Field of Flowers

See you in Omaha!

2006-11-07T22:33:00.000-05:00

I hope to see all of you who frequently read the FOF blog in Omaha at the National AOSA conference. Stay tuned over the next several days for live blogging from the conference!

Three Posts In As Many Days

2006-10-31T19:56:00.000-05:00

Dear Field of Flowers Readers,
I have been looking for a new way to get the word out about this site. I know that there are about 70 people (I know who some of you are... but not all) who check the Field regularly. I will start sending out an email to you who check this site to let you know when it has been updated. Since I post about once a week, expect an email about once a week. If you would like to be on the mailing list, please send me your name and email (and if you think that I don't know who you are, please let me know your location just for fun). Email me at djbeam@gmail.com

Thanks,
Douglas Beam

You've got to check out the new link...

2006-10-31T08:57:00.000-05:00

Some of you may have noticed a new link on the right hand side of the screen. The link is for Andrew's Master copies. Andrew Ellingsen is one of my friends from Minnesota who is also in the University of St. Thomas Master's of Music Education program. He is a wonderful teacher and musician. He, like me, has a tiny obsession with all things Mac (as in the computer, not the comfort food). So, he spent quite a bit of time constructing a website that gives access to all of his master copies (the Kodaly people who actually read this blog will LOVE this one). There are MANY songs on the website, and they are all downloadable in PDF format. So, go explore the site and use what you will, but as Andrew reminds us, we always need to cite our sources and give credit where credit is due!

Enjoy!!!

The Leaves

2006-10-29T17:07:00.000-05:00

Here is an abbreviated version of my notes from IOSA chapter sharing... Enjoy. I wanted to say as a follow up to the chapter sharing that my process for this piece, and the learning we experienced did not occur in one day, but over several weeks and several lessons.

The Leaves: by Arvida Steen (Exploring Orff, p. 109)
This simple tune uses the full diatonic scale, first descending and then ascending. The text is appropriate for fall and lends itself to all sorts of exploration. My students have explored the text and melody through speech, movement, singing and playing instruments (pitched percussion and unpitched percussion).

All the leaves are falling down
Falling softly to the ground
Now the wind will lift them high
Lift them gently to the sky

This is a combination of several lessons that I taught to my second grade classes. Our conceptual focus was half notes, and we tried to play sing and move half notes as much as we could in as many different ways as possible, while keeping the spontaneity of child-based creation. This presentation highlights some of the ways we explored music using the four Schulwerk media (singing, playing, speaking and moving).

I. Opening Activity
- T asks questions about seasons: “How many? What are they?” etc.
- S answer questions
- T asks what things change during each season.
- S respond
- S pretend to be trees in each season, and change following the calendar: spring, summer, fall winter.
- T uses finger cymbals to signal to S to change between seasons.
- S stop in fall pose, and T asks for S volunteer to be the wind.
- One S uses a scarf, and becomes wind, moving through the trees while S listen to music.
- S listen to Concerto No. 10 in C Major from John Feierabend's Keeping the Beat (track 1).

II. Presentation
- T tells S to let their leaves blow in the wind and then walk around as their leaves fall to the ground while listening to the steady beat.
- S walk with their hands out as leaves.
- T changes movement to walking words, and asks S “am I walking the way the words go, or the way the st. bt. goes?”
- S respond words
- S walk words.
- T stays stationary and says the poem while letting his leaves fall to the ground.
- S work in two groups to show levels of poem through movement, first part descending, second part ascending.
- S transfer words to hand drums and add other fall sound effects.
- S imitate as they say the poem
- At seats, T shows visual with no h, asks S to keep st. bt. while T says poem
- S decide that there are not enough st. bts.
- T shows visual with half notes
- T labels half notes
- S move to barred instruments
- S say musical alphabet starting with C
- S say alphabet from C to C forward and then backwards
- T doubles every note
- S practice and double all notes.
- S decide what would have to be changed in order to make the poem fit the notes.
- S practice new pattern
- S add in simple bordun
- S perform piece

III. Exploration
- T introduces new pattern “fall down, fall down, fall down to the ground”
- Each S walks word that they are saying.
- T asks S to explore different levels with their bodies while walking the words.
- S move to instruments.
- T switches from walking to body percussion
- S imitate body percussion
- S play low C on “to the ground”
- S may pick any two notes for the words “fall down”
- S perform patterns individually

IV. Culmination/Evaluation
- S perform entire song
- ABA : a section is singing song The Leaves, B section is improvisation.

Bee-autiful!

2006-09-22T15:03:00.000-04:00

I don't know why some things work? But I can tell when the creative activity that takes place in my room is simply delicious. Thanks to Dean for introducing me to the following poem...

Here is the beehive,
Where are the bees?
Hidden away where nobody sees.
Watch as they start to come out of their hives.
One, two three, four, five!
Quick, quick run, they're out of their hives!

Well, this isn't the first time I have used this activity in first grade. Last year's first graders were bitten by the fun of this great finger play... but I decided to take it a bit further this year. In first grade (a reminder that I do not have my kids for kindergarten, and they don't get music class at the magnet kindergarten in our district) we are all about readiness... experiencing all of those things that we must before we can get to literacy issues, etc.

So, in preparation to talk about "same and different," my students and I have been doing a lot of echoing. I have been playing four beat phrases on the drum, and they clap them back to me (ta and ti ti rhythms mostly). At the beginning of this week, I felt like the students were ready to start drumming their own phrases and have the other students echo them. So, I use the Beehive poem as a transition, and choose a queen or king bee to come up and drum out a four beat phrase for the rest of the kids to clap back.

