Our MCAS test begins today. Three days of testing in ELA (English Language Arts). Today, students are asked to write a personal narrative and the other two days, students will be given all other means of ELA testing: reading selections, multiple choice, essay response (open response), grammar, conventions, etc.
I do agree with these types of tests. That is, I do agree that students need to be proficient in these skills. However, the approach and the stress on these scores, I do not, but that’s another blog, another day. These tests are a reality for me and teachers across the country and it is during this time that we need to get into high gear as teachers and help our students balance themselves and their minds with some time for fresh air and creativity.
This is also a great time to build community in my classroom. Not only are we “in this together” as we prepare for and take the test, but the activities I choose to do when not testing this week can be crucial to community building.
One activity I will be doing is having students move before testing, during breaks and after testing. And by moving I mean having the students do a combination of aerobics, sports drills, dance and Tae Bo moves I’ve learned along the way. This is fun for me too! I get to do everything from “high knees” to plies in the classroom with my students. It gets our blood pumping and helps us to refocus. (BTW – a tip I’ve learned is to have students move their limbs across their bodies for the best “brain wake up”.)
In the afternoons this week, I will also be working with my class to compose some music! We will be writing the Erosion Blues as a culminating project for our unit on land and water. Integrating with our music teacher has helped prepare the kids for this composition experience.
We already began yesterday morning by taking time to listen to some blues music together, discovering how blues lyrics are written (A,A,B) and starting to write our lyrics to fit the form. The kids are excited about this, especially at the idea that we will (hopefully) have a completed song to record by the end of the week…maybe even with instruments!
Taking this time throughout the week to work on things collaboratively will help us to balance out the severity of the test and more importantly, will help us to bond as we create something new together.
For more about the blues project, visit Composing in the Classroom.
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Friday, March 19, 2010
Reflections on Beat Night – Poetic Experiences
This past Thursday a group of teachers took their third field trip organized by The Inspired Classroom. We attended Beat Night at the Press Room in Portsmouth, NH. What fun! It was a great night of relaxin', groovin' and inspirin'.
The evening began with an hour of featured poets reciting their original poems. There they stood, poets of all ages and backgrounds sharing their experiences with us - unhinged, unrated, truthful and full of life. They spoke of love and pain, emotion and faith. And all this was recited to the backdrop of live, improvisational music. The poets asked for a certain feel and the musicians started to play, laying out the landscape on which the lyrics of the poems rested.
The second hour was open mic and those who felt it, signed up to recite a poem with or without the band. I, knowing I would regret it if I didn’t, decided to put my name down before I lost my nerve. Ayanna Gallant, the hostess of the night (and guest blogger on TIC) introduced the readers one by one and they got up to read.
One poet was a former student of mine who gave an emotional poem about a tragic childhood experience. And in the end of the poem we heard her be at peace. It was beautiful and poetic, it sucked me in to her experience and emotional past. Tears welled up in my eyes as I thought how poetry must have been a healing agent for her and how fortunate for me to have been able to witness this beautiful young lady share this part of her with all of us.
A couple of poets later, it was my turn. Once introduced, I got up to the mic, asking the band leader, Larry Simon to play something rhythmic and sultry with lots of drums. He instructed the rest of the band and the music started to play…
It was like magic how my words melted together with the music. We complimented each other with each nuance of melody and lyric. The words poured out my mouth like satin and I was entranced in the moment created by the sounds all around me.
It was a great experience and I’m glad it was captured on video, or at least you can hear the audio.
Later, as I listened to the performance and remembered the experience, it got me thinking.
Why don’t we do things like this more often? Be creative, share our experiences and build community through these art forms in true, raw, and meaningful ways? For me, reading my poem was pure enjoyment, a thrill, but for others it can be a way to get a message out, to tell a story or act as therapy for their soul.
Why don't we ask students to do this more - write from their experiences, from the gut!?
