I'm pleased to have a guest post today by Bryce, a long-time Primary music observer (and my husband). I love how he shares his perspective. He just says it like it is! -Michelle
Bad ideas are everywhere.
They saturate the news, Facebook feeds, your kids’ every action, and
even lurk in the dark recesses of your own mind. Some are easy to spot, like mixing household
chemicals into explosives that produce lethal chlorine gas without proper
ventilation in the room. Others are a
little subtler, like choosing a primary music activity set that doesn’t teach
or engage the kids in your primary. So
how do you spot these bad ideas? I’m not
a professional, but I’ve sat in enough singing times to recognize a few trends:
Repeat after me--being on Pinterest does not make it credible. |
1.
Does the activity support only one learning
style (or none at all)?
Sharla Dance, our go-to expert on all things music teaching,
classified childhood learning as fitting into eight basic styles: physical
action, words, visuals, nature (whatever that means), spiritual, logic,
cooperation & teamwork, and… wait for it… music. Check out her blog here.
Each child in your primary class benefits from one or more
of these styles. Because every star is
different and so is every child (I dare you to read that without singing it in
your head), you’ll need to include multiple learning styles within each
activity. I recognize that there’s a
school of thought that it’s okay to address only one learning style per
activity, so long as you have multiple styles in the overall music time. Those
people are wrong. That’s just how it is.
The prime example of a bad idea—one of the worst ideas you could
possibly do—is to simply draw names from a hat and make the kids sing it. (This
includes derivatives like flipping over pictures on a chalkboard and singing
the song underneath.)
The problem here is that this engages none of the
learning styles. For example, there’s
either no visual reference or the pictures are too small to be seen from the
back of the room. Having one kid from the primary come up to draw a song leaves
everyone else sitting still, so there’s no motion element. The word learners
aren’t given any associations or interesting connections to make in order to
internalize the lyrics. Even worse, blindly flipping cards or drawing songs
replaces logical progression with chaos, making the whole experience deeply uncomfortable
for logic learners.
Some people learn best through natural processes--like natural selection. |
Let me repeat: If you structure singing time around drawing
songs from a hat, you should be darned to heck (because let’s face it, actual hell might be a little extreme).
2.
Does the idea offer variety?
Anyone who’s ever had kids knows they have short attention
spans. However, those with older kids or whose children are freakishly patient
may have forgotten just how short this attention span really is. I’ve seen goldfish with longer attention
spans than my own children’s. So unless
you’re practicing some sort of witchcraft or hypnosis to keep them riveted, you
will need to switch activities several times.
Along those lines, be very sure to mix up which learning
styles you’re using each time. You could
involve four learning styles in every activity, but if you never engage the
kids who really need to learn through logic, then you’re a horrible person (albeit
not as horrible as the ‘hat’ people) and it will be all your fault when the child
apostatizes later on.
When switching activities, keep focused on your core
learning. People seem to default to a singing
random wiggle song, followed by an unrelated main activity. Instead, try choosing what you want the kids
to learn that week and structure several short activities around the theme to
engage them from a variety of learning styles.
Yes, teaching this way takes more effort and planning, but
that’s just part of the cost of magnifying your calling. If you think that load is too heavy, remember
that you could have been called as
Primary President.
3.
Is the activity exactly the same for both junior
and senior primary?
While the trunky 11 year-olds in senior primary may have the
same attention span as a new sunbeam, their actual needs couldn’t be more
different. If the activity you come
across online is identical for both junior and senior primary, leave a nasty
troll-ish comment and move on.
In one ward, I saw a very well-intentioned music teacher try
to engage the junior primary by sitting them in a circle and having them do a
complex wood-block clicking pattern, complete with passing the blocks left and
right as part of the pattern. Half the
kids didn’t want to share their blocks (surprise there), and the other half
couldn’t figure out which way was left.
In this music leader’s defense, she really is fantastic but was just
having an off day.
4.
Does the idea support on-the-fly adaptation?
There’s an old saying from some philosopher guy with a
Latin-sounding name that goes “It is a bad plan that admits no modification”. If
this ‘fantastic’ idea you found on the internet doesn’t allow you to adapt
on-the-fly, then it’s probably a bad idea.
If the kids aren’t responding well to the activity, then adapt your
lesson immediately.
The hapless music leader in the previous example responded
quickly to the kids and adapted her wood-block patterns to their skill level,
shortened the activity, and then moved on to the next one that engaged a
different learning style. Nice recovery!
Here’s what a good example looks like:
Let’s say that I need to help junior
primary children learn the lyrics to Book
of Mormon Stories. Most of them
can’t read, sit still, or focus on anything for more than a minute at a time. Challenge
accepted.
My first thought is to use
Pinterest. Then I think better of
it. I hate Pinterest. A lot. Instead, by expending a little mental effort,
I come up with a plan that involves…
|
The collaborative learners can be engaged by helping their
classmates recognize the words printed on the back of the bookmark—a key phrase
for the verse. If we’re working on the Alma
verse, my key phrase would be “Alma was rebellious, and he fought against the
light”. As they learn from their peers and teacher, they can join in singing
that phrase with me each time I repeat the song. The word
learners are also engaged by having a specific phrase that connects their
scriptures, bookmarks, and the verse of the song.
While all this is going on, I
continue singing the verse on ‘loop track’.
