This week’s reading has caused me to reflect and evaluate the way I teach and what I incorporate into my choral classroom. Here is a quote from Vince Lombardi, a famous coach from Wisconsin’s Green Bay Packers. “Football is like life-it requires perseverance, self-denial, hard work, sacrifice, dedication and respect for authority.” (http://www.brainyquote.com/search_results.html?q=hard+work) I would like to apply this quote directly to teaching and learning. Teaching takes time to develop and it is through hard work and dedication that lesson plans and teaching applications are created.
A lot of my teaching is known as Backward Design. “Backward design… is an approach in which the teacher begins with the end in mind” (Bauer, p. 152). My choral classroom literature is driven by the many performances each year. For example the first concert of the year is 4 weeks from the start of school. The goal is to have each of the 5 choirs perform 2 selections individually and then have them combine as 400 voices on 4 numbers. The purpose of this fall concert is for freshman groups to see the example of the upperclassman. This concert allows the audience and the performer to see a professional presentation and hear the difference in maturity between a senior and a freshman voice. Because of the time constraint I pick repertoire that gives students’ success but also provides me with a baseline of what they are capable of doing for the following concert.
One of my advanced classes, a theater troupe, is a project based learning environment. In the fall they are the cast of a broadway musical. These students collaborate with a professional choreographer/director, a set and light designer, professional pitt, and a costume designer. In the spring, the students become the directors, choreographers, light designers, and costume designers for Music Theater Nights. My teaching model is to provide students with many opportunities to collaborate and learn from various music professionals and then provide them with the opportunity to take what they’ve learned and apply it. It is important for students to learn how to follow and lead.
Bottom line: I believe that a teacher should push their students toward excellence and set high standards that encourage results and teach a process that develops a strong work ethic.
Grace,
ReplyDeleteYour post this week stuck out to me because you discussed many of the same things I discussed in my blog. You first talked about the backward design of your lessons driven by your choral performances. I also discussed the performances that my band and orchestra students have in the middle and at the end of the year and use these performances as the base for the structure of my classes. I’m glad you talked about the students having a chance to see the performances in the fall before they give a performance so they will know what to expect. If I could manage to have my elementary students ready in time, I would love to let the “advanced” groups perform before the beginning band groups so that they understand what a concert is supposed to be like. That’s a really good idea that I might have to “steal” from you for next year!
I also like that you discussed the use of projects. I have never thought about the plays and musicals as projects, but now that you have mentioned it, this makes perfect sense! They are given an objective and a guideline, but given room to be creative to achieve the desired goal. I have wanted to put more projects into my lessons as well, but feel like I don’t have time or ideas of what projects would be good for the students in an elementary school band. This year my school is putting on a musical, and many of the band students are participating either as actors, singers, or stage crew. Maybe I can work this into some sort of project grade for those participating?
Your bottom line is spot on, and I’m sure your students respect you for pushing them to do their best! Nice post!