Another teacher near us had some of his high school students there. Two were being featured that night. HE allows for this in his classroom. He inspires his students to write gutsy poetry that means something real for them in their lives.
We need to do more of this for our children and for ourselves. I am thankful for these field trips. They have helped me to stay inspired in my own teaching so that I can inspire my students!
Next month is jazz and poetry month. What a great excuse to use to try out some poetry writing with my students.
The evening began with an hour of featured poets reciting their original poems. There they stood, poets of all ages and backgrounds sharing their experiences with us - unhinged, unrated, truthful and full of life. They spoke of love and pain, emotion and faith. And all this was recited to the backdrop of live, improvisational music. The poets asked for a certain feel and the musicians started to play, laying out the landscape on which the lyrics of the poems rested.
The second hour was open mic and those who felt it, signed up to recite a poem with or without the band. I, knowing I would regret it if I didn’t, decided to put my name down before I lost my nerve. Ayanna Gallant, the hostess of the night (and guest blogger on TIC) introduced the readers one by one and they got up to read.
One poet was a former student of mine who gave an emotional poem about a tragic childhood experience. And in the end of the poem we heard her be at peace. It was beautiful and poetic, it sucked me in to her experience and emotional past. Tears welled up in my eyes as I thought how poetry must have been a healing agent for her and how fortunate for me to have been able to witness this beautiful young lady share this part of her with all of us.
A couple of poets later, it was my turn. Once introduced, I got up to the mic, asking the band leader, Larry Simon to play something rhythmic and sultry with lots of drums. He instructed the rest of the band and the music started to play…
It was like magic how my words melted together with the music. We complimented each other with each nuance of melody and lyric. The words poured out my mouth like satin and I was entranced in the moment created by the sounds all around me.
It was a great experience and I’m glad it was captured on video, or at least you can hear the audio.
Later, as I listened to the performance and remembered the experience, it got me thinking.
Why don’t we do things like this more often? Be creative, share our experiences and build community through these art forms in true, raw, and meaningful ways? For me, reading my poem was pure enjoyment, a thrill, but for others it can be a way to get a message out, to tell a story or act as therapy for their soul.
Why don't we ask students to do this more - write from their experiences, from the gut!?
Another teacher near us had some of his high school students there. Two were being featured that night. HE allows for this in his classroom. He inspires his students to write gutsy poetry that means something real for them in their lives.
We need to do more of this for our children and for ourselves. I am thankful for these field trips. They have helped me to stay inspired in my own teaching so that I can inspire my students!
Next month is jazz and poetry month. What a great excuse to use to try out some poetry writing with my students.
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Musical Experiences – Listening in the Classroom
Listening to music with your students can be a huge community builder. AND it is something that nearly any teacher can do in his or her classroom. (Even I can do it working in an open concept school!)
It’s a simple concept, really: to listen to music each day with your students. It can be ANY music: classical, jazz, rock, music you love! When you take the time to listen to music together as a group many things can happen.
My class listens to music every day during snack time since that is a time we have consistently each day. After we listen, we discuss our ideas, thoughts and interpretations of the music.
If any of your students are hard of hearing, invite them to put their hands on the speakers you are using. The vibrations will stimulate their senses in a similar way that the music stimulates our ears.
The kids get so much out of this! Not only do they enjoy taking a break from the norm and simply listening to music, but they love having the opportunity to share their own opinions about something and having it be accepted as valid. It's not that this can't happen in at other times, but when we take time especially for it, it becomes a special part of the day (for my students AND for me).
Just the other day, we were listening to music by Chopin and when asked what they thought of as they listened, student had so many different interpretations. One student though the piece sounded sad, while another thought it represented love, and still another thought it was joy. They all thought this about the same piece. And when they heard the opinions of others in the class, it was obvious that some of the students were in the midst of an “a-ha” moment: “People really CAN have different opinions about the same thing.” It led itself perfectly to a small discussion about different people’s perspective and how our opinions can be shaped by who we are and the experiences we have had.
