ELEMENTARY VICE PRESIDENT - Michael Jaycox Bringing Music to Life . . . Through Stories
H
ello fellow educators! I hope your year has been as wonderful as you all
are! I am looking forward to seeing you all in Gillette in January where we have an incredible elementary headliner, Dr. Paul Cribari. I first met Dr. Cribari when he came to Casper to do a workshop with the Wyoming chapter of AOSA. I then worked with him when I was doing my Orff Levels in Dallas at the Southern Methodist University. He is an incredible educator with great ideas, and I can’t wait
for you to see his sessions, which
include “Responsive Teaching and Orff Schulwerk”, “Teaching Pieces from the Music for Children Volumes”, “Functional Harmony in the General Music Classroom”, “Improvisation as a Means for Teaching Recorder”, and “Putting it all Together with a Story”. Tese sessions are sure to help teachers at all experience levels with Orff Schulwerk, and Dr. Cribari is an exceptionally engaging teacher! It is his last session of how to put it all together with a story that inspired me for this article.
As elementary teachers, we oſten use stories in our classrooms to teach and experience musical concepts. I am sure many of us use great children’s books as a means to hook students into an engaging lesson. If you haven’t used books, I highly encourage you to take a look at lessons that can be found in a variety of “teacher”
books, such as Mallet Madness by Artie Almeida, S’more Bits with Children’s Lit by Sandy Lantz and Gretchen Wahlberg, and Awesome Books with Music Hooks by Katie Grace Miller. Tese are just a few options that may inspire your use of story in your classroom.
You can use stories that are not in story book form as well
and inspire your
students to use their own imagination! I found two books, Once Upon a Music Class by Valeaira Luppens and Greg Foreman - one for Pre-K-2 grades and one for 3-6 grades. Tese books incorporate fairy tales into the music room, and I have absolutely loved using them to act out stories to music, such as “Beauty and the Beast” and “Tree Billy Goats Gruff.“ While telling these stories, there is a sort of magic that happens in the class. My students get to be kids and play, laugh, and have fun. Te reality is that, from these games, students can accurately describe major/minor modes, label tempos, listen for instrumentation, identify form, and so much more!
I think it is valuable that we are able to use stories to teach music, but I think the reverse can be just as valuable. I like to do a Fantasia project with my students where they get to create their own picture to a piece of instrumental music. First, we will watch a segment or two from Disney’s
People Too is an amazing Russian artist duo best known for their incredible paper craſt. Hailing from Novosibirsk, they chronicle their wonderful projects on Live Journal (
http://peopletoo.livejournal.com/), where you can really get a sense of their artistry and skill with paper.
In a new series, People Too brings sheet music to life with delightful illustrations of various everyday activities. From dinner and dancing, to work and play, the sheet music is bursting with life. Artwork by People Too @
peopletoo.ru
18 Wyoming Windsong
Fantasia or Fantasia 2000. We talk about what elements of the music made “Night on Bald Mountain” so scary. What about the Flamingo that plays with a yo-yo set to the music of “Carnival of the Animals”? We then listen to a piece of instrumental or classical music. I try to find pieces that are 2-3 minutes in length. First, we listen and develop ideas. On the second listening, I pass out paper and crayons and have students draw a picture that goes with the story. Ten, we take that drawing and add creative movement to the picture, where students will act out their drawing during the music. Te kids can then work in small groups to combine their stories. Before you know it, we are performing a new creative movement to a piece of music that the students may not normally have heard before. It is a fun way to use stories to bring music to life!
Michael Jaycox is in his eighth year of teaching and teaches K-5 general music in Powell and Clark. He previously taught K-5 general music and middle school choir, 6-12 band and 9-12 choir in Greybull. He attended the University of Wyoming where he was very active in the collegiate music education program and was also a drum major with the Western Tunder Marching Band, two years as head drum major. Michael holds degrees in Music Education, both Bachelor’s and Master’s, from the University of Wyoming.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77
