FINAL DOCUMENT.pdf

The Use of Visuals and Manipulatives in the

Childrens Choral Rehearsal

By:

Brittany A. McCollum

A project in partial fulfillment of the degree of the requirements for the degree of

Master of Music, Music Education Concentration

The University of New Mexico

April 2015

Project Supervisor: Dr. Regina Carlow

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION 1

Personal Orientation. 1

Purpose of Project & Research Question. 4

LITERATURE REVIEW 6

Working with Young Choirs 6

The Use of Physical Engagement for Visual Stimulation... 9

Visual Stimulations in the Choral Rehearsal. 13

Conclusion. 18

RESEARCH DESIGN 19

Research Design.. 19

Project Overview. 19

Pre-Tests.. 19

Weekly Reflections.. 21

WEEK ONE. 22

Introduction to Lesson. 22

Week One: Rhythm Pre-Test.. 26

Week One: Tonal Pre-Test...... 29

Week One: Expression Pre-Test.. 30

WEEK TWO. 32

Introduction to Lesson.. 32

Week Two: Rhythm..... 36

Week Two: Tonal......... 38

Week Two: Expression.... 40

WEEK THREE. 41

Introduction to Lesson... 41

Week Three: Rhythm........ 45

Week Three: Tonal............ 48

Week Three: Expression....... 51

WEEK FOUR..... 54

Introduction to Lesson.... 54

Week Four: Rhythm....... 58

Week Four: Tonal.......... 60

Week Four: Expression...... 63

WEEK FIVE... 65


Week Five: Rhythm....... 69

Week Five: Tonal........... 71

Week Five: Expression...... 75

WEEK SIX.. 76


Week Six: Rhythm......... 80

Week Six: Tonal............ 83

Week Six: Expression........ 86

WEEK SEVEN.... 88


Week Seven: Rhythm.... 92

Week Seven: Tonal........ 94

Week Seven: Expression.... 97

WEEK EIGHT...... 100

Introduction to Lesson...... 100

Week Eight: Rhythm.... 104

Week Eight: Tonal....... 107

Week Eight: Expression....... 113

CONCLUSION. 115

Discussion..... 115

Post Project Narrative. ...... 118

REFERENCES 120

APPENDIX.. 124

1

Introduction

Personal Orientation

I have been surrounded by music and musical people for my entire life. Throughout my

childhood I watched my father direct bands and choirs of all ages in public schools and our

church. My grandmother and aunt, were also music educators and directors of church choirs. As

for my mothers side of the family, both my mother and my grandfather were trained singers that

performed within their community and church family. My dad has been the biggest influence in

my musical journey, as he was my band and chorus director for many years. I watched him bring

a variety of music to life with amateur musicians, and as I grew in my own musicianship, I began

to want the same. I wanted to show people what music could do for them as it had done for me.

An important entry point for me was working with choirs. I have been working with

childrens choirs since my sophomore year in high school. I taught a 1st through 3rd grade choir,

called the Music Makers, at my home church in Elkin, North Carolina. My training on how to

teach a childrens choir was informed by watching my dad teach in school and church. It was

during my time with the childrens choir that I began to be aware of the importance of using

visuals and movement to music when working with children. They seemed to learn the words

faster when I included motions (visual movement), and I noticed that they understood what they

were singing if we wrote the words out on the board, and chanted the words with drama and

inflection. We also played games to help them learn to navigate simple musical scores. That was

the extent of my teaching strategies before I decided to study music education in college.

During undergraduate years at Westminster Choir College, I gained a new appreciation of

the process of teaching music to children. I found it fascinating that children learned so much

through musical play. I enjoyed learning what my professors called the sneaky ways to teach

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children musical concepts, when all the while they were having fun playing a game. I was

introduced to a variety of different musical teaching methods such as Kodly, Orff, Suzuki,

Dalcroze, etc. These methods had slight differences of how music was to be introduced to young

children, but they all teach children the complex language of music in a developmentally

appropriate way. I experimented with many of these methods in my practice teaching

experiences but noticed almost immediately, that regardless of the approach, the children seemed

to respond better when visuals were a part of the lesson. Some visuals I used were icons, in place

of traditional notation; pictures in place of words, body movement, and manipulatives such as

scarfs, puppets, posters, flags, straws, rubber bands, yarn, etc.

When I moved onto graduate school, I was hired to teach at A Childs Garden, a

preschool where I taught general music to children ages 0 to 5. I was also an intern and later a

teacher for the University of New Mexicos Childrens Chorus, where I was assigned to work

with the 7-9 year olds. In the first year of my teaching during graduate school I was again struck

by how the young singers seemed to enjoy the brightly colored posters and manipulatives that

were a part of my lessons. These visuals assisted me in my focus and organization within the

lesson, but I was soon to learn through my research that visual stimulation helps children learn

subconsciously.

Faced with having to create weekly lesson plans for a choir that was solely my

responsibility, I began to keep a journal about what worked and what did not to help my

planning. I became curious about the utility of visual manipulatives in the choral classroom,

especially in the learning process of beginning singers. Because I tend to comprehend new

concepts more efficiently when there is a visual component attached to the teaching, I began to

see a pattern in my own teaching. Naturally, this comes out in my own teaching; using visuals as

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a stimulus to better understand new concepts. In the following pages I will present my research

questions, lay out the design of the research and follow it with a review of related literature

dealing with visuals and manipulatives in the childrens choir rehearsal.

4

Purpose of the Project & Research Questions

I discovered in my student teaching that working with a PowerPoint slideshow that

followed my lesson plan in Smart Board software not only kept me on track, but kept the

students engaged in the lesson. They looked forward to the next slide in hopes that they would

get to play a game. The other positive aspect of this particular visual aid was the ability to save

my voice. For example, I could put a picture of a formation on the board, point to it, and they

would move to that formation.

Visuals do not have to be limited to stuff on a screen. Manipulatives are just as

powerful, or perhaps even more powerful as a visual tool. When students can touch an object that

they have seen and labeled in their learning process, the learning experience becomes

heightened. If you watch a baby interact with items around them, you will see them staring,

touching, smelling, and tasting the object to make as much sense of it as possible.

Because all these pieces of the puzzle were coming together for me as a teacher in my 2nd

year as a grad student, I decided to do some research on using visual stimulation with children to

see what I could learn on a broader level about best practice in the music classroom; I centered

my research on this question: How do manipulatives and visuals (including metaphors and

movement) assist in teaching rhythmic, tonal, and expressive ideas in the childrens choral

rehearsal

I broke down this question into a four smaller questions for better understanding.

1. How do children respond to learning rhythm through manipulatives and visuals?

2. How do children respond to learning tonality through manipulatives and visuals?

3. How do children respond to learning expression through manipulatives and visuals?

4. Which are the students preferred manipulatives?

5

As stated earlier, rhythm, tonality and expression are the most frequently taught on a regular

basis in the choral classroom, therefore, I wanted to explore these regions in my own teaching to

see how using manipulatives and visuals could assist in my teaching them.

6

Literature Review

There are many ways in which visual aids are used within a childrens choral rehearsal.

Whether through the use of exercises, movement, metaphors, or posters and charts displayed

throughout the room, visuals are an important aspect in childrens learning. For example, in a

beginning choir where many children have yet to master reading, the use of images, visual and

aural, are essential elements that help singers make sense of the musical work. Key musical

elements such as rhythm, tonality and musical expression are intended to bring the music to life.

Often the teaching of these concepts involves the use of imagery. While the responsibility lies

with the teacher to decide how they make children aware of these concepts, there are many

teaching models and methods that can assist if need be. These include, but are not limited to, the

Kodly and Dalcroze methods. This review will explore some strategies involving visual

imagery that is considered best practice for use with children in the beginning choral classroom.

