Ancient Rome

Today I went and taught my last lesson with my sixth grade class. I realized how much I have grown as I was with them. They enjoyed the lesson and all of them participated which made my day. I wanted for the students to create something of their own but I had a hard time trying to tie the creating to a lesson about Ancient Rome. I focused on a few people in Rome to talk about with the class at the beginning. We reviewed the government and the changes that it saw over the years with a slideshow that I created. Then we talked about some quotes that I had from Caesar and Claudius and we briefly discussed what they meant and why they were important for Rome at that time. I was surprised by how much they enjoyed looking at the quotes and reading them. 

I then took a phrase and showed them how I clapped out a rhythm and put it to a song that I liked. They clapped along with me and after they understood what we were doing, I took a quote from Claudius and we clapped it out together. They were so engaged in the lesson and wanted to put the rhythm to a christmas song. We sang the song together and figured out how we could put the quote into the song. 

Then each student took their own quote and they clapped out the rhythm by themselves and put it to a song that they liked. I heard a lot of Christmas songs, just because I think Christmas is on their minds. I went around the room and saw how they were working and gave help or suggestions when they were needed. After they had finished I had them turn to their neighbor and share their song. As they shared, I noticed that a lot of them were nervous to share and I tried to help them feel more comfortable. 

I think it was a good experience and I've noticed that I have gotten better throughout my lessons and planning with the students in mind and managing the class as I taught. It was a bittersweet moment because I realized how I am going to miss them. 

Planets and Feelings

I knew that my sixth grade class was studying about planets and outer space in their science lessons. I wanted to remember with them the music elements and talk about some planets.
I used a slideshow about Mercury, Neptune and Jupiter and we talked a little about each planet and I shared some facts.
I then had them listen to the song about Jupiter from Holst's The Planets. We discussed what musical elements they heard and connected the song to the planet and how he chose to represent Jupiter through music. The students had lots of good ideas about how Jupiter is a large planet and so he made the song loud. After we discussed the rhythym and a few other elements.
 I had them listen to another song which was the song about Mercury and we discussed the elements. They commented that it was a smaller planet and the music was softer and had a fast tempo to reflect that. With the things that we talked about for the second song, I drew on the board how it made me feel and how I could represent the way the music sounded.

Each of them got a piece of paper and some markers and as they listened to the last song about Neptune, I had them draw the way that the music sounded. I really liked that I was able to do that with them because it helped them make connections. They noticed that there were high and low sounds in the song that could mimick waves and they thought of the ocean because of the Roman god Neptune. They were able to look at their papers and see the same thing. They commented on how the song sounded more mysterious and maybe even depressing. One student said that made her feel like she was under water and it was dark and lonely.
This spurred a great conversation about feelings and how composers intentionally make us feel certain ways or use themes in their music. I mentioned movies and how the music sounds at a scary part, or happy part. We discussed how important music is in movies and how it helps convey a meaning to us through our feelings. 

Music Elements

After the last lesson about music in Mesopotamia, I wanted to focus on the musical qualities with my sixth grade class. I decided to teach the qualities to them and then have them listen to be able to identify the qualities in music.

 I started off by showing the class a powerpoint presentation that I created to teach them the melody, timbre, dynamics, and harmony of a song. 

We listened to a song together and we filled out this graphic organizer together:

(https://docs.google.com/document/d/18PT_Prp4cKV0hRxWbFjZSSzlEd9Y1tlEXKTN-y7DgEI/edit?usp=sharing)

After we had listened to the song Shenendoah and filled out part of the graphic organizer, I could tell that the students connected with these songs and were enjoying themselves. I was excited that I was able to plan somthing that they found interesting for them. 

 I had the students get into groups and then listen to the song Akra (a Russian folk song) and fill out the graphic organizer as a group. 

I think that this lesson has been my favorite so far because the students really thought that it was interesting and they enjoyed having time to listen to the music and identify the elements in the songs. I think that I did better on modeling for them and working with them on the first song. I found that to be really helpful for them and they were able to do the rest of the lesson a lot easier. I heard them commenting on their favorite songs and it made my heart happy that they loved them as much as I did. 

Here is a picture of the students working as I walked around the room to help and monitor.