Newsletter
Purposeful Pathways Course One: Composition and Improvisation
From Teaching With Orff and world-renowned educator Roger Sams, our very first online course refreshes and synthesizes how to teach composition and improvisation with your youngest musical learners. In this self-paced course you’ll observe six lessons for young musicians in workshop format from Book 1 of Purposeful Pathways: Possibilities for the Elementary Music Educator, along with related…
Read MoreWhy Creative Movement in Music Class?
Why Creative Movement in Music Class? Last week we shared how to begin using creative movement with your students. This week Judith Thompson-Barthwell shares why including creative movement is an important part of an Orff-Inspired curriculum. Creativity does not occur in a void! Teach directive lessons to give specific material for exploration Let students experiment with…
Read MoreMaking It Work: Structuring Creative Movement
Structuring Creative Movement in Orff Inspired Lessons When I took level one I joyously folk danced through the movement segments and really understood that I could use folk dance with my students and how it would fit into the types of lessons I was designing. Then we began the creative movement portion. I loved the…
Read MorePurposeful Pathways Lesson: Never Sleep Late Anymore
Never Sleep Late Anymore by BethAnn Hepburn and Roger Sams We trust you and your young students will enjoy this lesson taken from Purposeful Pathways: Possibilities for the Elementary Music Classroom, Book Three – by BethAnn Hepburn and Roger Sams. Designed to encourage active music making, this lesson includes pathways to rhythm, literacy, partwork, ensemble, and improvisation. A printable version can…
Read MoreSLOs for Orff Inspired Teaching
SLOs for Orff Inspired Teaching Student Learning Objectives: A Manageable “How To” Guide from the Trenches The process of crafting an SLO when kept logical and reasonable, can really be a positive force in your instruction and beneficial for your students. Don’t let the structure, all of the “official-ness” of the forms, and evaluation…
Read MorePlaying With Improvisation
Playing With Improvisation 2, 4, 6, 8 – Recorder Version B Section 2, 4, 6, 8 – RECORDER Teaching Process: Sing song and ask students to label form. (abca) Sing the first 4-beat motive, the a motive. Students echo the a motive. Students sing the a motives and you sing the b & c motives.…
Read MoreMaking It Work: Positive Procedures
Positive Procedures As you anticipate returning to the classroom this fall, do you find yourself wondering how to better manage student behavior? Are you asking yourself how to get your students to stay engaged with your lessons and stop all of that talking and goofing around? Harry Wong states in his book, The First Days…
Read MoreGood, Better, Best
Good, Better, Best A Rhythm and Movement Lesson for Grades 4-6 Download a printable version of Michael Chandler’s lesson here. Objectives: Working with beat and divided beat through movement, body percussion, and instruments. Choreographing simple movement to elemental forms. Rhythmic and melodic improvisation and composition with elemental forms. Arranging and orchestrating a performance piece. Materials: Unpitched…
Read MoreMaking It Work: Long Range Planning
Making It Work: Getting Started With Long Range Planning When I began my teaching career I was working in a large county school district, on a cart, in three schools with almost no resources before the dawn of the Internet. I would hear about teachers who were “long range planning” and was completely mystified as…
Read MoreCreativity and Active Engagement
The Importance of Creativity and Active Engagement in the Music Classroom While there are many ways in which the technological explosion of the past hundred years has enriched and expanded our lives, Creative Sequence is based on the premise that music, dance, drama, art, and physical activity are still essential human activities that every child should…
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