Dogs, Lambs, and Little Beethovens - 1st Grade Composers

This is the 2nd part about how I teach first grade students to notate and compose using a single line staff.

In the first class, all of the students learned to play, read, and notate "Hot Cross Buns".  And they can explain it to you.  Ask the students to tell you how to notate the music as if you are a brand new student.  You can clear up any misconceptions from the last class this way.  But what to do next?

Day 2 - I give them a sheet of paper with a song they have never heard before and tell them to figure it out.  The song is "Bow Wow Wow" (lyrics - "Bow wow wow.  Whose dog art thou?  Little Tommy Tucker's dog.  Bow wow wow".)  I have notated the first, second, and fourth phrases, leaving a rectangle in the middle that says "Little Tommy Tucker's dog" that I tell them not to play.  Sing the notes using low/middle/high, Do/Re/Mi, and C/D/E.  The hardest part for them will be skipping from Do to Mi at the beginning.  Great chance to talk about steps and skips.  Then send them off to xylophones to play it.

Bow Wow Wow

After they can play it successfully, sing the song together again.  But this time, teach them a dance to go with it - here's what we do:
Bow Wow Wow - stomp stomp stomp
Whose dog art thou - pat legs 4x
Little Tommy Tucker's Dog - wring the dishrag (hold partner's hands and turn back to back in a circle without letting go of hands)
Bow Wow Wow - head, shoulders, hips (Mi/Re/Do)

At the end, ask the students to tell a partner and tell you how they figured out how to play Bow Wow Wow on the xylophone.  Self-reflection is good fit with this unit because of the critical thinking involved.

Day 3 - The next class, let the students compose their own melody - make them into Little Beethovens.  Give them the black strips of paper from Hot Cross Buns (to be the single-staff line) and about 12 little circles for notes (all the same color this time).  The kids will want to play the xylophone right away.  Teach them to notate first and then play what they notate.  They can always change it, but it will be easier to notate first, then play.

After composing with manipulatives, the hard part here it to have students write down on a piece of paper what they created with manipulatives.  Give students a legal size piece of paper with a single black line across it.  Make sure they do not squash notes together to create chords instead of melodies.  Students can play each other's melodies if there is time, or the teacher can demonstrate a few in front of the class.

Day 4 - Another day, give the students a copy of "Mary Had a Little Lamb", but do not tell them what the title is.  One of the skills here is that Mary Had a Little Lamb is long enough that you will have to split it up into two lines of notation - remind students that reading music is like reading a book - you have to go from the end of one line to the beginning of the next line.  At this point, the students should be able to look at a single line staff and tell you the letters they should play.  In fact, they should be able to sing the letters, but don't let them sing it right now - they'll figure out the song!  Just read the letters together.

Mary Had a Little Lamb

Also, it is important to teach students how to sit next to each other with the music facing them (I write the word "top" on the sheet so that students know which way it goes).  Just last week I did this lesson with three classes - one class got it almost right away, and the other two classes took about 15 minutes.  It seemed that they could play it well, but just couldn't put the tune together in their mind to come up with a title.

Ideas for Extension - Depending how much more time you have, here are a few other things I have done in the past with this unit.  Not sure what I'll do this year, since time is running out.
• Continue finding more Do/Re/Mi songs for xylophones
• Try playing the songs on boomwhackers
• Have students try the songs starting on other notes, exploring major/minor keys
• Record students playing their original compositions from Day 3 in Garageband or Voicethread and publish to classroom website.
• Transfer students original compositions into standard notation using software or an app to give students a professional looking copy of their song.

I have done this unit for a few years now - it is one of those units the kids love and learn so much at the same time.  If you have suggestions or questions, let me know!

New Reflections on Reflection

I know I'm going against the stream here, but I have fallen out of love with the Reflection App.  The problem is that it just has too many hiccups, especially when compared to Apple TV.

My middle school choir room has a new Apple TV set up.  I have not a single issue with it in a month of use.  When I am working in my elementary school's computer lab, I plug in my personal Apple TV.  I never have a problem.  But in my elementary classroom - the room where I spent about 75% of my time, I do not have an HDMI projector.  So thus far, I have been using Reflection in this classroom.  I have many problems.