This type of learning is so vital to our education and it helps to build community as it allows students see and accept people’s differences.
Listening to music with your class is simple and takes little prep work. Do it a few times a year or every day. You will surely build community in your class if you do.
For more information about sharing listening experiences with your students, check out this article and this resource book.
It’s a simple concept, really: to listen to music each day with your students. It can be ANY music: classical, jazz, rock, music you love! When you take the time to listen to music together as a group many things can happen.
- You share an experience together.
- You can discuss your opinions about the music.
- You can share your interpretations of the music.
- It can open students eyes to how we are different. (And that's ok!)
- You can move together.
- You can make memories together.
- It can open the door for great discussions.
My class listens to music every day during snack time since that is a time we have consistently each day. After we listen, we discuss our ideas, thoughts and interpretations of the music.
If any of your students are hard of hearing, invite them to put their hands on the speakers you are using. The vibrations will stimulate their senses in a similar way that the music stimulates our ears.
The kids get so much out of this! Not only do they enjoy taking a break from the norm and simply listening to music, but they love having the opportunity to share their own opinions about something and having it be accepted as valid. It's not that this can't happen in at other times, but when we take time especially for it, it becomes a special part of the day (for my students AND for me).
Just the other day, we were listening to music by Chopin and when asked what they thought of as they listened, student had so many different interpretations. One student though the piece sounded sad, while another thought it represented love, and still another thought it was joy. They all thought this about the same piece. And when they heard the opinions of others in the class, it was obvious that some of the students were in the midst of an “a-ha” moment: “People really CAN have different opinions about the same thing.” It led itself perfectly to a small discussion about different people’s perspective and how our opinions can be shaped by who we are and the experiences we have had.
This type of learning is so vital to our education and it helps to build community as it allows students see and accept people’s differences.
Listening to music with your class is simple and takes little prep work. Do it a few times a year or every day. You will surely build community in your class if you do.
For more information about sharing listening experiences with your students, check out this article and this resource book.
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Musical Experiences – Composing in the Classroom
In the spirit of Music in Our Schools month, I would like to reflect some more on how music can build community, this time through composition. With MCAS (Massachusetts’s high stakes test) next week, I think it is necessary to give my students a balance of testing with play. We WILL go outside and run around more than usual, but I also have something fun, creative and collaborative planned – composing some blues!
Well, yes, I could ask them to write the “testing blues”, but that would be the wrong way to focus their energy! Instead, we will write the Erosion Blues as a culminating activity to our unit on Land and Water.
COLLABORATION – My fourth graders will already have a basic understanding of the blues from what they learn in their music class. They learn and play the 12 bar blues. In fact when I wrote this form on the board yesterday, they clearly remembered it and were ready for a refresher. This kind of integrated project is one that I always strive to implement – one that is true to the integrity of the art form and to the curriculum I am teaching. It also provides a time for real collaboration between myself and the music teacher. She has given them a basis of knowledge in the structure of the blues and I’m going to bring other content to the table. Together, the students will synthesize two important areas of study.
CREATIVITY WITHIN A STRUCTURE – The blues has a relatively easy form for writing lyrics: AAB. For each verse there are three lines of lyrics. The first line is (A), then (A) repeats itself, and the last line is different (B). Once students know this basic form, they can really get creative. I will assign a group of students a specific topic in erosion (water erosion, ice erosion, wind erosion, other vocab terms to use) and let them compose.
COMMUNITY – This type of project, where students create together will surely add to the sense of community. With each verse, students will be collaborating as they show what they know about erosion. The part I am looking forward to is hearing how it will all come out in the end. Each group will perform their verse, creating one unified song through the structure of the blues. And for some added greatness, some students will be able to play the 12 bar blues on Orff instruments from the music room.
This musical experience of composing a piece of music is something I’ve been looking forward to doing with my students. (This year I have a particularly musical class.) It is my hope that I’ll be able to post a performance online. More to come!