Working with Young Choirs

A successful choir is one where the singing children are having a meaningful and

enjoyable experience and one that communicates meaning and enjoyment to its listening

audience through the selections that it interprets (Ortlip, 1986). If there is no meaning to our

teaching, there is no need to teach. There is meaning behind all of our musical teachings, and it is

that meaning that makes the children enjoy their experience. Ortlip goes on to say that there are

six factors that make up a successful choir. These factors are (1) meaningful text, (2) mastery of

physical and vocal details, (3) good intonation, (4) good rhythm, (5) good diction, and (6) good

expression. There are multiple factors that make a good choir, and most, if not all, of these

factors fit into the three areas (rhythm, tonality, and expression) that choral directors strive to

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teach in their classrooms. It can be overwhelming at times to decide what challenges we want to

tackle with our choirs, but Ortlip makes it easier for us by condensing some of those challenges

down to a small list.

Young voices are wonderful in that children show a tremendous sensitivity to those

qualities most central to the arts, such as the six factors listed above (Rao, 1980). Children bring

a blank slate to the table. They are so eager to learn, and are extremely sensitive and even

entranced by music. As music educators, we have to understand how our students efficiently

learn, and come up with innovative ways to teach them what music has to offer. The question is,

how should we go about doing this? Is there a right or wrong way to go about this in our

teaching?

There are many opinions on effective teaching, but the overall consensus involves many

approaches. Helen Kemp suggests ...addressing multiple sensessight and feeling, with color

and movementgrabs the attention of the children (Kemp, Tagg, & Shrock, 1989). There are

many tools in which teachers pull from their tool box, and studies have shown that the more

tools we use, the better the students understand (Gault, 2005).

Gault (2005) has studied psychologist Jerome Bruners theories of how humans

demonstrate knowledge. Bruner claims that there are three representations in which people grow

in knowledge. These stages are enactive, iconic, and symbolic representations. Through enactive

representations, students understand and learn through their motor responses. Iconic

representation uses images to teach, and symbolic representations uses symbols. Symbols can

extend from musical notation, to mathematical symbols, to letters in an alphabet that makes up a

language. All three of these representations have some sort of visual aspect to them. Learning

through the use of motor skills, even watching someone else perform a task or move to music is

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a strong visual image for a student. To watch a dancer move to music and perform their ideas

and feelings on the meaning or feel of the song can be a powerful experience for an observer or

audience member. However, the power of the experience is doubled when the students get to

move and be involved with the feeling of the music.

Gault (2000) further suggests the iconic and symbolic representations are central in the

teaching of music to young children. Music educators use icons and symbols on a daily basis

while teaching their students. Icons, such as rainbows, can represent a growth and decay in a

musical phrase, while symbols can refer to actual symbols in music (fermatas, staccato,

dynamics, etc.). After we understand how our students learn, we have to intuitively combine

these ways of learning into seamless lesson plans that keep our students attention. As stated

earlier, we cannot wear out one way of teaching; we must be inventive and pull from a variety of

sources to better our students understanding. Visuals are arguably one of the most effective ways

of teaching.

Visual reminders like targets on the wall and posters [are extremely useful]. The old saying, One picture is worth a thousand words is very true in dealing with children. One of the suggestions I give in my book is making a chart of pictorial representations of

the story of each song. It is not only interesting to young children to see the music in

pictures, but it also helps them learn and remember the song. - Helen Kemp (Kemp, Tagg, & Shrock, 1989).

Helen Kemps success with childrens choirs is immeasurable. Her work underscores the

importance of visual stimulation in the choir rehearsal. She noted the change in visual and aural

stimuli in present day childrens lives - noting the absence of such in her own childhood. In the

21st century, childrens lives are often over stimulated. We have to keep up (Patterson &

Kemp, 2008).

In music education the pedagogical practices that stand as the foundation of our artare

scaffolding, lesson plans, labeling music notation, and performance (Everly, 2007). Within

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these practices we introduce musical elements such as time, pitch, and tempo along with social,

historical, and cultural concepts in music. Learning to read music involves many of the

previously listed elements, therefore, it makes sense that the most effective way to learn them

would be through visual aspects (Everly, 2007). Visual aspects do not have to be limited to

words or symbols on the board. In the next few sections I will be exploring ways to incorporate

visuals through physical movement and through metaphors and manipulatives.

The Use of Physical Engagement for Visual Stimulation

The teachings of Jacques Emile Dalcroze are well known for highlighting movement

during the teaching process of music. The Dalcroze method of music education is taught by

licensed teachers in settings where the topics of solfege, eurhythmics, and improvisation are

adhered to as a unified program. Movement with the body is a stimulating visual for students to

see the feeling of music in motion. The most popular branch of Dalcroze in music education

settings in the United States involves moving to the rhythm, beat, and/or feeling of the music.

This is known as eurhythmics. Eurhythmics teaches the concepts of space, time, direction, level

and shape. Teachers [and students] who study eurhythmics also gain skill in the execution of

movement, including strength, flexibility, coordination, alignment, balance, articulation, and the

dynamics of energy of effort (Johnson, 1993).

In some cases in western choral music, there is little to no movement involved in

performance or rehearsal process. Eurhythmics breaks that tradition, and teaches students that

music is movement; it should not be mechanical. It is said that Dalcroze challenged his students

to move beyond their mechanical grasp and move toward a more musical grasp (Crosby,

2008). Dalcroze teachers emphasize that movement through eurhythmics heightens the learning

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process, saying: whenever the body moves, the sensations of movement are converted into

feelings that are sent through the nervous system to the brain which, in turn, converts that

sensory information into knowledge (Crosby, 2008).

There are many visual exercises in Dalcroze teaching, and most of them come from

eurhythmics. Kenney (2013) offers a visual exercise dealing with form that stems from

eurhythmics. She organizes her students into four groups: marching, skipping, leaping, and tip-

toeing. These groups are only to move during their part of the music. Each group has a theme.

When the students hear their theme they are to do the movement throughout the room (Kenney,

2013). This is a useful visual exercise, as it shows form, and heightens students ears for focused

listening.

Gordon (1975) had other suggestions for physically showing expressive qualities of

music. When showing dynamics he broke them up into numbers one through five; one being

piano, and five being forte. The first stage is represented by incremental steps that span two

inches. Stage two represents approximately a foot apart from one another, while number three is

a regular walking span. Number four is represented by larger steps, and number five are leaps

(Gordon, 1975). Students listen to music and mimic the dynamics with their steps. They could

also sing while they walked, or listen to a recording of their singing and follow their dynamics.

This could also be paired with tempo, in that the students would walk slowly for a slow tempo,

and walk quickly for a fast tempo.

Crosby (2008) offers a physical activity dealing with phrasing that could complement

Gordons movement activity listed above. Crosby suggests using an elastic band while singing

legato phrases. The tension of the band suggests support and balance the students must have over

the band in order to keep it from snapping back on them, mimics a legato sound and keeps the

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breath smooth and even. After moving around the classroom with Gordons activity involving

dynamics, the students can practice standing as if in performance while using Crosbys activity.

Crosby also mentions another simple movement activity that involves having her students stand

when they have the main melody or theme, and sit when they do not. This not only allows

students to see when a certain part of the group has the main melody or theme, it is also a helpful

for dynamic purposes, in that students can visually see when they should be leading the choir and

when they should not (Crosby, 2008).

Lana and Westgate suggest numerous visual activities for childrens choirs in their article

Making Music with Our Youngest Singers. Many of the activities will be listed throughout this

review. One of their activities is a physical breathing exercise that can be used in a young

childrens choir setting. It involves the students pretending that they are holding a bowling ball in

their hands. The students exhale all of the bad air, and as they pull the bowling ball back, they

inhale. When the student bowls, they exhale quickly. Lana and Westgate say that the moving

arm prevents clavicular breathing (Lana & Westgate, 2008).

In addition to breathing exercises, Lana and Westgate further suggest a visual tonal

exercise that gets the students physically involved. They invite young singers to pretend to shoot

a basketball while singing I love to sing on an arpeggiated pattern. This allows for a physical

lift of the ribcage and an imitation of the open mouth space on the words love and I (Lana

& Westgate, 2008). Similar exercises involve students bending their knees; physically going

down while their pitch ascends. These exercises give the students a familiar motion in which to

relate, and they secretly create space for the breath to fall in as they shoot the basketball.

