Teaching Form

Form is the way a song is put together. Sections of music are labeled using the letters of the alphabet starting with A. If sections of the music are the same, those sections get the same letter. If a section is different, that section is labeled with the next letter of the alphabet.

When I type a PowerPoint, I place the label in the title bar and the lyrics below, usually in 44 font (sometimes bold). The labels may read Introduction, Interlude, Coda, Verse, Refrain/Chorus, Transition, Section A, Section B, Section C, Call, Response and so forth. I also duplicate the first slide and place it at the end of the song. It can be quite irritating to have to start the slide over again after the last slide has been advanced.

With the last slide showing the title of the song and its arranger, composer or country of origin. I ask the students what is the form of the song? How was the song put together? I have found that most students do not read the title bar, they simply read the lyrics. The students who read the title bar can usually answer the question.

My final suggestion is to place the form and definitions of terms at the end of the slide show. That way, the teacher can reinforce what has just been taught and the students will be able to identify the form of the song.

Creating Digital Materials

Whatever are teachers to do with all those transparencies they have from old curricula that they wish to keep? What about those aging manipulatives that are on their last leg? I have used an overhead projector only once and when the light bulb goes out, the teacher can find him/herself in a pickle if that technology is the primary instruction tool. If the teacher has technology in the classroom, the most reasonable alternative is to digitize those transparencies and manipulatives by scanning them into a computer. Teachers can take it a step further and create a PowerPoint or Adobe Acrobat file with all of the items.

The transparencies are from the music series "Share the Music" by McGraw-Hill.

I recently scanned the Listening Map Transparencies for the Share the Music textbook series for each grade into my computer. I merged the files together in an Adobe Acrobat file and store them into the computer. I did the same thing for a set of music rhythm cards I bought. By scanning the material into the computer, I can point to the rhythm, correct student mistakes, and say and play the rhythm with students instead of holding the card in my hand. Scanning all of those cards and transparencies was time consuming, but the convenience of being able to access files quickly and maintain classroom discipline is definitely a plus!

I scanned these music manipulatives I purchased into my computer. The color-coded manipulatives were saved into a slide show with the types of notes on the title page. In addition, I rotated the rhythm cards 180 degrees and require students to read the card and recognize that rhythms can be read forward and backward.

Displaying Lyrics

When I first moved to Memphis and became an elementary music teacher, one of the first things we were told to do was to create a visual for the lyrics of each song. During workshops I saw the creative handiwork of the presenters as they put so much care creating their visuals. The importance of visuals is not lost to me. The purpose is to increase reading fluency and comprehension in addition to connecting the visual words to the aural experience. A visual is a very effective way to represent the text in a classroom where there is no technology.

Fortunately, I have a teaching station in my classroom. My computer is hooked up to a television and the image on the computer projects to the television. Instead of using a visual, now I use Microsoft Office PowerPoint. No only is it a visual and aural representation of the words, students often ask to advance the PowerPoint. This reinforces the student's ability to read and follow the text. The only advice I give them is to press the advance button (right arrow or space bar) before the students finish the last sentence so they can be ready for the next slide. Teachers with SmartBoards can do this even more success.

In addition, a colored background, clip art, pictures, sounds, and moving graphics can add a lot to the overall appearance of a slide show. For example, if a song has the name of an unusual animal, a picture of that animal can be used to show students what they are singing about. In addition, pictures can tremendously assist students learn words when they are singing in a foreign language.

When I use the teacher station, I encourage students to sit on two oversized carpets on the classroom floor. This method of teaching will quickly show the teacher which students have vision problems.

Above are parts of the PowerPoint I created for "Rockin' Robin." I had to print the page, scan it, save it as a jpg file and upload it to the site. The graphic does so much more than simply reading it from a visual which would only have a few graphics or from a book.

Introduction

Greetings. This is my first time ever doing a blog. I have been putting it off for a while because I'm nervous about the whole experiment. Although it is an assignment for a graduate course, I hope to learn and discover a lot of things as well as help a lot of other educators more effectively use technology in their classrooms. I also hope to spark some creativity in the use of some unique materials to incorporate into the classroom. And who knows, I may just fall in love with blogging and do it on a more regular basis. We'll see.