I might have won them over...

I taught the final performance of the cinquain with one of my 5th grade classes today.

I began by announcing the goal and was answered with groans and moans. Apparently they don't like the song that I was planning to use as the A section, Snowflakes white are dancing down, even though we've only done it once. I use it to identify dotted-eighth-sixteenth and for an easy, accessible song for improvising with instant success. Maybe it was too easy?

I handed out the cinquains from last time then answered a myriad of questions reviewing the A section song then handed out B, C, D, etc cards to the students who were going to share their cinquains in the rondo. We had one practice run of the main song then did a final performance.

When it was all said and done, I asked if they changed their mind about the song and decided they liked it after seeing how it was all put together. Many of them said that they liked it better. Yeah! Still, I'm wondering if it needs to be tweaked for next year or if this is just a recalcitrant bunch?

What a crazy January

We have now missed three days due to cold and rumor has it we might miss one or two more next week on Monday and Tuesday. While it is exciting to have extra days at home with my kids, it is wreaking havoc on my planning. 

Seeing each grade level once a day means that it takes 4 days to see each class in the grade level. Each day I usually teach one 4th grade class then one 3rd, one 5th, (lunch) one CP group, and one 1st grade. The next day I do it again with a new group. And the next and the next until the cycle starts again. So at the beginning of each cycle, I teach  all new lessons the first day the repeat them on days 2-4. The whole idea of the rotating schedule is that you don't miss seeing a class on a particular week because of a holiday, you just pick up in the rotation where you left off. It's all nicely planned out int he calendar, too. Each week I had to label which day is which so I don't forget. However, with the cold days, everything is sporadic. You can't just pick up where you left off because then all the future planning (when to do field trips or have in-class performances) gets all off schedule. So that means, just like the old schedule, you never make up the time with those classes. And, because I only see them once a week, its harder to make up lost time by squeezing two lessons in together because I'm already trying to squeeze 72 hours of curriculum into 43 hours. Ack!

I have a very socially full weekend coming up but I will have to chisel out some time this weekend to try to figure out who I have seen and who got what lesson and who didn't. I might just have to scrap some of the projects we've been working on in order to keep everyone together but I am loathe to do that. At the same time, I am loathe to have all 16 of my classes in different places. That sounds terribly complicated. I know the Art teacher has always done it that way but the concrete sequential part of my brain rebels at the thought of it! "Chaos! Anarchy!" it screams in protest.

We'll see what part of my brain wins.

 

Hindsight

I really wish I could go back in time sometimes. This lesson about Poetry and Music has been so much fun and has grown into a really smooth lesson about comparing other Arts/Disciplines and Composer's Artistic Choice (national Music Standard 8). To begin, we talk about how Poetry is Music because it has Form, Rhythm, and Expressive Elements. After being shown the form of the poem we are composing (Haiku or Cinquain) we wrote in pairs or alone. Next, as students finished their work and checked with me to make sure it had the required syllables/form, I encouraged them to decorate their paper to make the poem a piece of visual Art, too, adding to the imagery of the words. I then showed them a poem I had written and asked them if they had any pictures that popped into their minds as they read it. We discussed how poets create imagery with words while artists use physical materials. From there we talked about how composers create imagery with music and choices in Timbre, Texture, and Expressive Elements as well as the basic elements of Rhythm, Pitch and Form. Then we watched the Snowman and shared our observations of Howard's Blake's artistic choices and techniques for creating musical images.

The lesson got better with every repetition (it was taught by me a total of 4 times) until it was smooth and flawless as a wave-worn pebble. Needless to say, today's students were far more creative and appreciative of the lesson than yesterday's.

That phenomenon (the one in which the same lesson can soar with one class and crash with another) will forever puzzle me and remind me that, no matter how much our district wants us to homogenize, it can't entirely be done because we are dealing with individuals who have individual sparks and strengths and weaknesses. One lesson taught 4 times can turn out to be 4 different lessons depending on the individuals in the room and their responses.

I'm so glad that, overall, this has been so positive. I can't wait to take it to the next level and put the poetry sharing and Orff piece together in Rondo form!

Backed by science and students.

I have a great job. I just found a great article that validates what I do as a music teacher...

"New research suggests that the complexity involved in practicing and performing music may help students’ cognitive development. Studies released last month at the Society for Neuroscience meeting here find that music training may increase the neural connections in regions of the brain associated with creativity, decision making, and complex memory, and they may improve a student’s ability to process conflicting information from many senses at once. Research also found that starting music education early can be even more helpful.
“It’s really hard to come up with an experience similar to that” as an education intervention, said Gottfried Schlaug, the director of the Music and Neuroimaging Laboratory at Harvard Medical School. Not only does it require attention and coordination of multiple senses, but it often triggers emotions, involves cooperation with other people, and provides immediate feedback to the student on progress, he said. Music, on its own, has also been shown to trigger the reward area of the brain, he noted.""

The article goes on to say that music can help students multi-task, focus, and grow creativity. This, along with evidence from The Harmony Project and research from Nina Kraus at Northwestern that show how music can close the achievement gap are motivators for me on a day that is less than successful. 

Yesterday I had the stomach flu and had to write sub plans for a non-music sub. Luckily, it didn't change too much what I was already intending to do for this lesson rotation. The down side is that I couldn't ask a non-music sub to assess recorder karate for me so third graders yesterday got a random lesson that won't be duplicated. The upside is that I had the 4th and 5th grade students write poetry that we will put into rondo form with an instrumental or movement piece we are already working on. 

5th grade is writing Cinquain, 4th Haiku, and one class of 3rd wrote Diamante.

After a successful 5th grade lesson before I got sick and positive notes from the sub, I was really surprised at the push back I had today with some of my 5th grade students. I didn't think the project was too hard because I've done the exact same lesson in years past. But this group really struggled. Many students asked why we were writing poetry. I told them that language, especially poetry, has rhythm and rhythm is an essential element of Music. So, Poetry is Music. Then we talked about imagery. Finally, I talked about how artists can create imagery with words, pictures and sounds. Then, at the end of class, I showed the Snowman and talked about how the artists who made this are creating images with drawing and sound and challenged them to listen to the auditory images. I wish I had put this detail into my sub notes. Originally, I just had her watch the snowman because I needed to find something musical and easy to fill the rest of the time. But the lesson that grew out of it is cool!