasis is on foundational musical elements that can be transferred to many different musical skills and many different areas of musical understanding.

Learn more

Two important items to consider in the interpretation of this document have to do with the role of discipline-concepts, and the distinction between experiences and conscious learning.

Organized By Discipline-Specific ConceptsAs we organize our curricula by concepts, we help students build understanding and transfer it to new musical situations, both inside and outside the classroom.

For example, if we teach students to understand pitch - melodic contour, intervallic relationships, etc. - and we give students tools to listen critically, to analyze what they hear, and to articulate their thinking, they have what they need to transfer their understanding to many different musical scenarios.

They are equipped to play a melody by ear on guitar or harmonica or metallophone. They might choose to compose their own melody and teach it to a friend or arrange it for an ensemble.

In the construction of this curriculum outline, there is a choice to lean toward transferrable musical patterns and ideas, and lean away from siloed musical units.

Experiences and Conscious Vocabulary Another thing I think is important to note about this document is that these are times the musical ideas are highlighted and students are aligned on musical vocabulary.

These are not the only times the musical events are experienced.

For example, we can sing songs in many different modes (like these entrance songs) even if students do not consciously know the mode’s label and how to aurally identify it or write it on the five-line staff.

Read More: 3 Curriculum Outlines: Kodaly-Inspired, Orff-Inspired, and Beginning Student

Read More: Planning Ahead: Creating Your Ideal Music Curriculum

Listen: Long-Range Planning for Elementary General Music

Teaching Sequences for elementary musicIn our conversations about what we’re going to teach in the next lesson, the “why” behind a musical sequence can sometimes be overlooked.

Even though it’s easy for all of us to get caught up in our efforts to make music with students as quickly and efficiently as possible, thinking through the purpose of a teaching sequence can be helpful as we make decisions about our own situations.

Known to the UnknownOne of the core principles we use in a spiraled curriculum is the idea of moving from the known to the unknown.

This came out of the work and followers of Pestalozzi. Educators who use this principle believe that learning does not take place in a vacuum. When students learn something new, it is because they have connected it to previously-known material.

Musical knowledge and understandings are predicated on older information and experiences.

As we move from what Pestalozzi described as “from the simple to the complex,” we can help students process through and link old (known) musical patterns and vocabulary to new (unknown) musical experiences. Students can consider the aural qualities of new musical material (tonality, duration, intervals, patterns, etc.) by comparing it to the musical qualities they already know.

Sequence OptionsAs we put together a sequence of musical patterns, we want the information to be in a logical and artistic flow of musical ideas.

The way we get there is by choosing a sequence that has patterns organically represented in the repertoire. The role of the teacher is not to manufacture a curricular experience. Instead, it is to help students guide their ears and pull out extractable patterns.

With the criteria of a logical and artistic flow of patterns represented organically in the repertoire, there are many possible options for musical sequences! And music teachers certainly use a variety of well-thought out progressions of musical ideas in our teaching. Teachers naturally use different sequences, and even within classrooms following the same sequence, no two teachers give instruction or direct learning in exactly the same way.

Each situation is unique.

Example Sequences

Here are a few example sequences for elementary general music. Certainly more exist in our classrooms, and even more exist in musical repertoire.

The reason to consider these examples is to illustrate that each of us can make informed decisions about our progressions based on many different factors.

A list of sources is included at the bottom of this post.

Rhythm and Pitch Sequences Many educators choose to structure their curricula largely around rhythm and pitch.

In my opinion, this is because having aural training and common vocabulary around rhythm and pitch allows us to communicate more clearly about other musical elements.

So for example, we can describe the form of a song easier if we can describe the rhythm changes in the different sections. It’s easier for us to describe the harmonic outline of a piece if we have training and a common vocabulary to describe the contour of the bass line.

In this decision of a curriculum outline, rhythm and pitch function as pillar progressions, and do a lot of heavy lifting in the framing of other elements.

Here are a few examples - to reiterate, there are more options available than what is represented here!

Form, Texture & Harmony Other musical elements, such as form, texture, harmony, dynamics, etc., also arise organically from the repertoire.

However, we typically don’t see curricula grounded on these elements in the way we see them oriented around rhythm and tonal patterns.

Additionally, many of these micro-concepts arise as students are ready for them from a skills-based perspective. There is a natural physical, cognitive, and aural level readiness students work through on their way to things like arpeggiated borduns and parallel harmony.

Which One Should I Use? Because each of these sequences is a skillfully-crafted progression of micro-concepts that are naturally represented in the repertoire, how might we go about choosing one to use?

I prefer the one we’re using inside The Planning Binder, but the good news is that rarely will we find ourselves stuck with one set sequences we find on a website or in a textbook.

Year to year, school to school, and perhaps within a single semester, we can pivot and make adjustments based on what will work best for our students. Though consistency in the sequence overall will improve cohesive learning, we are largely free to adjust our focus based on student feedback.

Listen to Dr. Amanda Hoke talk about changing her melodic sequence in tomorrow’s podcast episode.

Considering a few options gives us a sense of the menu we have when looking for a spiraled progression of concepts for our programs.

Implications of a SequenceUltimately, that is one of the big implications for a teaching sequence.

The progression we choose will impact the repertoire we select.

The dance is also true in reverse: the repertoire we select will impact the sequence we choose.

With this lens, when we come across a fun activity we want to try, the question is not, “What grade is this song for?” The question instead becomes, “What previous knowledge or interaction is this song experience predicated on?”

What’s Missing Here? There are many things missing from a curriculum outline like the one in this post!

Musical Content

From a content standpoint, there are plenty of concepts that exist in music that aren’t listed here at all! Music is a big subject to tackle and it extends far outside this document.

Howard Gardner commented that “the enemy of understanding is coverage,” and I think that is helpful here. By necessity, and for the sake of prioritizing understanding over coverage, we choose to consciously interact with some elements and not with others.

Musical PedagogyThe other thing is when we start to think about what this document might look like in our classrooms, it becomes very obvious that there are a lot of things missing here in terms of musical actions.

This document tells us what students are learning, broadly speaking, but it doesn’t tell us what students are doing with this information. This gives us the content, not the instruction. We know we’re going to go far beyond reading and writing with these patterns and concepts, but that isn’t reflected here.

With each concept, there are so many ways we could actualize our knowledge with musical skills, and many different dimensions of social interactions and connections. We could also add things like enduring understandings or macro concepts or how we’ll show our learning with an authentic performance assessment. The opportunities for rich, lived, classroom experiences and curricular lenses are functionally endless.

What is Curriculum? We tend to weave together a lot of things when we use the word, “curriculum.” Wiggins and McTighe talked about the latin roots of the word as “the course to be run.” Colleen Conway also talked about curriculum as being so much more than a document - we’re talking about what is taught, what is learned, and how we will move students through the learning process.

This document is limited on purpose.

It gives us a big picture of how musical concepts are spiraled throughout the program. In my opinion it’s extremely useful because it gives us a way to streamline our decisions, that way we’re not stuck looking for fun activities to fill time in our lesson planning. The activities can lead to something that we know is leading to something else.

• Sources -

How to cite this articleBoler, V. (2023, July 9). Curriculum map for elementary general music. Victoria Boler.

Sources I learned about the construction of this document from a music teacher named Mrs. Rogers when I was in my undergrad. Thank you, Mrs. Rogers!

Benedict, C. (2016). "Reading" Methods. In C. R. Abril & B. M. Gault (Eds.), Teaching general music: Approaches, issues, and viewpoints (pp. 347–367). essay, Oxford University Press.

Brandt, R. (1993). On teaching for understanding: A conversation with Howard Gardner. ASCD. Retrieved November 2022, from https://www.ascd.org/el/articles/on-teaching-for-understanding-a-conversation-with-howard-gardner

Bruner, J. (1960). The process of education. Harvard University Press.

Conway, C. (2015). Defining Musicianship-Focused Curriculum and Assessment . In Musicianship-focused curriculum and assessment (pp. 3–21). essay, GIA Publications, Inc.

Wiggins, G. P., & McTighe, J. (2005). Understanding by design. Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Music Sequence SourcesBrumfield, S. (2012). First, we sing! Hal Leonard Corporation.

Eisen, A., & Robertson, L. (2005). Directions to literacy, teaching the older beginner: A teacher's guide to introducing music to the older beginner. Sneaky Snake Publications, LLC.

Eisen, A., & Robertson, L. (2009). Yearly plans: For coordinated use with an American methodology. Sneaky Snake Publications.

Eisen, A., & Robertson, L. (2010). An American methodology: An inclusive approach to musical literacy. Sneaky Snake Publications.

Frazee, J. (2006). Orff Schulwerk today: Nurturing musical expression and understanding. Schott Music Corp.

Frazee, J. (2012). Artful - playful - mindful: A new Orff-Schulwerk curriculum for music making and music thinking. Schott.

Frazee, J., & Kreuter, K. (1997). Discovering Orff: A curriculum for music teachers. Schott.

Goodkin, D. (2013). Play, sing, & dance: An introduction to Orff Schulwerk. Schott.

Houlahan, M., & Tacka, P. (2015). Kodály today: A cognitive approach to elementary music education. Oxford university press.

Klinger, R. (2014). Lesson planning in a Kodály setting: A guide for music teachers. Organization of American Kodály Educators.

Peek, Aimee Noelle, "A Comparison of the Kodály Methodology and Feierabend's Conversational Solfege" (2007). Theses and Dissertations. 27.

Rappaport, J. (2000). The Kodály teaching weave. Bel Canto Press.

Sams, R., & Hepburn, B. A. (2015). Purposeful pathways: Possibilities for the elementary music classroom. Music is Elementary.

Steen, A. (1992). Exploring Orff: A teacher's guide. Schott.

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One of the joys of a repertoire and concepts-based curriculum is that we get to imagine songs and rhymes through many different lenses. This is what allows us to extend a song across several lessons in a single grade-level, and as we’ll talk about today, how we can extend a song or rhyme across multiple age groups.

Today we’re working with the Mexican children’s game, “Zapatitos Blancos.” This game is a hit from Kindergarten (and younger) all the way through 5th grade!

Zapatitos BlancosImportantly, this game can stand alone as its own musical experience. Speaking the rhyme and playing the beat-passing game could certainly take up several lesson segments on its own!

To play the game, students sit in a circle with both feet extended.

One player in the middle pats a steady beat around the circle, tapping each person’s shoe as everyone speaks the rhyme. On the last beat of the rhyme, the person on whom the beat lands says how old they are. The beat continues around the circle for however old the student is. (For example, if the student is seven, the beat passes seven more shoes.)

When the beat lands on the final shoe, that person’s foot is eliminated from the game. They tuck it underneath them, out of the circle, so one foot is still in the game and one foot is out.

Continue through rounds as time allows.

Introducing the Rhyme & GameStudents can interact with the game to this rhyme at a few different levels in the first introduction. They might point around the circle with us as they listen. They might make a mental guess about what shoe the beat will land on. They might speak the numbers at the end.

When we introduce the game, the teacher sits in the middle of the group and points around the circle of shoes. Asking questions between each round is a great way to help students develop their own list of curious questions when they hear a new song or rhyme.

• What do you notice about our rhyme?
• Are there any words you recognize?
• What do you think our rhyme is about? What makes you think that?
• What else do you notice?

After several rounds, students may have pieced together some of the translation with known vocabulary words like “blancos,” “azul,” “anos,” and “tienes.”

In other situations, students may already know this rhyme and game from their own childhoods! If it’s already a known rhyme, this is a good time for students to share (if they would like to) how they learned it and who they play it with.

Let’s explore three different ways we might use this rhyme in an active music room: steady beat, form & movement, and improvisation.

1. Steady Beat

Steady beat is a natural curricular focus for this rhyme, given that the game itself is dependent upon a steady beat! After students know the game itself we can add a few layers of steady beat experiences in the preparation stage. These activities can be appropriate for kindergarten or first grade musicians, or whatever age group is working on steady beat.

Passing games take practice! Especially with young musicians, these are skills we can help develop through intentional scaffolding. Read about scaffolding passing games here.

“Mix & Match” Beat Development Activities Unlike the activities we’ll discuss for older grades, these experiences serve more as a “mix and match menu” of steady beat development experiences. These interactions can last multiple weeks!

Though physical, aural, and visual preparation are often inextricably linked, we can highlight these skills in focused invitations.

Physical Experiences:

We might use any of the following physical experiences on their own, or we might choose a few to layer onto of each other as students are ready.

Speak the rhyme and play the game. When students are out…..

• The eliminated student and the teacher play a steady music on a tubano in the next round of the game
• The eliminated students (without the teacher) play steady music on a tubano
• The eliminated student points steady music on a shoe or shoe icon
• The eliminated students tracks four shoes or four shoe icons

Aural Experiences: We can pair or alternate some of the physical experiences with aural experiences as well. Here are some options:

• Students inner hear the rhyme and point around the circle. Do all students end up on the same shoe at the end?
• Ask: As we point around the circle, does our pointing speed up, slow down, or stay the same the whole entire time? Speak the rhyme and play the game, then students turn to a shoulder partner to discuss.
• Ask: How many steady points do we do in our whole rhyme? Students speak and point around the circle while counting in their heads.

The game, the physical activities, and the aural activities complement each other as students develop beat awareness and beat-keeping skills over time!

Form & MovementDepending on your students, these activities can be appropriate for 2nd grade musicians.

The movements in this particular form and movement sequence correspond to one sound on a beat, two equal sounds on a beat, one sound on a beat followed by a beat of silence, and one sound elongated over two beats.

These activities do not have to involve standardized Western notation, though they could! This will depend on where students are in their process of linking aural awareness to visual representation of sounds.

Experience 1: Movement exploration In the first experience we’ll introduce students to the B section of the rhyme, and explore shoe movements that we’ll build on later. Everything is predicated on an initial experience of speaking the rhyme and playing the game.

Zapatitos movements:

• How could our shoes move?
• The teacher models turning fingers into shoes and speaks:
• Step step step step zapatitos step step. Motion for students to echo

Movement brainstorm:

• Ooooo we can tiptoe. But I’m thinking of another way shoes can move… Oh I know! We can …..

• (speak) Sliiide, sliiiide, zapatitos sliiiide. Motion for students to echo

• At this point we might transition to staying seated but putting our feet out in front of us so students can move with larger muscle groups.

• That was fun. I’m imagining something else… let’s stay seated and use our real shoes tooooooo….

• (speak and move feet) Step step, step step, zapatitos, step step. Motion for students to echo.

• After a few rounds, students suggest their own motions and the class tries them out

Experience 2 In the next class, or whenever students are ready to move on, we’ll start by reviewing our previous experience, and then extend the previous experience by asking students to come up with their own movement words in the B section.

Review previous class:

• Speak the rhyme and play the game
• Review ways our zapatitos can move (step, tiptoe, slide, etc.).
• Ask students for suggestions of words to use

Non-locomotor movement:

• Choose one movement for our zapatitos from students’ suggestions. Speak the rhyme while staying in place and stepping a steady beat. As a B section, continue to stay in place but add shoe movements:

  • Example: Twist twist, twist twist, zapatitos, twist twist or Waddle waddle, waddle waddle, zapatitos, waddle waddle, etc.
  • Try out several different student suggestions of movements.
  • Eventually narrow options to tiptoe, step, jump, and slide

Experience 3When students are ready to move on (in the same class, or in a following class) we can explore traveling zapatitos after reviewing the previous experiences as necessary.

Locomotor movement:

• All students speak the rhyme while standing in their spots and stepping a steady beat. A few students model how to move around the room in open space while speaking the rhyme.
• The class discusses whether or not the students stayed in open space the whole time, and if they made adjustments to where the other students were as they were moving.

• Repeat as necessary with different students and student groupings.

• All students speak the rhyme while moving around the room in open space. At the end of the rhyme, the teacher displays a B section. Students stand in place and perform the stationary movements.

• Repeat with other movement options.

This movement activity is versatile - we can circle back when students are working with standardized Western notation, or leave the experience here. Importantly, activities like this involve students in creative musical thinking as we wonder how our shoes can move and then extend our ideas to locomotor movement and improvisation within specific parameters.

Rhythmic Improvisation: Body Percussion & Barred InstrumentsThis activity is from the 2022 - 2023 Planning Binder curriculum, in the Older Beginners concept plan. These experience happen after students have spoken the rhyme and played the game. This is also not students’ first experience with improvisation.

These interactions also begin with movement in open space, similar to the activities in the previous section.

Experience 1: After students have spoken the rhyme, played the game, and clapped the rhythm of the words, we can extend the rhythm vs beat work by asking them to clap the rhythm of the words while stepping the steady beat.

Rhythm vs Beat:

• Clap the rhythm of the words while stepping the steady beat in place
• When students are successful doing this in place, they can make their movements travel around the room in open space.

Echo Improvisations:

• Students step the beat and clap the words in open space, then stand still as the teacher claps eight beats. Students echo, then speak the rhyme and move in open space again.

Experience 2: When students are ready, we’ll extend the traveling rhythm vs beat work to also incorporate some improvisation.

Review:

• Speak the rhyme and play the game.
• Review walking around the room in open space, stepping the steady beat and clapping the rhythm of the words

Echo Improvisations:

• Students step the beat and clap the words in open space, then stand still as the teacher claps eight beats. Students echo, then speak the rhyme and move in open space again.

Improvise a Response:

• When we see that students have the flow of the activity, we can add another layer of improvisation by asking students to improvise their response instead of echoing the teacher

Aurally Identify:

• After several repetitions, students choose their favorite one of their improvisation responses. Lead students in playing their improvisation a few times so it’s memorized.
• Students figure out their rhythm on rhythm syllables by thinking of how many sounds they are using on each beat.
• When students are ready, they teach it to a nearby friend.

Experience 3: The previous experiences can take several classes, or perhaps one class, depending on the students! If students are ready for an extension, we can transfer our improvisation experiences to barred instruments.

Review:

• Review speaking the rhyme while walking in open space, then improvising their own response to the teacher’s rhythm

Take a Walk:

• For this activity, instruments can be set up in any mode or tonality - this is a nice time to explore a mode students haven’t had much experience with. D Dorian is a great option for this - we can set up in D dorian by taking off the lowest C.
• Seated in pairs behind a barred instrument, students take turns “walking” their mallets up and down the bars. If we imagine our mallets are little white and blue shoes, what does it sound like to gently step or tiptoe up and down?

Bordun:

• Both partners speak the rhyme together. As they speak, one person claps the rhythm of the words and the other plays a steady beat chord bordun.
• As a B section, the clapping partner improvises eight beats and the partner behind the instrument gently clicks their mallets to echo their partner’s improvisation.
• Switch jobs so both partners have a chance to play the bordun, and to improvise a clapped rhythm

Barred Instrument Improvisation:

• Repeat the activity. This time, the clapping partner improvises an eight-beat rhythm and the partner at the barred instrument improvises a new melody to their partner’s rhythm.
• Switch jobs so both players have a chance to improvise a rhythm and a melody

With each new lesson segment, we build and extend on previous experiences. This is one of the keys to helping older beginners be successful with improvisation. Transferring improvisations to barred instruments adds another layer of student choice and peer interaction. The collaboration in this activity is part of what makes it so enjoyable for older beginners!

Rhythm, Movement, & IMPROVISATION A game like “Zapatitos Blancos” can hold our attention for many weeks! There are endless possibilities for this rhyme across multiple grade-levels, and woven throughout multiple classes.

When we use repertoire as a jumping-off point for developing knowledge and skills, there are opportunities to explore ideas like steady beat, movement, and improvisation through a play-based lens.

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If we were to walk into an active music room, we would see students singing songs, playing games, moving, and playing instruments, among many other things.

Where does writing fit into an active music room? In addition to copying notation, how can we use writing notation as a part of the learning process so students are equipped to showcase the results of their learning?

Today we’ll explore possible ways to go deeper with writing activities in an active music room, using a framework called Depth of Knowledge.

All the resources in this blog post will be available to download at the bottom of the post.

Let’s jump in!

Writing Music: Beyond Paper and Pencils For our purposes today, I define *writing* as using a visual symbolic representation of an aural event that can have a shared meaning between musicians.

Most of the time in music, we are familiar with writing in the context of using a paper and pencil to notate a musical expression through standardized Western notation.

That is certainly a form of writing students will use in an active music class! Extending this idea, however, we have many opportunities to show how musicians depict aural sounds through visual media.

Standard Western notation on a piece of paper is one out of many valuable pathways of visual expression. Let’s look at other ways of showing a visual representation of an aural event, specifically with melodic and rhythmic phrases.

Melodic Writing: * Finger in the air to paint melodic contour * Draw the melodic contour shape on the board * Drag icons on the board to show the melodic contour * Body solfege signs and solfege hand signs * Stick notation with solfege letters underneath * Hand staff * Showing stems up or down with a fist and palm * Solfege buttons * Popsicle sticks * Five-line staff worksheet with pencil or other manipulatives (erasers, bingo chips, etc.)

Rhythmic Writing: * Finger in the air to write rhythms or show long and short sounds * Drag iconic notation over steady beat strips * Popsicle sticks * Human rhythms * Rhythmic building blocks * Rhythmic building blocks * Paper and pencil

Which Way is Best? Since there are many legitimate ways to notate music, the question of which one to use may not be dependent on which one is the best. Instead, it will likely come down to the purpose of the activity.

Do we need a quick, tactile way to reinforce a visual representation of long and short sounds? Using our fingers to trace long and short lines in the air can be a great way to accomplish this. Are we asking students to aurally identify the solfege to a known song? If so, we might ask them to drag icons on the board to show the melodic contour. Are we interested in doing an extended composition activity across multiple lessons, where students will share their work with another group? Writing with a paper and pencil is a great way to preserve a musical thought and save it for another day.

Not all of these examples use a paper and pencil, but they do link a sonic event with a visual representation. The use case for each writing option will depend on the function the activity needs to serve in the overall learning process.

Depth of Knowledge (DOK) and Writing Activities for Elementary General MusicWhile we use each of the activities above to develop the same skill (writing), we can ask students to show a different DOK, or depth of knowledge depending on how the activity is implemented.

What are the Depth of Knowledge levels? Depth of Knowledge is a framework we can use to help ascertain the level of understanding students have about a given topic. The levels range from memorizing information (level 1) to transferring and adapting knowledge in a new situation (level 4). Each level of knowledge goes deeper into the cognitive demand students need to take on in order to complete the learning task.

Let’s look at the levels and apply them to a potential music education setting, focused on writing.

• DOK 1: Recall and Reproduction - Students acquire knowledge

  • When students write music, DOK 1 activities might look like copying notation on the board or on a worksheet.

  • DOK 2: Skills and Concepts - Students use their knowledge to solve problems

  • As students write music, they might be asked to fill in a missing measure with the correct rhythm, or transfer a melody to a new placement on the staff

  • DOK 3: Strategic Thinking - Students use their content knowledge to analyze material

  • In a music writing activity, we might ask students to find the mistake in our notation and correct it, explaining their thinking and how they arrived at their answer. We might also ask them to dictate a new musical phrase they have never heard before.

  • DOK 4: Extended Thinking - Students augment their knowledge by thinking about how else their learning might be used in a new situation. This often involves a project that takes up more than one class period, and incorporates other skills or subjects.

  • We might ask students to transfer and extend the use of their content knowledge by notating their own musical ideas.

Apple Tree Writing Activities using DOKApple Tree is one of my favorite singing games of all time! Students love the game that accompanies this song, and there are many possibilities for expanding musical understandings and experiences with the simple melodic and rhythmic content.

The Game: There are many versions of this game! The one I use is played similar to London Bridge:

Two students take hands above their heads to create an arch. The class steps a steady beat in a circle and sings the song, walking under the arch created by the two students. At the last word of the song, “out,” the students who created the arch lower their hands, capturing one student between them.

Potential Writing Use: There are many ways we might use this song to develop writing skills in the elementary general music room!

Rhythmically, this song lends itself to exploring steady beat, long and short sounds, rhythm vs beat, ta & ta-di, and 2/4 meter. Melodically, we can use this song to develop sol and mi, and sol-la-sol-mi patterns.

Let’s look at some possible ways to link writing activities with the DOK framework.

All of these activities would take place in conjunction with other play-based, active experiences, and not as the sole learning activities in and of themselves.

Rhythmic Writing Activities These activities range from imitation to creation.

DOK 1: Trace the MelodyAfter singing the song and playing the game, students sing the song on rhythm syllables and clap the rhythm of the words. Next, with the notation on the board, students use their fingers in the air to trace the rhythm of the song as they sing.

*Explanation:* I categorize this as a DOK level 1 because students are being asked to copy existing notation. The goal of this writing activity is imitation.

DOK 2: Notating the Rhythm The teacher speaks a rhythm using *apple* and *tree,* or *ta* and *ta-di.* Students notate the order the teacher speaks using printed cards with apples, trees, and rhythmic notation.

Consider speaking the known song patterns first (ta-di ta ta-di ta and ta-di ta-di ta-di ta) before moving to unknown combinations.

These cards are available as a printable PDF and a Google Slides presentation at the bottom of this concept plan.

Explanation: In this writing task, students apply their knowledge of sounds on a beat to recreate rhythmic phrases. These patterns move from contextually familiar rhythms (the ones taken from the song) and unfamiliar rhythms (ones the teacher creates). Even though students write unfamiliar combinations, the teacher supplies the correct answer by speaking the rhythm out loud. Further, the cards are supplied for students with the rhythms and rhythmic icons already provided.

DOK 3: Arranging Rhythms What could we make with all these apples?! Students come up with their own ideas, and then eventually the teacher narrows in to the list on the board:

Apple pie | Apple pudding | Baked apples | Cider

With a partner, students clap the rhythm of the words on the board to figure out their rhythms by ear. With blank cards cut out, students write the text, notate the rhythms in stick notation, then choose an order of cards to perform with their partner.

The image below on the left shows the rhythmic text students will notate. The image on the bottom right shows the accurate notation of the rhythms with stick notation. The image on the right with the correct rhythmic notation would not be displayed during the writing activity.

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Explanation: Here, students write unfamiliar rhythm combinations outside the known phrases in the song, “Apple Tree.” Students write the rhythms by ear, without referencing existing notation on the board. They then notate their own order of cards to create a rhythmic arrangement.

Melodic Writing Activities Let’s look at some possible ways to explore writing melodies based on “Apple Tree.” Like the rhythmic activities, these learning task range from imitation to creation.

DOK 1: Copy the Melody In these worksheets, students directly copy the melodic fragments from one five-line staff to another. One worksheet has only noteheads. The other includes rhythmic stems.

These are available for download at the bottom of this blog post.

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Explanation: I categorize this as the lowest depth of knowledge invitation because students are asked to re-write melodic information already provided on the worksheet. The task here is to accurately reproduce the melodic fragments.

Though both of these worksheets utilize imitation, the worksheet with rhythmic stems in addition to melodic noteheads incorporates more information. Students might choose which worksheet they would like to complete.

DOK 2: Notate Transposed MelodiesAfter singing the song on solfege syllables while playing the game, students notate the melody by pointing to a hand staff.

Because there is not a clef on this staff, any line or space can correspond to any solfege syllable. This allows students to practice transposing the melody to many different positions.

After students have practice writing the melody in several keys following the slides on the board, the teacher displays the empty hand slide and asks students to notate the melody starting on a new line or space.

Explanation: In this task, students move from copying the melody on the hand staff to transposing the melody to a new location.

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DOK 4: Apple Compositions What might we do with all these apples? Over the course of two or three lessons, students develop an apple composition idea, notate it, practice, and eventually share it with their peers.

Students begin by imagining what they might do with the apples that have fallen to the ground from the song:

We could cut the apples into slices and eat them at a picnic.
We might bake an apple pie.
We could make apple cider - but be sure to blow on it because it’s hot!

When students have their idea, they turn to a partner. Together, both students figure out a way to sing the idea with solfege hand signs and a sol and mi melody, or a sol-la-sol-mi melody, depending on the learning target for the song.

With their melodies created, students are ready to write them down on the five-line staff.

When their melodies are notated, partners can choose if they’ll perform their compositions with one of the following options, or a combination of options:

• Singing on solfege with solfege signs
• Singing on text
• Singing with movements they create to act out the text
• Singing and playing the melody on barred instruments

After students have had time to practice, groups pair with another group and share their apple compositions.

Explanation: I categorize this task as level 4. Writing is an important part of the task, but it is one piece of the assignment which calls for students to collaborate and perform their compositions. Instead of copying or altering existing notation, students create the melody they write and choose where to notate it on the staff.

When students notate a visual representation of music, they capture a musical moment and preserve it in time. This is one of the many ways we help students communicate musical ideas and move toward musical literacy.

Proficiency in notational writing is a skill young musicians can work on and advance over time. When we design writing tasks through the lens of the Depth of Knowledge levels, we can develop creative writing invitations that bring students closer to notating the sounds they hear around them, and equally important, the music they create themselves.

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In music education, the learning phases of preparation, presentation, and practice are unique to the Kodaly framework of teaching and learning. As a part of the preparation phase, teachers lead students through a process of experiencing the target musical pattern without the Western theory musical label or notation.

Physical preparation is a key component of this experience-based learning sequence. Today we’ll explore possible ways to explore rhythmic and melodic elements through the lens of physical preparation activities.

Why Use Preparation? The preparation process begins with intentional experiences, without using the standard Western notation or the standard Western name for the target musical pattern. This teaching sequence may leave some educators wondering *why*. Why not just call the sound by the name we’ll use in class later (quarter note, *do,* etc)? Why not just show the Western notation right at the beginning of the learning process?

Many thoughtful pedagogues do present the name and notation with the sound right away! Presenting the name, sound, and symbol for a melodic or rhythmic concept in the first experience is a valid way of teaching music that can serve students well and develop interdependent inquisitive, and sensitive musicianship.

One of the benefits of walking through the preparation process without the standard Western notation or symbol as the leading vocabulary right away is that it makes room for other descriptions of the sounds.

Students are encouraged to notice and explore the qualities of the sound by engaging in active experiences and making inquiries. Active experiences can include singing songs, speaking rhymes, playing games, playing instruments, moving, collaborating, and creating. Inquiries students might investigate can include questions like Is this pattern long or short? Is it high or low? How much longer or shorter is it compared to other sounds we know? How much higher or lower is it than other sounds we know? Have we heard this pattern in other pieces of repertoire?

In the process of experiencing and inquiring, students use their own language and vocabulary to describe the sounds they hear and make meaning of the patterns. When the teacher shares the common classroom vocabulary, students have already developed the definition.

This process of teaching and learning can be about active experiences, thoughtful descriptions, creative collaboration, and analytic thinking. It is a framework to listen, compare, and apply.

Models of Preparation One of the beautiful things about any teaching viewpoint is that practitioners who follow it are not monolithic in their embodiment of the approach. While their descriptions of this phase are not opposing, Kodaly thinkers have discussed this phase of learning slightly differently.

Anne Eisen and Lamar Robertson, and Mícheál Houlahan and Philip Tacka group preparation experiences into physical, aural, and visual activities, with physical activities as the first step.

Susan Brumfield groups the process into early, middle, and late preparation. She describes the progression as play (early), recognition, identification, and description (middle), and summarization and representation (late). Brumfield lists aural activities as the first step (p. 13).

Lois Choksy’s work described preparation activities as preparing students “subconsciously through singing and hearing the new rhythmic or melodic turn in a variety of musical settings” (p. 172).

While authors are not uniform in their approach to preparation, the common thread in each of these works is the practice of experiencing a musical element before it is made conscious.

For our purposes today, I’ll consider physical activities to be early experiences in preparation.

Physical, Aural, & Visual Pathways of Musicing If we were to look at our teaching processes through the lens of Universal Design for Learning, we might decide we want more than one way to represent a musical idea. Physical expression, aural awareness, and visual depiction are three pathways of musicing we explore in preparation.

These learning pathways are sometimes referred to as learning styles or learning modalities. Certainly more than these three styles of learning exist, and students are not locked into one single way of musical knowing. Many educational researchers agree that there is not sufficient research to support learning styles as a significant deterrent or accelerator of learning, at least in the way we have traditionally used them (read studies 1 2 3 4).

In my opinion, the reason to use physical, aural, and visual pathways for preparation has less to do with learning styles. It has more to do with how music exists naturally in the world and how learners take in sensory information.

In my view, music naturally falls into the categories of an action we physically take (to sing, speak, move, or play), a sound we perceive, and a visual representation we can see. These are the sensory experiences we have as we music.

What does music feel like? What does it sound like? What does it look like?

Physical activities are often the first preparation experiences we explore with a new element.

Physical Preparation We center physical preparationwhen we emphasize how music feels in our bodies.

From a sensory perspective, what does it feel like for a melody to move down? What does it feel like for a melody to end on the home, tonic pitch? What does it feel like to have a long sound stretched over two beats? What do short sounds feel like?

The use of these experiences will be different depending on the extent to which students are asked to imitate the teacher,and the extent to which they are asked to analyze and embody the information on their own.

For example, students might echo the teacher’s rhythmic clapping patterns using one and two sounds on a beat. After this experience, we could get additional information from students about how they are internalizing one and two sounds by asking them to create a clapping pattern with a partner using the same rhythm.

Both of these experiences utilize a physical action, but they demand different levels of ownership on the part of students.

Which is Which? Combining Physical, Aural, and Visual Ways of Experiencing Because music is naturally embodied through physical, aural, and visuals modes of expression, very often these categories will blend together.

If the teacher plays a collection of long and short sounds on recorder and asks students to move to what they hear with steps for the long sounds and tiptoes for the short sounds, students will rely on their aural awareness to hear the changes in length. They’ll embody the sounds physically as they tiptoe and step. And they’ll be able to visually see the other student-musicians tiptoe and step as well.

Even though we focus on one specific sensory way of knowing when we engage in physical preparation, all musical interactions naturally involve physical, aural, and visual modes of experiencing music.

Pedagogically, the label we put on an activity will depend on the primary purpose of the event and what we want students to focus on.

Physical Preparation for Rhythmic and Melodic Elements Rhythmic and melodic elements will be experienced differently when we do physical preparation activities.

When we prepare rhythmic concepts through physical activities, we’ll focus on how the length of the sound feels, especially in relation to the steady beat.

When we prepare melodic concepts through physical activities, we’ll focus on the how high or low the sounds feel in the melodic contour of a phrase.

Here are example activities for physical preparation of a rhythmic or melodic element. In each of these examples, students would focus the activity on a specific target phrase of the song, not necessarily the song in its entirety. A target phrase is a phrase or sub-phrase of the song that has the target rhythmic or melodic element, surrounded by other known elements.

Rhythm* Clap the rhythm of the words * Put the rhythm of the words on body percussion (with a partner, with a small group, or individually) * Partners create two different ways to play the rhythmic phrase with body percussion * Play the rhythm on unpitched percussion instruments like hand drums or rhythm sticks * Play the rhythm on pitched percussion instruments * Create a steady beat body percussion pattern (with a partner, with a small group, or individually). Half the class plays their steady beat pattern. Half the class plays their rhythm body percussion * Tiptoe, step, and slide the rhythm of the target phrase in open space around the room * Clap a target word, sing the rest of the song

Melody* Students copy the teacher’s motions to show melodic contour of the target phrase * Paint the melodic contour with a melodic paintbrush (imaginary paintbrush in the air) and put the paintbrush in several places (nose, elbow, ear, shoe, etc.) * Point to spatial icons to represent the melodic contour (dots on the board, a tone ladder, melodic stairsteps, or a barred instrument) * Point to objects in the room to represent the melodic contour (such as a window and scrap piece of paper on the floor for high and low) * Play the melodic contour with body percussion using high, middle, and low levels

+ Example: “Frog in the meadow” becomes *snap snap snap clap pat*
+ Example: “Come through in a hurry” becomes *clap clap pat clap snap*

• Move to the melodic contour while traveling in open space (individually or with a partner)
• Find three different ways to show the melodic contour through movement. Pick your favorite.
• Play the melody on a barred instrument
• Sing and point to a hand staff, copying the teacher

physical preparation In Action:What might these examples actually look like?

Here are two songs with physical preparation activities to try.

Embodying Music Today we’ve looked at several ways to facilitate musical preparation from a tactile standpoint.

This emphasis on physical preparation gives learners access to their own bodies as their primary way of musical knowing. It is a uniquely human way of knowing music, with primary experiences happening in human bodies in community - not exclusively through Western notation. Through this learning pathway students explore how music feels and can be experienced.

References & Further Reading: Brumfield, S. (2014). First, we sing!: Kodály-inspired teaching for the music classroom. Hal Leonard Corporation.

Choksy, L. (2000). The KODÁLY method I: Comprehensive music education. Prentice Hall.

Eisen, A., & Robertson, L. (2010). An American methodology: An inclusive approach to musical literacy. Sneaky Snake Publications.

Houlahan Mícheál, & Tacka, P. (2015). Kodály today: A cognitive approach to elementary music education. Oxford University Press.

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One of the main barriers to including creative processes in elementary general music is that there never seems to be enough time!

Despite the fact that most music teachers say they value the creative arts, the reality of teaching music is that there is limited time in a lesson, and limited lessons in a year. We spend our time in active music rooms joyfully singing, playing, speaking, moving, reading, writing. It can sometimes feel as though creative processes are one more thing to cram into an already-full lesson block.

In this podcast episode, Anne Mileski and I talked about the value of using the warm up routine to set the tone for music class. If we feel that community and creativity are priorities for us, a beautiful way to incorporate them is in the warm up routine itself.

Let’s look at some structures for including improvisation in the warm up routine for elementary general music. We’ll focus on two songs from this post and imagine some ways to improvise with a rhythmic and melodic focus.

Let’s jump in.

The Songs For these activities, we’ll focus on possibilities with two pieces of repertoire for lower grades: “Engine Engine Number Nine” and “One Two Three.” You can find more about them in this post.

In upper grades we’ll use the song, “Sunday Best” by Surfaces.

Rhythm Improvisation in the Warm Up Routine Rhythm improvisation is a great starting point for students who are new to improvisation! If this is new territory for your campus, consider starting the process of with rhythm improvisation while continuing to echo vocal patterns.

Here are a few ideas to get started.

Engine Engine Number Nine

Potential Grades:Kinder - 2nd

This rhyme is well-loved in many music rooms for its versatility! For all these activities, students walk into the room speaking the rhyme in a line.

Imitation: When all students are inside the music room, the teacher makes train sound rhythms and students echo.

Examples:

Exploration: In a later class, students might have the option of echoing train sounds or creating their own train sounds that are different.

• T: I think I hear another train coming by! My train said “chhh ch-ch ch-ch chhh” and I heard the other train say something different: “ch-ch ch-ch chhh chhh.”

Students choose if they’ll continue to stay on the teacher’s train and make the same train sounds, or if they’ll move to a different train and improvise their own train rhythms. During this portion of the improvisation sequence, listen for the length of students’ improvisations. They should match the length of the given four-beat pattern. This awareness of phrase length will tell us when it’s time to move on to the next step.

Example:

Improvisation:

After several experiences having the option to improvise or echo, all students are asked to improvise.

When students are ready, they improvise the first train and the teacher improvises a second train. In a later class, the teacher can divide the class in half.

Eventually, group train improvises the first set of train sounds and the second group improvises their train’s response.

One Two Three Potential Grades: 2nd - 3rd

I wrote this song for The Planning Binder 2022 - 2023 school year. It’s another versatile selection that can be used for many musical ends!

Students walk in the room in a line, singing the song. Use the text of the song, “let’s clap our hands like this,” to move from imitation to improvisation over the course of several lessons.

Imitation:

Sing the song. As a B section, the teacher claps four-beat or eight-beat rhythms and students echo. Over time, the teacher adds in two levels of body percussion (such as clapping and patting), and perhaps up to four levels (snapping, clapping, patting, and stamping). Students echo with the teacher’s body percussion.

As students echo patterns with two levels of body percussion, pay attention to the fluency with which they switch timbres. Watching for the ease of switching levels will inform the pacing of the progression.

Exploration: Sing the song as students enter. As a B section, the teacher plays four-beat or eight-beat rhythms on body percussion. Students repeat the rhythm, but play it on body percussion of their choice.

Example:

In later experiences, students can have the option of playing the same rhythm, or improvising a new response.

Improvisation: When students are ready, we’ll ask them to improvise a new rhythm instead of echoing.

This opens up several new possibilities for creative interdependence:

• Ask students to improvise the musical question (the first improvisation) and the teacher responds
• Divide the class in half. One half improvises first. The second half of the class picks someone to watch, then improvises their own response.
• Sing the song. During the main section (one two three, walk around and follow me), students step a steady beat to find a partner. At the end of the song students play their rhythm improvisations in question and answer form. Repeat the same activity as students walk to a new partner.

Sunday Best Rhythm Improvisation Potential Grades: 3rd - 5th

Especially for older students who have not had previous classroom improvisation experience, it can be helpful to start the improvisation process with rhythm (through speech and / or body percussion) and then moving to vocal improvisation.

This process will be similar to the one for One Two Three.

Students enter the room playing a body percussion pattern as the song plays.

Imitation: The teacher plays a few patterns on body percussion and students echo. Depending on the age, the place in the year, and the curricular sequence, consider incorporating target rhythms into the echo patterns.

Consider starting with two levels of body percussion and gradually increasing to four (snapping, clapping, patting, and stamping). Pay attention to the fluency with which students move from levels of body percussion. This gives important information about when to add levels of complexity with the body percussion patterns.

Examples with target element, syncop-pa:

ExplorationStudents will likely be ready to move to exploration after a few experiences using imitation. In these exploration activities, the teacher plays a body percussion rhythm. Students echo the same rhythm on body percussion of their choice.

Students can also have the option of improvising their own rhythm response that is different than the teacher’s. During these experiences, listen for the length of student responses. If responses match the eight-beats of the teacher’s improvisation, that’s a great sign that students are ready to move on to improvisation.

Examples with target element, syncop-pa:

Improvisation:

When we hear that students are ready, we’ll ask everyone to improvise a new response that is different from ours.

From there, students improvise the rhythmic question and the teacher improvises a rhythmic answer.

This is another time to check that the length of students’ improvisations matches the phrase form set in previous classes.

As students become more comfortable with rhythm improvisation, we can expand the activity directions to increase the level of musical interdependence. Here are a few options:

• Divide the class in half. One half improvises first. The second half of the class picks someone to watch, then improvises their own response.
• Students turn to a shoulder partner. One musician improvises the first eight beats and the other musician improvises the response. Find a new partner and repeat.
• Pairs of students combine to create a group of four. Each musician improvises eight beats, taking turns going around the circle. After that, groups of four combine to create a group of eight. Each musician improvises eight beats, taking turns going around the circle. Groups of eight combine with the whole class to continue the warm up routine.
• Students improvise both the musical question and the musical answer on their own.

For groups who are ready for a challenge, invite them to try using part of their partner’s musical material in their response.

What’s Next?I love incorporating improvisation into each class at the very beginning to set the tone of interdependent creativity.

The beauty if starting with rhythmic improvisation is that it is so accessible! If you’re looking for a way to ensure that improvisation is a part of every music class experience, consider trying some of these ideas.

In the next post we’ll explore some possible ways to build off of rhythmic improvisation into vocal creativity.

View Details

One of the main barriers to including creative processes in elementary general music is that there never seems to be enough time!

Despite the fact that most music teachers say they value the creative arts, the reality of teaching music is that there is limited time in a lesson, and limited lessons in a year. We spend our time in active music rooms joyfully singing, playing, speaking, moving, reading, writing. It can sometimes feel as though creative processes are one more thing to cram into an already-full lesson block.

In this podcast episode, Anne Mileski and I talked about the value of using the warm up routine to set the tone for music class. If we feel that community and creativity are priorities for us, a beautiful way to incorporate them is in the warm up routine itself.

Let’s look at some structures for including improvisation in the warm up routine for elementary general music. We’ll focus on two songs from this post and imagine some ways to improvise with a rhythmic and melodic focus.

Let’s jump in.

The Songs For these activities, we’ll focus on possibilities with two pieces of repertoire for lower grades: “Engine Engine Number Nine” and “One Two Three.” You can find more about them in this post.

In upper grades we’ll use the song, “Sunday Best” by Surfaces.

Rhythm Improvisation in the Warm Up Routine Rhythm improvisation is a great starting point for students who are new to improvisation! If this is new territory for your campus, consider starting the process of with rhythm improvisation while continuing to echo vocal patterns.

Here are a few ideas to get started.

Engine Engine Number Nine

Potential Grades:Kinder - 2nd

This rhyme is well-loved in many music rooms for its versatility! For all these activities, students walk into the room speaking the rhyme in a line.

Imitation: When all students are inside the music room, the teacher makes train sound rhythms and students echo.

Examples:

Exploration: In a later class, students might have the option of echoing train sounds or creating their own train sounds that are different.

• T: I think I hear another train coming by! My train said “chhh ch-ch ch-ch chhh” and I heard the other train say something different: “ch-ch ch-ch chhh chhh.”

Students choose if they’ll continue to stay on the teacher’s train and make the same train sounds, or if they’ll move to a different train and improvise their own train rhythms. During this portion of the improvisation sequence, listen for the length of students’ improvisations. They should match the length of the given four-beat pattern. This awareness of phrase length will tell us when it’s time to move on to the next step.

Example:

Improvisation:

After several experiences having the option to improvise or echo, all students are asked to improvise.

When students are ready, they improvise the first train and the teacher improvises a second train. In a later class, the teacher can divide the class in half.

Eventually, group train improvises the first set of train sounds and the second group improvises their train’s response.

One Two Three Potential Grades: 2nd - 3rd

I wrote this song for The Planning Binder 2022 - 2023 school year. It’s another versatile selection that can be used for many musical ends!

Students walk in the room in a line, singing the song. Use the text of the song, “let’s clap our hands like this,” to move from imitation to improvisation over the course of several lessons.

Imitation:

Sing the song. As a B section, the teacher claps four-beat or eight-beat rhythms and students echo. Over time, the teacher adds in two levels of body percussion (such as clapping and patting), and perhaps up to four levels (snapping, clapping, patting, and stamping). Students echo with the teacher’s body percussion.

As students echo patterns with two levels of body percussion, pay attention to the fluency with which they switch timbres. Watching for the ease of switching levels will inform the pacing of the progression.

Exploration: Sing the song as students enter. As a B section, the teacher plays four-beat or eight-beat rhythms on body percussion. Students repeat the rhythm, but play it on body percussion of their choice.

Example:

In later experiences, students can have the option of playing the same rhythm, or improvising a new response.

Improvisation: When students are ready, we’ll ask them to improvise a new rhythm instead of echoing.

This opens up several new possibilities for creative interdependence:

• Ask students to improvise the musical question (the first improvisation) and the teacher responds
• Divide the class in half. One half improvises first. The second half of the class picks someone to watch, then improvises their own response.
• Sing the song. During the main section (one two three, walk around and follow me), students step a steady beat to find a partner. At the end of the song students play their rhythm improvisations in question and answer form. Repeat the same activity as students walk to a new partner.

Sunday Best Rhythm Improvisation Potential Grades: 3rd - 5th

Especially for older students who have not had previous classroom improvisation experience, it can be helpful to start the improvisation process with rhythm (through speech and / or body percussion) and then moving to vocal improvisation.

This process will be similar to the one for One Two Three.

Students enter the room playing a body percussion pattern as the song plays.

Imitation: The teacher plays a few patterns on body percussion and students echo. Depending on the age, the place in the year, and the curricular sequence, consider incorporating target rhythms into the echo patterns.

Consider starting with two levels of body percussion and gradually increasing to four (snapping, clapping, patting, and stamping). Pay attention to the fluency with which students move from levels of body percussion. This gives important information about when to add levels of complexity with the body percussion patterns.

Examples with target element, syncop-pa:

ExplorationStudents will likely be ready to move to exploration after a few experiences using imitation. In these exploration activities, the teacher plays a body percussion rhythm. Students echo the same rhythm on body percussion of their choice.

Students can also have the option of improvising their own rhythm response that is different than the teacher’s. During these experiences, listen for the length of student responses. If responses match the eight-beats of the teacher’s improvisation, that’s a great sign that students are ready to move on to improvisation.

Examples with target element, syncop-pa:

Improvisation:

When we hear that students are ready, we’ll ask everyone to improvise a new response that is different from ours.

From there, students improvise the rhythmic question and the teacher improvises a rhythmic answer.

This is another time to check that the length of students’ improvisations matches the phrase form set in previous classes.

As students become more comfortable with rhythm improvisation, we can expand the activity directions to increase the level of musical interdependence. Here are a few options:

• Divide the class in half. One half improvises first. The second half of the class picks someone to watch, then improvises their own response.
• Students turn to a shoulder partner. One musician improvises the first eight beats and the other musician improvises the response. Find a new partner and repeat.
• Pairs of students combine to create a group of four. Each musician improvises eight beats, taking turns going around the circle. After that, groups of four combine to create a group of eight. Each musician improvises eight beats, taking turns going around the circle. Groups of eight combine with the whole class to continue the warm up routine.
• Students improvise both the musical question and the musical answer on their own.

For groups who are ready for a challenge, invite them to try using part of their partner’s musical material in their response.

What’s Next?I love incorporating improvisation into each class at the very beginning to set the tone of interdependent creativity.

The beauty if starting with rhythmic improvisation is that it is so accessible! If you’re looking for a way to ensure that improvisation is a part of every music class experience, consider trying some of these ideas.

In the next post we’ll explore some possible ways to build off of rhythmic improvisation into vocal creativity.

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Listening lessons can provide beautiful opportunities for a breath of fresh air in the music room!

At times, these may look like using activities that are, on the surface, “just for fun.” However, they add an element of curiosity, imagination, and artistry that can flow into our regularly-scheduled curricula.

In this podcast episode I shared thoughts on “one-off” lessons that are not connected more broadly to the curricular sequence. One of the functions of a “one-off” lesson, in addition adding a fresh activity into the routine, is that there are times we need breathing room in our teaching schedules! One class in a week might be ahead or behind the others, we might want to rest our voices, we might assign a listening lesson with a substitute….

Ultimately listening interactions invite students to music with curiosity, agency, and collaboration.

Read More: Creative Listening in Elementary General Music
Read More: Active Listening in Elementary General Music

Structures for Listening LessonsPerhaps more important than finding the “perfect” one-off fall listening lesson is the way we more broadly encourage musical thinking and curious listening.

To that end, today we’ll look at structures for listening lessons that can be used with many different pieces, genres, and musical aims beyond a single fall-themed lesson.

Pieces to Use For these listening opportunities, consider using fall-themed music such as:

• October by Fanny Mendelson
• Autumn Leaves (pick your favorite version!)
• Maple Leaf Rag
• Astor Piazzolla: ‘Autumn’ from The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires

Finding a Listening Focus Regardless of the piece, consider finding a listening focus for the experience, such as rhythm, timbre, melody, form, expression, etc.

The examples we’re looking at today deal with beat, melody, and mood.

From there, it can be helpful to narrow in on a smaller section of the work, such as a 30 second segment. This allows for repeated listening of the target section, which builds familiarity.

First Experience: Listening with Curiosity Suggested Time: 2 - 4 minutes

When students first hear the piece, we can direct their listening through a few questions.

With younger students, we might offer a few musical questions around one specific focus area (such as rhythm or mood). For students with a good amount of listening experience, we might display questions from multiple listening categories (rhythm, melody, form, etc.) and ask students to pick their favorite things to listen for. After a while we can narrow down the questions to the specific focus area of the lesson.

Questions for Curious Listening Here are a few questions to get started. As you listen to your selection there may be additional musical characteristics students can tune into as well!

Rhythm:

• Do you mostly hear long sounds, short sounds, or a combination?
• Do the long and short sounds stay the same the whole time?

Pitch & Melody:

• Do you hear high sounds, low sounds, or sounds that are in-between?
• Do the sounds move all around, or mostly stay the same?

Timbre:

• How many instruments do you think are playing?
• Do they make sounds that are scratchy, smooth, light, heavy?
• Do they all play at the same time, or are there sections where some instruments are more prominent than the others?

Dynamics:

• Is the volume of the piece big and loud, or small and quiet?
• Does the volume change?

Form:

• Are there any parts that seem to repeat?
• Are there phrases or larger sections that happen more than once?

Mood:

• Is there a story happening in the music?
• If it were the soundtrack to a movie, what scene would this be?
• Why?

When the selection is finished we can discuss student answers and share the name, composer, and genre of the piece.

Noise During ListeningIt is normal for students to talk during listening experiences! Students process information verbally, and they will have many things to process as they listen. At the same time, we want to make sure the sounds of the listening selection - not the sounds of student voices - are the most prominent.

To that end, consider asking students to whisper when they have a thought as the music plays. I find it helpful to establish the difference between whispering and talking before the music begins

Turn to your shoulder partner and practice whispering……..

Turn to your shoulder partner and practice talking as quietly as you can…….

When you hear the music, you may whisper. You may not talk. Show me an example of what you may do…. (students whisper)..... Show me an example of what you may not do…. (students talk quietly)...

If necessary, we can pause the music and practice the difference between whispering and talking quietly.

Second Experience: Active Listening Suggested Time: 2 - 3 minutes

This is a nice time to draw students’ attention to the purpose of the selection - rhythm, form, timbre, etc.

In active listening, students listen as they perform another task. Depending on what the purpose of the selection is, help students narrow their musical focus by performing an action. This is where having a shorter selection (about 30 seconds) can be helpful so students can develop familiarity with the work.

Here are some examples of active experiences that can help prepare students for the next activity. All activities take place with the focus section of the recording playing.

• Beat: Pat a steady beat, or do a simple body percussion routine
• Rhythm: Clap a repeating rhythm along with the recording
• Melody: Trace the melodic contour, point to the melodic contour on the board, or sing the melody on solfege
• Timbre: Mime playing instruments as they come up in the recording
• Dynamics: Create a small shape with your body, and a wide shape. Follow the teacher’s directions for showing large and small.
• Mood: Show facial expressions and body language for serious, playful, contemplative, peaceful, etc.

Repeated Experiences: Creative & Collaborative ListeningSuggested Time: 7 - 10 minutes

Students extend the work they prepared with active listening by creating their own way to show the musical focus.

Depending on the amount of group work experience students have, it can be helpful to give directions first and ask students to come up with three possible ideas. When students have their individual ideas, they can get into groups of two to five (depending on the age and activity) and collaborate.

During the work time, alternate between giving students time to collaborate without the recording playing, and with the recording playing so they can check their work. At this point in the lesson students may talk quietly when the recording is playing.

Examples of Creative Listening Invitations: Here are some sample ideas to consider.

Beat: * Students create a four-beat or an eight-beat body percussion steady beat ostinato. They might check their work with the questions:

+ *Does the beat ostinato match the music?*
+ *How will you handle parts where the beat goes away, speeds up, or slows down?*

• When they’re ready, students turn to their shoulder partner and find a way to combine their ideas.
• After a few moments, ask students to play their ostinato four times in a row.
• Pairs of students combine with another group, creating a group of four. In their group of four, students find a way to combine their ideas.

• After a few moments, ask students to play their ostinato four times in a row to check their work.

  • Can everyone in the group play the pattern?
  • Is it a steady beat, and not a rhythm?

Melody: * Pick one line of high and low sounds you hear (perhaps the main melody, perhaps another melodic line like an instrument) and paint the melody in your mind. * Find a way to show the melody with your body while your feet stay on your spot…….. Do you have ways you could show it without using your hands? * Students combine with two or three people close to them to create a small group. * Which part of song are your group members showing? How does it connect with one you’re doing? Would you like to continue doing your own movements for your own melodic line you picked out? If so, how do the other people’s movement idea fit with yours? Or would you like to combine to show one melody together? * Give students a few moments to try their ideas, and check their work

+ *Do your movements match the high and low sounds of the song?*

Drama: * What is this piece about? Is this piece about people (like people looking for something or shopping for a sweater)? Is it about objects (like leaves falling or rolling apples)? Is it about a place (like a mountain with trees changing colors)? * Why do you think that? What do you hear that could give you a clue? (Consider dynamics, interesting melodic lines, new instrument entrances, etc..) * Students make a mental map of the story in their mind, and act it out in place.

+ *What musical cues are you using in your story? Could you explain how the music impacts your story to someone else?*

• Students combine with other movers to create a group of three or four.
• Give students time to coordinate their movement scenes and rehearse.
• What happened right before this scene? Students choose a starting pose.
• What happens at the end of this scene? Students choose an ending pose.

FINAL Listening Experiences: Listening and Evaluating Suggested Time: 7 - 10 minutes

When students are ready, we might invite them to share their creative ideas with the class.

There are several ways this might be facilitated, depending on the age of the group and their experience level.

One of the most simple structures is for half the class to perform while the other half of the class listens and watches. Consider having a “bravo” signal at the end of the sharing to celebrate the performers, such as silent applause, a smile, a thumbs up, or a school hand sign. After giving feedback, students switch roles so the audience is the performer and the previous performers are the audience.

Giving Thoughtful Feedback: In order to give thoughtful feedback, the audience needs to listen to the music, and make connections to what they see in the groups.

Encourage students to give measurable observations about what they heard and saw.

Examples might be

• I noticed that Ava, Maggie, and Charlie’s group were showing a high melody and their movements were high the whole time, even when they were showing the ups and downs of the melody.
• I noticed that the group in the corner were interacting with each other and switching places.
• I noticed that the people in Luke, Zion, and Liam’s group were all moving at different times with different instruments, but they were all making eye contact with each other.

Listening as a mindset Listening is one of the most fundamental ways we interact with music.

Outside the music room, students may use creative and active listening as their primary way of musical knowing. This is a skill that has far-reaching implications for how students engage with music.

When we teach listening skills we have an opportunity to invite imagination, student-agency, and collaboration into the learning process.

View Details

Listening lessons can provide beautiful opportunities for a breath of fresh air in the music room!

At times, these may look like using activities that are, on the surface, “just for fun.” However, they add an element of curiosity, imagination, and artistry that can flow into our regularly-scheduled curricula.

In this podcast episode I shared thoughts on “one-off” lessons that are not connected more broadly to the curricular sequence. One of the functions of a “one-off” lesson, in addition adding a fresh activity into the routine, is that there are times we need breathing room in our teaching schedules! One class in a week might be ahead or behind the others, we might want to rest our voices, we might assign a listening lesson with a substitute….

Ultimately listening interactions invite students to music with curiosity, agency, and collaboration.

Read More: Creative Listening in Elementary General Music
Read More: Active Listening in Elementary General Music

Structures for Listening LessonsPerhaps more important than finding the “perfect” one-off fall listening lesson is the way we more broadly encourage musical thinking and curious listening.

To that end, today we’ll look at structures for listening lessons that can be used with many different pieces, genres, and musical aims beyond a single fall-themed lesson.

Pieces to Use For these listening opportunities, consider using fall-themed music such as:

• October by Fanny Mendelson
• Autumn Leaves (pick your favorite version!)
• Maple Leaf Rag
• Astor Piazzolla: ‘Autumn’ from The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires

Finding a Listening Focus Regardless of the piece, consider finding a listening focus for the experience, such as rhythm, timbre, melody, form, expression, etc.

The examples we’re looking at today deal with beat, melody, and mood.

From there, it can be helpful to narrow in on a smaller section of the work, such as a 30 second segment. This allows for repeated listening of the target section, which builds familiarity.

First Experience: Listening with Curiosity Suggested Time: 2 - 4 minutes

When students first hear the piece, we can direct their listening through a few questions.

With younger students, we might offer a few musical questions around one specific focus area (such as rhythm or mood). For students with a good amount of listening experience, we might display questions from multiple listening categories (rhythm, melody, form, etc.) and ask students to pick their favorite things to listen for. After a while we can narrow down the questions to the specific focus area of the lesson.

Questions for Curious Listening Here are a few questions to get started. As you listen to your selection there may be additional musical characteristics students can tune into as well!

Rhythm:

• Do you mostly hear long sounds, short sounds, or a combination?
• Do the long and short sounds stay the same the whole time?

Pitch & Melody:

• Do you hear high sounds, low sounds, or sounds that are in-between?
• Do the sounds move all around, or mostly stay the same?

Timbre:

• How many instruments do you think are playing?
• Do they make sounds that are scratchy, smooth, light, heavy?
• Do they all play at the same time, or are there sections where some instruments are more prominent than the others?

Dynamics:

• Is the volume of the piece big and loud, or small and quiet?
• Does the volume change?

