Another great lesson to pass on.

I did this lesson with grades 3-5.  It's based on a lesson from the third grade GAMEPLAN  that focuses on improvisation. Every class enjoyed it, and one of the classes who had previously been fed a heavy diet of Quaver said, "This is so much better than Quaver because we get to make music."

A little context for that comment. After the ten day count, I was switched to other schools.  The creative scheduling genie decided that it would be a great idea to give me the classes that the on site teacher had been teaching.  That same creative genie gave me six classes and the onsite teacher 4 because my job is to give her a lot of planning periods.  The onsite teacher uses Quaver a LOT and swears that the kids love it.  My personal feelings about Quaver notwithstanding, is that general music in elementary school should focus on making music.  The about part is not as important.  As John Feierabend wisely says, "Our job is make the students tuneful, beatful and artful."  I don't think Quaver does that at all and it leads to passive teaching.  I've walked by classes using Quaver and I see many of the students off task and disengaged from the lesson.  It's not as successful as the  teachers think it is.

Anyway, the fifth grade class that I had inherited from the onsite teacher wanted to know if I used Quaver. I said I didn't and about half the class looked like I had just eaten their first born.  Also, I don't use chairs for several reasons, but this year it's because I have small rooms and I need the space. The following week was like teaching the figures at Stonehenge.  The next week they rolled their terrible eyes and gnashed their terrible teeth, but then at the end of class a few kids came up and said they didn't hate music all that much anymore.  The week I did the Virginia Reel everyone participated and I couldn't detect any visible eye rolling.  Last week after this lesson, the entire class decided that this activity was much more fun that Quaver and.....they apologized for the way they had treated me.  

By the by, before I pass on a lesson idea, I have tried it out for a week and fine tuned it.  I also add the little problems that come up so you will be prepared.  I always want to apologize to my Monday classes because that's where I am fine tuning and dealing with unanticipated issues and questions. By mid week the lesson is humming along nicely.

Process:

1. I start each class with the game poison.  It's a game that the students love and it's the only way I can get the older ones to sing.  I have the students echo all the patterns I sing, except the poison one of the day.  I isolate a small melodic passage in the song I'll be teaching and use that pattern.  Kids get a point if they don't echo me; I get a point if they don't,  I have to make sure they understand that if someone makes a mistake that it's ok and if they call out the ones who make the mistake, I automatically win.
2. Rhythm reading.  I also isolate the rhythms we're working on that day.  This one included iterations of quarters, rests and eighth notes.  I ask the students if they can tell me how many beats in each one and caution them not to count the notes.  Some get it right, most don't, so we talk, once again, about beat and rhythm.
3. I ask the students to clap 4 steady beats.  Then I have them change one of the beats to eighths.  Then I have them change another and then I add rests to the mix until I get bored or they start acting antsy, which generally occurs at the same time.
4. I tell them we're going to learn a song from Jamaica and ask if there are students with family members from there and lots of hands shoot up.  We talk about the Jamaican accent and that although they speak English, they have some different expressions and sentence structure.  
5. I sing the song Hill and Gully Rider and ask them to find the grammatical error. (Be prepared that many won't know what that means).  
6. They isolate the phrase: and a nigh time come a tumblin down. I tell them that often I overhear people on their cell phones say, "Where you at?" and ask the students how to say that correctly.  Then we discuss when it's ok to use that type of speech.  I ask them if they can name another song we've done in class and they can--Ain't Gonna Rain No More.  
7. The song has four beats of rest after each phrase with just four steady beat that are patted with alternating hands.  I have to stress that they not echo me and join in the patting when they figure out the pattern.  I sing the song twice.  I changed the ending the second time so it ends on the do  and not mi, so it sounds like it actually ends.  
8. I play the accompaniment (( syncopa rest) on the drum and stress that they should not copy my rhythm because it's MY rhythm that I bought at the rhythm store and I don't want to share it.
9. Transfer the patting to the instruments.  After playing once or twice I ask them to try and create a small motif and not just hit any old bars.  I give them a minute or two to work it out.
10. For grades 4-5 I extend the playing to change one of the beats to eights, just like in the rhythm warm ups. 

Another extension from the book is to change the words to :Everybody play now.  Then each instrument family separately, eg. Xylophones will play now.  At this point they all are looking over their instruments to read the names on the other side so I stop and hold up the bars and review that wooden bars are on the xylophones, etc.  But even after that, one or two will still look over to see what they are playing.  Sigh.

here's the song.  It's a call and response song, but instead of the response,  there  is the four beat space for improvising.