The wonderful word wall and higher order thinking questions

Today in second grade music I was teaching the students the words to the dreydl song.  I know it's not even Thanksgiving, but if you plan on doing a winter holiday program, you have to start early. Otherwise you risk having the students singing incomprehensible mumbles while you mouth the words and gesture frantically hoping one of those gestures will jog their memory and they will remember some of the lyrics.

The students were echoing me phrase by phrase and when they got to the umpteenth reiteration of I made it out of clay, they started quasi shouting the words.  I didn't say anything; I just sang it again much softer.  They obligingly sang it softer, and not surprisingly, it sounded a whole lot better.  This prompted me to ask, "What happened to the quality of your singing the second time you echoed me?" 

One student, who is repeating the second grade, said, "Tempo," which is the new default answer, replacing "beat."  I said, "No, not tempo.  That response really didn't answer my question, sweetie."  (I added sweetie because I was fighting back some major irritation and didn't want to let it show.) 

Another student answered, "It is up"  "I'm not sure what you mean by that?  Can you explain your answer? " I get a shoulder shrug in response. A third hand goes up.  "Tempo?" the child says.  "Well, no, tempo is still not the correct answer, and I won't change my mind," I said as lovingly as I could so my response didn't drip with sarcasm. What I really wanted to say was, "Where were you 12 seconds ago when the word tempo was offered up?  Perhaps if you stopped playing with your shoes while you rolled back and forth on the carpet you would've heard that tempo is not the correct answer."  That's why I have to add the sweeties and honeys to my answers; they help me prevent my internal monologue from leaking out.   I asked the class, "Does anyone know what I mean by quality?"  As if on cue, they all turned and faced my word wall.  A lovely sound carpet emerged  "ostinato, rhythm, barline, time signature, dynamics..." they whispered as they searched my word wall in vain.  I said, "You will not find the word quality on my word wall," although I really wished it had been there.

 I explained what I meant by quality and asked the question again."Ostinato," responded Mr. Professional 2nd grader.  I said to the class, "You are not answering my question. It's as if I asked you what you did in school today and you answered, 'doggie' or 'holiday.' I am asking you how your singing was different the second time you echoed me. It's a question that needs more than a one word answer.  Mr. Professional 2nd grader's hand shot up again.  I ignored him.  A girl raised her hand and ventured this response, "Ritard."  My internal monologue sang, "Yeah.  Exactly."  I said to the class again, "Please don't look at the word wall and find words to throw at the wall to see if one will stick.  Now, will you please echo me again,"  and I sang very loudly.  They obliged.  (They're good at echoing.)  Then I sang softly.  They did too.  I asked again, "What did you notice about the second time you sang?"  

Mr. Professional 2nd grader's hand shot up again.  I'll give him credit--he doesn't give up.  He said, "The tempo." Well, he did add another word to his answer.  I went to my happy place.  Finally, a shy little girl raised her hand and said, "It went lower the second time." I actually knew what she meant; the students always say lower instead of softer. (So do adults, come to think of it--"Will you lower the  )@#($* sound on the tv set,  Ed?   It's so loud that birds are dropping out of the sky."  Even Websters dictionary defines the verb lower  as "to make less loud.") I guess I could've launched into a discussion of verbs vs adjectives but decided against it when I saw that many of the students were actively engaged in pulling strands out of my fraying carpet.

 I asked the class, "Which one sounded better?" Thank goodness they all said the softer version. We talked about how shouting was not the most appropriate way to get a pleasant tone and finally moved on to extra verses  I added so there would be more variety to the relatively boring lyrics about a dreydl that is made out of clay, ( in the original Yiddish the dreydl is made out of lead--blay--I suppose had it been correctly translated it we might be singing" Dreydl dreydl dreydl,  I made it out of lead.  it took so long to make it, I thought I would drop dead."  I am glad I don't have to make my living writing lyrics). Also, by adding the extra verses I was fulfilling my Orff-ian obligation to turn almost every song into a rondo.

I had a few extra minutes at the end of the class because their teacher was late picking them up.  Time is relative at my school.  Ending and start times are dependent upon on the ebb and flow of tides; the phases of the moon or the amount of humidity in the air, as far as I can tell.  So when I noticed that the students were getting fidgety standing in line for what seems to them like an eternity (8 seconds by my reckoning) I thought I should do something to engage their brains,  otherwise they would start to invent jobs for themselves like tormenting each other.    I went down the line and asked each student to name something he had learned today.  When I got to Mr. Professional Second Grader he said, "Word wall."  I didn't want to know any more.