Form:

• Are there any parts that seem to repeat?
• Are there phrases or larger sections that happen more than once?

Mood:

• Is there a story happening in the music?
• If it were the soundtrack to a movie, what scene would this be?
• Why?

When the selection is finished we can discuss student answers and share the name, composer, and genre of the piece.

Noise During ListeningIt is normal for students to talk during listening experiences! Students process information verbally, and they will have many things to process as they listen. At the same time, we want to make sure the sounds of the listening selection - not the sounds of student voices - are the most prominent.

To that end, consider asking students to whisper when they have a thought as the music plays. I find it helpful to establish the difference between whispering and talking before the music begins

Turn to your shoulder partner and practice whispering……..

Turn to your shoulder partner and practice talking as quietly as you can…….

When you hear the music, you may whisper. You may not talk. Show me an example of what you may do…. (students whisper)..... Show me an example of what you may not do…. (students talk quietly)...

If necessary, we can pause the music and practice the difference between whispering and talking quietly.

Second Experience: Active Listening Suggested Time: 2 - 3 minutes

This is a nice time to draw students’ attention to the purpose of the selection - rhythm, form, timbre, etc.

In active listening, students listen as they perform another task. Depending on what the purpose of the selection is, help students narrow their musical focus by performing an action. This is where having a shorter selection (about 30 seconds) can be helpful so students can develop familiarity with the work.

Here are some examples of active experiences that can help prepare students for the next activity. All activities take place with the focus section of the recording playing.

• Beat: Pat a steady beat, or do a simple body percussion routine
• Rhythm: Clap a repeating rhythm along with the recording
• Melody: Trace the melodic contour, point to the melodic contour on the board, or sing the melody on solfege
• Timbre: Mime playing instruments as they come up in the recording
• Dynamics: Create a small shape with your body, and a wide shape. Follow the teacher’s directions for showing large and small.
• Mood: Show facial expressions and body language for serious, playful, contemplative, peaceful, etc.

Repeated Experiences: Creative & Collaborative ListeningSuggested Time: 7 - 10 minutes

Students extend the work they prepared with active listening by creating their own way to show the musical focus.

Depending on the amount of group work experience students have, it can be helpful to give directions first and ask students to come up with three possible ideas. When students have their individual ideas, they can get into groups of two to five (depending on the age and activity) and collaborate.

During the work time, alternate between giving students time to collaborate without the recording playing, and with the recording playing so they can check their work. At this point in the lesson students may talk quietly when the recording is playing.

Examples of Creative Listening Invitations: Here are some sample ideas to consider.

Beat: * Students create a four-beat or an eight-beat body percussion steady beat ostinato. They might check their work with the questions:

+ *Does the beat ostinato match the music?*
+ *How will you handle parts where the beat goes away, speeds up, or slows down?*

• When they’re ready, students turn to their shoulder partner and find a way to combine their ideas.
• After a few moments, ask students to play their ostinato four times in a row.
• Pairs of students combine with another group, creating a group of four. In their group of four, students find a way to combine their ideas.

• After a few moments, ask students to play their ostinato four times in a row to check their work.

  • Can everyone in the group play the pattern?
  • Is it a steady beat, and not a rhythm?

Melody: * Pick one line of high and low sounds you hear (perhaps the main melody, perhaps another melodic line like an instrument) and paint the melody in your mind. * Find a way to show the melody with your body while your feet stay on your spot…….. Do you have ways you could show it without using your hands? * Students combine with two or three people close to them to create a small group. * Which part of song are your group members showing? How does it connect with one you’re doing? Would you like to continue doing your own movements for your own melodic line you picked out? If so, how do the other people’s movement idea fit with yours? Or would you like to combine to show one melody together? * Give students a few moments to try their ideas, and check their work

+ *Do your movements match the high and low sounds of the song?*

Drama: * What is this piece about? Is this piece about people (like people looking for something or shopping for a sweater)? Is it about objects (like leaves falling or rolling apples)? Is it about a place (like a mountain with trees changing colors)? * Why do you think that? What do you hear that could give you a clue? (Consider dynamics, interesting melodic lines, new instrument entrances, etc..) * Students make a mental map of the story in their mind, and act it out in place.

+ *What musical cues are you using in your story? Could you explain how the music impacts your story to someone else?*

• Students combine with other movers to create a group of three or four.
• Give students time to coordinate their movement scenes and rehearse.
• What happened right before this scene? Students choose a starting pose.
• What happens at the end of this scene? Students choose an ending pose.

FINAL Listening Experiences: Listening and Evaluating Suggested Time: 7 - 10 minutes

When students are ready, we might invite them to share their creative ideas with the class.

There are several ways this might be facilitated, depending on the age of the group and their experience level.

One of the most simple structures is for half the class to perform while the other half of the class listens and watches. Consider having a “bravo” signal at the end of the sharing to celebrate the performers, such as silent applause, a smile, a thumbs up, or a school hand sign. After giving feedback, students switch roles so the audience is the performer and the previous performers are the audience.

Giving Thoughtful Feedback: In order to give thoughtful feedback, the audience needs to listen to the music, and make connections to what they see in the groups.

Encourage students to give measurable observations about what they heard and saw.

Examples might be

• I noticed that Ava, Maggie, and Charlie’s group were showing a high melody and their movements were high the whole time, even when they were showing the ups and downs of the melody.
• I noticed that the group in the corner were interacting with each other and switching places.
• I noticed that the people in Luke, Zion, and Liam’s group were all moving at different times with different instruments, but they were all making eye contact with each other.

Listening as a mindset Listening is one of the most fundamental ways we interact with music.

Outside the music room, students may use creative and active listening as their primary way of musical knowing. This is a skill that has far-reaching implications for how students engage with music.

When we teach listening skills we have an opportunity to invite imagination, student-agency, and collaboration into the learning process.

View Details

In this post we looked at why we need Universal Design in the music classroom.

In this post we considered some ways we can add more opportunities or engagement for all our students.

Today we’ll look at how we present information in the classroom, and the space we make for students to perceive and comprehend that information.

How do we present information to students? How do we ask them to take in the information? How do we ask them to use the information?

How can we offer our information in different forms so that students with variables in backgrounds and learning preferences can comprehend the material?

The key will be looking for multiple ways to represent musical sounds, ideas, and practices.

Let’s jump in.

Do I need More Means of Representation?With any new suggestion of a change in our teaching practices, a worthy question might be, Do I really need to do this?

How we answer this question is very simple. We’ll look at our students.

Look at the students. Listen to the students.For example, in a month of teaching a 2nd grade general music class, do you observe that…

• Some students seem to recall information from class to class, while others seem to have trouble remembering previously learned concepts or songs?
• When you explain directions to a game, do some students seem to be confused while others nod their heads, ready to play?
• Have you ever mentioned something you already taught, only to have the entire class act like they’ve never heard of this musical idea?

If so, it may be time to try some new opportunities for how we represent information in the music classroom.

PerceptionThere are specific ways we can perceive information in music. We take in information through what we see (notation, movements, playing examples, etc.) what we hear (a melody, a rhythm, text, etc.), and what we physically feel (instruments, body percussion, movement, singing, etc.).

Offer ways of customizing the display of information

Students can choose how the information is displayed - if it’s larger or smaller, plays faster or slower, etc. The presentation of the information is flexible.

What if when we use rhythmic building blocks we could choose large or small text? What if when we move to fast or slow options?

The key here is that the user can make the change. Tricky. This guideline focuses on independent work, and so much of what we do in music is collaborative.

But in centers, students could have options…. Like in Seesaw

Offer alternatives for auditory information

Provide American Sign Language (ASL) for spoken English: One of the key ideas of UDL is that it is not exclusively for students labeled as “unique,” or “special.” It’s for all learners because all learners have variables. When we provide sign language to reinforce verbal cues, we take steps toward helping all our students take in information. We can use hand signs for common classroom cues, such as sit, stand, listen, sing, speak, move, make a circle, or other classroom instructions.

Provide visual or tactile equivalents for sound effects or alerts: One possibility of creating tactile equivalent to an auditory event is with melodic work. When we sing melodic patterns, we can use hand signs like the Curwen hand signs or body solfege. We can also show melodic patterns through barred instruments since students physically move the pitches higher and lower to create the sound.

Use text equivalents in the form of captions or automated speech-to-text (voice recognition) for spoken language: Students have so much auditory information coming from teachers throughout the day. When we stop to think about how much we talk as teachers, it becomes clear that some students would benefit from additional ways of receiving information. If you find yourself repeating directions or getting the sense that the classroom is a bit too hectic, we can try representing directions in additional ways. Having directions written out on the board, perhaps accompanied by helpful images, can be helpful with games, centers, or activities that are new.

Offer alternatives for visual information

Provide physical objects and spatial models to convey perspective or interaction: When working with rhythmic patterns, one way we could display information is through standard western notation. However, there are also many more possibilities! We can embody a spatial model by tiptoeing, stepping, and sliding the rhythm. We could point to the sound relationships with graphic notation. When we build upon these experiences intentionally - starting with a physical model, moving to graphic notation, and then introducing standard notation - we set students up for success by letting them explore many avenues of the same thing.

Use touch equivalents (tactile graphics or objects of reference) for key visuals that represent concepts: We can use manipulatives. We can listen to key characteristics in a song and show them through movement.

Language and Symbols

Music class deals with many vocabulary sets and symbols! We use linguistic information (that is written, aural, and verbal - Vocabulary and symbols for standard notation are certainly common, but there are also other types of musical content we represent such as verbal instructions, instrument technique, or game directions. We write music in a specific “code”

Clarify vocabulary and symbols

Pre-teach vocabulary and symbols, especially in ways that promote connection to the learners’ experience and prior knowledge: This is one reason we don’t begin the learning process with notation. When we begin with the vocabulary and symbol without providing context, we take away valuable parts of the learning experience. Instead, we can begin by giving students tactile experiences that are grounded in play. Next, we notice the characteristics of the new element and relate them to previous knowledge (this element is longer than, shorter than, higher than, lower than, etc.). After connecting to experience and previous knowledge, we’re ready to create graphic notation for the new sound. After all these experiences we can introduce the standard notation symbol.

Provide graphic symbols with alternative text descriptions: Graphic notation can be such a beautiful way for students to show their musical knowledge! Often, it can also depict musical events more efficiently than standard Western notation. For example, when working with the song, Who Has Seen the Wind, a graphic can show an elongated sound more effectively than an empty circle with a line. (visual here) Graphics can also be helpful when learning instruments like recorders

Descriptive notation - describes the sounds the performer will create. When we use standard Western notation to paint a specific visual image of sonic events we are asking students to engage in descriptive notation.

Prescriptive notation - describes the actions the performer should take, what the performer will do. For example, tablature. When we add information on how the sound should be created (

Visual from The Planning Binder with Jack and Jill barred instruments

Clarify syntax and structure

Clarify unfamiliar syntax (in language or in math formulas) or underlying structure (in diagrams, graphs, illustrations, extended expositions or narratives) through alternatives that highlight structural relations or make them more explicit: When teaching note names on the staff, one way to help students memorize the names of the lines and spaces is to teach that every good boy does fine. This is an approach many teachers choose because it can be easily memorized by many students. However, what if we considered showing the underlying structure of the pitches and making them more explicit so the syntax of the staff has more clarity? If we want to clarify unfamiliar syntax and the structure of pitch, we might first make sure students have many years of experience using barred instruments to show pitch and noticing steps and skips on barred instruments. We could place the instrument vertically and notice that the top makes the high sound and the bottom makes low sounds. Then we could show how the steps and skips and pitch relationships on barred instruments are the same on the staff.

Clarify unfamiliar syntax (in language or in math formulas) or underlying structure (in diagrams, graphs, illustrations, extended expositions or narratives) through alternatives that make connections to previously learned structures: When we introduce a new pitch or rhythmic understanding, we can compare it to conscious information from previous classes. We can aurally notice if the new melodic element is higher or lower than pitches we’ve learned before. We can aurally notice if the new rhythmic element is longer or shorter than pitches we’ve learned before. After that, we can create a graphic image that shows the structure of the new musical element based on what we notice aurally.

Support decoding of text, mathematical notation, and symbols

Allow for flexibility and easy access to multiple representations of notation where appropriate: When we use musical “codes” (i.e. musical notation), we don’t start straight with the standardized Western symbol. While this system of communication cognitively makes sense to us as teachers, it’s worth considering how unintuitive the symbol might be in comparison to something like graphic notation. When students work with rhythmic building blocks, they might have the option of using a side of the card with standard Western notation and graphic notation, or only with standard Western notation.

Offer clarification of notation through lists of key terms: We want to be sure all students have access to knowledge of symbols. This is one reason many teachers use posters of key words along the wall. We can also add images of common classroom formations for games and dances, such as concentric circles and double lines.

Promote understanding across languages

Link key vocabulary words to definitions and pronunciations in both dominant and heritage languages:

Make all key information in the dominant language (e.g., English) also available in first languages (e.g., Spanish) for learners with limited-English proficiency and in ASL for learners who are deaf:

Embed visual, non-linguistic supports for vocabulary clarification: When we sing songs in English, we can support learners who are more new to English by using motions, movement, vocal expression, facial expression, and pictures. The converse scenario is also applicable: When we sing songs in non-English languages in classes of English speakers, we can use the same supports to help comprehension.

Illustrate through multiple media

Most subjects rely heavily on written text - like textbooks, worksheet packets, to communicate. Students are asked to read text books with narrative descriptions of concepts, directions on worksheets with step by step guidance. Music is unique to those other subjects in that in an active music room, our information naturally comes in multiple media

Present key concepts in one form of symbolic representation with an alternative form: Symbol and movement; symbol and image; symbol and barred instrument; symbol and graphic symbol; symbol and text

Make explicit links between information provided in texts and any accompanying representation of that information in illustrations, equations, charts, or diagrams:We want a direct link between textual information and other representations of that language

Comprehension

Providing access to information is a wonderful place to start our thinking about UDL, but access alone is not the end of the student journey. Students take information and transform it into knowledge through intentional action. How can we design, present, and scaffold information so students actively move through a learning sequence of concepts and skills?

Activate or supply background knowledge

Anchor instruction by linking to and activating relevant prior knowledge (e.g., using visual imagery, concept anchoring, or concept mastery routines):

Pre-teach critical prerequisite concepts through demonstration or models:

Highlight patterns, critical features, big ideas, and relationships

Highlight previously learned skills that can be used to solve unfamiliar problems: We know where do is, and we can hear the new low pitch is a skip below do. We also know about how steps and skips live on barred instruments. Students work with a partner to figure out where low la lives on barred instruments. Students can also work with a partner to figure out the melody of a song

Guide information processing and visualization

Maximize transfer and generalization

CLOSING:

____________________________________________________

Notes

View Details

In this post we looked at why we need Universal Design in the music classroom.

In this post we considered some ways we can add more opportunities or engagement for all our students.

Today we’ll look at how we present information in the classroom, and the space we make for students to perceive and comprehend that information.

How do we present information to students? How do we ask them to take in the information? How do we ask them to use the information?

How can we offer our information in different forms so that students with variables in backgrounds and learning preferences can comprehend the material?

The key will be looking for multiple ways to represent musical sounds, ideas, and practices.

Let’s jump in.

Do I need More Means of Representation?With any new suggestion of a change in our teaching practices, a worthy question might be, Do I really need to do this?

How we answer this question is very simple. We’ll look at our students.

Look at the students. Listen to the students.For example, in a month of teaching a 2nd grade general music class, do you observe that…

• Some students seem to recall information from class to class, while others seem to have trouble remembering previously learned concepts or songs?
• When you explain directions to a game, do some students seem to be confused while others nod their heads, ready to play?
• Have you ever mentioned something you already taught, only to have the entire class act like they’ve never heard of this musical idea?

If so, it may be time to try some new opportunities for how we represent information in the music classroom.

PerceptionThere are specific ways we can perceive information in music. We take in information through what we see (notation, movements, playing examples, etc.) what we hear (a melody, a rhythm, text, etc.), and what we physically feel (instruments, body percussion, movement, singing, etc.).

Offer ways of customizing the display of information

Students can choose how the information is displayed - if it’s larger or smaller, plays faster or slower, etc. The presentation of the information is flexible.

What if when we use rhythmic building blocks we could choose large or small text? What if when we move to fast or slow options?

The key here is that the user can make the change. Tricky. This guideline focuses on independent work, and so much of what we do in music is collaborative.

But in centers, students could have options…. Like in Seesaw

Offer alternatives for auditory information

Provide American Sign Language (ASL) for spoken English: One of the key ideas of UDL is that it is not exclusively for students labeled as “unique,” or “special.” It’s for all learners because all learners have variables. When we provide sign language to reinforce verbal cues, we take steps toward helping all our students take in information. We can use hand signs for common classroom cues, such as sit, stand, listen, sing, speak, move, make a circle, or other classroom instructions.

Provide visual or tactile equivalents for sound effects or alerts: One possibility of creating tactile equivalent to an auditory event is with melodic work. When we sing melodic patterns, we can use hand signs like the Curwen hand signs or body solfege. We can also show melodic patterns through barred instruments since students physically move the pitches higher and lower to create the sound.

Use text equivalents in the form of captions or automated speech-to-text (voice recognition) for spoken language: Students have so much auditory information coming from teachers throughout the day. When we stop to think about how much we talk as teachers, it becomes clear that some students would benefit from additional ways of receiving information. If you find yourself repeating directions or getting the sense that the classroom is a bit too hectic, we can try representing directions in additional ways. Having directions written out on the board, perhaps accompanied by helpful images, can be helpful with games, centers, or activities that are new.

Offer alternatives for visual information

Provide physical objects and spatial models to convey perspective or interaction: When working with rhythmic patterns, one way we could display information is through standard western notation. However, there are also many more possibilities! We can embody a spatial model by tiptoeing, stepping, and sliding the rhythm. We could point to the sound relationships with graphic notation. When we build upon these experiences intentionally - starting with a physical model, moving to graphic notation, and then introducing standard notation - we set students up for success by letting them explore many avenues of the same thing.

Use touch equivalents (tactile graphics or objects of reference) for key visuals that represent concepts: We can use manipulatives. We can listen to key characteristics in a song and show them through movement.

Language and Symbols

Music class deals with many vocabulary sets and symbols! We use linguistic information (that is written, aural, and verbal - Vocabulary and symbols for standard notation are certainly common, but there are also other types of musical content we represent such as verbal instructions, instrument technique, or game directions. We write music in a specific “code”

Clarify vocabulary and symbols

Pre-teach vocabulary and symbols, especially in ways that promote connection to the learners’ experience and prior knowledge: This is one reason we don’t begin the learning process with notation. When we begin with the vocabulary and symbol without providing context, we take away valuable parts of the learning experience. Instead, we can begin by giving students tactile experiences that are grounded in play. Next, we notice the characteristics of the new element and relate them to previous knowledge (this element is longer than, shorter than, higher than, lower than, etc.). After connecting to experience and previous knowledge, we’re ready to create graphic notation for the new sound. After all these experiences we can introduce the standard notation symbol.

Provide graphic symbols with alternative text descriptions: Graphic notation can be such a beautiful way for students to show their musical knowledge! Often, it can also depict musical events more efficiently than standard Western notation. For example, when working with the song, Who Has Seen the Wind, a graphic can show an elongated sound more effectively than an empty circle with a line. (visual here) Graphics can also be helpful when learning instruments like recorders

Descriptive notation - describes the sounds the performer will create. When we use standard Western notation to paint a specific visual image of sonic events we are asking students to engage in descriptive notation.

Prescriptive notation - describes the actions the performer should take, what the performer will do. For example, tablature. When we add information on how the sound should be created (

Visual from The Planning Binder with Jack and Jill barred instruments

Clarify syntax and structure

Clarify unfamiliar syntax (in language or in math formulas) or underlying structure (in diagrams, graphs, illustrations, extended expositions or narratives) through alternatives that highlight structural relations or make them more explicit: When teaching note names on the staff, one way to help students memorize the names of the lines and spaces is to teach that every good boy does fine. This is an approach many teachers choose because it can be easily memorized by many students. However, what if we considered showing the underlying structure of the pitches and making them more explicit so the syntax of the staff has more clarity? If we want to clarify unfamiliar syntax and the structure of pitch, we might first make sure students have many years of experience using barred instruments to show pitch and noticing steps and skips on barred instruments. We could place the instrument vertically and notice that the top makes the high sound and the bottom makes low sounds. Then we could show how the steps and skips and pitch relationships on barred instruments are the same on the staff.

Clarify unfamiliar syntax (in language or in math formulas) or underlying structure (in diagrams, graphs, illustrations, extended expositions or narratives) through alternatives that make connections to previously learned structures: When we introduce a new pitch or rhythmic understanding, we can compare it to conscious information from previous classes. We can aurally notice if the new melodic element is higher or lower than pitches we’ve learned before. We can aurally notice if the new rhythmic element is longer or shorter than pitches we’ve learned before. After that, we can create a graphic image that shows the structure of the new musical element based on what we notice aurally.

Support decoding of text, mathematical notation, and symbols

Allow for flexibility and easy access to multiple representations of notation where appropriate: When we use musical “codes” (i.e. musical notation), we don’t start straight with the standardized Western symbol. While this system of communication cognitively makes sense to us as teachers, it’s worth considering how unintuitive the symbol might be in comparison to something like graphic notation. When students work with rhythmic building blocks, they might have the option of using a side of the card with standard Western notation and graphic notation, or only with standard Western notation.

Offer clarification of notation through lists of key terms: We want to be sure all students have access to knowledge of symbols. This is one reason many teachers use posters of key words along the wall. We can also add images of common classroom formations for games and dances, such as concentric circles and double lines.

Promote understanding across languages

Link key vocabulary words to definitions and pronunciations in both dominant and heritage languages:

Make all key information in the dominant language (e.g., English) also available in first languages (e.g., Spanish) for learners with limited-English proficiency and in ASL for learners who are deaf:

Embed visual, non-linguistic supports for vocabulary clarification: When we sing songs in English, we can support learners who are more new to English by using motions, movement, vocal expression, facial expression, and pictures. The converse scenario is also applicable: When we sing songs in non-English languages in classes of English speakers, we can use the same supports to help comprehension.

Illustrate through multiple media

Most subjects rely heavily on written text - like textbooks, worksheet packets, to communicate. Students are asked to read text books with narrative descriptions of concepts, directions on worksheets with step by step guidance. Music is unique to those other subjects in that in an active music room, our information naturally comes in multiple media

Present key concepts in one form of symbolic representation with an alternative form: Symbol and movement; symbol and image; symbol and barred instrument; symbol and graphic symbol; symbol and text

Make explicit links between information provided in texts and any accompanying representation of that information in illustrations, equations, charts, or diagrams:We want a direct link between textual information and other representations of that language

Comprehension

Providing access to information is a wonderful place to start our thinking about UDL, but access alone is not the end of the student journey. Students take information and transform it into knowledge through intentional action. How can we design, present, and scaffold information so students actively move through a learning sequence of concepts and skills?

Activate or supply background knowledge

Anchor instruction by linking to and activating relevant prior knowledge (e.g., using visual imagery, concept anchoring, or concept mastery routines):

Pre-teach critical prerequisite concepts through demonstration or models:

Highlight patterns, critical features, big ideas, and relationships

Highlight previously learned skills that can be used to solve unfamiliar problems: We know where do is, and we can hear the new low pitch is a skip below do. We also know about how steps and skips live on barred instruments. Students work with a partner to figure out where low la lives on barred instruments. Students can also work with a partner to figure out the melody of a song

Guide information processing and visualization

Maximize transfer and generalization

CLOSING:

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Notes

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One of the most effective musicianship and classroom management strategies I know of is to bring students into the classroom musically. When we begin the warm up routine with an active musical entrance procedure, students are immediately immersed in the tone of the lesson.

Active musicing as an entrance procedure can take many different forms. Students might enter the room listening to music, they might enter speaking, they could enter with body percussion, they might copy the teacher’s movements, or they might sing. Today we’ll focus in on songs for entering the classroom, specifically geared toward lower elementary students in Kindergarten, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grades.

Similarly, we have an opportunity to maximize music and student engagement in the way we bring class to a close. Reading the room for a calming or energizing musical ending is part of our practice of pairing responsiveness and flexibility with musical purpose and pedagogy.

Today we’ll look at the warm up routine as a whole, active musicing options for entering the room, and specific songs and processes to facilitate opening and closing music time.

Let’s jump in.

Musical Warm Up Routine: Many educators use a combination of several items inside the warm up space. The order, emphasis, and musical complexity might change depending on the musical goals for the lesson and student age. However, the core pillars often look something like this:

1. Enter the classroom: Students enter musicing
2. Movement: Stretching or getting the wiggles out
3. Vocal greetings & vocal conversations: Melodic focus
4. Rhythmic conversations: Rhythmic focus
5. Transition out: Move into the core activities

Especially with younger grades, there may be an additional Welcome Song in the mix as well.

Entering MusicallyAn active musical entrance could take the form of active listening, speaking, body percussion, movement, or singing.

Here are a few examples of what these musical processes look like in a musical entrance.

Active ListeningThe teacher might greet students in the hallway and give two questions for them to consider about the piece they’ll hear as they enter. Questions might be convergent or divergent. After students are in the room, they can discuss what they noticed about the piece.

>>>Blog post: Active Listening in Elementary General Music
>>> Blog post: Creative Listening in Elementary General Music

SpeakingThe teacher might greet students in the hallway and give an ostinato option or two for students to speak as they enter the room. As students enter, they speak their chosen ostinato pattern while the teacher sings or plays a recording.

>>> Podcast Episode #32: Layered Ostinati >>> YouTube video: Steps to Singing Harmony

Body PercussionThe teacher might greet students in the hallway and ask them to come up with a four or eight-beat body percussion steady beat pattern. As students enter the room to recorded music or a known song, they play their beat pattern. Once they’re inside in their spots, they might take turns teaching their pattern to a partner or the rest of the class.

>>> Blog Post: First Day of Music Lesson Plans

MovementStudents might enter to a recording of Seven Jumps, Highway Number One, or another movement piece.

>>> Podcase Episode #5: Using Movement to Teach Musical Concepts

SingingSinging is my favorite way to bring students into the classroom! Let’s look at some options for choosing an opening song.

Songs to Start the Music Lesson Virtually any song works for this!

Choose a song students love and sing it as you enter the room.

If you’re looking for ideas, here are a few to consider. Each of these songs emphasizes movement, and the imagery connects to walking in a line.

All ‘Round the Brickyard

This is an American play party.

Students sing as they enter the classroom, and suggest words to change in the song.

Musical uses in the warm up:Vocal Conversations:

• Kinder / 1st: Echo animal sounds (cockadoodledooooooooooooo)

Transition out:

• 1st / 2nd: Isolate opening phrase, “all round the brickyard” s-s-s-l-s
• 3rd: Change the motion to “paint it,” and paint the last phase that uses m-d-l,-s,-d-d-d-d. Notice low la and low sol.

Come on In

I wrote this song for The Planning Binder curriculum this year.

If you use this, you may want to bring students into the classroom with the song and do some partwork, then sing another song to set major tonality for the vocal greetings. Again, this is dependent upon the musical goals for the students and the lesson.

Musical Uses in the Warm Up: Movement:

• The teacher leads a movement (jumping, twisting, heel & toe, etc.) as they sing the call. Students copy the motion when they echo sing.

Partwork:

• Sing as an echo song with half the class singing the call and half the class singing the echo.
• Students “talk to themselves,” singing both the call and the echo. When students are ready, sing the song in four-beat round.

Engine Engine

This rhyme is already a staple in many lower elementary classrooms, and is likely one students can speak along right away. It also lends itself nicely to imagery of keeping everyone in a line and following the leader.

Musical Uses in the Warm Up: Vocal Exploration:

• Echo train whistles
• Ask students to be the conductor and show their train whistle

Vocal Greetings:

• The teacher sings a question to students, and students sing their answer back.

  • Teacher sings: “Would you like anything from the dining cart?”

    • Student sings: “Yes please, I’d like a grilled cheese sandwich”
    • Student sings: “Yes please I’d like ice cream and gummy bears and a watermelon popsicle”

Gamle Sine

This song is sourced from Nordic Sounds. I cannot recommend this website highly enough! It was put together by a thoughtful Orff team in the Nordic countries. The editing team for the project was made up of Elfa Lilja Gísladóttir, Soili Perkiö, Kristín Valsdóttir, Nanna Hlíf Ingvadóttir and Elisa Seppänen.

Musical Uses in the Warm UpMovement:

• Students take turns leading the steady beat dance motions

Go Round the Mountain McIntosh (1957) collected this play party from Leata Ross in Illinois.

The original dance repeats the melody with several verses. Motions to the verses include movements like swinging, moving “through the windows,” and switching partners.

In a classroom context, students can suggest other motions to do instead of going round the mountain, such as “jump up and down,” “tap your toe,” etc.

Musical Uses in the Warm UpPartwork:

• The song references going around the mountain, so this is a great time to practice singing in a round. After students walk into the classroom in a line, they can continue walking in a line around the circle. The teacher sings the second part of the round while walking the opposite direction in the circle.

Rhythm Conversations:

• Students sing the first and third measure (“go ‘round the mountain”) and create body percussion rhythm improvisations during measures two and four.

Hey Betty Martin

According to the sources for the song, this tune was popular during the war of 1812. The words continued to evolve as the years went on and the song was eventually turned into a play party. Reportedly, it was also a favorite of Abraham Lincoln - young students certainly have this in common with the former president.

Musical Uses in the Warm UpMovement:

• How else could Betty Martin move?
• Consider non-locomotor and locomotor options, depending on what students need at the time.

Vocal Greetings:

The teacher sings a question to students on an improvised melody, and students sing their improvised answer back.

• Teacher sings: “Betty Martin, where are you walking to?”

  • Student sings: “I’m walking to Disneyland.”
  • Student sings: “I’m walking to my nanna’s house”

Transition Out:

• Sing “Hey Betty Martin, walking to your spots”

One Two Three (Walk Around and Follow Me)

This is another song new in The Planning Binder this year, and there are many possibilities for an opening routine!

Students suggest movement words to replace “walk” such as “hop around,” “slide around,” “twist around,” etc.

At the end of the song, the teacher claps a pattern and students echo

Musical Uses in the Warm UpRhythm:

• At the end of the song, students echo the teacher’s pattern on body percussion instead of clapping
• Eventually, students turn to a partner and have their own rhythm conversations

Vocal Greetings:

• The teacher

Transition out:

• At the end of the song, the teacher claps the opening four beats of the next song. Students aurally identify the rhythm from a list of known songs on the board.

Closing Songs: Reading the room Part of flexible teaching is sensing when the class would benefit from a calming song, or an energizing song.

There are times a class ends and we need to get the wiggles out! More often than not, students are asked to sit still and quiet when they need a chance to move. We often see this need in the form of things like fidgeting, talking, or distracted behavior. In these cases, an energizing closing song is likely the most appropriate.

Sometimes, however, we want to use a calming song. Perhaps students have engaged in many high-energy musical tasks and we want to end the class on a relaxed note. For some students, this may be one of the few calm moments they have in their day.

In a school setting, students need space to be energized, and space to be calm. We do ourselves and our students a service when we can adapt lesson plans to the energy we read in the classroom.

Let’s look at a few examples of energizing and calming songs. Similar to the entrance song options, virtually any well-loved song works for this! Choose

Energizing Closing Songs: An energizing closing song will be a selection students love, and one that invites students to use large muscle groups through jumping, stamping, patting, twisting, etc.

Counting-Out RhymesConsider using a rhyme or song like All Around the Buttercup, Bee Bee Bumblebee, Zapatitos Blancos, or another of your favorites. The person who is “out” chooses two or three other friends to line up. As always with counting out rhymes, the class keeps a steady beat through movement even if they are not the one pointing around the circle.

• Note: This is a nice time to establish criteria for what it looks like to be ready to line up. If your expectation is that students are ready when they are seated in their spots with a silent thumbs up, the student choosing friends will need to pick students who show they are ready.

>>> Blog Post: Scaffolding Passing Games

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Everything is Awesome This song from The LEGO Movie is one of my personal favorites.

Transition to Lining Up:

• Play the song and keep beat motions a variety of ways (jumping, stamping, patting, etc.)

• Eventually students choose to keep a steady beat patting their shoes, knees, shoulder, elbow, or head. The teacher calls on beat body parts to line up.

  • “If you’re keeping your beat on your knees, please walk to line up.”

Johnny Works with One Hammer

In this action song, Johnny works with one hammer, two hammers, three hammers, four hammers, and eventually five hammers.

With each new repetition of the song, add a different hammer:

• One hammer - one fist on the ground
• Two hammers - two fists on the ground
• Three hammers - two fists and one foot
• Four hammers - two fists and two feet
• Five hammers - two fists, two feet, and nod head

Transition to Lining Up

• After singing the song one time through, pause between each verse and call on the appropriate number of students to line up.

  • Johnny works with one hammer, one hammer, one hammer. Johnny works with one hammer, then he works with two.

  • Call on two people to go sit in line. In their line at the door, students sit and continue to sing and and do the motions to the song

  • Johnny works with four hammers, four hammers, four hammers. Johnny works with four hammers, then he works with five

  • Call on five people to line up

Depending on the size of your class, this will take about two times through the song to get everyone lined up.

Just from the Kitchen

This African-American ring game is sourced from many places, but is often associated with Bessie Jones.

Students stand in a circle. The leader sings the call, and changes what comes from the kitchen (a handful of chicken, a handful of cotton candy, etc.). Call students to “fly way over yonder” and switch places in the circle.

Transition to lining up

• Sing student names two at a time to line up: “Isabella and Emmett, shoo li loo, fly way over yonder, shoo li loo”
• Alternatively, call students by groupings: “Everybody wearing yellow, shoo li loo,” “Everybody with two feet on their spot, shoo li loo,” “Everybody wearing tennis shoes, shoo li loo”
• Eventually call the rest of the class to line up: “Everybody in 1st grade, shoo li loo, fly way over yonder, shoo li loo”

Calming Closing Songs:Sometimes the energy has been high all class long, and we sense that students would benefit from a calming song instead of an energizing song.

Consider turning the lights down for the final few moments to end the class on a calming, breathable note.

Colita de Rana

Many students may already know this popular Hispanic rhyme! It’s spoken when a child has injured some part of their body.

Transition to lining up:

• Speak the rhyme. Students gently rub their elbow, knee, head, ear, or shoulder.

• The teacher calls on students to line up by body part

  • If you’re touching your elbow, please walk to line up.

Over in the Meadow

Songtales at the end of class are often associated with the Feierabend approach and many teachers enjoy using them to end the class in a calm way.

Katherine Floyd Dana wrote under the pen name, Olive A. Wadsworth. She wrote the text of this rhyme in 1870.

School libraries often carry a picture book of the song, or you can consider using a version from Epic Books.

Transition to lining up:

• On the last verse of the story, students stand from their spots in the circle and follow the teacher around in a line (“all around the meadow”) as the teacher continues singing.
• Lead the class to the door.

Sulla Rulla

This is a lullaby from Norway, and is also sourced from Nordic Sounds.

Transition to Lining Up:

Sometimes simple is best!

• Students sing the song while swaying back and forth.
• The teacher walks around and taps students on the shoulder to line up.

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

This is another familiar song for many students, and they’ll often have motions they do at home to accompany the song.

Transition to Lining Up:

• After singing the song one time through, the teacher sings student names to the melody of the first eight beats

  • Isabella, Emmett, Aiden, Jacqulyn, Tucker, Asher, please line up
  • Sing the full song again with students doing the motions. Continue singing names until everyone is in line

Today we’ve looked at the warm up routine as a whole, and several musical options for entering the room musically. We’ve discussed specific songs and processes to facilitate the transition into the room. We’ve also considered the need for a flexible closing routine that takes student energy into account.

When we utilize musical transitions, we not only maximize instructional time, but we increase student engagement. We provide many opportunities for creative, communal, and intentional musical interactions that set the scene learning.

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When a new school year starts, many teachers want to begin making music right away, and actively exploring musical concepts from last year and moving toward new musical understandings.

When we start the school year, where might we begin musically? How will we know what students remember from last year? How will we keep music class active, while reviewing previously learned concepts?

Let’s look at a few ways to review and assess at the beginning of the year. We’ll clarify what assessment is (and isn’t) in this context, we’ll talk about choosing what to assess, the assessment process, and documentation options.

Let’s jump in!

Assessments, Grades, & Documentation Many of us come to conversations about assessment with some baggage from undergraduate or graduate degree programs or administration.

When I discuss these terms, here are my definitions:

• Assessments: How we know what students need from us next
• Grades: Markings meant to show achievement
• Documentation: Preserving data through video, audio, or written text

For the purposes of this conversation, we probably don’t care about grades. We do care about assessments because that’s the mechanism we’ll use to plan the next class. The assessments might be documented a number of ways, depending on what works best for each unique teaching situation.

Ensemble ContextIt’s also helpful to point out that not all assessments need to be individual. In fact, most of us care about how our students perform in an ensemble setting more than an individual solo setting. The assessment context we’re talking about today is within an ensemble.

Assessing What We Care About For many of us, we don’t actually care if students have memorized a symbol and assigned it a Standard Western Notation name.

What’s actually more valuable is how students embody and interact with the musical material.

Since that’s what we care about more than rote memorization, that’s where we’ll start the assessment process.

The Review & Assessment Process: Do, Describe, Label, UseThis review and assessment process moves from singing and playing games (do), to noticing the musical characteristics of the material (describe), to aligning vocabulary to discuss the musical element (label), and to extending our use of the element in a creative way (use).

There are examples of the individual steps below. However, in the classroom, these steps might not happen in a neat, isolated way. For some groups we might condense the process as a whole, shortening each activity so it takes place in a single lesson. For other groups it will be more appropriate to extend the activities through several weeks, depending on how much review students need.

The data we gather from students during the activities will inform pacing.

These review experiences will likely be the core activities in the first weeks of school, but they certainly won’t be the only activities. We’ll combine them with other songs, games, and activities that move us toward future learning.

Do: Making MusicThe first step of our process is to actually do the skill we’re assessing!

This is the fun part, and this is actually the core assessment step. Everything else we do comes from these experiences.

Here are a few examples:

Example 1: Catchy Song

This is the circle game from last year’s 3rd Grade concept plan for taka-di inside The Planning Binder.

The form of the song is Chorus, Verse 1, Chorus, Verse 2, Chorus.

The movements for the chorus and the verses stay the same throughout the song. (Note: it can be helpful to slow the playback speed when introducing the song.)

Assessment Question: Do students play the rhythm accurately in the game?

Example 2: Plainsies Clapsies

• Sing and play game
• Sing on a neutral syllable and use your scarf to show the melodic contour

Assessment Questions: Do students match pitch in the game? Do they show the melodic contour accurately?

Example 3: Tortillitas para Mamá

• Speak the rhyme and pat tortillitas.
• Replace “mama” and “papa” with students’ names
• What will we put inside the tortilliats when they’re done? Students suggest foods between rounds of the rhyme.

Assessment Question: Do students pat a consistent and accurate steady beat in time with the rhyme?

What Materials to Use Because we’re using this as a baseline assessment, we want to be sure students are familiar with the song. This helps ensure the validity and reliability of the assessment results.

With validity and reliability as a consideration, we’ll probably want to start our musicing with songs students already know and enjoy. Consider singing and playing games from last year as review, then adding in new repertoire.

Assessment that Feels like Play This is the part of the process that feels like play. At this point in the assessment process, we’re mainly working on remembering what it’s like to be in the music class and interact with each other.

Assessment questions: At this point in the assessment process, we’re primarily interested in how students actualize the musical material. That is, how they music. These assessment questions have a lot to do with the accuracy of the performance.

Do students match pitch? Do students sing the target element in the context of the repertoire? Do students keep a steady beat? Do students play body percussion to the rhythm of the song?

This information sets us up well to move on to the next step of the process.

Describe: Noticing MusicIn the next class, the same class, or several classes later, students might be ready to notice the musical features of the song material.

With the target element in an extracted phrase, students can notice its characteristics. Is it high or low? How many times do they hear the high note? Is the rhythm from the extracted phrase long or short? Where is the longest word? What’s the form of the song?

Example 1: Catchy Song* Play the circle game. * Notice that the rhythmic form is aaab (same same same different). * Speak and point to steady beat strips on the board. * With a partner, students figure out where each of the words go over the steady beat strips as the teacher walks around the room. * Notice a “short short long” pattern on the second beat. * As a class, transfer text notation to graphic notation.

Assessment Questions: In their partner conversations, do students accurately identify the text placement of the words? Are there any points of friction in the process of moving from playing the rhythm, to moving text, to showing graphic notation? How much teacher input does the process take?

Example 2: Plainsies Clapsies * Play the game. * Isolate the phrase, “right hand, left hand” and aurally identify sol and mi in “left hand” * What do you notice about the “right hand” part? Is it the same melody or different? (different) * Sing the same phrase with sol and mi in the last two beats (“right hand, sol mi”) * Sing the phrase again. Students throw their scarf on the highest pitch they hear. * Aurally identify that “hand” is the high pitch and that it’s higher than sol.

Assessment Questions: Do students aurally identify the descending minor third pattern as “sol mi”? Do they aurally identify the highest word in the phrase? Do they identify that it’s higher than sol? How much teacher input does the process take?

Example 3: Tortillitas para Mamá * Speak the rhyme and pat the tortillitas * As we pat these tortillitas, do our hands stay steady or unsteady? Let’s check. (steady) * Do they stay steady the whole time? Let’s check. (the whole time)

Assessment Question: Do students identify that the motions of the rhyme stay steady?

Assessment Questions: These assessment questions are geared toward seeing what students notice about the new element. In this stage of the process, we’re interested in how students aurally zoom in on the musical characteristics of the material. Is the element we’re discussing long or short? Even or uneven? High or low? How much higher? How much lower?

The Review and Assessment Process: This part of the process will have many variables! It’s entirely possible that in a single lesson, this step of noticing and describing an element will blend directly into the labeling step. This will depend on how familiar students are with the material and aural identification process from last year. If students are ready to move ahead, great! If not, we can stay in this step as long as we need.

Label: Assigning Vocabulary After students have sung songs and played games, and after they’ve articulated what they notice about the music, we might be ready to move on to labeling.

When we label an element, we assign in a common classroom vocabulary.

Real musicians call these elements many things and write them many different ways! Sometimes real musicians don’t label these elements at all, and they don’t write them down. They just use them to make music.

Because real musicians can use so many different terms to describe music, it can be helpful to have a common classroom vocabulary so we can communicate visually and aurally more effectively.

Example 1: Catchy Song: * Review ta-di and taka-di. Compare those rhythms to other previously learned rhythmic elements, like ta, takadimi, and ta-dimi.

Example 2: Plainsies Clapsies: * Review the hand signs for sol, la, and mi. Review where these pitches live on the staff.

Example 3: Tortillitas para Mama: * Review the term, “beat.” Practice tracking beat icons of tortillas on the board.

Students as TeachersThis is a beautiful time for students to be the teacher!

Sometimes this happens seamlessly in the moment - one student remembers and can share the information with the class, or several students remember and talk to each other.

Other times it might need a bit more structuring.

Facilitating Students as Teachers There are a few structures for this process that can be helpful to have in the back of our mind so we can facilitate this approach to labeling a musical element.

• Turn and Talk: Students turn to a partner and work together to describe the element and recall the vocabulary we use in this class.

  • As they talk, encourage students to think about how they would describe the element (higher than, lower than, longer than, shorter than, etc.), how they would show the element (either with a hand sign or something written), and what we call the element (either descriptive vocabulary or classroom vocabulary)

  • Partner Pair: Pairs of students join with another group, creating a group of four. In the group of four, students combine their information.

  • Some students will recall things that others won’t.

  • Share Out: One “spokesperson” from each group shares their group’s thoughts about how to describe, show, and label the element.
  • Check: Students have already come up with the important information about the element. The only missing piece might be what we call the element in this class. This is the time for the teacher to circle in and fill in any gaps, or decide to wait until next class to discuss.

This is also a great structure to consider for classes with combined grades, or new students who came from other programs.

The Labeling Timeline In this process, students might recall the name, sign, or symbol of a new element, but perhaps not all three. In this case, remember that they’ve already done the most important work on their own by using the element musically and analyzing it critically.

This whole student-teaching process doesn’t necessarily need to happen in a single lesson. If students don’t yet recall the background knowledge and link it to experience, there’s no need to move forward.

Students set the pacing for review.

Use: Creating MusicAfter we’ve had an active music experience, after we’ve described the characteristics of the target element, and after we have a common vocabulary for the element, we’re probably ready to start using it consciously in creatively.

Students can certainly use the target element creatively without establishing a common vocabulary for it! Real musicians do this all the time. However, having a common vocabulary (such as “la” “takadimi” “half note”), and a common way to notate the element can help us communicate with each other more efficiently during the creative process.

Example 1: Catchy Song* Play the circle game. * Students sit. * Play the song again. During the verses, instead of walking around the circle, the teacher pats an improvised eight-beat rhythm pattern. Students improvise a rhythm response back. Continue improvising through the verses, then play the rhythm of the chorus like normal. * After the activity, students choose their favorite rhythm improvisation response and figure out how to speak it on rhythm syllables.

Assessment Questions: When they play their rhythm response, do you notice students improvising or imitating your pattern? Do you notice a variety of rhythms being used? Do students easily identify the rhythmic syllables of their rhythm? How much teacher assistance does this process take?

Example 2: Plainsies Clapsies * Play the game. * Isolate the phrase, “right hand, left hand” and aurally identify sol and mi in “left hand” * What do you notice about the “right hand” part? Is it the same melody or different? (different) * Sing the same phrase with sol and mi in the last two beats (“right hand, sol mi”) * Sing the phrase again. Students throw their scarf on the highest pitch they hear. * Aurally identify that “hand” is the high pitch and that it’s higher than sol.

Assessment Questions: Do students aurally identify the descending minor third pattern as “sol mi”? Do they aurally identify the highest word in the phrase? Do they identify that it’s higher than sol? How much teacher input does the process take?

Example 3: Tortillitas para Mamá * Speak the rhyme and pat the tortillitas. * Students help the teacher arrange the beat motions for each line of the rhyme using clap, pat, and stamp

+ Example:
+ Clap clap clap clap | stamp stamp stamp stamp | clap clap clap clap | stamp stamp stamp stamp
+ Pat pat pat pat | clap clap clap clap | pat pat pat pat | stamp stamp stamp stamp

Assessment Question: Do you notice that students have flexibility in how they keep the steady beat? Are some combinations of body percussion easier than others?

Assessment Documentation You’ll notice that these assessment questions lend themselves to qualitative - not quantitative - data collection.

My opinion is that for many teaching situations, qualitative data are more useful at the beginning of the year when we just want to get a sense of where the class is musically.

That said, these assessment questions can easily be formulated into rubrics or other quantitative measurement systems.

If you choose to collect qualitative data, you might consider using a document like this:

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Next Steps Now that students have reviewed known musical elements in known material, a great next step is to see if they can transfer their understanding to new, unknown material.

Bringing in new songs, games, and activities, do students apply the same critical thinking process to identify known concepts in unknown material?

Students are active learners, so it makes sense that our assessment and review process should be active as well!

This is an approach that starts the year musically, while looking for evidence of learning that will inform the pacing of the next steps.

Throughout the process, we’re looking at how students embody and interact with the musical material. This sets us up well to continue actively musicing in community.

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When a new school year starts, many teachers want to begin making music right away, and actively exploring musical concepts from last year and moving toward new musical understandings.

When we start the school year, where might we begin musically? How will we know what students remember from last year? How will we keep music class active, while reviewing previously learned concepts?

Let’s look at a few ways to review and assess at the beginning of the year. We’ll clarify what assessment is (and isn’t) in this context, we’ll talk about choosing what to assess, the assessment process, and documentation options.

Let’s jump in!

Assessments, Grades, & Documentation Many of us come to conversations about assessment with some baggage from undergraduate or graduate degree programs or administration.

When I discuss these terms, here are my definitions:

• Assessments: How we know what students need from us next
• Grades: Markings meant to show achievement
• Documentation: Preserving data through video, audio, or written text

For the purposes of this conversation, we probably don’t care about grades. We do care about assessments because that’s the mechanism we’ll use to plan the next class. The assessments might be documented a number of ways, depending on what works best for each unique teaching situation.

Ensemble ContextIt’s also helpful to point out that not all assessments need to be individual. In fact, most of us care about how our students perform in an ensemble setting more than an individual solo setting. The assessment context we’re talking about today is within an ensemble.

Assessing What We Care About For many of us, we don’t actually care if students have memorized a symbol and assigned it a Standard Western Notation name.

What’s actually more valuable is how students embody and interact with the musical material.

Since that’s what we care about more than rote memorization, that’s where we’ll start the assessment process.

The Review & Assessment Process: Do, Describe, Label, UseThis review and assessment process moves from singing and playing games (do), to noticing the musical characteristics of the material (describe), to aligning vocabulary to discuss the musical element (label), and to extending our use of the element in a creative way (use).

There are examples of the individual steps below. However, in the classroom, these steps might not happen in a neat, isolated way. For some groups we might condense the process as a whole, shortening each activity so it takes place in a single lesson. For other groups it will be more appropriate to extend the activities through several weeks, depending on how much review students need.

The data we gather from students during the activities will inform pacing.

These review experiences will likely be the core activities in the first weeks of school, but they certainly won’t be the only activities. We’ll combine them with other songs, games, and activities that move us toward future learning.

Do: Making MusicThe first step of our process is to actually do the skill we’re assessing!

This is the fun part, and this is actually the core assessment step. Everything else we do comes from these experiences.

Here are a few examples:

Example 1: Catchy Song

This is the circle game from last year’s 3rd Grade concept plan for taka-di inside The Planning Binder.

The form of the song is Chorus, Verse 1, Chorus, Verse 2, Chorus.

The movements for the chorus and the verses stay the same throughout the song. (Note: it can be helpful to slow the playback speed when introducing the song.)

Assessment Question: Do students play the rhythm accurately in the game?

Example 2: Plainsies Clapsies

• Sing and play game
• Sing on a neutral syllable and use your scarf to show the melodic contour

Assessment Questions: Do students match pitch in the game? Do they show the melodic contour accurately?

Example 3: Tortillitas para Mamá

• Speak the rhyme and pat tortillitas.
• Replace “mama” and “papa” with students’ names
• What will we put inside the tortilliats when they’re done? Students suggest foods between rounds of the rhyme.

Assessment Question: Do students pat a consistent and accurate steady beat in time with the rhyme?

What Materials to Use Because we’re using this as a baseline assessment, we want to be sure students are familiar with the song. This helps ensure the validity and reliability of the assessment results.

With validity and reliability as a consideration, we’ll probably want to start our musicing with songs students already know and enjoy. Consider singing and playing games from last year as review, then adding in new repertoire.

Assessment that Feels like Play This is the part of the process that feels like play. At this point in the assessment process, we’re mainly working on remembering what it’s like to be in the music class and interact with each other.

Assessment questions: At this point in the assessment process, we’re primarily interested in how students actualize the musical material. That is, how they music. These assessment questions have a lot to do with the accuracy of the performance.

Do students match pitch? Do students sing the target element in the context of the repertoire? Do students keep a steady beat? Do students play body percussion to the rhythm of the song?

This information sets us up well to move on to the next step of the process.

Describe: Noticing MusicIn the next class, the same class, or several classes later, students might be ready to notice the musical features of the song material.

With the target element in an extracted phrase, students can notice its characteristics. Is it high or low? How many times do they hear the high note? Is the rhythm from the extracted phrase long or short? Where is the longest word? What’s the form of the song?

Example 1: Catchy Song* Play the circle game. * Notice that the rhythmic form is aaab (same same same different). * Speak and point to steady beat strips on the board. * With a partner, students figure out where each of the words go over the steady beat strips as the teacher walks around the room. * Notice a “short short long” pattern on the second beat. * As a class, transfer text notation to graphic notation.

Assessment Questions: In their partner conversations, do students accurately identify the text placement of the words? Are there any points of friction in the process of moving from playing the rhythm, to moving text, to showing graphic notation? How much teacher input does the process take?

Example 2: Plainsies Clapsies * Play the game. * Isolate the phrase, “right hand, left hand” and aurally identify sol and mi in “left hand” * What do you notice about the “right hand” part? Is it the same melody or different? (different) * Sing the same phrase with sol and mi in the last two beats (“right hand, sol mi”) * Sing the phrase again. Students throw their scarf on the highest pitch they hear. * Aurally identify that “hand” is the high pitch and that it’s higher than sol.

Assessment Questions: Do students aurally identify the descending minor third pattern as “sol mi”? Do they aurally identify the highest word in the phrase? Do they identify that it’s higher than sol? How much teacher input does the process take?

Example 3: Tortillitas para Mamá * Speak the rhyme and pat the tortillitas * As we pat these tortillitas, do our hands stay steady or unsteady? Let’s check. (steady) * Do they stay steady the whole time? Let’s check. (the whole time)

Assessment Question: Do students identify that the motions of the rhyme stay steady?

Assessment Questions: These assessment questions are geared toward seeing what students notice about the new element. In this stage of the process, we’re interested in how students aurally zoom in on the musical characteristics of the material. Is the element we’re discussing long or short? Even or uneven? High or low? How much higher? How much lower?

The Review and Assessment Process: This part of the process will have many variables! It’s entirely possible that in a single lesson, this step of noticing and describing an element will blend directly into the labeling step. This will depend on how familiar students are with the material and aural identification process from last year. If students are ready to move ahead, great! If not, we can stay in this step as long as we need.

Label: Assigning Vocabulary After students have sung songs and played games, and after they’ve articulated what they notice about the music, we might be ready to move on to labeling.

When we label an element, we assign in a common classroom vocabulary.

Real musicians call these elements many things and write them many different ways! Sometimes real musicians don’t label these elements at all, and they don’t write them down. They just use them to make music.

Because real musicians can use so many different terms to describe music, it can be helpful to have a common classroom vocabulary so we can communicate visually and aurally more effectively.

Example 1: Catchy Song: * Review ta-di and taka-di. Compare those rhythms to other previously learned rhythmic elements, like ta, takadimi, and ta-dimi.

Example 2: Plainsies Clapsies: * Review the hand signs for sol, la, and mi. Review where these pitches live on the staff.

Example 3: Tortillitas para Mama: * Review the term, “beat.” Practice tracking beat icons of tortillas on the board.

Students as TeachersThis is a beautiful time for students to be the teacher!

Sometimes this happens seamlessly in the moment - one student remembers and can share the information with the class, or several students remember and talk to each other.

Other times it might need a bit more structuring.

Facilitating Students as Teachers There are a few structures for this process that can be helpful to have in the back of our mind so we can facilitate this approach to labeling a musical element.

• Turn and Talk: Students turn to a partner and work together to describe the element and recall the vocabulary we use in this class.

  • As they talk, encourage students to think about how they would describe the element (higher than, lower than, longer than, shorter than, etc.), how they would show the element (either with a hand sign or something written), and what we call the element (either descriptive vocabulary or classroom vocabulary)

  • Partner Pair: Pairs of students join with another group, creating a group of four. In the group of four, students combine their information.

  • Some students will recall things that others won’t.

  • Share Out: One “spokesperson” from each group shares their group’s thoughts about how to describe, show, and label the element.
  • Check: Students have already come up with the important information about the element. The only missing piece might be what we call the element in this class. This is the time for the teacher to circle in and fill in any gaps, or decide to wait until next class to discuss.

This is also a great structure to consider for classes with combined grades, or new students who came from other programs.

The Labeling Timeline In this process, students might recall the name, sign, or symbol of a new element, but perhaps not all three. In this case, remember that they’ve already done the most important work on their own by using the element musically and analyzing it critically.

This whole student-teaching process doesn’t necessarily need to happen in a single lesson. If students don’t yet recall the background knowledge and link it to experience, there’s no need to move forward.

Students set the pacing for review.

Use: Creating MusicAfter we’ve had an active music experience, after we’ve described the characteristics of the target element, and after we have a common vocabulary for the element, we’re probably ready to start using it consciously in creatively.

Students can certainly use the target element creatively without establishing a common vocabulary for it! Real musicians do this all the time. However, having a common vocabulary (such as “la” “takadimi” “half note”), and a common way to notate the element can help us communicate with each other more efficiently during the creative process.

Example 1: Catchy Song* Play the circle game. * Students sit. * Play the song again. During the verses, instead of walking around the circle, the teacher pats an improvised eight-beat rhythm pattern. Students improvise a rhythm response back. Continue improvising through the verses, then play the rhythm of the chorus like normal. * After the activity, students choose their favorite rhythm improvisation response and figure out how to speak it on rhythm syllables.

Assessment Questions: When they play their rhythm response, do you notice students improvising or imitating your pattern? Do you notice a variety of rhythms being used? Do students easily identify the rhythmic syllables of their rhythm? How much teacher assistance does this process take?

Example 2: Plainsies Clapsies * Play the game. * Isolate the phrase, “right hand, left hand” and aurally identify sol and mi in “left hand” * What do you notice about the “right hand” part? Is it the same melody or different? (different) * Sing the same phrase with sol and mi in the last two beats (“right hand, sol mi”) * Sing the phrase again. Students throw their scarf on the highest pitch they hear. * Aurally identify that “hand” is the high pitch and that it’s higher than sol.

Assessment Questions: Do students aurally identify the descending minor third pattern as “sol mi”? Do they aurally identify the highest word in the phrase? Do they identify that it’s higher than sol? How much teacher input does the process take?

Example 3: Tortillitas para Mamá * Speak the rhyme and pat the tortillitas. * Students help the teacher arrange the beat motions for each line of the rhyme using clap, pat, and stamp

+ Example:
+ Clap clap clap clap | stamp stamp stamp stamp | clap clap clap clap | stamp stamp stamp stamp
+ Pat pat pat pat | clap clap clap clap | pat pat pat pat | stamp stamp stamp stamp

Assessment Question: Do you notice that students have flexibility in how they keep the steady beat? Are some combinations of body percussion easier than others?

Assessment Documentation You’ll notice that these assessment questions lend themselves to qualitative - not quantitative - data collection.

My opinion is that for many teaching situations, qualitative data are more useful at the beginning of the year when we just want to get a sense of where the class is musically.

That said, these assessment questions can easily be formulated into rubrics or other quantitative measurement systems.

If you choose to collect qualitative data, you might consider using a document like this:

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Next Steps Now that students have reviewed known musical elements in known material, a great next step is to see if they can transfer their understanding to new, unknown material.

Bringing in new songs, games, and activities, do students apply the same critical thinking process to identify known concepts in unknown material?

Students are active learners, so it makes sense that our assessment and review process should be active as well!

This is an approach that starts the year musically, while looking for evidence of learning that will inform the pacing of the next steps.

Throughout the process, we’re looking at how students embody and interact with the musical material. This sets us up well to continue actively musicing in community.

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In many situations, elementary general music teachers are required to tie their lessons back to the National Core Arts Standards or local standards for music education. In the case of local standards, these have most often developed in reference to the National Core Arts standards.

For some of us, aligning our active music experiences to the National Standards can feel tricky. This may feel like one of the highest priorities for our administrators to see in our lesson plans. Yet, it might be an area that was overlooked in teacher training courses.

Today we’ll look at the National Standards for Music Education. We’ll talk about what they are. We’ll talk about what they aren’t. And we’ll talk about translating them into student-voice “I Can” statements.

Download the 20-page printable PDF with all standards at the bottom of this post.

Here we go!

What Are the National Music Standards?The National Core Arts Standards (NCAS) outline three artistic processes that all Artists engage in.

These three musical processes are Performing, Responding, Creating, and Connecting.

In other disciplines, Performing is called presenting for visual arts, or producing for media arts.

Artistic Roles: Doer, Thinker, InventorWe might think of these processes - performer, responder, creator, and connector - as the different hats we wear as musicians.

Musicians might take on several different roles relating to music, depending on their experience and the setting. A guitar player on stage in front of an audience will take on a different musical role than the person who programmed the lights for the show to match the key musical moments. The person who programmed the lights has a different role than the song-writer who created the song.

Each of these people is engaged in the music, though only one of them is on stage. These three roles illustrate the three artistic processes outlined in the Standards. I think of these three roles as the musical doer, thinker, and inventor.

