I felt like this was a very successful week for me as a teacher. Two classes stand out in my mind as very successful for the students and a great learning experience for myself. I had my first chance to work on an Orff accompaniment with the third grade. The students knew the song from a previous music class and my job was to teach them the instrumental part. The accompaniment was arranged for bass xylophone, alto xylophone, soprano and alto metalophone, and percussion. We used body percussion with word cues as a way to put the song in our bodies. All of the body percussion directly related to how each instrument is played. It indicated which hand is used and where on the instrument we play. All the students learned every part and we worked on layering each part by dividing the class into sections. By the time the students were behind instruments, the last step was to show them exactly which pitches they would be playing. The body percussion prepared their bodies and the movements easily translated into instrument playing. Giving every student the opportunity to practice their instrument using only their fingers, and then practicing with mallets and layering, really allowed them to figure out their part and understand how it fits into the whole piece. In one class period the students learned to play a 4 part accompaniment and sing along to the song. This lesson will be posted in my lesson plans with a video clip. ("Great Big House in New Orleans Instrumental")
I have also been working with The 5th Grade Chorus. We are practicing an arrangement of "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" for 3 parts and a soloist. This weeks big accomplishment was finding our starting pitch from the previous group's vocal line. We worked on ear training by singing arpeggios on solfege and audiating certain pitches to better engrain them in our brains and ears. The chorus was able to sing "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" arrangement, layering each part in, starting with the lowest voices and building up until they were able to hold their own parts while a soloist was performing. In order to enter on their correct pitch, they listening to the group that entered before them. Many students chose to continue using solfege hand signs to help them hold their own part.
In my opinion, at the end of the day it's not about me, it's about seeing how happy, proud, and successful those students feel when they really accomplish something. It's my job to keep them feeling successful by planning and preparing effective and engagin