"Now Doug! Seriously! First graders who have never had a music class can't possibly be successful at drumming a four beat phrase with ta's and ti ti's." Yeah... I know. But they have heard me do this activity, and they have felt what a four beat phrase feels like through movement and singing, that for some reason four beats of ta's and ti ti's is what they choose to drum. I haven't explained how to count, or what a quarter note is, let alone what and eighth note is. But they FEEL it, and 90% of the time that is what they chose to drum.

So there it is... a first grade Bee adventure.

Have a great week-end!

Vocal Exploration

2006-09-13T16:42:00.000-04:00

Here is a discussion that some of my Kodaly friends have been having about vocal exploration, thought you might find it interesting.

Megan S. said:

I want to spend a lot more quality time this year with vocal exploration in all grade levels, and need some cool "props" to use (especially for my older kids). If you have some things that you love to use to warm up voices, would you send some ideas my way? Thank you!

Leigh Anne G. responded:

My older kids love the slinky, koosh launcher (sling shot), and if you can believe it, bubbles!

Cindy B. responded:

I have choirs, so we use these ideas for vocal warm-ups and singing in head voice as well as vocal exploration.

With my preschoolers and younger elementary, I use props, but also a lot of imagery - in the fall, leaves falling from the trees, winter snow falling, Halloween ghosts, roller coaster (I draw a squiggly line on the whiteboard), fire engine siren etc. and we do motions with them - for the leaves and snow, hands up high and drift down with their voices. Then the wind comes up and blows the leaves around so we swirl our arms and voices. If there are leaves outside, we actually go outside and do this with real leaves! I also have a picture of a playground slide. We slowly climb with our voices and slide down.

With the older kids, I have a small, squishy, but real-looking basketball that we "shoot some hoops" with. I throw the ball up, and the kids pretend they are shooting a ball with motions. We also pretend to throw Frisbees across a football field on the sound "fah". The throwing motion really gets their voice going and they have their voices gradually come down as the Frisbee comes down. They hold their hands above their eyes to shield them from the sun as they watch the Frisbee land. We also use this for breath control and increasing our breath. If someone peters out too soon - "Oops! Your Frisbee didn't go very far." or doesn't get into their head voice -"Your Frisbee didn't go quite high enough." I also have a Beanie Baby type animal that I toss in the air. The kids like to see how high I can toss it and still catch it. It can get pretty high in a big church sanctuary!

Dean Maniakas and I were having a similar conversation via cell phone. He was telling me about a discussion he was having with one of our colleagues in the district about how important it is to sing with your children. Finally, after 18 months of work at John Strange, I can hear my students are starting to "get it" as far as their singing goes, but I appreciate the discussion because vocal exploration shouldn't stop after 1st grade (or kindergarten for some). It improves the quality of music making, and gives students a greater capacity for self expression. This information may not be news for many of you, but I can always use the reminder about just how important vocal exploration is.

Are You Ready?

2006-09-06T22:08:00.000-04:00

Wow... another year. I hope you're as excited about this year as I am. After a 2 month vacation, we here at Field of Flowers are ready to kick off another year of blogging. We are especially looking to expand the staff. Currently, our bloggers include myself, Dean Maniakas and Cyndee Giebler. If you are interested in joining the FOF regular bloggers, please send me an email at djbeam@gmail.com.

This year will officially start on Saturday with the first IOSA workshop. I will spare you the details on here, and specifically refer you to the new IOSA website, www.indianaorff.org. There, you will find all of the details you need to get you to the right place at the right time. Suffice it to say that our first clinician is Robert Amchin, and I am sure that everyone will take away some valuable information!

Upcoming posts in the works will be on topics such as "Sing For Your Children" and "Leaves in the Fall."

I hope you will stay tuned, and keep checking back regularly. Now that things are off the ground, and we are back in school, blogging should occur at a regular pace of once a week. So, check back often!

Let me hear from you if you have questions, comments or snide remarks!

Viva la musica!

Gardening

2006-06-05T11:57:00.000-04:00

Greetings one and all!

Here is a fun activity that my 3rd graders performed for their spring program. I call it "Gardening." We started with the following poem:

Whistle and hoe,

Sing as you go.

Making our garden ready for the

Flowers to grow.

If I had my MFC volume 1 in front of me, I could tell you which little rythmic exercise this is, but since I have no book and since there's a wealth of information in it, I'll leave it to you to find it. Or better yet, have your class make up their own!

We did all manner of exploration with the poem, making up a stick passing game, practicing body percussion, making up simple melodies, inventing a very simple dance. Then the fun began!

The class brainstormed all the different spring flowers that they could think of. This part was easy since many flowers were in bloom. We then made up our own poem using the flowers. Here's what they came up with:

Tulips and daffodils,

Lilacs and pinks,

Pansies and hyacinths,

Pretty things that sprout

In the spring!

After coming up with this poem "structure," the kids experimented on the barred instruments and we came up with a group melody. If I can figure out how to import a Sibelius score, I'll add it. (Help me out here!)

For the performance, some of the kids did our simple dance with large plastic gardening implements. Any dollar store is a good source for these at this time of year. I'll probably use this activity again since I now own a zillion plastic shovels! Here's our dance:

Tap - Tap your implement on the floor

Click - Click implements with your partner

Whirl - Turn around with the implment held over your head.