Performer (Doer)A musical performer is a doer. They actualize music by carefully selecting songs or pieces, interpreting a score, making thoughtful performance decisions, working to improve their performance, and tailoring their presentation for their audience.

Responder (Thinker) A responder is a thinker. A responder considers things like what gives music its meaning, what musical expressions lead us to feel certain ways, and how we might evaluate music based on the context.

Creator (Inventor)A creator is an inventor. A creator spends their time imagining ideas, finding a way to preserve them, and reworking them again and again until their final product is complete.

Connector (All three)In the connecting processes, an artist shows how music is connected to other experiences, contexts, and subjects.

Connecting is the artistic process that at first glance may seem to be overlooked. However, the authors of the standards point out that the process of connecting is embedded in each of the other roles.

To use our example earlier, the guitar player considers the performance venue and context in their presentation of the song. The person programming the lighting synthesizes their technical training with lights and their musical thinking to create the lighting map. The songwriter would have a backstory about how and why the song was written, and perhaps a personal experience or story they heard that shaped the final song.

Each process includes opportunities to show how music is interconnected with many other areas.

“I can theorize” vs “I can do”One of the challenges music teachers can face is how to apply the standards to an active music room.

Nowhere in the standards are the words, “sing” or “speak” used. Movements and instruments are only mentioned once in preschool and kindergarten as media students can use to create ideas.

Instead of words like sing, speak, play, or move, the standards are full of words like “discuss” “consider” “state” “demonstrate” “describe” and “explain.”

Why might that be?

For many music teachers, this can strike us as odd - why do the music standards seem to lack active music-making language?

The reason is that the standards are not intended or designed to primarily focus on musical performance skills. That is not the purpose of these standards. This is a distinction between musical skills and musical literacy.

Expanding Notational LiteracyLiteracy is a term we often use in its connection to notational literacy. The goal of notational literacy is for students to read and write.

However, the authors of the standards are using it to describe literacy beyond notation. They define artistic literacy as:

knowledge and understanding required to participate authentically in the arts

Music literacy is defined as:

knowledge and understanding required to participate authentically in the discipline of music by independently carrying out the artistic processes of creating, performing, and responding

This is a much more broad way of thinking about literacy.

The Arts standards are unique from other subjects in that they show the transferable understandings between artistic disciplines: music, visual arts, dance, theater, and media arts.

In the Classroom: Breaking it DownBecause the standards are not designed to be actionable skills, there may be some interpretive steps necessary when they are applied to an active music room.

Here’s one example for 1st Grade, working on the concept of fast and slow.

Standard: * MU:Re7.2.1 - With guidance, demonstrate awareness of expressive qualities (such as dynamics and tempo) that reflect creators’/performers’ expressive intent.

Standard “I Can” Statement: * I can show how different musical elements express musical meaning

Activity:(This activity is from The Planning Binder 2021 - 2022 curriculum)

• Students speak the rhyme, Bee Bee Bumblebee with a fast or slow tempo, depending on what the bee is doing.
• Pretend that the bee is in a hurry to get home because it’s family game night! (Speak the rhyme with a fast tempo)
• Now pretend the bee wants to fly home slowly because he knows he has to do his chores. (Speak the rhyme with a slow tempo)
• The teacher asks what other reasons the bee might move fast or slow.
• Students share ideas and the class speaks with an appropriate tempo.

Lesson “I Can” Statements: * I can play fast and slow * I can play fast and slow for different reasons

The lesson activities point to the standards, but the standards are not the activity in and of themselves.

“I Can” Statements for the National Music StandardsYou can download the “I Can” Statements document with the link at the bottom of this post.

Big Idea PagesThe first page of the document shows the big picture overview of the artistic process. It includes the anchor standards and a “too long; didn’t read” version of the grade-level performance standards.

This is our zoomed out, standard-at-a-glance resource.

Grade-Level DetailsThese anchor standards are broken down in to more detailed descriptions (performance standards) by grade-level. The performance standards can get a little wordy, so I’ve gone through each individual descriptor and translated it into an “I Can” statement as well. The “TL:DR” headings are included for each standard.

Let’s look at each process of the standards and break them down.

Performing

The performing strand has three anchor standards that outline the role of the performer, or the doer in music.

Something interesting to note is that the performance strand has the most performance descriptors of the four artistic processes. The anchor standards are broken down into nine performance standards.

Responding

The responding strand has three anchor standards as well.

Those anchor standards are broken down into four performance standards.

Creating

The creating process uses three anchor standards.

These anchor standards are broken down into six performance standards.

Connecting

The document for Connecting is structured a bit differently from the others since connecting is included in the other artistic processes.

There are two anchor standards and two performance standards. Unlike the other processes, these performance standards apply to all grade-levels.

What the standards are and are notThe standards are not the curriculum.

The standards are not an actionable set of musical skills.

The standards are not music pedagogy.

The standards are outlines of artistic processes.

The standards are pathways toward music literacy.

The standards give us a framework of transferrable understandings that can apply across the Arts. They are designed to guide us in creating lifelong, literate musicians who engage in music through the processes of performing, responding, creating, and connecting. The way we apply the standards will look different from classroom to classroom, and that flexibility is what makes them so valuable.

When we break down these standards into “I can” statements in students’ voices, we essentialize the information and bring the wording into our vernacular.

This is a practice that will undoubtedly benefit students. But the process of shifting through each individual standard in this way may benefit us as teachers even more.

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There are times we come across a song or rhyme we know students would enjoy, but we might not be sure where it fits in the curriculum.

How can we step back and imagine musical possibilities? What if we were to treat songs like musical prompts?

In this post we talked about some ways to explore one rhyme with several different pedagogical lenses.

Today we’ll do the same for a song, Sea Shell. Here’s an example of how one song might be used for three different pedagogical outcomes and three different age groups.

This also shows how we might approach the song in different areas of learning: The first activities are for students who don’t know the song. The next two, it’s expected that students would know the song already. The 2nd grade activities are in preparation, before students are aware of the notation and label for half note. The 3rd grade activities are in practice, after students consciously know low sol.

Each grade objective includes student choice in the activities.

Let’s jump in!

The SongThis song is sourced from the collection at Holy Names University.

Echo Singing & Vocal ExplorationKindergarten / 1st Grade This activity is designed for young musical learners in the early grades.

Before the Activity: Previous Knowledge and ExperienceThis activity doesn’t require any previous knowledge or experience! Consider using this as an introduction to vocal exploration and add it to your collection of echo songs.

Learning Experiences Experience #1: IntroduceIn this first learning experience, the teacher introduces the song through movement and active listening.

• Seated, the teacher sings the song and leads students in swaying side to side as they listen.
• In between rounds of the song, the teacher asks questions: “What is our song about?” “What do you think the sea shell is singing about?” “Wait, can sea shells actually sing?”

• Sing while moving hands like the waves of the ocean, showing the melodic contour of the song. Students echo each four-beat phrase with ocean movements.

  • Sea shell, sea shell (sea shell sea shell), Sing a song for me (sing a song for me)

Experience #2: Ocean Movements In this second experience, students extend their ocean movements and continue echoing the song. This learning experience is primarily a review and reinforcement of the previous class, giving students more opportunities to listen and move to the song.

• Review the previous class: Sing while moving hands like the waves of the ocean, showing the melodic contour of the song.

• Students echo each four-beat phrase with ocean movements.

  • Sea shell, sea shell (sea shell sea shell), Sing a song for me (sing a song for me)
  • “What if you could make your ocean movements while standing on your spot?”
  • Repeat the activity with students echo singing and showing the melodic contour with stationary movement

Experience #3: Whole-Class Pitch Exploration There are many possibilities for the pitch exploration here! Feel free to write your own on the board.

• Echo sing and move to the song as review
• “What do you think the sea shell’s song sounded like?” Show several options of melodic contour on the board, and lead students in performing with vocals and movements

Experience #4: Partner Pitch Exploration Students have sung the song and explored many examples of pitch exploration. Now it’s time for them to create their own sea shell songs. Asking for four different options encourages students to invent variations, instead of stopping after one idea.

• Echo sing and move to the song as review
• Review pitch exploration ideas on the board

• With their shoulder partner, students use a piece of yarn to create their own vocal explorations

  • Ask students to come up with four different options
  • Students take turns sharing their ideas with the class

Half Note & Form 2nd Grade Many music curricula explore one sound over two beats in the 2nd grade year. The ocean theme of this song can make it convenient for exploring elongated sounds, like ocean waves. We can also experiment with the form of the song.

Before the Activity: Previous Knowledge and Experience Previous Knowledge: Before this activity, students should have conscious knowledge of steady beat, quarter notes, and eighth notes. Even though the activity focuses on one sound over two beats, students don’t need to have conscious knowledge of half notes. In future classes, students will be introduced to the half note vocabulary and symbol we’ll use in this class. * Previous Experience: Students should have plenty of independent and collaborative experiences singing, playing instruments, speaking, moving, reading, writing, improvising, arranging, and aurally identifying the rhythmic set listed in the knowledge* section above. For these activities, students should have heard the song before, though it does not need to be memorized for the first learning experiences.

Learning ExperiencesExperience #1: Rhythm Movement In this first learning experience, students use movement to show the duration of the rhythm. This happens as a whole class at first, then with pairs of students. There is an opportunity for formative assessment as students tiptoe, step, and slide with a partner at the end of this experience.

• The teacher sings the song with movement directions for tiptoe, step, and slide. Students echo sing and move (locomotor or non-locomotor)

  • Step step step step (students echo)
  • Tiptoe tiptoe sliiiiiiide (students echo)
  • Tiptoe tiptoe step step (students echo)
  • Tiptoe tiptoe sliiiiiiide (students echo)

  • The teacher sings the song on text. Students echo sing and move, translating to tiptoe, step, and sliding movements

  • Sea shell sea shell (student sing text and step step step step)

  • Sing a song for me (students sing text and tiptoe tiptoe sliiiiiiide)
  • Sing about the ocean (students sing text and tiptoe tiptoe step step)
  • Sing about the sea (students sing text and tiptoe tiptoe sliiiiiiide)
  • Divide the class in half. One half sings and moves first, then pauses for the other partner to sing and echo

Experience #2: Aurally Identify The movement work from the previous class is extended here, as the teacher takes away the movement directions and replaces them with an instrument or neutral syllable. Students use their aural awareness to identify one sound that lasts for two beats.

• Review previous class. Students echo sing the song on text
• “Let’s take out the echo and sing it straight through.” Students sing the song straight through, without echoing.
• Students sing the whole song and clap the words, remaining seated
• Seated with their feet in front of them, students sing and put the rhythm of the words in their feet
• Students stand, and sing the whole song while tiptoeing and stepping in open space

• As a B section, the teacher plays four or eight-beat rhythms on a recorder (or sings on a neutral syllable), using a combination of two sounds on a beat, one sound on a beat, or one sound elongated over two beats. Students echo move.

  • Example: ta ta ta-a (students step step sliiiiiiide), ta-di ta-di ta-di ta (tiptoe tiptoe tiptoe step) ta-a ta-di ta (sliiiiiiide tiptoe step) ta-di ta-di ta-a (tiptoe tiptoe sliiiiiide)
  • Students sing the song as they tiptoe, step, and slide back to their spots.
  • “How many times do we slide in this song?” Students inner hear and pat a steady beat (we slide two times)
  • “How many sounds do you hear in the word, ‘me’?” (one sound) “How many beats does it last?” Students sing and pat a steady beat (it lasts two beats)

Experience #3: Visual & Form Students have identified one sound that lasts for two beats. Now they use their aural awareness and translate it to a visual representation of the rhythm. Iconic notation is used here to show the elongated sound. In later lessons, the label and symbol for a half note may be used. At the end of the learning experience, students mix up the form to create a new order of the song.

• Review previous experiences as necessary
• “Which phrases of the song have matching rhythms?” Students sing and pat a steady beat (phrases 2 and 4 have matching rhythms)
• Help the teacher put the phrases of the song in the correct order.
• “How do you know this is the correct answer? Talk to your shoulder partner.”

• Students explain their thinking, then share their answers as time allows

• “I’m tired of giving the correct answer all the time. Let’s mix up the form so it’s the incorrect answer.”

• Mix up the form to create new version of tiptoeing and sliding. Students speak the new combination while moving their feet in front of them (staying seated) or turning their fingers into people and moving on the floor in front of them.

• Repeat the activity, with students arranging the form for the class
• Students repeat the activity with a partner and move around the room to their arrangement.
• Share combinations as time allows

Low Sol & Partwork3rd Grade By the 3rd grade year, many students are ready to work on the extended pentatone, including low sol. As melodic vocabulary grows, students can apply their knowledge to their developing partwork skills.

Before the Activity: Previous Knowledge and Experience Previous Knowledge: Before this activity, students should have conscious knowledge of solfege pitches, do, re, mi, sol, la, low la, low sol. These learning experiences would fall in to the “practice” phase of learning. * Previous Experience:* This activity is for students who are ready to sing a bass line to a known song. Consider previous experiences students have had with bass lines and partner melodies to prepare them for these experiences. You can find more information about scaffolding vocal partwork skills here. Students should also already know the song for these experiences.

Learning ExperiencesThese are adapted from the low sol concept plan in the 2021 - 2022 Planning Binder.

Experience #1: Partner Melody & Movement In this learning experience, students listen to the new partner melody with the song. After hearing the melody, students learn it by rote through a combination of movement and aural skills. Aurally decoding the melody is one of the reasons this experience should fall in the practice phase of the learning process. When students have learned the melody, they sing it as the teacher sings the main song.

• Students walk in a circle, singing the song without teacher assistance

• “I’ll try to mess you up this time. Listen to each other.” The teacher walks inside the circle in the opposite direction, singing the partner melody:

• Students sit in place. The teacher teaches the partner melody by rote. Students echo sing eight beats at a time, showing the high and low movements of the melodic contour

• The teacher sings eight beats at a time. Students echo on solfege with Curwen hand signs or with the movements they just created

  • “Hey there, let me hear your song” (do do do do sol sol sol)
  • “Hey there, then we’ll sing along” (do do sol sol do do do)
  • Students walk around in a circle, singing the partner melody without teacher assistance. The teacher walks around the inside of the circle singing the main melody of Sea Shell.

Experience #2: PartworkThis lesson experience reviews the melody from the previous class, and expands partwork skills. Instead of the teacher singing one part and the whole class singing the other, students work toward partwork interdependence by dividing the partner melody and main melody between half the class.

• With a partner, students decide if they’ll sing the partner melody on solfege with hand signs, or on text with movement that matches the melodic contour.

• Seated with their partner, students perform their choice, then switch jobs

• Students walk around in a circle, singing the partner melody without teacher assistance. The teacher walks around the inside of the circle singing the main melody of Sea Shell.
• The teacher “tags” a few volunteers to be on the inside circle team and sing the main melody. The rest of the class continues to sing the partner melody.
• Continue tagging singers until the inside and outside groups are approximately even

Experience #3: Transfer to Barred Instruments Students have already aurally identified low sol in the partner melody. When it’s time to transfer their understanding to a barred instrument, students use their knowledge of steps and skips to identify low sol and figure out the partner melody by ear.

• With a partner, students decide if they’ll sing the partner melody on solfege with hand signs, or on text with movement that matches the melodic contour.
• Seated with their partner, students perform their choice, then switch jobs
• Using a barred instrument visual on the board, students work with their partner to figure out where do and low sol live if do is F.
• Students help the teacher notate the melody of the partner song on the board

• Students read the notation on the board, pointing to the notation or pointing to a barred instrument visual

• With a partner, students sit behind a barred instrument and figure out how to play the partner melody by ear.

• One partner plays and sings the partner melody. The student without mallets sings the main Sea Shell melody. Switch jobs.

When we step back and look at our classroom materials as musical prompts, we see many pedagogical possibilities.

Today we looked at how one song might be used for vocal exploration, half notes, and low sol. But there are so many more ways this song might be re-imagined in our teaching.

There are many possibilities with one simple musical invitation!

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So many of us are interested in using popular music in our teaching. However, without training in using pop music for music pedagogy, we may be unsure of how to tie the repertoire back to musical concepts. What’s the connection between our curricula and songs that are not from the folk song or Western European classical tradition? What is the role of student-suggested selections in our teaching?

Here are some ideas for using pop music in upper elementary classes. All of these ideas come from the 2021 - 2022 curriculum inside The Planning Binder.

We’ll look at a few selections for upper elementary, as well as some activities for older beginners.

Let’s jump in!

Concepts and Songs Lists One of the biggest time-saving documents we might make at the beginning of the year is a list of songs with corresponding musical concepts. If our goals are to use more popular music in our teaching, these lists can help keep us on track.

These songs are part of a Concepts and Songs list that I made at the beginning of the year for The Planning Binder.

You can read more about concepts and songs lists with the links below:

• How to Match Songs with Musical Concepts
• Planning Ahead: How to Choose Repertoire for your Elementary Music Class
• Resources for Creating a Grade-Level Song List (That You May Not Have Thought of Yet!)
• Analyzing a Folk Song for a Grade-Level Song List

Pop Songs and Musical Concepts for Upper Elementary: Synco-pa: Surfin’ USA (Beach Boys) This melody was written by Chuck Berry, and released in 1958 under the title, “Sweet Little Sixteen.” Brian Wilson re-wrote the song to the version of “Surfin’ USA” that we know today, and released it in 1963.

Aurally Identifying Synco-paSynco-pa happens in the background of the chorus, at the words, “inside, outside, USA.”

Students can identify if the sounds of “USA” are even or uneven (uneven). From there, they can decide which letter has the longest sound (S) and which have short sounds (U and A).

Other Learning Activities: Early Experience with Synco-paBefore students are ready to aurally identify synco-pa, there are a number of active experiences we can curate.

When students are first starting to explore this new rhythm, we can play it on body percussion in a movement activity:

• Formation:

  • Students stand in a circle with the recording playing.

  • Verses:

  • During the verses, the teacher claps four or eight-beat patterns that incorporate synco-pa. Students echo the patterns on body percussion of their choice.

  • Chorus:

  • During the chorus, students jump inside the circle (on the word inside), then back out to their spots (on the word outside).

  • At the words, “USA,” students clap the synco-pa rhythm, or they hold their hands out to the side and clap the rhythm with their neighbors’ hands on either side.

High Do: Rise Up (Andra Day) Cassandra Monique Batie is the singer and songwriter who goes by the stage name, Andra Day. She performed this song at the presidential inauguration parade in 2021. Students love this selection!

Aurally Identifying High DoStudents can analyze the melodic direction of the chorus and aurally identify high do as a skip higher than la.

Students might also count how many times Andra sings “I’ll rise up” and identify that the first two times she sings mostly on sol. The third time she repeats the words, she moves up to high do. Students might consider why she made this musical choice and how her melody emphasizes the repetition of the words, and the message of the song.

Other Learning Activities: Conscious Use Experiences with High DoAfter students have had many learning experiences with this song over several weeks, we can create an invitation to arrange partner melodies in small groups using melodic cells. These melodic cells would be used in other learning activities throughout the process in The Planning Binder, as well as this final learning activity.

In small groups (about three or four musicians) or with a partner, students arrange these fragment melodies in an elemental order. In this case we’re using aabb, abba, or aaab. These melodies will be performed as partner melodies with the chorus of the song at the end of this project.

Student groups explore different combinations of the melodic cells and decide on an order they like. After the order is chosen and practiced, students can notate their melodies on the staff.

After students have practice singing, notating, and rehearsing their melodies, they have the opportunity to share out while the rest of the class sings the main melody of the chorus.

Fa: Better When I’m Dancin’ (Meghan Trainor) This is a great option for a warm up entrance song! Students may already know this Meghan Trainor song from The Peanuts Movie.

Aurally Identifying FaStudents can analyze the melody of the chorus and aurally identify steps coming down from sol in the text, “we can do this together.” Students can notice the melody moves down by step from the word, “do” and that the word, “this,” is a step lower. In this class, we call the pitch a step lower than sol, fa.

We can also invite students to sing the fragment melody on solfege with hand signs, and on numbers holding up fingers.

Other Learning Activities: Conscious Use Experiences with FaWe might add a partner melody to the song that outlines the functional harmony.

The text here repeats: “you’ll feel better, you’ll feel better…” and outlines the harmony of the song - do, fa, re, sol.

Students can sing the new partner melody on solfege with hand signs, then on numbers holding up fingers. From there, they can point to a barred instrument (placed vertically) to show the outline of the melodic contour.

This sets students up well to transfer the melody from voices to barred instruments. In partners, one student can sing the melody on solfege, numbers, or letter names while the other partner plays. Students switch jobs so both players have a chance at a barred instrument.

Songs and Concepts for Older Beginners: Upper elementary musicians come to us at a range of formal music training. However, they all come to us with a musical background based on the music they interact with on a daily basis.

Older beginners have years of musical experience through popular music. How can we utilize their musical interests in the classroom?

Here are a few ideas:

Steady Beat vs Rhythm: We Are Family (Sister Sledge) The sisters from Sister Sledge are from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Their music was especially well-known as a part of the disco era, but students will still enjoy it today! The song was written by Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards. Kathy Sledge was the lead singer for this song, and was 19 years old at the time of the recording.

Aurally Identifying Steady Beat Invite students to copy your body percussion pattern as the song plays. When students accurately imitate the body percussion pattern, ask them to change something about it, while still playing at the same time as you.

Students can notice that the sounds of the body percussion change (snapping, clapping, patting, etc.), but the distance between the sounds stays the same.

Learning Activity: Early Experiences with Steady Beat Students can create a name chain with a group of four to perform with the chorus.

Guided practice with this can be helpful. As the recording plays in the background, ask for four volunteers. The whole class speaks the names of those volunteers with a steady beat. An example might be: Joseph, Christopher, Catalina, Avery. Practice the pattern with the chorus and notice we repeat the pattern four times.

When students are ready, ask them to get into a group of four and choose an order for their names. Start the recording at the chorus and have students perform their patterns four times in a row.

When the verse begins, ask students to find a new group of four students.

Note - If there aren’t four even groups, students can partner in groups of two or three. Just be aware some names in the group will need to be repeated to complete the steady beat phrase.

Mi Re Do: I’m Good (The Mowgli’s)This is a group is from Calabasas, California. I hadn’t heard this song until I started looking for pop music to use in the music room. As soon as I found it I was hooked.

Learning Activity: Early Experiences with Mi Re Do Ask students to find a partner or a group of three. Play the recording and ask students to create high, medium, and low body percussion levels.

As the song plays, the teacher sings or plays short patterns of mi re do on a neutral syllable, or on a barred instrument. Students echo sing and play body percussion.

When students are ready, they can transfer their body percussion to barred instruments by looking at the pentatone layout. Where do we see high, middle, and low bars all next to each other? Lead students to identify the grouping of three bars on the instrument. Which of these three bars is high? Which is middle? Which is low?

Repeat the earlier activity with the song playing, but instead of body percussion, students echo with high, middle, and low bars on the instrument.

(In a later class students can make the connection between high middle low and mi re do.)

Student-Suggested SongsStudents can suggest music as well!

Often as teachers we see the value in using music suggested by students, but we might not always know where to start.

When students suggest songs to use in class, there are a few steps we might take to make sure the song is in alignment with our values as a member of the school community, and our values as educators. We’ll start with looking at the song, analyzing its musical content, and then implementing it in the curriculum.

Getting Started: Lyrics & Cultural ContextIf you’re not already familiar with the song, a great place to start is a quick google search of the lyrics.

Each teaching situation will be unique in terms of what the school community considers to be appropriate language and subject mater. Based on our knowledge of our students’ experiences, community values, and school culture, we can choose if we’re going to use the selection or find an alternative.

It’s also a good idea to do a quick scan of the first few Google search results pages to see any movies, video games, etc. the song may be associated with. Depending on your school community, you might also look into the musical artist to see if there is any relevant recent news you should be aware of.

Musical AnalysisAfter looking through lyrics, we can turn our attention to the musical content of the song. For this, we’ll use our knowledge of song analysis and decisions about what songs to use with musical concepts.

Is there a repeating rhythmic or melodic pattern in the chorus we can pull from? Is there anything happening prominently in a background vocal or instrumental line that students can hear easily? Is there a chord progression students might sing?

The most convenient section of the song to analyze is often the chorus or the bridge, since those hooks are intended to be more memorable than the chorus.

Implementation With the lyrics and subject matter looked over and the music analyzed, it’s time to add the song to the curriculum. In my opinion, the easiest place to start implementation is in a warm-up or closing activity. From there students can continue to explore the song in the daily lesson layout.

But what if a song is clean, uplifting, and interesting to students, but we don’t see a curricular connection?

This is another reason having a scope and sequence and a grade-level song list is so beneficial! If we find a song we can’t use currently, we can make a note of where it could be relevant to the curriculum later in the year.

There are so many more possibilities for using popular music in the classroom! These are a few ideas from The Planning Binder, but students will have many more ideas for using pop music creatively.

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When students move from their previous class into the music room, from their spots to a barred instrument, from their instruments to a game, or from the game to a partner…. We’re in a transition time.

An active music lesson is full of transitions! As we change musical activities and areas of the classroom, students need guidance on how to transition between learning tasks.

Transitions are an explicit part of Kodaly levels training. While they’re associated with the Kodaly framework, I believe they’re useful for any educator, regardless of the subject or teaching philosophy.

Transitions for Behavior, Pacing, and CurriculumTransitions are the connectors of the lesson. They allow for one activity to flow into the next seamlessly.

There are many reasons we might choose to think intentionally about transitions - here are just a few:

Classroom Management Most classroom management issues come up during transition time, as students move between activities.

Even when we think our directions are clear (“line up” or “walk to an instrument”), students actually need guidance on how we would like them to move from one activity to the next. When students don’t have a specific direction for how to transition, they’ll fill in the gap on their own. Normally this is with a behavior that doesn’t serve the overall learning process.

Thoughtful transitions give students something to do as they move from one activity to the next.

Our students are active! Instead of working against their natural desire for activity, how can we create more opportunities for engagement? How can we keep high expectations for their behavior, while being developmentally appropriate, and while moving the curriculum forward? How can we use their natural desire for activity as a way to further musical learning?

When we think intentionally about transitions, we’re in a better place to guide student behavior so our musicians stay on task.

Lesson Pacing When we think through our transitions, we’re less likely to get bogged down in the logistics of the lesson.

Often, we can find ourselves taking longer than we expected to set up games, pass out instruments, and move between songs. These processes can slow down the lesson pacing if we don’t think through how we can guide the students’ experience between activities.

Thoughtful transitions help us prepare for where the lesson may get stuck, and how we’ll help keep the pacing upbeat.

As Much Musicing As Possible My Kodaly level 1 teacher, Karen Shuford, commented that “Most of the lesson should be spent experiencing music, not talking about it.” Transitions are a beautiful way to use as much musicing as possible in an active music curriculum.

With thoughtful transitions, we don’t have to constantly stop and start the lesson to introduce a song or explain directions or to pass out instruments or with their shoulder partner - we just flow into the next activity. Students are making music or thinking musically the whole time.

Transitions also give us information about how students are processes the musical information. Since many transitions use the application of knowledge in a new setting - in a transition - these connecting pieces actually can serve a practical assessment purpose as well.

Transitions work overtime as a way to gamify the lesson, keep students engaged, keep the classroom running smoothly, keep the pacing of the lesson upbeat, and give more opportunities to music - instead of talking about music.

Types of Transitions in Elementary General Music

When we think about transitions in elementary general music, might be looking at a zoomed-out view that helps students move into the music classroom itself, and connect several different lessons together over a period of several weeks.

These transitions help students recall information over multiple classes.

We might also be looking at a zoomed-in transition that connects individual lesson segments together.

These transitions help the lesson move smoothly between learning experiences.

Today we’ll look at the zoomed-in view, connecting individual segments of a lesson together.

“Drag-and-Drop” Transitions I refer to these as “drag-and-drop” transitions because they don’t require any additional planning!

These are used especially when students are moving from one location to the other (like lining up, moving to instruments, getting manipulatives, things like that). They’re by far the most used in my teaching because of how many procedural or logistic steps we have in a single lesson.

If you’re new to transitions and just looking for an easy way to start, here are a few ideas:

Musical Directions One way to keep students engaged as we give directions is to continue the musical meter and tone set from the previous activity.

• Speak directions in a meter while the class pats a steady beat. Consider prompting students to echo the directions back for more engagement.

  • Example: “When you get to the drums,” (When I get to the drums) “Your hands go on your head! (My hands go on my head!)

  • Change the words of the song to be directions to the next steps in the lesson

  • Example: After playing the game to Bluebird Bluebird, the teacher changes the words of the song and keeps the same melody: “Walk to your spots and have a seat, walk to your spots and have a seat, walk to your spots and have a seat, ooooooohhhhh sit down on your spo-ot”

  • Sing the focus song as you change locations in the classroom (line up, move back to your spots, move to an instrument, get manipulatives, etc.)

  • Example: Students singing and playing the game to Apple Tree, students sing the song one more time while walking to their spots.

Movement Movement is another transition that takes little to no prep. Simply giving students something to do as they change locations is helpful. This is also a great way to include more student choice in our teaching!

• Tiptoe, step, slide, wiggle as you change locations in the classroom (line up, move back to your spots, move to an instrument, get manipulatives, etc.)

Musical Skills Transitions:These transitions can require a bit more preparation to plan. However, they’re invaluable when putting together a cohesive, musical lesson!

These transitions can be used to guide logistic changes (like changing locations in the room or handing out instruments). They can also be used to make musical connections between lesson segments and transfer content knowledge to a new setting.

Keep in mind that we can combine these transitions as necessary. For example, students might move to the melodic contour of a song as they move back to their spots. Once they’re there, they read a target phrase that the teacher changes to match the opening of the next song.

Let’s look at both functions of transitions in these ideas: logistics and musical content.

Sing & Speak:Logistics Transition:

• Sing the focus song as you change locations in the classroom (line up, move back to your spots, move to an instrument, get manipulatives, etc.)
• Sing the focus song as you find a partner with eye contact. You may only be partners with someone singing!

Musical Content Knowledge Transition:

• Using a phrase with the target melodic element, echo sing a portion of the song that matches the next song in the lesson. Students identify the matching phrase.

  • Example: After an activity with the song, Sea Shell, students echo sing the last four beats, “sing about the sea.” The teacher sings the song again on a neutral syllable and students echo. The teacher asks students to find the words that match the same melody in Rocky Mountain (“do remember me”). Students sing Rocky Mountain.

  • Sing the bass line to a focus song. Continue singing the same bass line to introduce the next song

  • Example: During the high concentration portion of the lesson, students sing the bass line to Rocky Mountain while walking around the room and moving to the melodic contour of the bass line. Students continue singing the bass line while walking back to their spots. As students continue singing the bass line, the teacher sings the melody to Tideo. Seated, half the class sings the bass line and half the class sings Tideo.

Play: Logistics Transition:

• Clap the rhythm of the words as you change locations in the classroom (line up, move back to your spots, move to an instrument, get manipulatives, etc.)
• Clap the rhythm of the words, and choose if you’ll crescendo or decrescendo as you move to your spot.
• Play the rhythm of the words on body percussion of your choice as you change locations in the classroom (line up, move back to your spots, move to an instrument, get manipulatives, etc.)
• Play the rhythm of the words on rhythm sticks. When the teacher comes by to collect the rhythm sticks, continue clapping the rhythm of the words until all the sticks are gathered.

Musical Content Knowledge Transition:

• Clap the rhythm of the song with an ostinato. Keep the ostinato going into the next song.

  • Example: After singing and playing the game to Alabama Gal, the teacher claps an ostinato (ta-di ta-di ta-di ta) as students clap the rhythm of the song. At the end of the song, the teacher motions for students to clap the ostinato. As students clap the ostinato, the teacher claps the rhythm to the next song in the lesson, Weevily Wheat. At the end of the song, students join in clapping the rhythm of Weevily Wheat in unison.

  • Play matching phrases by ear

  • Example: After playing the melody of Plainsies Clapsies at a barred instrument, students work with their shoulder partner to play Bounce High Bounce Low by ear. The teacher leads students in checking their work by having the whole class play and sing the melody together.

  • Play partner rhythms

  • Example: After singing and playing the game to Tideo, students pat the rhythm of Tideo while the teacher plays the rhythm of Rocky Mountain.

Move:Logistics Transition:

• Move to the melodic contour of a song as you change locations in the classroom (line up, move back to your spots, move to an instrument, get manipulatives, etc.)
• Clap the rhythm of the words, and choose if you’ll crescendo or decrescendo as you move to your spot. If you crescendo, start in a small shape and get bigger. If you decrescendo, start in a big shape and get smaller.

Musical Content Knowledge Transition:

• The teacher plays the rhythm of the next song in four-beat phrases on a hand drum. Students echo move to the four-beat rhythms in open space. Eventually echo move back to spots.

  • Example: After speaking and moving to Engine Engine Number Nine, the teacher plays four-beat rhythms on a hand drum and students echo move with “tiptoes” and “steps” around the room in open space. Eventually the teacher transitions the rhythm to four beats of Zapatitos Blancos. Students echo tiptoe and step their way back to their spots. Once they’re seated, they play the game to Zapatitos Blancos.

Read:Logistics Transition:

• Students choose their favorite rhythm from a list of short rhythmic phrases on the board and hold up fingers to show which rhythm they choose (like in this assessment activity for Old Brass Wagon). When the teacher claps students’ chosen rhythm, they echo clap it while changing locations (lining up, moving back to spots, moving to an instrument, getting manipulatives, etc.)

Musical Content Knowledge Transition:

• One small change: Read notation to a known song. The teacher gradually transforms the notation to match the next song.

  • Example: After singing and playing the game to Apple Tree, students clap the rhythm of the first four beats on the board. The teacher changes the rhythm to show the first four beats of Bee Bee Bumblebee.

Write:Musical Content Knowledge Transition:

• The teacher sings a known melody on a neutral syllable and students dictate. The teacher sings the next song (with the same pitch set) on a neutral syllable. Students notate the new song and identify it.

  • Example: After singing and playing the game to Bounce High Bounce Low, the teacher sings the melody on a neutral syllable, four beats at a time. Students use bingo chips or other manipulatives to notate the melody on the staff. Eventually the teacher sings the opening melody of Luna Lunera on a neutral syllable. Students notate the melody and identify the song.

Improvise: Logistics Transition:

• Echo clap the teacher’s rhythm as you move to instruments. On the way back after the activity, improvise a response to the teacher’s rhythm instead of echoing.
• Echo the teacher’s rhythms as you change locations in the classroom room (line up, move back to your spots, move to an instrument, get manipulatives, etc.), but improvise a new order of body percussion instead of clapping.

Musical Content Knowledge Transition:

• Play a portion of a known song or rhyme and improvise another portion. Eventually the teacher plays the next song or rhyme instead of improvising.

  • After singing and playing the game to Ickle Ockle, students clap the first eight beats of the song and improvise the second half. After a few iterations, the teacher claps the opening rhythm to the next song, We Are Dancing in the Forest instead of improvising.

Inner Hearing and Listening:

Logistics Transition:

• Inner hear the focus song while changing locations in the classroom (line up, move back to your spots, get manipulatives, etc.). Students step the steady beat of the song as they move.
• Inner hear the focus song while changing locations in the classroom (line up, move back to your spots, get manipulatives, etc.). Choose one key word (like all the colors, or the last word) for students to clap on as they inner hear.
• The teacher plays the melody of a new song on recorder as students change locations in the classroom (line up, move back to your spots, get manipulatives, etc.). As students move, ask them to listen for one thing they notice about the song.

Musical Content Knowledge Transition:

• The teacher signs the melody to a known song, then uses a connecting phrase to start the hand signs to show the next song. Students guess the song.

  • Example: After singing and playing the game to Bow Wow Wow, the teacher signs the melody using body solfege. Students inner hear and copy the solfege signs with the teacher. The teacher uses the last phrase “mi re do” to start the next song, such as Fais Do Do, Frog in the Meadow, or Hot Cross Buns. Students raise their hands when they guess the song.

  • The teacher sings the melody to the next song on a neutral syllable or on solfege syllables. Students sing along when they recognize the song.

  • Example: After singing and playing the game to Here Comes a Bluebird, the teacher signs the solfege of the opening eight beats and students sign along. The teacher shares the next song is different, and students may sing along when they guess what it is. The teacher silently signs the melody of Plainsies Clapsies. Students sign along and sing when they know the song.

Thematic Transitions Thematic transitions work especially well with younger students. They’re a simple and engaging way to tie lesson segments together.

Creating narratives that connect stories together is a common option for thematic transitions. Another option is seeking out songs with similar themes. Let’s look at both options.

Connecting Stories: Consider how pieces of the lesson might fit together in a story. Here are a few options:

• Characters meet each other

  • Example: After the Bee was done buzzing around the pig and the man, he flew over a hill and guess who he saw?!

  • Characters go places

  • After Johnny was done working with his hammer he was so hungry! So he decided to go to the baker’s shop. (Sing Down to the Baker’s Shop)

  • Characters fall asleep or wake up

  • While Engine Number Nine is moving over the hills and across the fields, we’re probably getting tired. We’ve been traveling a long time! Let’s get just a little bit of sleep and then see where we are when we wake up. (Sing Goodnight Sleep Tight or another lullaby)

  • Characters have a party or an event

  • We have so many tortillas ready for the party after speaking Tortillitas Para Mama! Now our guests are here and we’re ready for the pinata! (Sing Dale Dale Dale)

Similar Themes:Lesson segments can also tie together when they use similar themes, such as:

• Bell Horses leading to My Little Pony Needs New Shoes, leading to Cobbler Cobbler
• John the Rabbit, leading to Oats Peas Beans
• Los Pollitos Dicen, leading to Come Back Home My Little Chicks

Visual Transitions: Students are asked to listen and process an enormous amount of verbal information on a daily basis! We know from our look at Universal Design for Learning that one way to meet the needs of all learners is to use more than one mode of communication. Transitions can be a beautiful way to use visual communication in addition to the auditory communication students may be asked to use more often.

Sign Language Use sign language for sit and stand, make a circle, turn to a partner.

Pictures Use pictures of game formations such as concentric circles or a longways set.

Written Directions Simply writing directions on the board instead of speaking them without a visual aide can be a helpful transition!

When students need to turn to a partner and discuss a prompt (such as what they notice about the new melodic element)

Today we’ve looked at how transitions can transform a general music lesson by keeping students engaged, helping classroom management, and maximizing the amount of time students spend musicing.

We’ve also looked at several types of transitions, like non-musical transitions, musical transitions, thematic transitions, and visual transitions.

Elementary Music Planning Kit

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A lesson template is a great way to ensure details like transitions are thought through. You can find the one I use in this Guide to Daily Lesson Planning as part of The Elementary Music Planning Kit.

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I wonder if you’ve ever had this experience. Let’s imagine you’ve planned to play a passing game in your class. You anticipate playing it a few rounds as part of the lesson segment and then you’ll move on to another activity with the same song. But once you introduce the game and get going, you realize students are all over the place in terms of their beat passing skills. You have students moving it way to fast because they think it’s hot potato, students passing way too slow because they’re trying to follow directions and be careful, and you have some students who don’t know what to do when they get the ball.

You’re not alone with this. Passing games can be deceptively difficult - even for our older students, especially when we get into passing games where we have to coordinate when to pick up and when to drop an object in front of a partner.

Today we’ll talk about some ways to scaffold passing games so students are setup for success, regardless of their passing skills. We’ll break this into lower and upper elementary, with specific steps and considerations for each.

Let’s jump in.

Lower Elementary One of the best things we can do is not to start with the passing game itself, but actually to start as a whole-class, kinesthetic activity. There are a few options for this, depending on what students need. Let’s start with the most basic one and move from there.

The key to all these scaffolds is that every single student in the room is keeping the beat in some way, even when they’re not passing the object.

Pat the Steady Beat The first thing to check in on is that students are actually aware of the steady beat, and they have some level of accuracy in their beat performance. Let’s use Bee Bee Bumblebee as an example.

Instead of passing an object around the circle and someone being “out,” lead students in patting a steady beat all together. At the end of the rhyme, the teacher calls on a student to decide where the class will keep the beat next (elbow, shoulder, shoe, neighbor’s shoe, etc.). After the next round, the student who was just chosen calls on the next student to decide where to keep the beat.

This adaptation of the game keeps things interesting because the beat changes with each iteration of the game. We’re also asking students to choose each other instead of keeping the ownership of the game exclusively with us.

Backing up and looking at beat competency is a critical first step. If students don’t keep the steady beat in their own personal kinesthetic space, they’re going to have a hard time tracking beat when it’s spread outside the circle.

Read More: Guide to Teaching Steady Beat
Listen to the Podcast: The First Weeks of Teaching Kindergarten Music

Track the Beat by PointingThe next extension is for students to help you point the steady beat around the circle. As students speak the rhyme or sing the song, everyone points in a steady beat, as if they’re tracking an imaginary ball.

This is a convenient way to play the game. First, we’ve introduced the core element of the game itself: passing and elimination. Second, we have a built-in self-assessment with beat passing because everyone in the room should land on the same person at the end of the rhyme. If students don’t land on the same person as the rest of the class, they have a clear indicator that their beat was off from the steady beat of the rhyme. From there, they can adjust and try again in the next round without being singled out. For this version of the elimination game, the person who is out can pat a steady beat in the middle of the circle, or pat a steady beat on a hand drum.

Pointing the steady beat instead of passing an object is also an established way to play many early childhood games, such as Zapatitos Blancos. If this is the scaffold students need, we can adjust many more passing and elimination games to use pointing instead of passing an object. Students will still have a successful, musical, and pedagogically sound experience with this option.

Walk Behind the ObjectFor this scaffold, we’ll add the passing object and play the game almost as normal. The difference is that the teacher is walking behind the circle as students pass the ball, and pointing to the student who should have the object. In essence, we’re tracking the beat around the room as students play the game. This scaffold gives students the opportunity to play the traditional passing game, but also gives them a visual support.

The most important part of this scaffold, like the others, is that everyone in the circle keeps the steady beat in some capacity when they don’t have the object. Students can either point with you as you move around the circle (like the second scaffold) or pat the steady beat somewhere on their bodies (like the first scaffold).

Passing Too Slowly or Too Quickly The purpose of the passing game is to practice steady beat. The purpose of steady beat is that it keeps us together as an ensemble. When students pass too slowly or too quickly, they’re adjusting the tempo of the steady beat.

If students are playing the traditional passing game, or using the third scaffold, consider adjusting the tempo of the rhyme to fit students’ passing speed. If a student passes too slowly, the rhyme would sound like: “bee bee bummmbbbbllleeeee bee, stung an man upon his knee,” as if the third beat had a fermata over it.

Assessment Questions: This type of steady beat behavior would lead to some questions in our assessment process.

If we notice a student who consistently passes the object too slowly, we’ll think back to how the student engaged with the steady beat in the previous scaffolds. Do they perform the steady beat accurately with patting or pointing when they don’t have the object? Do they speak the rhyme out loud with the rest of the class? If so, they probably just need more practice with the game. In that case, we’ll continue playing the game as normal and let the student develop steady beat in this context on their own timeline. Remember that steady beat is a developing skill that students will achieve at different times.

If we observe multiple students in the group who struggle to pass the object accurately, we can consider backing up to one of the previous scaffolds.

These strategies work well for lower elementary when we’re working with object passing games. Let’s talk about upper elementary scaffolds we might use with more challenging passing games.

Upper Elementary An Appropriate Difficulty Level With older students - especially those we consider to be older beginners - one trap that we can fall into is giving them activities that are physically too advanced in relation to their musical coordination. I believe we do this because we don’t want them to be bored. We don’t want them to check out because the activity we’ve provided is too easy. But in fact, the opposite can happen. If students don’t feel successful, they’ll check out and look for ways to make the activity more interesting. This tends to be through behavior that as the teacher, we’d prefer that they avoid. This means it’s often better to back up and take things slowly, rather than rushing straight into a challenging passing game.

One of the things that tends to separate passing games that are more advanced from games that are more simple is the number of objects in the circle.

Simple passing games will very often have one object that the whole class passes around. More complex passing games will often use an object for each student. This is tricky because the entire class has to coordinate when to pick up the object and when to drop it off - as well as which direction to drop it.

Upper Elementary Passing Game Scaffolds Establish What Hand To Use This may seem obvious, but take the time to establish where your right hand is and where your left hand is. Next, establish what it feels like to pass to the neighbor on the right. Students are likely following you in a circle as you lead the passing game. Because of this, might notice a few students on the other side of the circle who use the correct hand to pass the object, but follow you for the passing direction, which means they’re crossing their arm over their body and passing to the left - even when they think they’re passing to the right. Another on the other side of the circle will have an easier time if they don’t look at you. They can follow their immediate neighbors instead, that way everyone looks like they’re moving the same direction.

Add A Verbal CueStudents will have an easier time with the passing motion if they have a verbal cue that explicitly says what to do on what beats of the song. Some options for a verbal scaffold are “pick up, pass” or even simpler, “me, you, me, you” or “mine, yours, mine, yours.” Students can also suggest their own cues! Whatever you choose, add the verbal cue as an ostinato to the main song as you perform the passing motions. Eventually transition to students whispering the ostinato, then thinking it in their heads. When you notice that students are ready, they’ll sing the song as they perform the passing game.

Add Objects GraduallyWhen first introducing the game, students will sing the song or speak the verbal cue ostinato without any object being passed. We’re just practicing the motion. When you see that students are successful, start to add in objects one by one. To do this you’ll have a pile of passing objects (erasers, cups, beanbags, etc.) next to you. As you sense students are ready, you can scaffold up by adding one object at a time into the circle. The reverse is true if you see that students aren’t ready to pass all together - you can collect the objects as they come around the circle and put them back in the pile next to you. This gives you a quick and easy way to control the difficulty of the passing game, based on what you see students need.

Try a New FormationNot all passing games need to happen in a circle! If you anticipate that the game will be too advanced for students at first, try the passing game in a straight line before you move to a circle. When students pass in a line, there’s no confusion about which direction to pick up and and which direction to pass. You can also try having students sit in the circle, but turn to the right (as if they’re lined up in a train). From this “train” formation, students pass the object on the outside of the circle using their right hand. With this adaptation, students are only worried about picking up the object and dropping it forward. This eliminates the left and right passing confusion all together.

Establish A Plan for Mistakes The whole game part of a passing game is that things can go wrong, and we all need to work together! So make a plan for what to do when we mess up, instead of making one student panic that they have 15 erasers in front of them and everyone is yelling at them to hurry up. My recommendation is that no matter what, keep up the passing motion in a steady beat. Even if the class messes up and there isn’t an object in front of each student, the motion continues. Similarly, if one student ends up with a pile of objects in front of them, they’ll continue with the beat motion and move them one at a time to their neighbor on the right. In other words, regardless of what’s in front of you, we’re all working together like a big clock.

Make Your Own Version in Small GroupsSometimes passing games are difficult because there are just too many people in the circle, which makes it harder to reset. To counter this, consider having students come up with their own versions of the passing game in small groups. Depending on the grade-level you’re working with, students might be in groups of four, five, or six. An additional perk of this option is that there’s more buy-in when students have a personal stake in the creation process. Students also have the opportunity to create the routine as simple of as complex as they want with fake passes, tosses, etc.

Ask Your Students The very last strategy is to hand the responsibility of learning back over to the students. All of our students, and especially upper elementary musicians, are more than capable of problem-solving on their own. If the process of teaching the passing game feels tricky and things aren’t going as you planned, hand the problem back over to the class. This moves the learning process away from us feeling frustrated and confused, and it puts students in the driver’s seat. Questions like, “Are we all passing to the same steady beat?” and “Why do you think that is?” are a great starting point. Give students a few moments to talk to the people around them and then work together to make a list of strategies on the board. Students are the ones who know what’s confusing them or making things difficult. We just have to ask them. From there, they can articulate their own strategies that we probably wouldn’t have come up with or clarified with the wording they need in order to understand.

Moving ForwardPassing games can be a lot of fun but they can also be frustrating if students are new to them! The important thing to keep in mind is that we can play passing games in some capacity regardless of what scaffold we’re using. There are ways to back up and move forward so students have the appropriate level of support and challenge.

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For many music educators, improvisation can feel difficult to assess. Many of us view improvisation as a personal expression of musical ideas. We may think of it as subjective, instead of as a concrete “right or wrong” task.

In many ways, these views are accurate! Improvisation is a divergent activity, meaning there are multiple possible correct answers. It also necessitates personal musical choice, which can be subjective. These characteristics of improvisation are accurate, but that doesn’t necessarily take away from assessment validity. When we frame assessment as how we know what students need from us, clarify our goals with long-range planning, and collect data in a play-based way, we’re set up well to assess improvisation.

Let’s look at some specific ways to assess improvisation in an elementary general music setting.

We’ll start with the activities themselves, and then discuss principles to keep in mind when it’s time to improvise with student musicians.

You can find more detail about assessment for elementary general music in the assessment course.

Improvisation Assessment Examples: Improvising a Loud and Quiet:¿Quién Es Esa Gente?

In this example, Kindergarten students sing a loud or quiet improvisation, depending on the musical situation they’re describing.

Clarifying Goals through Long-Range Planning: Loud and quiet is an early comparative Kindergarten students explore. Throughout the concept plan students make musical choices, and at the end of this concept plan from The Planning Binder in the 2020 - 2021 school year, students improvise a story with a loud or quiet voice.

Because the purpose of this assessment is loud and quiet, we’re not concerned with a specific toneset students should use, or the length of the improvisation. We’re only assessing their appropriate use of a loud and quiet singing voice improvisation.

Assessment Logistics: * Song: ¿Quién Es Esa Gente? * Objective: Students improvise with a loud or quiet singing voice * Assessment Activity: Students improvise with a loud or quiet singing voice * Data Collection: The teacher listens to students improvise with a loud or quiet singing voice to the class and with a partner. * Measurement Tool: Rubric with a description of the improvisation:

• The student improvises with a loud or quiet singing voice
• The student does not improvise with a loud or quiet singing voice, or does not improvise
• Lesson Segment Time: 3 minutes

The Assessment Process: 1. Sing the song and pat the steady beat. 2. The teacher sings the questions: When is it a good time to use a quiet voice? When is it a good idea to use a loud voice? Please think your answer in your head, then get ready to sing it. 3. Students brainstorm ideas, then share their answers with a loud or a quiet improvised melody. 4. Examples:

* “It’s a good idea to use a loud voice on the playground”
* “It’s a good idea to use a loud voice at a birthday party”
* “It’s a good idea to use a quiet voice in the library”
* “It’s a good idea to use a quiet voice when my little brother is sleeping”

1. In between each sharing, students sing the song with a loud or quiet singing voice and motions to show loud and quiet.
2. Students turn to a partner and take turns sharing their ideas with a loud or quiet singing voice.

Data Interpretation: We might look at the data and decide we’re ready to move onto the next musical concept! We might also look at the data and decide students would benefit from more practice with a loud and quiet singing voice. This part of the process is typically an intuitive understanding on the part of the teacher. As we collect the data (listen to students improvise) we normally have a clear sense of how to interpret the assessment results and how to adapt our next steps. We just might not always recognize that our intuitive redirection of the next activity is based on data analysis.

Improvising with Rhythmic Fluidity: Ickle Ockle

Game: Students walk in a circle holding hands and singing the song. At the end of the song, students find a partner (the partner may be anyone in the circle besides their immediate neighbor). Any student without a partner goes to the middle and the game begins again.

Clarifying Goals through Long-Range PlanningIn this improvisation example, students improvise eight beats as a class and with a partner.

One of the characteristics of musical fluency is that students’ improvisations use a fluid, natural flow of music, without stopping and starting or disrupting the steady underlying pulse. Because the goal in this activity is rhythmic fluidity, it isn’t necessary for students to use a specific set of rhythms, or use part of their partner’s question material in their own improvisation answer. Any output with smooth pacing is an accomplishment of the goal.

Assessment Logistics Song: Ickle Ockle * Objective: Students improvise eight beats with rhythmic fluency * Assessment activity: With a partner, students improvise eight beats with rhythmic fluency * Data collection:* The teacher listens and watches students improvise with rhythmic fluency as a class and with a partner. Because the game is repeated more than once, the teacher has the opportunity to listen to multiple students in different parts of the classroom, paired with different improvisation partners.

• Measurement Tool: Rubric with a description of the improvisation:

  • The student improvises with complete rhythmic fluency throughout the entire performance
  • The student improvises fluently throughout the majority of the improvisation. Some articulations may occur slightly behind or ahead of the steady beat.
  • The student improvises with inconsistent rhythmic fluency
  • The student does not improvise
  • Lesson Segment Length: 6 minutes
  • Previous Knowledge and Experience: Before this activity, students would have plenty of experience singing and playing the game to Ickle Ockle. They would also have cognitive knowledge of and diverse experiences (including improvisation) with the rhythms used in the song: ta, ta-di, and ta rest.

The Assessment Process: 1. Sing and play the game to Ickle Ockle as normal. 2. In the next round of the game, the teacher claps an improvised eight-beat rhythm. Students improvise their own eight-beat response back. 3. The teacher demonstrates sample improvisations with fluency (a consistent steady pulse underlying the improvisation) and without fluency (an inconsistent steady pulse underlying the improvisation). Students identify the use of a “smooth” or “jerky” steady beat in each example. 4. Sing and play the game again with the teacher improvising the rhythmic question and students improvising the rhythmic answer. 5. After a few rounds, and when the teacher observes that students are ready, students improvise both the question and the answer:

* Sing the song and play the game. When students find their partner, one claps an eight-beat question and the other claps an eight-beat improvised answer.

Data InterpretationWhen we look at the data from the activity, we might decide we should go back and practice improvisation in other structures before asking students to improvise in pairs. We might also decide students should repeat the activity in the next class, but perform their improvisations as solos. Depending on our pedagogical goals, we could also determine that students are ready to move from clapping their improvisations to playing them on barred instruments in question and answer form. The way we interpret and apply the data will go back to our long-range plans for student learning.

Improvising with Takadimi: Old Brass Wagon

Clarifying Goals through Long-Range PlanningIn this improvisation activity, students are asked to use a specific rhythm in their improvisation. In this specific case, the inclusion of takadimi is the only quantitative measurement of the improvisation we need. We might notice other important elements of the student’s improvisation, such as their level of rhythmic “flow” (fluency) or the length of the improvisation. We might even document those observations so we can alter the next class activities. However, those performance data would not factor in to the assessment evaluation for this specific improvisation experience. In this case, we are only assessing students’ use of the rhythmic element, takadimi.

Assessment Logistics Song: Old Brass Wagon * Objective: Students improvise with takadimi * Assessment Activity: Students improvise with takadimi * Data Collection:* The teacher listens to students improvise with takadimi, and students self-assess their improvisation

• Measurement Tool: Rubric with a description of the improvisation:

  • The student uses takadimi in their improvisation
  • The student does not use takadimi in their improvisation, or does not improvise

• Lesson Segment Time: 10 minutes

• Previous Knowledge and Experience: Before this activity, students would have plenty of experience singing and playing the game to Old Brass Wagon. They would also have cognitive knowledge of and diverse experiences with the rhythms used in the first three phrases of the song: ta, ta-di, and takadimi.

The Assessment Process:

1. Students sing and play the game to Old Brass Wagon.
2. Show the notation of the song on the board with different song endings. (These endings might be some the teacher provides ahead of time, or students might suggest them as a part of the lesson process.)
3. Seated, students play the rhythms on the board with their choice of body percussion. Try out the first three notated endings.
4. Notice that the fourth ending is empty! Tell students this box is empty so they may make up their own rhythms instead of reading what the board says to do.
5. Students choose their favorite ending (including improvisation), hold up their fingers to show their choice, and tell someone next to them which one they’ll choose to play.
6. Pat and clap the rhythm of the song again. Students play their chosen ending.
7. This time, let’s stand up and everyone will improvise their own rhythmic ending. We’ll do this two times. The first time, you’ll improvise whatever you want! The second time, you’ll do your best to include “takadimi” in your response.
8. Students turn to a partner and explain the directions (the first time, just improvise. The second time, improvise using takadimi).
9. Pat and clap the rhythm of the song two times.
10. Nice! Did you include takadimi in your improvisation? Students show a thumbs up / thumbs down, or sign language for yes or no.

Data Interpretation This activity gives students many opportunities for musical choice. In the convergent part of the process when students read the notation, they choose the body percussion they’ll use. When it’s time to improvise, they’ve had multiple examples of endings that use takadimi. They also have the opportunity to try out their improvisation before consciously trying to use takadimi in the ending. When we observe these many scaffolds of musical choice, improvisation, and conscious musical knowledge, we’re gathering important data that we can use in future instruction.

Each step in the process gives us important data about how students are handling varied opportunities for musical choice. When we look at the data for the improvisation assessment, we might decide we’re ready for longer improvisation activities, like eight or sixteen beats. We might also use qualitative data to observe that students struggle to read the rhythmic notation on the board accurately. In that case, we might review aural skills and visual notation of takadimi in the next lesson.

Adapting Prior to NotationIf students do not yet have conscious knowledge of takadimi, the activity can be adapted with text and graphic notation instead of Standard Western notation. Use the words, circle to the, wagon, and left.

We’ve looked at three examples of assessing student improvisations.

Let’s zoom out and discuss principles to keep in mind when it’s time to assess improvisation in elementary general music.

• We’ll start with looking at what exactly improvisation and assessment are.
• We’ll also talk about the types of data we can use to assess improvisation.
• Last, we’ll look at the role of long-range planning in the improvisation assessment process.

Defining Improvisation and Assessment Sometimes the reason we feel confused about how to assess improvisation is that we lack clarity in what improvisation is, and what assessment is.

Improvisation: When students make a musical choice and perform it spontaneously, they are improvising. This spontaneous musical choice might be as simple as making up new motions on the spot to go with a song or as complex as improvising over a 12-bar blues progression.

The simultaneous imagination and production of a sound is key in setting improvisation apart from other musical processes. In contrast, creative tasks like arranging and composition involve space between the time it takes to have a musical thought and the time it takes to execute a musical thought. Improvisations are also complete works in and of themselves. The creator doesn’t intend to go back and edit them later, as is the case with composition and arranging. Improvisations exist in the moment they are produced.

Assessment: Assessments are how we know what students need from us next. Assessments are collaborative and intentional musical experiences where we design a learning experience and get feedback from students so we can craft the next learning experience.

Qualitative and Quantitative Assessment Data for ImprovisationAssessment data might take the form of numbers and letters to be used as grades, numbers and letters that aren’t used as grades, or qualitative observations like sticky notes.

These data can be divided into two categories:

• Qualitative: Data that narrate or describe characteristics
• Quantitative: Data that show quick summarizations with an absolute value (like numbers or letter grades)

Both of these forms have their pros and cons, and both forms of data can be useful to us in different ways.

When we assess improvisation we may choose to document quantitative data with a quick numerical score, but make a note to ourselves using qualitative data so we get more background information about the student performance.

Assessing Improvisation: Clarify Goals through Long-Range PlanningAssessment of improvisation is directly tied to long-range planning because the assessment is directly tied to the purpose of the activity.

The assessment practice we choose will be dependent upon our goals for the improvisation itself. These goals are directed by the larger curriculum planning process for our program as a whole.

When we craft our value statement for our program at the beginning of the curriculum planning process, we might include values-based ideas such as wanting to develop musical thinkers who can actualize their ideas.

For the purpose of assessing improvisation, its helpful to be much more narrow with goals, and clarify the specific pedagogical outcome we want to observe.

Long-Range Planning and Improvisation Assessment: Our long-range plans frame the activities we do in the music room. When we plan this way, we’re not planning from activity to activity. Instead, we’re choosing strategic learning experiences that build off of each other so students build knowledge through active musicking. Each activity we choose serves the larger learning goal, as we’ve articulated in our long-range plans.

Depending on our long-range plans, we might have specific goals that are based around another musical concept (for example - rhythm, pitch, or form), or another mode of musical expression (for example - improvising on barred instruments or recorder).

Sample Improvisation Goals:Here are some sample goals we might articulate when it’s time to improvise. Notice each of these goals is an outcome we can hear and see.

• Improvise 8 beats
• Improvise with fluency
• Improvise in question and answer form
• Improvise within a specific toneset or rhythmic set
• Improvise with speech
• Improvise in a head voice
• Improvise with a clear recorder tone

Clarity Through What We Don’t Assess When we clarify our long-range goals, we know what we care about assessing. Equally important, we know what we’re not assessing.

