band Continued from page 18
happens after differentiating my explana- tions, and then re-teaching over and over and over again. At the beginning of this year, I actually kept track of how long an entire group of students could accurately articulate the fractional relationships be- tween note durations. As I type this, we’re at about 85 percent. I’m hopeful we’ll be closer to 100 percent by the end of the year (a girl can dream, right?). Again, this has been a focus in the band classroom and is something that is addressed almost every class period. By incorporating as many unique strategies as I could, not only did the students stay engaged, but we had more “lightbulb moments” the more we worked.
For the visual learners, I came up with “Pizza Rhythms.” These work best with four beats per measure, but one could
use them with other meters as well. If one thinks of a measure like a pizza, one can divide the pizza up into slices to cor- respond to the rhythm in the measure. On page 18 are a few examples from the students.
The kids really LOVED pizza rhythms! As a testament to how many people our visual learners, I found the most students connected to this strategy more than any other.
For the “movers” (i.e. kinesthetic learn- ers) in the class, I used a strategy I first learned from Patty Schlafer, band teacher in Mount Horeb. Again, this works best when things are subdivided into fours, i.e. duple instead of triple meter. On page 18 are a few examples from some of the students, using the same rhythms as with the pizza rhythms.
The biggest challenge with this strategy is that some students lack the dexterity to get their fingers to separate into the rhythms. But, everyone had fun trying, and many paired up to help “hold” fingers together. It was definitely worth the time for those few kids who suddenly got the rhythmic connections within the measures.
I must admit, I was reluctant to rely on “rote” instruction of rhythms, but for aural learners, it was with this strategy that they made the most strides. I always paired this strategy (students playing a written rhythm after they have heard me play it first) with counting or one of the other strategies mentioned above so that our lesson didn’t turn into an echo game. Again, I found that with differentiated and repeated instruction focused on rhythmic literacy, more students were able to have that “lightbulb” moment and be able to retain and use the rhythms effectively.
20
April 2017
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