Find a partner and perform the following while saying the "whistle and hoe" poem:

Tap - click - click - tap - whirl

Tap - click - click

Tap -click - click - tap - whirl

For the performance, we strung things together in arch form, thusly:

"Whistle and hoe" dance

Spring flowers song

Vocal Improvisation

(yes I had a 3rd grade boy willing to so this.. NOT the norm!!)

Spring flower song

"Whistler and Hoe" dance

Song and dance together.

(Yes, it works!)

It's an idea that you can tuck away for next spring. Our school year is over, and this very afternoon I am heading out of the country to Sweden where my youngest daughter is an exchange student. She graduates Friday. How cool is that?

- Keetwoman

Summer Adventures

2006-05-24T08:31:00.000-04:00

Can you believe that another year has flown by. As I write this post, we have 3 and 1/2 days of school left (following the Maniakas system of counting). And, I have to say, my students are doing well at containing their excitement long enough to focus on the tasks that still remain. I've been trying to tap into their anticipation for summer recess and provide a musical output for any excess energy.

I always love beginning a new musical experience with movement, especially with the primary grades. Their movement is always so fresh, that it can inspire some incredible musical moments. My second grade students walked into the room and sat down and shut their eyes. I asked them to imagine what their first day of summer vacation would be like. What would they do? Where would they go? Who would they see and play with? Then, I turned on a recording of Street Song. They acted out their first days of summer.

From there we went back to our seats and they echoed me as I sang:

Summer has come
We all had fun
We all sang and played and danced
Now we are done

I can't say that I'm extremely pleased with this text that I added to the first of the Canon Exercises from Volume I (pg. 91 of the first volume of Music for Children for those of you who are following along at home), but it serves the purpose. They quickly figured out the form (AABA) and learned the song. I wanted the students to be able to figure out how to play the song by ear. That was a fairly quick process at the barred instruments.

One of the last concepts I am trying to cover in second grade is the moving bordun. When I reviewed my Level I notes earlier this semester, I saw that Lisa Sullivan had added a moving bordun to this piece, using a little different process than the one I am detailing now. In any case, adding a moving bordun works nicely. So, my second grade students played the Canon exercise (not in canon yet...) and then improvised summer adventures on barred instruments in between each playing.

One more quick thing before I go... I haven't spent much time talking about the musical concepts that my students learn from these experiences, but I do go through a make conscious process in my teaching, and I find that the pieces from the Volumes as well as the Supplements offer great learning moments for the concepts in our curriculum.

Have a great last week of school!

Existential Moments With First Graders

2006-05-09T22:07:00.000-04:00

Mr. Beam: "Please line up silently at the door."

Molly: "Mr. Beam, my grandpas both died, and my foot hurts."

Mr. Beam: I'm very sorry to hear that.

Rain Rain Go Away

2006-05-09T08:30:00.000-04:00

From time to time (really, this does not happen often), I will get out the clipboards and do a little paper/pencil assessment with my students. I know that some students actually prefer showing off what they know through writing -- what we know about multiple intelligences tells us that much. So, after playing a million games of Bow wow wow, I had my first grade students write out the rhythm to the song as I clapped it.

They did a very nice job, but that is not the point of this post. On a whim, I had them turn their papers over and write one sentence about what they like to do when it rains. After they had finished, I collected the papers and we went on with the day. I read all of the sentences and typed them up on a poster, and hung them on the wall (I called it "First Grade Rain Poems" and that made my principal really happy).

I hear the questions coming from cyberland, "So Doug, what does any of this have to do with music?" I had been looking for a way to get the students to dangle their feet in a more structured improvisation using a fixed tone set (sol and mi in this case). When we were in class the next day, I read them the whole poem and then we went to the barred instruments and discovered sol and mi (in C pentatonic, that would be G and E). Next, we all played "I like to watch movies" on sol and then mi. Then they worked on their own sol and mi patterns for the sentence "I like to watch movies." After that, they got to create their own pattern for what they like to do when it rains.

The assessment was quick and dirty. On the third day of this lesson, we went immediately to the bars to review our own rain patterns, and then we went in ABC order so that everyone could play their part of the poem. I jotted down a quick M, D or N (mastered, developing, not yet) using my barred instruments rubric, and moved on.

Tragic Loss

2006-04-23T19:20:00.000-04:00

I wanted to take a moment and write a few comments on here about the tragic loss of two of my greatest friends.

Zack and Garth were incredibly different and I loved them both like brothers. There are no words that can describe the sense of loss that I feel and that many of our closest friends are experiencing. The void is unfathomable, and the loss is beyond comprehension or fairness. Zack was without a doubt the closest friend I have ever had and the most meticulous person insofar as his work was concerned. The loss to the music world is most profound. Garth always was there to keep my in tune with the real world and help keep the rubber side down (he was an avid BMW motorcyclist). His passion for singing and art always has driven me to work on my craft. His example and his love for living will be forever missed.

So here is to my friends. Garth and Zack: we love you and miss you already.

IOSA Announcement

2006-04-17T07:40:00.000-04:00

This just in from our ever-faithful President, Lisa Sullivan:

The Indiana Orff Schulwerk Association’s last workshop for this school year will be on Sat. April 22, 2006 from 9-1 at Mohawk Trails Elementary School! We will be holding elections for the 2006-2008 IOSA board positions during break! You won’t want to miss this workshop! Steve Calantropio will be our presenter. Steve is a teacher/mentor of many IOSA members and has an AWESOME grasp of the Schulwerk and especially elemental music! This will be a very active session! A workshop description and information on Steve is listed below!