When the body is not moving, the brain is not growing. The mind does not come into

being or grow without bodily movement. Everything that we experience in life depends on the

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transformation of brain activity into muscular activity (Wilson, 1985). In music, there are

multiple transformations that occur from our brains to our muscles. When playing an instrument,

our eyes see the notes on the page, that image is transmitted to our brains, a signal is sent to our

hands, fingers, and/or oral cavity, and we produce music. In the childrens choral setting, the

children hear the instructor sing a phrase, that sound is sent and recognized by the brain and sent

to the throat muscles, and the children sing. These simple explanations briefly outline the

transformation that happens within our bodies when we are singing or playing music.

Children naturally want to move. It is common practice in a choral setting to ask children

to stand still for long periods of time and sing. This is counterproductive to the nature of

children. Lana and Westgate (2008) offer an alternative activity that allows children the

opportunity to move while performing by asking children to imagine that they are a bobble head

doll. Another body engagement exercise is to have children pretend to be a rag doll. The teacher

instructs the students to let their bodies flop over at their waists, and hang (Chivington, 1989).

This position is a wonderful stretch for the lower back, creating a lot of space for the breath.

Metaphors can also be used in a physical manner. Wis (1999) suggests multiple gestures

for improving intonation, and benefits of physical metaphors in the choral rehearsal. One

example is to pretend that they are picking up the note like it is a baby bunny rabbit (with both

hands cupped underneath), and place it on an upper shelf. This metaphor lessens the weight in

the sound, and allows for a beautiful light tone.

Major benefits from physical metaphors include, but are not limited to, less performance

anxiety, better engagement during rehearsal, easier assessment, and easier memorization (Wis,

1999). When directors use physical gestures during the learning process of a song, such as body

solfege or motions that match the words, this can assist in the memorization of a song and lessen

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performance anxiety. The singers can then focus on the gesture as they sing. When the students

are doing the same motion together, it makes assessment much easier for the instructor. This way

the teacher can easily tell who is and who is not engaged in the rehearsal. Not only is it helpful

for the teachers, but physical movements in the rehearsal can help the students stay involved in

the rehearsal. By giving them a motion of which they are in charge, this gives them

accountability to stay involved with the rehearsal process.

Visual Stimulations in the Choral Rehearsal

There are numerous visual stimulation exercises that are appropriate for childrens choir.

Chivington (1989) incorporates straws into her lesson to demonstrate breath inhalation. Using a

manipulative allows for students literally to hold something in their hand. The interaction with

manipulatives creates more transmissions to occur between the muscles and the mind. In the case

of the straw, when the students hold it up to their lips to sip in the air, their mouth is

automatically prepared for an oo vowel. When they sip the air through the straw, it allows for

them to feel their soft palate on the inhalation. Chivington calls it the cold air sip.

Breathing is where singing begins. After experiencing strong breathing exercises, such as

the cold air sip, that Chivington suggested, we want our students to be able to recognize and

match a variety of pitches. At an early age, children are experimenting with their voices and

learning to connect and recognize pitches within their instrument. The ability to match pitch and

extend those pitches to actual musical phrases is a skill that the director must attend to on a

consistent basis. Lana and Westgate (2008) suggest a few exercises that can help with this in a

beginning choir. One of them involves starting rehearsal by asking your singers to sing a certain

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pitch, such as A-440. This can instill a good sense of relative pitch among young singers if sung

at the beginning of every rehearsal.

Another suggested exercise is using a unicorn horn as a visual to lift the pitch out of the

forehead. The exercise I was familiar with going through choir was pulling a piece of spaghetti

out from between your eyes. This visual was to focus the sound of the choir, and give it a more

focused tone. The unicorn visual takes the spaghetti visual to a higher level, in that the placement

of the unicorns horn is between the eyes, but instead of coming straight out of the forehead, the

horn comes out and up at a slight angle. This will not only focus the sound, but it will also lift the

tone for better tuning (Lana & Westgate, 2008).

Not only do we want our students to be able to sing beautifully in tune, but we also want

to instill a sense of independence in them. Many directors claim that they do not have time to

teach sight reading skills to their singers, as they have to prepare for their performance. Lana and

Westgate offer alternative games that teach children that valuable skill of reading music. These

games can be used at any time during the class period, but it would also be a great way to start

and end the day. One of the games involves only pitch. They start with a grid of dots, like so:

m . . . .

r . . . .

d . . . .

The columns represent the beats within the measure, and the rows represent the pitches do, re,

and mi. The students would circle the pitches that they hear or see on the correct beats. The

teacher could sign the pitches, sing them, play them on the piano, or all of the above (Lana &

Westgate, 2008). This is a wonderful start of dictation for the little ones, and it allows them to

see the contour of the musical line.

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Metaphors can be used for visuals in the mind. Music is an art of the abstract. It exists in

time. Metaphor, then is in its origin an attempt to express in terms of experience thoughts lying

beyond experience, to express the abstract in terms of the concrete, to picture forth the unfamiliar

by means of the familiar, to express insensuous thought by sensuous terms (Cornelius, 1982).

Childrens choir conductors can use metaphors to convey sounds that they desire from the

ensemble, and this can be through verbal or physical gestures. Because music is so abstract, and

people can have varying opinions on it, it is suggested that directors use multiple metaphors to

demonstrate their view on the music. Sometimes students can misunderstand one way of

explanation, therefore, having multiple ways of saying generally the same thing can be helpful.

Singing can also be abstract for some students. Neuen suggests an important visual

metaphor for the way the breath activates the vocal folds. He says,

Imagery is the key: First, imagine that there are no vocal chords in the throat, but that it is simply a hollow passageway through which a column of air flows upward to the head

(not the mouth). Second, imagine the column of air traveling up the back of the neck on

its way to the top of the head. Third, imagine that the vocal cords are located in the area

of the brain: When the stream of air comes into contact with the vocal cords, it

immediately activates them just as a guitarists fingers activate the guitar strings (Neuen, 1988).

This imagery might be a bit of a stretch for some of the smallest singers in kindergarten or first

grade, but the older elementary and middle school students could definitely understand this

imagery and be able to utilize it in their singing. Neuen gives us the visual metaphor to think

about, but a director could take this metaphor and turn it into a visual image for students to better

understand. By showing them a simple drawing of the throat and where their vocal chords are

located, the students can physically touch their necks in the approximate place of the vocal

chords and imagine their location. The director could also have students strum a guitar string to

feel the physical sensation of making sound with an instrument. However, the director must

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explain that there are no fingers in our throats to activate our vocal chords, so what we use

instead is our breath.

Thomsen wrote an article that provides an overview of Dalcroze solfege by describing

its methodology and by offering sample exercises for beginners as well as advanced students

(Thomsen, 2011). In her article she provides many helpful visual examples that could be useful

in a choral rehearsal. One in particular was a tonal, solfege activity that involved five cups placed

upside down that had the numbers one through five written on the bottom of them. The teacher

places a prize (an M&M or a marble) underneath one cup while the students are not looking, and

then the game begins. The teacher improvises for two phrases. On the first phrase, the teacher

ends on the tonic pitch (cup number one), and on the second phrase they end on a different scale

degree (the one with the hidden prize). The students must interpret the correct scale degree, or in

other words, which cup had the prize. This is such a wonderful visual and aural game because

the students get to experience improvisation, and listening and following contour of a melody

(Thomsen, 2011).

In the Kodly teaching practices, there are many visuals and icons used on a regular basis

in music classrooms. Most of the icons are used to lead students into reading standard musical

notation. Zoltan Kodly is known for his closeness to ordinary people in the villages and fields

in [the] days from 1905 onwards, when he, joined by Bartok the following year, began the

gigantic task of collecting, analyzing, and publishing the vast, but untapped wealth of Hungarian

folk music (DOmbrain, 1968). Kodly believed that folk songs of the mother tongue

[constituted] a musical mother tongue (Scott, 2008). His philosophy included his strong belief

of learning folk songs, but also included his belief that all people are capable of learning music,

and singing is the best way to teach musicianship. Starting music at a young age will give you

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the best result. He also believed that only highly artistic music should be studied, and music

should always be the center of a curriculum (Scott, 2008).

