Journey to Change
At the beginning of my latest course for my Master in Digital Learning, we were given the challenge of coming up with an innovation plan that would make a meaningful change on our campus or in our classroom. I knew early on that I wanted to tackle my Fourth Grade Recorder Class.
Fourth grade recorder is one of those necessary evils in the world of elementary music. The recorder is a fairly simple wind instrument that can be used to assist in teaching music reading, writing, and performing skills. But over the last 16 years of teaching, my learners have changed and the excitement of getting to play this new instrument isn't enough to motivate and challenge my learners. A need for change was becoming obvious.
Traditionally, recorder class would consist of learners coming into music with their recorder, folder or music, and a pencil. They must not forget that pencil. (Why? I don't know. I have a million they can borrow, but it was a traditional rule of responsibility that could not be let up on.) The teacher would have selected the music for the week, and have a full group lesson ready to go. This would typically consist of reading through the rhythms, reading note names, reviewing fingerings, and then playing the piece until it was solid enough to move one. Learners would be asked to write notes into their music to remind them of what was "taught." The teacher would have to have learners play one at a time to check for skill mastery or to record an assessment grade. This individual playing time would take up to 15 minutes for class-time on its own. By the time this teacher led recorder instruction was over, it left little to no time for singing, games, listening activities or dance.
In my opinion, and the opinion of many of my learners, something had to change. For me that change was to design and implement Blended Learning in the Elementary Recorder Classroom. This will be a huge undertaking for me as the only music educator in my building, but it will be worth it in the end. Besides, my students deserve the best plan, and I truly believe the a blended classroom is best for an instrumental music classroom.
Introducing Blended Learning in the Music Room
I struggled to find a lot of information about this kind of change in the music classroom as I wrote my first Literature Review. But there were tons of articles, interviews, and data that showed the success of blended learning in classrooms in many different subjects at every age level. Why wouldn't this also help in the music classroom?
In music, especially when learning an instrument, face to face instruction is vital to success. Educators can see and hear things that a student is doing with their instrument that might not be audible or visible when just watching a video alone. Learners that simply take an online music course could never get feedback on air speed, tongue position, posture, finger positions, and tone quality. This is the reason the music room must be blended. There has to be a face to face, in person, element to the instruction in order to reach their highest ability levels.
In my Implementation Plan, I gave myself almost a year to plan, prepare, and potentially pilot the blended music room. Designing the online portions of the class will probably be the easiest part. It will mainly require sample videos of the recorder repertoire along with a few basic music skill videos. My eventual goal is to have my learners create many of the teaching videos themselves. The part of blended learning that will take the most planning are the stations. My classroom would need to have 4-6 stations for kids to rotate through every week or two. These stations will need to have activities that are not only engaging, but that will help my learners meet their goals, both personal and state mandated (TEKS). Possible Stations could include
Recorder Practice: A place to work on anything that needs practice. The teacher would be available for one on one feedback.
Online Work Station: Learners can view online assignments, submit assessment recordings, or watch "help desk" videos.
Music Reading Station: Learners work at the SMARTBoard to practice note-naming skills.
Rhythm Station: Play games, such as Eye Spy to practice reading various rhythm patterns that can be found in their music reading.
Listening Station: Listen to a piece of music and code Sphero to light up or move according to the music's form.
Recorder Composition: Learners work together with the help of manipulatives to create an original song to perform on their recorder. Share their performance with their peers on Flipgrid.