Week 7

PART I: Teaching Video Reflection

Reflect on the lesson planning you are doing this week in your teaching video. Include the lesson plan you discuss – what worked? What didn’t? Why? What help do you need?

The lesson I used for my video this week was an introduction to dynamics in my 6th grade chorus class. I think one thing that works really well in this class is giving as much time as possible for students to lead portions of the class, because that really helps them master the skills they are working on. It can get a little silly sometimes (i.e. if they’re directing dynamics but without a lot of intention), but I actually really like that we can be silly together because it keeps the kids excited and keeps them having fun, and it typically takes very minimal redirection from me to get them back on track. Those who led different portions of this class really enjoyed it, and those who didn’t yet are perhaps a little less comfortable with the skills or less comfortable being up in front of people, and so it’s easier for them to participate in the class without taking a huge leadership role. I totally understand and respect that as someone who was a shy kid as well, so for me it’s just figuring out the most gentle ways to prompt the quieter students to take on their own version of a leadership role in the class – whatever that might look like.

Something that didn’t go as well in this class was that I didn’t provide a place for the kids to track what dynamics they were choosing for the different parts of the song, so in the next lesson when we did the same kind of work but on a different song in their repertoire, I made sure they had lyric sheets and wrote the dynamics in themselves, and that helped them to remember a lot better where to be softer and where to be louder. They performed that one much better than they did the first one.

PART II: Reflection

In general, things are continuing to go pretty well in my classes, and I feel like what I’m working a lot on right now is quicker transitions between activities to keep students interested and not distracted. It’s certainly less important in smaller classes, but in my 7th grade class it’s especially crucial to keep the class fast-paced so there aren’t spaces for them to get chatty – because then it takes them a thousand years to refocus! 🙂 I’m making small steps with that, in things like collecting their journals and pencils while people are sharing about the opening video (instead of waiting until after), and having the sight-reading exercise up immediately after I close the video, and trying to create a common thread through the activities of the class so that there is a more natural connection running through everything we do in class. A small example from Friday’s class is that directly after the video, I asked the students to repeat after me and gave some 3-note solfege patterns for them to repeat back to me. I then did the same patterns on a hum, but gave the direction for them to sing back the solfege syllables to see if they could figure out (or just remember) what the patterns were. Immediately after that, I pointed to the sight-reading exercise, which started with the same intervals we had just been practicing, and that set them up a lot better to work through the sight-reading exercise more efficiently. I think if I can continue to be thoughtful and attentive in connecting those beginning-of-class exercises, it will be inherently more interesting and there will be no space for extra chatting during that process.

Something else I am working through is what it means for a student to be “engaged.” It’s been interesting to receive feedback in all the different places I teach (my school, after school programs, community youth choir program, etc.) about whether my students are engaged and how they are engaging, and it feels like this kind of nebulous thing and not everyone means exactly the same thing when they say it. I also pretty strongly feel that it’s hard to even tell if a student is engaged. It’s tricky trying to figure this out for edTPA because if a student isn’t actively speaking a lot in class and is mostly just watching and singing when they should sing, they actually are probably very engaged but someone watching who doesn’t know the students might assume they are barely participating. On the other hand, if kids are excited to be in chorus class and are singing loudly and raising their hand to help or are calling out, then they might be considered “feisty” and this isn’t necessarily seen as a positive example of engagement. However…I personally think both are great! Having been a student on both ends of the spectrum myself (depending on the class), I appreciate having that whole range in all of my classes and programs, and I’m just wondering if there are better ways to define engagement and to encourage a range of engagement in the classroom.

One super great thing that happened this week was that my middle school Glee Club decided to perform for the first time at breakfast on Thursday! Glee Club is not a class, but is a lunchtime club activity that students can choose 2 out of the 6 days of the cycle. So far I’ve been letting them choose the repertoire, and they decided on Say A Little Prayer (Aretha Franklin) for the group number, and a number of kids wanted to work on solos/duets/trios. I was trying to find a low-pressure environment for them to try performing together, and I suggested we come in early and sing in the cafeteria while people were coming in and out to get breakfast – and they were all very excited to come EARLY to school to perform! We set up with my keyboard and my guitar in a corner of the cafeteria, and a few of the students sang solos and then we ended with our group number. It started pretty softly, and by the end there was a big group of other students (of all ages!) and parents who had sat down to watch, and were doing the cell-phone-light-waving thing as the kids sang, and it was such a sweet moment. I had been talking to a coworker earlier in the week who was saying how he wished music was more part of the culture of our school – that it could just be everywhere – and that performance felt like a step in the right direction. It also felt like a moment for me personally, to start defining myself and my space and my role at the school, so that felt pretty great. One boy who saw it even asked his mom if he could join chorus class now, so we’re seeing if we can switch him into the class this late into the trimester. 🙂 I am looking forward to more community moments involving music in our school!