Elemental Pieces and Processes

Orff Schulwerk educators must have the ability to carefully break down and teach musical skills and concepts using elemental media. But how does one develop fine process teaching techniques?

This workshop will take a closer look at process teaching techniques that can be used in Orff classrooms. Examples from the Schulwerk and pieces by the presenter will be explored. Please bring a soprano and alto recorder and any of the Orff Schulwerk Music For Children Volumes I-V (Murray editions) that you may own for reference.

Steven Calantropio, recently retired following 31 years of teaching in the River Edge, N.J. public schools, is a specialist in Orff Schulwerk pedagogy and practice. He has served as clinician at numerous regional Orff Schulwerk chapters as well as the National Conference of AOSA and state Music Education conferences. Mr. Calantropio holds an Orff-Kodaly-Dalcroze certificate from the Manhattan School of Music as well as an Orff Certificate from the Orff Institute in Salzburg Austria. He has been named a New Jersey 'Master Teacher of Music'. Mr. Calantropio has served as principle lecturer at the seventh annual meeting of the Australian National Conference of Orff-Schulwerk Associations in Adelaide, Australia. Steven has been awarded the New Jersey Governor's Teacher Recognition Award and in May, 1993 he received the Achievement in Music Award from Ohio University, his graduate school alma mater. Mr. Calantropio has served as clinician at Carl Orff Canada National Conferences and as instructor at the English Summer Course of the Orff Institute. He has been a guest lecturer, levels teacher and conference presenter at Orff Schulwerk training programs in Sydney and Melbourne, Australia. Mr. Calantropio's innovative Master Class in Elemental Music has been presented numerous times in the United States and Canada. He recently piloted a newly conceived Master Level IV in Orff Schulwerk at George Mason University. His arrangement of 5 Spirituals for Chorus with Orff instrument accompaniment is published by Warner Brothers Publications. He is also a certified computer technician for Apple Computer and has taught coursed is digital technology in a number of locations.

We will be starting our 2006-2007 year off with a bang on Sat. September 9, 2006 with presenter Robert Amchin! Mark your calendars now! Chapter Sharing will be on Oct. 14, 2006!

Musicians on Caffeine

2006-04-17T07:26:00.000-04:00

Inspired by a recent IOSA presentation by Beth Melin Nelson. She presented a flavorful poem and explained how she used different tea names and poems about tea to have students create a rondo. I was excited about the idea, but my students don't seem to be the tea-drinking kind, so I took a poem she used, added an alternative caffeine source, and got some amazing results.

Molly, my sister and I fell out.
Now what do you think that was all about?
She loved coffee and I loved tea,
And that was the reason we couldn't agree.

We started the class period learning the poem and keeping the steady beat in different places (head, shoulders, nose etc.). When we had the poem down, I put the words of the poem on the overhead with some of the syllables that fall on strong beats in boxes (Mo, I, What, All, She, I, That, Rea). We started by patting the words using alternating hands. Then, we began adding a few claps in on the boxed words (I am going to use this body percussion later to teach more about drumming). Thus, the A section for our rondo.

Then, the students started brainstorming coffee words. Here are a few of their suggestions: starbucks, latte, decaf, brown, Mexican, cappuccino, caramel, coffee bean, roasted (and many, many more). The students started combining these words and worked in groups to develop their own movement.

When we put the piece together, the students were almost overwhelmed by their creation. The sense of excitement was palpable, and although I hadn't given them any caffeine per se, they were definitely on a musical buzz when they left my room.

Be On the Lookout

2006-03-29T07:25:00.000-05:00

Spring Break is coming...

Be on the lookout for Java-inspired music making with third graders, RU texts, and the presence of the teacher in class... all of these posts are in the making.

Blogging has been a little slow as we here at Field of Flowers have all been very busy with performances, performing and other occupational hazards...

We'll pick up the pace again next week.

Yuck

2006-03-29T07:21:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, while exploring pathways with first grade students, we used yarn to make our own pathways and then connect them to eachother's pathways to make one big path. We explored these pathways whole listening to Elgar's Pomp and Circumstance. This is an original Sarah Hassler activity. The experience was both beautiful and a great learning opportunity.

However... When collecting all of the yarn, a young man in the front of the class handed me his string, which was wet. I asked him why it was wet and he said he didn't know. Evidently, it wasn't a big deal to him. I had to leave and wash my hands.

Bearly Believable!

2006-03-17T07:34:00.000-05:00

The first grade classes and I Have had a great time this week in a great adventure. As we move closer to the world of sol mi, we are still exploring high and low through speech, movement and with instruments. Last week, I took the song Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear (I was inspired by Brent Gault to use this song that I had forgotten). We sang the song, and played the game and then put it away. While we were singing we used two hands to pat the words "Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear." This week when we came back to it, we had just finished the game Walk and Stop. The kids were exhausted... Perfect time to begin a bear adventure.

The students laid down in scatter position and closed their eyes. I turned out the lights and told them to imagine that they were in a big forest with tall trees and a heavy canopy. All you can hear in the forest is the wind (we started to rub our hands together to make a wind sound). Then it gently started to rain (light patting on the legs), then it rained heavier (heavy patting on the legs). All of the sudden, the wind and rain stopped. Then you look around and you see a little bear standing next to a tree and think "Maybe I should RUN."

