Primary Music Teaching in the 21st century
A weekly written account of a single music lesson.
This morning’s lesson is with a Year 2 Class that has a high proportion (40%) of children with SEN of one sort or another. We begin with a new song, Tony Chestnut.
“Tony Chestnut knows I love him
Tony knows, Tony knows
Tony Chestnut knows I love him
That’s what Tony knows”
I sing it a couple of times and then begin to teach it one phrase at a time.
We start the lesson in a lively fashion. Last week I taught the class a simple song called Bala Pata Zum (by all accounts a song from Ghana, though I cannot give you a translation and I’m sure what we are singing here is a simplified version). It is simple, but combined with a different action for each word it becomes more of a whole-body challenge. I encourage everyone to face their Music Partner so that we can all help each other to get it right. Once we’ve run through it a few times I ask how we can make the song more challenging.
Continue reading “Year 4 – Ukuleles – Second Lesson of the Year”
As the children come into the Music Room to sit down, one boy asks “What are we doing in Year 3?” The answer is that he will be doing lots of musical activities that he did last year but at a greater level of complexity and skill. I just tell him we are playing xylophones today.
It’s the first lesson of the year so I spend some time going over everyone’s names. I try to make it right around the class recalling each child’s name. I realise there are various singing games that could serve this function but a simple recall on Lesson 1 works best for me. Continue reading “Year 3 – First lesson of the year (with Xylophones)”
(The lesson takes place in a classroom that has suitably distanced tables. This leaves practically no room for the teacher to move around. Moving from the teacher’s desk to the whiteboard means battling through a series of A2 sheets hanging from a washing line as if in a jungle).
In Year 5 we are waiting for a large delivery of xylophones. There will soon be enough xylophones for one per pupil in each Year 5 class of thirty. This is thanks to a grant from a charity called Restore the Music. You can follow them on Twitter @RTMusicUK. While we wait for these instruments to arrive the lessons feature a mixture of various musical challenges, certain songs related to the Year 5 topic this term and general musicianship development. Today’s lesson went very well and I felt like sharing it with the world.
Continue reading “Year 5 – Pentatonic Scales and World War II”
Working at my current school, Rhyl Primary in Camden, has meant making some changes to my music-teaching. For a start both Year 4 classes learn ukulele and all the Year 5 children learn keyboards. As well as this, because of the temporary nature of my original contract, I have not introduced any of the children to solfa because it seemed pointless considering that it would be unlikely to continue when I left. It’s been odd for me ignoring solfa because it has been integral to my teaching for the last seven years. You will see in the following account that I encourage the children to show the pitch with their hands but we do not work with the solfa names or handsigns.
Continue reading “Year 3_Working with 4-beat Rhythms_November 2018”
It’s the first music lesson of the Summer term for this year group. I need to make sure it’s fun and stimulating and challenging, just like every other music lesson! The class troop in after playtime and some children clearly don’t want to have to sit down after the intense excitement of running around in the noisy playground with their friends. The lesson will appeal to this natural desire to move their bodies and play.
Philosophy for Children (P4C), or some variation of it, is practised in over 60 countries around the world and has a history stretching back over 40 years. The underlying principle is for children and young people to experience rational and reasonable dialogue about things that matter to them and their teachers. All participants work together in a ‘community of enquiry’. The aim for each child is not to win an argument but to become clearer, more accurate, less self-contradictory and more aware of other arguments and values before reaching a conclusion.
From the P4C website
The class sit down on chairs in a large circle.
The class of thirty pour into the room and quickly take up their positions two-to-a-keyboard sat cross-legged on the ground. It’s 9.30 and there is an air of expectancy. Any teacher would recognise that this is a class ready for action! There is a brief moment of fuss because two children have decided to sit with different partners. This is quickly rectified and we’re ready to go.
I can hear the first class of the day approaching. It is a Year 3 class. Now they are lined up outside the Music Room. A boy at the front of the line is singing Kye Kye Kule to me, it’s a call and response song that we sing in the weekly Singing Assembly. Once the children are sat down I pick up a copy of the class register. After singing ‘Hello Everyone’ to the whole class a couple of times I choose a name and sing to that individual child.
Reception
Spring Term
Week 11
What a Difference a Day Makes
The class who are coming through the door on this Thursday morning usually have a music lesson at 9.30 on a Monday. However, at the start of this week I was out of school with ninety Year 4 children at a Singing Workshop in Bow School, our local secondary, led by the Apollo 5 vocal group.
We begin by marching around the room selling Hot Cross Buns.