Well, yes, I could ask them to write the “testing blues”, but that would be the wrong way to focus their energy! Instead, we will write the Erosion Blues as a culminating activity to our unit on Land and Water.
COLLABORATION – My fourth graders will already have a basic understanding of the blues from what they learn in their music class. They learn and play the 12 bar blues. In fact when I wrote this form on the board yesterday, they clearly remembered it and were ready for a refresher. This kind of integrated project is one that I always strive to implement – one that is true to the integrity of the art form and to the curriculum I am teaching. It also provides a time for real collaboration between myself and the music teacher. She has given them a basis of knowledge in the structure of the blues and I’m going to bring other content to the table. Together, the students will synthesize two important areas of study.
CREATIVITY WITHIN A STRUCTURE – The blues has a relatively easy form for writing lyrics: AAB. For each verse there are three lines of lyrics. The first line is (A), then (A) repeats itself, and the last line is different (B). Once students know this basic form, they can really get creative. I will assign a group of students a specific topic in erosion (water erosion, ice erosion, wind erosion, other vocab terms to use) and let them compose.
COMMUNITY – This type of project, where students create together will surely add to the sense of community. With each verse, students will be collaborating as they show what they know about erosion. The part I am looking forward to is hearing how it will all come out in the end. Each group will perform their verse, creating one unified song through the structure of the blues. And for some added greatness, some students will be able to play the 12 bar blues on Orff instruments from the music room.
This musical experience of composing a piece of music is something I’ve been looking forward to doing with my students. (This year I have a particularly musical class.) It is my hope that I’ll be able to post a performance online. More to come!
Saturday, March 13, 2010
PLaiC - Process, Play and Balance
PLaiC is now a new venture for me. It is a Professional Learning Community centered around Arts Integration. What a wonderful example of community. In this case it was a community of teachers getting together to talk freely about their profession and their passion for seeing true arts integration in their teaching.
There were a couple of themes we seemed to keep returning to: Process, Play and Balance.
In PROCESS, we discussed the importance of stressing the process by which we accomplish things and not just the product. I am reminded of how this does not happen in things such as “on-demand” writing like in much high stakes testing. When my students are asked to write a narrative they must do it in a matter of hours independently. There is no inspiration except for a worded prompt, no time to chat about your ideas before planning a story and no time to walk away from your draft before expecting to edit and revise it. What a shame! The writing process is taken out of the equation.
In art, process is important. When I was in grad school we learned to “Trust the Process” as McNiff’s title states. How pertinent it is to work through things, reflect, and revise in order to come out with quality work.
For more, see this collection of articles about “The Process”.
PLAY also came up quite a bit. Unfortunately, it was the lack of play that was mostly discussed. When that time is not there, the places in our brains that thrive on discovery, experimentation and play start to lose their vitality.
I am sad at the fact that as students get older, the less time they have to play. They need it. We need it. We need that time to create new things, work with new materials and discover new ways of doing things.
In terms of BALANCE, we all seemed to agree that we need balance in all things, including curriculum. It’s like the whole language/phonics based language debate – there needs to be balance. So is true in our teaching and integration of the arts. Our students need the basics (the 3 Rs), but they also need the creative. Our job is to teach with that balance, but we need the autonomy in our classrooms to be able to provide that for our students.
For more on balance, see the article “T.R.I.C.ing Kids”
I am so glad that I am now meeting and collaborating with other teachers in my district that share my views on the importance of the arts. There are more out there and it is my hope that this group will grow in the years to come. For now, this community is just what I need to continue my work as a professional.
There were a couple of themes we seemed to keep returning to: Process, Play and Balance.
In PROCESS, we discussed the importance of stressing the process by which we accomplish things and not just the product. I am reminded of how this does not happen in things such as “on-demand” writing like in much high stakes testing. When my students are asked to write a narrative they must do it in a matter of hours independently. There is no inspiration except for a worded prompt, no time to chat about your ideas before planning a story and no time to walk away from your draft before expecting to edit and revise it. What a shame! The writing process is taken out of the equation.