Wait! The bear winks at you... and then he smiles! It is definitely a friendly bear. So I asked them what kind of bear they saw, and we put together a pattern of four bears: for example, Panda Bear, Polar Bear, Brown Bear, Black Bear. At this point, 1/2 of the first grade explorers went outside in the hall with the first grade assistant, and worked on hand drum technique (how to hold the drum) and learned to play the pattern.

The other 1/2 of us stayed in the music room and went to the barred instruments. We practiced patting the words "Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear" again, and then transferred that to an F bordun. When we had done that, we invited the hand drum group back in and created a bearly believable ABA form piece where singing and barred instruments acted as the A section, and the drumming pattern acted as the B section.

By that time, our adventure in the forest had come to a close. But, I have a feeling that there will be more bear adventures in our near future!

Indiana Orff Schulwerk Association

2006-03-06T08:29:00.000-05:00

Public Service Announcement:

Where: Mohawk Trails Elementary (click on link for directions)

When: Saturday, March 11, 2006
8:30 a.m. registration
9:00 workshop begins
1:00 p.m. workshop ends.

Who: Beth Melin Nelson
Beth Melin Nelson has been teaching music to children for 16 years and
currently teaches K-5 music at St. Paul Academy and Summit School in St.
Paul, Minnesota. She teaches on the faculties of the Orff Schulwerk teacher
training courses at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, and at the
University of St. Thomas where she also serves as the course administrator.
Beth frequently presents workshops around the country and is a founding
member of the adult performing ensemble, Schulfunk. She received her Orff
Schulwerk certification from the University of St. Thomas as a student in
the M.A. program, where she also took classes in Dalcroze and Kodaly. Her
background includes experience as an early childhood teacher, artist in
residence and trained dancer.

What: PLAY: Playful eLemental ArtistrY!
From preschoolers to 5th graders, play is an essential element of any Orff Schulwerk classroom. Come and explore playful lessons for a wide variety of ages. Be prepared to sing, say, dance and play! Please bring soprano recorders.

We will also have materials from West Music for sale again so donÂ’t forget those check books (we do NOT accept credit cards)!

Lastly, we will have the new slate of officers available for viewing at the March 11 workshop! We will vote on those officers at the April 22 workshop! If you would like to be on the slate please let Lisa Sullivan (lsulliva@ccs.k12.in.us) know ASAP!! IOSA loves volunteers and this is a GREAT board to be a part of!

Garden Suite for Second Grade

2006-02-25T16:53:00.000-05:00

'Tis the season of mi re do at John Strange Elementary. Yes my second grade students have reached that life altering moment when they realize that the world goes beyond sol la sol mi. Of course, we have played, sung and listened to tons of songs that are outside the limits of sol la and mi. But, we haven't made conscious that life does not end with these three notes. I wanted to pass on to you my "Garden Suite for Second Grade."

The suite is in ABA form. It begins with the ever popular Closet Key. Now, for some reason, my students find this little gem particularly palatable. We play the game (finding a hidden key by using loud and soft sing as hot or cold location clues) and eventually we add a bordun to accompany the singing. I'm feeling most proud of my second grade students as they are becoming masters of quickly adding simple accompaniments to the games we play (All of my Kodaly friends' ears are now bleeding, I'm sure). Nevertheless, we play the game with the accompaniment.

I have lost my closet key
In my lady's garden.
Help me find my closet key
In my lady's garden.

Later on, I will introduced the nursery rhyme Mary, Mary Quite Contrary through simultaneous imitation. We use rhythm sticks to differentiate between steady beat and rhythm. The students will explore the room looking for new partners to keep the steady beat with. I do simplify the last line of the poem to make the rhythm a little more manageable because we will take the rhythm of the poem to the barred instruments and use it as a basis for pentatonic improvisation.

Mary Mary quite contrary
How does your garden grow?
With silver bells and cockle shells
And maids all in a row.

The final piece, when added together looks like this. We start with Closet Key, for which the students have now created a movement. Some students are playing the bordun and some are moving and singing. Then, several students will improvise a B section. While they are improvising, the students who were doing movement will explore the room following their own pathway. Then we, will end with a reprise of the A section. Thus ends the "Garden Suite for Second Grade"... just wait until I have a moment to write about the "Rodent Suite for Second Grade."

Maytag Teaching

2006-02-21T20:09:00.000-05:00

My favorite kind of teaching is that Maytag kind of teaching. You know, when you can just sit back and watch the creativity fly... I am amazed that it occurred with my fifth graders, because I usually have to be right on top of them. Not today. We started the day the day with a little body percussion. I am certain that there are some of you who know the situation I walked into at John Strange. The previous music teacher was completely unqualified for the job, and so my older students were years behind in their musical education. What is worse, they didn't enjoy or appreciate making music together. Music class was so completely beneath them. So, what I am about to describe is a big 5th grade accomplishment. The actual lesson would probably work well with 3rd graders depending on your own situation.

Dean Maniakas took Ding Dong Diggi Diggi Dong (from Music for Children Vol. I) and turned it into a body percussion piece. This inspired me to take it and turn it in to my own body percussion piece. There is something really palatable about the rhythms in that piece. My fifth graders ate it up. When we had it down, and they could do it without me, we talked about the different levels of body percussion in the piece (stomp, pat, clap and snap). Then, they looked at the rhythm which I had collapsed from 4 staves into 1. They clapped the rhythm they had just performed. After that, my work was done. I told them that the final product for today would be a performance in groups on unpitched percussion. From that point, they told me the steps they would need to go through in order to get to the goal.

