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. 

Music in Mesopotamia

I thought that it would be interesting to talk about some of the musical instruments that existed in Ancient Mesopotamia with my sixth grade class. We discussed the lyre and the reed pipe. I had videos that I showed them of people playing those instruments so that they could hear the sound that they make. We talked about each one and the sound that it produced. A few of them said things that surprised them and they commented on the sounds of the instruments. They enjoyed being able to hear the instruments being played and not just seeing a picture. 

Then I played a song from Iraq that was more modern and we discussed the similar sounds and different sounds that they heard. It was neat for them to think about how ancient cultures can impact modern day music and even customs. We discussed how in Mesopotamia they had music at special events such as, weddings, funerals and such. Then we agreed that today we have music in similar instances. 

The last thing I did with them was to have them write a paragraph anwering at least one of the following questions: 

• What music have you listened to in the past 24 hours? Did you choose to listen to it? If so, why?
• What similarities did you notice between the purposes of music in Mesopotamia and today?
• What similarities do you notice in the instruments?
• What songs are connected to the U.S. like Iraq with Mesopotamia?
• What can we learn about history and cultures by analyzing music instruments and sounds in that time period?

They turned their answers into their teacher, but it was still a neat experience because they were able to connect music to themselves and how important it can be in all cultures. Overall, I really enjoyed this lesson because they had fun and made some really wonderful connections.

Teaching about Mesopotamia

I went and taught again in my second grade classroom. I knew that they were studying about Mesopotamia and I wanted to connect to the lessons that the students had already been learning. 

The first lesson I taught about Mesopotamia was about Cuneiform and the Sumerians. I started by showing the class a PowerPoint that I made about Sumerians and their form of writing which was called Cuneiform. I went over the writing and the Epic of Gilgamesh which was written in Cuneiform. I was surprised at how much the students remembered about the Sumerians and their way of living. 

We discussed how Cunieform was not written how we would write a sentence in our language. I had them think of nouns and then I would say a noun and they would have to think of a way to represent it as if they were going to write in in Cunieform. I pointed out how each person had a different way to represent the word and we discussed how difficult it would be to come up with a way to write down language. I had the students work in groups and they had to try and communicate something by only using the nouns. I gave each groups five minutes to try and come up with an idea. They had some creative ways to try and communicate, while the other groups would guess what they wanted to say. 

After all the groups showed us their presentation of words, we discussed Cuneiform and how it was for them to try and create and interpret the communication. They commented on how multiple students would say a word, but they would represent it differently. They also commented on how people from neighboring communities would have variations of ways to write the symbols in cunieform. Overall the lesson went well and the students were able to make lots of connections to the lesson. I also like having a way for them to get up and move and be creative together.  

First Two Lessons

I went in and took a deep breath as I walked into the classroom. I plunged in and waved at a few six grade students that looked at me. They had already met me and I was excited about starting to learn about their curiculum through music and movement. 

First Lesson: 

The first lesson that I taught, I started off with a get to know you game which we sung. The kids we a little shocked that I was singing to get to know them but they caught on and started singing names to help me learn. We learned the difference between the beat and the rhythm in music and how to explain them. I had them find different ways to keep the beat and then we tapped the rhythm with our fingers. 

At the end of the lesson I gave the students a card that said how they should move, either the beat or rhythm and a movement. They had creative ways of tip-toeing or hopping to show their dance. They were a little shy in getting up in front of their peers, but they were able to analyze the difference between the rhythm and the beat and tell it to others.  

Second Lesson: 

The second time I went, I wanted to make sure that the students were connecting the lesson to a topic that they were studying in Social Studies. I used a lesson from the BYU McKay School and it was on Egyptian Landmarks. Here is the link:Lesson Plan

This lesson went really well. I had a PowerPoint with the different Egyptian Landmarks on it and I introduced them to the students. Then we went out and created the movements for each section. I just used the Step Pyramid, The Pyramid of Giza, and The Valley of the Kings. At first when I asked them to show me how to represent the steps of the step pyramid they all tried kneeling on top of one another, but after a while they came up with creative ways to show the steps. 
As we went on the students were excited to come up with ways to show the flat sided pyramids and the obstacle course for the Valley of the Kings. I had them show off their ideas to their peers and they were much more comfortable doing so. I think that this lesson was really fun and they were engaged in learning and told me all the things that they already knew about Egypt, to make strong connections to this lesson.

I am very excited to keep working with this class, they seemed happy to be able to learn in a creative way. Mrs. Pulley, the class teacher, told me that she wanted to use a few ideas to connect to their vocab words. I will keep blogging about my lessons and experiences with this six grade class.