In art, process is important. When I was in grad school we learned to “Trust the Process” as McNiff’s title states. How pertinent it is to work through things, reflect, and revise in order to come out with quality work.
For more, see this collection of articles about “The Process”.
PLAY also came up quite a bit. Unfortunately, it was the lack of play that was mostly discussed. When that time is not there, the places in our brains that thrive on discovery, experimentation and play start to lose their vitality.
I am sad at the fact that as students get older, the less time they have to play. They need it. We need it. We need that time to create new things, work with new materials and discover new ways of doing things.
In terms of BALANCE, we all seemed to agree that we need balance in all things, including curriculum. It’s like the whole language/phonics based language debate – there needs to be balance. So is true in our teaching and integration of the arts. Our students need the basics (the 3 Rs), but they also need the creative. Our job is to teach with that balance, but we need the autonomy in our classrooms to be able to provide that for our students.
For more on balance, see the article “T.R.I.C.ing Kids”
I am so glad that I am now meeting and collaborating with other teachers in my district that share my views on the importance of the arts. There are more out there and it is my hope that this group will grow in the years to come. For now, this community is just what I need to continue my work as a professional.
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Musical Experiences – Playing in the Classroom
Music is a powerful tool to use in your teaching. It gives students a chance to be creative, to play and find structure – all at once! Best yet, is that it will help you to build community with your students.
It’s all about experiences – building experiences, sharing experiences, reflecting on them and learning from them. With music, you can create these experiences by playing, creating and listening to music.
This blog, I would like to focus on how I encourage my fourth grade students to play music in the classroom. Playing music might include singing, playing instruments, chanting and doing finger plays. We are all naturally drawn to play music. Sometimes there may be nervousness to it or an anxiety to it, but there is a desire. Some ways you I try to include playing into my teaching are:
To build community through playing music, I love to bring out the percussion instruments and play in a drum circle! [caption id="attachment_298" align="center" width="300" caption="Some of my former 2nd grade students play percussion instruments together!"]
[/caption] The first time I did this this year, my students’ eyes widened. After discussing instrument protocol and other necessary things, instruments were in students hands and we started playing. I started with an ostinato and soon students found their own voice through the instruments. The shy girl shook her egg, and the boisterous boy clanged his cymbals, the normally soft spoken little lady was giggling as she swirled her maracas. It was a beautiful thing! And I had given them a change to be individualistic, creative and collaborative all at once.
Sure we made a lot of noise (we actually went into a different part of the school to do this) and sure a teacher walked by, peeked in and, noticing I wasn’t the music teacher, gave me a perplexed look (to which I shouted, “Come join us! I know you want to!”), but we weren’t just having fun – we were building community!
I would like to say that I have kept my promise to myself that I would do this every week, but that is not the case, sadly. BUT I try. We have done it maybe once a month. Even so, it has helped us as a class to focus on ourselves for a period of time, to PLAY, to get our creative juices flowing and to connect with one another. It is truly a wonderful thing!!
Next blog - Musical Experiences - Creating Music!
It’s all about experiences – building experiences, sharing experiences, reflecting on them and learning from them. With music, you can create these experiences by playing, creating and listening to music.
This blog, I would like to focus on how I encourage my fourth grade students to play music in the classroom. Playing music might include singing, playing instruments, chanting and doing finger plays. We are all naturally drawn to play music. Sometimes there may be nervousness to it or an anxiety to it, but there is a desire. Some ways you I try to include playing into my teaching are:
Start each day with a Patriotic song
Sing your way through the day
Sing transitions from one activity to the next
Play or sing some eye openers or motivators to gives students breaks in their day
Take out the instruments and play with your students
Have students play using body percussion: clapping, slapping, stomping, etc.
To build community through playing music, I love to bring out the percussion instruments and play in a drum circle! [caption id="attachment_298" align="center" width="300" caption="Some of my former 2nd grade students play percussion instruments together!"]