Kodly, teachers play a lot of musical games to teach children musical concepts. Kodly

says:

The child remembers the tune of the singing game together with the joyful experience of movement and later the tune alone recalls the totality of the experience. The relationship

between stimulus and response is strengthened by the emotional relationship to the

melody which the child establishes as he plays singing gamesin this way the engrams of auditory and rhythmic perceptions become attached to movement, play, dancing, and

laughter. The linking of the material of music to such emotional reactions provides the

proper basis for the development of musical concepts (Kokas, 1970).

Most, if not all, of the musical games in the Kodly method have a visual aspect attached to

them. This helps to teach musical literacy to a variety of ages. Literacy can [be] achieved with

iconic notationa kindergartener can achieve literacy with iconic notation that is

developmentally appropriate (Mason, 2012). Our youngest singers, who cannot yet read, use

icons and symbols to begin their music literacy understanding. Arpad Darazs explains it well by

saying at the beginning the symbol is a visualization of tonal meanings already experienced by

ear. As the association is strengthened, the symbols come to convey tonal meanings, and through

long experience the learner becomes able to look at the symbols and hear in his mind the music

they represent (Darazs, 1966).

In Bonnie Jacobis article, Kodly, Literacy, and the Brain, Jacobi gives multiple visual

examples that are used in the Kodly method; one being a pre-staff preparation for students.

Students can show melodic contour with their bodies, and their fingers can represent the lines in

the staff. Jacobi also lists multiple manipulatives that can be used in the choral rehearsal such as

streamers, scarves, yarn, pipe cleaner, balls, straws, etc. A personal favorite that Jacobi mentions

is body solfege. This is great for kids to get kinesthetically involved in the rehearsal. Do is

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represented by the hands on the hips, re, the arms crisscrossed against the chest, mi, hands

on the shoulders, sol, hands on the head, and la, hands up above the head (Jacobi, 2011).

Body solfege is definitely versatile, but whatever the director decides to do at the beginning of

the year needs to be consistent throughout each rehearsal.

Conclusion

Using visuals in the choral rehearsal can exemplify learning and understanding the

musical language. Visuals are not limited to things written on a whiteboard, they can also be

metaphors, icons, symbols, and ways in which we move to music. Music is a language, therefore,

it is our job as music educators to teach our students how to read and understand the language.

Just as we learn to read by recognizing symbols and letters on a page, we learn to read music by

reading and recognizing symbols written on a musical staff.

Music educators use methods such as Kodly and Dalcroze in their classrooms. Both of

these teaching methods are visually stimulating. Kodly involves the use of icons and symbols to

the beginner student for means of reading musical notation. Kodly himself believed that every

student deserved to learn how to read and understand the beauty of music, and starting young

would yield the best result. The only way young students can read before they can actually

read is through images and icons. As stated before, children today are visually stimulated by

their cultural surroundings (television, computers, etc.), and as Helen Kemp tells us, we must

keep up with the times!

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Research Design

I began this project by becoming aware of my own teaching; what I was doing well and

what needed improvement. The most consistent trait I noticed in my teaching was my use of

visuals. I use visuals for many reasons, but mainly because it helps me stay on track, and it keeps

the students engaged throughout the lesson. What I needed to improve on was the way in which I

used these visuals in the classroom. I felt like there was a purpose behind them, but no

assessment to verify that purpose other than the concert at the end of the semester. I wanted my

students to leave my classroom knowing something about the songs that they had performed, and

not just the words that made up the song.

Project Overview

I chose to organize my project around three aspects of music: rhythm, tonality and

expression. I wanted to know how manipulatives and visuals (including movement and

metaphors) assisted in teaching rhythm, tonal concepts, and expression to students in a choral

setting. Many directors worry so much about the final performance that they end up banging out

notes until the song is learned, and they do not even bother with teaching basic musical

knowledge. I will create lesson plans for 8 weeks of rehearsal for a 14 week season that

culminates in a concert. Each of these lessons will include teaching of rhythmic, tonal, and

expressive ideas. Each lesson will include an assessment to show me if the teaching with visual

aspects was meaningful and helpful to the students.

Pre-Tests

The first of the eight lesson plans will include a pre-test. The pre-test will be designed to

show me where the students stand in their knowledge of rhythm, tonality and expression. The

20

rhythm pre-test will be called Poison Pattern. It will involve the students clapping a given four

beat rhythm. Once they have identified and clapped this rhythm, it will become poisonous. I will

clap various rhythms while the students echo them back, however, if I clap the poisonous rhythm

and the students echo that rhythm back, they will be out. Because this is a game, I will be

trying to trick them, but it will also show me that they are capable of recognizing certain

rhythmical patterns.

The tonal pre-test will consist of my singing a song for the students. I will identify tonic,

put a motion to it, and we will all sing it together. While I am singing my song I will pause every

so often, signal the choir with the sign that I want them to sing the tonic pitch, they will sing it on

a bum, and then I will proceed in singing more of the song. If they sing something other than

the tonic pitch, this will tell me that we should not start at a level any higher than this with their

tonal exercises. If the students sing the tonic successfully, that will tell me that we can start

learning solfege syllables.

The expression pre-test will incorporate a hoberman sphere as manipulative. I will teach

the choir a simple four measure round with no musical expression; I will sing the notes on a

single dynamic. Once they have learned the piece and have sung it successfully a few times

without my help, I will ask them to follow the motion of the hoberman sphere with their voices.

As the hoberman sphere grows in size what might your voice do to reflect that? When we start

singing the song the hoberman sphere will be at normal size. As the song goes on I will make the

sphere larger, signaling that they grow with it in dynamics. If they do not grow in dynamics, then

this will be our starting point, and if they do grow we will move on to other expressive qualities

the following week.

21

During the remaining seven weeks the lesson plans will be written with activities that

visually teach rhythm, tonality, and expression. After the pre-tests have been completed I will

design lessons that gradually increase in difficulty for rhythm, tonal, and expressive musical

qualities.

Weekly Reflections

During the eight week period I will be keeping a journal of reflections for the rhythm,

tonal, and expressive activities that are done in class. I will introduce each lesson and follow it

with the journal entry that includes detailed descriptions of how the activity was received by the

students.

22

Week 1

Introduction: Week One

Week ones lesson plan is meant to determine where the students are in their tonal,

rhythmic, and expressive knowledge of music. Many of my students have different musical

backgrounds, therefore, I need to determine a solid starting point for this eight week project. This

starting point will help me to better determine where the ending point could be for this particular

set of students.

Beginning with rhythm, I will introduce a game that involves the students listening to

rhythmic patterns and clapping them back. One particular pattern will be designated

poisonous. If the students clap this pattern back, they will be out of the game. This game is

meant to keep the students on their toes with their listening skills. It is simple to echo back short

patterns, but I am taking it a step further by having them listen critically to what patterns and

rhythms are being clapped. This game will also determine whether I will ask more of them later

in the lesson.

Immediately after rhythm we will move to a tonic exercise. I wanted to see if they could

hold tonic in their minds while I sang other pitches in a short song. I will give them a pitch and

instruct them to sing this pitch on bum when I give them a certain signal with my arms.

Lastly, I will see where they lie in their understanding of musical expression. I will teach

the students a short round, Ah, Poor Bird, using no expression in my voice. As soon as they

have learned the words and correct notes, I will incorporate a hoberman sphere as a

manipulative. As the sphere grows larger, their voices should grow in volume, and as the sphere

grows smaller, their voices should lessen in volume.

23

In preparation for the following weeks, I will incorporate body solfege in the song Give

Me a Kite. This will give the students a chance to catch on to the kinesthetic aspect of solfege

before we start labeling the different pitches.