First, Airplay through Reflection cannot be launched as quickly as with Apple TV.  In my situation, I need to first set up an ad hoc network, have the iPad connect to that network, launch Reflection on the laptop, and then set Airplay to mirror to the laptop.  Now you have a window that I usually move from my laptop screen to the Smartboard (I choose not to mirror my laptop so I can have two monitors at once), maximize the Reflection window, and hope that I don't accidentally turn the iPad to portrait orientation because then the window reverts back to a smaller size.  I can do this all pretty fast, but do you know what kids will start to do by this time?

To make matters more difficult, you can get through all of these steps and it freezes or doesn't work.  Some apps crash Reflection completely (I have a recorder playing app that does this).  Displaying photos last week caused Reflection to freeze up many times, leading to several force-quits.  If I did not have the photo on the iPad before launching AirPlay, it would freeze.

I realize there is a very good possibility that the problem is with my ad hoc network, or some other issue.  But the fact remains - Apple TV never gives me a problem (I do not need to create an ad hoc network for Apple TV).  As Steve Jobs would say "It just works".  Apple TV does not require me to change networks mid-class, freeze, or revert to a smaller size just because I change orientations.

So, I have ordered the Kanex ATV-Pro Apple TV adapter for my elementary classroom so I can hook up my Apple TV to a VGA projector.  When it arrives, I'll let you know how it works.

1st Grade Composers & Sight Singers, Part 1

One of my favorite end-of-the-year projects with 1st grade students is using a single-line staff to read and compose music.  Basically, you teach students to read notes that are either below a line, on the line, or above the line (Do, Re, and Mi) and then compose songs using those same three notes.  Not as easy as you might think if you are a first grade student.  When reading music, "up" on a xylophone is not the same direction as "up" on the staff.  And when it comes to composing, anyone can make up a song.  Notating it with manipulatives, writing it down permanently, and performing someone else's song are the hard parts.

My inspiration for this unit is Mark Burrows, a music educator who has written books, songs, and mini-musicals.  I have never been disappointed when purchasing something by Mr. Burrows, and when elementary music budgets are tight, there is little worse than spending $20 on a resource that disappoints.  His book, Outside the Lines, is great for introducing composition to students in a natural, constructivist way.  (I have never met Mr. Burrows, nor am I receiving commission on this - his stuff is just awesome).

Here's how I start this unit (first 30-minute class):
We start this unit by figuring out how to notate Hot Cross Buns, a song the students already know.  To do this, you need the following:
• a long strip of black construction paper (to be the line),
• 3 circles* of the same color with the word "hot" written on them
• 3 circles of another color with the word "cross" written on them
• 3 circles of a third color with the word "buns" written on them
• 1 small white rectangle with the words "one a penny" typed on it
• 1 small white rectangle with the words "two a penny" typed on it

*To make the circles I use as "notes," I use a die-cut machine to get circles that are all the same size, about 1.5" diameter.  And be careful not to use red/yellow/green because the students will equate that to a stoplight.

Sing Hot Cross Buns with the regular lyrics.  Then sing it a few more ways - using solfege and also using "high, middle, and low" to replace "Mi, Re, and Do".  Put gestures with it - head/shoulders/hips for high/middle/low and Curwen hand signs for Mi/Re/Do.  We have fun talking about the history of Hot Cross Buns, too.

Tell the students they have to figure out how to play Hot Cross Buns on the xylophone and write it out with the supplies.  Ask them how many different notes they will need - they will come up with the correct answer of three.  Give them only one hint - that the first note is E.  Demonstrate what to do with the supplies, and remind them that you read music from left to right, one note at a time.  Let them get to work on their xylophones and give them a little struggle time.

After a minute or two, it will be time for this question: "Which way is low on a xylophone?"  Kids want to equate low with little, and they think smaller bars are lower (wrong!) Another misconception is that the black keys are higher because they are spatially higher than the white keys.  Other students will recognize correctly that Left = Lower on a xylophone.