For example, if our primary objective is for students to improvise for eight beats, that is the only thing we’re assessing. In that improvisation, we’re not concerned with the tone they produce on the instrument, how expressive the melodic line is, or whether or not they used question and answer form. There may be things we notice about their improvisation regarding the tone, expressivity, or form. However, because it’s not the purpose of the assessment, it’s not something we’ll document.

Assessing Improvisation in Elementary General MusicToday we’ve looked at several examples of assessing improvisation in elementary general music.

There are many more possibilities to framing assessment in elementary general music, but the principles will stay the same, regardless of the form the assessment takes.

1. We’ll start with what exactly improvisation and assessment are.
2. We’ll determine the type of data we’ll use to assess improvisation.
3. Last, we’ll ground the assessment in long-range planning.

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There are so many ways we can open the music lesson so students are immersed in a musical environment right away. The way we open the music room sets the tone for the rest of the class. Specifically, we want to open class in a way that is in alignment with our goals for the physical space, the emotional space, the social space, and the musical space.

Greeting students at the door with a song is one of the simplest ways to build positive classroom management practices right away. Let’s look at some specific options for entrance songs in elementary general music.

Singing Entrance Songs: A song at the beginning of the lesson could be anything students know, enjoy, and can sing! This is the most common way to start a music class, and for good reason. When we have consistency in our opening routine and what we expect from students, we’re setting a foundation for the rest of the learning experience.

There are truly endless possibilities, depending on your lesson objectives for the particular class.

Here are just a few options to get started:

• Alabama Gal
• All Around the Buttercup
• As I Was Walking Down the Street
• Great Big House in New Orleans
• Hey Betty Martin
• Hop Old Squirrel
• Just from the Kitchen

Recorded Music: Other times, we might choose to walk in with pre-recorded music. As students walk in, they can perform a body percussion pattern of their choice, or imitate your pattern.

What do your students want to walk in to? This is a great time to use student preference with song material, especially for upper grades.

If you’re looking for a few songs to get started, here are some options. Each of these songs are used to teach musical concepts inside The Planning Binder, either in the 2021 - 2022 curriculum or the 2020 - 2021 curriculum.

• We Are Family
• Everything is Awesome
• Brass Tracks - Say U Won’t

Body Percussion: Body percussion is another fabulous way to get students in the door, especially with older students.

Here are some options for using body percussion. Early experiences might be during our first weeks and months at a new school, or earlier in the year when students are working on reviewing musical concepts. Later experiences can happen if students are already comfortable making musical choices in this way, and are ready for more partwork independence.

Early experiences: * The teacher creates a four-beat body percussion pattern by stepping the beat and clapping a repeating rhythmic pattern. Students copy the pattern as they walk into class. * The teacher creates a four-beat body percussion pattern by stepping the beat and clapping a repeating rhythmic pattern. Students change something about it (like the rhythm or the body percussion levels) as they walk into class.

Later experiences:* The teacher creates a four-beat body percussion pattern by stepping the beat and clapping a repeating rhythmic pattern. Students copy the pattern as they walk into class. Once they’re in their places, students turn to a shoulder partner and create their own four-beat variation of the pattern. Student groups take turns teaching their patterns to the class as time allows. * Students can create their own unique four-beat pattern outside the room and use it to walk in the class. Encourage students to use stepping and clapping, and then to add more body percussion layers as they’re comfortable. One challenge here is that students will likely be doing a different pattern than their neighbor, which will require more partwork independence. * Students create their own four-beat pattern outside the room and use it to walk in the class. When students are in their places, choose two body percussion

Listening Entrance Songs: We might also choose for students to interact with a new song as they enter the music room. The listening selection you use will depend on your curriculum needs, but this is another musical place where there is lots of potential for variety based on your own goals for your students.

For a piece that’s intended to be a listening selection, it’s not necessary for students to know the song. However, it is helpful to have them physically do something as they listen. The exact way students enter will be dependent upon the listening selection’s purpose and why you chose it. Here are some options:

Students might follow your motions to show the melodic contour, they might move their feet in a specific pattern (like sliding, stepping out and stepping together, moving and stopping, etc.), they might do a body percussion pattern, or they might mime the instruments they hear playing. There are many options!

Entering to a song intended to be used for a listening experience is not necessarily common in the normal teaching routine.

Field recordings of known folk songs: We might find a field recording of other songs students are singing in class. Here are a few possibilities, sourced from Smithsonian Folkways:

• Alabama Gal
• Great Big House in New Orleans
• Kye Kye Kule

Unknown songs to provide a musical context:* Do You Know What it Means to Miss New Orleans

+ Students can walk in the room to this recording of Louis Armstrong, and connect it to the known work, Great Big House in New Orleans.

• Son de Ejutla - Son from Oaxaca

  • This is a recording from Smithsonian Folkways of a Oaxacan marimba ensemble. It’s played with multiple musicians on a single instrument, and we can hear the layers of sound the ensemble creates through different registers. More information about music in Oaxaca and other areas of Mexico can be found at Smithsonian Folkways.
  • Students can walk into the room to this recording, and connect it to the other piece with a connection to Oaxaca, “Bate Bate Chocolate.”

  • Adzewa

  • This is a recording from Smithsonian Folkways. The leading singer in this recording is Madam Aba Wansema. The group is made of mostly women, and they’re accompanied by an ampaa (hand drum), asow (a sheet of metal, played to keep time in the ensemble), danka (a rattle - what we might refer to in classrooms as a shekere).

  • Students can connect this listening experience to the Akan exercise song, “Kye Kye Kule.” There is a of diversity in music from Ghana! More information can be found at Smithsonian Folkways.

Choosing an Entrance Song: There are a few general guidelines we can follow when choosing an entrance song. In most cases, the entrance song should be:

1. A song students can fully participate in (whether singing independently, doing rhythmic work like body percussion, or moving with an element of the song)
2. A song students like!
3. A song that meets your curricular goals for the lesson

Within those parameters, there are many ways we can start the music class with music!

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When we sit down to write a lesson or a lesson segment, we need two things: a song (or another musical work) and a learning activity.

There are times when a song serves a clear purpose in our classrooms. Perhaps we have confidence about how to use the song because we saw it modeled in a training or explained in a textbook. There are other times we enjoy using a song, but the musical purpose is unclear.

Today we’ll look at one rhyme and how we might use it to accomplish three different musical goals.

The way we found a song in a resource (video, workshop, textbook, article, etc.) may not necessarily be the way that song needs to live in our classrooms. We can use our creativity and pedagogy skills to imagine new possibilities.

The Rhyme There are many ways we could experience this rhyme! It could be a finger-play, a dance, a jump rope game, or a hand clapping game, among many other possibilities.

Two, four, six, eight,
Meet me at the garden gate.
If I’m late, don’t wait.
Two, four, six, eight.

Variations of this rhyme also use Golden Gate instead of garden gate.

For our purposes, we’ll play it as a hand clapping game with a partner.

Two students face each other and clap partner hands together, then pat their own knees to a steady beat.

1st GradeIn 1st grade, we’ll use this rhyme for rhythm vs beat, ABA form, and melodic dictation with sol and mi.

Each of these lessons is designed to take up between 10 and 15 minutes of a full lesson.

Rhythm: Rhythm vs Beat

• Play the game with a partner while speaking the rhyme
• Point to icons for steady beat
• Students choose if they’ll clap the rhythm of the words or point to icons for the rhythm of the words
• “When we play the game, does our game use the rhythm or the beat?” (beat)
• “Let’s try playing our game with the rhythm of the words instead of the steady beat. We’ll use the same motions, but make them match the rhythm of the words instead of one sound for every beat.” Lead the class in playing the rhythm
• “Take some time to practice with your partner. You might also find a new way to play the rhythm of the words” With their partner, students clap and pat one or two sounds on a beat to show the rhythm of the words in the game

• Extensions:

  1. Pairs of students choose if they’ll clap the rhythm of the words or play the beat game.
  2. One partner does one, the other does the opposite
  3. Switch partners!

Form: ABA

• Students play the beat game with a partner (Two students face each other and clap partner hands together, then pat their own knees to a steady beat.)
• With their partner, students arrange rhythmic building blocks in any order they want to create a B section

• Perform the rhyme in A B A

  • A - speak the rhyme
  • B - All student groups play their B section four times
  • A - speak the rhyme

Melody: Melodic Dictation * Students play the game with a partner * “When we play this game, do our hands start high or low?” (high) * “What if we sing our game so the words match the motions?!” Transfer the rhyme to a sol and mi melody * The teacher improvises a four-beat sol and mi melody on a neutral syllable. In partners, students pat and clap the teacher’s melody while singing it on sol and mi * Student groups create their own melodic pattern using sol and mi by singing and clapping or patting a combination of sol and mi.

These 1st grade lesson segments have explored rhythm vs beat, ABA form, and dictation with sol and mi.

Let’s re-imagine the same rhyme with more musical concepts, this time more appropriate for 3rd grade musicians.

3rd GradeWe can add other ideas and musical processes to the same rhyme to make it pedagogically and artistically appropriate for 3rd grade.

These lesson segments explore rhythmic partwork with ta-dimi, performing in a round, and playing low sol on barred instruments. They’re designed to take up between 10 and 20 minutes of a full lesson.

Rhythm: Partwork * Students walk in open space with a steady beat, clapping the rhythm of the words * Add a rhythmic prompt: Speak “Oh no, I’m running late - I couldn’t find the garden gate!” two times.

• What would you do if your friend were late to the garden? Would you keep waiting even though they said not to? Or would you start planting seeds without them?

• Students choose their response and speak it four times in a row.

• In groups of 2 - 4, students choose which response they’ll give and create motions to go along with the text

• One side of the room is “no problem,” the other half of the room is “Looks like they’re late. I’ll start without them”
• Students scatter in open space. Walk with a steady beat, clapping the rhythm of the words of 2 4 6 8 while moving to the side they chose. When they get there, speak “oh no I’m running late” two times, then their chosen response four times. Clap 2 4 6 8 in place.
• In spots, speak the rhythm of each ostinato on rhythm syllables instead of text

Form: Round* Students clap the rhythm of the text while walking in open space * Students choose if they’d like to come in first or second in the round by holding up one or two fingers. * Students form two circles. One starters walking first clapping the rhythm of the words. The other circle comes in four beats later. * Students choose if they’d like to stay in their circle or if they’re ready to move in open space while clapping their part in the round. Tell students they’ll have two tries either way. * Practice moving in open space while clapping the words in a round two times.

Melody: Barred instruments and dictation * Perform the rhythm on body percussion (teach by rote with visual)

• Transfer body percussion to a melody on solfege:

• Review absolute pitch names on barred instruments if do is F.

• In partners, students collaborate to figure out the melody on barred instruments
• Students choose if they’ll sing on solfege or letter names as they play the new melody
• With their partner, students notate the melody in standard notation

There are other processes we could walk through, depending on our musical goals and classroom climate.

• Concepts: Today we looked at ways to explore rhythm, form, and melody. However, we could also use the same rhyme to explore texture or expression.
• Skills: These activities used a variety of skills, but we could repeat the process with more emphasis on skills like composition, improvisation, or listening.

There are many possibilities with one simple musical prompt!

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In this post we looked at one of the best ways to enhance a piece in an elementary general music room - adding a bordun.

From a pedagogy standpoint, a bordun often one of the earlier partwork skills students explore in our classrooms so it plays an important part in our move toward interdependent musicianship.

Even though borduns are valuable, it can be tricky to know how to introduce them so students have success. Especially if mallet work is new to students, there can be a fear that it will devolve into chaos.

Today we’ll look at how to scaffold instruction so students are set up for success when they sit down behind an instrument. We’ll talk about these steps in the context of a bordun, but they apply to other mallet parts as well!

In This Post: In this post we’ll explore…

1. Three Sample 3rd Grade Lessons
   • Different options to consider, depending on what your students need
2. General Tips for Teaching Borduns
   • Tried-and-true things to keep in mind
3. Teacher Prep for Teaching Borduns
   • So you can focus on what students need from you.

I - Sample Lesson Processes for 3rd GradeThese lesson processes use the song, Alabama Gal.

• Option 1: Straightforward, teacher-directed, by rote
• Option 2: Intermediate (several years of previous bordun and partwork experience)
• Option 3: Beginners (with minimal or no bordun and partwork experience)

Sample Teaching Process 1:3rd Grade StraightforwardThis process moves students to the instruments and gets them playing as quickly as possible!

LESSON 1:5 minutes

1. With students at barred instruments, the teacher says, “Please play this on your biggest F and smallest C.” T leads students in playing the bordun, “will you be my friend”
2. The teacher asks a small group of students to stay at the instruments. The rest of the students move to sing and play the game to Alabama Gal.

That’s it!

There are times this option - simple, straightforward, imitative - can be practical to use. Perhaps we simply need to move the musical ensemble along as we prep for a performance or other sharing. Perhaps the purpose of the lesson segment isn’t partwork, melody, or harmony, but some other musical concept and so we want to move toward the real purpose of the activity. There are times the most direct way is the best way.

However, before using this option exclusively in all lessons, there may be questions to explore.

Is this a process that will work for all students? Is there a way to build in opportunities for students to use their musical knowledge? Are there opportunities for group work or other collaborations? Are there ways to move from imitation and toward using the bordun to develop deeper levels of ensemble skills and musical understandings? Is there a way to add more artistry and musicianship to the teaching process?

Let’s explore those questions with the second process sample.

Sample Teaching Process 2:3rd Grade IntermediateThis is one example of a process that could be used with 3rd graders who have plenty of previous experience with borduns and partwork.

LESSON 1:15 minutes

1. Play the game and sing Alabama Gal while the teacher plays the bordun pattern
2. The teacher leads the class speaking / patting the text: “Will you be my friend” and speaking on rhythm syllables “ta-a, ta-a, ta ta ta”
3. Students sing Alabama Gal and simultaneously pat the bordun rhythm on their knees. The teacher observes students as an assessment. Students show their self-assessment of their performance on their fingers.
4. The teacher asks, “If our bordun is on do and sol, and do is F, where is sol?” (c) “If do is the bottom pitch on the instrument, which hand would play it?” (left)
5. Students speak the pattern as they move to barred instruments (2 students per instrument). The teacher invites students to play the rhythm of the bordun on any combination of do and sol they prefer. Take answers as time allows.
6. The teacher chooses six students to stay on instruments and play the chord bordun while the class plays the game to Alabama Gal. After a round of the game, the six students hand their mallets to another set of six students. The previous instrument players play the game. Repeat as time allows, switching out who plays the bordun.

This sample process calls on students to use conscious rhythmic and melodic vocabulary. Students self-assess their performance. The process highlights musical thinking and ensemble skills. Students have an invitation to explore divergent thinking before playing the teacher-created pattern.

However, we might still have some questions to consider before using this model exclusively.

What if students don’t accurately speak and pat the pattern in the second step? What if they aren’t ready to simultaneously sing and pat the bordun in step 3? What if they’ve never tried a bordun before?

We can take some steps to scaffold the process so students have more opportunities for success or positive redirection in each step.

Sample Teaching Process 3:3rd Grade BeginnersThis is one example of a process that could be used with 3rd graders who have minimal or no partwork and bordun experience. Instead of going to instruments right away, we’ll divide the process over three short lesson segments.

LESSON 1:4 minutes

1. Students play the game and sing the song while the teacher plays the bordun
2. Seated, students sing and pat the steady beat. The teacher observes the steady beat and singing performance as an assessment. Students show their self-assessment of their performance on their fingers.

LESSON 2:12 minutes

1. Students play the game and sing Alabama Gal while the teacher plays the bordun

2. Seated in two lines from the game, the teacher leads the class speaking / patting the text: “Will you be my friend” and speaking on rhythm syllables “ta-a, ta-a, ta ta ta”

   • Half the class speaks and pats the text of the bordun, half sings Alabama Gal. Switch jobs. The teacher observes students perform as an assessment.
   • Students show which job is their favorite by holding up one finger for the text of the bordun and two fingers for Alabama Gal. Students perform their favorite part. The teacher observes students perform as an assessment

   • At barred instruments with a partner (two students per instrument), tell students the pattern is going to be played on do and sol. Do will be the lowest F. Challenge students to find sol. Partners work together to figure out the pitches on the instrument.

   • The teacher asks questions to help guide thinking as necessary:

     • If do is F, where is sol? (c)
     • If do is the lowest note, which hand is playing it? (left)
     • The teacher invites students to play the rhythm of the bordun on any combination of do and sol they prefer. Then, establish the chord bordun pattern. Each partner takes a turn playing “will you be my friend” on F and C.

LESSON 3:10 minutes

1. Play the game and sing Alabama Gal
2. Review the bordun text (will you be my friend) and where the bordun is played on the instrument (F and C)
3. A small group of students plays the bordun on barred instruments while the rest of the class plays the game to Alabama Gal
4. After the game, the mallet players bring their mallets to a classmate and a new group plays the bordun while the rest of the class sings and plays Alabama Gal. Switch jobs so everyone has a turn at an instrument

In addition to mallet performance, this process is designed to solidify partwork skills before students go to the instruments. This teaching process also calls on students to use previously learned musical knowledge and skills, and apply them to the brand new task of playing a bordun.

At the end of the process students have played the bordun, but they’ve also sung a song, played a game, aurally identified rhythm syllables, analyzed solfege, explored barred instrument, worked with partners, worked in small groups, and practiced partwork. Each step contributes to developing a layered picture of musicianship.

Each lesson process above meets the objective of students playing a chord bordun on barred instruments.

However, the process the teacher takes to get students to that point can be quite different.

None of these lesson processes is superior to the others. The choices we make in scaffolding a mallet part will depend on our students’ unique needs and the specific moment in time.

II - Tips for Teaching Borduns

Whether students are already familiar with borduns, or this is their first time trying them, there are some scaffolds we can put in place to give support to students who need it.

We can also use the steps to add more artistry and creativity to our teaching process!

A quick note. You don’t necessarily need to use every single one of these steps every single time you want to teach a bordun. At some point, students have familiarity with the patterns and they need fewer support steps!

However, these steps can be incredibly helpful if mallet work is new to you or your students. And, if something goes south during the lesson, you’ll be better equipped to pinpoint what went wrong and make a strategy for how to course correct for next time.

I also believe these steps can serve to make the teaching process more artistic and bring in other areas of musical exploration.

Every Student Learns Every Part In the final version of a song arrangement, it’s likely that only one or two students will play the bordun. However, students will have the most success musically and socially if every student learns the bordun part.

The barred instruments are not for the strongest players exclusively. All students get a chance to explore their skills through a bordun.

When all students know all the parts of the ensemble, it also helps listening and partwork skills!

The Body is the First Instrument Even if your drone is just a steady beat, using body percussion or finding some movement connection before students go to the instruments will set students up for success.

The specific process you use will depend on the type of bordun you’re prepping.

Prepping a Chord BordunIf you’re preparing a chord drone, you might have students pat their knees while singing the song. This is the scaffold we used in the sample 3rd grade lessons above.

If you look around the room and observe that students sing and play the bordun pattern simultaneously, that’s an indication that they’ll have success on barred instruments. If you look around the room and see that students don’t maintain the pattern as they sing, that’s a good indication that moving to barred instruments is likely to be chaotic.

Prepping a Broken BordunIf you’re preparing a broken bordun, you can have students take turns patting their knees (“walking”) while singing the song.

The key here is that the tonic will be in their left hand. Understandably, most students tend to start walking their hands with their right hand.

If you look around the room and see students reverting back to right hand lead, that’s a sign that they might have trouble when they get to the barred instruments.

Prepping a Level Bordun Level drones on a single instrument can be prepped by patting knees, and then floating hands over to the right to pat the floor.

Again, the right and left distinctions will be important here. We can observe students play their part while singing the song to get a sense of their partwork development.

Prepping an Arpeggiated BordunThe favorite for a lot of upper elementary students is the arpeggiated bordun. We can prep that by crossing over to the floor while we sing the song.

Students will pat their left knee with their left hand, right knee with their right hand, cross the left hand over the right to play the floor, then pat the right hand on the right knee again. Again, if you see students singing the song while they perform the bordun pattern, that’s a sign they’re ready to move to instruments.

If you notice students getting mixed up about when to cross, that’s an indication that students will be more successful on barred instruments if you let them practice off instruments first. If students need a scaffold, it’s helpful to notice that the right hand never moves in this arpeggiated bordun. Try only floating the left hand from the left knee and across to the floor on the right, as if playing a passing game.

Start with Speech If the bordun has a rhythm - a pattern of long and short sounds - it can be helpful to use a phrase for students to mentally hold onto as they play.

An especially common phrase is “will you be my friend.”

Practice Partwork Before Moving to InstrumentsEspecially if this kind of harmonic partwork is new to you and your students, it’s a great idea to practice the musical independence challenge of adding a bordun.

If we were to use the simple bordun pattern of “will you be my friend” you might have half the class speak the bordun text and half the class sing the song, then switch jobs so students are doing the opposite.

The smaller you make the groups, or the more distance you have between groups, the more partwork independence practice students will get.

III - Teacher Preparation for Teaching BordunsThere are some things we can do before ever stepping foot in the classroom to help students with mallet performance and partwork.

Barred Instrument Visuals

When it’s time to actually move to the instruments, there are some visual cues that we can give to help students.

If you model the bordun on an instrument, turn the instrument around so the low side of the instrument is on students’ left and the high side is on their right. This means you’ll play the bordun starting on your right hand instead of your left. This simple step makes such a difference in how students spatially perceive our instructions since students’ mallets will move the same direction as the teacher’s.

If you’re short on instruments, you can also display the keyboard layout on the board or on the wall. When it’s time to model, you’ll turn to the wall and mime playing the part as students follow along.

Eyes Up!If you can’t see the students, you don’t know what’s going on musically or from a behavior standpoint. Practice singing the song and playing the bordun simultaneously while keeping your eyes up, instead of looking down at the instrument.

You can also practice speaking cues like you would in class, such as “Oh, I see someone bouncing their mallets!” or “Do you think our steady beat is speeding up or slowing down?”

Work on these skills ahead of time so you don’t look down at the instrument as you model playing the bordun. You can glance down when you need to as you play, but over time you’ll find that peripheral vision takes care of a lot!

In This Post: In this post we’ve taken a detailed look at how to scaffold mallet instruction for elementary musicians.

We’ve talked through three sample 3rd grade lessons with different options to consider, depending on what your students need.

We’ve looked at general tips for teaching borduns like having every student learn the part, starting with speech, and using the body before moving to instruments.

We’ve also discussed ways to be prepared as the teacher, so we can focus on the students and what they need from us.

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One way to instantly bring more musical interest and musical independence to the elementary general music classroom is by adding a bordun.

If you’re like many teachers, this is a word you might have heard before or read about without a clear understanding of what it is. Today we’ll define what borduns are, look at four different types you can try out, and think through as some guidelines for making your own musical decisions.

Let’s jump in.

What is a bordun?A bordun is normally an open fifth (normally scale degrees 1 and 5) that is played continuously throughout a piece, like an ostinato drone.

Borduns are a beautiful way for students to begin adding more texture to pieces from a young age! They really fill out an arrangement and can make a musical product sound much more solid.

The purpose of a drone is to make a piece more stable - rhythmically and harmonically - and to provide a sense of being grounded. This sense of being grounded happens because throughout the whole piece, we hear a strong tonic on the strong beats of the song.

Bordun CategoriesThere are several different types of borduns students can interact with depending on our goals and students’ musical development.

The three general categories of borduns are: simple, single-moving, and double-moving.

• Simple: Students always play scale degrees 1 and 5 throughout the whole piece
• Single-Moving: Students play scale degrees 1 and 5, but one mallet moves back and forth to an upper neighbor and back to the original pitch
• Double-Moving: Students play scale degrees 1 and 5. Both mallets move to the upper neighbor and back to scale degrees 1 and 5.

The most commonly used category is simple, so that’s what we’ll focus on today.

Simple BordunsChord Bordun

The two pitches (scale degrees 1 and 5) are played together at the same time.

This is the lowest barrier to entry for students beginning harmonic work, so this is often the first drone we use.

I normally ask students to play a steady beat on do and sol without introducing the word bordun. If we’re doing partwork before students have conscious knowledge of do and sol, I’ll ask them to keep a steady beat on the “big C and big G,” or whatever tonic and dominant are in that particular song.

Chord Bordun Example

Broken Bordun:The two pitches are played one at a time with alternating hands.

This is another option that works well for students just beginning harmonic work.

I ask students to play a steady beat on do and sol, and to have their hands take turns playing. The important thing here is that they start with the left hand, or, on the biggest bar.

Broken Bordun Example

Level BordunIn a Level Bordun, the two pitches are played together, but they alternate between different registers. Those registers might be octaves on the same instrument or on different instruments.

As students gain more motor skills and are ready for more of a challenge, a level bordun can be a great option.

I ask students to start on the low pair of do and sol, then float their mallets to the top pair.

Level Bordun Example

Arpeggiated BordunThe arpeggiated bordun is also called a crossover bordun because The left hand crosses over the right to play the higher tonic pitch.

This is the most involved in terms of physical coordination, but a fun challenge for older students!

Arpeggiated Bordun Example

Using a Bordun: What to ConsiderSince borduns make such a big impact musically, we use them a lot! Here are some things to keep in mind when you’re deciding when and how to use a bordun.

Harmonic ConsiderationsHarmonically, It’s convenient to use a bordun with pentatonic melodies or melodies that are modal.

The bordun doesn’t change with the harmonic outline of a piece like it would if we were using chords in functional harmony. You’ll recall that these bordun patterns stay on scale degrees 1 and 5, so the melody needs to be something that can rest on that tonic pitch without wanting to be pulled in different harmonic directions.

Bordun vs Functional HarmonyNot every song is a candidate for a bordun. Here’s an example with the song, One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Once I Caught a Fish Alive.

One, Two, Three, Four, Five with Functional Harmony

Because of the melody of the song, we naturally want to pull to the dominant chord.

One, Two, Three, Four, Five with a Bordun

We can hear that this song isn’t a great candidate for a bordun. We’d be better off using chords and chord changes so we can show that functional harmony.

Note:

As with all musical rules, the real rule is that you make creative decisions for your classroom based on your informed musical opinion. There are times you may choose to use dissonance intentionally based on your creative musical goals.

Rhythmic ConsiderationsRhythmically, borduns are simple.

While they certainly can utilize combinations of long and short sounds, the purpose of the bordun is to make the piece feel solid and grounded. This particular part in the ensemble is unlikely to have interesting combinations of long and short sounds. The simpler the better, and most of the time, keeping a steady beat on instruments is the right way to go if you’re not sure what to do.

Along those same lines, we want the bordun to fall on the strong beats of the meter. This means the downbeat, and then perhaps a secondary strong beat depending on the meter.

When to Introduce a Bordun:When are students ready to work with a bordun?

It’s likely that students are ready to use a bordun early in their musical development, around 1st grade, especially if we start with something like a chord bordun. However, there are some things we can do before moving to instruments to help students be successful when they try this out.

We’ll look in to that more in the next post.

As we add new textures and harmonic possibilities for students in elementary general music, we provide opportunities to strengthen musical independence. We also open students’ ears to new options when its time for them to make their own informed, creative decisions.

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Sometimes we have questions that we’re too embarrassed to ask! We might feel that we should already know the answer, or we might go searching for the answer online and still not come up with a helpful explanation.

Here are some terms we use often in elementary general music that we might not take time to define.

Some of these terms have come from my own experience of not understanding specific language for elementary general music. Others are questions from colleagues via Instagram.

What is a Bordun?A bordun is an open fifth (normally scale degrees 1 and 5) played continuously throughout a piece, like an ostinato. It’s convenient to use a bordun with pentatonic melodies or melodies that are modal because the bordun doesn’t change like chords do.

Borduns are a beautiful way for students to begin adding more texture to pieces from a young age! There are several different types of borduns students can interact with depending on our goals and students’ musical development.

There are three general categories of borduns: simple, single-moving, and double-moving. The most commonly used category is simple. Simple in this case means that students always play scale degrees 1 and 5 of the scale.

Simple Borduns:

• Chord Bordun: The two pitches (scale degrees 1 and 5) are played together. This is the lowest barrier to entry for students beginning harmonic work on barred instruments. I often ask students to play a steady beat on do and sol without introducing the word bordun.
• Broken Bordun: The two pitches are played one at a time with alternating hands to the steady beat. I ask students to play a steady beat on do and sol, and to have their hands take turns playing.
• Level Bordun: The two pitches are played together, but alternate between different octaves or instruments. I ask students to start on the low pair of do and sol, then float their mallets to the top pair.
• Arpeggiated Bordun: The left hand crosses over the right to play the higher tonic pitch. This is the most involved in terms of physical coordination, but a fun challenge for older students! We call it the fancy one.

What are the Solfege Hand Signs?The hand signs that are commonly used to show pitch relationships were developed by John Curwen in the mid 1800s, adapted from the work of Sarah Glover. They were made especially popular when Zoltan Kodaly incorporated them into the teaching approach he developed, the Kodaly Concept.

Since they’re associated with the Kodaly Concept, many people refer to these sings as Kodaly hand signs. A more accurate name other educators use is the Curwen hand signs.

The benefit of these hand signs is that they combine aural, visual, and tactile representations of pitch.

What’s a Singing Game, Folk Dance, and Play Party?These three categories of musical experiences are used so often in elementary general music! Many times we use a blanket statement of “game” to each collection of activities. That certainly is the most convenient way to frame them! Most of the time, it doesn’t make a difference in the classroom if we ask students to “play the game” or “do the dance” to a song.

• Singing Game: This is a broad term we use when we reference a song that is accompanied by movements. One distinction of a singing game is that they often have a specific purpose: Someone is chosen, someone is out, someone is the winner, etc. Another distinction is that they are often specific to a child’s musical culture. They are created by children, and intended to be used by children.
• Folk Dance: A folk dance is a movement sequence that is specific to a particular musical culture. In many American classrooms, square-dancing is a common form of a folk dance. Two cultural characteristics of square dancing are the use of a “caller” who calls out formations, and the use of a fiddle to accompany the dance.
• Play Party: In the 1800s and early 1900s, folk dances were one of the main social interactions American communities enjoyed. Social dancing was an integral part of the community culture. However, after the Great Revival, the Christian church prohibited dancing and the use of instruments. This caused American communities to get creative about how to continue their community events within the Church’s restrictions. The result was the Play Party. Instead of a “caller” (who would call the formations for dancing), text to play parties included movement directions inside the song itself. Instead of using instruments, people clapped their hands. Many play parties are still loved today, including Alabama Gal, Great Big House in New Orleans, Happy is the Miller, Old Betty Larkin, and Turn the Glasses Over.

What is Elemental Form? Elemental form is a collection of short musical ideas that exist in common patterns. Some of the most common elemental forms are:

• aba
• abab
• aabb
• abba
• aaab

Elemental form happens at the subphrase level, not the sectional level. In a theory class, these would be the lowercase letters.

If we were to look at the rhythm of Old Brass Wagon we would find an elemental form of aaab.

What is Elemental Music? Elemental Music is a name given to music that is simple. Elemental music uses the most basic musical structures to create musical works and processes.

Basic here does not necessarily mean that the music is not artistic. Rather, musicians who use elemental music use the most fundamental components - or elements - of music and expresses them in the most naturally occurring way.

Often, elemental music includes patterns like the elemental forms or ostinati. The most naturally occurring instrument is normally the human body, so elemental music often uses movement, speech, singing, and body percussion. When instruments are used, people with an elemental music lens would favor instruments that are naturally more accessible - more elemental - like unpitched percussion and barred instruments.

Here’s an example of elemental music: Students move in a rocking motion with a partner in open space while singing the lullaby from Puerto Rico, Duerme Pronto.

Some students play a chord bordun while others play an ostinato: hushaby, don’t you cry, I will sing a lullaby.

As a B section, students take turns improvising a lullaby on barred instruments. Students sing, move, and play Duerme Pronto to end.

What is Timbre? (And how do you pronounce it?)Timbre is the quality that makes instruments sound different from each other.

It’s pronounced “TAM-bur.”

Timbre is how we describe that a banjo, marimba, singer, or duck all sound different from each other, even if they all produce the same pitch.

When we play singing guessing games (like Doggie Doggie) we are playing a game that revolves around timbre. One player closes their eyes while another sings a solo. The player with their eyes closed tries to guess whose voice they heard.

We use many terms that are specific to our craft of elementary music education.

Taking the time to define terms can be helpful for all of us!

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This year is unique in so many ways. This year is challenging in so many ways.

One of the difficult obstacles many educators face is rethinking lesson ideas and teaching strategies to fall within the safety parameters set by their school districts, including no singing and no moving around the room.

These are the options we’re used to having:

What’s different about this year?

It’s not that much! We still have many options for active, student-centered musicing.

When a musical pillar like singing gets taken away, it can be hard to imagine our classes without it! However, when we take a step back and start with what we can do, we can find a different perspective.

This different perspective doesn’t change how challenging this year is, and it doesn’t take away how discouraged we can feel by the constant need to rework our go-to ideas.

But simple shifts to the reality of the situation (there are many avenues of musicing) instead of the false situation (I can’t do music this year) can be incredibly helpful as we move forward.

Today we’ll look at some practical ways to teach a song without singing.

We’ll begin with a framework you can use for any concept and any song in any year, and then look at a specific example of teaching a song without singing.

Let’s jump in!

Choosing Songs to Teach: Start with PurposeWhen we know why we’re doing an activity, the rest of the steps suddenly become much more clear! The answer to the question becomes the primary goal in our musicing.

Possible Reasons for Selecting a Song:There are infinite reasons we might select material for the music room. Here are some possibilities:

• Just for fun! Simply having fun and collectively making music is a beautiful curricular objective
• Melodic vocabulary: Maybe the song has a pattern of pitch relationships we want to highlight
• Rhythmic vocabulary: Maybe the song uses a specific pattern of durations or a new collection of weighted beats
• Form: Perhaps the song has an interesting structure we want to highlight
• Partwork: The song might lend itself to exciting ensemble layers
• Expression: The song might open our imaginations to exciting ways to show musical meaning through dynamics, articulation, and tempo variations.

When we’re clear on the purpose, we have an opportunity to transform the tired question (How do I teach a song without singing?) into one that moves us forward in a more musical way.

Transforming the Question

For so many educators, the question of how to teach a song without singing is one that causes confusion, anxiety, and discouragement. This is a tired question.

We can reframe it from one that causes confusion and anxiety to one that moves to clarity, imagination, and music.

The old question: How do I teach a song without singing?

The new question: How could I explore the purpose of the song (fun, melody, rhythm, form, partwork, expression, etc.) without singing?

Examples of Transformed QuestionsLet’s go back to the purpose of the songs we’ve selected. With the purpose in mind, here are some examples of transforming the question to gain more clarity, imagination, and music.

Just for fun:

If we selected a song because its fun, our primary goal is not for students to sing the song. It's to have fun! How can we still have fun without singing?

The new question: What are some ways to have fun with this song without singing?

Building Melodic Vocabulary:

If we selected a song for a specific melodic understanding, what other ways of musicing could we use to show pitch relationships? Could we use visuals? Movements? Body percussion? Listening? All of these are wonderful options for embodying melodic ideas!

The new question: What are some ways to show pitch relationships without singing?

Building Rhythmic Vocabulary:

If we selected a song for a specific rhythmic understanding, how else could we show duration or beat? What other modes of musicing could we use besides singing?

The new question: How can we show duration without singing?

Form:

If the form of the song is important, how could we show the structure of same, similar, and different musical sections?

The new question: How can we explore the structure of music without singing?

Partwork:

If we love how the song helps students with musical independence in an ensemble setting, what are some ways we could explore that besides singing?

The new question: How can we practice independent musicianship without singing?

Expression:

If we chose the song because of all the opportunities for expressive musicing, the purpose of the song isn’t singing. The purpose of the song is exploring things like dynamics, articulation, and tempo variations.

The new question: How could we show interesting expressive qualities without singing?

These new questions do a much better job of moving our thoughts toward clear musical goals!

The Process for Teaching a New Song without Singing:There will be variations in this process, and depending on the purpose of the activity this could be extended in many exciting ways! However, the core steps at beginning will probably follow this structure:

1. Listen (actively)
2. Notice something important about the song
3. Embody the important parts through a musical medium like movement, body percussion, or speech
4. Extend the activity based on your teaching objective

Action Example: Teaching Melody with TideoLet’s imagine we want to teach Tideo without singing. There are so many possibilities!

• The song: Tideo
• The purpose: Melodic patterns with mi re do
• The question: How can we explore stepwise motion that moves to the tonic without singing?

There are infinite possible answers to this question! Here’s one process, but yours may be different. The text in italics is the teacher dialogue.

This recording is available as part of this collection of vocal recordings for elementary general music.

Vocal Recordings for Elementary General Music

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Step 1 - Active listening:

As you keep a steady beat to our new song, I have a curious question: What could this song be about? Listen to a recording of Tideo and tap a steady beat. Students share their answers.

Step 2 - Notice something important:

Interesting! This time as you tap the beat a different way, let’s listen for how many times our song says, “tideo.” Listen to the recording and tap the steady beat. Wait! Hold your answer in your head and double check while you keep the beat a new way! Listen to the recording again. Students hold up eight fingers.

Step 3 - Embody the important parts through a musical medium:

I agree, it is eight! This time, let’s show the direction of the melody on each “tideo” with our eyebrows OR our noses. You choose. Play the first half of the song only. Students show the melodic contour. Please talk to your shoulder partner about how each tideo is different. Students discuss with friends around them, then share answers as a class. Great! The first one moves up with a skip, the second moves down by step, the third moves up with a skip, the last one moves down by step. A pattern! This time as we listen you may silently show those movements any way you want. Students take a few seconds to think about their movements, and give a thumbs up when they have their motions ready. Listen to the first half of the recording again.

Step 4 - Extend based on your teaching objective

This is where the possibilities are endless! It’s likely that this step will take place in the next class, and could be extended for several lessons. Here are some ideas:

Notate the melody:

Now that we’ve listened to the target melodic pattern, moved to it in multiple ways, and talked about it with friends, students can help us map it out in graphic notation.

Graphic notation is a beautiful way for students to work with pitch relationships!

After students help us map the graphic notation, we can easily transfer it into standard notation as well.

Play on body percussion:

Students can take all their musical knowledge of the melody this far and play the melody on body percussion. To do this, students will need to show different levels of sound that reflect the melody.

To create their body percussion patterns, students might work independently, or with their immediate shoulder partner without contact.

Here’s one option, but there are many more!

Teaching a Song Without SingingTo recap, there are many possibilities for teaching a song without singing!

They start with having clarity on the purpose of the song. From there, we can help students actively listen to the song, notice the important aspects, invite them to embody the music, and extend the activity based on our musical objective.

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In this post we talked about why we need options for music education that are as accessible as possible to all our learners. We discussed the three brain networks that impact how students show up in our classrooms (Affective, Recognition, and Strategic), and some general strategies to consider when it comes to UDL.

Today we’ll zoom in on the Affective brain networks. In this model of brain research, the Affective networks are responsible for the level of engagement students experience in learning, as well as their motivation level to become a lifelong musical learner. We’ll look at concrete examples of providing multiple means of engagement in elementary general music.

This is by no means an exhaustive list, but it can get us started in thinking through practical applications of UDL in music.

Let’s jump in.

On the go?Listen to this post instead of reading.

Do I Need to Add More Means of Engagement?For some of us, UDL is a framework we learned in a recent teacher training course. For many of us, we’re learning about this approach after many years already in the classroom. When we hear about a new approach in education, we might wonder if we really need to add one more thing to our list of things to think about.

How will we know if students are being provided enough means of engagement?

The answer might be more simple than we think. It doesn’t come down to what our principals say we need to do, or a checklist from a PD session, or a trend in education.

Look at the StudentsIf students are off task and unengaged in learning, it may be time to try out some new methods of recruiting interest, motivation, and self regulation. If there are students who struggle to participate in musical tasks - for whatever reason or whatever perceived reason - we can brainstorm more ways to engage them.

We can also ask students about their experiences in our classrooms and listen to their feedback. If their answers show that they don’t feel particularly interested in our curriculum, way of teaching, or level of ownership they’re given, it might be time to explore some new ideas.

Our goal is for students to be purposeful, motivated, and musical in our classrooms. Providing multiple means of engagement is how we can partner with elementary musicians so they make as much music as possible.

The Guidelines for Engagement: 1. Recruiting InterestWe like to learn about things that are interesting! How can frame or rework our presentations to nurture more student interest? 2. Sustaining Effort and Persistence:
Musicianship takes practice over time. How can we help students be attentive through the whole process? 3. Self Regulation:
When we self regulate emotional responses, we contribute to a classroom environment that’s conducive to learning. How can we help students regulate their behavior so they’re set up for success?

These are guidelines from Cast, with examples of how they can be applied in elementary general music.

Recruiting Interest (Guideline 7)

We like to learn about things that are interesting! These are ways we can partner with students to engage them in classroom activities. Much of this has to do with the repertoire we select, but it also has to do with student roles in the classroom. Are students active participants in musical tasks, or are they only being asked to follow teacher directions quickly? Here are some ideas for adjusting our learning environments to be more interesting to students.

Optimize individual choice and autonomy (7.1)Provide learners with as much discretion and autonomy as possible by providing choices: When we build lessons with student choice embedded, we not only strengthen our overall musicianship expectations, but we put students in a better place to take ownership of their part in learning. This starts with clear goals in our curriculum planning. From there, we can be flexible and creative about how students will show their learning. There are so many opportunities for student choice in the music room! Students can choose whether they will tiptoe or slide to their spots. They might choose to clap the rhythm of the words or pat the steady beat. They could choose to come in 1st or 2nd in a two-part round. They might choose to play an ostinato or clap the rhythm of the main song. Let’s imagine we want to expand students’ melodic vocabulary by exploring new melodic patterns that use low la in the extended pentatone. Early in this vocabulary building phase, we’ll want students to show melodic contour of a specific pattern. Students can choose if they’ll show the melody through movement or through body percussion. Since both options in this scenario move students toward our learning objective, we don’t need to dictate how students show melodic contour. Both pathways give us the evidence we need to move learning forward.

Read More:
Musical Choice - Steps to Take Before Improvisation

Allow learners to participate in the design of classroom activities and academic tasks:Students can help us create arrangements for sharing activities like informances or other presentations. They can also help create arrangements just for fun to be performed in class. If letting students create class arrangements is new for you or your students, an easy way to get started is with rhythmic building blocks. When we work with a folk song, students can use rhythmic building blocks to create their own rhythms in small groups. With their rhythms created, we can decide as a class if the rhythms will be a B section the class plays all together, or if a few of them will be ostinati that happen throughout the whole song.

Read More:
Planning an Elementary Music Informance (Part 1)

Optimize relevance, value, and authenticity (7.2)Vary activities and sources of information so that they can be age and ability appropriate: Among other criteria, repertoire we engage with in the music room should be repertoire we expect students to enjoy! We can select repertoire that is age appropriate, and then see how students respond over time. Students can also suggest repertoire to be used in the music room. Using student-provided repertoire requires more time and creativity from us, but the buy-in from students makes it a worthwhile endeavor.

Read More:
Resources for Creating a Grade-Level Song List

Design activities so that learning outcomes are authentic, communicate to real audiences, and reflect a purpose that is clear to the participants When our musical tasks are authentic, they can be transferred to real-world scenarios outside of the music classroom. In an active musical learning environment, students learn music by musicing - by actively embodying musical ideas - not by simply being in the room while a teacher talks about musical ideas. This emphasis on active musicing engages students in authentic, real-world activities. When we think beyond things like worksheets and memorizing the lines and spaces of the staff, so many new possibilities open up like singing, playing instruments, speaking, moving, reading, writing, improvising, composing, arranging, and listening.

Read More:
Planning an Active Music Curriculum

Minimize threats and distractions (7.3)Create an accepting and supportive classroom climate: From the first day of class, we can make sure our classrooms are safe places to learn. Our music classrooms should be places where student mistakes are welcomed and encouraged, and where forward motion is praised. Students might need coaching on the specific language to use in group work or in other classroom sharing activities when peers perform musically so the feedback is process-oriented.

Read More:
First Day of Elementary Music Lesson Plans

Vary the social demands required for learning or performance, the perceived level of support and protection and the requirements for public display and evaluation: Music engagement requires vulnerability on the part of us and our students, specifically when it comes to specific performance tasks such as singing or improvising. Because we learn by actively musicing, it's possible for the performance aspect of our classrooms to cause nervousness in some students. When we compare music learning to a traditional math class, this difference is highlighted well. When students learn math in a traditional classroom, they often sit at their desks while the teacher talks about math. When it’s time to show their knowledge, students often write down an answer on a worksheet. If a student has trouble with a specific math skill, their peers won’t know. In contrast, in an active music room students perform musical tasks to show their knowledge. The emphasis on authenticity can also cause anxiety for some students who can be concerned that if they don’t perform a skill well, everyone will know. We can help minimize threats and distractions by scaffolding skills well and lesson planning with intention so students aren’t put in a vulnerable position before they’re ready. When it's time to do a skill like singing or improvising, we can practice as a whole class, we can inner hear answers in our heads, we can practice with small groups, and then with partners all before necessarily asking students to perform alone.

Read More:
Improvisation Tips for Elementary General Music

The Takeaway: We can offer students choice, make learning active, and scaffold tasks strategically to engage more student interest.

Sustaining Effort and Persistence (Guideline 8)

When we learn a new skill, we need a combination of challenges to move us forward and assistance to help us meet those challenges. Thoughtful practice over time and internal motivation are both necessary to create lifelong musical learners. How can we partner with students so they’re self-aware and motivated to persevere as they build musicianship over time? Because we see (on average) ages 5 - 11, the answers to this question will change as our students change with age, interest, and life experiences.

Heighten salience of goals and objectives (8.1)Engage learners in assessment discussions of what constitutes excellence and generate relevant examples that connect to their cultural background and interests: Students can be involved in the creation of goal setting and evaluation in the classroom! In preparation for an informance or another sharing event, students can think about what an excellent final product would be, and come up with a list of criteria to know they’ve reached the goal. Class-created rubrics can be helpful to get the whole group of musicians on the same page.

Learn More:
Active Embedded Assessment in Elementary General Music

Use prompts or scaffolds for visualizing desired outcome: As we work toward an aural picture of musicianship, there are many ways we could achieve our desired outcomes! We could listen to field recordings. The teacher could demonstrate. We could listen to peer ideas. We could inner hear our desired vocal sounds. We could mime playing the instrument while inner hearing. We could map out the form of our arrangement on the board. There are many possibilities to provide an aural and visual image of the final musical goal!

Vary demands and resources to optimize challenge (8.2)Vary the degrees of freedom for acceptable performance: When we’re clear on our long-range and short-term learning goals, we get clarity on how much room we have for individual choice within those learning parameters. For example, if students are asked to perform a B section with rhythmic building blocks using patterns containing and beat and beat subdivision, there are many options embedded! Will students perform on text or on rhythm syllables? Will they clap the rhythms as they speak? Could they put the rhythms on body percussion? Will they add movements for each rhythm item? Will all cards have two beats or will some have four? Will students come up with the rhythms or will we provide them? We can consider what parameters we will set as teachers and what freedoms within those parameters students will have after we clarify our specific learning goals.

Read More:
The Ultimate Guide to Lesson Planning in the Music Room - Part 1

Emphasize process, effort, improvement in meeting standards as alternatives to external evaluation and competition: Why should students be interested and engaged in our learning tasks? Is it to see their class score on a behavior chart? Is it the threat of punishment or potential for a reward (both two sides of the same threat-based coin)? Thoughtful practice over time and internal motivation are what create lifelong musical learners. We can help deemphasize stickers, charts, pizza parties, and competition by emphasizing student progress, effort, and improvement. Instead of “Yessss your class is winning the good behavior competition between the 3rd grade classes! One step closer to free choice day in music!” we can try “I think our class rondo sounds even more expressive after today’s class! Let’s compare the audio I just recorded with what I recorded three classes ago and see what we think. After you listen, talk to your shoulder partner about what we can do next.”

Foster Collaboration and Community (8.3)Our classrooms aren’t isolated contexts. Elementary music students have a lot to learn from each other, and it’s important that they leave our classrooms able to listen and collaborate with other people.

Create cooperative learning groups with clear goals, roles, and responsibilities: In an active music classroom, information is shared from teacher to student, student to teacher, student to student, and students to community. This is an important part of deemphasizing the teacher as the source of all musical knowledge, and reframing the teacher’s role to the musical guide while the students construct their own knowledge. Students can work in small groups to figure out how to play a melodic pattern on barred instruments by ear. They could create a group ostinato. They could brainstorm ideas for a B section. They could discuss the meaning of the text in a song, book, or story.

Create expectations for group work: Like us, young musicians can have conflict when working in groups. What are the expectations for listening to ideas? What are the expectations for trying those ideas? Creating rubrics or checklists for students to work toward in small groups can be helpful to establish boundaries and goals.

Increase mastery-oriented feedback (8.4) Musical skills are built, not born. Despite the wide-spread myths around innate talent and creativity, our students become better musicians when they are motivated to thoughtfully practice over time. All of us are motivated to keep learning when we feel we’re making progress. One of the teacher’s jobs in the UDL classroom is to help students approach challenges through mastery-oriented feedback.

Provide feedback that encourages perseverance, focuses on development of efficacy and self-awareness, and encourages the use of specific supports and strategies in the face of challenge:When students encounter challenges to things like pitch matching, we can give them specific supports such as vocal sirens, inner hearing the melodic contour while moving, or singing with a friend. Instead of “Grace, you have such a beautiful voice!” we can try “Grace, did you hear how your voice changed after we did the sirens together?!” One implies an innate ability. One implies building skills over time through strategic support and self-awareness.

Provide feedback that models how to incorporate evaluation, including identifying patterns of errors and wrong answers, into positive strategies for future success:

In preparation for an informance or another sharing scenario, students may be working on a whole class ensemble arrangement of (just as an example) Engine Engine Number Nine. In this arrangement example, as one group is moving like a train, one group is playing a steady beat on tubanos, and one group is playing the rhythm of the words on rhythm sticks, it’s possible to get off from the steady beat. When that happens, we can say something like “hmmmm let’s do that again and listen across the room while we perform. When we’re done, we’ll tell someone next to us what we notice.” Students perform the arrangement again, discuss with their shoulder partner, then share a few comments with the class. If steady beat matching is identified as a problem, students can brainstorm solutions that the teacher writes on the board (inner hear and pretend to play your part, play quieter, watch the other groups, etc.). Students choose their strategy, then discuss whether or not it helped the ensemble.

Listen to More:
Rhythm vs Beat Arrangement for Engine Engine Number Nine

The Takeaway: We can create safe learning environments where students create goals, explore freedom within boundaries, and get process-oriented feedback from us.

Provide options for Self Regulation (Guideline 9)

Students differ in how engaged they are in specific tasks and how aware they are of their behavioral reactions to emotion. We can build in checks to strategically help students monitor their behavior, motivation, and engagement. The more we circle back to these internal motivation checks, the more opportunities we provide for students to be successful.

Promote expectations and beliefs that optimize motivation (9.1):It can be challenging for some students to wrestle with their current musical skill level in comparison to where they want to be. It’s possible for students to act out of frustration when musical tasks are beyond their reach the first try.

Provide prompts, reminders, guides, rubrics, checklists that focus on elevating the frequency of self-reflection and self-reinforcements: It can be helpful for students to have checks with group or independent work so they’re not alarmed or panicked when time is up. This idea is one I adopted from my Orff level 1 instructor, Alicia Knox. When student group or individual work time is nearing its end, the teacher plays an attention-grabber (bell, clap, chimes, etc.) and students hold up fingers for the number of minutes they still need to complete the task. The teacher scans the numbers quickly, then shares how many more minutes (if any) students will work before moving on with the lesson. When we ask students what they need, we give them an opportunity to mentally check in on their own musical progress and make an statement on what they need next.

Support activities that encourage self-reflection and identification of personal goals: As we work on individual or group assignments like compositions, it can be helpful for students to create their own goals for independent work. When working on a composition or other extended project, students can turn their paper over and fill in the blank to two simple prompts: “Today I ___ (write what was worked on)____. Next class I will ___ (write the next steps)___.” Students can also discuss these goals with a shoulder partner before writing. This helps keep the whole class focused on the next steps.

Read More:
An Orff Arrangement for Bluebird Bluebird

Facilitate personal coping skills and strategies (9.2):We all have times we feel sad, nervous, or angry in music class. Managing responses to emotions may come easier to some students than others, but there are ways we can help all students move toward managing their emotionally reactive behavior.

Provide differentiated models, scaffolds and feedback for appropriately handling subject specific phobias and judgments of “natural” aptitude: When we feel uncomfortable, anxious, or embarrassed, it’s normal to behave in a way that helps us avoid those feelings. Often that behavior isn’t conducive to the classroom environment we want to build. For example, students might react to these feelings by throwing mallets, yelling, shutting down, using comical voices or gestures, attempting to leave the learning space, or using hurtful words. Other guidelines in this post have mentioned the importance of scaffolding musical tasks and offering choices so students are challenged appropriately. We can also help students clarify their wording from “I’m not good at music” (a thought that can trigger an unproductive emotional behavior response) to “I didn’t play the 16th notes the way I wanted this time, but what if I try with a slower tempo?” (a thought that can move toward more positive and musical behavior).

Develop self-assessment and reflection (9.3)Offer devices, aids, or charts to assist individuals in learning to collect, chart and display data from their own behavior for the purpose of monitoring changes in those behaviors: I taught a particular musician who found it incredibly difficult to go through class without verbal outbursts. These were harmful to the learning environment and I wanted to partner with the student to see how we could find alternative ways of expression. The first step was simply helping this musician see what I was talking about when I referred to “verbal outbursts.” We came up with a system where the musician would keep track via written talleys for the number of outbursts in the class. There was no punishment for more talleys and no reward for fewer talleys. At the end of class the musician would share their numbers with me quickly before going to baseball practice. In those conversations, we mostly talked about what the student thought about class that day, and how baseball was going. The outbursts lowered dramatically in those weeks, and my relationship with the student improved.

Read More:
Upper Elementary Classroom Management for Music Teachers

The Takeaway: We can help students monitor their thoughts and behaviors by incorporating regular check-ins and opportunities for reflection.

In this post we’ve discussed many different angles for providing multiple means of engagement in Elementary General music.

Again, this is by no means an exhaustive list! The purposes just to get us thinking about some practical applications of Universal Design for Learning in elementary general music.

As teachers we are learners first. When we learn about a new framework for education we have an opportunity to try on new ideas, new philosophies, and new practices. Sometimes we also get to connect those new philosophies to actions that we’re already doing in the classroom. Most of us we are likely already implementing some of these UDL ideas, so perhaps we decide to highlight those practices moving forward. Perhaps there are some things that we could tweak just a bit to enhance the types of engagement we offer.

If you have thoughts about Universal Design for Learning or this particular pillar of multiple means of engagement I would love to hear from you. You can drop a comment below, shoot me an email, or find me on instagram.

How to Cite this Blog Post: Boler, V. (2021, March 2). Multiple means of engagement in elementary general music (UDL in music part 2). Victoria Boler. https://victoriaboler.com/blog/udl-elementary-music-multiple-means-of-engagement

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As elementary music teachers, we see hundreds of students a week - sometimes hundreds of students a day.

Within our student population there are dramatic differences in how students learn and how they will be the most successful musicians they can be in our classrooms. All our learners have learning differences because all our learners are unique, individual musicians with distinct backgrounds, preferences, thoughts, learning strengths, and learning challenges.

How can we set up our classroom learning environments to be as accessible as possible to each of our students?

Universal Design for Learning is an approach more and more educators are turning to in order to serve their students better. In this post we’ll look at who we teach, why Universal Design for Learning is necessary in elementary general music, and the core principles of this approach to teaching and learning.

Who Do We Teach? Variability in Elementary Music Students:The collection of factors that make students unique from each other is called variability.

Here are a few of the many ways the students we work with on a daily basis differ from each other:

• Age: Many music educators work with students ranging from ages 5 - 11. The developmental differences that occur during these ages are drastic!
• Musical Preferences: Our students each have musical preferences that can change from year to year. We work with students who light up at the chance to sing, and others who shy away from that particular mode of musicing. We also work with students are enthusiastic about playing recorder, and others who find the timbre of the instrument to be unpleasant. Our students also have different preferences when it comes to musical genres, artists, and specific musical works.
• Skill development: In each individual class, there is a range of musical skills including aural perception, vocal development, fine motor skills, and more. Each of these has a dramatic impact on how students engage in our classrooms.
• Social Interactions: Students have classmates they prefer to work with, and classmates they don’t necessarily prefer. Like adults, their relationships with peers are dynamic and evolving based on each interaction in the day.
• Background: Students come to us from dynamic backgrounds. Each individual home and home life is unique. Cultural backgrounds, family dynamics, SES, parent and child roles, spiritual beliefs, family hobbies, and levels of Collectivism all play a part in how students engage with the social and musical aspects of our classrooms.

These are the variables educators are used to considering on a daily basis.

However, brain researchers have looked deeper into three important networks and how they have a direct impact on our students’ learning experiences.

Variability and Brain NetworksThere are other types of variables we may not be used to considering when we think about our students.

One particular model of how the brain works can be helpful when demonstrating the variability we all have as learners. Our brains are made of complex networks, and variability in any of these areas can have a profound impact on how students engage in our music rooms.

In this model of the brain, here are the basic network areas that impact learning:

• Affective: These are the networks that impact how motivated and engaged we are in a particular task
• Recognition: These networks take in information and turn that information into knowledge
• Strategic: These networks are responsible for planning and organizing intentional action

When we align our teaching with each network of the brain, we have students who are motivated and engaged (affective network), understand musical ideas (recognition network), and can put their knowledge into action over time (strategic network).

Variable, not FixedThese areas of the brain aren’t static. They variable based on the individual, the individual over time, and the learning environment. In any one class of learners, we’re working with 25 or so complex humans with complex brain networks that change and adapt to the learning situation.

The “Average” MythWith this understanding of variability, we can easily see the problem with grouping students into general categories of good at music or untalented, a good student or a behavior problem, normal or disabled. Each of us has a wide range of variables that are constantly in motion.

Each of us has strengths and challenges to learning.

The Takeaway:There is no single profile of an average elementary musician. All elementary musicians have learning differences.

Instead of trying to make all students learn in the same way at the same pace, what if we made our classrooms as accessible as possible for all learners?

Universal Design for LearningUniversal Design for Learning poses an interesting question to consider: instead of looking at our students as having a deficit, what if we wondered if our curricula and learning context are disabling?

When a student is unsuccessful in our classrooms, what if our first step were not to look at the individual student and think about what they need to change in order to reach the demands of our curriculum? What if instead we first looked around the student at the larger context: our demeanor, our environment for learning, our curriculum, our expectations? And what if we were to think about how the curriculum and the context can be adapted so the student is set up to be successful?

This doesn’t mean we’re taking away accountability on the part of the student. In fact, it’s just the opposite. It means that we view ourselves as partnering with students to help them be more successful and take charge of their own learning.

What Makes it Universal?Universal Design for Learning is not meant to be implemented for the sake of one single student population or one type of learning approach. When we design our teaching practices to engage more learners more deeply, everyone benefits. This is the universal part of universal design. This approach isn’t exclusively for students with IEPs, or self-contained classes, or students formally diagnosed with a learning difference.

This philosophy has its roots in the physical design for buildings, so that makes a good starting point to illustrate this idea.

Many buildings have automatic doors. If a person in a wheelchair wants to enter a building, automatic doors make it much more convenient. But automatic doors are not exclusively for people who move in a wheelchair. They’re an accommodation that benefits caregivers trying to move in and out of the building while carrying young children. They’re for people leaving business meetings with their hands full of papers and memos. They’re for people leaving the store with a shopping cart. A person who moves in a wheelchair can benefit from automatic doors. But the automatic doors aren’t only for a person who uses a wheelchair. It’s an accommodation that universally is more inclusive.

In the classroom, universal design for learning is not for one specific population of students. All students benefit when we make our teaching practices and the learning environment more accessible.

