Using Music in your Classroom
A confession: I get nervous when I use music in my classroom. As many times as my students have told me how much they enjoy my songs; no matter how many students have come back a year later and told me that they still use them to answer test questions--I still dread introducing a new song to a class. I always feel like the new song has flopped. But the fact that I've felt that way every time I've taught a new song gives me confidence!
So I can imagine that if you are just starting with music in your classes, and you are not very confident in your abilities, and you don't know how students will react to the idea of singing, you may very well give up after your first attempt. DON'T GIVE UP! To help you stick with it, I offer you the following facts:
1. Almost all classes will enjoy singing.
2. Even if it seems like a class doesn't enjoy it, several members
of the class will.
3. If they don't respond immediately to a song, seem bored by it,
or ask you to play Master P, that means they're normal.
4. If they are normal, once a few of them feel comfortable with
a song they will begin begging to sing it.
The key is having confidence, though not necessarily in your musical ability. You may be right, you may sing very badly. But honestly, that's irrelevant! What you need to get you through is the belief that even though they're looking funny at you now, in a week they'll be requesting songs that you've taught them. I think it's a law of nature. At first, they're reticent, but soon they're in the palm of your hand.
What is your role in facilitating this natural progression from reticence to requests?
1. Sing only when it's the best thing you could possibly do. If there is a better way to teach something, use it. The taxpayers are not paying you to entertain kids, but to teach them! But if you can do both at the same time, taxpayers are getting a bargain: Brain research indicates that some kids learn best through music. Common sense says that if kids are burnt out intellectually, teaching through music allows them to use a part of their brains that is most likely fresh and anxious to prove itself. Pre-literate cultures (past and present) have proven the power of music in memorization by preserving detailed oral histories in song. Think of the volumes of information you have accumulated throughout the years through advertising jingles; you can put that power to work in your classroom, and your students will remember you and what you've taught them long after you've gone into full-time shuffleboard!
2. Let students know that fun activities are not free time. Your leadership is crucial, because some students will prefer to start doing their homework, others will decide to talk, others will start putting on makeup--because they think "we're not doing anything anyway." You need to let them know that you're singing because there's no better way to teach what you're trying to teach. You're trying to keep them from having to study so much. And if they're not learning during song time, you have no intention to continue! Don't insist that they sing--insist that they learn. If they don't cooperate, maybe there's a worksheet they'd find more interesting. Don't bluff--if they're not focused on the music, quit immediately. The next time you try it, you'll have their attention, because they really do want to sing!
3. Teach the song in chunks. When singing in the target language, it is important that they practice the lyrics separately from the music. Everyone can speak, but not everyone can sing. If you teach the rhythm of each line by having them repeat after you, they have a much better chance of being able to sing along. Because students usually pronounce every word separately (and therefore can't understand how they're supposed to cram all those syllables into one line), point out that the way words blend together in the song is the way the language is actually spoken. Students can sound very fluent by speaking the lyrics to a song in rhythm. In some students, something clicks, and they begin applying this to the way they speak.
4. Make it fun! It should be a refreshing, fun experience. Don't expect musicality, just participation.
Whether you're musically inclined or not, you really can use music in the classroom, and students will remember it. Let me know ways in which you use music, songs that are good to use, and techniques for maximizing music's effectiveness, and I'll include your ideas in a future "Note of the Month".