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At River Bend Middle School, the current band directors take a non-traditional approach with teaching music. In Loudoun County, band class does not start until 6th grade in middle school. My background in Fairfax County Public Schools had strings open in fourth grade and band open in fifth grade. In our 6th grade classes we taught everything by rote. Instead of starting with note identification and rhythm identification we started with aural skills. This style of teaching allows students to have well developed aural skills and an overall better individual sound. Some challenges brought by teaching by rote include; difficulty blending with others and identifying and performing written rhythmic and pitch notation. 7th grade is normally the time when the teachers begin introducing written notation. Due to the ongoing pandemic, 7th graders were behind in note identification. In each class I presented slides and gauged student understanding through polls and chat answers. The students in 6th and 7th grade generally did ok with notes on the treble staff. I noticed that they were having consistent issues with ledger lines. In 8th grade, students were confident in note identification but had challenges with key signatures. I created slides to teach students note identification and key signatures for their respective areas. After introducing and reviewing the new material I developed and led fun identification slides which spelled fun words like "no cap, cabbage, spill the tea" and other various phrases that the students could identify within their own pop culture. Students were very proactive in participating as 90% of students engaged and answered the questions and activities in the slides. After I completed my student teaching at River Bend the students completed a note identification quiz and a key signature quiz. Everyone passed the quiz! I have uploaded some of my powerpoint activities below!
CLICK HERE TO REVIEW POWERPOINT SLIDES
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