What if instead of writing the same lesson segment on half notes we always teach and then going back to retrofit it for specific students, we began planning learning experiences by thinking of ways to make learning experiences more accessible for all our students?

What if we began planning learning experiences by looking at variabilities first instead of retroactively thinking of disabilities?

The takeaway question:How can our classrooms and teaching practices reach as many students as possible with as much of an impact as possible?

Three Pillars of Universal Design for LearningThe developers of this approach synthesized findings in the fields of brain research, education, and child development to come up with three basic pillars of Universal Design for Learning.

Multiple Means of Engagement:Whyshould students be engaged in the material we teach? This pillar deals with the Affective networks of the brain, which impact how motivated and engaged we are in a particular task.

We can offer many different opportunities for students to be interested in what we teach! This is one of the reasons elementary music teachers use multiple media (singing, speaking, moving, and playing), skills (improvising, arranging, listening, reading, writing, etc.), and processes (creating, performing, responding, connecting) in lessons.

Multiple Means of Representation What are students engaging with in our lessons? This pillar deals with the Recognition networks which take in information and turn it into knowledge.

We can offer many different opportunities for students to interact with information in our classrooms! Instead of simply asking students to memorize the shapes of musical notation symbols, we can lead them on a student-centered discovery-based sequence of learning where we explore many musical ways to represent sound - not just through standardized Western visual notation.

Multiple Means of Action and Expression How will students show what they know? This pillar deals with the Strategic networks of our brains which are responsible for planning and organizing intentional action.

We can offer many different opportunities for students to showcase their learning! This is one of the other reasons choices in musical media (singing, speaking, moving, and playing) are so important. This is also why we scaffold musical concepts in an intentional sequence so students can create musical responses many times throughout the learning process. When we partner with students to focus on this part of the brain, they are also encouraged to use executive functions to manage impulse control.

Universal Design Action StepIn the next post we’ll look at each pillar of Universal Design for Learning and break down more ways to apply the principles in our elementary general music teaching.

For now, we’ll begin with a UDL audit.

UDL AuditThe next time you teach students - whatever that lesson structure looks like - make a note of how many variables you notice in the classroom.

• Which students seem to be motivated?
• Which students seem to recall information from last class?
• Do you notice some students showing self control or a lack of self control?

UDL Audit:In other words, we’ll begin by asking the question we asked at the top of the article: Who do we teach?

How to cite this post: Boler, V. (2021, February 16). Universal design for learning in elementary general music. Victoria Boler. https://victoriaboler.com/blog/universal-design-for-learning-in-elementary-general-music

Sources and Recommended Reading: Dalton, E. M. (2017). Universal Design for Learning: Guiding principles to reduce barriers to digital & media literacy competence. Journal of Media Literacy Education, 9(2), 17–29. https://doi.org/10.23860/jmle-2019-09-02-02

Darrow, A., (2016). Applying the principles of Universal Design for Learning in general music. In C. Abril & B. Gault (Eds.), Teaching general music (pp. 308–326). Oxford University Press.

Hourigan, R., (2015). Understanding music and Universal Design for Learning: Strategies for students with learning differences in the 21st century. In C. Conway (Ed.), Musicianship-focused curriculum and assessment (pp. 89 - 112). GIA.

McCord, K. (2013). Universal Design for Learning: Special educators integrating the Orff approach into their teaching. Approaches: Music Therapy & Special Music Education, Special Issue 5(2), 188-193. Retrieved from http://approaches.primarymusic.gr

Meyer, A., Rose, D. H., & Gordon, D. (2013). Universal Design for Learning: Theory and practice (1st ed.). Cast Incorporated. http://udltheorypractice.cast.org/

Quaglia, B. (2015). Planning for student variability. Music Theory Online, 21(1), 1–21. https://doi.org/10.30535/mto.21.1.6

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Listening is the primary way we interact with music - both in formal learning and informal learning, as well as inside and outside the music classroom.

Because listening is such a substantial way of musical knowing, how can we encourage students to develop their listening skills in our music classrooms? One primary way is through active listening.

Though creative listening experiences can certainly be active, this post will focus on convergent listening experiences, rather than divergent experiences.

What Makes Listening Active?Active music listening happens when students listen and perform another task.

They might listen and pat a steady beat. They might move to a choreographed dance based on the form of the music. They might hum along with the melody. They might raise their hands when they hear a specific musical element.

The key quality in active listening is that the student is asked to listen for something specific, and then do something with that musical prompt.

Active Listening Prompts:Here are some prompts you can use in your classroom right away to develop active listening skills.

Sing:

• Sing along with the melody of a piece when you hear the main theme come back in
• Sing the bass line
• Sing a specific instrument part

Play

• Keep a steady beat with the music
• Play the main theme
• Improvise with the music

Move:

• Move to the theme / subject of the piece (teacher directed or student directed)
• Follow the melodic contour of the melody
• Copy the teacher’s motions to show the form
• Work in small groups to make your own movement piece that follows the form of the music
• Move to the expressive qualities of the music using musical vocabulary: Flow: free / bound; Speed: slow / medium / fast ; Energy: Smooth / sharp ; Weight: Strong / light / passive / active

Read:

• Follow a listening map
• Follow a listening map written by another student (“check” their work)
• Read an important rhythmic or melodic phrase / motif
• Read a specific instrument part
• Read graphic notation to a melodic phrase, rhythmic phrase, dynamics, or tempo

Write:

• Write your own listening map in iconic notation
• Write an important rhythmic or melodic phrase / motif by ear
• Write graphic notation to a melodic phrase, rhythmic phrase, dynamics, or tempo
• Write the form using shape icons

Improvise:

• Clap your own improvisation along with the music
• Improvise steady beat motions

Arrange:

• Use soundtrap to change the dynamics or the form
• Play the melody or the rhythm to a main section on classroom instruments
• Invent an ostinato to accompany the recording

Compose:

• Work in small groups to make your own movement piece that follows the form of the music
• Create your own piece that has the same emotional effect. Listen to check your work.

Framing Active Listening ExperiencesDevelop a lesson focus: Young musicians are capable of interacting with many musical elements at once, and they can perceive many threads in a listening example. However, depending on their age and their previous background with music listening, this probably isn’t the case right away. It’s a good idea to have a single lesson focus. That single focus might be pitch, timbre, form, dynamics, etc.

Sourcing active listening materials: When we talked about creative listening, we were looking for materials students may have less experience with. In active listening, we can include music that’s unfamiliar, but we can also add music from students’ own recreational lives. Again, this is because we can develop a deeper understanding of music when we’re already familiar with it in a structural sense. When we choose new music for our students, just like with creative listening, it’s a good idea to select materials we suspect students will be drawn to. Popular music, Western European classical music, and music from global sources are all great options here!

This is not dumbing down listening experiences for our students. Rather, it’s giving young listeners something to aurally hold on to.

Time: You don’t need to listen to the whole piece! Young musicians will have the most success when listening experiences are short.

Repetition: There’s a link between how familiar we are with a piece and our preference for it. The first time we hear a music, we don’t get the opportunity to really understand it. After several listenings, we start to develop a more realistic picture of the work. When we provide shorter listening experiences over several lessons, students are able to build familiarity.

One of the most practical reasons to incorporate active listening in elementary general music is its flexibility!

Students can listen actively

• In socially distanced, in-person classrooms
• At home in virtual learning
• In hybrid learning situations

It’s a beautiful of example of resilient pedagogy, and a way to cultivate holistic musicians.

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There are so many pathways to musicianship. In our music classes we sing, play, move, read, write, improvise, arrange, compose, and listen. Of all these skills, there’s one primary way students engage with music outside of the music room, and one skill all the others are predicated on. That is listening.

Most of our students won’t leave our classrooms to become producers of music at a professional level. However, all of our students will consume music through listening. Listening is also how we begin other pathways of musicianship like singing or improvising or playing.

Today we’ll look at how we can use listening as a creative activity.

How is Listening Creative? Listening as Co-CreationWhen we listen to music, we pay attention to specific elements and make split-second decisions about how to make sense of the sounds by cataloguing what we hear. How we choose to label, group, categorize, connect, and order sounds becomes our construction of the piece in our minds. Those choices in our mental construction of a piece are creative. As we listen to music then, we are essentially co-creating the work along with the performers.

Person to PersonMusic listening is a personal creative activity, and how we listen is different from one person to another. One listener might hear a piece of music and notice the form. Another might listen and imagine a scene inspired by the music. Someone else might catalogue the timbre of a specific instrument or the way melody is used. These decisions are based on our own backgrounds as musicians, including our aesthetic preferences, imagination, and musical training.

Creative Listening as a Creative ActionListening is a creative act in and of itself, but it is also the beginning of creative outputs such as improvisation or composition. After creatively constructing music through listening, when we draw on our musical vocabulary to improvise or compose, we’re going to draw on what we have catalogued in our listening. The creative listening is already the beginning of the creative thinking that takes place later in output.

Two Types of Listening: Convergent and DivergentWhen we construct music listening activities, we call on a specific way to listen: either convergent or divergent. Both modes of listening are absolutely valuable and necessary in our teaching, but they serve different roles. One focuses on “right and wrong” experiences while the other focuses on creative experiences.

Convergent:

We might decide ahead of time what we want students to listen for. For example, we may ask them to copy our movements to show the form of a piece. We might ask them to pat the steady beat, raise their hand when they hear a new voice enter, or identify the sound of instruments. All of these have a specific correct answer.

These activities encourage closed-answer - convergent - listening. The goal of the experience is for all students to arrive at the same concussion as the teacher.

Divergent:

Creative listening is open-answer, or divergent. In this type of listening, there are many possible correct answers because there are many possible ways of interpreting sounds. The goal of a divergent listening experience is for students to come up with their own answers, instead of arriving only at the teacher’s conclusion.

Creative Listening PromptsHere are some creative listening prompts you can drag and drop in your classroom right away.

1. What does this music make you think of?

This one is simple! Students listen to the music and discuss what they think about when they hear it. 2. Draw what the music might be about.

After students have listened to a portion of the piece, they might draw what they think it could be about. Listening to the music first and inviting students to draw second can help their artistic representations of the piece can be more purposeful. This is especially helpful if the piece is contrasting in emotion or musical elements. 3. If this music accompanied a story, what would the story be?

Students might draw their ideas as a graphic novel, write the story in narrative form, turn it into a dance, or act it out with a friend. 4. How should we move to this piece? Think about it first, then move

Students can imagine moving in their heads, then show their movement in place (nonlocomotor), then travel with their movement (locomotor) if they want. 5. What do you notice? OR What do you notice about ____________?

Simply asking students to share what they notice about a music can result in some thoughtful, interesting conversations! Students might simply write down as many characteristics of the music they can think of, or you might provide musical categories (pitch, rhythm, harmony, etc.) for them to consider. John Kratus has done some incredible work around this topic if you’d like to learn more. 6. What do you notice about this music that no one else might notice?

With this prompt, we’re specifically looking for how divergent students’ divergent answers might be! This is an indication of creative listening that differs from the other prompts because students are intentionally trying to come up with answers no one else might think of. Again, John Kratus’ work has more details. 7. What do you think the composer / performer / creator wanted you to feel when you listen?

This prompt might tie into some social and emotional competencies as well. With older students, framing the question around what the composer might want us to feel gives some degree of separation between the student and the emotion, which can make the experience less vulnerable. With younger students, you might use a class stuffed animal and ask what the animal feels when it listens. The difference between taking on a personal emotional experience (“this music makes me feel ___”) and using empathy to imagine an emotional experience someone might have (“they might be feeling ___”) changes the nature of the question. 8. Create Your Own:

After students have had a few listening experiences with a music, they might create their own piece that has the same emotional effect. This is the job film score composers take on. The director often gives composers a “temp track” and the composer is tasked with creating their own original work that gives the listener the same emotional experience. After completing the previous activity where students thought about the emotional impact of the music, they might get in small groups to create their own piece. This could be done just as a vocal soundscape, or it might include pitched or unpitched instruments. Students can check their work by listening to the piece again to make sure their own creation is on the right track. 9. What if we could join the music with our own improvisation?

Another way to move creative listening towards creating a creative output is to improvise. Students can quietly clap along with the recording. As long as they can still hear the recorded music above their own improvisation, their volume level is appropriate.

Setting Up for Successful Creative ListeningChoosing Music for Creative Listening: The resources available for creative listening experiences are endless! Smithsonian Folkways and Classics for Kids are good starting points.

Length of Listening: Perhaps the most significant change we should consider with listening experiences has to do with the length of listening. Depending on the purpose of the activity, it’s not necessary to listen to the whole piece of music in one sitting. In fact, the vast majority of the time, shorter experiences are preferable to longer experiences.

Students might listen to 20 seconds to a minute of a piece, depending on their age. When a listening experience has gone on too long, it will be easy to tell! When students start squirming or whispering to each other, that’s our cue that it’s time to move on.

When to Listen: Some educators recommend incorporating listening experiences at the beginning of the lesson when student are the most attentive. Others like to use listening activities as a calming way to close the lesson. You can choose what works best for your classroom!

Order of Divergent / Convergent Listening: Generally, it’s a good idea to start listening experiences with creative listening (divergent) rather than teacher-directed listening (convergent). We’ll start with affirming their experiences and perceptions. After these creative experiences, students can tune their ears to what we want them to notice.

This is a framework for listening that uses student imagination instead of putting the teacher at the center of learning exclusively.

Creative listening is not necessarily superior to convergent listening. It’s good for us to teach students both. After all, as students expand their vocabulary with convergent listening, they’ll have more categories to draw from in their creative listening.

These are some ideas you can use in the classroom right away to encourage creative listening skills in your students, and to develop well-rounded holistic musicians.

ReferencesDiaz, F. M. (2014). Listening and musical engagement. Update: Applications of Research in Music Education, 33(2), 27–33. https://doi.org/10.1177/8755123314540665

Grewe, O., Nagel, F., Kopiez, R., & Altenmüller, E. (2007). Listening to music as a re-creative process: Physiological, psychological, and psychoacoustical correlates of chills and strong emotions. Music Perception, 24(3), 297-314. https://doi.org/10.1525/mp.2007.24.3.297

Kratus, J. (2017). Music listening is creative. Music Educators Journal, 103(3), 46-51. https://doi.org/10.1177/0027432116686843

Peterson, E. M. (2006). Creativity in music listening. Arts Education Policy Review, 107(3), 15-21. https://doi.org/10.3200/aepr.107.3.15-21

Sims, W. L. (1990). Sound approaches to elementary music listening. Music Educators Journal, 77(4), 38–42. https://doi.org/10.2307/3397880

Smith, J. B. L., Schankler, I., & Chew, E. (2014). Listening as a creative act: Meaningful differences in structural annotations of improvised performances. Music Theory Online, 20(3) https://doi.org/10.30535/mto.20.3.3

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In this post we looked at how to start the planning process so we’re ready for disruption in our teaching situation. Today we’ll look at an emerging framework for planning distance, hybrid, and in-person learning experiences.

Read: Lesson Planning During Covid-19 Part 1

The ProblemMany educators are being asked to plan for multiple instructional pathways simultaneously. One is in-person, which can come with some real restrictions on activities. The other is virtual, which might take place synchronously through Zoom or another platform, or asynchronously through a myriad of platforms.

Already we can see there are plenty of variables involved in lesson planning for either of these situations, and the possibilities (and limits) for instruction seem endless.

However, there’s another instructional situation that can add more complications: hybrid learning. In hybrid learning, the teacher must simultaneously plan for in-person experiences (with all the restrictions that come with it) and virtual experiences (with all the restrictions that come with it).

Teachers are being asked to plan for situations vastly different than anything we’ve experienced before. Yet, the time we have to plan for instruction and prepare for these new situations hasn’t increased. In fact, in some cases we’ve seen it decrease as schedules shift.

In-person, virtual, and hybrid learning are all accompanied by severe restrictions on activities. Teachers need more planning time to prepare engaging and meaningful learning experiences.

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Your Thoughts: Is this a good description of the problem? How would you phrase the problem teachers are facing right now?

Type your answer in the form to share your thoughts privately, or leave a public comment at the bottom of the post.

iNTERACTIONS, LONG-RANGE PLANS, AND PLANNING ONE TIMEThere’s a new term that has emerged in the past months regarding how teachers can manage curriculum given the vastly different scenarios and restrictions we face.

This term is called Resilient Pedagogy. I first heard about this from Angela Watson’s Truth for Teachers podcast.

At the time of this post, there seem to be three important components of planning a curriculum that is resilient and ready for disruption:

1. Interactions: Michigan State University describes Resilient Pedagogy as a framework where an educator plans first for the types of interactions students will have, rather than simply the content instruction itself.
2. Learning Goals: Carlton College describes a process of creating long-range plans that outline specific concepts and skills, as well as evidence of learning.
3. Planning Once: Josh Eyler, Director of Faculty Development and Director of the Thinkforward Quality Enhancement Plan at the University of Mississippi, describes resilient pedagogy as planning one time for all three learning scenarios: in-person, virtual, and hybrid.

This is the same approach as the one inside The Planning Binder, which is why I describe the library as something that will help make a plan for the year - no matter what the year looks like.

At first glance, this approach to education seems intuitive: we have to plan for many scenarios, we don’t have much time to plan, so we’ll plan once for all situations.

However, like we talked about in this post, we often start planning by what we want the class to look like in terms of daily activities, instead of being grounded in the big-picture.

This leads to searching for things like “music activities for Seesaw” or “distance learning music games for elementary music.” These resources, like these video lessons or this set of games, are wonderful as quick-fixes when we need a band-aid. However, when we only plan for isolated activities, we’re stuck in a week-to-week planning hamster wheel.

Now let’s imagine we’re trying to run on three lesson planning hamster wheels at once: in-person, virtual, and hybrid.

Resilient pedagogy can be the framework we need to find a better solution.

RESILIENT PEDAGOGY IN ELEMENTARY MUSICLeaders in resilient pedagogy recommend thinking through the types of interactions students will have, creating long-range plans (like in this post), and planning once for all three learning scenarios.

Let’s break down the recommendations and consider how they could be applied in elementary general music.

Planning for InteractionsThis comes back to your value system.

The actual content in our lessons is crucial, but so is the social experience of our students.

These roles inform the types of interactions students will have.

Interactions with YouIn an elementary setting, one of the most important interactions students have is with you, the teacher. How can we give instruction so students see your face and hear your voice?

It’s likely that video will be a part of this interaction, whether instruction happens synchronously or asynchronously.

Logistically, the video can ensure that all students see and hear from you in the lesson, even if there are obstacles in the learning setup. For example, the video can play as students sign into the virtual classroom and as other students get settled in the in-person classroom so the lesson interaction can start right away. If you’re on a cart this could be especially valuable since loading and unloading materials can be time consuming and distracting from the actual lesson.

Another benefit of using videos is that you can take time to touch base with students who may need to hear from you. While the video is playing, you can quietly pull that student aside for a chat.

Teacher - Student Interaction Ideas:* Create a welcome video that shares a morning message * Video your warm up routine * Video yourself singing a known song * Video yourself giving directions to a practice activity

At the end of the lesson, you might also consider an exit slip that asks students how the lesson was for them. In-person students can do this with a pencil and paper. Virtual students might do this through a google form.

Interactions with Other StudentsAnother important interaction students have is with each other. This might be tricky to imagine with the natural restrictions of distance and hybrid learning.

Depending on the age, students might video themselves doing assignments, then (after your approval) they can be posted on the classroom Seesaw page for other students to see.

Students could also play each other’s compositions, they could write a known song in graphic notation and explain their thinking to the class, they could play an ostinato pattern, or they could sing a story and have classmates continue the story.

All of these interactions can take place in-person, or using Seesaw, Flipgrid, or Zoom.

Planning with Learning Goals This goes beyond a specific activity to teach notational literacy, or a specific national standard. When we back up and look at the big-picture plan, we can get clarity on what in-person, distance, and hybrid experience should accomplish. When we know our curricular goals, it’s easier to be creative about how to reach them.

Music teachers in The Planning Binder work through a curriculum that is designed for in-person, distance, and hybrid scenarios. We start with the big picture, then break it down to actionable teaching strategies that can engage students no matter what medium the instruction uses.

Resources for Planning Learning Goals: * Guide to Long-Range Planning for Elementary Music

PLANNING FOR THREE SCENARIOS:What learning experiences can students engage with, regardless of the mode of instruction?

In music class, there are a set of actions we take to keep learning active. These are the musical skills we use to realize musical ideas:

• Sing
• Play
• Read
• Write
• Move
• Improvise
• Compose
• Arrange
• Listen

To plan once for all three scenarios, we’ll think about which musical skills could be experienced in distance, in-person, and hybrid learning.

Active Music Learning for Three Scenarios: With the exception of singing in some cases, we can still keep learning active by using all the skills we normally use.

Here’s what that could look like:

• Singing a new song, or speaking a new song with inflection
• Playing body percussion
• Reading graphic notation or standardized notation
• Writing a known rhythm with manipulatives or paper and pencil
• Moving in an ABA structure
• Improvising a new rhythm to the teacher’s example
• Arranging building blocks to create a B section
• Composing an ostinato to accompany the song
• Listening to a new piece of music from a new musical culture

When we look at these skills, we see that - just like in this post - we have all the ways to express musicality that we had pre-pandemic.

The medium of delivery looks different. But we can look at our foundational teaching philosophies and find ways to exercise them regardless of the circumstances.

Other Music ResourcesUse these ideas in your classroom, or use them as a springboard for your own resilient planning.

Click there to look into The Planning Binder. This is a collection of long-range planning documents that are designed with virtual learning in mind. This means that if your school is disrupted, or if you have some students on a virtual plan, they will receive the same instructional content as your students in person.

Click here to look at a growing collection of video lessons. There’s a code for a free lesson so you can see what we’re working with. With a coteacher delivering instruction and engaging students, you’re free to do what only you can do - build relationships with students, provide meaningful feedback, and document student progress.

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“What could support look like for you this year?”

“I could use games and chants that bring the FUN back to my music classroom.”

When I asked colleagues what support they could use this year, one of the concerns involved making music fun again.

We’re teaching in a time of restrictions, and that can make it hard to focus on what we can do.

What Support Could You Use this Year?I’d love to hear your experience teaching right now, and what kind of support you wish you had. Use the form below to share your thoughts.

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Singing Games When You Have Singing RestrictionsSinging is not permissible in every classroom situation, but that doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy these games! Consider these adjustments to singing games if singing is not permitted in your situation:

• Since we have many different voices we use in music, students can speak, whisper, or shout the text instead.
• Students can still play the games while listening to a recording of the song.
• Students can inner hear (sing the song in their heads) and play the game as normal.

There are many pathways to musicianship! Singing is one that we love to use, but it is not the only pathway.

As we discussed in this post, restrictions on music class do not mean that music class goals cannot be met - we’re just adjusting the delivery.

In-person, virtual, and hybridThese activities work in an in-person setting, a virtual setting, or a hybrid setting.

By adjusting the games one time to fit all scenarios, we save ourselves tremendous amounts of planning time - which is one of the other things teachers say they need support in.

These are some of the games we’re using inside The Planning Binder this year.

The long-range plans inside The Planning Binder are designed to work with in-person, virtual, and hybrid learning scenarios.

Apple TreeApple Tree is a classroom favorite in so many music rooms!

How to Play (Traditional)There are many ways to play this popular game. Some educators play it as a counting out game, where students sit in a circle and pass an object to the steady beat. The person on whom the last beat lands is out.

My preferred way is for students to sing and walk in a circle, keeping the steady beat. Two students (the “apple tree”) hold their hands above heads, creating an arch for students to walk under. On the word "out" the apple tree quickly lowers its branches and traps an apple. That caught student becomes a new apple tree with the teacher and the game continues - catching more apples, creating more trees, until there is only one apple left.

How to Play (Adapted)

We can reimagine this game by placing small objects on the floor (anything works - post it notes, markers, puzzle pieces, etc.).

Students step on the objects in a steady beat. The object on which the last beat lands gets removed from the circle.

Continue jumping over the empty spaces until only one piece is left.

I recently shared this idea and process on my instagram stories. You can still find it in the highlights under “Process Videos.”

ObwasimisaƆboɔ asi me nsa is a stone-passing game from the Akan people in Ghana. This is a popular singing game notated in many places. One version is notated in Let Your Voice Be Heard, compiled by Abraham Adzenyah, Judith Cook Tucker, and Dumisani Maraire.

Translation: The rock crushed my hand, Grandma

Games are used in Ghana both as “playtime,” and as a training ground for cultural values and life skills. The source notes that this game expresses the comfort that can come from turning to a caregiver in times of hurt. Ɔboɔ asi me nsa and other games highlight cooperation over individual competition because the precision of passing impacts everyone involved. If a student passes the rock incorrectly, both the passer and the receiver are out.

It may also be helpful to note that many variations of this song exist. In Akan musical culture, songs such as Ɔboɔ asi me nsa would include improvisations and alterations, so two people may not sing the song the same way.

How to Play (Traditional Version)Students sit in a circle and pass a rocks around on the ground. The game may be played with one rock passed around the circle, or with each student passing their own rock simultaneously.

If a student messes up the pattern or receives the rock incorrectly from a neighbor, both the passer and the receiver are out.

The tempo may be increased, or other passing patterns may be invented with variations of grabbing, tapping, and passing.

How to Play (Adapted Version)

Students place a small object (eraser, pebble, puzzle piece, etc.) on their open palms. With younger students, consider using a scarf or tissue.

Students bounce the object in their palm while singing the song.

If you drop the object, you’re out!

This adapted version of the game is used in The Planning Binder, and in the second grade video lesson linked below.

2nd Grade Video Lesson #2

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Karen BarenKaren Baren is a name game from Denmark.

This game is sourced from the incredible site, nordicsounds.info. I’ve shared on my instagram often about my love for this website. You can also find a process teaching video for this rhyme in my highlights.

Denmark has a musical history of humorous rhymes and games that use vocables (sometimes called “nonsense syllables”). This is an example of games used to train children in the parameters of playful teasing.

Karen Baren kattevatte Varen

Kattevatte vekop tekop Taren

How to play: Use the names of different friends and create variations on their names.

Here’s an example with Anna:
Anna Banna kattevatte Vanna
Katte vatte vekop tekop Tanna

Nathan:
Nathan Bathan katte vatte Vathan
Katte vatte vekop tekop Tathan

Variations: Students can make an ostinato with the name of four friends or family members.

This game functions well in a socially-distant, distance learning, or hybrid setting! Another bonus of this rhyme is that it uses a speaking voice, making it fully accessible to situations where singing is restricted.

Pala PalitaPala Palita is a traditional Spanish-language children’s game. This is sourced from Vamos a Cantar, which I also mention in this post about looking for classroom songs.

When a song is labeled as “traditional Spanish-language,” that generally means that it is played and loved in many Spanish-speaking countries. Spanish is spoken across the globe, including Latin America, South America, Africa, and Europe. In The United States, about 41 million people speak Spanish.

How to Play (Traditional)Make a “seesaw” structure by balancing a long flat object like a stick across a smaller object. On one side of the stick, balance a few small coins or other small objects.

One player calls either “heads” or “tails” and hits the empty end of the stick so the coins fly forward. When they land, the player collects all the pieces that landed with the player’s guess of heads or tails.

Continue giving other students a turn until all the pieces are collected.

How to Play (Adapted Version)

This traditional game can be easily tweaked for distance learning or in-person learning!

To adapt it, use one coin instead of the several used in the traditional version. Students silently make their guess of heads or tails by placing their hands on their heads or their hips.

One student comes to the front to hit the empty end of the stick. If the coin lands on heads, everyone with their hands on their heads wins. If the coin lands on tails, everyone with their hands on their hips wins. The player at the front of the room chooses a new student and the game begins again.

In distance learning, students can play along with their hands on their heads or hips as the teacher demonstrates the game. In later lessons, students can look for two sticks and a coin to play the game themselves.

Kirisu Chon

Katsushika Hokusai Image Source

Kirisu Chon is a song from Japan about a grasshopper. Grasshoppers are used in Japanese art, including stories, songs, and visual arts. The grasshopper is a symbol of good luck, and is sometimes kept as a pet. Here’s a woodblock painting of a grasshopper and flowers created by the artist famous for his well-known work, The Great Wave.

Translation: Grasshopper, hop! Grasshopper, hop! Keep hopping until you get to me

How to Play (Traditional)Students sing the song while walking in a circle.

One student (grasshopper) hops around the inside of the circle in the opposite direction. At the end of the song, the grasshopper taps one student from the circle.

That student hops behind the grasshopper and the game begins again. The student who was just chosen taps the next student to join the inside circle.

How to Play (Adapted)

Sing the song and jump in the rests. The first jump is small, the next is medium, the last is large.

Students should be in the air during the beat of silence and land on the downbeat.

In an in-person classroom, this might be turned into a jumping competition.

To say that music class looks different this year is an understatement.

However, we still have opportunities for active musicking, no matter what the lesson delivery looks like.

These games are part of The Planning Binder, which helps teachers develop grounded teaching strategies that can be used in in-person, virtual, and hybrid learning scenarios. You can learn more here.

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As we look at Fall 2020, it seems that the only thing we might know for sure is that the plan is subject to change. That’s why it’s more important than ever to have a strong foundation that won’t change when the plan does.

Where do we start?

Today, we’ll look at how to start planning for disruption-ready music lessons by getting clear on our actual goals for student experiences.

Here’s the whole process:

1. Decide what you value
2. Spread out musical concepts throughout the year in a scope and sequence
3. Choose intentional repertoire to serve your learning goals
4. Create strategies in concept plans to move your musicians through the learning process

This is the disruption-ready model we follow inside The Planning Binder, so be sure to check it out if you’d enjoy more guidance in this process.

I got a dm recently:

“I’m looking for lesson materials like songs, powerpoints, and games that I can use in virtual learning. I’m kind of panicking on what activities to use! Where do you think I should start?”

Starting the lesson planning process with activities and what music class should look like is understandable, especially right now when music teachers feel pressure to figure out so many new systems at once.

Things like these lesson packs for virtual learning are great for implementing an activity-based lesson quickly.

But then what happens next week? We’re looking for more lesson ideas again.

Teaching Story

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What's your teaching situation right now? How are you approaching the challenges that come with Covid-19 restrictions?

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Share your teaching story What’s your teaching situation? How are you approaching the planning challenges that come with Covid-19 restrictions?

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The Short-term strategy: Planning from Activity to ActivityWe often start the planning process by looking for short-term activities that can solve an immediate problem.

This is the small-picture day-to-day part of music education.

Sometimes we jump straight to what music class could look like in individual lessons.

Where that can fall apart:When these daily activities are disrupted, it’s hard to know what to do!

Since they aren’t connected to anything bigger, it’s difficult to think of new activities that can take place during Covid-19 restrictions.

How can I teach music if we can’t sing in a round?

How can I teach music if we can’t play a circle game?

How can I teach music if we can’t share barred instruments?

These are what class looks like.

That’s not what it is.

In this example, if we don’t understand why we are singing a known song, it will be difficult to know what other activities can achieve the same outcome.

Let’s dig deeper and see what music class actually is - instead of what it sometimes looks like.

A Different StrategyRather than looking for quick-fix activities and planning lesson-to-lesson, let’s back up and find clarity in the bigger picture.

This set of daily activities could be exactly the same as the ones listed earlier.

However, now they’re grounded in a foundation of values and long-range plans that intentionally build musical skills and understandings.

Ready for DisruptionThis means when daily activities are disrupted, we can quickly reformulate a plan that is still in line with our long-term objectives and core teaching values.

Since we know why we’re doing the activity, we can come up with another way to achieve the same goal, which is in alignment with our values.

We don’t need to start from scratch because the disruption of the activity is not a disruption of the music itself.

Instead of looking for daily activities as the starting place for Covid-19 planning, let’s zoom out and find a solution that will hold up to any form of disruption.

My lesson planning strategy is disruption-ready!

What do you think? Share your thoughts about your personal planning process below.

Strongly Disagree

Disagree

Neutral

Agree

Strongly Agree

Thank you!

Teaching from your valuesThis conversation starts with our values. Values are the guiding principles that don’t change, even when our circumstances do.

Our values are the lens we use to make decisions about from money, to our careers, how we spend our time, the music we listen to, how we handle conflict…. And right now they have a direct impact on how we plan for instruction.

Our values are how we make curricular decisions, no matter what instruction looks like.

My teaching philosophy centers around two ideas:1. Students should be empowered to make thoughtful, creative, and respectful musical decisions. 2. Students should be equipped to thoughtfully, creatively, and respectfully interact with the ideas of others.

These two roles - the creative music producer and the creative music consumer - cover the concepts and skills students interact with in my curriculum.

Whatever form the lesson takes, the one thing I know for sure is that my lessons will engage students in these two processes. This has added immense clarity as I create long-range plans inside The Planning Binder.

Your Value SystemThis year, our teaching scenarios will look incredibly different from what we’re used to. In fact, the only thing that might not be changing about your teaching scenario is you.

• What do you value?
• What do you love?
• What do you hate?
• What do you want students to walk away with at the end of their time with you?
• What is the tone of the experiences you want students to engage with?

What Our Values Are NotYour set of values as a music teacher is probably not, “I want students to play passing circle games and share barred instruments inside my music classroom.”

But I notice that’s where we seem to be hung up.

I think we’re getting confused and overwhelmed about what it looks like because we’re using a short term planning strategy.

When we plan from our values, we approach the problems a different way.

It doesn’t matter anymore whether instruction takes place on Flipgrid, Seesaw, Google Slides, six feet apart, in another teacher’s classroom, with a mask on, without singing, or without instruments.

The tools are just that - one possible way we can live out our values.

Crafting a Value Statement: For an academic assignment, we’ve all had to write about our values in the form of a teaching philosophy. I would suggest that a more practical approach would be to have something more succinct and powerful that you can put on a sticky note, and place on your computer or your desk.

You’ll see it when you feel overwhelmed and need to choose a pathway forward, and it’ll bring clarity to those decisions.

I want students to ____ so that they ____.

I want students to feel that their musical voice belongs so they can lead healthy and optimistic lives.

I want students to experience joyful musicking so they continue to music outside of class.

I want students to express their unique musical perspectives so they reach their full musical potential.

Clarity with our teaching values allows us to move into creating concrete plans with less stress. The question is no longer about what app to use - the question becomes about what learning experiences will embody our core beliefs.

Then we can move from values to long-term, actionable plans.

from Values to LONG-TERM PLANSWith a clear value statement, we can move ahead with creating learning goals.

Long-term plans give us a zoomed-out view of our strategies and goals for student learning experiences.

There are many ways you could break down the curriculum design process. Here is the approach I recommend and use inside The Planning Binder.

Scope & Sequence

What it does:A scope and sequence maps out the elements and concepts from the curriculum outline that we’ll cover throughout the program and throughout the year.

Practical plans for Fall 2020:In Fall 2020, I encourage you to slow down your curriculum outline and your scope and sequence. I recommend using this time as review, instead of plowing forward in the curriculum.

That was the answer to this colleague who reached out about my lesson planning recommendations for virtual learning:

Hi Victoria!

I hope you're doing well. Do you have any general tips for adapting resources to remote learning formats? I know my students are going to need to review materials and that I'll need to space the concepts out, but beyond that I'm not really sure what to teach or where to start. Any help you could give would be great.

Part of my response about pacing and curricular content was:

Slower is Faster It’s worth it to take a step back and go slowly instead of trying to cram material into your year. Don't think of it as losing time. Think of it as maintaining a foundation so students are set up ready to rock next year.

I recommend that you consider making the entire first semester a review of the foundational skills and understandings students need to be successful musicians.

Focus on Core Musical Skills When all else fails, musical skills boil down to the singing voice and steady beat. If you have to restructure your curriculum, restructure with a focus on these two elements. As long as those are in place, you will be fine moving forward!

1. Keep it fun! You are back in the classroom after your challenges from this past year. Your students have a passionate and caring music educator. You are setting up for some incredible learning experiences.

Repertoire

The repertoire is the core of what we do! We don’t learn in isolation - we learn in a musical context. The repertoire is that context, which means repertoire decisions are some of the most important parts of the planning process.

We want to choose repertoire that is both artistic and meaningful, and that has a clear pedagogical use.

Where to Find Songs There are so many incredible resources out there for song selection!

Click the links below to read about selecting material.

• Planning Ahead: How to Choose Repertoire for Your Elementary Music Class
• Resource for Creating a Grade-Level Song List

What to do with the songs you chooseOnce you have your songs picked out, it’s a good idea to analyze them for their classroom use.

Here’s a video to get you started:

Concept PlansOnce we’ve clarified our values, broken them down throughout the year, and chosen repertoire, it’s time to brainstorm the actual teaching strategies we’ll use in the classroom.

This set of ideas can go by many names, but I like the term “Concept Plan,” since it describes a collection of strategies for teaching a concept.

A concept plan combines your values, musical goals, and repertoire and puts them all together in a plan for teaching sequentially.

Where will students start the learning process? Where do you want them to end? What action-based learning experiences will get them there?

You can read about concept plans in this blog post:

• Ultimate Guide to Lesson Planning Part 2

And you can look at an example of a Kindergarten concept plan in the video below:

A Look at the Whole ProcessLet’s go back to the Instagram dm from earlier:

“I’m looking for for lesson materials like songs, powerpoints, and games that I can use in virtual learning. I’m kind of panicking on what activities to use! Where do you think I should start?”

Here’s an example of the whole planning process, starting from values and moving into daily activities.

In the example above, students listen to new music, clap the rhythm of the words, improvise a B section, write it down, and self-assess their work.

Each of these activities can be done both in-person in a socially distant setting, in a virtual setting, or in a hybrid setting.

If one of the activities becomes unavailable, we won’t need to panic because we know what the activity is connected to. This process eliminates scrambling from activity to activity because there’s a long-term strategy connected to a wider value system.

In this post, we’ve looked at how to plan disruption-ready music lessons by getting clear on our values and goals, instead of simply looking for daily activities.

1. Decide what you value
2. Spread out musical concepts throughout the year in a scope and sequence
3. Choose intentional repertoire to serve your learning goals
4. Create strategies in concept plans to move your musicians through the learning process

When we look at our values and goals first and align learning activities from there, our lessons are ready for disruption.

What do You Think?What do you think about this approach to planning? What’s a planning challenge you’re still facing?

Fill out the form to let me know.

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Planning Thoughts

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What do you think about this approach to planning? Does the idea of starting with the big picture and working backward make sense to you? What’s a planning challenge you’re still facing?

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Planning ResourcesIf you’re looking for a long-range curriculum that’s flexible and artistic, I recommend checking out The Planning Binder.

If you need a “done-for-you” lesson resource so you can take a breath and figure out a better long-term strategy, consider these complete video lessons.

In the next post, we’ll look at how resilient pedagogy can bring a practical approach to choosing daily lesson activities.

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In this post, we looked at how to navigate the set up for making videos for elementary general music.

Once we’ve created a video, what’s next? Do we really need to edit? What program should we use? How long will it take? What are the basics to getting a project like this off the ground? Let’s jump in!

GETTING STARTEDThere are a few things to wrap our heads around before we jump into video editing.

The first idea is that there will be some obstacles in this process. The second idea is an acknowledgement that video editing isn’t necessary to be a good teacher.

Expectations Sometimes our perceptions of video editing and the realities of video editing aren’t aligned. When this happens, it’s easy to get frustrated by things that slow down the production process.

Some of the most common frustrations when it comes to executing a video idea are:

• Lack of storage space on your computer
• Program or computer crashes
• Freezing programs
• The extra time it takes to walk through the process

A combination of these problems is likely to arise when we sit down to edit a video. If those problems aren’t something you have the capacity to handle, we can consider not editing the video at all!

You Don’t Need to Edit Your VideosIf you film a video on your phone camera and upload it to your students as-is, you have done enough!

An edited video is not what makes you a good teacher. Being a good teacher is a bout knowing your students, planning curriculum that meets their needs, and implementing the curriculum in a way that is joyful and musical.

You are more important than your tech skills.

That said, editing video can be a lot of fun. It can be a great opportunity for us to practice a new skill that opens up creative possibilities. If that sounds like fun to you too, let’s walk through the process together.

Addressing Common FrustrationsThere are a few things we can do to set ourselves up for success before we start a project, and address some of the frustrations listed above.

1. Lack of storage space on your computer

This one is pretty straightforward. Go through your computer and delete any big files or applications that you don’t need. (For example, an outdated video project!) Once they’re deleted, empty your trash and restart your computer. 2. Crashing or freezing

Make sure you’ve exited out of all your extra applications or programs when its time to edit your video. You can also turn off your wifi so your computer has less information going on in the background. That will let it focus more of its attention on your editing software. Last, be sure to save your work often! 3. The extra time it takes to walk through the process

This problem is hard to avoid. No matter what form the actual lesson takes, you have your regular lesson prep to do. When we consider how much time you spend planning, then think about the time it takes to actually deliver the lesson, and then tack on the time it takes to edit, we’re left with a sizable chunk of time. Editing will take at least the amount of time you spent filming the lesson, because that’s the amount of footage you have to sort through. Therefore, if you filmed a 30-minute lesson, before you even start editing know that at the very least, your editing will take an extra 30 minutes, especially if you want to add text or any other graphics.

My top tips for lowering the amount of time you spend editing are:

* **Plan ahead.** Having a clear picture of the end product before you turn on the camera will streamline the editing process significantly. Before you turn on the camera, it’s a good idea to know exactly what your goal is for each lesson segment, and exactly what you’ll invite students to do. Just like you wouldn’t walk into the classroom without a clear lesson plan, it makes sense to not turn the camera on before you’ve written out clear objectives and procedures. That helps the editing process go smoothly because the video itself is concise and focused.
* **Lower your expectations.** This one is hard to hear. As my friend Beth Philemon explains, “You did not learn how to be a choir director in one day. You will not learn how to be a virtual choir director in one day.” This is a process that will take practice, just like any other skill.

Phone to the Computer in the last post we talked about how to set things up to film videos for elementary general music.

Now that we have a video, the next step is to get it off your phone and onto a computer.

There are many ways to do this, but I recommend Google Drive.

1. When your video is done, look for the share arrow, and then select Google Drive from the options at the bottom of the screen.
2. If you use more than one Google account, you’ll have the option to select the one you want to use.
3. From there you can organize this file and store it within a specific folder. If not, it will just go into your main Drive. I like to make folders for each new video project so I can find what I’m looking for quickly.
4. Next, click the blue upload button at the top right hand side and wait for the video to upload to Google Drive. This part can take a while, so having your phone plugged in will help ensure that your battery doesn’t stop the upload process.

From Google Drive to the ComputerNow the video is uploaded to Google Drive. The next step is to get it off Google Drive and onto your computer.

This part is simple. Click on the video, and look for the download icon in the top right hand side.

This will download the video onto your computer, so we’re ready to edit.

choosing an editing softwareNow we have the video on our computer. The next step is to choose what software we’ll use to edit.

There are lots of great options out there for video editing!

For the purposes of this post, I’m looking for something that is free, and that works on both Mac and PC.

Out of iMovie, Premiere, Final Cut, and DaVinci Resolve, the only editing software that meets both those criteria is Davinci Resolve.

That’s what we’ll use today, but if you already have a software you use and love, stick with it! There’s no need to change something that’s working smoothly in your workflow.

To download DaVinci Resolve, go to their website and scroll all the way down to the bottom. Click the free download option.

TIME TO EDITWith DaVinci Resolve launched, click on New Project to start your first new video.

My goal for this clip is to edit a short segment of the song, Apple Tree, so I’ve named this project, “I Love Apple Tree.”

Feeling Professional: The main Editing Page This is the main page that opens in DaVinci Resolve.

You’ll feel like pro looking at all the options we could play with, but today, our process will be extremely simple.

Today we want to

1. Edit a few clips
2. Export the video.

Those will happen in the edit tab and the deliver tab at the bottom of the screen.

Drag and Drop the Video From your computer, drag and drop your video onto the timeline in the editing page.

Resolve will automatically adjust the details of the project to match the video you filmed. Just click that you want the frame rates to be the same and you’re good to go!

Keyboard Shortcuts

When we’re ready to make changes to the video, there are a few things we’ll need to know.

These are all the keyboard shortcuts we’ll use for this project, categorized by PC and MAC.

Adjusting VolumeThe volume from my cell phone is pretty low. I can change the volume by clicking the horizontal line that runs over the audio and dragging it up. I could also drag it down if I wanted the whole project to be quieter.

Breaking the ClipsWith my audio volume up, it’s easier to tell where the song begins in the video.

This is because our singing voices are naturally louder than our regular speaking voice, so I can use the audio levels as a clue.

Editing in Two StepsFrom here, the process is easy!

Simply control B to splice the clips where you want them to break.

Delete or shift delete to get rid of any clips you don’t want.

EXPORTINGThe clips are broken up, and we’ve gotten rid of any extra material we don’t want in the final project.

Now it’s time to export!

In the “Deliver” tab, we can select our project settings.

This project will end up on YouTube, so that’s what we’ll select.

From there we can give the project a name and choose where it will save on the computer.

With those settings adjusted, we’ll click “add to render cue.”

When the project is in our render cue (on the right side of the screen), we can start the export by clicking “start render.”

Wrapping Up, Looking AheadThis is everything you need to know to get started with editing video for elementary general music.

In the next video, we’ll look at how to add graphics to a project.

If you have any questions about this process, I’m not a tech person - I’m a music teacher. That said, I’m here to help in any way I can, so reach out with a comment below, find me on Instagram, or shoot me an email.

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As we prepare for Fall 2020, music educators are making plans to teach in a myriad of scenarios, many of which may utilize video.

There are also plenty of reasons you might consider developing the skill of video production, even if you are not preparing for distance learning.

When we lose our voices, when a guest teacher substitutes, or when we want to share examples of student growth at an informance, video allows for unique educational possibilities that are useful beyond a pandemic.

With that in mind, here is a guide to simple and effective video production for elementary music. This covers some of the technical aspects of setting up for video production.

Let’s jump in!

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We each have a story about why we were drawn to music, why we were drawn to education, and why we were drawn to the elementary age group. There is a philosophy behind each aspect of our role:

• Elementary: What is the importance of childhood?
• Music: What impact does music have on our lives?
• Educator: What does quality education look like?

The way we view each of these pillars shapes our curriculum, our classroom management, how we assess, and how we discuss our mission with administrators, parents, the community, and our students. Knowing how music scholars articulate their value systems can bring clarity to conversations with administration and community members as we work to bring high quality music education to our students.

Today we’ll look at three philosophies that articulate the value of music.

These three do not summatively describe every viewpoint that exists in the music education space.

I’m also not suggesting that we align ourselves with one single philosophy as the defining set of statements about our music programs. The purpose of these philosophies is not to put our beliefs in a single, neatly packaged box. Rather, it is to equip us with a framework and vocabulary that we can use to advocate for our programs and support our students.

Let’s jump in!

The Utilitarian Philosophy of Music EducationThe Utilitarian Philosophy is centered around the idea that music education is practical.

A few key ideas of utilitarian music education:Music serves a function. It is a tool we can use to achieve a purpose.

For example, we may advocate that strong music programs are related to strong academic performance, such as increased SAT scores. We may argue that music serves to build “character education,” patriotism, and school values. We may show how music improves the brain and helps language development.

Music serves a non-musical outcome

You may have noticed something from the examples above: None of them have to do with musical growth. The utilitarian music philosophy promotes music for the purpose of achieving an outcome outside the musical realm. For example, educators who use this philosophy do not state that students who study music will improve their rhythmic and melodic skills. Instead, they might focus on improved science and math scores.

A very quick background of the Utilitarian Philosophy In 1838, for the purposes of improving singing in Christian church congregations, music was added to the public school system in Boston. Further, the school board agreed that adding music in schools would promote Christian morals, improve physical health, and increase students’ intellectual capabilities. In other words, music was included in schools to achieve a very practical purpose. This is the practical music philosophy we refer to as “Utilitarian.”

The Utilitarian Music Philosophy in Advocacy:

Today this philosophy is alive and well, and is used by NAfME, VH1 Save the Music, and NAMM. We see it on posters, on bulletin boards, and doors:

Music isMath
LangUage
HiStory
ReadIng
SCience

As music teachers, the message we are trying to convey is that music education is important because it has a positive impact on many other subject domains or content areas.

If you view yourself as a teacher aligned with the utilitarian philosophy, you might highlight how students are working through mathematical, linguistic, or scientific concepts through your music lessons.

Some questions to consider before using this approach:* Does music serve a practical purpose? * Is that purpose enough to merit a place in school curricula? * Is music valuable in and of itself? * If we already have Math, Language, History, Reading, and Science, why do we need music?

The Aesthetic Philosophy of music education The Aesthetic philosophy of music education is centered around the idea that music expresses emotion.

A few key ideas in Aesthetic Education:Music for music’s sake

When studying music, students should engage in developing musical skills and understandings In other words, when studying music, students should learn music. Instead of learning music so we can be competent in other areas, we should learn music so we get better at music itself. The aesthetic philosophy is not primarily concerned with what functional value music offers. Instead, it views music itself as the value.

Feelings-based experiences

In the Aesthetic philosophy, when we hear music, we’re engaging in a feelings-based experience. Our feelings are subjective, but they can be traced back to specific structures or expressive elements in a musical work. When we study music, we are studying expressive sonic properties that convey an emotional message.

High-quality musical products

Music is something that expresses emotion. It is a thing, it is an output. A musical product is the vehicle we use to have these feelings-based experiences. Therefore, only the highest quality music should be included in a music curriculum.

A Very Quick History of the Aesthetic Philosophy:As funding in schools moved away from music in the 1900s, the profession responded with a new focus of music instruction, one that centered on music itself. Bennett Reimer from Northwestern University was a key music philosopher in the development of Aesthetic philosophy. He believed that music education needed one unifying philosophy of teaching, learning, and advocacy so we could better position the role of music education in schools.

The Aesthetic Philosophy In Advocacy:

Followers of this philosophy would explain that music is an essential part of a child’s education because emotional and aesthetic education are essential to the human experience.

When we study music, we form self-knowledge and gain deeper access to our emotional lives. This kind of education that promotes an understanding of beauty, emotion, and expression is only possible through music.

If you, your administration, and your community value the aesthetic education students get through music education, your data may include qualitative evidence (like written student responses) of how students connected to beauty during distance learning.

Some questions to consider before using this approach:* Do I believe music’s core value is inside the music itself? * What are the qualities of beautiful music? Who (which culture, historical period, musical authority) decides? * Are aesthetic experiences valued by my administrator or school board?

The Praxial Philosophy of Music EducationThe Praxial philosophy of music education is centered around the idea that music both artistic and social.

A Few Key Ideas of the Praxial Philosophy:Music is the actualization (praxis) of a person’s belief systems and motivations

The practice - improvise, listen, perform, compose, arrange, or conduct - of music is where the value of music education lies. At their core, these are human activities. Human lives, thoughts, and actions are inherently valuable. Therefore, music is inherently valuable because it is the result of humans’ actionable beliefs. Music is multi-dimensional. It uses the cultural background of the piece, the musical traditions of a people, and the student’s own performance or listening interpretation.

Music is both a process and a product

“Music” is the thing we output as a complete work (product). Think about our description of “a piece of” music. It is also something we do, a process we experience, whether listening, performing, composing, arranging, or conducting. For example, in the case of musical performance, music happens both before a note is produced, as the producer imagines the sound. It happens in the moment the sound is made. It happens after the sound is produced as the producer critically reflects on the music. When music is process-oriented, students think, plan, make, and reflect on music holistically.

Music lives in a cultural and social context

Across cultural and historical contexts, music has meaning. This meaning is valuable in and of itself without superimposing standards of Western European art music. When we examine music from a wide range of cultural, social, and historical contexts, we are better positioned to recognize the value and meaning music brings.

A Very Quick History of the Praxial Philosophy: The praxial philosophy is still quite new. In the 1990s, David Elliot (a former student of the key aesthetic advocate, Bennett Reimer) proposed that music is a human activity, not a purely aesthetic product. Elliot’s position was that the aesthetic philosophy is limiting, since music education at the time focused primarily on Western art music, and excluded global or popular music traditions. He also advocated for a music philosophy that included more participation rather than observation.

In addition to Elliot, music thinkers like Philip Alperson, Christopher Small, and Thomas Regelski have also impacted this approach to music education.

The Praxial Philosophy in Advocacy:

Music is worthy of study because human thoughts, voices, beliefs, and actions are worthy of study. When we study music, we teach students to become holistic problem-solvers, thinkers, and artists as they explore the process of musicing, and celebrate the resulting product. They are placed at the center of their own learning, as inventors, producers, and critics. Equally important, they learn how to invent, produce, and critique their peers in a way that honors the beliefs, value systems, and practices of our shared history, and the global community. No other subject synthesizes the value of the human experience, the process of learning, and the context of art in the way music does.

If your philosophy is praxial, you could collect artifacts (like videos or compositions) that highlight the process of learning music holistically.

Some Questions to Consider Before Using this Approach: * Whose music should be included in the curriculum? * Should music be taught as a noun or a verb? * In an American classroom, what are the implications of teaching music as a an expression of the values, beliefs, and traditions of a people?

How to Cite this Article:Boler, V. (2020, July 13). Three philosophies of music education. Victoria Boler. https://victoriaboler.com/blog/three-philosophies-of-music-education

References and More Reading:Musicians and thinkers have put lifetimes into developing these philosophies. It is impossible to do each of them justice here, so if these thoughts are interesting to you, I encourage you to check out some of the resources below.

James F. Daugherty on why music matters

Donald A. Hodges, A Concise Survey of Music Philosophy

Michael Mark, A Concise History of American Music Education

Michael L. Mark and Patrice Madura, Contemporary Music Education

Bennett Reimer, A Philosophy of Music Education

David Elliot and Marissa Silverman, Music Matters: A Philosophy of Music Education

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I’ve said before that there is never a bad time to think carefully and creatively about your music curriculum. That’s certainly true. However, summer is a time many of us naturally feel drawn to plan for the upcoming year. As school is wrapping up across the country, educators are reflecting on their year and planning for even deeper learning in the fall.

At the time of this post, schools and communities have been completely reshaped to maintain student safety in the midst of Covid-19. Our curricula (including the active curriculum in The Planning Binder) have shifted to accommodate this new mode of instruction.

Now, as schools wrap up across the country, educators are in a position to plan for the upcoming year, and consider how they can facilitate even deeper learning… regardless of how instruction takes place.

In peace or in a pandemic, the key to deep musical learning is in active musical experiences.

Here are some ways to frame your curriculum around active music making. My friend, Anne Mileski, has also done some incredible work around this topic on her podcast.

Active vs Passive Learning What is Passive Learning?In passive learning, the student doesn’t really do anything other than take in information from the teacher.

Here are some important characteristics of passive learning:

How we learn:In passive musical learning, the student learns by taking in information from the teacher. The students job is essentially to be a sponge, and receive knowledge.

Communication:Communication is one-way. Learning happens as the teacher transmits information to the student. For example, in a lecture-style portion of a music class, the teacher might talk about a specific composer. The teacher is the source of information. The communication goes from the teacher to the student, not the student to the teacher, the student to the community, or the student to another student.

The student’s job:The student’s role is to listen and follow directions. Passive learning environments have potential to be quite calm and orderly. That is because a successful student in a passive learning environment knows how to follow orders without question.

The most important person:This kind of education has one central focus: the teacher. In passive musical learning, the teacher has the most important role in the classroom.

The result:At the end of a passive learning experience, the result is that students know about things.

What is Active Learning? When we compare passive learning with active learning, we see that the curriculum centers around the students, not the teacher.

Here are a few key differences in the student experience when learning is active:

How we learn:In active musical learning, the student learns by constructing their own knowledge through intentional action. This is the active part of active learning. Students learn by doing things, not by having a teacher talk about things.

Communication:There is communication on many levels. While there may be periods of direct instruction, the communication doesn’t stop there. Students communicate back to the teacher. Students communicate with each other in partners, through small group work, or whole class sharing. Students may communicate with the larger community. Students spend time communicating with themselves through self-reflection.

The teacher’s job:Rather than transmitting knowledge, the teacher’s job in an active music learning environment is to craft intentional learning experiences. In these experiences, students discover musical concepts on their own. The teacher’s knowledge and skill level with the subject is still crucial! It’s imperative that the teacher have a deep contextual understanding of the subject matter so she can guide the learning activities.

The most important person:This kind of education has one central focus: the student. Learning revolves around the student and how he or she is working through musical concepts.

The result:In this type of model, students learn about music at a deep, conceptual level because concepts are made relevant. Musical concepts are actualized through intentional experiences. Students end up with a holistic contextual understanding of a musical concept, complete with what they know about it, and what they can do with that knowledge.

The curriculum in The Planning Binder follows the philosophy of active, student-centered music making. Click the button below to learn more!

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Passive Musical Learning:
Knowledge comes from the teacher.

Active Musical Learning:
Students construct knowledge through intentional action.

Active Music Learning in General Music CurriculumWhen we consider how to craft active learning environments, we often look to musical skills. This is a great place to start!

Musical skills are things like reading, writing, singing, playing, moving, and listening. There are ways to perform musical skills passively, and ways to perform them passively.

For example, in both a passive and active music room, students might sing songs.

In a passive classroom, that may look like students singing while looking at lyrics of a song on the board. It might also look like singing in a choir and following the director’s conducting for the correct dynamic level in the last eight measures.

There is nothing wrong with these types of experiences! However, with a few tweaks, these musical experiences can be more active and student-centered.

In an active musical classroom, students might sing a song while looking at the lyrics on the board, and identify the highest word in the fourth line of the song. In a choir, students might sing and vote on the most impactful dynamic level to use in the last eight measures.

Here are some other examples of musical skills that can be altered from passive to active learning:

Sing* Sing and look at lyrics of a song on the board * Sing and closely follow the conductor’s dynamic level

Play Instruments* Learn a pattern by rote and playing on barred instruments

Move* Copy the teacher’s dance motions, or copy the dance motions in a video * Read * Read patterns from the board that were written by the teacher * Memorize the names of lines and spaces on the staff

Write* Copy notation on a worksheet

Listen* Sit and listen to a piece of classical music

Sing Sing and look at lyrics of a song on the board, and identify the highest word in the song. * Sing in a choir and vote on the most impactful dynamic level* to use in the ending section

Play Instruments Using a pattern learned by rote, make a variation by keeping the rhythm the same but changing the melody*

Move Students use as many levels as they need to move to the melodic contour*

Read Students take turns writing patterns on the board, the class reads students’ patterns * Figure out a mystery song on the staff by inner hearing the notation*

Write Students write down an original musical idea so they can remember it * Invent graphic notation* for a specific rhythmic or melodic element

Listen Sit and listen to a piece of classical music. When you know the form, work with a partner to show it through movement*

Quick Checks for an Active Music Curriculum:The ideas above might give a starting place for some active music experiences. You can also find fresh and engaging examples each new month inside The Planning Binder. Click the button below to learn more.

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However, across the nation and across the world, music teachers at the time of this post find themselves needing to constantly re-invent their teaching in innovative ways.

As we move forward with constructing an active music curriculum, there are a few questions we can ask to self-check our work.

When we design learning activities, we can ask:

• What is my ultimate goal as a teacher? Does this serve my ultimate goal?
• What is the student doing in this activity?
• What is the role of the teacher in this activity?

Moving Forward, Making MusicThere will certainly be periods of direct instruction in our classrooms.

The purpose of active learning is not to replace the teacher. The purpose is to reconsider the role of the teacher in learning, and the ownership of the student in learning.

We want classrooms where the teacher equips students with the tools they need to succeed, crafts a structure in which learning takes place, and then gets out of the way.

Read more about curriculum planning: 1. How to know what to teach 2. How to know when to teach it 3. How to choose materials to teach musical concepts 4. See examples of a well-designed year inside The Planning Binder

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It’s so easy for many of us to fall into the trap of waiting for the “perfect” time to plan the year.

At the time of this post, educators are facing challenging realities when it comes to planning lessons. This experience may illustrate that there is not a “perfect” time guaranteed in education.

There’s never a bad time to think carefully and creatively about your goals for your students, and how best to implement them.

I would suggest that wherever you are in your year, it is the perfect time to start planning! Here’s an approach that answers the question, “When should I teach concepts in my year?”