To keep the interest of the music
learners, I can alternate between singing the full verse, whistling
softly, and omitting words to keep things changing enough that it doesn’t fade
to the background.
2. Variety: As kids get their bookmarks, I
keep them engaged by giving them new directions. If we’re doing the Alma verse, I use it like
a wiggle song. When I sing “fought
against the right”, I have the kids stand up and throw a couple punches into
the air—specifically where another child is NOT standing. When I sing “an angel came”, they stand
imperiously, and stretch out their hand as though speaking emphatically. When I sing “struck before his brethren”, I
instruct the kids to collapse to the ground, as though unconscious. This will get a bit loud as they moan and
wail dramatically. Remember: the noise
is part of the kids getting invested in the activity; it’s okay.
Notice that I just transitioned
activities here but never had to announce it.
They blended together and kept the kids focused on the song they need to
learn.
3.
Different for junior and senior primary: I’ve focused my plan here
on junior primary, but were I to adapt this for senior primary, I would get
them out of their chairs to come and get the bookmarks first. Their next task would be to find the place in
their scriptures where the bookmark should be placed. (With some guidance, of
course.)
As they looked up the scriptures, I
would also get the kids to alternate whistling along when I sing and then sing
words as I either leave blanks or start whistling.
And yes—they still get the death
scenes. I’m pretty sure the eleven
year-olds will even pantomime burning one of their own at the stake.
3. Adaptability: This can easily be
rearranged and tweaked to fit the kids’ needs.
For instance, we can start with the pantomiming activity and then
migrate down to sit in circles. We could
even skip finding the bookmark in the scriptures portion and hand them out,
asking the kids to tell their class something they know about Abinadi as I hum
or sing in the background. As they get
their bookmarks, I could even have the pianist play the verse in the background
while I dramatically summarize the story of Abinadi for them. The possibilities are nearly endless.
And I didn’t draw a song name from a hat. Not even once!
-Bryce
Looking for more? Check out a description of each of the 8 learning styles mentioned above. |
I did like some of what you posted in here... can't say I agree with all of it. My question is how would you engage a combined primary? As in the junior and senior primary are NOT separated, so catering to ages 4-11 in one room at the same time.
ReplyDeleteThat's a great question! While I don't know your specific group, here are my initial thoughts on a combined primary:
Delete1. Have the older kids help/teach the younger ones. This way you can provide a different experience for senior and junior primary with the same activity (and engage collaboration learners).
2. Set up degrees of difficulty that can be done simultaneously. Here's an example: If you're doing a wood block tapping pattern, you can have the junior kids do level 1 and the senior kids do level 2. This would also allow the junior kids who are more musically gifted to 'level up' once they've mastered the easier pattern. (Or for a struggling senior primary kid to drop back to the easier pattern.)
3. Involve the primary teachers for small group learning. With help from the primary teachers, you may be able to get the kids involved with highly-personalized learning otherwise unavailable to a larger primary.
Because you have the opportunity to focus more on individual needs, it might even be worth asking the teachers how their classes learn best and then reflecting elements of that style wherever possible.
Anyway, you know your primary's capabilities best and it's clear that you really care about reaching each of the children--that's what it's all about, after all. :)
I'm hoping several portions of this were written tongue-in-cheek. Because otherwise, maybe you shouldn't be giving advice to such a large group of people with such strong opinions on what MUST work. I mean, it is *your* blog so you can share what you want. Just a little overly confident.
ReplyDeleteI'll start by pointing out that I'm a guest poster on this blog and that the actual blog owner is a much nicer person than am I. I'd encourage you to compare this with some (or all) of the other posts on here to see the difference.
ReplyDeleteIn regards to the article itself: it is very tongue-in-cheek. My intent was to use hyperbole and over-the-top melodrama to elucidate key and valid points. I had hoped my sarcastic comments were so exaggerated that readers would have little doubt that I was being facetious. (For example: "...if you never engage the [logic learners], then you’re a horrible person...". That's an extremely absurd statement. I had hoped it was ridiculous enough to clue readers into what I was doing.)
I do stand by the principles elucidated in my article, though. In my 14 years of teaching in various youth programs, I have seen a LOT of bad ideas perpetuate because teachers don't know how to recognize and avoid them. It's painful to see my children and many others attempting to sit patiently while remaining disengaged and under-served by teachers more interested in their own activity than in the kids' actual engagement and learning.
I love this. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteI love this blog because it has had some good jumping off points. I was happy to come back and see that you have posted some new ideas even though it isn't your calling anymore. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteHowever, I was really disappointed in the tone of this particular piece. I know it isn't written by the blog owner, but I don't feel like it is in keeping with the spirit of this blog or primary music.
Although I typically adhere to the "rules" suggested here and I try to plan activities that are more meaningful than just picking songs randomly, I left feeling like maybe I wasn't doing enough or somehow if I have a bad day, or an idea flops, then I am not magnifying my calling. Each of us is learning, some of us don't have the skill set that your wife, or Sharla Dance, or any other blogger or other music leader may have. Someone who gives their all to this calling, but plays games that pick songs "out of a hat" may be doing their very best and may be pleasing our Heavenly Father. Though your points are perhaps based in sound pedagogy, the manner in which you said them is, in my opinion, counterproductive.
Again, thanks for some great ideas over the past years.