Once they have figured out how to play the song, they need to notate it using the supplies you provided.  Two of the biggest problems will be placing notes above each other (making chords instead of individual notes) and squashing notes too close together.  Teach students to write music like we read a book - left to right, one word at a time.  The most difficult parts will be the "one a penny" and "two a penny" papers.  If you play what they have notated, they will quickly see what is incorrect.

After everyone figures it out and you have played it together, call the students back together.  I like to use the Smartboard at this point and have students notate what they just made with manipulatives on the Smartboard.  I have a notebook file with colored circles and rectangles that match their manipulatives.  Using the notation on the Smartboard, we close by singing it again using normal lyrics, high/medium/low, and finally solfege.

Next up - Dogs, Lambs, and little Beethovens

The Most Underrated Google App

This is the 13th (lucky #13) post in a series in which 5th grade musicians are collaborating and researching using Edmodo and creating Sites in Google Apps for Education.

Ahh, Google Apps!  How do we love thee?  We love your Docs.  We love your Forms. We love your Presentations, your Sites, your Mail, and Calendar.

But what about the Video app?  Is it the ugly stepsister of the other apps?  Is it the Rodney Dangerfield of Google Apps for Education, begging for respect?

I have come to really like the Video app (I am talking specifically about the Video app within your Google Apps domain).  If I am uploading a screencast that will be shared with students, I absolutely put it in our domain's Video app.  Putting a screencast in Videos allows you to share with anyone (or everyone) in your GAFE domain at any time just like you would share a Doc or a Site.

 Here are some of the great benefits of the Google Video app:

• If you are already in Google Apps for Education, then uploading to Videos is easier than logging into another service such as SchoolTube or TeacherTube (both of which I use).  The uploading to GAFE Videos is simple and straightforward.
• If you collaborate with other teachers, you can easily share Videos with each other.
• You don't have any of YouTube's problems with inappropriate comments, related videos, and advertisements.  With the Video app, none of these problems come up.  Comments are allowed in the Videos app, but they cannot be anonymous.
• You can embed the video on other websites.
• You have the same tight security you enjoy with other Google Apps
• Best thing - you can share it to everyone in your domain, groups of people, or even just individuals.

Google's own comparison chart from their online training modules

Only recently have I realized how great the Video app is.  It allows you to be in more than one place at a time.  At this point in the project, I have students all over the spectrum of completion.  I need to provide extension for the leaders and provide more support for those struggling.  So what do you do?  For your those who are ahead, you pick another web 2.0 activity (such as Voki) and record a screencast about how to create it and put it on your Site.  For those who are struggling or were absent, you have screencasts they can review.

Videos allows you to create "Just in case" content for students and deliver it "Just in time".  Talk about personalized learning and differentiation!  By not sharing the video with everyone at once, it does not distract the other students who really need to stay focused on writing biographies.  I am recording several screencasts of extension activities and keeping them in my Video tab.  When a student is ready for a new activity, I just go to my Video tab and share it to them.  Instantly, the Video is in the student's account so they can view it and start creating.  And this does not take the teacher out of the equation at all - in fact, as a teacher, you have to be even more aware of where your students are at so you match content to their abilities and deliver the content "just in time".

(Embedding content like a Voki in a Google Site is an advanced skill for young students because you have to create the Voki in one sitting (so you do not have to create an account), get the embed code, and insert the code as HTML in your Site.  To make it easier, my screencast told the students to create a new page for just the Voki.  That way, when the student pushes the HTML button in Sites, there won't be any confusion about where to paste the code.  Your student leaders can handle this.  One of my 5th graders did it entirely at home, and he had never even heard of Voki previously.  All because I shared a 4 minute video to him.)