How to Know What to Teach: The answers to all other curriculum questions begin with your philosophy of music education. Planning is simply the process of applying your philosophy in tangible ways in the classroom.

A curriculum outline maps out how your philosophy will be applied throughout your program.

You can read more about a curriculum outline here.

When to teach it:

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The next step in planning is to decide when you’ll teach the concepts from the Curriculum Outline. That is where a scope and sequence comes in.

You can find detailed examples of Scope and Sequences in The Planning Binder or inside the Elementary Music Planning Kit.

Scope and SequenceA scope and sequence is your plan for what to teach throughout the year.

There are lots of ways you could format your own scope and sequence. This is the format that works for me, and the one available in The Planning Binder.

How is it Different from a Curriculum Outline?A Scope and Sequence is built on the Curriculum Outline, but it gives an expanded picture.

A Curriculum Outline is an overview of your whole program. It’s amazing for looking at your entire music program at a glance.

A Scope and Sequence is an overview of each specific grade level, and exactly when they will consciously experience each concept. It has more details, and it’s a more practical way to track lesson content across the academic year.

Writing Your Own Scope and SequenceI go into detail about how to write a scope and sequence in The Elementary Music Planning Kit, and in The Planning Binder.

However, you can also make your own from scratch!

If you're making your own template from scratch instead of purchasing The Elementary Music Planning Kit, start by listing the months you teach along the left hand side of the page. Then, along the top, write all the concepts you want to cover for that particular grade level.

Give yourself some breathing room in the schedule to accommodate things like sick days, bad weather, assemblies on Friday afternoons, field trips, and concert prep.

The Plan Will Change: The other thing educators know from our current experience is that the plan is always subject to change!

A scope and sequence will save you time when the plan changes. This is because it is much easier to adapt an existing plan than it is to constantly generate a new plan from scratch.

You can read more about a scope and sequence inside The Elementary Music Planning Kit, or inside The Planning Binder.

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It’s never a bad time to think about your big-picture goals for the upcoming year.

Especially now, many educators are taking this time to get organized and make plans for next year to be their best year yet.

When we start planning our year, it’s a great idea to start with a broad overview of each grade level, and the conceptual understandings you want them to have at each level of your program.

Once you understand what concepts you’d like to cover, its much easier to choose songs, activities, performance programs, and finally to create your lessons.

Lesson planning is a breeze when you start big picture instead of lesson-to-lesson!

What is a Curriculum Outline?A curriculum outline answers the question,

“What am I going to teach?”

A curriculum outline covers your entire curriculum, at every grade level. It’s a zoomed-out view of your musical goals for your whole program.

I love this document because as the school year gets going it’s easy for me to lose track of my goals for my students.

A curriculum outline keeps me accountable.

Something to note right off the bat is that this looks at concepts, not at skills. This curriculum outline doesn’t show what you want students to be able to do with these concepts. Specific skills around improvising, reading, singing, and playing can be specified later in the planning process.

For now, the goal is to get a single sheet of paper that has all your concept goals for your students. This guides the rest of the lesson planning process.

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This curriculum outline is a part of my elementary music planning kit. This is a comprehensive guide to planning each grade level. It answers questions like,

What am I going to teach?
When am I going to teach it?
What materials will I use?
What strategies will I use?

Why Write Your Own Curriculum OutlineWhat we find in the process of creating a curriculum outline is that the act of intentionally thinking through your dreams for your students may end up being more important than the result itself. This valuable paper can have incredible benefit to your students and your own peace of mind.

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with using resources that spell out a curriculum for you. These can be helpful starting guides and can get you going in the right direction if you’re struggling to get started.

The shortcoming with these pre-made curricula is that they fail to take into account your own personal teaching goals for your students.

In contrast, a curriculum outline is a simple way to map out your own ideal curriculum, tailor-made for your own program.

When its done thoughtfully, the rest of your curriculum has a straightforward structure, making it easy to plan out your year.

The Elementary Music Planning Kit walks through the steps to creating your own curriculum outline so it fits your specific needs. It also gives concrete examples and editable templates so you can adapt as you go!

You Can't Teach Everything:Things are missing in the categories for a curriculum outline.

Where is the category for teaching music history? Where is the Jazz section?

As you choose what broad sections to include (rhythm, melody, form, etc.) you’ll notice that some topics simply don’t make the cut to be included in the curriculum outline. That doesn’t mean that we don’t teach them.

Rather, we choose concepts that are broad enough to encompass our other learning goals.

For example, there’s absolutely no reason that you can’t include a listen to the Surprise Symphony when teaching eighth and quarter notes to your 1st graders. You can also have a great time learning about Ella Fitzgerald when you work on la in A Tisket a Tasket.

The beauty of the curriculum outline is in its simplicity, and how broad it is to fit in the things that you truly care about teaching.

The Plan will Change.Of course when we’re planning we would love to think that all our plans will be able to be executed perfectly, without a hitch or hiccup.

However, we all know that even though we’ve planned in things like snow days and field trips, the reality is that we will likely get off from our curriculum outline.

That’s okay.

Students may not learn at the rate we expect. Especially if this is your first time mapping out curriculum goals for your students or if you’re starting at a new school, be prepared for the possibility that your curriculum outline may end up looking very different from where you started it.

Every situation is differentEvery teaching situation is different, and every school culture has a different musical background. The concepts and corresponding grade levels outlined in a curriculum outline from The Planning Binder might not be the exact fit for your students. That’s the reason all the files come as editable Google documents. Don’t be afraid to move things around!

Keep a Sequence and Build a FoundationIf you choose to make changes, remember that the concepts in your curriculum outline should develop logically, step by step, so your students are set up for success. It’s imperative that learning moves from the known to the unknown.

Also, remember that students need the knowledge and skills of previous concepts before moving to more advanced concepts. Especially with older grades, be sure students have enough of a musical foundation with the “easier” concepts so they can move to more advanced ones.

Start at the EndTake time to think about what you truly care about as a teacher. What skills and understandings do you want students to have when they leave your program? What do you want your students to be able to do at the end of each year? Break things down and plug them in.

You can’t teach it all but when you’re intentional about curriculum planning you can give students a solid foundation that allows them to be lifelong musical learners.

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We’ve discussed how to choose repertoire for your classroom and where to source songs for your song collection.

When we have a collection of songs we like, how do we know they’ll work in our classrooms? How do we know what songs are appropriate to use with a specific grade-level, or a specific concept?

The answer is song analysis.

Here’s a practical guide to song analysis in the real world. It’s not as detailed as the guide I wrote here, but it’s the approach I’ve found to be a bit more practical when planning for my year.

This is not a guide to Kodaly song analysisIn the Kodaly philosophy, song analysis is a huge part of making responsible decisions that maximize student musicianship.

This is not a guide to Kodaly song analysis.

Brilliant Kodaly-inspired pedagogues have already done that through levels training. This is a practical guide to extracting the most appropriate and musical segments of repertoire for conscious literacy work.

If this is a topic that interests you, I encourage you to look for Kodaly levels training near you so you can dive in deeper! The purpose of this specific guide is simply to move songs into the classroom with efficiency and integrity.

THE REPERTOIRE IS THE CURRICULUM

Musical learning takes place within the context of repertoire. In an active musical classroom, students use repertoire to discover musical concepts on their own.

The musical materials we use become the foundation of every other musical experience. Because of this, the repertoire is the curriculum.

When we have repertoire picked out, how do we know how to use it in the classroom?

BEFORE WE BEGIN…Song analysis will be easiest if we have a few things already in place.

We’re set up well to analyze songs when we have:

1. A curriculum outline so we know what musical concepts to look for in each grade level
2. A scope and sequence that budgets our time, so we have an idea of how many songs we might need for each concept
3. A way to source quality musical materials

Matching Songs to Musical ConceptsThere are two primary steps to take in order to know what songs can be used for specific musical concepts.

• The first step is to take a musical inventory.
• The second step is to analyze a song for classroom use.

These two distinct steps may take a few minutes to organize, but they will add clarity and intention to the rest of your year!

1. Musical inventory

Making a list of the musical components that make up the song can help us know what songs would be appropriate to use with specific grade-levels.

For example:

• If we choose a song with an toneset of an extended full scale and hope to use it with Kindergarten, our students will not be vocally safe as they attempt to sing the song.
• If we choose a song with a large variety in its rhythm and no repeated sections, we run the risk that the material will have too much contrast and not enough repetition for students to grasp easily.

Taking inventory ensures that we can use the materials safely and musically in the classroom.

What to Catalog We’ll start by taking a scan of the musical elements in the song. This is just a way to get inventory. Not every element we record will necessarily be a focus in the classroom.

• What are the rhythmic components?
• What are the melodic components?
• What is the form?
• Where did you find it? (You can read more about sourcing quality materials here)

Example:Here’s a musical inventory for the song, A Tisket A Tasket.

1. Matching songs with Musical Concepts

After a musical inventory, we’ll have an idea of what songs would be appropriate to use with what grade-levels. We also know what elements are in the song for students to explore.

Now, the question is where those elements fall in the curriculum.

When we answer this question, we want a new musical element to exist in a complete musical unit, and we want it to be surrounded by old material.

1. Find the musical units

When we target a rhythmic or melodic element, we want it to exist in a musical unit that is short enough for students to consciously work with. However, it also needs to be long enough for students to easily hear the tonality and meter.

The balance of these two is often found in a subphrase.

A subphrase is a small section of a larger phrase. It is enough material to constitute a musical idea, but it may not be a complete idea in and of itself (since a true phrase is marked by a cadence).

When you’re ready to match a song to musical concepts, identify its subphrases.

If you’re not sure where the subphrases are, start by looking at groups of four beats, especially if your song came out of the Western musical tradition.

Example:Here’s an example of subphrases marked in A Tisket A Tasket.

1. Compare the material to your curriculumThe next step is to see where the musical material in the subphrase falls in your curriculum. This is where the curriculum outline and the scope and sequence come back into play.

Here’s the magic question:

When would students have conscious knowledge of the rhythmic or melodic materials that make up the subphrase?

Use your curriculum outline and your scope and sequence to find the grade-level and the time of the year students would consciously know the material.

As you cross-reference the material in the subphrases to the material in your grade-level curriculum, it will become clear which elements will be old, and which elements will be new.

Quality education moves the student from the known to the unknown. Because of this, we want to make sure the rhythmic or melodic materials in the subphrase are consciously known so students can compare them to the new, unknown element.

When you’ve identified a new element, surrounded by known material, in a complete musical unit, you’ve identified the classroom use!

Example:In A Tisket a Tasket, the melodic material in the subphrase would be known around 2nd grade, with the exception of la. Since la is the new element, it becomes the pedagogical focus of the song. Here’s the song again with the units of melodic focus circled.

1. What will it look like? This is the fun part!

With the new musical element picked out, the next side of the page addresses what you might do with the song in your classroom.

What active experiences could students engage with? How could they sing, play, move, read, write, improvise, or listen to discover the characteristics of the element on their own?

On this side of the page, jot down your ideas.

This process can take a bit of time.

However, at the time this blog post is being published, many of us are experiencing changes in our routine that leave us with more time for things like song analysis and long-term planning.

This may be the perfect time for you to pull high-quality materials, compare them to your scope and sequence, and analyze them for how they might live in your classroom - whatever your classroom looks like in the fall.

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I have a passion for writing music curriculum. I don’t have a passion for fighting technology! As I choose software, it’s important to me that the platform is easy to use so that teachers can spend time connecting with students.

If you’re like me when I first started playing around with this application, you have some questions.

Working through new technology has a learning curve and that’s okay. Luckily, the seesaw support team has put together one of the most extensive and practical help websites I’ve ever seen.

It was made by teachers, so the directions are crystal clear and easy to follow.

Here are the most common questions I get asked about using this platform for music education.

Seesaw in the Real World

I’m overwhelmed! Where do I start? Check out this getting started guide for remote learning! It applies to both educators on the free and paid version of Seesaw.

Learn more here.

How do students log in now that they’re at home?If you’re new to Seesaw, students safely log in with either a home learning code in the form of either text or a QR code. Not sure where your home learning codes are? Check out this video! You can also read this paper or watch this video to learn more.

If students are already using Seesaw with their own email addresses or clever badges, you don’t need to change a thing. Just make sure you’ve changed your settings so students cannot see each other’s work. Click here for more information.

How should I set up a music class? You have options here! You could make a separate class for music, you could make music a folder in the homeroom teacher’s main class, or you could make one large class for each grade level. Make this decision in collaboration with your administration, your tech support specialist, and / or other colleagues.

Click here to learn about the three options.

How do I save time adding students? I teach hundreds of student musicians!It depends on how you have your classes set up! A mail-merge app will save you time. Again, as you consider the use of your time, make decisions in collaboration with your administration, tech support specialist, and / or other colleagues.

Click here to learn more.

I downloaded your activities, but how do I use them? When you open the activity link, click “Save Activity” to save it to your library. Then, once it’s in your library, you can edit it for your own students. Just click the three grey dots at the bottom right and click “edit activity.”

Click here to read more. You can also watch me walk through the process around 53:45 in this video.

Can I do all these ideas on a personal Seesaw account?You can use a lot of the features for free! You can get a free trial that will last 60 days. Plus, seesaw for schools is free through May 31st!

Click here to learn more. You can also click here to see their regular pricing structure.

This is new for my students AND me. Do you recommend starting it? The Seesaw application is the best platform I know that meets our needs as music educators and the needs of young learners. I do recommend this application, especially in our current circumstances. You can also use these ideas for centers or other activities when you’re back in your school classroom. As always, make these decisions in collaboration with your administration, tech support specialist, and / or other colleagues.

Learn more about setting up home learning here.

Can pre-readers use it?Yes! This application was made with young learners in mind. The user interface is easy to navigate, and the directions to the activities use images, voice recordings, and videos so there are lots of ways to meet the needs of pre-readers.

Click here for a great webinar on using Seesaw with your youngest learners.

Can you use Seesaw and Google Classroom together? Yes! Activities can be shared between Seesaw and Google Classroom so students can stay organized using a platform they already know. You can read more here.

The Planning Binder’s resources for the month of April 2020 utilize digital learning using Seesaw, with adaptations you can make for Google Classroom.

What kinds of activities can you make with Seesaw? There are a lot of ways you can use this application!

Check out this post for ideas, and watch this video of me setting up a music activity.

I appreciate the flexibility the Seesaw app gives, and how easy it is to navigate. I love that students can continue to show a full range of musical skills, even at home. The data from these activities give us valuable insight into our next steps to serve our students better. Finally, I appreciate that the tech support page is detailed and informative.

There is no “right” way to teach virtual music education. Whatever you are doing at this time to connect with students on any level at all is commendable.

You can read more about Seesaw for virtual learning with the links below.

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In this post, we looked at a framework for how to create virtual lessons that are still active and engaging.

With that framework in mind, I want to share some possibilities for authentic musicing experiences that you can design for your specific scenario with the Seesaw app. This application can serve any of the skills, media, content, and assessments mentioned in this post, but today we’ll highlight literacy, creativity, and evaluation.

All the activities mentioned here are available for you to use in your own classroom!

Seesaw for Literacy

Because it utilizes screen recordings, audio, and video, seesaw is a great way to work through literacy skills! And literacy work does not need to be drill work.

Here are some examples for Kinder - 5th grades.

Kinder / 1st Grade:Students trace the melody of a known song and submit an audio recording.

2nd / 3rd Grades: Here, students clap the rhythm you see on the left, and then guess the song they think the rhythm matches.

4th / 5th Grades: In this example, students catch the teacher’s mistake. Students can use the move tool to drag the notes to their correct place on the staff.

Seesaw for Composing and ArrangingI’ve grouped these together, because the line between the two can be blurred, depending on how much teacher input is involved.

Here are some examples for Kinder - 5th grades using composition and arranging.

Kinder / 1st Grade:Students explore high and low sounds vocally. They represent their sounds with graphic notation.

2nd / 3rd Grades: Here, students read the rhythm to Bow Wow Wow. Then, they rearrange the order of the cards to create a new rhythmic version of the song.

4th / 5th Grades: In this activity, students add a new melody to an existing rhythm. This has some flexibility to it! If students have brought home recorders, they can use recorders to add a melody. You can also limit the toneset to this arrangement to mi re do, or expand the directions to include the full pentatone, or even extended pitches (like low la or low sol). You can adapt the directions to fit your students’ needs!

Seesaw for Improvisation:I always want divergent musical thinking to be a part of my curriculum, so I love that seesaw lets students submit improvised musical products.

Here are some examples.

Kinder / 1st Grade:This is another example that uses vocal exploration. The difference is that students do not use graphic notation to document their musical output. (That’s what makes it improvisation!)

2nd / 3rd Grades: Here, students sing the known song, Ickle Ockle. Next, they improvise the rhyme on body percussion. You can add more directions to help students if it would be appropriate for your scenario. For example, you could limit the body percussion choices to patting and clapping.

4th / 5th Grades: In this activity, students read the rhythm on the left. Then, they improvise the missing beats. This could be done clapping, on other body percussion options, or vocally with rhythmic syllables.

Seesaw for AssessmentAssessments - not gradesSeesaw assessment is very easy to use and it gives us a lot of data!

When I reference assessment, I am not necessarily talking about grades.

The purpose of assessment is simply to get evidence about what students need from us.

This is especially true at the time this blog post comes out, when music educators are being challenged to adapt their models of education into virtual learning. When we land in our classrooms again with our students, we will want to know where our feet are. We will want to know where to start as we make up for lost instructional time. Assessment provides measurements of student progress so we have a better picture of the next steps we need to take.

In other words, we assess now because we don’t want to feel lost later.

Musical Skills and Standards

The seesaw app serves music education well because it lets you enter your own skills that you want to track. You can also assign codes as categories. This is important because we know our skills and standards look very different from our colleagues in general education.

Here are the skills I’ve added for the collection of Seesaw activities in this post. I’ve also categorized them by their National Core Arts Standard.

EvaluationWhen it’s time to evaluate, it takes about five seconds to listen to the student’s recording. Then you can assign on a scale of 1 - 4 in standards-based grading.

Data TrackingWhat are we going to do with all that data?

This is the skills view in seesaw and lets you see at a glance how students are progressing in each skill area.

It also shows you which students haven’t completed anything yet, and as we know, that is a challenge many educators are facing.

Seesaw and Equal Opportunity EducationAccess to this kind of technology is limited for some of our students. All of our students have a right to equal opportunity education, and data can be one piece of our strategy to serve students moving forward.

For the students who can show up with this technology, let’s serve them and use data to track their progress so we know what they need next.

For the students who can’t show up right now because of a lack of opportunity, let’s serve them too by taking data to count them as missing from arts education, so we have a better idea of how to meet their social and emotional, as well as musical needs, when we finally get to see them again.

In the next post, we’ll talk about some frequently asked questions around the Seesaw app, and how to make it work for you.

In the meantime, you can find more Seesaw activities in The Planning Binder’s 2019 - 2020 curriculum!

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The Seesaw application is by far the best software I have found to meet the specific needs of music educators.

The seesaw app is a digital learning portfolio that allows students to document their learning in a variety of different ways. It’s a cross-platform application so it works on all your apple, android, chromebook, and computer devices.

Even if your learners are using another platform right now (Flipgrid, Google Classroom, etc.), these ideas can be transferred across other technologies to meet the needs of your students.

They can also be used in centers in our “in-person” classes!

Going Digital: Where to StartIt might feel tricky to consider how we can transition active musicing to the virtual space. Here’s a framework that I have found useful as I create learning experiences.

Musical SkillsIn music class, we have a specific set of ACTIONS that we use when we’re musicing.

We sing, play, read, write, improvise, compose, arrange, listen, and analyze.

Which of these can we still do in the context of home learning?

All of them! Students can do each and every one of these skills at home!

The seesaw app makes it possible for students to actively show each one of these musical actions.

Musical MediaSo we know the actions we can take. Now how do we express those actions?

In our classrooms, we also have musical channels that we use when we’re musicing. In many of our classrooms, these might include singing, speech, movement, playing barred instruments, playing auxiliary percussion, playing body percussion, or playing recorders.

Of these, what can most students facilitate in a home learning environment?

Most students will be able to express their musicality through singing, speech, movement, and body percussion.

The seesaw app can support students musicing through each of these media also.

Musical ContentAt this point, we know what we’re going to do (musical skills), and how we’re going to do it (musical media), now we need to know what we’re going to accomplish. That is where your music curriculum comes in.

We don’t necessarily need to completely change our curriculum, we just need to rethink how we’re going to deliver instruction, and if possible, we want to rethink how we’re working the feedback loop. Again, the Seesaw app is the platform I’ve found to be the most intuitive here.

That’s why I’ve chosen to adapt this month’s resources (for April 2020) in The Planning Binder to meet the needs of the virtual classroom with the Seesaw app.

If you’re looking for a collection of long-range planning templates, examples, and trainings, you may be interested in checking out The Planning Binder! You can find out more here.

Musical EvidenceWe have our musical skills, musical media, and musical curriculum.

How will we know if we’ve achieved our goals? That’s where assessment comes in.

Assessment is just information that tells us what to do next by collecting evidence. Seesaw’s assessment tools are flexible and comprehensive for music education, so they support student learning through data collection.

Read more about assessment here!

Even though our method of delivering instruction has changed, we can still do a lot with virtual learning! Seesaw app is the best platform I have ever found for the specific needs of music educators within the parameters of our young student musicians.

In the next post, we’ll look at examples of using this application for active music learning experiences.

This information is part of a collaborative conversation I was honored to take part in with a group of music education colleagues. You can find the full talk here:

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In today’s post, I’m taking an in-person lesson and turning it into a sequence of virtual learning activities. This is a lesson taken out of The Planning Binder that I’ve written about here.

Quality music education begins with thinking about what you want your students to know, how you’ll know they know it, and what activities can get them there. It’s a long-range process that gets broken down into small steps.

Planning for virtual music is no different! The thing that changes is the delivery of instruction.

Use the ideas in this post as a starting point for your own classroom. All of the resources I share here are available as a free download.

Let’s jump in!

Grab the Resources: * 2 Seesaw warm up activities * 3 Seesaw rhythm activities * 2 Seesaw melody activities * The Seesaw class code so you can join this sample class as a student * The Google Classroom code for a sample Google Classroom collection

Previous Knowledge and Song MaterialsThis lesson is for students in the process of preparing quarter rest and practicing sol and mi.

Before this lesson, students would have lots of sensory experiences singing, playing, reading, writing, moving to, and making musical decisions with both of these elements.

This lesson is in line with musical objectives, not a replacement for intentional planning!

Song Materials: The 2019 - 2020 Planning Binder has a full list of songs to teach specific concepts broken down by grade level. Here are the ones students will need to know before actively taking part in this lesson.

In each of the activities, students will:

1. Watch an introductory video
2. Complete an active learning activity

Warm Up:This warm up routine has been adapted here for virtual learning. Students participate in the instructional video, then use the Seesaw app to submit audio recordings and transition to the main instructional activities.

Vocal Warm Up: We begin with a regular vocal warm up. Students watch the video and echo the vocal patterns.

This is the same routine as a “regular” music class!

Next, they record their voices following the melodic contour on the screen.

Improvisation is a daily musical activity in my lesson plans, and that doesn’t change in virtual planning!

Students improvise their answers to class greetings.

Rhythm Warm Up: Students watch a YouTube video that follows a “regular” rhythm warm up. As they echo the rhythm patterns, students are invited to guess the song that matches the rhythm they just clapped.

Next, students submit their answer to the song identification.

Main Material: Preparing Quarter Rest

Rhythm Activity: Acka BackaStudents sing and keep a steady beat with the video.

Next, students track the steady beat and write the rhythm of the song.

Rhythm Activity: I See the MoonStudents sing the song with the video.

Next, students draw a pathway as they sing the song in the Seesaw app. Though they don’t need to submit the activity, students are encouraged to make the pathway in their own homes as they sing.

Last, students perform the rhythm of the song on any body percussion variations they want.

Rhythm Activity: Bow Wow WowIn this activity, students watch the video for Bow Wow Wow.

Next, they track the steady beat and write the song in rhythmic notation. Students may use any symbol they want to show a beat of silence.

Change of Pace! In a “normal” lesson, now would be a great time to be up and moving around! I recommend you link to your favorite GoNoodle or other movement activity that would be easily accessible to students at home.

Secondary Material: Practice Sol and mi

Melody Activity: SeesawAfter watching the video, students sing the song and trace the melody.

Next, students come up with their own ideas to show the high and low pitches (sol and mi) in the song and draw a picture of their ideas.

In the third slide, students listen for the teacher to sing a melody, and they choose the notation they think they heard.

Last, students choose a melody to sing from the slide, OR they can make up their own!

If you’re following the Planning Binder 2019 - 2020 curriculum, this will be an activity students are already familiar with!

Melody Activity: Jack and JillAfter watching the video, students sing the song and trace the melody.

Next, students fix the teacher’s mistake by filling in the missing notes for Jack and Jill.

ClosingThe original lesson ends with a book reading. Sadly, due to copyright, sharing read-alouds on YouTube is a sticky subject. Here are some ideas for closing your classroom lesson.

1. Do you have a school song, or a song your students love? Post a video of you singing it, and invite your students to sing along.
2. Similar to how we sang greetings at the start of the lesson, students can sing goodbye using the seesaw app.

using google classroomThese activities can easily be added to Google Classroom!

Google Classroom is a great platform to track assignments and give feedback. Seesaw is a great platform for active virtual learning. These platforms can work great together!

Here’s a sample class I made for this blog post, and you can join it as a student to see how the activities are linked.

If you use any of the activities in this post, I’d love to hear from you. You can find me on instagram (@victoriaboler), shoot me an email, or leave a comment below.

Happy teaching!

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I’ve shared my love for the Seesaw app before. It’s the most intuitive, engaging, and practical app I’ve ever encountered for active music learning. I’ve used it for centers, for advocacy, and parent communication.

It also has some powerful applications for virtual learning! Here’s a sequence of learning activities for la in SLSM using the song, Acka Backa. Each activity is designed to correlate with the teaching strategies in The 2019 - 2020 Planning Binder.

You can grab each of the seesaw activities for free at the bottom of the post. Feel free to use, add to, or edit these activities in your own classroom!

These activities walk through a sequence of preparing, presenting, and practicing la. You can absolutely add more activities around the ones presented here! Use these as a starting point to create your own resources that work with your unique situation.

Preparing LaPlay the game! Games are an amazing place to begin work with any musical element, and students LOVE the game to Acka Backa! It can be adapted for Seesaw with a few tweaks.

Instead of playing with classmates, students choose the color in the circle they think will win. When a color is “out” students erase it using the white pen tool. Continue playing until there is only one color left.

Trace the melody Students trace the melodic contour of Acka Backa. This is an example of an in-class activity that can very easily be transferred to virtual learning!

Track the steady beatEven though this is melodic work, students will use their knowledge of steady beat to identify high and low sounds later.

Listening Activity In this activity, students are guided to listen for the highest sound in the song. Throughout the entire melody, beat two is always the highest. Students sing the song and circle the beat with the highest sound.

A Mystery NoteStudents have discovered a note higher than sol! In this activity, students sing the melody with the DESCRIPTION of the new pitch (something like high or up), rather than its standardized Western name.

Presenting LaNaming the New NoteBy this point, students have physically, aurally, and visually prepared the pitch above sol. They’re probably ready to learn the standardized Western name it!

Practicing LaWriting La in a Known SongIn this activity, students read standardized notation for la, and catch the teacher’s mistake.

Grab the Seesaw activities below!

The guiding principle of the Kodaly philosophy is that only the best is good enough for a child.

When virtual learning becomes the best delivery method for instruction, educators look for innovative ways to maintain quality music education. We land on our feet, and re-imagine some aspects of active, engaged, and contextual musical learning.

If you use any of these activities, I’d love to hear about it. You can drop a comment below, find me on instagram (@victoriaboler), or shoot me an email (victoria@victoriaboler.com).

Happy teaching!

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Rhythmic building blocks are one of my favorite ways to give students musical choice.

They’re not technically improvisation, but they are a way for a student to have agency over his or her musical output.

Here are some rhythmic building block sets you can download and use in the classroom. All the materials in this collection correspond with The Planning Binder 2019 - 2020 curriculum.

There’s a link to download these building blocks at the end of the post. Let’s jump in!

Getting Started: Materials2nd Grade Rhythmic Concepts:The rhythmic building blocks in this set are centered around The Planning Binder curriculum for 2nd grade. In 2nd grade, this means working on:

• Ta and Ta-di
• Quarter Rest
• Half Notes
• Takadimi

You’ll find a focus on these rhythmic elements in the cards below.

Using Rhythmic Building Blocks:Rhythmic Building Blocks Ideas:Rhythmic building blocks can be used in so many different ways, for so many different musical purposes. Here are some ideas to jump start your planning.

• Students create an ostinato
• Students create a B section
• Students create a pattern, then clap it. The rest of the class dictates what they heard.
• Students create patterns, then the teacher chooses one to clap. Students listen to rhythm to figure out if theirs was the one the teacher clapped.
• Students create patterns, then share as a class. Students raise their hands if another group’s pattern matched theirs.
• Create a rhythm, then add solfege and sing it.
• Students create a pattern, then they transfer it to body percussion.
• Create a rhythm, then put the rhythm on barred instruments.
• Students create a pattern, then the class goes on a “museum walk” to look at or play the other rhythms.

Differentiation:Rhythmic building blocks can also be used to target the specific learning needs of students through differentiation.

I often find that students self-differentiate when activities involve student choice. This is by no means an extensive list of differentiated strategies, but here are some pathways to consider.

Vary the length: Some students might make a four beat pattern (only use two cards), some could make a 16 beat pattern (using eight cards).

Vary the rhythms: This depends on your musical objective, as you’ve defined it in your long-range plans. Let’s say you want to turn these rhythms into a melodic ostinato by having students create a rhythm and then add a melody to it. Since the purpose of the activity is melodic, some students can get a pack of cards with more difficult rhythms. Others can get a pack with simpler rhythms. Each group still achieves the musical goal of adding melody to a rhythmic pattern.

Read more about long-range plans here, or check out The Planning Binder.

Vary the output: These rhythms can be tricky, depending on the output of musical knowledge we ask of students. For example, let’s say your goal is for students to use a new rhythmic element in an original rhythm. Some students who need support might only speak their rhythm while patting a steady beat. Other groups might clap the rhythm of the words to their pattern. High achieving groups might perform their pattern with different levels of body percussion.

Vary the literacy level: In early practice, you might print three forms of cards. Some students only have the text, some read the text with standard notation above, and some read only standard notation. As students progress in their musical skills, you can change your literacy expectations.

Logistics Tips:* Keep the groups small. These songs have all been chosen around a 2nd grade level. My experience is that students have the most success in groups of two to four. * I like to hand out two sets of cards to each group. That way, students can use the same rhythm twice in their pattern. I don’t specify that each group must use each card. I leave that decision up to the students. * Have a signal to freeze and listen. This kind of work can get noisy very quickly! Having a quick signal to pause and listen for instruction will go a long way in positive classroom management.

Rhythmic Building Blocks:Download the full pack below!

Star Light Star Bright

Rocky Mountain

Kookaburra

Here Comes a Bluebird

Who’s That?This activity is a bit different from the previous rhythmic building blocks! Instead of giving students pre-made rhythms, have them write their name on the card. Each group can rearrange their names to create a rhythm.

Rhythmic building blocks provide a wealth of information for the teacher. They also keep students engaged and at the center of their own learning by providing opportunities for musical choice.

You can click the links below to read more about providing musical choice through improvisation.

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This lesson plan is based off the 1st Grade February monthly plan in The Planning Binder. You can also grab a free PDF version of this lesson at the bottom of the post.

Let’s jump in!

Zooming Out - The Big PicturePrevious KnowledgeWhen students walk into this lesson, they already have experience singing, playing, reading, writing, aurally identifying, improvising, and arranging the following concepts:

• High and low
• Sol and mi
• La
• Steady beat
• Rhythm vs beat
• Ta and ta-di

The Planning Binder walks through strategies to teach each of these previous concepts in the 1st Grade concept plans.

Long-Term Plans A scope and sequence helps track what students have learned, and when they learn it.

The scope and sequence below is a small portion of the one in The Planning Binder. This is lesson #18 (look at column B to see the lesson numbers). By this point in the curriculum, students are preparing quarter rest for the third time (column C), and are practicing sol and mi for the fifth time (column D).

Song Materials:The song materials in this lesson come from my concepts and song lists I make at the beginning of each year. This document specifies most of the songs I’ll use to work with each specific musical concept.

Typically, I use somewhere between four and six songs per concept. Before the year begins, I map out the first four, and leave space to be inspired throughout the year.

This image shows an example of the concepts and songs layout. You can find this filled in document in The Planning Binder.

Having the first four songs in place means that I’m never searching for song materials the night before a lesson. Things are in place in a purposeful, yet flexible, outline.

Here are the materials for this lesson:

• Acka Backa
• Bow Wow Wow
• Doggie Doggie
• Jack and Jill
• I See the Moon
• Rig a Jig Jig
• Seesaw

The Lesson PlanWarm Up Routine: 4 minutesActive music time begins the very moment students show up for class. The teacher greets students at the door, leads the whole class in marching to a steady beat, and eventually the class ends up in a circle.

This lesson, students walk in to My Girl, performed by The Temptations. When they’re in a circle, students follow the teacher for the steady beat motions. At some point, different students take turns leading the class through other movement ideas.

Sing Greetings:The melodic focus of the lesson is sol and mi, so that is included in our warm up routine. The teacher sings a greeting on sol and mi, and the class improvises answers. Listen to a few students improvise as an assessment if there is time.

Students often get a chance to perform individually in our warm up routine. I may listen to five to seven students per warm up activity (including melody and rhythm). I record their response as an assessment. Over the course of the whole year, this gives me an idea of how students are progressing through fundamental pitch and rhythm skills.

Rhythm Patterns:The next item in the warm up routine is clapping patterns or body percussion patterns. The rhythmic focus of this a beat of silence, so the rhythm patterns will include that as well.

Since this is the lesson right before presenting standard notation for quarter rest, students will also have the option to copy the teacher’s pattern or improvise their own pattern.

The teacher claps a few patterns and motion for students to copy. Then, the teacher invites students to make up their own response to the pattern. Just like in the melodic sequence, a few students may share their ideas individually for an assessment.

The warm up sequence takes a long time to explain, but a short time to implement! This whole sequence takes about four minutes. You can read more about my warm up sequence here.

Transition: The teacher claps the rhythm of Acka Backa while students step to their spots in a steady beat.

Main Activities:Acka Backa: 4 minutesIn their spots, students sing and point to steady beat hearts on the board.

Then, students clap the rhythm of the words while the teacher points to the steady beat hearts on the board. Students help dictate the rhythm of the song above the steady beat hearts.

Leave the beat without a sound blank.

Play the game!

Transition: The teacher claps the rhythm of I See the Moon. Students listen to whether or not the rhythm has a beat of silence in it, and give a thumbs up or thumbs down.

I See the Moon: 8 minutesStudents move in open space (spin like a planet, float in gravity, shimmer like a star, etc.) while singing the song.

Then, half the class moves to barred instruments while singing the song.

They make up a B section by improvising the rhythm of the song on any pitches in the pentatonic scale. As they improvise, the rest of the class moves in open space. Students switch jobs, so each half of the class has a chance to play instruments.

Transition: Students move to their spots. As they move, they sing I See the Moon and the teacher sings Bow Wow Wow.

Bow Wow Wow: 8 minutesStudents sing the song and play the game.

In a previous lesson, students came up with a physical silent motion to represent a beat of silence. Students sing the song using their chosen motion from last class.

Then the teacher asks, “How could you write your motion for a beat of silence so a friend could read it?”

Students help the teacher write the song in traditional notation on the board.

Using whiteboards, ipads, or paper and pencil, students copy the notation from the board and write their own ideas for a beat of silence.

A few students share their ideas on the board.

Teacher Talk: SequencingIn the next lesson, students will learn the “real” name for a beat of silence. This activity gives me a sense of whether or not the class as a whole is ready for that next step.

Transition: The teacher sings directions to put writing materials away to the tune of Rig a Jig Jig.

Rig a Jig Jig: 3 minutesAfter sitting down for a notation activity, it’s time to move again! This song is just for fun.

Transition: The teacher sings the melody to Seesaw on a neutral syllable. Students echo sing as they move back to their spots.

Seesaw: 4 minutesSing and move to sol and mi. Then, sing and create high and low movements with a partner.

Seated, the teacher sings the first half, and students read each response from the board.

Then, students sing the first half and the teacher sings the response. Students show on their fingers which response the teacher sang.

Next, the teacher sings the first half and students sing any response they want.

Then, students choose one partner to sing the first half and one partner to sing the second half. They’ll switch jobs so everyone has a turn.

Teacher Talk: Practice and AssessmentThis is the third time in The Planning Binder monthly plans that students have done this activity, so I feel comfortable taking individual student responses as an assessment. As students work with their partner, I walk around and listen to groups perform.)

Transition: The teacher changes the melody on the board to the opening of Jack and Jill. Students read using solfege syllables and hand signs.

Jack and Jill: 4 minutesStudents sing the song in their heads while acting out the story with a partner.

As they act out the story, the teacher writes the rest of the melody on the board but leaves a few pitches out.

With their partner, students figure out which beat is missing, and which pitch should live there. A few students come up to the board to fill in the missing pitches in standardized notation.

Students sing again on solfege while moving up and down with their partner.

Transition: The teacher changes the notation to the first four beats of “Doggie Doggie.” Students sing on solfege and guess the song from three options on the board.

Doggie Doggie: 5 minutesStudents sing the song as they move to barred instruments.

Two partners sit behind each barred instrument. Both partners sing the song. Then, one sings, “Who stole my bone?” and the other plays an improvised answer using sol and mi.

Students switch so each partner gets a turn.

Transition: The teacher says, “I loved hearing all your improvisations! Let’s listen to two other people improvise. Their names are Ella Fitzgerald and Duke Ellington. Be ready to share something you noticed about the video with a partner”

Closing:5 minutes Students move back to their spots while the song plays.

After the video, the teacher sings the book, This Jazz Man as students act out the instruments from their spots.

When it’s time to line up, the teacher continues singing the book as students move to the line.

When students are standing in line, they turn to a partner and share something they noticed about the video of Ella Fitzgerald and Duke Ellington.

Lesson Plan PDFClick the images below to download this lesson as a PDF.

If you use any of the ideas in this lesson, I’d love to hear from you. You can find me on instagram (@victoriaboler), shoot me an email (victoria@wemakethemusic.org), or drop a comment below.

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“Hi, Victoria!
I’m looking for some resources to teach percussion instruments in kindergarten. Do you have any units about types of instruments like djembes, triangles, maracas, etc.?
Thanks!”

The short answer to this email is that I don’t teach percussion as its own unit. The long answer is this blog post, and the collection of activities at the end.

Let’s jump in!

The world of unpitched percussion is vast. Our collections range from finger cymbals to maracas to triangles to tambourines to hand drums. In such a large collection, it can be tricky to decide what instruments students should be able to play, especially in the early stages like Kindergarten and 1st grade.

This is my process for how I choose what instruments to introduce to young musicians, and at what time in my year.

Choosing Instruments for Young MusiciansWhen I choose classroom instruments for my students, I consider the musical purpose of the activity and where students might be in terms of physical development. That informs my options I give throughout each grade level and throughout each month of the year.

The Musical PurposeWhen I look at my curriculum outline, scope and sequence, song lists, and concept plans, it is crystal clear to me which songs have been chosen with which specific musical concepts in mind. Because of these long-range plans, I can also be clear on the specific musical outcome I want students to achieve or explore.

Since these musical decisions come as a result of my curriculum outline,there is a natural place in the curriculum these instruments will be featured. This is true not only for Kindergarten, but for continuing grades as well.

That musical outcome drives the decision of what instruments to choose. What is the musical outcome? What are the sound properties of the instrument? Thinking through these questions gives me clarity.

For example, if I want each student to leave class with the kinesthetic experience of keeping a steady beat, I look for instruments that have a natural ability to maintain a consistent tempo. In this case, choosing a hand drum over a thunder tube makes sense.

If I want to explore metals, I consider whether I want something to be articulate or a wash of sound. This can guide my decision in using finger cymbals or jingle bell bracelets.

What is the musical outcome? What are the sound properties of the instrument? Thinking through these questions gives me clarity.

Physical Requirements:Distance and Velocity:Unpitched percussion success at this age has a lot to do with hand-eye coordination.

When they play unpitched percussion, students must make a judgement about the amount of space between the two objects that are to be struck together. They also need to decide the velocity, or how quickly they need to move in order to strike at the correct time.

When we consider these two factors - distance and velocity - we start to see some of the variables in a child’s experience playing an unpitched percussion instrument.

Physical Information:Another consideration is how much control the student has over the playing process. Some instruments are naturally going to be more accessible in early playing experiences.

Here’s an example with three common kindergarten instrumental tasks: patting knees, playing a drum, and playing a triangle. Let’s imagine these students are working on performing a steady beat.

• When we pat our knees to keep a steady beat, there are two sources of kinesthetic information: the palm of our hand, and the knee itself. Kinesthetic information from these two sources allow us to assess the tempo (where we land in time) and velocity (how hard we land) of the strike.
• When we play a tubano, we remove half the kinesthetic information we were getting by patting our knees. There is no longer a sensation from the knee, so all the decisions must be made by sensations from the hand.
• When we play a triangle, we remove any direct kinesthetic information about tempo and velocity.

These details seem minute, and in some ways they are. However, especially with young musicians developing their sense of steady beat, it’s helpful to consider the relationship between the task we are asking them to perform, and the amount of information we are allowing them to take in about that task.

Unpitched Percussion Sequence:When I think through the musical purpose and physical parameters around unpitched percussion, a logical sequence for unpitched percussion instruments becomes clear.

This is based on my own scope and sequence for a “typical” kindergarten year.

After the initial experiences with the instruments below, we can explore the rhythmic concepts with other instruments. I don’t hold on too tightly to this sequence, but it serves as a helpful framework for how to structure the learning process.

In Kindergarten, rhythmic concepts include steady beat, fast and slow, long and short, rhythm of the words, and rhythm vs beat. The sequence below is designed to follow those formal rhythmic concepts.

1. Body percussion: Pat, stamp, clap, snap

   • We have a lot of body percussion experiences before playing instruments, especially patting and stamping before steady beat or when working with fast and slow.
   • We do a lot of clapping and snapping before playing instruments for long and short, the rhythm of the words, and rhythm vs beat.

   • Hand drums: Tubano, conga, djembe, frame drums on the lap or held by the teacher

   • Tubanos are by far my favorite unpitched percussion instrument! Here is the specific model I recommend.

   • I love that they can be used without a stand or tilting (like a djembe or conga) since they have feet at the bottom. This also impacts the sound quality since the sound can be full and resonant with the instrument just standing on the floor.
   • If I didn’t have access to tubanos, I would use frame drums. These are incredibly cost efficient and you can use them in so many different ways. For young students, it’s impractical to expect them to hold the instrument steady in one hand and accurately strike with the other during their first playing experiences. Because of this, I start frame drums on students’ laps, or I hold the drum while they play.
   • In early grades, hand drums nearly always have the job of keeping the steady beat. This is because the motion to play them so closely resembles patting.
   • Woods: Rhythm sticks, temple blocks, wood blocks
   • In my classroom, rhythm sticks nearly always play the rhythm of the words in the early grades. The motion of playing rhythm sticks closely resembles the motion for clapping, so they become a natural next step.
   • Woods provide a sharp contrast in timbre from hand drums. The difference in timbre is incredibly effective when working on the difference between rhythm and beat.

Outside the sequence:We play other unpitched percussion instruments in Kindergarten as well.

Jingle bells, tambourines, finger cymbals, maracas, and more make it into our musical experiences. It’s common for these to be used informally (like for a soundscape) more than formal rhythmic activities.

In these exploratory activities, students might search for the best way to make a sound on the instrument. I might challenge them to come up with three ways to safely make a sound, then share their ideas with a partner.

As I move through the curriculum in later grades, other unpitched percussion instruments will naturally be highlighted as they align with the musical purpose of an activity, and as students continue their physical development.

“Hi, Victoria!
I’m looking for some resources to teach percussion instruments in kindergarten. Do you have any units about types of instruments like djembes, triangles, maracas, etc.?
Thanks!”

I don’t approach unpitched percussion as its own isolated unit.

Rather, unpitched percussion experiences are naturally embedded into musical processes like singing, speaking, playing games, and improvising as another way to explore musical elements.

Unpitched Percussion Activities PDFIf you’re looking for specific activities that are musically purposeful and developmentally appropriate, I’ve collected a few of my favorites in the PDF below.

When you download, you’ll also be signed up to get more resources like this one from time to time. I only send emails that I would be thrilled to get myself!

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Whatever else we do in elementary music, it begins with the repertoire. The repertoire is the curriculum.

Because the repertoire is the curriculum, we want to be sure we’re introducing songs in a way that is musical and exciting - both to us and our students.

When I consider how I want to introduce a song, I think through the song’s musical purpose. Logically, I want students to experience the point of the song as it aligns with my musical objective. When I know the musical purpose, I know the pathway I want to use to introduce it.

I also plan to speak as little as possible. When I think through how to introduce a song, I look ahead to where I could get “trapped” verbally explaining directions. I make a plan beforehand for any visuals or specific wording I need to think through so students are active the whole time.

Perhaps the most common way to introduce a song is through echo singing. Another common way to introduce a song is simply to sing it until the students are familiar with the melody and words. When they’re ready to join in, they sing along.

These ways are tried and true, and they’re the go-to method for teaching a song for a reason!

However, it’s refreshing to mix up our methods so they reflect the varied types of musical skills and understandings we want our musicians to experience.

40 musical ways to introduce a songMelody:1. Echo sing four beats at a time on text. 2. Echo sing four beats at a time on solfege. 3. Read graphic notation on the board. Create a melody that follows the melodic contour of the song. 4. Trace the melodic contour with a “musical paintbrush” while the teacher sings. 5. Write the melodic notation on the board but leave some measures blank. Students improvise the melody of the blank measures on barred instruments. 6. Write the melodic notation on the board but leave some measures blank. Students dictate the missing solfege. 7. Sign a melody silently while students inner hear. 8. Read the song (or a portion of the song) from standard notation on the board. 9. Read the song from standard notation on the board. The teacher asks if it’s a known song (give three examples) or a new song. 10. “Does this song have ___ (low la, high and low, do, etc.)__ in it?” 11. “The lowest pitch in my song is __(do, mi, etc.)__ What is the highest pitch in my song?”

Rhythm:1. Echo clap the rhythm four beats at a time 2. Echo clap the rhythm four beats at a time and have students dictate the new rhythm. 3. Students count the total number of steady beats in the song. 4. “Does this song have __ (sixteenth notes, a quarter rest, etc.)__ in it?” 5. How many __ (sixteenth notes, quarter rests, etc.)__ are in the song? 6. Students listen and identify the meter. 7. Tell students the time signature. Students play a hand drum on each downbeat as they listen. 8. Write the rhythm of the song on the board but leave some measures blank. Students improvise the rhythm of the blank measures. 9. Write the rhythm of the song on the board but leave some measures blank. Students dictate the missing rhythms. 10. Write the rhythm of the song on the board. Students play the rhythms on body percussion.

Form:1. This song has an A section and a B section. Please figure out the order (AABB, ABBA, ABAB, etc) with a partner. 2. “Do you hear anything in my song that repeats?” 3. How many sets of eight are in this song? Students create eight-beat motions with a partner. Perform while the teacher sings. 4. Students count how many times the teacher takes a breath in the song (teacher breathes at the end of each phrase).

Partwork:1. Students sing an ostinato while the teacher sings the song. 2. The teacher points to a solfege ladder. Students sing the root of the harmonic outline while the teacher sings the song 3. Students sing the call, the teacher sings the response (Introduce aurally) 4. Students sing the response, the teacher sings the call. 5. Students sing a known song while the teacher sings the new song as a partner song. 6. First, sight read the rhythm of a song. Second, read the rhythm in a round (the teacher starts second). Third, read the rhythm with the class split in half. One half begins the round, the other half comes in after.

Text:1. What is my song about? 2. How many times did I use the word, ___? 3. Introduce a song or rhyme with a story 4. Students make up a story about what happened after the song 5. How many rhyming words did you hear?

Movement:1. Perform an action every time you hear a word (Bow Wow Wow: Stamp every time you hear “bow”; Down to the Baker’s Shop: Hop every time you hear “hop”) 2. Move in open space. Freeze in a __(big / small / high / low) __ shape when the teacher stops singing. 3. Move in open space. Be back in your spot by the time the song is over. 4. Act out the song as the teacher sings.

You can download this list as a PDF for quick reference. Just add your email, and go check your inbox.

“Elemental music is never just music. It’s bound up with movement, dance and speech, and so it is a form of music in which one must participate, in which one is involved not as a listener but as a co-performer.”

— Carl Orff

The application of musical knowledge in a new listening experience involves making sense of musical elements. As they listen, students are putting what they hear into categories - do I like it, do I not, is it known, is it unknown, was it fast / slow / high / low, etc. The way students are invited to make sense of music is itself a creative experience.

When we expand our students’ categories by introducing songs in new and varied ways, we open up new possibilities for creative listening and sense-making. And just as importantly, we invite ourselves to do the same.

We are involved in the listening and sense-making experience together - not as listeners - but in the creative application of knowledge into categories, as active co-performers.

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When we refer to an “Orff arrangement,” we typically mean that the song or rhyme uses barred instruments. However, that may not be all there is to making something “Orff.”

What Makes it Orff?The Orff approach is a play-based process that centers around student choice and creativity. Simply using an “Orff instrument” may not necessarily mean that the students are using the instrument to expand their musical knowledge in a way that puts the learner’s needs first.

How teachers apply this philosophy can look very different from classroom to classroom. However, there are a few things we can expect to see in an Orff-inspired approach:

• Mixed media: students speak, play instruments, sing, and move to express musicality.
• Musical Choice: The teacher gives an amount of control over the musical elements in a piece. For example, students might improvise or arrange a section, create movements, decide the musical form, or choose instrumentation.
• Collaboration: Though individuality is celebrated in the Orff philosophy, students also spend a lot of time working in small groups or making musical decisions as a large ensemble. Every voice is valued!

Here’s an example of how the Orff approach can be used with the song, Bluebird Bluebird. All the resources for this arrangement (the score, worksheets, and visuals) are available as a free download.

Getting Started:Previous Knowledge and Skills:Students will have the most success with this arrangement if they have the following concepts and skills already in place:

• Knowledge: steady beat, rhythm, rhythm vs beat, ta and ta-di, ta rest, half notes, sol and mi, la, do, and re.
• Skills: pitch matching, barred instrument techniques, auxiliary percussion techniques, improvisation, arranging, dictation, rhythmic and melodic reading

In my curriculum, this combination of knowledge and skills happens at the end of 2nd grade, or the beginning of 3rd grade.

You can read more about my curriculum outline here, and get the templates for your own classroom in The Planning Binder.

Musical Objective:The goal of the arrangement is for students to compose with the full pentatonic scale. This score has several musical elements happening at once. However, everything could be taken out except the song and glockenspiel, and the objective would still be accomplished.

The Score:Here is the full score.

You can get the score below, along with all the other resources for this arrangement!

Breaking it Down:This song is made of a main melody, a harmonic outline, two ostinati, and student compositions.

Process these parts however works best for your situation! If you’d like a starting point, I’ve included some ways my students have found success with these elements.

Melody: The song and the game

This is the version of the game I use:

Students stand in a circle with their hands above their heads to form “windows.” One student is the bluebird. The bluebird flies in and out the student windows while the rest of the class sings the song.

At each “take a little partner,” the bluebird taps the closest student on the shoulder. The three students follow behind the bluebird and the game begins again. Each repetition of the song, the head bluebird chooses three more students until the whole class is in the bluebird line.

Harmony: Bass xylophoneSince students have knowledge about do as the “home” pitch, they are ready to play the bass xylophone part.

Using the idea of “home” and “away,” students play the tonic and dominant pitches. This image of birds flying away and coming back home is helpful to reinforce the harmonic concepts.

I would also have the class help me transfer it to standard notation after students have played the progression a few times.

Process:As with any mallet part, it’s a good idea to consider starting the learning process with body percussion. Students can stomp for tonic and snap for dominant.

We’ll use this same body percussion designation in the composition process too. It helps to spiral concepts through a variety of different uses!

Ostinati: Alto xylophone and tubanoI tend to teach these parts aurally, and use the notation as a reference in later lessons.

Choosing Instruments: The Orff Arrangement Sound Pyramid

I chose alto xylophone instead of soprano because in the sound pyramid for this ensemble, we don’t need much more treble apart from the glockenspiel. By the same reasoning, the tubano sound will add more low frequencies to balance out the piece.

Student-Created OstinatiStudents can also come up with their own ostinati based on the text! Most of the time each student comes up with some ideas, and then we share out as a class.

When I notice a pattern that will work with the existing rhythms, I casually verbalize my decision of the pattern we’ll use (speaking the rhythmic syllables of the pattern, not the name of the student who created it).

Composition: GlockenspielIn a nutshell, this glockenspiel part is the whole purpose of the arrangement. It is also the part of the process that really makes it “Orff!”

I chose glockenspiel because the high pitched, ringing sound seems the most bird-like. I also like that the glockenspiel timbre and register cuts through the rest of the ensemble.

Process:The composition involves a few more steps than the other elements. Here is how I prefer to approach this sequence:

• Step 1: As with most mallet parts, we begin with body percussion.

  • With a partner, students create rhythmic compositions and arrange them for body percussion. All the rhythmic compositions will end the same way to add a more unifying structure.
  • As they think about their body percussion assignments, they follow notation on the board. This is a simplified version of the bass part. Using it as a guide will ensure that their glockenspiel melodies work smoothly with the harmonic progression.
  • The only requirement is that students play the first beat of each measure on the designated note (either “home” or “away”). This enforces the physical sensation of their rhythms and the harmonic progression, even if they don’t necessarily correspond to all the pitches they will use on barred instruments!

• Step 2: Students “place their rhythms” on barred instruments.

  • I like to do this part individually, but it can also be done with a partner if you don’t have enough barred instruments.
  • As students compose, they should play the instrument first, find a pattern they like, and THEN write it down so they can remember it later. I discourage students from writing letter names on the worksheet at random and then trying to figure out how to play their composition. That approach is sure to lead to awkward intervals that are difficult to play.

  • Step 3: Editing.

  • Any composer, writer, teacher, designer, engineer, or coder knows that great final products go through editing. In this case, students should make sure their final composition is easy to play, that it matches the harmonic outline on the worksheet, and that they like how it sounds. A simple step to help the editing process is for students to write on the back of the paper what they accomplished in that class period and what they plan to do next class. The prompt is, “Today I _____ (the student writes what they worked on). Next class I will_______(the student writes the next steps)__.” This helps everyone stay on track as the lesson progresses through several weekly segments.

Putting it all together:This song is written in ternary form. However, it could easily be adapted to rondo form if you want to give more students the chance to share their compositions.

The coda is very simple. It extends the rhythm of the last subphrase (Oh Johnny aren’t you tired), and brings back the opening subphrase (bluebird bluebird go through my window) along with the two ostinati.

Closing tips: Every Orff-inspired teacher applies the Orff philosophy in different ways. That said, here are some tried-and-true tips for working with an Orff arrangement like this one.

1. Start with singing. Start with the singing game.
2. All students learn all the parts.
3. Put instrumental parts on body percussion before instruments.
4. Add new elements in slowly.
5. Keep it fun! This is musically dense, but still a play-based process.

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There are so many forms musical choice can make in our classrooms. One of them is improvisation.

Improvisation can take many different forms as well. Students could improvise with speech, singing, recorder, barred instruments, or unpitched percussion. They can also improvise movements. Improvisation might happen in a large group, small group, or individually. Improvisation might be free (“play whatever you want on this xylophone”) or structured (“play two measures in the pentatonic scale and end on do”).

All forms of improvisation are valuable, but this post will focus on a few ideas for structured improvisation in 2nd grade. In my curriculum outline, 2nd grade works on:

• la
• half notes
• do
• takadimi

All of the slides for this collection of improvisation activities are available in the resources page.

Before We Begin:There are two blog posts you should check out before reading this one:

• This post outlines steps we can take to make students more successful in improvisation. It covers some prerequisites for successful improvisation, strategies to use, and thoughts on a culture of creativity.
• This post shares more examples of improvisation sequences. Specifically, it looks at how we can bridge the gap between activities like performance and sight reading and the creative activity of improvisation.

Vocal Improvisation with LaIckle OckleI first heard this song from a fabulous pedagog while I was in my undergrad, and it’s stuck with me ever since!

The game is simple: students are standing in a circle as they sing the song. At the end of the song, students must find a partner (the partner may be anyone in the circle besides their immediate neighbor). Any student without a partner goes to the middle and the game begins again.

Vocal improvisation:Many of us find vocal improvisation to be intimidating since there is no set of pitches for students to “type” on. Aurally, it can be trickier to improvise vocally with structured improvisation. This activity requires students to have truly internalized the sml toneset!

The Activity:1. All students sing the song like normal. 2. One student improvises the following rhyme (all students sing the last line together)

Will you be my partner?
Fishes in the sea
Splish splash water
Please pick me

As students sing, the teacher should keep a simple bordun to keep everyone on track. That keeps everyone on the same page tonally. It’s also helpful to have the class pat a steady beat as a student improvises.

Here’s an example of what students might come up with:

Click here to download the slides.

With all these activities, I recommend gradually sequencing down to individual improvisation. I like to move from the whole group improvising, and then after several steps, ask students to improvise on their own. Here’s my recommended sequence with this activity:

1. Whole class sings the song, whole class improvises
2. Half the class sings the song, the other half improvises
3. The whole class sings the song, small groups improvise
4. Students divide into partners. One sings the song, the other improvises.

Movement Improvisation with Half NotesWho Has Seen the Wind?

I love this song because it can sound musically sophisticated, even though it contains a simple set of musical elements.

Improvising with Movement:The goal here is to improvise with half notes using movement.

Depending on how much movement you already incorporate into your curriculum, you might want to sequence this activity by improvising and having students copy you. You can also have students do the activity seated, using only their hands.

The Activity:Students tiptoe, step, or slide depending on the type of rhythm they want to create.

Notice that the first eight beats of the song are performed together. This contextualizes the rhythms of the song so students have an aural starting point. It also helps the entire class stay together as they create their own movements.

I designed this activity for students in half note preparation, so you’ll notice the slides use iconic notation instead of standardized Western notation. You can easily transfer the iconic notation to standardized notation when your students are ready!

Here’s one example of what students might come up with:

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This activity looks stunning with students all performing their own movement improvisations!

It’s a perfect activity to add to a 2nd grade informance or other musical sharing program.

Click here to download the slides.

Pitched Percussion Improvisation with DoRocky Mountain

This is a song that was always in the back of my mind, but one that I didn’t start to love until fairly recently. The song has additional verses (that you can find here), but I tend to stick to the first verse only.

I’ve written more about how I use this song to improvise with the full pentatonic scale here.

Improvising with Pitched Percussion:A significant barrier to improvising with pitched percussion is knowing which direction on the instrument is pitched higher and which is pitched lower.

To help with this, I often have students start playing the instruments in a vertical position instead of horizontal. That’s another reason I love using this song for pitched percussion: the mountain visual is perfect for helping students remember the pitch direction of the barred instruments!

The Activity: The teacher improvises eight beats on a barred instrument. The class answers with the next eight beats, ending on do. All students sing the last two lines of the song in unison.

One of the important things you can do to get your students more comfortable with improvising is to improvise yourself in front of them. This shows what a “good” improvisation sounds like, and it takes some the pressure off what could otherwise be an intimidating process.

I recommend starting this process by clapping improvised rhythmic patterns instead of jumping straight to barred instruments. In general, we almost always want to start with body percussion before transferring musical material to instruments!

Here’s one example of what students might come up with:

Click here to download the slides.

Unpitched Percussion Improvisation with TakadimiTideoTideo has two games my students love!

The first game works great for younger players. Students stand in a circle with their arms above their heads to create “windows.” One player skips around the circle until m. 7 (jingle at the window). At that point, the student skips in a circle around the closest student (going through the windows). The chosen student follows the first student around the circle, and the game continues until all the students in the circle have been chosen.