[/caption] The first time I did this this year, my students’ eyes widened. After discussing instrument protocol and other necessary things, instruments were in students hands and we started playing. I started with an ostinato and soon students found their own voice through the instruments. The shy girl shook her egg, and the boisterous boy clanged his cymbals, the normally soft spoken little lady was giggling as she swirled her maracas. It was a beautiful thing! And I had given them a change to be individualistic, creative and collaborative all at once. Sure we made a lot of noise (we actually went into a different part of the school to do this) and sure a teacher walked by, peeked in and, noticing I wasn’t the music teacher, gave me a perplexed look (to which I shouted, “Come join us! I know you want to!”), but we weren’t just having fun – we were building community!
I would like to say that I have kept my promise to myself that I would do this every week, but that is not the case, sadly. BUT I try. We have done it maybe once a month. Even so, it has helped us as a class to focus on ourselves for a period of time, to PLAY, to get our creative juices flowing and to connect with one another. It is truly a wonderful thing!!
Next blog - Musical Experiences - Creating Music!
4th Grade Boys and Chopin
Every month, I introduce my students to a new composer or genre and for that month, we listen to the music of that composer or genre everyday during snack. Last month, our focus was on Chopin.
Undoubtedly, there are students that make a connection with the music or composers that we listen to, be it Beethoven for his power and popularity or jazz for its emotional drive. Sometimes students make connections with the music they are exposed to in other parts in their life. And sometimes parent-musicians come out of the woodwork.
That's what happened yesterday when one of my 4th grade boys came to me upon arrival and showed me several piano books his mother shared with him the night before from when she took lessons. He was excited to fan through the books: Bach's Well Tempered Clavier, a collection of Rachmaninoff and Chopin's Nocturnes. I, catching his enthusiasm, looked with him for a moment, opening a page in the book of Chopin's works looking for a familiar theme to sing with an operatic air. The kids laughed.
But it wasn't until later that day, when the kids were cleaning up from snack that I saw the coolest thing: 4th grade boys excited about Chopin's scores.
“Dude look at these notes. There’s notes on top of other notes. There’s big ones and little ones and this thing… I mean, how do you PLAY that?” Flipping through the pages of a Chopin book of Nocturnes, one boy exclaimed to another and then another one stopped by his desk. I stopped and stared at the scene and smiled... This was awesome! Pure delight, pure amazement!
Then, as if playing air guitar, the boy who brought in the books started followed the notes with his fingers singing the runs of notes.
(That's when I whipped out my camera!) This was truly a day I was proud to be a teacher!
Undoubtedly, there are students that make a connection with the music or composers that we listen to, be it Beethoven for his power and popularity or jazz for its emotional drive. Sometimes students make connections with the music they are exposed to in other parts in their life. And sometimes parent-musicians come out of the woodwork.
That's what happened yesterday when one of my 4th grade boys came to me upon arrival and showed me several piano books his mother shared with him the night before from when she took lessons. He was excited to fan through the books: Bach's Well Tempered Clavier, a collection of Rachmaninoff and Chopin's Nocturnes. I, catching his enthusiasm, looked with him for a moment, opening a page in the book of Chopin's works looking for a familiar theme to sing with an operatic air. The kids laughed.
But it wasn't until later that day, when the kids were cleaning up from snack that I saw the coolest thing: 4th grade boys excited about Chopin's scores.
“Dude look at these notes. There’s notes on top of other notes. There’s big ones and little ones and this thing… I mean, how do you PLAY that?” Flipping through the pages of a Chopin book of Nocturnes, one boy exclaimed to another and then another one stopped by his desk. I stopped and stared at the scene and smiled... This was awesome! Pure delight, pure amazement!Then, as if playing air guitar, the boy who brought in the books started followed the notes with his fingers singing the runs of notes.
(That's when I whipped out my camera!) This was truly a day I was proud to be a teacher!
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