I think the very fact that they defined the process made them own it and work at the goal cooperatively. At the end of the day, not all of the groups had finished, and I heard moans that they had to leave to go back to "regular" class. Letting them get to work on their own was a cathartic experience for me because they wanted to work! I felt a bit like the Maytag repair man. Not much to do, except coach them in making musical choices.

Right now, I am also working on a piece from the Volumes with fourth grade using some of Steve Calentropio's process teaching tools... so stay tuned. I will let you know how it goes.
As a quick side note, sorry for those of you who have been checking for updates this week. I wanted to let Dean's post stay at the top of the page so everyone would read it. If you didn't get a chance to read It Was Supposed to be Incredible... please take the time. Also, take a minute to write a comment so that we know what you are thinking.

It Was Suppose to be Incredible! What happened?

2006-02-14T20:57:00.000-05:00

It's a full moon. You don't even have to look outside to know what I mean. Your lesson is set to go. The experience that you are going to give your students is so engaging that you almost want to wet your pants with the anticipation of what is going to happen. They show up at your door and BINGO the whole lesson goes right in the toilet! You've got 40 minutes more to kill and you do your darndest to give them that experience that you know is going to be life changing. But the only thing that it changes is your desire to ever teach again!

So what happened? You reached that point where skill building and aesthetic experiences meet but don't mix. Your student would have done better if they had just a few more skills under their belts but you were certain that if you could just do a little more of the aesthetic experience it would take care of itself. It happens to all teachers even if they won't admit it happens. Because of our own artistic desire to create music and because Schulwerk process is so accessible to all learners we continue to push to give our students an experience they are not ready for yet. The more we push the more they push back causing us to question ourselves and our ability to create.

The flip side of pushing aesthetic experiences is trying to push skill building until they are about to burst. Skill building is attractive because it's concrete and easily shown to others as an achievement in learning. Put pencil to paper and everyone understands right and wrong answers. Too much skill building however begins to kill the learner because application of skills without experience is just as bad as experience without skill building.

So now you're saying to yourself "Where does all this leave me?". It leaves you with the task of using keen observation and "on the run" evaluation at it's fullest extent. We have to make sure that as we apply our lessons that we step back and evaluate why it is or is not going well. The biggest mistake that we make in teaching is trying to continue building skills or give aesthetic experiences even when it is noticeable that the class is not receptive to the activity.

How often do you continue to hammer away at a skill knowing full well that the class checked out 5 minutes ago? At this point you decided that you would just beat away at the skills and concepts because you knew that one way or another as "God as your wittiness" they were going to learn that skill!

The flip side will give you these results. Remember the last time you tried to stimulate creative ideas only to realize that everything that was happening came out of your mind and not the students'. Rather than stop that wonderful creative flow (by the way it was just your creativity not theirs)you continued to pour out more and more until there was nothing but unbridled chaos running rampant in your room. Why? Because in an attempt to give that creative experience you missed setting it up with proper skills and technique. What your students did was bring the entire lesson to a halt because of lack of understanding of where the lesson was going and how to develop it.

There is a plus and minus to both types of experiences. During the plus phase of either experience is when we need to be the most alert. A successful lesson that builds technique and skills should be balanced off as soon as possible with an aesthetic experience. Likewise if the lesson was mostly experiential it is necessary to include some type of skill building set-up before continuing on with that incredible "creative flow".

Recognizing this ebb and flow during instruction takes time and practice. You've got to be aware of whether the reason the lesson isn't going well is because of the students attitude or because of an imbalance between skills and application. So the next time you're working hard at a lesson and it's not going very well the fix could be as simple as changing gears

Being different

2006-02-11T11:06:00.000-05:00

How do you teach students to be different? Students spend a significant amount of time acting like their teachers: they echo our speech, copy our movements and sing with the same tone we present them. Here are a few ideas that have been popping in my head:

1. My youngest students can improvise a four beat rhythmic pattern. They do this without thinking about the length of their improvisation or the notes they playing.

2. My students know when they are playing together and not together.

3. In spite of this, even when we are working with basic ostinati, my students are easily thrown off.

My conclusion, it is easier being the same as the people around you than being different.

Here is what I did:

The other day my first grade students were composing quarter note and eighth note rhythms using popsicle sticks. They were easily able to write out the patterns, and perform them independently. However, when asked to perform the different rhythms simultaneously, they fell apart. So I stopped them, and asked them to look at their neighbors' patterns, and see if those patterns were the same as or different than their own patterns. The students quickly figured out that they all had composed unique and individual patterns. When they had realized that they were different from their neighbors, and that it was OK to be different, the improved their percentage of accuracy when simultaneously reading rhythms. It was as if they hadn't realized that they were all different, and that it was OK to be different, until I told them to stop and look around. When they looked around and realized their differences, they dramatically improved their reading accuracy!

Now, I am no psychologist, but indulge me for a second. Does this have something to do with the stages of cognitive development as described by Piaget? Children in the preoperational stage have the ability to to think symbolically, but also maintain an egocentrism which blinds their capacity to view another person's perspective. These students in first grade are passing from preoperational to concrete operational thought. As an educator, I see my job as facilitating this transition by providing developmentally appropriate activities that encourage growth. I think that this is why I love working with first grade students: for them, everything is new. The imagination is fresh, and they are recognizing new possibilities for its use every day!