Some things to know about Videos:
• Google intends that Videos is only meant for teachers and faculty.  At least at this time, it is not meant to be a place where students can upload their own videos.
• Your GAFE administrator has to whitelist each user individually for uploading.  I am not a GAFE administrator, nor am I a GCT, but I do not believe Videos can be opened to an entire domain or organizational unit en masse.  Each user who wishes to have uploading privileges must request permission.  On the other hand, no whitelisting is needed to receive the videos - meaning a teacher can share to students in their domain.
• There are size limits for file uploads.  Currently, it is 300 mb per upload.  I also believe there is an overall domain limit for uploaded videos, meaning it would not be an appropriate repository for videos that do not need to be specifically shared within your domain.
• Do not use the Google Video app to embed videos on Sites that are intended for the general public.  The video will not show up on the page unless the viewer is logged into his/her GAFE account and the video has been shared to him/her.  For this reason, if I record a video of a student performance, I would upload to SchoolTube or another similar service.

Rounding 2nd Base

This is the 12th part in a series about 5th grade musicians as they research composers using Edmodo and create Sites using Google Apps for Education.

Last week, we reached a major tipping point in our project.  Students are finishing up research, the Sites have all been created, the biography Docs have been created, inserted into Sites, and shared to me.  Now the worktime has begun.  I think the students and I all realized this at the same time, and you could actually feel the atmosphere in the lab relax.  I think there were even some audible sighs of relief. Definitely rounding 2nd base - what's next?

Our Sites are going to be more than just biographies and maps.  Students have several other pages to create and insert content.  Students are now at the point where I have given them an example website, and they need to create similar pages and content.  Not that I want them to copy mine - they just need to see what the expectations are at this point for finishing the project in their own way.  Each Site must have five required pages:

Biography - embedded Google Doc biography (formatting text and paragraph structure does not work as well in Sites as in Docs, and inserting media into the Site is an important skill in this project).
Composers and Me - answer these two essential questions:  What makes a musician successful?  What character traits [composer name] have that made him/her successful?  These are two of the questions we  used to start our unit.
Famous Songs - embedded YouTube video from a teacher-created playlist which was added to our Edmodo library.  All the students need is the URL from the playlist.
Historical Connections - What else was happening in the world when your composer was alive?  Name an author, scientist, and artist who was alive at the same time as your composer.  Again, I have put timelines into our Edmodo library.
Where in the World? - Maps of where the composer was born or lived.  Can also be images of important places from composer's life.