The visual aspects in this lesson include the poison pattern game on the promethean

board (see on following journal entries), body motions that tell the students when to sing, and a

hoberman sphere. Please see the lesson plan on the next page, followed by in depth descriptions

of how each part of the lesson was received.

Lobo Choir: Week 1-

Pre-assessment APRIL 6, 2015 GRADES 2

ND-4TH

Warm Up (15) Che Che Koolay game. I will be in the middle of the circle leading the song and the

students will echo my singing and my body movements.

Lobo Listener and Rockin Respect award announcement.

Poison Pattern. The rhythms that will be poison will be (l l l ll, z l ll l, and l z ll l).

This will show me how well they understand quarter notes, quarter rests, and eighth

notes.

Introduce tonic. Sing it on bum together. Sing through Way Down in the African

Jungle. Every time I pause, they have to sing the tonic pitch on bum. This will tell

me whether or not they recognize and understand tonic in a song.

Clouds (10) Brainstorm some shapes that they have seen while looking at the clouds. Go

around with the microphone and ask them when you look at the clouds what do

you see? They will respond with what they see (singing measures 23 and 24

unknowingly).

Teach mm. 5-19 by echoing. Sing together at least two times fully.

Listen to the Rain (10)

Let them listen to a rain stick.

Make rain with our bodies.

Whisper mm. 2-5 before making rain

I Wont Grow Up (10)

Pass out rhythm sticks. Echo rhythms. Echo words.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sye2NanCYHI

Watch the video, but tell them that this wont be exactly what well be singing.

Materials Microphone Rhythm Sticks

Rain Stick Rhythm

Poison Pattern Tonal Way Down in the

African Jungle Expression Ah, Poor Bird

Manipulatives

Rhythm sticks Hoberman Sphere Movement Make rain

Body Solfege Metaphors

Visuals Clouds

Heres an easy way to use text you've

already formatted as

the basis for a new paragraph, character, or list style:

1. Select the text, on the

Format menu, click Styles and Formatting, and then click New Style.

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Company Name

Street Address

Address 2

Phone

Fax

E-mail

Were on the Web!

Web Address

Ah, Poor Bird (7) Teach the song with no expression in the voice; just teach the notes. Once they can

sing it by themselves, add the hoberman sphere for dynamic expression. Ask them if

this ball is getting bigger, what do you think our voices should do?

Give Me a Kite (10)

Play recording and have them follow my movement (body solfege). Using body solfege, learn up to measure 29.

Shalom My Friends (3)

Sing round together as they depart.

26

Week One: Rhythm Pre-Test

The purpose of the pre-test was to show me where the students were in their rhythm

skills. In my particular situation, my students are coming to me from many different musical

environments; some are taking private music lessons, and some only have music exposure at

school (every other year). Regardless of their situation, I am unaware of where they stand

rhythmically, therefore, I wanted to get a better sense of that through a few rhythmic activities.

Last semester we learned quarter notes and rests, eighth notes, and whole notes and rests.

They were able to read and perform patterns in duple meter by the end of the semester, so I

wanted to see, first, if they remembered those patterns, and second, if they could correctly

perform them. The first activity that I set up was called Poison Pattern. This dealt with having

a designated rhythm that was poisonous. If the teacher clapped that rhythm and a student or

students clapped it back, they were out. The first rhythm was ta, ti-ti, ta, ta. I wanted to start

with a quarter note because I find it to be more stable for them instead of starting with eighth

notes right away.

The response I got from the students was very positive. Of course, I am trying to trick

them while playing this game, so I realize that some students could have gone on auto pilot, but

still understand the concept. However, they all seemed to be listening by the second and third

round. For the second round, I had a student create a rhythm. She had the choice of choosing

between three options; a quarter note, quarter rest, and eighth notes. She created ti-ti, ta, ti-ti,

rest. I was glad to see that she chose to start with eighth notes for this round. As stated before,

the students were much more attentive for this round, as it was harder for me to trick them.

The visual for this activity is shown below.

27

The second pre-test dealt more with dictation rather than reading rhythm. My thoughts

with doing a second pre-test in rhythm stemmed from wanting an overall understanding of how

rhythms function, rather than just knowing how they sound. As an introduction to one of our

songs, I Wont Grow Up from Peter Pan, I tapped out three rhythms. The rhythms were ta, ta,

ta, ta, ti-ti, ti-ti, ti-ti, ta, and ti-ti, ti-ti, ti-ti, ti-ti. Where the poison pattern exercises was a

visual exercise that only involved the smart board, this exercise involved rhythm sticks as an

instrument and manipulative. However, it also incorporated the smart board, as I put the rhythms

on the board for them to see as they were dictated.

The students recognized the first rhythm, ta, ta, ta, ta, immediately, and dictated it with

no problem at all. The second rhythm, ti-ti, ti-ti, ti-ti, ta, was a different story. I called on a

student to give me an answer, and his answer was ti-ti, ti-ti, ti-ti, ti-ti. I put his rhythm up on

the board, and we played it on our rhythm sticks. We then played the original rhythm with our

rhythm sticks. We went back and forth a few times so they could listen to see if there was any

difference between the two. I noticed that a few students knew right away that the rhythms were

not the same, but I wanted everyone else to be able to hear the difference. After playing them a

few times, I called on the fidgeting girl to my right. She told me that we needed a quarter note at

the end of the line instead of an eighth note. Everyone was in agreement after that change was

made. The third rhythm, ti-ti, ti-ti, ti-ti, ti-ti, was also immediately identified and dictated.

28

The last and final step of this exercise was to see if they could recognize words with

rhythms. I sang three separate phrases to them. They were I wont grow up, I dont wanna go

to school, and just to learn to be a parrot. I had the three rhythms listed above listed vertically

with space underneath each of them for the words to be written. I started singing I wont grow

up, and student I called on said that those words went with the rhythm ti-ti, ti-ti, ti-ti ta. I saw

confused faces and a few head shakes, but instead of dismissing the student, I asked the class to

clap the rhythm while I sang the words to see if their claps fit with my words. I think doing that

clarified the activity not only for that student that initially answered incorrectly, but also for the

rest of the class as well. Figuring out how the other two phrases fit within the rhythms given was

no problem for them.

These two activities have shown me that they are ready for more challenging rhythms.

Not necessarily ready to jump into sixteenth notes, but I think they are ready to read and dictate a

phrase longer than one measure with quarter notes and rests and eighth notes. They responded

very well to the visual stimulus of the smart board and the rhythm sticks manipulative.

29

Week One: Tonal Pre-Test

The purpose of the pre-test was to show me where the students were in their tonal skills.

In my particular situation, my students are coming to me from many different musical



tonally, therefore, I wanted to get a better sense of that through a tonal exercise.

I directed this group last semester, and we did not do any activities that were geared

toward reading music. We spoke a lot about unifying our sound, and making sure that we were

singing the same note as our neighbor, but that was our extent to tonal knowledge. I knew that I

had not taught them any solfege.

My first question involved students ability to recognize tonic throughout a song. I sang a

personally composed tune called Way Down in the African Jungle. Before I started singing the

song, our accompanist played a note on the piano. I asked the students to sing that note on bum

when I gave them the signal (motioning to them with my arms forward and palms upward). I

sang two measure phrases in common time, and at the end of the phrase the students sang bum

on the tonic pitch. Altogether, there were eight, two measure phrases, and at the end of every

phrase the students sang the tonic pitch perfectly.

My first thought was, well now what do I do? I was glad to see and hear that they

understood home base. However, even though they can internalize tonic, I do not believe that

all of them know how to label the note. My next step in the process will be to label tonic as do.

From there we can start labeling other pitches on the staff.

30

Week One: Expression Pre-Test

The purpose of the pre-test was to show me where the students were in their expressive

skills. In my particular situation, my students are coming to me from many different musical



expressively, therefore, I wanted to get a better sense of that through an expressive exercise.

