Alexandria Green

Instructor: Donna Cucunato

Tapestry of a Liberal Studies Education, 497
9 March 2011

Observation Reflection: Music in the Classroom

School Statistics
• Excelsior Elementary K-6
• Population - 546
• Computer-Student Ration – 4 to 1
• Students by Ethnicity – 61% Asian, 30% Latino, 9% Other
• English Learners – 63% (40% Vietnamese Primary Language)
• Free/Reduced Priced Meals – 78%
• Overcrowded – 1st grade classrooms have as many as 25 students, 5th grade classrooms
have as many as 40 students
• Miss Merchant’s 5th year at Excelsior Elementary, 9th year with Garden Grove Unified
1st Grade General Music, Brandi Merchant
• 30 min every other week – If a classroom’s music period falls on a holiday, they do not
have “make-up.”
• 8th class for Miss Merchant in a single school day
• Bow Wow Wow
Who’s dog art though?
Little Tommy Tucker’s Dog
Bow Wow Wow
o Song is developmentally appropriate, rhythmically (duration of sounds and silences)
and melodically (the tune).
o Difficulty of beat matches grade level – ta, ta-ti, and rest for K-2
o Nearly 100% engaged because there is no down-time – they are constantly being
asked to sing, clap, listen, repeat, etc.
o After the song is learned, the movement is added. Children engage socially by signing
to a partner whilst performing the accompanied movements and then switching
partners.
• Who’s that tapping on the window?
Who’s that knocking on the door?
o It is obvious that children know and have practiced this song previously. They quickly
review the song and then add the game – children choose animals to act out in the
song. Miss Merchant uses every animal (even the poisonous caterpillar) that is
offered.
• New song is taught by ROTE method –
o Focused listening – sing the song through giving students words or patterns to
listen for (i.e. “What color is the basket?” How many times do I say the word
time?”)
o Sequence – “I sing, You sing”, sings one sentence at a time, then two, then four,
etc.
 o Focused listening –students close their eyes and sing the words too silently in
their heads while she sings them aloud
o Sing together
5th and 6th Grade Chorus, Brandi Merchant
• Not the same purpose as the general music classes – not building skills, building a show
(to be performed in June)
• Students audition at beginning of the year – not ability based, student sings “Happy
Birthday” and is invited to join the chorus
• Students do not hold sheet music for three reasons – the district cannot afford seven
songs of sheet music per student, students have difficultly holding papers quietly,
students practice singing posture by reading music on the projector
• Chunking songs – students learn bits and pieces of a song until they “magically” have
finished it
• In warm-up, students mimic the singing skills they will need for the melody and/or
rhythm to come (scaffolding on Miss Merchant’s part).
o Miss Merchant made me mash my M&Ms – practices Do-Re-Mi notes and
enunciation
• Children are excellent imitators! Solfege is the technique for the teaching of sight-singing
in which each note of the score is sung to a special syllable (do-re-mi-fa-so-la-ti-do).
Coupled with the Kodaly Method of corresponding hand signs, children are able to
execute the correct note.
• Students are organized in sides, A and B. This allows Miss Merchant to direct students
into harmonies (hardest music concept to teach) and rounds. In one instance, she had one
side plug their ears while the other learned/practiced their part (avoids confusion,
subconscious learning of the wrong part).
• When children are sounding nasally, she instructs them to mimic a yawn – big breathe,
mouth wide open, allows for a more controlled sound.
• Again, students are nearly 100% engaged because there is no down time. It is obvious
that they wanted to be there. As a result, she is not forced to use many managerial
strategies. Inspiring!
• Zone of proximal development - Students learn one new song in the midst of practices 8+
others. This is a pointed use of Lev Vygotsky’s x+1 formula in which students are not
overwhelmed with too much input. Students feel successful and then are able to give
100% effort in learning the new song.
• I’ll tell you my troubles on the old Chisholm road…
o She sings first and then has students repeat immediately. She noticed which part
the students had trouble, used the ROTE method targeted at that phrase, and then
students were able to sing the song in its entirety (condensed version of ROTE,
scaffolding).
• Last major concept – crescendo, opposite progression from what is natural
(loud→soft→loud), solfege chart projected on the screen, Kodaly Method used for hand
signs