PART III: Lesson Plan

10.17.18 6^th Grade Chorus, 11:10-11:55

Standards:

From NYS Ensemble Standards:

MU:Cr1.1.E.5: Generate melodic, rhythmic, and timbral ideas.

MU:Cn11.1.E.5: Perform and listen to music from various times and cultures and describe how that music reflects those times and cultures.

MU:Pr4.3.E.5: Identify expressive qualities in a varied repertoire of music that can be demonstrated through prepared and/or improvised performances.

From NYSSMA Sight-Reading Levels:

Students will be able to sight-read 4- to 8-measure phrases from NYSSMA Level II (description listed below).

1. Time signature: 4/4, 2/4
2. Range: 6^th (usually Do to La or Ti to Sol)
3. Intervals: Do-Mi-Sol (ascending on quarter notes)
4. Rhythms: half notes and quarter notes
5. Rests: quarter rest

Objectives:

1. Students will watch a video of Bobby McFerrin getting his audience to sing, and will describe what they notice and feel throughout the video in their chorus journals.
2. Students will be able to sight read an 8-bar phrase together using Do, Re, Mi, Fa, and Sol in 4/4, with minimal restarts or mistakes.
3. Students will be able to verbally define the word dynamics, and will be able to recognize and perform differences in dynamics in their previously learned repertoire (Dancing Queen) including p, mp, mf, f, and crescendo and decrescendo.

Procedures:

1. Have students pick up journals. Play opening video (Bobby McFerrin) and have students answer questions written on the board.
   1. What do you notice?
   2. What do you feel?
   3. On a scale of 1-10 (10 being the most), how much would you like to perform this song?
2. Have some students share out their responses. What was different about this than the videos we usually watch? (The choir was the audience!)
3. Put 8-bar sight-reading phrase on the board. Play D Major scale on the piano and have them find Do. Remind them that this is like the “home tone.” Try using just pitches, ignoring rhythms. Correct any mistakes. Try using just rhythms. Then, put it together.
4. Warm ups:
   1. Remind students of good breathing techniques. Taking good full breath (not moving shoulders), breath in and hiss out as long as you can.
   2. With this good breath, ooh on scale degrees 5-6-5-4-3-2-1, starting mid-range and going down.
   3. Still thinking about breath: ee-ah-ee sliding from scale degrees 1-5-1, starting lower range and going up.
   4. “Basketball” – yah-yah-yah-yoh-yah on 1-1-135-853-1, starting lower range and going up and coming back down
   5. Solfege round
      1. Transition: here, the teacher introduces the term “dynamics” and works with the students to find a definition. The teacher introduces the terms piano, mezzo-piano, mezzo-forte, and forte, using a poster and pointing to each. The teacher asks the students to sing through the solfege round, following the dynamics the teacher points to as they go.
   6. Have students take turns directing the dynamics of the solfege round. After multiple students try it out, figure out together which dynamics feel most natural throughout the round.
   7. Sing once through Dancing Queen. After, have students note where the loudest and softest parts of the song are. Have students take turns directing the dynamics of the performance by pointing to the dynamic markings on the poster.

Assessment:

Informal:

• Students share their thoughts and reflections in class to demonstrate their understanding of what they saw and heard in the video.

Formal:

• Students sing together to demonstrate their ability to sight-read together with minimal mistakes (allowing for corrections when mistakes are made), with minimal assistance from the teacher
• Students each direct parts of class to show their ability to intentionally choose dynamics for certain parts of the round or the song.

Environment/Materials:

Students will sit in chairs in a semicircle facing the screen/mirrors. We need the following:

• Journals
• Pencils
• Projector/screen
• Sight-Reading Factory
• Piano
• Dynamics poster
• Lyric sheets for repertoire (only if the kids still need them – may be memorized at this point)

*Wear listening assistance device if Zoe needs it. If Zoe needs space or time, have her sit in the back of the room and listen instead of singing along.

*Sing next to Selin when necessary to help with matching pitch.