What I mean by using the word expression, is expressive qualities in music. This can

include, but is certainly not limited to, dynamics, articulation markings, phrasing, breathing, etc.

The only thing that we did with expression last semester in this choir was phrasing. I used

scarves to show phrasings of certain songs we were singing. I remember them responding well to

the scarves, but unfortunately, we did not delve deeply into dynamics or articulations.

The activity that I used to see where they stood with their understanding of dynamic

expression involved a hoberman sphere as a manipulative. I started out by teaching them the

round Ah, Poor Bird. I sang the round in its entirety with no expression in my voice at all. We

echoed the phrases back and forth until they could sing the entire song by themselves. Once they

knew the song, I introduced the hoberman sphere. Most of them had used it with me last

semester with vocal siren exercises; as the ball got bigger, their voices got higher. However, in

this case, they were singing a song and could not do a siren. I asked them what they thought they

should do with their voices as the sphere got larger, but I did not want them to answer out loud.

Half of the class heard that my voice ascended in pitch when the ball expanded. This was true

due to the melodic contour of the song, however, I directed them to listen for other things my

voice was doing as the sphere expanded. After the directional hint, their response was unanimous

in saying that our voices grew in volume as the sphere enlarged.

31

The use of the hoberman sphere allowed for a smoother crescendo and decrescendo. A lot

of the time, choirs struggle with having a steady crescendos and decrescendos; they tend to get

too loud too quickly or too soft too quickly. With the hoberman sphere, one visually sees the

growth and decay happen smoothly. I noticed that some of the students started to grow with their

bodies as the sphere grew, and they began to crouch back down as the sphere collapsed. This

movement, Im sure, was just another response they had from viewing the sphere grow and

decay.

Where I take the choir from here in terms of expression will deal mostly with the

repertoire they will be singing. That is the beauty of teaching in a choral setting, the teacher can

use the music the students are learning to build a bridge to new learning.

32

Week Two

Introduction: Week Two

Week twos lesson plan was the start of our journey though the next seven weeks. I will

use visual aids to assist my teaching of rhythm, tonal, and expressive qualities in music. Each

lesson will progress in difficultly as the weeks go on, but have the consistent use of visual aids to

assist in the learning process. The three main intentions of this lesson was to learn and

understand the tonic pitch, dynamic differences, and beat verses rhythm.

The lesson will start with learning the solfege name for tonic, do. In last weeks lesson,

they sang tonic on bum when I gave them the signal to sing. This week, I will label tonic as

do, but I will also add the dominant pitch, sol. Almost every phrase in the song that I will be

singing begins with these two pitches, sol (lower dominant) and do. I will also ask that they

do the body solfege when those two pitches are heard at the beginning of a phrase.

I will be introducing one of the songs we will be singing in our concert by singing the

first few phrases with dynamic contrast. I will be using a hoberman sphere again as a

manipulative to show dynamic contrasts. It is important that the students transfer the knowledge

from last weeks lesson to this weeks lesson using a different song.

I noticed that the students were capable of reading and recognizing simple rhythms

during last weeks lesson. For this weeks lesson, I wanted to make sure they understood the

difference between beat and rhythm. We will be using one of the songs for our concert, I Wont

Grow Up, to aid us in understanding the difference. I will be using teddy bears to represent the

big beats in the measures.

33

The visual aspects in this lesson include body solfege for tonic and dominant pitches, a

hoberman sphere, and teddy bears that will represent the four beats in a measure. Please see the

lesson plan on the next page, followed by in depth descriptions of how each part of the lesson

was received.

Lobo Choir: Week 2

Tonic; Dynamic Differences; Beat vs. Rhythm

APRIL 6, 2015 GRADES 2ND-4TH

Warm Up (15) Draw a Bucket of Water song and game (sol and do).

Sing through Way Down in the African Jungle. Every time I pause, they have to sing

the tonic pitch on bum. Label this bum as do. Sing through with them singing

do instead of bum.

Sing through again and have them follow your body movements. Every phrase that

begins with low sol going to do, touch your knees for low sol and your hips for

do. Label sol and sing through one last time with them singing sol do at the

beginning of those phrases.

Listen to the Rain (10) Start seated. Whisper beginning having them echo while using the rain stick. Sing

through with hoberman sphere while they listen.

Whisper beginning again with rain stick, and have them echo. Have them mimic the

hoberman sphere with their bodies as I sing this time.

Repeat whispers in the beginning again, but ask them what comes next? Get the

words down, and sing through mm.15 at least two times with hoberman sphere

I Wont Grow Up (15)

Start singing and moving to the beginning, and have them

echo words and movements.

Learn mm. 13-22 echoing.

Split into two groups. The groups will be facing each other.

Each group will have four single file lines, and the lines will be

facing one another. The four people at the front of the lines

will have teddy bears in their hands. They will hold the bears

and drop them on their designated beat (1, 2, 3, or 4) while

singing through the echo section. At mm. 13 the front row will

stand, hand their bear to the person behind them, and walk to

the back of their line. Repeat until everyone has had a turn

with the bears.

Materials Hoberman Sphere Rhythm Sticks

Rain Stick Teddy Bears (8)

Rhythm Beat vs. Rhythm I Wont Grow Up Tonal

Way Down in the African Jungle Draw a Bucket of Water

Give Me a Kite

Expression Listen to the Rain Manipulatives

Rhythm sticks Hoberman Sphere Teddy Bears Movement

Make rain

Body Solfege I Wont Grow Up Metaphors

Visuals Clouds









Company Name

Street Address

Address 2

Phone

Fax

E-mail

Were on the Web!

Web Address

Give Me a Kite (10)

Play recording and have them follow my movement (body solfege). Hopefully, they will remember that we labeled sol and do earlier, but if they dont Ill give them a hint. Well sing through a few times on solfege (only singing sol and do, if its another pitch just sing it on oo.

Make sure they have their words down.

Clouds (10)

Start singing the beginning and have them join in if they remember. Whisper in

someones ear to go in the center of the circle and be a spaceship. Tell the class to guess what he is, and then well sing about him. Do this for dove and butterfly as well.

Reveal pictures of a spaceship, dove and butterfly on the board after people act them out.

Start at the beginning and learn up to measure 35 in sequential order.



36

Week Two: Rhythm

After last weeks success with the poison pattern game, and dictating simple rhythms

with quarter notes, eighth notes and quarter rests, I wanted to take a step back to make sure the

students knew the difference between beat and rhythm. Knowing this difference will come in

handy when they are dictating more difficult rhythms later on in the semester. I would like to

make a note that there were about eight new students in the choir this week that were unable to

do the pre-test the week prior. I did not repeat any activity from last week.

I began this activity by clapping a steady beat and having the students join me in

clapping. Once unified, we started to echo sing I Wont Grow Up from Peter Pan. We clapped

the steady beat the entire time we were echo singing. After singing about four phrases, I asked if

anyone knew the difference in meaning between the word beat and rhythm. Some of the

answers I got were a beat is what were clapping and rhythm is what were talking, and a beat

is a steady sound and a rhythm is a changing sound. I went with the steady and changing

definition so the students could understand that the beat never changes; it is steady all the way

through a song. The rhythm of the words that were saying changes; sometimes the words are on

the beat, and sometimes they are not.

The activity to go along with this idea of beat and rhythm involved the students sitting in

two rows facing each other. Each row had four students in it, representing the four beats in each

measure. The rest of the students were lined up behind the front four students. After singing and

keeping the steady beat for eight measures, the front row stood up to go to the back as everyone

sang the eight measures that followed.

I decided to have them face one another in hopes that it would help to look at their peers

across from them in case they were not getting the concept right away. The first group did a good

37

job for the most part, hitting their bear on the correct beat. As the groups went on, the students

got better and better with the exercise. There were a select few students that hit their teddy bear

on the correct beat every time.

Even though there was success within this exercise, I want to revisit it next week with a

slightly different approach, and a little more explanation. I believe it is of the utmost importance

to instill that inner, steady beat into our students ears and bodies when performing, singing, and

listening to music. With that being said, I would like to spend one more week on instilling that

steady beat not only with the exercise used this week, but with other exercises as well.