This is a lot of work for 5th grade students who are both new to research and to Google Apps.
~~~
I really wrestled with this question a few months ago:
Should I create a template website and have students change content?
OR
Should students create websites from scratch?

To template or Not to template ... that is the question.  I chose to have students create website from scratch.  Looking back, it was the right decision, because the students can definitely handle it.  But now, I need to communicate to the students the expectations for completing the website.  We have always had an example website, which I shared at the beginning of the project, but now I added a few more directions on each page for the students.  Students should be able to create pages and insert content because we have already done that with maps and biographies.  Here is a link to the example Site.  But I change it when needed for students.

A note about the decision to have students create Sites from scratch or from a template:  It comes down to three things:
• What do you expect the students to create?  How complicated will it be?
• What is the student's prior experience with Google Apps?
• How much time do you have to devote to the project?

You have to start with a clear view of what a proficient project should be.  An easy Site (working only within Sites and not inserting other media) could be accomplished by younger students.  Also, in a few years, students that have had more experience with Google Apps could do this same project faster.  I have spent a considerable amount of time teaching Google Apps (yeah!) because this is a pilot project in our district.  And if you don't have enough computer time, perhaps using a template Site is the way to go - it is still not cheating the students out of great research and collaboration.

But any teacher that embarks on a GAFE Sites project will need to determine for themselves if students are ready to create Sites from scratch.

Finally, I am excited for kids who will be ready to go above-and-beyond and insert other content.  More on that in an upcoming post ...

Dealing With All That Student Work

This is the 11th part in a series detailing the progress of our 5th grade musicians as they use Edmodo and Google Apps for Education to research composers and create Sites about them.

This project took about 2 months to prepare (January-March).  A LOT of time was spent becoming a wanna-be expert at Edmodo and Google Sites, finding and uploading content for our Edmodo library, learning from the tech staff about our new Google Apps domain, creating permission slips for students, making lesson plans to be sure everything would roll out in a logical order, etc.  This was the first student Google Apps project in our district - we figured it would work, but there was a lot of unknown territory.  

Once we started the project, the first month actually took less prep time.  Most of the prep work at this point involved creating screencasts to post in Edmodo, keeping track of who posted and replied in Edmodo, and working with our tech team resolving issues as we moved into student Google Apps.

Now, classes of collaboration in Edmodo and creating Sites and Docs have now given way to the clearer skies and smoother sailing of student worktime.

But that means all of that student work is now ending up in my lap(top).  Or more correctly, all that student work has now been shared to my teacher Google Account.  I am making sure everyone has a Site created correctly, making sure everyone has shared biography Docs to my account, commenting on student biographies, and helping students who were absent or had missteps along the way.  One of the most challenging parts of a research project with students is helping students who are struggling readers.  Research is one of the most reading-intensive projects we teach.  It does not matter if the project is tech-focused or if it is pencil and paper, struggling readers will end up days behind the rest of the class without support.    

I could have been an English teacher or a math teacher - I like those areas.  Come to think of it, I really like science, too.  Especially chemistry and physics.  I think my students are surprised (and sadly, some teachers) when they realize a music teacher knows how to teach these other areas.  Music teachers are incredibly picky, especially when working with ensembles.  I think students are surprised to see the high level of quality I expect of their essays.

A few things I have learned about student work online:
• Be sure you have students name Docs they share to you in a specific format.  All of my students named their essay "Biography [composer name] S12" where S refers to the homeroom teacher's name and 12 refers to 2012.  It hearkens back to our Site creation in which we also used S12 or D12 to denote homeroom/year.  It makes finding the Docs in your teacher account much easier.  I know there are fancier ways to get students to share to a collection, but face it - it's just not going to happen with 5th grade students.  I am lucky they all shared to me and not some other teacher in a different building that also starts with "S".
• The commenting feature in Google Docs is great.  When students open their Doc, all of my comments appear, telling each student what needs to be improved.  Of course, this needs to be done to 50 Docs outside of class time.  But, I can do it from anywhere without taking piles of student work.
• 5th grade students will spell the word "Biography" in so many different ways, making it nearly impossible to find their Doc in your account ... But since the teacher is an editor, I just fixed it quickly.
• Google Apps usually does a great job of letting you know who owns a Doc, but not such a great job of letting you know who owns a Site.  I constantly refer to printouts to find out which Site goes with each student.  It was suggested by a member of our tech team that students put their first name in the description of their Site, thus attaching a name to a Site.  Don't know if we'll get to that this year, but next year, I would do that.
• To make matters more confusing, some students created two Sites on their own because the first Site did not work correctly.  Taking the time to do some Google "housecleaning" and making sure every student has only one Site and one biography before moving ahead is a good idea.  I am lucky, because these students are just starting Google Apps, meaning their account is relatively empty.