In another vein of thought, it is a nice idea that students will begin being comfortable as a unique individuals when they have been told that it is OK to be different.

Bag the Recording and Just Play!

2006-02-06T18:25:00.000-05:00

Before you continue reading this posting I just want you to know I’m being forced by Doug Beam to write these thoughts down. Mind you now, it's not that I don't have something to say, it's just that I always feel that what I do in the class room is pretty average until I talk to a colleague and they begin acting like I just crapped a gold brick. So here goes.... my first attempt at wowing the world (or at least the two people that visit this site)

My favorite part about Schulwerk is that it emphasizes children's play as a vehicle for learning. Keeping that in mind I am always looking for that special movement activity or song that will let them just explode. Last week I stumble across a book that I had forgotten I purchased. "Movement Stories for Children Ages 3-6 by Landalf and Gerke is a great resource when you're needing something quick and of some quality. They suggest different pieces of recorded music for the activities but I have found that simple appropriate improvisations on the piano are much more accessible when reading the story.

Last week's lesson dealt with smooth and choppy/sharp motions that we practiced first with mirroring. I instructed the students to follow my arm movements as I moved them slowly up and down/ side to side/ and in wavy patterns. I directed them to continue their own smooth movements as I began improvising simple melodies that evoked smooth movements. We repeated the process with movements that were choppy or sharp, moving about the room to improvised music that related to their movements. Without telling the students, I moved back to the improvisation that was smooth and then back to choppy. The ability to play and watch their reaction to the changes was far better than times when I was "fishing" for the right button to push on the Cd player! All of this lead us back to sounds that moved up and down/ high and low....well... you get the picture.

We used all of those "cue" melodies and sounds in the story entitled The Painter and the Elves(pg.51). The children loved acting out the part of the elves and I was able to quickly add appropriate sounds and melodies to the activities and words that they heard in the story. The only things that were missing in the entire experience were those cute little costumes we’re all supposed to have and paintbrushes loaded with gobs of paint! Being able to provide music quickly allowed me to assess their knowledge and movement skill level and make adjustments on the spot.

I realize that not everyone can improvise on the piano but there are so many other ways besides dropping a needle on a record to provide music for children to move.(Did I just show my age?) Besides, if we’re going to expect them to improvise, what better way is there than to model that talent in front of them regularly.

I encourage you to stretch yourself and find ways of providing sounds and melodic lines that are totally improvised and enforce creative movement. I agree that we must include fine classical works in our teaching but sometimes it just fun to kick back and play…like we’re children!

A big step forward (A follow up to "Improvising...")

2006-02-03T17:22:00.000-05:00

Maybe some of you may have had the experience that I am having of stepping into a school where there is little or no music program to speak of. Step by step my students and I have been slowly moving forward, getting used to each other and making music together. I was so surprised at how timid my students were when making music, and especially when improvising. Setting my students at ease while "exploring" with various instruments was a high priority. In an age of standardized tests where the stakes are so elevated for our students, it follows that students would be reticent to step out on a limb and explore. They have no concept of a situation where there is no wrong answer. I call it exploring and remind them that there is no wrong answer (I think in improvisation there are more and less refined examples, but I don't think I would ever tell one of my students that their improvisation was wrong).

So, today when I pushed the envelope a little more than it had ever been pushed, I was ecstatic with the results. My students were quite successful at beginning improvisation in hexatonic (six out of the seven notes in the diatonic scale... no ti). Helping me in my plan was a book I picked up in Birmingham at the AOSA convention. If you haven't taken a look at Steve Calantropio's Pieces and Processes, you should. In addition to the incredible music in the book, Mr. Calantropio offers a list of teaching tools one of which is using small melodic fragments. I found this especially useful with my 5th graders. Using two simple melodic fragments (high-middle-low-middle and low-middle-high-middle), my students started exploring on the barred instruments. We heard several different examples of how students interpreted the two patterns, and then started stringing several patterns together.

Next, we took a simple bordun as an accompaniment in the bass xylophone, and listened to the results. I think that this kind of improvisation is a good start for later, more sophisticated work. We can continue our exploration by talking about finding tonic, varying the rhythm (maybe, using speech as an impetus) and working on becoming more dynamically sensitive. There are lots of options...

I know it has been a couple of days since the last post... I am planning on posting at least twice a week, so please check back every couple of days. I am still recruiting other people to write regular posts. If you have noticed, there is a new name in the list of contributors. We will hear from him soon.

Have a good week-end everyone.

Practicing Solfege

2006-01-31T20:26:00.000-05:00

In all that we do as music educators, sometimes it is hard to get in those few minutes to reinforce those literacy skills our students need. Taking a page from Lisa Sullivan's book (and then adding my own twist) while working with my second grade students, I decided to change my singing attendance today. I usually sing a simple s-l-s-m pattern using the words, "Hello second grade." Then, the student's sing back, "Hello Mr. Beam" using the same melodic pattern. Today, instead of having my students sing my name, I let them spend a minute or two to figure out the solfege for the pattern. Then, when I sang to them individually (i.e. "Hello Charlie"), they responded (s-l-s-m). So, each student got to sing s-l-s-m individually... and collectively, they all heard it about 50 times.