38

Week Two: Tonal

After last weeks success with the choirs being able to recognize tonic, or home base, I

wanted the tonal activity for this week to involve labeling tonic as do. I would like to make a

note that there were about eight new students in the choir this week that were unable to do the

pre-test the week prior. I made a quick alteration of running through last weeks exercise before

starting the labeling process. This actually assisted the students in learning the words to the song,

in that they were able to hear the song in its entirety multiple times.

After quickly running through last weeks exercise, I explained to the students that the

bum we had been singing was going to get a name today, and its name was do. I sang

through the entire song, and when I paused to give them the signal, they sang do. They hit

every do correctly, as expected.

Because they were doing so well with recognizing do, my next step was to introduce

sol. I lead into this by having them follow my movements (body solfege). This meant that the

signal for singing do was going to be changed. Instead of holding my arms out with my palms

up, the new signal was my fingertips touching my hips. They followed beautifully.

After we sang through the song with their following my movement, I asked them what

my new signal was for do; making sure that they knew pointing to their hips was going to be

the new do. I then explained that when I sang a lower note I was touching my knees, and this

notes name was sol. We sang sol and do a few times together, and then we transferred that

to the song. Each phrase that started with the notes sol and do were sung on exactly that;

sol and do, while the rest of the phrase was sung on the words. This was a bit challenging in

that they were still unsure of a few of the words, but as far as tonality goes, they were hitting

each note correctly.

39

Not only did we sing do and sol where they fit in the song, but in the middle of

singing the song I would pause every now and then to point to my hips or my knees. To my

surprise, the majority of the class sang do when I pointed to my knees. There was only about

three or four students that sang the correct note, sol, when I pointed to my knees. After hearing

that I went back and forth between pointing to my hips and my knees to see if they would catch

on, but unfortunately that was not the case. However, once distinguishing the difference between

them by saying and pointing to my hips at the same time that do was up here, and then I slid

my voice and hands down to my knees and said and sol is down here. I think that got many

more light bulbs to go off within the group.

Luckily, one of our songs goes back and forth with sol and do quite a bit; Give Me a

Kite by Andy Beck. Last week the students followed my movements (body solfege) while

listening to a recording of the entire song. I used the same movements for do and sol that I

used in the above exercise. Again, I repeated the exercise of their following my movements one

time through. The second time, I did not take them all the way through, instead, we sang the first

theme on bum with the body solfege, hoping that they would recognize the movement from

earlier in the rehearsal. They recognized the movements, all of them sang do correctly, and I

would say over half of them this time sang sol correctly when I pointed to my knees! However,

later in the song when asking them to sing sol a little less than half sang the correct note.

I believe that they understand the concept, and the movements are visually helping them

place where do and sol is in their voices. However, I do think that they need a little more time

practicing the two notes within different song settings. This will be a goal for next week, along

with showing where do and sol live on the musical staff.

40

Week Two: Expression

Last week the students responded beautifully to dynamics with the use of the hoberman

sphere. I would like to make a note that there were about eight new students in the choir this

week that were unable to do the pre-test the week prior. I decided to have this exercise be an

aural learning experience with the visual stimulation from the hoberman sphere for dynamics.

This exercise was very similar to last weeks, but I wanted the new students to experience it as

well.

The first step was to have them listen and watch as I sang the opening phrases while

opening and closing the hoberman sphere to match the volume of my voice as much as possible.

The next step involved them following the hoberman sphere with their bodies. As it grew fuller,

they grew taller, and as it got smaller, the students crouched back down into a ball.

After moving through these two steps, I asked them what they noticed about the

connection between my voice and the hoberman sphere. I had some students say that as the ball

got bigger, or higher, my voice got higher. Even though that was happening along with dynamic

changes, I did not acknowledge that as the answer for which I was looking. One student hit the

nail right on the head, saying: I feel like your voice is getting louder when the ball gets bigger.

From there, I taught the words to the song so they only had to focus on the growth and

decay of their voices. We sang through the opening measures a few times with their voices and

bodies growing with the sphere. It is not only a good tool for visually showing dynamics, but

phrasing as well. Because our dynamics were so expressive through those measures, it

automatically made the phrasing flow beautifully.

41

Week Three

Introduction: Week Three

Week threes lesson plan deals mainly with labeling. The students will be reviewing what

they have learned in last weeks lesson, but will take it one step further through labeling certain

aspects in music. The three main intentions of this lesson was to learn where tonic and dominate

pitches lived on the musical staff, to label our dynamic differences as piano and forte and we get

to those dynamics by crescendos and decrescendos, and solidifying our understanding of beat

verses rhythm.

Last week we began by playing a singing game called Draw a Bucket of Water. This

song had many occurrences of tonic and lower dominant pitches. To begin this weeks lesson,

we will play the game again, but add in body solfege in hopes that they will remember doing

those movements last week with a different song. This will lead into putting the notes on the

musical staff.

To label dynamic differences, we will use the same song from the previous week. I will

be introducing piano, forte, crescendo and decrescendo. I will mention messa de voce only

because it does occur in this song, but I will not put as much emphasis on this as I will on the

other four dynamic markings listed prior. They will go from using the hoberman sphere as a

manipulative to following the dynamic markings on the promethean board (see visuals in this

weeks journals).

Last week I felt that the students understood the concept of beat and rhythm, and the

difference between them. However, they had some trouble with the activity. I wanted to bring the

activity back for one more week with slight adjustments made. Before doing the bear activity the

42

students will march around to the beat while singing the first verse of the song; their feet doing

one thing while their mouth does another. Next I will show a visual (see in this weeks journals)

that separates the beat from the rhythm, and this will lead into the teddy bear activity.

The visual aspects in this lesson include staff notation, musical symbols, a hoberman

sphere, the promethean board, and teddy bears. Please see the lesson plan on the next page,

followed by in depth descriptions of how each part of the lesson was received.

Lobo Choir: Week 3-Dictating do and

sol; Cres. & Decres.; Beat vs. Rhythm

APRIL 6, 2015 GRADES 2ND-4TH

Warm Up (15) Draw a Bucket of Water song and game (sol and do). After they play the game once

through, get in a circle and sing while doing body solfege. Ask them to sing do.

Slide down with voice and ask them what that note is (sol). Sing through with

solfege in appropriate spots (one baboon and a silver spoon).

We know where do and sol live on our bodies, but where do they live on the

musical staff? Show notes for one baboon and a silver spoon.

Listen to the Rain (10) Sing through what we learned last week with hoberman sphere to make sure they

have the words.

Label what were doing with the hoberman sphere as a crescendo and a

decrescendo. Show on board. Add in piano and forte dynamics. Use rainbow

image for messa de voce if needed.

Clouds (10)

Split into three groups.

Sing through what we learned last week, and learn mm. 37-44

with scarves. Each group will have their own imagine to sing.

On the word imagine the group tosses their scarves up in the

air. Everyone will get a turn singing all of the different

imagines.

Give Me a Kite (10) Keep scarves, and get in a circle. Put scarves at feet and do body solfege in the

beginning of the song. When you get to measure 31 pick up the scarves and let

them be your kite. They can make their kite do whatever they would like, but on

the word go in mm. 40, throw their kite up in the air and follow it down with

their voices dynamically. Ask them what this is (decrescendo).

The first time through, I will sing while they make their kite fly. They will join me in

singing the second, third, and fourth time through.

Materials Rain Stick Hoberman Sphere Scarves Teddy Bears (8)

Rhythm I Wont Grow Up Steady Beat vs. Rhythm

Tonal Draw a Bucket of Water Give Me a Kite do and sol Expression

Listen to the Rain crescendo/decrescendo Piano and forte

Manipulatives Hoberman Sphere Rain Stick Teddy Bears

Movement

Body Solfege Scarves Visuals

Rainbows Slide Show









Company Name

Street Address

Address 2

Phone

Fax

E-mail

Were on the Web!