• Teachers automatically become editors/collaborators of student Sites, but not co-owners, meaning that there are parts of student Sites that a teacher cannot change.  You have to log in as the student to do this (for instance, if the student created two Sites, the teacher must log in as the student to delete the defunct Site).
• In a paperless research project, it is hard to know where each student is in the process.  When I had piles of papers in my room, I could just go through the pile and sort it quickly.  Not so anymore.  Does Johnny have 5 facts collected or 25?  Does Susie have 3 sentences of an essay written or 3 paragraphs?  During our worktime, I get through the room about once every 10 minutes to be sure everyone is making progress.  Perhaps I could have a poster on the wall where students could report this information to me quickly as they leave the lab. Asking for a response in Edmodo would probably work, too.
• The advanced students are getting to the point where essays are already being finished up.  One of my next projects is to put together a list for finishing the basic requirements of the Site and then a list of extension activities that can be embedded into their Site.  I want those high-flying students to take their Site as far as they can go with it.
• When I did this project in my room with file folders of biographies and paper/pencil fact sheets, it was a struggle to get 15 facts out of each group of two students.  Now, students are easily getting to 25+ facts on their own.  I also showed students how to sort their fact spreadsheet today so their facts would be roughly in the order of their essay.  There was audible "oohing" and "aahing" in the computer lab.

Going Google for this project has increased the workload 10 times.  The next time I do this project, it will be MUCH easier.  But every minute has been well worth it for the students and myself so far.  I just hope we can get it all accomplished as the year starts to draw to a close.

Flipping Out? Is Music the Original Flipped Classroom?

Wow ... the pendulum of educational technology is swinging wildly lately over the Flipped Classroom.

The concept is that you record your presentations for students to view at home, allowing teachers use class time for even more positive learning (thus flipping the usual order of lecture at school, homework at home).  The backlash suggests that if students won't put quality time into homework at home, will they watch videos?  What kind of engagement does watching a video entail?  If you are anti-homework, can you support the flipped classroom at all?  And of course, the biggest issue is that true flipped learning requires that you change what you do in your room with students, not just help them with homework in your presence.  I am not taking a pro- or anti-flipped model.  What I want to do is see how it relates to music education.

Is music the original flipped classroom?
Or is it impossible to flip the music classroom?

This takes us to the very heart of the study of music.  In music, you are either performing, creating (composing), or listening.  And these three are completely interwoven - one leads to another.  Your brain and your body are totally engaged whenever you are working on music.  Consider this scenario:

A 3rd grade recorder student must look at 5 lines and 4 spaces, decipher the letters of the treble clef, figure out the rhythmic values, turn the letters into numbers of fingers on their usually non-dominant left hand, tell the diaphragm and lungs to breathe in rhythm, listen to the resulting sound, adjust accordingly, hear what others are doing to play simultaneously, look at the next note while still playing the current note, and repeat the entire process over and over.  All of this must happen multiple times every second for the 3rd grade student.

It doesn't matter if the music student is in elementary music or high school orchestra.  The expectation is the same - performance - "doing" music.  Music teachers and students live under the deadline that a concert is looming.  The audience is waiting, and every moment is precious.  So students need to be engaged as much as possible - and that means in both the classroom and at home.

But what of the flipped classroom concept?  If the purpose to make best use of face-to-face time with students, how does that connect to music?  If one of the tenets of the flipped model is to have students "doing" or "performing" while in the presence of the teacher, we can say that has always been the goal of the music classroom.  Throughout history, music has meant working in the presence of an expert who can guide you to better performance.  And the expert convinces you that if you want to be truly great, you must go home and practice on your own.  Remember that recorder student?  We send that recorder home to the (ahem!) delight of parents all over.  In tech lingo, we could say music is "platform agnostic" since it doesn't matter where you are when you practice.  This might make music the original flipped classroom.

That means that musicians (and athletes, and so many other areas) are performing - are doing - both in school AND at home.  That's the best outcome of all.  In this scenario, flipping is not the question or the answer.  Engagement is.  And whatever you do to get kids engaged in your field of study - to get kids performing and achieving at a higher level - is the goal.

But I am not a fool - I know there are students who do not practice enough at home.  Just as I know there are students who can participate much more fully in the classroom.  The same happens in sports, math, music, and every other curricular area.  What I do know is that student engagement is the key to student achievement, and if the engagement is happening at both school and home, then achievement will (hopefully) increase.

Charlotte Danielson's framework says that "student engagement in learning is the centerpiece of the framework for teaching; all other components contribute to it." (domain 3c of the Framework for Teaching Evaluation Instrument)

Grant Wiggins recent article, entitled "Everything You Know About Curriculum May Be Wrong.  Really."  enshrines engagement and action as well:
"Suppose knowledge is not the goal of education.  Rather, suppose today's content knowledge is an offshoot of of successful ongoing learning in a changing world - in which 'learning' means 'learning to perform in the world."  We learn to perform, and we perform to learn.

It comes back to the basics of good teaching and learning - relationships, enthusiasm, and engagement.  There is no single recipe for the best way to accomplish them, and so the pendulum continues to swing.