However, my preferred activity with this song is a play party. It’s great for older beginners, and I've also used it successfully at the 2nd grade level.

Students create an inner and outer circle, with partners facing each other

• Every "Skip one window" - outside circle passes one person to the right
• Every "Tideo" - pat, clap, clap partners hands
• Every "Jingle at the window" - switch places with partner so outside circle is on the inside, and inside circle is on the outside.

Improvising with unpitched percussion:This activity can be done with virtually any type of hand drum - tubanos, djembes, or congas all work great!

You can also expand the activity to include other unpitched percussion instruments as well, as long as your tempo is not too fast. Consider maracas, triangles, tambourines, or jingle bells.

The Activity: In a circle, each student improvises four beats, the class responds with “jingle at the window, tideo.”

Like the process for Rocky Mountain, I recommend having students play their improvisations on body percussion before transferring to instruments.

Here is an example of what students might come up with:

Click here to download the slides.

Musicians in 2nd grade have so much musical information they have gathered - both inside and outside the music classroom!

Through movement, singing, barred instruments, and unpitched percussion, students have an opportunity with these activities to show what they know in a fun, play-based way.

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When students have worked with the tonic pitch in a variety of ways (look here for ideas), they may be ready to learn the term we use in our music class.

This is the quickest step of the learning process. Students have already done the melodic work in preparation, exploring the way the tonic pitch feels physically, how it sounds aurally, and what it might look like visually. The only thing left is for the teacher to assign a name to this mystery pitch.

This presentation plan is based off the one found in The Planning Binder.

PRESENTATION TEST:

A presentation test is a check-in to see if students are on the same page about the tonic pitch.

In the preparation phase, students chose the melodic contour that represents a portion of the song, Rocky Mountain. In order to do this, they must have an internal awareness of the song’s pitch direction and how it translates to a visual representation.

You can read more about that activity here.

THE SONG:For the presentation song, I’m using I See the Moon. This is a song students know quite well, and have already worked with in preparation.

PROCESS: These are a few slides to help the presentation process. The presentation is editable with Google Slides as a part of The Planning Binder.

• Instead of singing on text, students sing the song on solfege (using “low” instead of do). Since they have already created body percussion movements in the preparation activity, they may add body percussion as they sing.
• After students sing with body percussion, the teacher says, “In this class, we have a special name for low. We call it do.”
• Students sing the song on solfege (use do) and perform body percussion. This is the same activity they did in step one. The only difference is that this time students are using do instead of low.
• The next step is to show a skip below mi in notation. We do this by relating do to the other known pitches. Since do is a skip below mi, students use the hand staff to review lines and spaces, as well as steps and skips.
• Sing on solfege while pointing to the hand staff, or another visual aid (like the one used in the preparation phase)
• Students help the teacher write the notation for the first eight beats of the song on the staff.
• At this point, the notation is on the board. The last step is to add the do clef. This is a natural next step because with all the lines and spaces, it can get confusing to see where do is. The teacher says, “This is too many lines, and sometimes I get confused. Let’s add a sign to help me out. It’s called a do clef because it tells me where do is.”

What’s NextIn the next class (the first lesson of the practice phase) it’s a good idea to review the presentation process again. Inevitably some students will be absent for the presentation lesson, some will be distracted by a problem outside the class, someone may be in the bathroom, and at the very least, they will have slept between the presentation lesson and the practice lesson!

In the next post, we’ll look at some ways to explore do through improvisation, composition, inner hearing, games, and more.

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In this post we looked at a collection of repertoire to use for teaching do. These songs are available in a free PDF download, so be sure to check that post out for the printable.

Before we begin:Students will have the most success with these ideas if they already have a solid understanding of other melodic concepts, such as the singing voice, sol and mi, and la in a variety of melodic settings.

It’s also assumed that students have the song internalized before they’re asked to take any action with it. Again, you can check out this post to see the materials used in these activities.

Here are three activities you can explore with your students to help them create a solid foundational understanding of the tonic pitch, do.

In each idea, I’ll share a song, the activity, and one possible sequence of the process step by step.

The activities and songs are pulled from The Planning Binder. You can find out more about this subscription library here.

EARLY PREPEarly preparation often incorporates physical movement that allows students to internalize the melodic element. In this part of the process, students don’t necessarily need to recognize that a new melodic element has entered their repertoire. They are simply experiencing the spatial relationships between the pitches.

The Song:

I See the Moon

The Activity:Students work with a partner to come up with three levels of body percussion (high, middle, and low) to represent the three pitches in the song (sol, mi, and do).

You’re welcome to try the whole song, but the first eight beats is a good starting place for a focus section.

Time: 10 - 15 minutesWhen sequenced out step by step, this process can seem a bit lengthy. However, in my classroom the whole activity takes between 10 and 15 minutes.

A Possible Sequence:The outline I use for this activity is less detailed in my personal classroom since students are used to body percussion and independent work.

However, here is a step-by-step sequence for how I would work with a group of students with a little less experience.

Step 1: Melodic Contour* Since there is natural movement in a melodic line, this is a great entry point to physical movement. Students can trace the melodic contour in the air (“paint the notes”) as they sing the first eight beats of the song. * I’ve found that this type of activity is the most helpful when it’s paired with a visual.

Step 2: Body Percussion

• Next, ask students to assign one body percussion sound to the high moon, one to the middle moon, and one to the low moon.
• If students need examples of what you mean, I suggest that you have several different examples ready to model for them.
• For this kind of activity, I often let students choose if they want to work by themselves or with a partner. The vast majority of my students prefer to work with a friend so they can talk through their ideas.

Step 3: Check Your Work As students work around the room to imagine their body percussion levels, the classroom is naturally going to get a bit noisy. This is normal! However, it might also mean that we don’t necessarily notice right away if there are specific groups or individuals who need guidance. Because of this, after a few minutes of students working on the project, I like to give them an opportunity to check their work. * This is just a quick check in, so I would simply ask for a thumbs up if students have three body percussion levels: high, middle, and low. Students often show me their thumbs up or thumbs down right in front of their chests so other students don’t see. (You can read more about assessment ideas for the music room here*.) * From there, I can ask them to show me where their high level lives, where their middle level lives, and where their low level lives.

Step 4: Try It Out* A large group rehearsal is great to allow students to try out their ideas. As an entire class, we perform the body percussion all together once or twice. * Since we’re only working with the first 8 beats this goes pretty quickly!

Step 5: Share* To allow students to share their work in a low-pressure and quick way, students can pair up with another group or individual and perform their body percussion. The group that’s watching should look to see if the other group’s pattern was the same or different from what they created in their group.

Quick Tip:
Giving the listening group something to listen and watch for is extremely helpful. The simple instruction, “listen” is too broad of a direction for some students this age, and it can lead to behavior that doesn’t help the learning process.

• If you have time, you can have students share their group’s individual ideas with another group, repeating this same process. You could also ask students to share their ideas with the class.

Step 6: Reflect* After all this time exploring body percussion, working with partners, and sharing their work, students have likely moved away from their seats. As they walk back to their spots, they can discuss with their partner something they enjoyed about their body percussion, and what could make it even better.

This isn’t the only early preparation activity we do! I offer more ideas for early preparation in The Planning Binder subscription.

MIDDLE PREPAfter students physically move to a third below mi in several different ways, they’re probably ready to notice that there is a new pitch they have been experiencing. We do this by comparing the new pitch to other known elements.

The point here is not to identify the standard western name or the element’s notation. The point is to simply become aware that there is a new melodic element in our repertoire.

The Song:Rocky Mountain

The Activity:Aurally identify a note lower than mi.

A Possible Sequence:Step One: Move* Students will sing this known song, but with a special assignment. With a picture of a mountain on the board, I’ll ask students to trace the melodic contour of beats 9 - 12 as they sing. They’re welcome to do this with their hands, their shoulders, their noses, their feet, etc.

Step Two: Inner Hear* The next challenge is to inner hear the whole song, except for beats 9 - 12. Students sing the song in their heads while keeping a steady beat. At “when you’re on that Rocky Mountain” students sing out loud.

Step Three: Notice the Pitches* At this point, the teacher can ask some carefully worded questions to draw students’ attention to a new melodic element:

+ How many sounds do you hear in “Rocky Mountain”? (*four sounds*)
+ Do the pitches move from low to high or from high to low? (*high to low*)

Step Four: Find a New Pitch

A visual of stair steps, a ladder, hand staff, or an Orff instrument is helpful at this point. The image on the right shows some of the visual options you can consider implementing.

• The teacher will give the starting pitch of “Rocky Mountain” as la, and students will figure out the other missing pitches.
• I go through this process as a whole class, so I find it helpful for students to give me their guesses visually through body solfege.
• Standing at the front of the class, I prompt, “If this is la and the next pitch is a step down, what would it be?”. Students show their answer with body solfege signs. This acts as a quick assessment to make sure students are all on the same page before we introduce awareness of a new melodic element.
• At the end of Rocky Mountain, students will notice there is one extra pitch left to put on the stair steps, but we have run out of pitches that we know.

Step Five: Give it a name * I often have students brainstorm what to call the new element before I introduce the term we’ll use as a class. Students may turn to a partner or brainstorm by themselves to come up with a name that makes sense for a pitch that is lower than mi, and is the lowest note we have found so far. Their answers to this invitation are always interesting to me. Students frequently offer ideas such as “low,” “down” “end” or “last”. * Though plenty of names to this element make sense, do is the lowest pitch we know so far. Therefore it makes sense to me to call it low. When a student inevitably offers this suggestion, this is the one I take.

You can find more ideas for middle preparation in The Planning Binder subscription.

Late Prep:In late prep students often create an iconic representation of the new element they discovered in middle prep. Since they have already physically moved to this pitch and described it as a skip lower than mi, this step of the process should come quite naturally.

The Song:Rocky Mountain

The Activity:Choose icons to represent the melodic contour of “Rocky Mountain”

A Possible Sequence:Step one: Trace the Melodic Contour* Just like they did in middle prep, students sing and trace the melodic contour to beats 9 - 12 of the song.

Step Two: Choose the Correct Mountain RangeThere are lots of ways to complete the next step, and as with all things, it will depend on your specific teaching situation and the specific needs of your students. Some teachers prefer to leave this activity completely open-ended by offering small objects like erasers, legos, or other manipulatives and asking students to recreate what they heard. Students would take the manipulatives and arrange them on the floor in front of them to represent the high and low sounds of the melodic contour.

I prefer this approach to creating a visual representation. However, depending on how much time your students have had with this kind of activity, it may or may not be an appropriate way to assess students’ knowledge.

For some students the directions are simply too open-ended for them to show what they know about melodic contour. In that case, I like to give students options of melodic contour to choose from instead of asking them to recreate the melody completely from scratch.

• The pictures can be shown on a SmartBoard or drawn on the board, and students simply pick the picture that represents the melodic contour.
• With their picture chosen, they can hold up their fingers to show their answer number.

These three activities for do preparation are by no means the only activities students would work through in their exploration of the tonic pitch.

Depending on my scope and sequence for the year, we might spend four to six weeks on do preparation before moving on to the presentation phase. There are so many more exciting things to do with this element in the preparation phase. These activities are simply three of my favorites to ensure students have a solid experience with do.

The process for the activities can easily be adjusted to work with your specific student group. You could also take the activities and apply them to some of your students’ favorite songs as well!

You can find more teaching ideas like these in The Planning Binder.

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If you’re following a curriculum similar to the ones I outline here, you’ll likely teach the melodic element, do after students are done singing, playing, moving, reading, writing, and creating with sol, mi, and la.

Read: 3 Curriculum Outlines
Read: Preparing La, Presenting La,Practicing La

This collection of songs is great for working with do, but I’ve highlighted some other educational and creative uses you could find with them as well.

All the songs in this post are available as a PDF download - just click below!

Download PDF

Bells in the Steeple:

Bells in the Steeple is a simple song made up of only three pitches. However, in those three pitches there is so much you can do. For our purposes, we’ll be looking at the song through a melodic lens, but there are lots of other creative possibilities for the song outside of melody:

• Meter: The opening line highlights triple meter with the melody, the rhythm, and the text, making it a great option for teaching 3/4.
• Expression: Students can also work with expressive elements by considering what kinds of holidays they can celebrate. For example, how might Halloween bells be different than Valentine’s Day bells?
• Partwork: It’s also especially satisfying to sing in a round and listen to the pitches interact with each other.

Rocky Mountain:

When I started using Rocky Mountain in my teaching I fell in love almost instantly. And that makes sense the more I think about the elements in the song:

• Rhythm and Older Beginners: The rhythm is simple - very similar to that ofLucy Locket, and One Two Three Four. However, the melody uses the full pentatone. This makes it a great option for older beginners since students can focus on the simple rhythm collection while singing a more sophisticated melody.
• Functional Harmony: The melody to the song also suggests functional harmony. This is rare for lower elementary repertoire since the typical toneset students consciously work with isn’t diatonic. To me, that makes the song feel like a breath of fresh air!
• Melody: In addition to working on do, you can pull the song back out for re when the time comes.

Sorida:

Sorida is a Shona song from Zimbabwea. I learned about this song from Let Your Voice be Heard, one of my favorite classroom song resources.

Read: Resources for Creating a Grade-Level Song List

I’ve never met a Judith Cook Tucker resource I didn’t like, and this one is no exception. I love her consistency in honoring the social relationships, belief systems, and daily practices that make up a song’s cultural home. The authors, Adzenyah, Tucker, and Dumisani also include valuable information on the background of the song and the role of music within this specific cultural framework.

If your students have ever generalized clapping games by calling them “patty-cake,” this hand clapping game will have them instantly engaged and challenged.

To give a context for the song, you can look through the materials at the Smithsonian Folkways website and play additional music from Zimbabwean music practices.

I See the Moon:

This is another song with a simple rhythmic and tone set that has endless creative possibilities.

• Rhythmic Building Blocks: I suggest working with the classroom teacher to see if there are any earth and space concepts you can collaborate on. These elements can become rhythmic building blocks, such as “moon” (ta rest), “shooting stars” (ta-di ta), “planets” (ta ta), “twinkle twinkle” (ta-di ta-di).
• Partwork: I See the Moon can also be paired with Star Light Star Bright as a partner song. If you combine the partner song with some student-created ostinati, you have a perfect informance or performance piece!

Other Song Ideas:These are four songs I’ll deep dive into in later blog posts, but they’re not the only options out there! You can also consider these:

• Bow Wow Wow
• Little Tom Tinker
• Paw Paw Patch

Popular Music:I don’t always use popular music (“popular” here used as vernacular music after the 1900’s) with concepts I teach. When I do, it’s in the practice phase and I make sure students are familiar with the song by including it in our warm up routine or other activity.

Read:Warm Up Routine for Elementary Music

Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off* You can hear the “sol-do” pattern in the refrain, “neither neither, either either”. This is true for Fitzgerald’s version in the second half. Armstrong makes a different decision in his verses. Students can compare and contrast the two artists’ use of sol and do in that section.

Believer * Students can sing a good portion of the chorus on solfege while showing hand signs: “Then I saw her face. Now I’m a believer. Not a trace of doubt in my mind.” Students can also guess the song by reading the melody on the board. * This could double as a transition activity: Coming from a song like Rocky Mountain, the teacher could change one beat at a time to turn the song into Believer.

These songs will serve as a platform for active musicing in later lessons.

I love the different creative directions you can take these songs - from movement to harmony to partwork, they are all grounded in age-appropriate musicianship opportunities.

Don’t forget to grab the free PDF by clicking the button below!

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In the last few posts, we looked at some of the things to consider before jumping into improvisation activities. Now we’ll talk about some great ways to approach improvisation in elementary music.

Read more about improvisation here and here.

Improvisation can be intimidating to teach. This might be because it’s different from other skills we work with as educators.

Skills like imitation, reading music, and writing music are concrete. Students will understand right away if they have achieved the purpose of the activity or not.

When we compare that to improvisation, we see the potential results are much more open-ended. This can make it challenging for the students to know if they have achieved the purpose of the activity, or if they have done it “right.”

It can also make it challenging for us to know if they have achieved the purpose.

What parameters could we put around the activity to guide student responses? Will we be satisfied with any musical output from our students? Getting clear on your structure will help not only with the flow of the activity, but also with classroom management.

So here are some of my favorite structures for improvisation. Each blueprint can be adapted to work with a different grade level, concept, or medium.

1. Here Comes a Bluebird:The Song: My 1st and 2nd graders are always thrilled when we pull this song out!

Game: Students stand, with hands joined in a ring. One student walks in and under the arches. At “take a little partner,” this child takes a partner and with two hands joined they face each other. They gallop out through the opening where the child was taken from the ring and back again, or they dance the same around the ring. The first child joins the ring. The student who was chosen is the next bluebird and the game begins again.

The Purpose: * Grade: 1st or 2nd * Musical Focus: Improvising quarter and eighth notes, or improvising quarter notes, eighth notes, and half notes. The decision will depend on what rhythmic elements you focus on the most, and where you are in your personal curriculum. * Student Readiness: Before doing this activity, make sure your students have a thorough understanding of steady beat, rhythm, rhythm vs beat, and quarter notes / eighth notes. If you choose to use this activity to practice half notes, it would be ideal for students to be in the half notes practice phase.

You can read more about writing your music curriculum here, here, or here. You can also find an editable curriculum outline in The Planning Binder.

The Process: You could go through this whole process in one class, or break it up by doing steps 1 - 4 in one class and steps 1, 5, and 6 in another class.

1. Sing the song and play the game
2. Clap the rhythm of the words to phrases one and three. Sing phrases two and four in your head.
3. Extract the rhythm to phrases one and three.
4. Check your answer
5. Clap the rhythm to phrases 1 and 3. Improvise phrases 2 and 4 on body percussion.
6. Discuss the rhythm combinations you could include in the improvisation.

Google SlidesThese slides walk through the process for this activity. Scroll through the images to view the sequence.

You can grab the Google Slides presentation below. I send resources like this to my email list once or twice a month.

Extension:In Here Comes a Bluebird, students clap part of the song, and improvise the other part on body percussion. You could certainly leave it there! Body percussion is a musical destination in and of itself.

But you could also transfer the improvisations to pitched percussion (xylophones, metallophones, and glockenspiels) or unpitched percussion (especially certain kinds of hand drums, but also cabasa, triangle, or rhythm sticks).

Transferring to other song materials:This is a “fill in the blank” improvisation activity that could be used virtually with any song.

A helpful element to look for if you choose to apply this to another piece of material is some sort of repeating structure in the songs (ABAC, ABAB, etc.). Students can make up the part that stays the same, or make up a new version of the part that’s different.

1. Rocky Mountain

This activity for Rocky Mountain has a melodic focus instead of a rhythmic focus.

I designed the activity to be used with barred instruments. However, you could also use with with another tonal instrument, such as the voice or recorder. If you choose to go the vocal route, add in some work with vocal patterns by isolating portions of the song (“Rocky mountain rocky mountain,” “Do remember me,” “Rocky Mountain High”). Vocal improvisation relies much more heavily on the ear, so students will find the most success by using tonal patterns in their improvisations.

The Purpose: Grade: 3rd (depending on your curriculum!) * Musical Focus: Re practice, or full pentatone practice * Student Readiness: This activity is designed for use on barred instruments, so students will have the most success if they’re comfortable with using both hands as they play, playing in the center of the bar, and bouncing their mallets. In other words, if they have experience with how to best play the instrument, their focus won’t be divided between both the technical parts of sound production and* improvising a melody. They should also be very secure with quarter notes, eighth notes, and quarter rests.

The Process: As you click through the slides below, you’ll notice there’s an emphasis on the rhythm of the song before students improvise the melody. That’s intentional.

Even through the focus of the activity is melodic improvisation, students need to be grounded in the structural elements of the piece. Those structural elements come from the rhythm of the song. A foundation in the rhythmic structure keeps the students on track as they play - it tells them when to stop and start their improvisations, and when it’s time to pay special attention to specific pitches at the end of each phrase.

The slides below go through the process I recommend for sequencing this activity. I suggest breaking the activity up into more than one lesson.

1. Sing the song while keeping the rhythm or the beat
2. Figure out the rhythm of the song
3. Check your answer
4. Create movement to represent the contour of different mountain ranges
5. Sing the song while you trace the contour of the mountain ranges
6. Figure out the solfege
7. Check your answer
8. Create your own mountain range by placing the rhythm on the barred instruments. Once partner claps the rhythm while the other improvises a melody.
9. Discuss qualities that you enjoyed in your melody.

You can grab the Google Slides presentation below. I hate having a messy inbox, so I only send resources like this one that I would be thrilled to get as well!

Extension:You’ll notice the ending to this improvisation lesson is open-ended. You could leave it as an improvisation (how the slides end). Or you could transition to a composition activity by inviting students to write down their improvisations in standard notation.

The choice is yours!

Transferring to Other Materials: This activity for Rocky Mountain has rhythms on the simple side for students following my curriculum. That makes it easier to focus on the melodic structure in this improvisation activity. The rhythmic form of the song also includes repetition (AABB), which is another helpful component. If you’re looking to transfer this activity to another song, simple rhythms and repetition will be your friends!

1. I Got a Letter This Morning

The final improvisation in this activity happens in rondo form. Rondo form is ideal for many types of improvisation because it keeps everyone involved in the music. All students sing the main song. Then, two students at a time (one in each circle) improvise four beats.

The sequence also gradually moves the performance expectation from whole-group to individual. Students will have multiple chances to improvise as a whole group, in small groups, and with partners before improvising individually. This kind of gradual narrowing is crucial to establishing a culture of safety necessary for improvisation.

The last key component in this activity is that the teacher models improvisation for the students. Having the teacher model creative musicianship gives students examples of how simple their rhythms can be. Many students are intimidated that their improvisation won’t be impressive enough, and the teacher has the opportunity at the beginning of the process to show that simple improvisations can very well be the most musical.

The Purpose: * Grade: 4th or 5th * Musical Focus: taka-mi * Student Readiness: Before students use this activity, they should have a solid knowledge of 16th note rhythm combinations, including takadimi, taka-di, ta-dimi, and taka-mi.

The Process: * Sing the song call-and-response style. * Students clap the rhythm of the words * Add a B section: “Open the letter, tell me, what does it say?” Students may choose the body percussion for the rhythmic question. * Practice reading three different rhythm cards as a rhythmic answer to the question * The class asks the rhythm question and the teacher answers with one of the three rhythmic answers. Students hold up a number on their fingers to show which one they heard. * The last envelope is blank. The teacher improvises a response, and students identify it as the fourth envelope. * The teacher asks the rhythmic question, and the students choose the response. They may choose a rhythm that is already notated, or they may improvise. * Divide the class in half - half perform the question, half perform the answer. Switch. * Divide the class by groups of four - each group of four does either the question or the answer. Switch.

• Students find a partner and an unpitched percussion instrument. One person asks the rhythmic question on body percussion. The other performs an improvisation (not a written response) on the unpitched percussion instrument.
• Divide the class into two groups. In rondo form, students sing the song, then improvise individually on unpitched percussion. Two musicians will improvise at the same time, but they will be in different groups.

These Google Slides can be used in your classroom right away, but you can also edit them if you want to add some steps.

Extension:I Got a Letter This Morning is a simple song simply in terms of its form! You can add more rhythmic interest by choosing a student improvisation to be an ostinato. Students can listen to the whole class improvise, then come up with two patterns they believe would sound good together. Listen for rhythms that “fill in” each others gaps. That will ensure that the rhythms are complementary and keep up the momentum of the song.

I love these activities because of their balance of freedom and limits. Students are set up to be musical and successful. They’re also set up to be creative, and to let their unique ideas shine through.

My sincere hope is that these structured activities show students how improvisation is a natural outcome of their musical knowledge. In the sharing and group work of the activities, I hope students see and hear the value in the improvised ideas around them. There is a unique combination in improvisation of making musical decisions, and valuing the decisions of others. What a great job we have!

I’d love to hear some of your favorite improvisation activities as well! Comment below, shoot me an email (victoria@wemakethemusic.org), or find me on instagram (@victoriaboler).

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Improvisation is one of the best methods we have for figuring out how our students are working through musical materials. That’s because the cognitive process in improvisation requires students to build upon previous knowledge to create something new. Improvisation is also spontaneous, so students generate this new material in the moment. Spontaneously generating new musical material based on previous understanding is an impressively advanced skill!

There are different kinds of improvisation activities that your students will find valuable. They range from open-ended, free activities (like a young child “playing around” on a metallophone), to highly structured in their form, melodic content, and meter (like a vibraphone player improvising over a 12-bar blues progression).

These tips apply to structured improvisation. That means that you are putting some parameters around the form you want the improvisation to take. The exact parameters you’ll use will depend on your students, their musical abilities, and your unique educational goals.

1. Prerequisites for Improvisation: Improvisation is an aural skill. Students will need lots of experience and understanding of the musical element before they’re asked to improvise with it. This includes singing, speaking, playing, reading, writing, listening, and analyzing. In addition, here are two important prerequisites to think about:

Audiation: In improvisation, students must draw conclusions about music based on their understanding of music’s structure. Students are essentially making guesses about what musical pairings will sound good together. For this to work well, they need an established tonal, rhythmic, and structural landscape.

Tonal Patterns and Vocal Improvisation: Vocal improvisation is a particularly challenging task because of how much preexisting aural skills it takes. When they improvise vocally, students draw on tonal patterns. If a collection of tonal patterns are not secure (for example, m r d; mm r d; m rr dd d), students will have limited success with vocal improvisation.

Students need a strong aural foundation before they’re ready to tackle improvisation

1. Strategies for Successful ImprovisationImprovisation is wildly rewarding and fun, but it can also be intimidating. Here are some of my favorite ways to scaffold the process:

Model it: It’s not surprising that students experience more success with improvisation when their teachers model it for them. When you provide a model, students see that their answers don’t need to be elaborate or complex. It takes some of the pressure off to hear examples of what the teacher considers to be “good” improvisation. Also, if students see you as a creative agent, they’re more likely to engage in creative activities themselves. When you participate in play-based activities like improvisation, you’re setting the example for a play-based process.

Think it in your head: Have students practice aurally before they’re asked to give a physical response. That helps them internalize how much time they have to make something up. In my experience, improvising within a metered time constraint (phrase) is the most challenging aspect for students. I recommend having students pat the steady beat as they inner hear the phrase to reinforce the amount of time they have to improvise.

Body Percussion: Before playing instruments, I almost always have students improvise on body percussion. This is a valuable scaffolding strategy that helps students internalize the spatial awareness they’ll need on instruments. Jumping straight to instruments works with some activities and some students, depending on their musical skill level. However, when in doubt, I find it’s best to add this extra step.

Group Practice:Have the whole class perform their improvisation at once. It will sound chaotic, but students need a safe place to “test drive” their rhythmic and melodic ideas.

Small Group Practice:After an aural and group practice, ask half the class to share their improvisations at the same time. Then switch. Gradually narrow down the number of students you’re asking to share. This doesn’t necessarily need to happen all in one lesson.

Scaffold the process before you ask students to share their ideas

1. Improvisation Success and a Culture of CreativityThe amount of teacher-driven versus student-driven activities in your classroom will impact how your students handle improvisation activities.

If students are used to you making all the musical decisions (what to sing, what to read, how to perform, how many times to repeat, etc) and simply following musical directions, they may not be comfortable jumping straight into improvisation.

If the teacher does all the thinking, and the students are only responsible for doing what the teacher says, the creative ownership rests solely on the teacher. This may make for a tricky transfer of ownership when the students are asked to do the thinking.

However, if students are used to having ownership over musical decisions like what instruments to use, how to move, what the form should be, and what parts should be included, they will be more comfortable with the innovation and creative thinking needed for improvisation.

You can read about how I use improvisation in my warm up routine here.

Strive for a culture of creativity instead of isolated creative activities.

The next post will be full of actionable ideas you can use to encourage creative improvisation in your classroom.

What are some of your favorite improvisation invitations?

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Improvisation is the process of generating original musical material in real time. When we improvise, there is little predetermined about the performance. This means students need to have an extensive musical vocabulary internalized and ready to use on the spot.

When students are working with a new element, they may be ready to make musical decisions before they’re ready for the advanced skill of improvisation.

Read more about how I use improvisation with la,sol and mi, and 16th notes

Improvisation is one of the highest musical processes for our students, since it necessitates individually synthesizing knowledge and skills in a new situation. If your students aren’t ready to improvise, they can still make musical decisions that express their individualism and creativity.

Here are ideas some to consider.

Whole-Class ChoiceMaking alterations as a whole class lets you model the process of creative choice. It’s as simple as having the class vote on a change, and performing the change all together. This could be done with virtually any musical skill, but here are a few ideas to get you started:

Form: * Switch the A and B section. * Repeat the chorus twice. * Repeat the whole song. * Mix up the phrases. * Sing all the rhythms backward.

Words: * Pick a word and find a substitute with the same rhythm * Pick a series of words to perform on body percussion (for example, snap on the numbers in Open the Gate and Let Me In, Sir)

Expression: * Choose to perform the song or rhyme loudly or quietly

Accompaniment: * The class comes up with an ostinato to speak with the song * Students vote on the instrument category (woods, metals, skins, shakers, scrapers) to play the ostinato * Choose phrases to sing as solos and phrases to sing as a group

This option is valuable if your students need a concrete framework for musical decisions. There is a significant amount of teacher input in this process, and less individual student input. These parameters make for a great starting place with musical choice, and you can use the same creative prompts with individuals or small groups in future lessons.

Rhythmic building blocksBuilding blocks can be the anchor some students need when they create a new musical idea. They’re valuable because they include teacher-created parameters (what rhythms will be used, and the length of the phrase, etc.).

When preparing an element, you can use iconic notation on your cards or the orthographic words themselves. When practicing an element, you can put the standardized Western notation. When we’re in the practice phase, I like to put both options on the side of the card and let students choose their preference.

For example, with the rhyme, Bee Bee Bumblebee, my students can choose to use the side with bee images, or the side with western notation.

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How to use rhythmic building blocksWhen you have your phrase created from rhythmic building blocks, there are infinite ways you can use these creative decisions to inspire other musical decisions.

• Students can perform it in a rondo with the song
• Use the rhythms as a B section
• Choose one phrase to use as an ostinato
• Go on a “museum walk” to see the other rhythms in the room
• Transfer the rhythms to body percussion or unpitched percussion instruments
• Do literacy activity where the teacher claps a group’s rhythm and all students listen to determine whose group was chosen (use this as a transition to line up or move to your next activity),
• Have student groups clap their rhythm and have the class dictate it with their building blocks

Pick your favorite phraseIn this activity, I like to use options extracted from the song itself, especially at the beginning. Students have contextualized this material which makes it easier to draw upon on the spot.

Choose a song your students enjoy, then create variations of the rhythms to play as a B section.

When the song is over, students choose one of three options on the board.

For example, in Built My Lady a Fine Brick House, we get done playing the game and singing the song, then students choose a “house” on the board to play.

Before students choose their house on their own, we do a group practice of each individual rhythm so students can practice the flow of each activity.

Version twoEven if your class as a whole isn’t ready to improvise original musical material from scratch, you probably have a few students who would enjoy the activity and find success with it.

For a variation on the same activity, add an additional empty eight beats to the phrases on the board. I like to give a visual cue for the number of empty beats the student has to fill, especially at first.

This is a great transition to more fluid improvisation activities. At some point when students have had enough practice with the activity, you can invite everyone to make something up.

There are so many ways to facilitate student choice and creative expression without improvisation.

These are a few ways to help students make musical decisions before they move to improvising on their own. These ideas are not replacements for improvisation. Instead, they are ways to build your students’ decision-making muscles so they’re ready for more intentional improvisation later.

What are some of your favorite ways to offer musical choice in your room?

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I’ve written about what makes classroom materials high quality, resources for quality materials, and how to put together a song list.

When you have your songs listed in a song list, it’s time to analyze them for their musical material and potential classroom use.

Here’s why.

When we analyze a song, we learn the material forward and backward. We approach it from several different musical and pedagogical angles so we have a thorough understanding of the material and how the musical elements interact.

If you do work as a wind, strings, or choral conductor, would you ever start a piece without doing a score study? Probably not.

Since the repertoire is the curriculum, it’s worth the time and effort to dive into the details of our songs.

Here is a simplified guide to analyzing a folk song. You’ll find more detailed methods out there, and I encourage you to pursue whichever level of thoroughness that would serve your students best.

I’ve made a snappy cheat sheet you can use in this process. It’s available in the Resources page here!

Let’s jump in.

Two Analysis Uses: Classroom Use and Theoretical Analysis:There are three major categories we look at when analyzing a song. One is the “bones” of the song, including its form, rhythmic content, melodic content. This is the analysis side.

The next category is how we can use it in the classroom. Is it useful for teaching any specific melodic or rhythmic concepts? Are there any games associated with it? What about movement activities? This side lists all the ways the material might breathe in your classroom.

The third category is all the “other” things that are helpful to include. This category includes additional verses, game directions, and stick notation.

We’ll use Frosty Weather as an example as we walk through the steps to take when analyzing a song for your classroom.

You can find this song (and plenty more) in the Folk Song Index page.

Analysis:When we get into the weeds of analyzing a song, you’ll find a few variations in the details from community to community.

This is my personal process, but be aware it may not be the same as other Kodaly-Inspired teachers.

In general, most musicians who do a folk song analysis are interested in the song’s melodic content, rhythmic content, form, and origin. Many musicians also prefer to include cadences, length of phrases, motifs, melodic contour, and separate melodic and rhythmic forms.

What to Include in an Analysis: Rhythmic Content: List all the rhythms in the song. Some teachers do this by the largest beat unit to the smallest. Some do from the smallest to the largest. Some teachers leave this step out for songs with younger grades. The choice is yours! * Toneset: List the solfege syllables in the song. Circle, underline, box, or find some other way to note the ending pitch. It’s helpful to include spaces between the solfege syllables when they are skips apart. * Scale: Looking at your collection of solfege pitches, determine the scale of the song. Your ending pitch will give you a good hint as to the tonality. Songs may be “chordal” (stepwise) or “tonic” (skips). A scale may also be modal, diatonic, or in a minor scale. * Form: Look at each phrase of the song. Are they similar? The same? Different? List the form in capital letters. * Country or Culture of Origin:* Where is the song from? Who sang (/sings) it and why? What meaning do the lyrics hold? The more specific you can be, the better. For example, “African folk song” may be technically accurate, but we would get a richer cultural context by listing the specific people group within the specific country of Africa. Sometimes upon further research you may find that a song was not intended for use outside its community and needs to be taken out of your song list - perhaps it is a song with a spiritual or personal connection. We do our students and our global community a service when we treat cultural materials, such as music, with respect and acknowledgement of their origin.

In Frosty Weather, we have four unique rhythms to list. Notice that the quarter rest is included in that list.

The toneset uses five pitches, including a skip. The resting pitch is do, so do is bold.

Since we have five pitches, they include a skip, and rest on do, our scale is do pentatonic.

When we look at the form, you could make an argument for AABA if you were to look at shorter phrases and only focus on the skeletal melody. However, through the eyes of a child, the slight variations in the melody and the length of the phrase make a case for AB.

The origin of the song is Ireland, and it is a song with a game. Both are important details.

Classroom Use:This is the fun part.

Look through the song for rhythmic elements, melodic elements, or anything else that stands out to you as a teaching tool.

As with the analysis portion, different teachers have varying levels of detail they put into these categories. Here is a simple collection of things to consider.

• Rhythm: List the rhythmic element that could be taught with the song. We want to look for new rhythmic elements that are surrounded by known elements, so be sure to look at the context of the whole phrase. For young students, you can also include steady beat, rhythm of the words, and fast / slow in this category.
• Melody: Similarly, when we list melodic elements that can be used in the classroom, we want them to come before and after a series of known pitches. You can also add high / low in this category.
• Game Type: Teachers tend to have their own classifications for games. Game identifications such as acting out, circle, chasing, choosing, dance, finger play, partner, or winding will get you started.

• Other: What other possibilities do you see with this song? How might it live and breathe in your classroom? This is where teachers can get creative and detailed in their folk song analysis. Here are some ideas to get you started with this section:

  • Do you associate it with a book? Would it be useful during a specific season? What is the theme or subject material? Some songs are useful for teaching the notes on the staff. Some songs fit well on barred instruments because of their sticking pattern and melodic contour. Some songs may inspire a student-created ostinato activity. Some songs may have natural phrases or words you could extract for rhythmic building blocks. Some songs may have intervals and a pitch collection that fall nicely on a C or F recorder.

Now let’s look at Frosty Weather.

Even though this song uses five unique rhythmic elements, I don’t see a full phrase that would lend itself to extracting a specific rhythm. The first two measures could be a good example of steady beat, but when students continue the song they’ll run into beat subdivisions that may be confusing. Measures two and three use “ta-mi” (dotted eighth followed by a sixteenth note), but that displaced sixteenth note isn’t surrounded by smaller beat subdivisions that would help make it obvious to a child.

When we look at the melody, we see three clear instances of the “s-m-r-d” pattern. That’s a great melody to extract here. The one measure without that pattern (measure 3) has pitches that students already know and will recognize easily because of their interval order (s-m-s-l).

The game listed in the source is a circle game, so that’s what I put in this category.

I have my own activity I use with this song that differs from the source activity. Since I use this song to work on open and closed space, that goes in the “other” category.

Also Include:With an analysis and classroom use complete, there are just a few more details to check off.

• Source: Our songs don’t exist in a vacuum, so it’s important to list where you found your materials. If a song is from a printed book, I like to list the book information and page number. If I learned the song aurally from a primary or trusted secondary source, I list the name of the informant, the date, and location the song was shared.
• Game Directions: If a song has any games, dances, or activities associated with it, be sure to include those directions. If I have my own variant of the game, I like to include it along with the game listed in the song’s source.
• Rhythmic and Melodic Notation: This may be one of the more tedious steps to the process. List out the rhythm of the song in stick notation. As you rewrite the song, pay attention to the phrases, and shoot for one line per phrase. Under the stick notation write the solfege syllables.

Jill Trinka has this song notated in one of her books. I’ve included her book information and the page number at the bottom of my printed music as the source.

There are two sets of game directions here. One is the game from the source. The other is my own variation. I want to include both so I can reference them.

The stick notation shows the rhythmic and melodic content separated by phrases. Notice that the last portion of the song is spoken, so I’ve included the rhythmic notation without a melody.

By the time you’re done with this analysis, you will know the song forward and backward, upside down, and around.

Even though this is a simplified version of the process, it takes a sizable amount of time to complete. I encourage you to consider the level of detail that works with you and your students the best, and leave the rest out.

You can find my collection of folk materials in the Folk Song Index.

And don’t forget to grab this cheat sheet in the Resource page.

Happy analyzing, and happy teaching!

I LOVE talking about music education, so if you’re into it, shoot me a discussion topic or question. I’d love to hear from you.

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Grab the cheat sheet download in theResources page here.

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Do you love your Kodaly-Inspired lesson template? Do you love those groovy Orff arrangements? There’s no reason the two can’t work together. It’s just a matter of getting clear on your goals.

This was a question from a lovely educator on instagram. I love chatting about music education topics, so if you’re into it, shoot me a discussion topic. I’m @victoriaboler, or you can send an email to victoria@wemakethemusic.org

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Read more about song lists in this blog post.

Check out the Planning Binder here

Holy Names University Website

Kodaly Hub

Victoria Boler’s Song Collection

Smithsonian Folkways Recordings

Alan Lomax’s Recordings

The Global Jukebox

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One of the most practical things you can do at the beginning of a school year is to have a running list of songs to use with a particular concept. Songs lists can be time consuming to put together, but in the end they give clarity on lesson planning materials later. It is an investment that is well worth it!

What is a Song List?Song lists are collections of high-quality, engaging materials you can use to teach targeted concepts with specific grade levels. Some teachers also prefer to create song lists by categories such as “primary” or “upper elementary”.

Many teachers prefer to list out specific under specific concepts in bullet points. This is a great option! I prefer to use a spreadsheet instead so I can see how the song relates to other elements at a glance.

As with all teaching decisions, how you craft your song list will depend on your personal preference and teaching style.

If you choose to use the spreadsheet model, you’ll list your musical concepts and elements at the top of the page, and then along the left hand column you’ll write the songs you might use in alphabetical order.

I’ve written about song lists before in this guide to elementary music planning.

You can also find song lists for kindergarten - 3rd grade in the Planning Binder for reference as the July 2019 upload.

Once you have your method down, it’s time to start filling in songs! Where to begin?

Your Childhood Favorites:The transmission of folk songs has traditionally been an oral practice. It’s likely that you have some childhood favorite songs that you learned by rote from a parent, other family member, or friend. Think through songs or rhymes you used on the playground or at bedtime.

If you can’t think of any, ask a family member.

When you have them down, see if you can find them notated in a reliable source as a cross reference.

Children as Song Sources (“Playground Field Research”):Children are culture-bearers of their own unique, colorful worlds.

Often, as you walk through the playground you will hear students chanting or singing as a part of their play process, especially in younger grades. These playground songs and rhymes are a great addition to your song collection since students already know and love these materials.

When I have done “playground field research” I’ve discovered several musical gems that make for exciting classroom song additions.

Start by just “hanging out” on the playground. If students start to sing or chant as they play (jump rope games, chasing games, hand-clapping games, choosing games, etc), write the game down with a quick musical transcription. You can also take an audio of video recording of the song if it’s appropriate at your school.

When you have your song transcription or recording of students performing the game on the playground, you can list the student names as the source for the song. You can also deepen your understanding of their song materials by hunting for the song in another reliable source.

Playground field research is a fascinating study to which many ethnomusicologists have devoted their expertise. You can find examples in texts like this.

Popular Materials:The inclusion of popular materials is controversial among music teachers, and for good reason. We want our students to study music that is high-quality and vocally safe. We also want to meet students where they are, in a musical language they identify with.

In general, I use popular materials sparingly, but I think it would be a shame not to use them at all. These popular materials should be selected with the same criteria you would use to choose a folk song.

(Read more about how to choose repertoire for the music room here.)

Books:My folk song book collection seem to grow every year, and every new book brings new sources, variations, and background information. Here are some of my favorites.

• 150 American Folk Songs
• 155 American Folk Songs
• Folk Songs North America Sings
• Vamos a Cantar
• Let Your Voice be Heard
• Roots and Branches

Accessing Songbooks When You’re Broke:Purchasing stacks of songbooks can get expensive! If you are just beginning your songbook collection, don’t feel that you need to purchase all of these at once.

• Reputable music universities will have at least some of these books (and others!) in their libraries. WorldCat is a website that can help you locate where the book is in your nearest available library.
• I also recommend reaching out to other music teachers in your area since most will have at least a few of these on hand. Music teachers are lovely generous people, and I have no doubt you can track down someone who would let you borrow a copy of their songbook. If you need help finding music teachers near you, start by reaching out to your local Kodaly or Orff chapter.

Websites:When we look for materials, it’s best to look for sources that list their own source for a song. This is part of choosing songs with integrity.

There are plenty of websites with a wealth of song materials and unlisted sources, and while it won’t harm your students or your teaching practice to use them, it may not provide as rich of a cultural context. Songs don’t exist in a vacuum. We do our students a service when we recognize where the song came from, who sang it, and why.

• Holy Names University - This is an obvious one! You are likely familiar with this body of work already, but if not, sit back and enjoy! This is a song retrieval system specifically for American materials. The level of work these educators have put into this database is astounding.
• Kodaly Hub:This is another song retrieval system, through the Liszt Academy in Budapest. Since it is not specific to American songs, I find this to be a good source for other materials outside the US. These songs are sourced globally - any member can upload to the library.

Field Recordings: These recordings have not necessarily been taken with elementary general music education in mind. As such, you may need to do some digging to find songs for your specific purposes, but I promise the hunt is worth it!

• Smithsonian Folkways- This is a well-known place to start when looking for folk music, and for good reason. This is an expansive collection of recordings and educational materials from across the globe.
• Alan Lomax’s Field Recordings: Complete with photos, videos, and audio, this is an impressive collection of Alan Lomax’s work. You can search by location (New York, Italy, Alabama, etc.) or by genre (children’s song, lullaby, work song, etc.). I have spent hours on this impressive site, and my guess is you will too! You can also find some curated song collections on this podcast.
• Global Jukebox: The Global Jukebox is a WEALTH of traditional song materials. You will get lost in the interactive global map where you can search for global musical patterns and similarities across cultures. I’ve never seen anything like it. Check it out and let me know what you think!

Choosing songs for your music room is a personal process. It’s bound in your personal teaching philosophy, ideals, and practices.

It’s also arguably the most important thing you can do in preparing for the school year because your repertoire is the curriculum!

When you source musical materials for your students, you are creating an aural and cultural tapestry that is the framework for everything they will learn in your room. It’s a big job, and if we do it well, it can be an immensely rewarding task for us too.

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There are so many different places you can start from when creating a Curriculum Outline.

A curriculum outline is a broad overview of your entire program, across all grade levels. It’s a zoomed out picture of what concepts you want to cover, and what grades will cover them.

I’ve written about a curriculum outline here and here already, so if you haven’t read those posts yet, be sure to check them out!

Today I’ll break down three possible approaches that might serve you and your students well this year.

These outlines are a part of the Planning Binder. The Planning Binder is a monthly subscription planning site where you see an intentional elementary music year planned out from start to finish. Each month new documents are added for you to use as a springboard for your own planning, including concept plans and monthly plans. You can check it out here!

Before we jump in, it’s important to note that every teacher, student, school, and program is different. These are three possible starting points to use in your own planning, so be sure to go to the Planning Binderwhere you can grab the editable templates and make changes as you need to.

1. A Possible Kodaly-Inspired Curriculum OutlineHere is one possible approach to a Kodaly-inspired curriculum outline.

Creating a Kodaly-Inspired Curriculum OutlineThere are lots of resources out there when it comes to putting together a curriculum outline. Some resources you might use when putting together a Kodaly-inspired sequence are:

• Lesson Planning in a Kodaly Setting
• First We Sing
• the Benchmarks from the OAKE website

• Kodaly Today series

• A Possible Orff-Inspired Curriculum OutlineWhen we look at an Orff-inspired sequence, we’ll find that much of the same material remains consistent between both philosophies.

Again, I use the word, “inspired” because every teacher has a unique approach to using this philosophy. What you see below is just one example of how the Orff approach might live in a curriculum outline.

You can click here to sign up for the Planning Binder and get the Google Doc version of this plan.

Creating an Orff-Inspired Curriculum OutlineSome resources you might use when putting together an Orff-inspired sequence are:

• Discovering Orff
• Exploring Orff
• Elementaria
• Artful, Playful, Mindful

1. A Curriculum Outline for BeginnersThere are plenty of reasons you might choose to start your whole student body at the beginning of a music curriculum.

Perhaps you are moving to a new school that doesn’t have a strong tradition of music literacy. Perhaps you are expecting a huge number of new students next year. Perhaps you are starting a new music approach or philosophy at your school and need students to refresh the basics so they have a strong foundation.

Whatever the case, here is just one solution to a curriculum outline for older beginners. In the Planning Binder you can add this outline to your drive and edit it as you need to for your unique students.

Notice that Kindergarten concepts are consistent with the Orff and Kodaly curriculum outlines from above.

As we move through the grade levels, I keep the basic essential concepts I need students to know, and add on concepts I think they can master. The two most important foundational concepts are the singing voice and steady beat.

In 3rd, 4th, and 5th grades, you’ll notice a fundamental change in the melodic sequence. Students in these grades start with mi re do instead of sol and mi, and are going to be expected to be able to move through the pentatone fairly quickly

Possible Starting PointsThe sky is the limit when it comes to pulling resources for your own curriculum outline.

My hope is that these documents give you three solid reference points when creating your own curriculum outlines for your students.

Remember that these are only three possible starting points, and every teacher will make changes based on his or her unique classroom experience.

The Planning Binder has my personal curriculum outline if you’re interested in seeing how I apply these philosophies in my own teaching.

If you have questions or comments I’d love to hear from you! You can drop them below and I’ll look forward to reading them.

Happy teaching!

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For so many of us, the school year has come to a close, or the end is right around the corner!

However, before checking out completely, I like to take a long moment to reflect on the past year and plan for the next. What went well? What would I do differently next time? What was my favorite moment of the year?

Today I'm sharing the printable I use to review and reset. I'd love for you to give it a try! It's a great way to congratulate yourself on the things you're are proud of, and reflect on what could be made better next year.

Find the printable here:

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The practice section is my favorite of the three musical learning phases. I love watching students consciously apply and connect their musical knowledge in this part of the process.

In this post we’ll look at practice extensions for three songs: Chattanooga Choo Choo, Built My Lady a Fine Brick House, and Tideo. These ideas are based off the ones in the takadimi concept plan from the planning binder.

Before we begin the practice phase, it’s important that students have a clear grasp of how four sounds on one beat feel, what they sound like, and what they look like.

We want students to be able to aurally identify takadimi in a new song, describe its characteristics, and create iconic representation of it based on their understanding of sounds on a beat.

If you haven’t read about songs to teach 16th notes, 16th note preparation activities, or this presentation plan for takadimi, be sure to check those out first!

Now let’s jump in.

Chattanooga Choo Choo:For this activity, I wanted to combine movement, singing, instruments, and composition. The central task invites students to create rhythm patterns for a performance assessment.

The class is divided into four rhythm stations, one movement group, and one percussion group. The number in each group will depend upon the grade you’re working with and your specific class size, but I’ll give some suggestions below.

Groups: Group 1 - The train:

The train group chooses a pathway for how they will travel to the four corners of the room, as well as their quality of movement - consider weight, size, and levels. Students may choose to create one long single file line of trains. They may choose to create “walls” of the train and have other “passengers” inside. The choice is theirs, as long as they are safe and kind in the process!

This requires imagination, problem-solving, and communication skills, so depending upon how much experience your students have working together in this way, you can consider dividing into two trains. Each train will still follow the same pathway at the same time, but the collaborative element will be simpler with a smaller group as they consider the specific qualities of their movement.

A smaller group - between three and five students - is appropriate for this activity.

Group 2 - Rhythm composition:

In each corner of the room, place percussion instruments such as tubanos, congas, or a set of bongos. (It is best to choose an instrument that can be played with two hands so students can effectively play a beat divided by four sounds.) On a music stand, students arrange cards to create a 4 beat composition. When the train gets to their corner, students play their composition 4 times in a row.

This requires musical independence and understanding of form. The first time you play this game, I recommend two or three students at each rhythm station.

Group 3 - The beat and the rhythm:

Students can play a steady beat bordun on the tonic and dominant while other students play the rhythm of the words on woodblocks, with rhythm sticks on the floor or table, or with body percussion. It is important that all students in this group sing while they play their parts!

The purpose of this third group is for every child to have a “job” to do during the song. This group can be larger since students don’t necessarily need to collaborate in the activity.

With a larger class, or if you have limited instrumentation, you could further divide this group by creating a “choir” whose only job it is to sing.

Putting it All TogetherAll students sing the song as the train moves around the room and the third group plays the rhythm and the beat to accompany the train movement. This is the A section. At the end of the song, the train pulls into one of the rhythm composition stations.

During the B section, the students at the chosen composition station play their rhythm composition four times in a row. The song begins again and the train continues moving to all four groups.

Switch jobs and play again!

This activity should be scaffolded across several classes so students are prepared for all the different jobs everyone in the room has. It could also make for a great sharing activity at a program or informance!

The Process Without the Instruments:If you don’t have enough instruments to facilitate the next two groups, consider adapting in two specific ways.

• Use body percussion instead! Students will assign a level (stamp, pat, clap, or snap) instead of a percussion instrument.
• Use found objects such as books, pencils, binders, whatever you have around the room. Whatever you choose, be sure you’re comfortable with students using the object to hit, shake, or scrape in the same way they would use a traditional percussion instrument. In other words, these objects will need to be able to withstand some abuse! I also recommend that you provide a collection of objects from which students can choose, as opposed to having students choose their own items from around your room.

Built My Lady a Fine Brick House:My students love this game!

The Game:If you haven’t yet read this post, here’s how to play:

Pairs of students hold hands, with one student standing in the middle. On "fare thee well, my darling" the middle student must leave from under the pair's arms and find another pair. The student may not repeat pairs.

I’ve seen this game played with a calm group of Kindergarten students who slowly raise their arms to let the person out, who in turn calmly walks to a nearby empty house. My room is not like that! Students get competitive because we are often short one house relative to the number of people looking for a house. It becomes like high stakes musical chairs. It’s a blast!

Musical Choice and Improvisation After playing the game a few times, we add an improvisation element to the game by asking students to make a musical choice.

Ask students to choose a house to play on body percussion. To scaffold, I like to have everyone play houses 1 - 3 in unison, then let students choose their own.

If we’re ready for the next step, I add a fourth empty house. Students may make up their own pattern instead of reading one on the board.

Whichever house they choose to play, we all play our pattern four times in a row as a B section after each round of the game.

• House #1 comes straight from the refrain they just sang. If students struggle with rhythm, beat, or timing in general, this is the pattern they will have the most success with.
• In houses 2 and 3 I looked for the rhythmically empty spaces from house 1 and tried to make our pattern more interesting by creating more intentional spaces in the rhythms. This helps the patterns fit together like a puzzle when we play them all together.
• House #4 is empty!! Students improvise their own rhythm.

As students get more comfortable with this variation on the game, I ask them to add more levels of body percussion to their rhythm choices. I can also choose a few students to rotate through percussion instruments each round of the game.

TideoIf Tideo is not my favorite folk song of all time, it’s definitely in my top 5!

Read about the dance for Tideo here.

ImprovisationAfter experimenting with the house options from Built My Lady a Fine Brick House listed above, ask the class to vote on their favorite house rhythm. That house rhythm becomes a part of the Tideo activity.

After one round of the song, the outside circle asks the question and the inside circle claps an answer.

This can be extended by having other students move to barred instruments and playing their question and answer on any pentatonic notes.

DictationThe rhythms in this song are all known, which makes it perfect for rhythm dictation. This can be done a few ways, depending on the readiness level of your group.

Here are three options to consider.

• “Help the Teacher”: In this approach, the teacher writes the rhythms on the board, but the class helps by holding up fingers for how many sounds go on each beat. This method can be done quite quickly and doesn’t require any prep before the lesson.
• Song Fragments: Perhaps the easiest way to dictate independently or in small groups is through song fragments. This is because the answers are already right in front of the students, they just need to put them in the correct order.
• Individual Dictation: Using manipulatives or paper and pencil, students write down standard notation from scratch, without a partner. This will give you valuable insight into how your students think about and interpret musical sounds to notation.

Through these activities, students explore 16th notes through:

• Writing
• Improvising
• Arranging

• Partwork

• Singing

• Instruments
• Body percussion
• Reading

This “child’s play” approach is an incredible way to explore musical ideas and gauge student progress!

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In this post, students explored takadimi through singing, playing, composing, inner hearing, partwork, reading, and writing. The beauty is that the whole time, the process felt like fun and games. This “child’s play” approach is what makes the learning process so special.

Now, students may be ready to learn the name we use for four sixteenth notes on one beat. Keep reading to find a presentation test, presentation plan, and why I choose “takadimi” over other rhythm syllable systems.

This presentation plan comes from the material in the Planning Binder. If you haven’t checked it out yet, you can take a look here.

Let’s jump in!

A Presentation Test for TakadimiWhen we look at data from the earlier preparation activities, combined with a presentation test, we get a good sense of whether or not that child is ready to move on to learning the name we’ll use for four sixteenth notes on one beat.

In the song, Paw Paw Patch, students will play the game and then determine if they can hear the rhythm “Chattanooga” in the song. A simple thumbs up or thumbs down is enough for this presentation test. (You can read more about assessment strategies in the music room here.)

If your data shows that students can aurally identify this rhythm in a song, you are ready to move on!

Presenting Takadimi:Here is a clip video from the Planning Binder where I explain how I present takadimi. You can find the full takadimi concept plan there, along with plenty of other teaching plans and strategies.

Watch the video to see my step-by-step process for teaching takadimi!

Rhythm Syllable Names (Why Takadimi?)What rhythm syllable system should you use? The bottom line is, use something you’re comfortable with and your students will be successful.

That said, there are numerous rhythm syllable names used by music teachers, such as metric counting, the Kodaly rhythm syllables, Gordon syllables, and takadimi syllables.

• Metric: 1e&a
• Kodaly: tiri-tiri (some Kodaly teachers use tika-tika)
• Gordon: Duta-deta
• Takadimi: takadimi

I choose “takadimi” for this grade-level. Here are three reasons why.

1.SubdivisionI love that the takadimi system gives a different syllable for each beat subdivision. I find this to be especially helpful as students develop their understanding of how a beat can be subdivided, and it helps students transfer their rhythmic work from syllables to metric counting later. From this perspective, if I didn’t use takadimi I would use Gordon’s Duta-deta

1. ArticulationSimply put, I think this is easier to say. I find myself getting tongue-tied using the Gordon system, and if I struggle with it, how successful can I expect my young students to be? From this perspective, if I didn’t use takadimi I would use tika-tika.

2. MeterOne of the strengths of metric counting is that it assigns a meter grouping to each beat. However, in early grades my students don’t yet know all the meters we use in class, including 3/4 and 5/4. Counting metrically would involve information that is unnecessary and even confusing for this developmental level. In takadimi, each beat has a subdivision, but the measures themselves can be written without a meter. That makes it the winner for my classroom in early grades. I switch students to metric counting around 5th grade when I think they have enough background knowledge of beat, rhythm, and meter to justify it.

The Choice is Yours!Any rhythm system - Gordon, Kodaly, Takadimi, or metric counting - gets to the same end result which is ultimately that students love, understand, and create music.

With a solid understanding of how four sixteenth notes sound, combined with the new knowledge of how they look, we are ready to move on to my favorite phase - the practice phase.

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The first time I watched an Orff and Kodaly-inspired classroom, I was shocked to see students working with 16th notes at what I considered to be a young age (around 2nd or 3rd grades). I was used to a band approach where students learn longer note values like dotted half notes and whole notes before subdividing to 16th notes.

What I have observed since then is that rhythms with extended sounds are much more successful if students know how to subdivide to smaller increments beforehand. Their listening skills improve, and they have enough experience with 16th notes to help them stay more in time through longer note values.

With that in mind, here are some of my favorite ways to prepare 16th notes with 2nd and 3rd graders!

Before we jump into the preparation activities, here are a few things to note:

• The songs referenced come from this blog post about songs to teach 16th notes.
• Students should have plenty of experience with these songs before moving onto mid preparation activities.
• Many of the teaching strategies come from the takadimi concept plan in the Planning Binder

Early Preparation: Child’s Play

“If we have their best interests at heart, we’ll let them learn while they play; they’ll discover that what they have mastered is child’s play.”

— Carl Orff

Child’s play is the first step in any preparation sequence.

At this point, students are not asked to do anything with this musical knowledge. They are simply interacting with it through play-based activities.

This part of the process really feels like “fun and games” because that’s exactly what it is!

However, even though it truly is just “game time”, be sure not to rush this step. Through this process students are developing critical musical vocabulary and understanding that they will need to draw upon later.

Preparation Activities for Takadimi:Here are some ideas that you use to help students think about the musical content of the song. They also add some variety as you play the games or do the songs’ activities.

Use these ideas with any of your 16th note repertoire, but they work especially well with the songs from this post, including Chattanooga Choo Choo, Paw Paw Patch, Tideo, and the refrain to Built My Lady a Fine Brick House.

(You can find this sheet music in the Folk Song Index, and more 2nd grade concepts and songs in the Planning Binder)

Play the game or do the activity while: Clapping the words to the song while a few students play the beat on tubanos or another classroom instrument. * Inner hearing while stepping to the steady beat (stop moving when the song is over!) * Singing on a neutral syllable, such as loo or la”. * Clapping only one word or one group of words. This works best if the special word has some connection to 16th notes. For example, only clap the word “Chattanooga” in Chattanooga Choo Choo. * Play the game or do the activity while counting how many times you sing, “Chattanooga”, “no one’s in the”, “pretty little”, “jingle at the”, or “swing a lady” (the 16th notes in the song). * Play the game while a few students play the rhythm* of the words on instruments

You can find the whole list of preparation activities in the takadimi concept plan in The Planning Binder.