Web Address

I Wont Grow Up (20) Put the beat in our feet while Corrin plays along. Ask what our feet are doing (the

beat) and what the words of the song are (the rhythm).

Let them see the visual on the board that shows the beat and rhythm separately.

Have some volunteers come up to the board to point to the rhythm and to the beat.

Try the teddy bear game again, but this time have four teachers in front of four

students instead of four students in front of four students. If they get bored with

the words, try a different verse.

Here Comes Sally (10)

Get with partners, and they stand across from their partner making two lines. They

join hands with their partner. The couple at one end of the line (Teacher and Teacher assistant or student assistant) will be our leading couple.

Verse 1: Holding hands with their partner, they swing their arms back and forth Verse 2: Drop hands and both partners take a tiny jump back on beats one and three, and clap on two and four.

Verse 3: The first partner walks/struts/dances down the line while everyone else continues to clap on beats two and four. Verse 4: The second partner walks/struts/dances down the line while everyone else continues to clap on beats two and four.



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Week Three: Rhythm

Last week we learned the difference between beat and rhythm. The students

understood that the beat was consistently steady throughout the song, while the rhythm was

always changing according to the words we were singing. The exercise that was implemented

last week had some successes, but I wanted to revisit it again this week with more explanation

and new activities.

We started by putting the beat in our feet. The students walked around the room to the

beat and sang I Wont Grow Up. After singing a few phrases, I stopped and asked them what it

is that our feet are doing. The immediate response was the beat! I then asked what the words

we were singing was labeled. Again, the immediate response was the rhythm!

Hearing and seeing that they definitely had this concept down in their minds led me into

showing a visual on the board of the rhythm and the beat combined. I wrote out the rhythm, put

the words underneath, and put heart icons underneath the words. This was to show them that

there were always four hearts, representing the big beats in the measure, in each row. No matter

how many notes we have in a measure, we will always have four hearts in this case. The visuals

are shown below.

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After showing the visual, I asked for volunteers to come up to the board and point to

either the rhythm or the beat. If I asked them to point to the rhythm, I expected to see their

fingers pointing to the notes. If I asked them to point to the beat, I expected to see their fingers

pointing to the heart icons representing the beat. Since the volunteers had their backs turned, I

asked the rest of the class to point along with them so I could see whether or not their

fingers/arms were moving quickly (to the rhythm) or slowly (to the beat). Both the volunteers

and the class showed excellent understanding of this concept, so we moved on to last weeks

activity hoping to see some improvement there as well.

Last week we had two groups of four students facing each other in two rows. The

remaining students were lined up behind the four students in the front of the line. Each student in

the front rows had a teddy bear. The teddy bears represented the beat. The students in the front of

the rows had a number; one, two, three, or four. Basically, each student in the front rows

represented the first, second, third, or fourth beat. For example, the phrase I wont grow up is

represented by four quarter notes, therefore the students representing beat one were responsible

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for putting their teddy bear down on the floor on the word I. The student representing beat two

put their teddy bear down on the word wont, and so on and so forth. The visual for this is

shown below.

This week I changed the activity to just four rows of students, and the students faced four

teachers; myself, my two assistants and my accompanist. This way, the students could watch the

teachers do the motion first to get a better sense of what was being asked of them. There was

much more success with this activity after alterations were made. It is a difficult activity to

perform, in that you can never lose focus while you have the teddy bear. While working with the

teddy bears, the students must count constantly in order to know when to put their teddy bears

down on the floor.

I feel that the students understand the difference between beat and rhythm. It has greatly

assisted them to move to the beat, see the beat under the rhythm on the board, and do an activity

where they keep the beat with teddy bears. I want to move on in our next meeting to reading long

phrases of rhythm. As of now, they have never performed a rhythm longer than one measure. We

will perform rhythms in phrases of up to eight measures long in our next session.

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Week Three: Tonal

For the past two weeks, the students have been learning and understanding tonic and

dominant pitches. They sang the pitches with no kind of label attached during the first week, and

last week was when the label of do and sol was given to them. During the labeling activity,

the students successfully sang from tonic to dominant, singing do and sol. However, the

mistake of singing tonic for both do and sol was made by a few students. Although the

mistake seemed to happen less throughout the duration of rehearsal last week, I still wanted to

revisit the concept this week with the visual of body solfege to reiterate that do was higher in

sound, and on our bodies, than sol.

The activity this week started our rehearsal, but it was also extended throughout the rest

of rehearsal as well. I randomly asked them to sing sol or do during our other activities as a

way to determine whether or not the concept was understood. Last week we started rehearsal

with a game called Draw a Bucket of Water. In this song, the music goes back and forth

between tonic and dominant pitches for an entire phrase. This week, we also began rehearsal

with this activity, but with an added component. After playing the game we formed a circle and

the students were told to follow my movement (the movement being body solfege). Even though

the song includes multiple occurrences of do and sol, I only used body solfege during the

phrase in which the voice goes back and forth between tonic and dominant. The students

followed this beautifully.

After singing through, and following my movements, I pointed to my hips singing the

question what do we call this? on tonic. Most of the students answered do and sang the

correct pitch, but a select few did speak the answer. Regardless, I knew more than eighty percent

of the class knew and understood do, home base, or tonic. After establishing that pointing to

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our hips was called do, I slid my voice and hands down to my knees at the same time and sang

and what did we call this? on dominant. Again, most of the students sang sol on the correct

note.

We sang the song through again, but this time when getting to the phrase that

incorporates body solfege, the students were to sing solfege instead of the words. Therefore, both

physical solfege and singing solfege was done simultaneously. There was immediate success

with this exercise, making for a perfect segway. The students know and understand where do

and sol live in their bodies and in their voices, but do they know where they live on the musical

staff? Below, I have the first visual I showed the class of where tonic and dominant reside on the

staff. I chose to do the lower dominant pitch first simply because it occurred most often in the

songs we were singing at the time.

The students were already familiar with quarter and eighth notes, so understanding the

rhythm was not a problem. They have not seen tonal exercises such as this visually before in my

classroom. Before singing the excerpt in full, I pointed to do and sol and we sang the pitches

again while I pointed to the notes. I wanted the students to see that do was higher on the

musical staff than sol, just as it has been in our bodies and our voices. I did mention that do

was versatile. I explained that just because we see do in the second space right now, does not

mean that the second space is its permanent home. But, I did mention that if do were in some

other space, sol would always be two lines below it. We did not delve too far into this kind of

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explanation, but it was mentioned. We sang through the two measure phrase while I pointed to

the notes. The next step was to show them the actual music to the song. It is shown below.

Later on in the rehearsal, when singing Give Me a Kite, the concept of tonic and

dominant was revisited. The main approach I am taking with the teaching of this song is body

solfege, therefore, we will always have practice with this song as well as any other additional

activities done.

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Week Three: Expression

For the past two weeks the students have been demonstrating dynamic contrasts with

their voices, and have also shown the contrast with their bodies and a hoberman sphere. This

week I labeled the terms crescendo and decrescendo, piano and forte, and showed what these

looked like as symbols in music.

I started this exercise by asking if anyone knew the fancy term for when we get louder

with our voices. The first student that answered, answered crescendo. On the board, I had the

words of the phrase written out with a crescendo underneath. We brainstormed a few things that

the crescendo reminded us of, such as an alligator mouth, a pacman mouth, or a stretched out

greater or less than symbol in math.

After performing the phrase, and making our voices grow with the crescendo, the next

phrase involved a decrescendo. I had the symbol underneath the next phrase and asked what they

thought it was. They saw that it was a backwards crescendo, and they knew that it meant for their

voices to get softer. However, none of them knew the official name. One of my assistants labeled

it for us, and we all echoed decrescendo back to her. We then performed the entire phrase with

both the crescendo and decrescendo in the appropriate places.

I had the dynamic markings of forte and piano up in the corners of the board while we

were labeling crescendo and decrescendo. After performing the phrase a few times, I asked the

students if anyone knew the term in music that we use for singing quietly. T

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