Maybe I am the only one, but I don't always have perfect timing with my lessons... so I am trying to start a laundry list of useful 2 minute activities that my students can do from their seats before I dismiss in the unusual (ha ha ha) event that I finish a lesson a few minutes early. My latest favorite thing to do has been to play Teacher v. Students. It goes like this. I take my kids through about every solfege pattern (usually 4 beat patterns) I can come up with (for example, in second grade now we know d-r-m-s-l, so I might sing s-s-l-l). They echo what I sing. Then, instead of singing the solfege, I sing the pattern on a neutral syllable and they have to echo back with the solfege. Like so many things in my class, it is a game... and the students love it... and take it very seriously... and usually beat the crap out of their teacher. I give them a point if they correctly sing back the pattern, and I take a point if the majority of the students respond incorrectly. I even got requests this week from several third graders to play Teacher v. Student.

One final thought.... More and more of you are reading this blog and forwarding the address on to all of your friends. Now, lets get some comments going. If you see something you relate with, disagree with, can run with, etc.... Then post a comment. The more input we have here, the more useful this site is going to be.

Oh, and by the way... Be looking for a post in the near future from a FABULOUS music teacher here in Indy who has joined the FOF site.

Viva la Musica!!!

Improvise... Again and again

2006-01-31T14:45:00.000-05:00

I hope you took a few minutes to look at the link to the article on Learning Theory from the previous post, especially the section on redundancy:

Redundancy doesn't mean repetition--it means "say the same thing again, but differently." And "differently" can mean:
* From a different perspective.
* Using a different information channel (channels include things like Graphics, Examples, Prose explanations, step-by-step instruction/tutorial, case studies, exercises, summaries, bullet points, commentary, devil's advocate, Q & A, personal POV, etc.)

A lot of gibberish... but apply a little critical thought and we might be able to come up with some ramifications for music education.

For example...
Cindy Hall got me thinking about different ways to get students improvising when she suggested that students could play a "pirate adventure" as a B section for Bobby Shaftoe. There is no wrong answer in this kind of simple improvisation. For first graders, what could be better?

So, I took the song Star Light, Star Bright and had my first graders play their wishes as a B section instead of saying them out loud... OK, so several of you brilliant folks know about this website now. How can we be redundant with improvisation? Leave me a gem in the comments section immediately below this post. Really! Let's have a discussion!

Experiential Learning

2006-01-30T22:00:00.000-05:00

First: A Little Advertisement...
I have been fortunate to attend several great conferences this year including the national AOSA conference in Birmingham (where Sarah Hassler, a.k.a. Mom, presented) and our state music educators conference, IMEA (where Sarah Hassler, a.k.a. Mom, presented twice). In addition to the fabulous Sarah Hassler at IMEA, David Frego, Wendy Valerio, Judy Bond and Brent Gault all presented a powerhouse session about active music making. Each of the presenters represented one of the current methods/theories/philosophies of music education (Dalcroze, Music Learning Theory, Orff-Schulwerk and Kodaly respectively). Over the course of the session, which lasted all day, participants created music together and were active in their learning.

I have had the opportunity to see David Frego work several times. In fact, his session last year at an IOSA workshop inspired several friends and myself to go to Carnegie Mellon University's summer Dalcroze Workshop. The same is true for Brent Gault. I find myself frequently referring to notes I have taken in their workshops while lesson planning. Seeing Wendy Valerio and Judy Bond's presentation offered new insights into Gordon's Music Learning Theory as well as the Orff process. I am always amazed at the feeling of vitality I have after this sort of music making experience.

So this is my blatant advertisement for IMEA, MENC and IOSA. The idea of professional development is paramount to avoid stagnation! I highly recommend the CMU workshop experience to anyone who is interested in exploring Dalcroze. All of these workshops inform my approach to Orff-Schulwerk, and keep the teaching process fresh and creative.

Second: Something for all teachers - Especially music teachers
All of this to say... I found a great post about Learning Theory that every music teacher should read. The actual post in Passionate is about using blogs as a teaching tool, but it is extremely relevant to music education... especially to those of us who are concerned about the active component of musical exploration.

Dalcroze and Orff (as well as Kodaly and MLT) keep the student actively engaged and contributing to the learning process. Perhaps that is why I can teach all day and still feel creative at the end of the day... well, most days!

Let's have a discussion

2006-01-29T19:17:00.000-05:00

"Looking back I should like to describe Schulwerk as a wild flower ... As in Nature plants establish themselves where they are needed and where the conditions are favourable, so Schulwerk has grown from ideas that were ripe at the time and that found their favourable conditions in my work. ... It is an experience of long standing that wild flowers always prosper; where carefully planned, cultivated plants often produce disappointing results." - Carl Orff (1963)

It's here. Finally, a place to start a discussion about music education and Orff-Schulwerk on-line. I have been blessed with so many colleagues and friends who have shared their ideas, successes and failures in music and movement education. But, education is so unique in that we are all isolated in individual rooms, and except for infrequent occasions, we do not get to share our eureka moments (or even those moments when we learned what not to do). For a newer teacher, these kinds of conversations are developmentally crucial. When I think back over the last two years, I can honestly point to the conversations, conferences and teachers that have shaped my teaching. As educators begin to embrace the new technologies that are shaping schools in America, music educators should be leading with creativity. Our conversation about experiential learning, learning styles, literature, process teaching and classroom life has a new forum facilitated by a powerful tool. Please take time to contribute to this blog by using the comments link. I will do my best to keep this site well organized. Welcome to the field of flowers... Let's have a discussion!