Mid Preparation: Notice 4 Sounds on a BeatAfter experiencing 16th notes through play, students are ready to notice four sounds on one beat. But that doesn’t mean the fun stops!

For this example, we’ll use the song, Chattanooga Choo Choo.

If you have the means, consider splitting the class into instruments to play the steady beat and instruments to play the rhythm of the words. (If you don’t have the instrumentation to do this, just do it on body percussion!)

As students play, they should inner hear the song, or, “let the instruments sing the song”.

Through some carefully worded questions, students discover 4 sounds on a beat.After students play instruments or body percussion, have them keep a steady beat while they sing the first eight beats of the B section.

From there, students help the teacher figure out all the rhythms they know in those 4 beats. Starting at the last beat, ask students how many sounds they heard (2). Review that right now two sounds on a beat are eighth notes, and when we see them we say “ta-di”. How many sounds did they hear on the first beat? (1) Review that right now one sound on a beat is a ta, and the real name of ta is a quarter note. How many sounds did they hear on beat three? (4) Students notice that we don’t have a name for four sounds on one beat yet.

With a small group of friends, ask students to be musical detectives and find how many times this song uses four sounds on one beat. (The correct answer is 14.)

Late Prep: Write it DownAsk students to help you write down what they hear in a variety of known songs. Start by writing down rhythms you know, then when you get to the 16th notes students may vote on how they should be written.

Some examples might include dots, smiley faces, or stars.

Musical DecisionsThe last preparation idea comes from the Planning Binder.

With song fragments, ask students to recreate the rhythm of Chattanooga Choo Choo. This can be done individually, but I recommend doing it in small groups of two or three students.

After checking that their notation is correct, students may create a new card order for the song.

Instead of performing their arrangements in small groups (which students might not be ready to do yet), the teacher will clap a single group’s pattern. Every group of students listens to see if theirs is the pattern being performed.

Through these activities students will have experienced takadimi through singing, playing, composing, inner hearing, partwork, reading, and writing. The beauty is that the whole time, the process felt like fun and games.

The next post will cover how to know if students are ready to learn the real name of four sounds on a beat, and give a presentation plan to follow.

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In a typical Kodaly or Orff sequence, students learn 16th notes around 2nd or 3rd grade. This timeline is completely based on the musical background of your students, how often you have class, and how long your class is.

So while I’ve chosen the songs in this collection for a 2nd or 3rd grade developmental level, they can easily be adapted for younger or older grades.

Before we begin, it’s important to establish a few criteria about choosing classroom repertoire. Every song in this post meets these points to be included in my classroom or on a favorites list:

• High quality
• Personal preference
• Curriculum goals
• Creative potential

You can read more about how I select material for my classroom here.

Let’s jump in!

Songs:Chattanooga Choo ChooI heard this song in an Orff video from AOSA’s website. If you’re not a member, you should consider it! They have a video page where you can watch past presentations from national conferences. The video page alone is worth the yearly membership price!

When I introduce this song, I ask students to make a train in small groups. They choose their train’s pathway and move around the room.

This song is amazing for 16th notes, since (if you’re following a “traditional” Kodaly sequence), the 16th notes will be the only unknown rhythmic element in the whole song.

OTHER USES:Of course this song is great for 16th notes, but you can also bring it out to work on several other concepts:

• Do in do mi sol
• High do
• Re in mi re do

Built My Lady a Fine Brick House

Game:Pairs of students hold hands and one student stands in the middle of them. On "fare thee well, my darling" the middle student must leave from under the pair's arms and find another pair. The student may not repeat pairs. This gets especially fun if you are short one house relative to the number of people looking for a house. It becomes like high stakes musical chairs. It’s a blast!

Other Uses:* Ta-dimi * Do in sol mi do * Fermata

Find other mentions of this song in:

• My first day of school lesson plans
• 3rd Grade Lesson #10

Happy is the MillerThere are roughly a million different versions of this song out there, and they’re all wonderful. I searched for a while to find the version I use in my classroom. This game can get competitive, so it’s good to make sure students have enough space to move before you start!

Game:Students stand in a double circle with a partner. One student stands in the middle of the circle. As students sing the song they walk around the circle until the word, “grab”. At that point, the outside circle stops moving and each person on the inside of the circle takes one step forward to “grab” a new partner. The person standing in the middle of the circle may also run forward and “grab” a new partner, leaving someone else to go in the middle.

TideoTideo is quite possibly my favorite folk song of all time. I have a lot of favorites. But this might be my favoritest favorite.

Dance:The formation is an inner circle and outer circle. Every “skip one window”, the outer circle moves clockwise one person. Every “Tideo”, pat legs, clap hands, then hit partner’s hands. Every “jingle at the window”, switch places with partner. This makes the outside circle on the inside and the inside circle on the outside.

There is also a simplified version of the game in the “Folk Songs” page. You can find it here.

Paw Paw PatchThe original directions to this game specify a boys line and girls line. In my classroom I don’t separate students that way, but you might consider doing so when first teaching the game since visually separating the two lines could be helpful.

Dance: Formation: Double line formation facing forward. * 1st verse - The first partner on the right steps out and walks clockwise around both lines and returns to his or her place. * 2nd verse - Same player repeats his or her steps, but this time the whole line of students on the left line following her. * 3rd verse* - Following the head of their line, the left students peel off and march sharply to the left, doubling back upon themselves, while the students on the right side do the same walking sharply to the right. When the first couple meets, they form an arch under which the two lines pass. There is now a new first couple and the game continues.

Books:Songs are great, but our students also love literary tie ins! Here are some of my favorite books to use for 16th notes. What I love is that all of these books have other rhythmic patterns that could be brought back to teach other concepts.

• Tikki Tikki Timbo

  • Consider rhythmic building blocks such as “splasssssssshhh” “don’t fall in!” “Oh no! Tikki Tikki Tembo!”

  • Alligator Pie

  • Your students will love this Canadian children’s book! Explore other types of pies using any rhythms. Then can you find a different type of pie that has four sounds on one beat?

  • Hand, Drum, Fingers, Thumb

  • Use this book to explore hand drums with your young students, then bring it back in 3rd grade for 16th notes and 16th note combinations later.

When You Have Your Songs….What songs do your students love for 16th notes? When you have a few in mind, catalog them in a song index.

It’s so helpful to create a running list of songs that you enjoy using with a specific age group. It will save you tons of time in your lesson planning, and make sure that each song you choose is purposeful in your overall sequence.

You can read more about song lists here, and click here to purchase this song list template.

There you have it. Songs to teach 16th notes that are high quality, engaging, and purposeful. I’d love to hear some of your favorites as well. You can drop a comment below - I look forward to reading it!

You can grab the sheet music included in this lesson in the Folk Song page. Click here to download for free!

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There are so many ways you can bring your community in on your classroom process. One way is through an informance.

An informance could be as simple as inviting parents to watch a class - simply set up some chairs in your room and you’re ready! Alternatively, it might be something more polished and set on a stage.

Whatever your choice, remember that an informance is meant to be process based, not product based. The goal is to educate the audience on what students are learning in your classroom. If you haven’t already, click through to this post on getting started with informances.

Today’s post will cover some questions I’ve received about informance logistics. We’ll look at parent communication, choosing material, rehearsals, and setting up the stage. Let’s jump in!

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An informance is any production that is for the purpose of educating an audience about a topic. It can be as simple as inviting parents to watch your music class and giving them a brief explanation of the activities the students are doing. It could also be more formal and take place on a stage. The key is that education is the backbone of the presentation.

When I do an informance, I want to educate my colleagues, parents, and community about the amazing creative musical work my students do in a typical music class.

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In this video I share my 10th lesson with my 3rd graders. I love seeing how other teachers think through their planning process, and thought it would be fun to share my own.

Below the video you’ll find the PDF download of the lesson, as well as the sheet music I used and any other links mentioned.

Enjoy!

Getting Started

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There are several documents I use to lesson plan. They save me time while they make sure each activity on the page is intentional, and seamlessly leads into other ideas.

All the templates I use are available to purchase as a part of my Elementary Music Planning Kit.

You can check it out here.

Scope and Sequence:My scope and sequence keeps me on track throughout the year. This is the document I use to decide what I want to teach, and when I want to teach it.

Concept Plans:Concept plans are where teachers write down purposeful teaching strategies for specific concepts.

For this lesson I’m using a concept plan for takadimi and do. Both of these are partially completed - I don’t always necessarily have every single activity mapped out when I start a concept.

Below you’ll find my practice activities for takadimi and preparation activities for do.

Takadimi practice activities

Do preparation activities

You can watch these videos or read this blog post to see how I put together my scope and sequence and my concept plans.

My Teaching Situation:I see my students for 45 minutes on a six day rotation. This is my second full year at this school, and I am still working to “catch up” many grade levels to where I want them to be. In this lesson you’ll that my third graders are working on concepts you might expect from a second grade classroom.

Objectives:For this lesson I wanted to practice 16th notes and prepare do. To accomplish this, my objectives were to improvise using 16th notes, and aurally identify a note lower than mi.

The Lesson

Warm UpAs students entered the room, they made up a body percussion pattern of their choice. I didn’t care how many levels they used, or what specific rhythms they incorporated. I did, however, watch for a steady beat in their feet as they walked.

Once we entered the room we sang greetings using a sol-mi-do toneset. This was to prepare for our melodic focus for the lesson.

After some tonal work we echoed a few body percussion rhythms, and I included takadimi in these patterns to practice our target rhythm element.

You can watch a video on my elementary warm up routine here, or read this blog post.

New song: I See the MoonThis was a new song my students had never heard. I chose a simple song that highlights the melodic pattern, sol-mi-do.

My students didn’t need to do much with this material, simply hear the song as they copied my hand motions. For the melodic pattern I put my hands on my head for sol, hands on shoulders for mi, and hands on hips for do.

I sang the song again and had students copy my motions as we walked in a circle with a steady beat in their feet. At some point we ended I See the Moon and I went into the song, Apple Tree.

I used the circle formation from I See the Moon. Since students were already walking to a steady beat in a circle they had already set up the formation of the next game.

Main Concentration: Apple Tree

As I was writing this lesson I thought I would use the song, Sorida in this section. However, the more I worked on the lesson outline, I realized Apple Tree would work better as the main concentration material.

My students were in late preparation, which means they were ready to aurally discover a note lower than mi. To discover this note, I asked questions to guide students’ ears:

• How many beats did we pat?
• Which one had the lowest note?

We agreed that the new note was lower than mi, so I had the class sing the song on solfege, this time calling the last note “low”. We played the game again singing on solfege.

When we had played the game a few times, I had students continue singing the song in solfege as they walked back to their spots.

Game: Built My Lady a Fine Brick House

My students love this game! We used it to practice 16th notes, but since it has both our target rhythm and melodic elements in it, I could have used it as either a rhythmic or melodic focus.

We had just played the game to Apple Tree, so we sat down a few minutes while we sang the song and patted the steady beat. After that we played the rhythm of the chorus (the section with 16th notes) on our laps.

From there we moved to playing the actual game. You can find game directions in the sheet music.

To add some takadimi instrumental practice, I played the steady beat on a tubano and had a few other students play the rhythm of the chorus on woodblock. After a few rounds like this, switching who plays the game and who plays instruments, we read the rhythm of the chorus on the board.

After we read the rhythm I changed one beat at a time to turn the song into the opening of Tideo.

Secondary Concentration: Tideo

My students have played the game to Tideo before, so they’re pretty familiar with it. For this lesson I wanted to do an improvisation activity with 16th notes.

Since the first three phases have the same rhythm, that became the call. The last phrase became the response. Students have trouble moving straight into an independent improvisation activity, so it’s best to go through some steps to prepare them for your expectations. Here was my outline for this lesson:

• I clapped the call and the whole class gave a response (we did this several times)
• The class offered suggestions of how to fill in the four beats, and I wrote down three rhythm possibilities. Students could choose one of these three, or make up their own.
• Students turned to a partner - one partner clapped A, the other improvised B.

One addition I made after I had already filmed the video was to have partners share their improvisations with the class. For that I brought out two tubanos and had students share their ideas, each partner playing individually.

After that we kept that same partner and moved into the game to Tideo. This time there was a variation of the game: the inside circle clapped A and the outside circle improvised B.

Closing Activity: SoridaStudents already had their partner from Tideo, so it was easy to move into the clapping game to Sorida.

After playing the clapping game with their partner, students turned to the board and traced the melodic contour.

We ended the lesson with the option of playing the game or tracing the melody on the board.

My students loved this lesson. The pacing was fast, and I was challenged to keep things moving in order to fit everything in.

If you take any of these ideas from this lesson, be sure to adapt them to fit your own education needs - every child, every classroom, and every teacher is different!

You can download a PDF of the lesson here, and look for the templates I use in the Elementary Music Planning Kit.

Happy teaching!

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Classroom management is a deeply personal subject for each of us. It is the aspect of our teaching that determines whether we leave school with a headache, or a smile. And it is often the thing teachers view as their biggest struggle in the music room.

You’ll find a lot of different approaches to classroom management, and they all bring their own values to the table. Each teacher’s approach is as unique and individualized as the teacher and students it serves, so be sure to edit and adapt the ideas in this post for your own needs.

In This PostIn this post we’ll look at a brief overview of what’s happening in the life of a 4th - 5th grader, including the student’s development and what motivates them.

We’ll also look at best practices for the teacher’s demeanor, lesson structure, and activities. Lastly, I’ll give some quick tips on implementing these ideas.

Laying the Groundwork:The subject of classroom management is vast, so it’s important that we start with the same definition of classroom management, and assumptions about the teachers using it.

Definition:Classroom management is just the process by which we create a safe and successful music learning environment for our students. Another way to think about it is behavior motivation, rather than behavior control.

Assumptions:Everything in this post is predicated on two very basic teaching assumptions:

1. I assume we like our students
2. I assume we enjoy teaching

That’s it.

All the classroom management techniques, tips, and tricks in the world will fall flat without those two items in place.

Development of 4th and 5th GradersTo understand how to create a safe and successful learning environment, it’s a good idea to take a look at who we’re teaching. What is their life like? What do they value? How do they view the world?

Keep in mind, these are generalizations. Every child develops at his or her own unique pace. These are meant to be guidelines that give us a framework for developing a successful learning environment.

What's Going On: Cognitively * These students are concrete and literal thinkers, though they think logically and more like adults than they did in the younger grades. They may struggle with concepts that are too abstract or hypothetical. * These individuals can reverse logic, or think about the steps of a process in something other than chronological order (something they struggled with in younger grades). * These individuals begin to use inductive reasoning (going from one small experience and applying the findings to create a larger concept) They may still struggle with deductive reasoning (moving from a general concept and applying it to specific situations) * Students in upper grades verbalize their thoughts in order to process them.

What's Going On: Socially* They understand that other people may have different points of view from their own, but still may struggle with empathy for those viewpoints * These students are more likely to play with friends than alone * The thoughts and opinions of peers are highly influential to upper grades, and they often look to social signals from their friends to define their own self-confidence. * Upper grade students tend to prefer same-sex friendships.

What's Going On: Behaviorally* These students are fixated on accomplishments - they want to master ideas and skills that interest them. * They begin problem-solving and negotiating to get to their end goal. * These individuals are intensely interested in rules, fairness, and behavior standards. * Students in upper grades are skilled at self-evaluation and critique. * These students immensely enjoy competition. * Students in upper grades can sit still for longer periods of time than their younger siblings, but need physical challenges as their bodies and muscles are growing.

*For more information on the development of 4th and 5th graders, look up information about Erik Erikson’s stages of psychological development and Jean Piaget’s developmental stages.

Motivation for Upper Elementary Students:1. These students are motivated by their peers. Remember that social relationships play a huge role in this developmental stage. 2. They respond well to measurable goals and clear expectations. Remember that students at this age are accomplishment oriented. If you spell out exactly how to succeed, students will try to succeed. 3. They crave choice. These students love to take ownership of work they are proud of. They also want to explore new skills and ideas to master.

What to Do: Classroom Management that WorksThere are no quick-fixes for classroom management - no magical wand or wonderful sticker chart that will create the perfect classroom culture.

Instead, here are some best-practices for music teachers dealing with classroom management in upper grades. Though these are not quick fixes, I've found them to be powerful habits and mindsets that lead to a safe and successful learning environment for my upper elementary students.

Build relationshipsDon’t throw out your “getting to know you” activities after the first day. Instead, make it a goal to craft personal connections with your students every single lesson. One way could be to use your warm up routine to ask relationship-building questions. And answer the questions yourself as well!

Building relationships with students can be a challenge due to our high number of students we see as music teachers. However, simply saying hello to students you see them outside of class, (using his or her name and making eye contact) is a small way to build that relationship.

Practice routines. And then follow through.How do you want them to enter the room? How do you want them to give verbal input in your class? How do you want them to play, transfer, or share instruments? Practice each and every routine you care about.

Students at this age are watching their authority figures for consistency. When you follow through, it sends the message that you are fair and trustworthy. In contrast, if we let some behaviors slide or blow other behaviors out of proportion, it erodes our relationships with our students. Remember that 4th - 5th graders are concrete thinkers. If they are given an expectation to follow, it’s important that they see you enforce it. Inconsistency builds distrust.

By the way, any time of the school year is a good time to practice routines. If your music class is out of control at some point in the middle of the year, give yourself permission to take some time back to practice routines. It will be worth it!

RefocusThe vast majority of the time, the behavior problems that keep us up at night are caused by a small group of students, not the whole class. Taking a moment to do a sweep of the room can be an eye-opening experience. Likely when you feel that you have lost the whole class, you’ll happily notice that you’ve only lost 3 - 5 students. Simply noting this can drastically change your perspective and your plan for how to help get back on track.

Call out the good you see, before the badEstablish a habit of giving constant praise during your music class that is both truthful and deserved. Comment on everything good you see, from how students enter the room to instrument technique. If you notice minor off-task behavior, call out students who are excelling, rather than the students who are off-task. This should be done in a way that is kind and genuine - never sarcastic.

Take out the leaderMost of the time within that small group of students, there is one single influencer. Focus your energy on building a strong, positive, respect-based relationship with that student. Since these students are motivated by their peers, one strategic relationship will take care of the bulk of your classroom management woes.

You can work on this relationship by making a goal to have a short conversation about something non-music related at the beginning or end of class, or in the hallway. If you have no idea where to even start your conversation, use strategic warm up routine questions and then make a mental note of this student's answer. Then ask a follow up question later to start your conversation.

Read: Warm Up Routine for Elementary Music

Keep students ridiculously busyWe’ve all heard it before. A good classroom management strategy is a good lesson plan.

It’s the gospel truth of classroom management.

Focus on student-centered activities that require maximum student involvement. Look for fast-paced activities that keep students actively engaged in your lessons. If you can include some group work, student choice, an appropriate challenge, and accountability your lesson plan will be upper grades-ready!

When you give instructions for group work, make your expectations crystal clear at the beginning. Also provide some sort of accountability, such as sharing their finished product with you, the rest of the class, or through technology like Seesaw or your school's website. You can also ask students to self-evaluate their behavior at the end of the project.

If something goes wrong in your music room, look back through your lesson plan and ask yourself: “What exactly was the child supposed to be doing instead?”. If the answer was something like “sitting quietly” or “listening while I talk,” consider that developmentally students may not be ready to meet your expectations in that way every single time.

Carefully crafting an engaging and action-packed lesson will go miles for classroom management.

Have a Heart-to-Heart.. Then Hand the Problem Back to ThemI had a fifth grade choir that was consistently off-task. One day I stopped the lesson and told them I was having a problem. It was difficult for me to teach when they were talking over me, and I respected them too much to yell over them. So what could we do? Why was there so much talking when it wasn’t an appropriate time to talk?

Their answers were incredibly thoughtful and honest. Through our conversation I found out that most of them were confused about following along with the score.

When I asked what we should do about it, their answers were simple: They needed me to call out measure numbers more often, and give them a chance to catch up if they were lost. So that’s what I did. And we had a great rest of the class.

These students can self-regulate and problem solve. If you have a poor learning environment in the music room we can safely assume that you, the teacher, are not blurting out at an inappropriate time, physically harming classroom equipment, or saying hurtful things to students. That is what (likely a small group of) students are doing. So don’t put the sole pressure on yourself to come up with a solution. Let the students do it. Often, they’ll come up with a better solution than you could!

Reach out to Parents and the Grade-Level TeacherIf you are fortunate enough to know ahead of time which students in your class will require extra support, go on the offensive. Actively look for a positive behavior the student showed in class. It doesn’t matter how small. Then reach out to the student’s parents and let them know the positive behavior you saw, as well as your excitement to have their child in your music class. Keep the conversation brief and friendly. Taking this kind of active step to partner with the “home team” is an investment worth making. It will also make it easier if you need to make another phone call of a different nature later.

When it comes to reaching out to grade-level teachers, my experience is they are relieved to hear another adult is struggling to help the same students with whom they struggle. In my first years of teaching I was concerned reaching out would make me look inferior to the grade-level teacher. In reality, it strengthened the relationship and improved the environment in both our classrooms.

Check your biases.We all have them. And they can be difficult to face.

Race, gender, age, socioeconomic class, looks, overall demeanor…. Admitting to your biases doesn’t make you racist or misogynistic. It makes you informed, and it can help you navigate those moments when you need to act on behalf of creating a supportive learning environment for every student.

Don’t take it personally.This is perhaps the most important mindset shift to make.

The fact is, upper grades cut up. They are still children. They poke fun. They make light. They might blow things off. That’s normal. Just like you don’t take it personally when a Kindergartner can’t sit still, don’t take it personally when upper grades display difficult behavior.

Focus on the literal behavior itself, not your emotional interpretation. For example, instead of saying, “they don’t respect me at all,” try something like, “they verbalized opinions about this musical activity that I wasn’t expecting.” Instead of, “This kid was acting like a goof and trying to destroy the instrument,” reframe it to, “Jason was using incorrect instrument technique in a way that was harmful.” This doesn’t excuse their behavior, but it reminds you that you cannot assign a motive when all you see is an action.

Don’t act out of emotion. When you are in a power struggle, students win when you lose control. Acting from a place of unchecked emotion (yelling, trying to “get even,” embarrassing a student, using sarcasm, expressing anger or frustration) is unhelpful to your relationship with the entire class. If students experience that nothing can phase you, it eventually becomes less fun to try and get a reaction.

Quick Tips on Classroom Management for Music TeachersHere are some grab and go ideas you can implement right away in your upper elementary music room.

• Students are influenced by each other. Utilize group work.
• Keep your lessons fast-paced and age-appropriate
• Plan your transitions carefully. This is normally the time we lose students’ attention.
• Plan times for students to talk. These students process by verbalizing.
• Use more instruments! If you don’t have a shiny instrumentarium, use found objects or body percussion.
• They can’t talk if they’re singing.
• Give the story behind your songs. Help the students make personal connections with the music.
• These students are focused on what they can accomplish. Emphasize activities with creativity and student choice.
• Call students by their names, and pronounce their names correctly.
• Catch minor offenses early on. When you see them happen, make eye contact and give a neutral, friendly smile to the student who is off-task.
• If you have to redirect student behavior, make as small and private of a conversation as possible.
• We don’t teach music. We teach kids.

There you have it.

My take on classroom management for upper elementary students.

When passionate teachers develop caring relationships with their students, we have the basis for a safe and successful learning environment. With these mindsets and practices in place, enjoy teaching the amazing age groups of upper elementary!

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Today I'm giving a glance into my first day of school lesson plans, from TK - 5th grade. In the first day of music class, students are arguably the most attentive they will be all year. This puts a unique pressure on the first day's lesson plan to set the tone for the rest of our time together.

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All the templates I use are available to purchase here as part of the Elementary Music Planning Kit.

You can also download my completed lesson plans at the bottom of the post, or make your own from scratch!

Let's jump in!

My Goals for the First Day of Music Class:

“Teach music in such a way that it is not a torture, but a joy for the pupil”

— Zoltan Kodaly

1. Establish expectations - From the moment students walk in to the moment they leave, the first lesson sets the tone for the rest of the school year. Even our youngest students are aware of the environment, our nonverbal communication, the physical space in the room, and the whole-class attitude. We establish expectations right away.
2. Be musical - This is music class. The class shouldn’t be taken up with rules and procedures. It shouldn't be taken up talking about music. It should be spent making music.
3. Have fun - Music is a legitimate subject in the academic world. It has an established theory and history and pedagogy like any other subject students explore in school. But music is also fun. I want students to experience that fun on the first day.
4. Be creative in a safe place - I’m going to ask a lot out of students throughout the year. I’ll ask them to take risks. To be vulnerable. To create. To share some of their creations. To evaluate their creations. To try, fail, and try again. That type of creative learning can happen when students know they are safe and supported. I want that learning to start the first day.

The Lessons

1: Start with a Musical ExperienceWarm Up (4 minutes):

Through this whole process I don’t give any verbal directions such as “now echo me”, or, “now copy my motions”. I jump straight in, and find that students copy very naturally.

I jump into my regular warm up routine right away on the first day of school. Here's a breakdown of what that looks like:

• Steady Beat: Students enter the class in a straight line, keeping a steady beat.

  • Younger grades copy my motions.
  • Older grades create a body percussion pattern of their choice.

• Hand Signs for Sit and Stand: In Kindergarten and TK I introduce my class hand signs at this point. This is done without giving specific directions. I simply model the sign and over exaggerate sitting and standing. They naturally copy me for a few rounds of sitting, standing, sitting, standing, until they’re all giggling and out of breath.

  • Other grades review this step as well, but we don't spend much time on it since I don't need to teach it from scratch.

  • Sing a Greeting: From there we sing greetings based off tone sets we learned last year.

  • For example, with first grade I'll sing "hello, first grade" on sol mi sol mi. With third grade I'll sing "hello third grade" on mi mi re do. Students sing their response to me. I'll sing a question such as "How was your summer?" or "How are you today?" and students sing their response.

  • Body Percussion: We'll quickly echo a few clapping patterns or body percussion patterns.

Game Time (5 minutes)The clapping or body percussion pattern we echo is the first four beats of our first song, and we've seamlessly transitioned into our opening game.

It's great to play games students remember from last year. If you’re new at a school, consider reaching out to last year’s music teacher. If that's not possible, just choose one of your favorite simple games or activities to start with. Look for songs or games that allow students to be active, as energy will be high at the beginning of the lesson.

Here are some of my favorites for the first day of music:

• TK and K: All Around the Buttercup
• 1st and 2nd: Apple Tree
• 3rd: Alabama Gal
• 4th: Built my Lady a Fine Brick House
• 5th: Tideo

All of the sheet music is available for free in the Sheet Music Library. You can click the button below to grab the music for your classroom!

Sheet Music Library

2: Seating Chartand RulesThis is the very first time I verbalize instructions in the lesson. Up until this point I’ve been simply doing what I want my students to do, and they naturally copy.

Seating Chart (4 minutes)

In the first month or so of school my students have assigned seats. This is so that I can wrap my head around which students are in which class.

When I feel I am familiar enough with names, students are allowed to choose their own spot each class.

This is what my seating and assessment chart looks like. Student names go in the circles. Each grid is a place for assessment scores throughout the month. (You can find more in the Active Embedded Assessment course.)

Rules (4 minutes)I prefer not to spend a lot of time in this area. Here's why:

When students come see us in the music room, they have already spent time in their grade-level classroom talking about rules and expectations. Likely, they’ll also hear a different set of rules in P.E., art, library, and the cafeteria. Memorizing guidelines from such a variety of sources is a lot to ask of our students.

Realistically, students are unlikely to retain a list of area-specific, detailed rules. So instead I opt for two rules that I refer back to every class over the course of the school year.

1. Always do your best.
2. Respect yourself, others, and the classroom.

I ask students to give some examples of how to apply the rules to the classroom. In addition to the scenarios students offer on their own, I always guide the conversation to include some specific areas:

Instead of me listing out every single class rule I can think of, I have students apply two behavior expectations on their own.

• What does respect look like when we're sharing instruments?
• What does doing your best look like when you've had a bad day?
• How do we respect other friends in our group?
• How do we do our best if we feel nervous?
• What does respect look like when we play classroom instruments?

1. Summer Vacation and Names (10 minutes)TK - 1st: Bounce High Bounce Low

It’s very rare that I change lyrics to folk songs. However, there have been TK classes that have played “roll fast, roll slow, roll the ball to Shilo” if I fear the bounce will be too advanced.

Bounce High Bounce Low is a song worth investing in on the first day! I can bring it back for movement, singing voice, steady beat, and sol la sol mi patterns. It also gives me a chance to start putting names with faces.

If students are standing to bounce, I ask them to jump every time the ball hits the ground. This keeps everyone engaged. If we’re seated, I ask them to move one hand up and down their arm (to “roll” with the ball).

With students standing in a circle, I go through the class roster and we play the game. Everyone gets a turn.

2nd - 3rd: Play Your Vacation

(A section)

In second and third grade I want to jump into instruments on the first day. This activity works with any unpitched percussion instruments - I use rhythm sticks.

To play the game:
Each person speaks and plays their summer rhythm, and the class repeats. Some rhythm examples are:

• "I went to the beach" (ta-di ta-di ta rest)
• "I played video games" (ta ta taka-di ta)
• "I slept in" (ta ta ta rest)

After four students, we do the A section again, and continue through the whole class. Having the class repeat each rhythm keeps everyone active, even though it makes the game last longer.

4th and 5th - Play Your Vacation:In 4th and 5th grade we play the game exactly how 2nd and 3rd did. This version of the rhyme has an eighth note followed by two sixteenths (ta-dimi).

(A section)

Tips for the Vacation Game in 2nd - 5th grades:

• I like to have the whole class try out a rhythm - and even share it with someone next to them - before they’re asked to do it individually in front of everyone. This goes toward my goal of making music a safe creative space.
• If, for some reason astudent doesn’t want to play alone the first day, I don’t make him or her.
• I keep a groove on the cajon to help establish a sense of pulse, but I don’t correct anyone if he or she plays outside a four beat phrase.
• As they play this game I video with my ipad. It’s useful for me to see which students naturally stayed within a four-beat phrase. This isn’t a formal assessment, it’s more like a temperature read on where we are rhythmically as a class.

1. More Music, More Movement (10 minutes)By now, we need to move.

Here are some of my favorite songs for closing the first day of school:

TK - 2nd GradesTK, K, 1st, and 2nd grades will all review or learn how to move in open space. This is a concept I'll reuse throughout the year, so I like to introduce it right away.

I also want to give another opportunity for students to create in my class, so I look for songs with creative movement opportunities.

Read more about how to choose songs for your music room here.

TK and Kindergarten:

You Walk and You Stop
You Walk and You Stop is one of my favorite songs for introducing open space. I tell students it's very important to look for open space when we move. We run through a few examples of what open space is (somewhere no one else is) and what it's not (touching a friend) before doing the song.

If I sense the class isn't ready for locomotor movement, we'll still sing the song but students stay in their spots and jump, walk, wiggle, twist, etc. in place.

Either way, after a few rounds of the song students give suggestions for actions to add to the song.

Johnny Works with One Hammer
If we have time, I add Johnny Works with One Hammer. This is especially valuable if students aren't ready for locomotor movement, since the song is incredibly active but takes place sitting down.

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
I like to add a song that students probably already know to the first day. Many students already know motions to this song from doing it at home. While we sing they either copy me or do motions they already know. This is a calm, musical ending to our first day.

First GradeJust From the Kitchen

This song allows students to improvise movement the first day. I like to call students two at a time at first, in case anyone is anxious about moving by themselves on the first day.

I can also add phrases like "everybody who likes pizza" or "everybody who plays minecraft" toward the end.

Second GradeRig a Jig Jig

The first few times we do this song, we'll play it like normal.

Then, we make a change. Students say their names in rhythm, and come up with an accompanying movement. At the end of each song repetition, they create a name chain with their partner by saying their name and showing their movement two times each. The song begins again.

3rd - 5th gradesIn 3rd - 5th grade, we’ll go back to the song we used at the beginning of class. This time, I ask students to create a body percussion pattern as a B section to the game.

Third GradeAlabama Gal

First we play the game like we did at the beginning of class. Then students create an eight beat pattern with their partner using the words "Alabama" (ta-di ta-di) or "gal" (ta, rest). They can choose a movement or body percussion to go with their words.

We practice this as a whole class a few times, and students make any changes they need. Then we add the B section after each repetition of the game.

Fourth Grade

Built my Lady a Fine Brick House

Just like third grade, we'll play this game a few times as normal. Then, students create an eight beat pattern with their group using these rhythmic building blocks:

Student groups change with each round of the game, so with each repetition students create a new rhythm.

Fifth GradeTideo

Play the game like normal, then ask students to create an eight beat pattern with their partner using these rhythmic building blocks:

They also have the option of adding body percussion or movement to their pattern.

Just like Built My Lady a Fine Brick House, students' groups change at every repetition of the song. I like this because it gives lots of opportunities for students to explore new combinations, body percussion, and movement.

1. ClosingWhat I'm Excited About. . . . (4 minutes)

If we're going to do awesome things in music, I need awesome behavior from my students. With a nod to the Responsive Classroom, I ask my students to think of how they are going to be able to do the things they're excited about. This ultimately comes back to the two rules we discussed at the beginning of class. Now, at the end of class, students apply them in a way that makes them excited about the whole year.

At the end of class I quickly ask students what they hope to do in music this year, and what we need to do to make those exciting things happen.

• In TK - 1st grade students raise their hand and sing something they're excited about. I ask what we will do to make it happen, and students raise their hands again to sing ideas.
• In 2nd - 5th grade students finish the sentence, "I'm excited about _________ this year, so I need to ____________." (Example, "I'm excited about playing instruments this year so I need to show that I can respect them." "I'm excited about playing with my friends this year so I need to listen to everyone when we're working in a group.") They write their answers on sticky notes and attach them to the wall as they line up.

Lesson Plan Templates

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There are so many ways to open a class musically.

Just like our morning routine sets the tone for our day as teachers, the opening activities of your music class set the tone for the rest of the lesson.

We want those activities to be:

• Musical
• Engaging
• Purposeful

Pssssst - On the go? Listen to this post instead of reading!

Here is my opening warm up sequence for my room.

Keep in mind that every teaching situation is unique, so if you choose to add any of these to your classroom, be sure to edit and adapt them for your needs.

I use these lesson plan templates to write down my warm up routine each lesson. The format is flexible enough for me, while still providing a lesson structure.

Let’s jump in!

1. Beat or RhythmWe always start with either a steady beat or rhythm activity.

When we enter, my young students copy my motions. After a few actions from me, I let other students be the leader instead.

At the beginning of the year, all my students will enter keeping a steady beat, even the upper grades. However, upper grades don’t copy my motions. Instead they create their own body percussion pattern. After a few lessons, upper grades make up a rhythm pattern on body percussion as they walk in instead.

(If you read this post, you’ll remember that I’m going into my second full year at my school. My older students are still working on many beginning concepts so I don’t mind spending this time to reinforce steady beat.)

Music for Steady Beat and RhythmRecorded Music We often enter to recorded music. Some of my favorites are:

• Eine Kleine Nachtmusik by Mozart
• Concerto Grosso in F Major by Corelli
• Stars and Stripes Forever

Anything from John Feierabend’s Keeping the Beat CD is great for this!

For older students I like to add a few more genres to the mix. Here are just two of my favorites.

• Snarky Puppy - Linguis
• Goat Rodeo Sessions - Attaboy

If you do a composer study or a music history study throughout your year, this would be a perfect time to add that music!

Classroom Songs:Sometimes we also enter by singing one of our favorite songs. This is especially fun to do if your song has a quick, active game you can play at the end of your warm up routine.

You can read about some of my favorite songs to use at the beginning of class here.

Teacher Talk: Mix it Up!
All of us need change from time to time. One of my favorite ways to do this in the warm up routine is to have a bucket of rhythm sticks at the door. Students grab a pair as they enter and we do the same routine with instruments.

It also works just as well to have other unpitched percussion instruments laid out in a circle. Students enter keeping a steady beat, but once they get to their spot they use the instrument to do the activities. Every so often, have students pass their instruments to the right so more people get a chance to play different instruments.

1. SingWe always sing hello as a part of our warm up routine, and I always use the tone set we're working on in class for our greeting.

For example, if 2nd graders are working on do, I’m sure to include do in my greeting. If 3rd grade is working on low la, I’ll include that.

What do we sing?I sing hello to my students, and they sing hello back. From there, I can sing any question I want such as:

• How are you today?
• What did you have for lunch?
• What’s your favorite video game?

Students respond (singing) however they want. Sometimes I take individual responses if I think we have time.

I also like to include a few tonal patterns for students to echo (again, using the tone set they’re working on). For this I use my voice, my alto recorder, or a slide whistle.

Teacher Talk: When a Student Doesn't Sing

If a student doesn’t sing during this part of the lesson, I don’t draw any attention to it. I just make a mental note, and look for vocal participation later in the lesson.

1. PlayAgain, here I like to use rhythms that we are working on in class.

For example, 1st grade rhythms will stick to 4 beat phrases, and use ta and ta-di. In 4th grade many of our patterns will be in 3/4 time.

Students copy my body percussion pattern and we go through a few phrases before moving on to the next activity.

This is a great transition to the next section of the lesson. Here are some quick examples:

• Students create a four beat pattern that becomes an ostinato to accompany the song
• Students create a four beat pattern with a partner that they later put on percussion instruments
• Students copy the teacher’s pattern and then figure it out on rhythm syllables.
• Students copy the teacher’s pattern and then figure out what song it is
• Students copy the teacher’s pattern while moving to their spots

You can find more transition ideas in the Music Teacher Resources Page, or watch this video from my IGTV channel.

Teacher Talk: Mix it Up!

Students don’t have to copy you all the time. It’s also fun to ask students to answer your rhythmic question, or you can have a student lead the class in a four beat pattern. You could also clap a pattern and have students echo you on the body percussion of their choice. Enjoy mixing it up!

1. Extra - If We Have TimeNormally we end the warm up with rhythm patterns.

However, if I want to add anything else (like reading patterns or running through a performance song) we do it here.

How Much Time Does This Take?Though it seems like a lengthy process, in the classroom it actually takes a short amount of time.

This whole routine takes about three or four minutes. If I want to add in something extra, the whole routine takes five minutes maximum.

After the warm up routine we start our regular lesson. You can look at the typical flow of my lessons by downloading my first day of school lesson plans in the Resource Page.

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You can also grab the lesson plan templates I use in the Elementary Music Planning Kit.

Happy teaching!

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When lesson plans are built on solid and purposeful teaching strategies, they are quick and painless to write! They are simply the implementation of all the ideas, strategies, and sequences you’ve documented over the planning process.

Be sure to read the first and second parts of this series where we look at how to map out a long-range plan for your music room.

Now we're on to the final step of the planning process: daily lesson plans.

Psst - On the go? Listen to this post instead of reading!

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The image below is the planning template I use to create all my lessons.

It includes everything I need from standards to assessments, and since it's a google doc I can edit and access it from anywhere.

It's available to purchase here as part of a larger planning kit, or you can easily create your own from scratch!

Parts of a Lesson Plan:The first page of this lesson template invites you to think through exactly what your intentions are, so you get a quality, purposeful lesson plan every time! If you take a look at the first page of the lesson planning template, you'll see several important components to include.

Let's break each of them down.

Lesson Objectives: These are easily measured, action-oriented, and student-centered goals for the lesson. Avoid phrases like “the student will learn about”, or “the student will understand”. Instead, focus on action verbs: “the student will improvise”, or “the student will sing”.

Assessments: How will you know students have completed your lesson objectives? Keep assessments informative for you, and fun for your students. Each lesson should have some (simple) way for you to measure students’ understanding and skill level. You can read more about assessment in the music room here.

Materials: What materials will you need for the lesson? Puppets? Instruments? Often I need to prepare materials from scratch such as smartboard presentations or visuals. This section of the lesson plan keeps me on track so I remember what materials to set out before a class arrives, or what materials to create.

Other Notes: This is the “catch all” section. If you have one class behind the others, if you’re being observed that day, if you have a student who needs special accommodations, this is the place to document it.

Skills and Standards: What skills are your students using in your lesson? Make a note of how you are asking students to interact with musical concepts. In the planning kit template I’ve only listed the National Core Arts Anchor Standards for simplicity. They can easily be substituted for your state standards in the google doc.

IF YOU'RE MAKING PAGE 1 FROM SCRATCH:

If you're making your lesson planning template from scratch instead of purchasing the planning kit, start by listing the grade, date, and lesson number at the top of the page.

Then, list out the following components of a lesson plan: objectives, assessments, materials, notes, standards, and skills. Leave room under each category to make your notes.

Writing the Lesson:

The second page of the lesson plan is where the actual teaching process lives. It's the section you'll refer to most when you're in the classroom teaching.

When it comes to writing the lesson outline, refer back to your scope and sequence for the lesson focus, and your concept plan for teaching strategies. This is where all the hard work pays off! Plug in the activity and flesh out the process. Tweak anything you need to from the original concept plan.

Lesson Planning Tips for Music Teachers:1. Pacing:It’s a good rule of thumb to keep each activity fairly short (think of the attention span of your students!), and to alternate between times of high concentration and relaxation. This structure keeps your pacing quick so students stay engaged.

1. Transitions:Pay attention to how you plan to move from one activity to the next (transitions), as this is where the bulk of classroom management problems arise.

Transitions are used for entering and exiting the music room, changing from one song or activity to the next, setting up for a game, and moving to instruments.

Here are a few transition categories to get you started:

• Verbal / Textual: These are the most common in younger grades. Students love stories, so connect activities with a narrative if you can. Example: After students play the game to Apple Tree, suggest that you take an apple to your friend, Johnny, who is hungry after all his hard work building a house. Then sing Johnny Works with One Hammer.
• Musical (Melodic): Use identical melodic phrases to transition to a new song (such as Lucy Locket and We are Dancing in the Forest). The class sings the phrase on solfege, then the teacher asks, “What other song could this be?” Students guess from a list of songs on the board.
• Musical (Rhythmic): Read a rhythmic phrase of a song written on the board. The teacher changes one note at a time until the rhythm becomes the beginning of the next song.
• Nonverbal: Our students have to sort through a staggering amount of verbal information in a typical school day. A nonverbal transition can be a refreshing change for both you and your class! Use sign language for sit and stand; Use pictures of game formations such as concentric circles, longways set
• Movement: We Orff inspired teachers are always looking to add more movement to our lessons! Have students glide, stomp, tiptoe, slither, flounce, sneak, or jump to their next location.

IF YOU'RE MAKING PAGE 2 FROM SCRATCH:

If you're making the lesson outline from scratch, create a table four columns across and about six to eight rows down. The actual number will depend on how many songs you choose to include in your lesson.

From there, record the time of each activity, the song you'll use, a detailed teaching process, and any special notes or considerations to keep in mind.

There you have it!

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Daily lesson planning can be a breeze when you've done the right long-range planning beforehand.

You can grab the planning kit to help make your year planning smooth, or create your own templates from scratch by following the process in these blog posts:

• Lesson Planning Part 1
• Lesson Planning Part 2

Yearly Music Planning Tip: It’s okay to adapt as you go! You can’t anticipate everything that will happen over the course of the school year and how your plan will need to change to fit your unique teaching situation. Drop any activities that don’t serve you or your students, and let go of any pressure you feel to implement your yearly plan exactly as you wrote it.

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It's planning time!

Summer is a great time to start planning your music curriculum, but if if you're in the middle of the school year it's worth it to think carefully and creatively about your goals for your students.

Be sure to read the first part of this series where we look at outlining your ideal curriculum, and creating song lists.

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All the templates in this post are available as part of my Elementary Music Planning Kit, but you can easily create your own from scratch!

Let's jump into planning out your year through a scope and sequence, and creating solid teaching strategies through a concept plan.

Scope and Sequence: What to teach whenAs you look at your school year, it’s helpful to think through how much time you can devote to one concept. Those decisions are made and documented in a Scope and Sequence.

This template is a part of my Elementary Music Planning Kit. You can grab that here, or you can easily create your own template from scratch!

Creating Your Scope and Sequence:When you create your scope and sequence you’ll have some decisions to make about which concepts to prioritize, since you likely won’t have time to cover everything! Keep in mind the same questions you asked during the curriculum outline:

• How often do you see your students? How long are your classes?
• How long have you been teaching these students?
• How in-depth with each concept do you want to go?

IF YOU'RE MAKING FROM SCRATCH:

If you're making your own template from scratch instead of purchasing the planning kit, start by listing the months you teach along the top of the page. Then, along the lefthand side write all the concepts you want to cover for that particular grade level.

Give yourself some breathing room in the schedule to accommodate things like sick days, bad weather, assemblies on Friday afternoons, field trips, and concert prep.

Concept PlansConcept Plans are where things get interesting. It’s where teachers get creative, playful, and artistic. It takes a significant amount of brainpower to put this together, but once it's done this is the document you will reference the most as you create daily lesson plans later.

My concept plans are available to purchase here, but you can easily make your own as well.

Writing a Concept Plan

On the first page fill in the grade, element, and dates you plan to teach. Depending on the element, it’s reasonable to spend about four weeks on preparation and about five or six weeks on practice.

Previous Knowledge:What information will your students need to recall in order to be successful at this new element?

For example, if you are teaching quarter notes and eighth notes to First Grade, they will need to have a solid understanding of steady beat, rhythm, and the difference between rhythm and beat. If you are teaching re to second grade, students will need to have lots of experience with sol, mi, la, and do.

Take a look at where your students have been to consider when they will be ready to move forward with this new concept, and how you can help them connect the dots from the known to the unknown.

Unit Overview:1. KnowledgeAt the end of the unit, what do you want your students to understand (knowledge)? What do you want them to be able to do with that understanding (skills)?

If you are teaching quarter notes and eighth notes to first grade, you might write that students should understand that a beat can have one sound on it (ta) or it can be divided into two sounds (ta-di).

1. SkillsHow do you want students to be able to use their knowledge?

Here are a few options:

• Sing
• Play
• Create (improvise / compose / arrange)
• Read
• Write
• Move

Pre and Post Assessments:We have a list of what we want our students to understand and be able to do. Next we’ll need evidence to tell if we’ve achieved our goals or not.

The role of assessment is simply to discover what our students need from us. Pre-assessments and post-assessments give us valuable insight into how our students are progressing, and how we can best support them.

A pre-assessment may show you that your students will be ready to move ahead much faster than you anticipated. A post-assessment may show you that you need to slow down and consider taking a few weeks more of preparation to ensure that your students are fully ready to move to the next concept.

These pre and post-assessments are formative, and should be play-based and fun. In music, assessment often looks like regular classroom activities. The difference is how the teacher records and uses the information.

The Preparation Phase:

To prepare the new element, start by selecting about five songs or rhymes to use. The actual number will depend on the element, grade level, and how deep you want to go into the material.

When we prepare an element, we’re asking students to use it before they know its “real” name. We call the element by what it sounds like, or how it behaves. Instead of quarter notes and eighth notes, we might say “long” and “short”. Instead of la, we might say “high”.

Calling an element by what it is rather than its traditional western name allows students to interact with, explore, and discover the element’s properties on their own.

A Word on Modes of Learning:Teaching strategies are commonly broken down into three basic categories that have come into question in recent years(read here and here): physical, aural and visual.

While these modes are certainly not the only ways students learn, and in no way encapsulate the entirety of our teaching strategies, I continue to reference them when I create my concept plans. Music is a subject that very naturally uses physical, aural, and visual activities.

Creating Preparation Activities:Many early experiences with an unknown element will be through imitating the teacher, singing songs, and playing games.

From there, students become conscious of the new element.

In late preparation, students can relate the unknown element to other known elements (it’s higher than, lower than, longer than, shorter than, etc.)

At the end of the preparation stage, you’ll want to think through an assessment that tells you if students are ready to move on to presentation or not. This presentation test can be a single activity, or a collection of activities. A good rule of thumb is that if they can aurally identify the element, other skills will fall into place with practice.

IF YOU'RE MAKING FROM SCRATCH:

If you're making your preparation activities from scratch instead of purchasing the planning kit, write "Preparation Activities" at the top of the page. Along the top, list the words, "Physical", "Aural", and "Visual". Along the lefthand side, list four to five songs or rhymes you will use with that particular concept.

At the bottom of the page, write an idea for your presentation test.

Creating a Presentation Sequence:

The next phase in the concept plan is the presentation phase. This takes place over one lesson, and is quite structured. The presentation lesson tells students the name of the new element, what it looks like, and what we call it.

For example, the name of one sound on a beat in common time is a quarter note, but when we see the quarter note symbol we say “ta”.

Choose one song or rhyme to use for the presentation. Ideally, this is a song or rhyme that only uses the new element in one place, leaving all the other elements known.

Write out your presentation, as well as any visuals you’ll need in the lesson.

IF YOU'RE MAKING FROM SCRATCH:

If you're making your presentation plan from scratch instead of purchasing the planning kit, write "Presentation" at the top of the page. List the song you're using at the top as well. Then, write your procedure in bullet points so it's easy to read at a glance. At the bottom of the page jot down any visuals you'll need in the lesson. Easy peasy.

Creating Practice Activities:

In the practice phase, you might have students improvise a B section on unpitched percussion instruments. You might have them read known and unknown songs. You might have them create a melodic ostinato using the new element.

Now is the time to circle back to the list of knowledge and skills you wanted your students to walk away with at the end of the unit.

The “Extra Practice” section is the place to add extensions like books or listening activities. It’s also a great place to add new songs to students’ repertoire so they get to use their knowledge and skills in a new setting. Fill in these activities like you did the practice section before.

IF YOU'RE MAKING FROM SCRATCH:

If you're making your practice activities from scratch instead of purchasing the planning kit, use the same page format that you used for preparation activities. Replace the teaching ideas but keep the same songs and rhymes. For "Extra Practice", keep the same page format again, but replace both the songs and the teaching activities.

Music Planning Tip: Start small.
Planning can be an overwhelming process when you sit down to tackle your K - 5 school. Instead, start with one grade level, one concept, one lesson. You may not have an entire summer, fall break, or weekend to devote to planning. Look for short amounts of time to tackle bits of the planning process. Any amount of planning is well worth it!

Up next in this planning series, we'll look at creating purposeful and active lesson plans.

Let's go!

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Many educators can fall into the trap of waiting for the “perfect” time to start planning for the year ahead.

There’s never a bad time to think carefully and creatively about your goals for your students, and how best to implement them. I would suggest that wherever you are in your year, it is the perfect time to start planning.

This series will build on the material from this post, and continue to break down the planning process so it’s manageable, and meaningful.

Read more about mapping out your ideal music curriculum here.

You can also find examples of long-range plans in The Planning Binder.

Step 1: Curriculum Outline

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A curriculum outline (or concept table) is a broad overview of your entire school curriculum, across all grade levels. It’s a big-picture look at where your students have been, and where they’re going.

Writing Your Curriculum Outline: Where to StartThere are plenty of things to consider when putting together a curriculum outline.

• How often do you see your students?
• How long are your classes?
• How long have you been teaching these students?
• How in-depth with each concept do you want to go?

The answers to these questions tell you what concepts you can expect to cover at each grade level.

IF YOU'RE MAKING FROM SCRATCH:

If you're making your curriculum outline from scratch instead of purchasing the planning kit, list the elements of music you want to cover along the top of the page. Then list the grades you teach along the lefthand side. In each cell, write the concepts you want to cover in your entire program.

My Curriculum Outline (2018 - 2019)For reference, here is one example of a curriculum outline. These are very dependent on your particular teaching situation, so here is some context:

• I teach TK - 5th grade choir and general music. When students enter 4th grade, they transition from general music to their choice of either choir, band, or orchestra.
• I see primary grades (TK - 3rd) on a six day rotation. I see upper grades (4th - 5th grade) twice a week.
• I am entering my second full year at my school, and the curriculum reflects that while my upper grades have made progress, there are still concepts that they haven't covered. (You'll notice that the upper grades are working on almost the same concepts.)

Your curriculum outline will change. If you’re like me, at a fairly new school, it might look different every year as your older students progress through your music sequence and are able to move to more advanced concepts.

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Read a complete post about creating a curriculum outline here.

With your curriculum outline complete, we can hone in on specific grade levels with perhaps the most important step of planning: repertoire selection.

Song Lists - The Core of Your CurriculumOne of the most practical things I do to prepare for the school year is creating a list of songs that I can use for each grade level.

As music teachers, our repertoire is our curriculum, so the songs we choose are incredibly important. Our repertoire is the core of our students’ experience.

How to Choose Songs for Your Classroom:

“Let us take our children seriously! Everything else follows from this... only the best is good enough for a child.”

— Zoltan Kodaly

The music we choose can certainly be simple and fun, but it’s important to remember that our repertoire selection is the primary tool that shapes students’ musical development. How do we measure the quality of our music selection?

Questions to Guide the Selection Process:* Is the song interesting from a musical standpoint? * Are the lyrics relatable to a child? * Do you like the song? * Does it meet your curriculum goals? * Can you use it in a fresh, creative way in your classroom?

You can read a complete post about choosing repertoire for you music room here.

Creating Your Song Lists:I use this template for creating my song lists.

Referencing back to your concept table, list out the concepts you want to teach for each grade level across the top of the page. Then brainstorm songs you might use to teach each musical element.

Be sure to consider any special concerts or holidays you’ll want to include throughout the year.

The number of songs you choose is up to you. For younger grades you might choose a fairly large selection since you’ll probably go through lesson materials quickly. It’s likely that you’ll choose fewer songs for upper grades, since their attention span is longer and they can dive deeper into the song material.

IF YOU'RE MAKING FROM SCRATCH:

List all the songs you want to use for that particular grade level along the lefthand side of your paper. Then write out the concepts for that grade level along the top. Mark which songs cover which concepts.

Where to Find Songs:Here are some of my favorite resources for selecting classroom material:

• 150 American Folk Songs (especially good for younger grades)
• Sail Away: 155 American Folk Songs (great for upper grades)
• Folk Songs North America Sings (Again, great for upper grades)
• American Folk Songs for Children
• Vamos a Cantar
• Roots and Branches

My SongsThe Folk Song Index is where I catalog songs I enjoy using in my classroom. It’s a free resource I created for music teachers like myself. You can search by musical element (sol mi, half note, etc.) so you can easily find what you’re looking for. Click here to enjoy!

Music Planning Tip: You don’t need to fill out every single detail at the beginning of the year.
Leave yourself room to be inspired by a book in October, a workshop in February, or a website idea in May. The school year is long, and you’ll think of new things to add to your plans as the year continues.

Curriculum is mapped out, and songs are selected. Next we'll look at creating a scope and sequence, and developing teaching strategies in a concept plan.

Coming Up Next

What's your biggest struggle when it comes to planning?

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In this post I wrote about some of my favorite materials for teaching half notes.

When we prepare half notes, we're asking students to interact with this element before they realize its name. Instead of simply asking students to memorize the sound, we're asking students to use half notes to sing, play, improvise, and more. Then when we add the name, that name has meaning because students have been given enough experiences to truly understand the element.

This method is intuitive and calls on students to discover music on their own - not just to memorize that a half note gets two beats.

Experience FirstThe very first step in teaching a new rhythmic element is to play games, sing songs, and speak rhymes that contain that rhythmic element. This first step might not feel like “teaching” at all. And in many ways it shouldn’t. Instead, this stage should feel like play.

I wrote about some of my favorite materials to use for teaching half notes here. Some of my top choices are: Bluebird Bluebird, Listen to the Sun, Seashell, and Who’s That. You can go to that post for songs, plus the directions to games we use in my classroom.

The experiences we give students in this stage are the foundation for everything we want them to do later, so it’s important that we don’t short-change this step. In my experience it’s often one of the most joyful parts of the process as well.

Notice a sound that lasts two beatsAgain, this step in the process is crucial, though it may seem simple.

After students have experience moving, playing, singing, and speaking a half note, they’re ready to become aware that they are using a note that lasts longer than a “ta”.

In my classroom, we do this by keeping a steady beat while we perform a known song or rhyme. I’ll pick one phrase and ask students if I sing a word that lasts longer than one beat.

• What is the word?
• Does it happen more than once?
• How many beats does it last?

Through these questions, students guide themselves in understanding what a half note is.

When students have identified a note longer than one beat, we’ll assign it a name. Since it’s a long note, we’ll simply call it “long”.

ExploreAfter lots of experience with half note songs and rhymes, and after becoming conscious that a note lasts longer than two beats, we’re ready to explore half notes in other ways, like instruments and movement.

MovementStart by showing these sunbeams. How could students show these sunbeams through their bodies?

In some classrooms you may have all your students create the same shape: standing slanted, and reaching up with vertical arms. This may be especially true if your classroom doesn’t have a strong movement component.

To challenge students, especially if your class doesn’t do much movement, consider inviting students to make the shape without using their arms. In such an open activity like this, I praise students using different levels and body parts.

InstrumentsInstruments are another great way to explore half notes.

What instruments might you choose to represent that long sunbeam? What non-pitched percussion instruments can we find that elongate sound to last more than one beat?

Some great options students might discover are:

• Triangle
• Guiro
• Cabasa
• Finger cymbals
• Crash cymbals
• Sand blocks
• Wind chimes

What instruments might you choose to show a short sound? Some options students might discover are:

• Rhythm sticks
• Tambourine
• Wood block
• Claves
• Shaker
• Cowbell

Perform the rhyme, Listen to the Sun with instruments and movement. As they speak, students will listen for a sound that lasts two beats. When that sound happens they will either perform their sunbeam movement, or play their two beat instrument. Other class members not moving or playing may choose to speak the rhyme.

You may also choose to have students speak rhythm syllables instead of the text of the word:

“Ta-di ta-di long,
Ta-di ta-di long,
Ta-di ta-di ta ta
Ta ta ta long”

Create a Visual Representation of What You HearAfter all these preparation experiences, students are able to create a visual representation of what they have been singing, speaking, playing, and moving.

Different teachers have different preferences for this part of the process. For me, the significance of a half note is that students are combining two large beats, so I want to show that visually. We do this with a tie.

Start with a half note song students are familiar with (check out songs for teaching half notes here). For this example, we’ll go with “Who’s That”.

Starting at the last beat, have students help you notate the first phrase of Who’s That. Explain to students that we don’t know what “long” looks like yet - do they have any ideas of how to show it? Remind students that “long” is the length of two ta’s.

Students will likely come up with something that looks close to this:

Since you have a visual, have the students help you notate the rest of the song:

With a visual representation in place, and with students reading their version of half note notation, you can tie two quarter notes together to show that a half note lasts two beats.

Strategies like singing, playing games, moving, playing instruments, and reading notation give students preparation they need to truly understand what a half note is before we add the label.

The next step in the process is to present the real name!

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Our students are ready to learn about half notes after they have a solid understanding of the difference between rhythm and beat, and lots of practice with quarter notes and eighth notes.

The Significance of Half NotesHalf notes represent a huge accomplishment in the lives of young musicians, because this is the first time they’re asked to subdivide.

That’s why is so crucial that students have worked so much on rhythm vs beat, and quarter and eighth notes. Without the knowledge and skills of these elements, the length of a half note is arbitrary.

Future posts in this series will look at some great ways to teach half notes, but before that, we need repertoire.

The Song CollectionI love this collection because it uses songs with games or movement, songs to develop artistic singing, and a spoken rhyme. As always, I’ll point out where we can double-dip for other musical concepts.

Let’s jump right in.

1. Bluebird I’ve written about this song, posted about this song, and sang this song in my classroom for what feels like ages.

Strangely, I’m not sick of it yet!

That’s because my students love the game that goes along with this song. It’s the reason I can pull it out year after year and it’s still fresh.

The Game:Formation: Children stand in a circle with hands joined and raised to form "windows."
Measures 1 - 4: One child “flaps wings” and weaves in and out the "windows"
Measure 5: The bird taps one child on the shoulder in a steady beat.
Measure 6: The bird taps a second child on the shoulder in a steady beat
Measure 7: The bird taps a third bird on the shoulder in a steady beat

Other musical Uses:* Steady beat * Ta and ta-di * Quarter rest * Sol and mi * La * Re * Do * Fa * High do

1. Listen to the Sun This rhyme is from the Orff Schwerk volumes.

I learned about it in Jane Frazee’s book, Artful, Playful, Mindful. (By the way, I was so impressed with the thoughtfulness of this book that I videoed a book review - you can watch it here.)