Teaching with xylophones is somewhat new to me. I am used to teaching 25 children with six xylophones and rotating and trying to keep students on task who are not having a turn by letting them sing or do movement to the song or rotating often. The last few days I've used quite a bit of the introduction to xylophone materials that I learned this past summer. Rather than waiting to implement some of the new lessons later in the year, I have truly jumped in fully and am stretching myself as a teacher. And it's working!
Third, Fourth and Fifth Graders have done some mallet exploration. Sitting in the circle, 'playing' with the mallets (what can we do with them? can you play light? can you play this way? What's something else we could do with them?). We sit in silence and they copy my motions. Made me smile when a student said "What is this for? What are we doing this for?" I told them to trust me and just enjoy it. They did. By the end of the activity, students had learned how to hold the mallet, how to strike the bars (though we practiced on the carpet), how to alternate hands, how to move from one side to the other and back down again, how to glissando. And I hadn't said a word.
We moved to the xylophones at this point and students were told to play as soon as they got there and experiment with playing one note at a time. Students were really excited. They practiced what we had just 'played with' on the ground. I counted down 3-2-1. Our goal is that every student in the class is silent by one. Not ON one, but by one. That's different. Some classes got that sooner than others and other classes we took the time to practice it a few times. I told my students "I am not loud. I am not a yeller. But you can see my hands and as the conductor, it's important that you always have me in your vision so you are paying attention" and every class was able to stop by one without a hitch.
We then identified letter names and practiced moving up and down the xylophones (C scale) from C to C'. Then I asked them put their mallets on C and G. Chose a student to tell us to play 4 beats or 8 beats for an introduction before I sang a song while they played. It was fun to see the students have the choice! Some of them looked at me and were waiting for me to tell them exactly what to do. I simply told them to play the beat using C and G. They chose how that sounded to them.
In every class, someone played the beat by alternating between C and G. Many students played C and G at the same time to keep the beat. Some students really challenged themselves and created some hard beats.
We played it again and I asked them to do the same beat they had chosen. Then I called on a student who had played it one way and asked them to demonstrate for the class how they had played. The student shared and identified what letters and notes they were playing. Then the class all played the same beat and did what the student shared. I asked if there was anyone who had done it differently than the student had shared. There were always hands up - students wanting to share - ideas being shown. It was awesome!!!
By the end of each class, students had a basic knowledge of a few ways to play the beat using C and G, how to hold the mallets, how light/heavy to tap mallets on the bars and basics about xylophones.
I'm so incredibly proud of our students for being willing to jump in with all of the new things I am throwing at them and for trusting me to be there with them.
No comments:
Post a Comment