Creating access points for music education is something that South HS is pretty good at. We have a beginner band and a beginner string orchestra that meet everyday for 55 minutes. That's amazing in the high school world! It makes sense....there are beginning language courses, arts courses, remedial math and language courses, and there is usually an entry point for choir, so why not our instrumental classes. Our beginning class meet the same time as the "youngest" concert band (Concert Band) so that when students are ready, they can just move to Concert Band. There is a great group of students in beginning band....25 to be precise. Twenty-five beginning band students in high school! The challenge is to keep them engage while dealing with the intricacies of individual instrumental needs.

I think I may have figured out how to do this....finally. Now, some folks may argue up and down about this, but until someone has figured out a better way to teach transposition to beginners, while reading standardized notation, rhythms, which end is up on an instrument...and all that goes along with something new, I think I will keep doing this. Not to mention, this is much easier for those students who are also learning how to speak English. This is part of the scaffolding process that will lead into reading standard notation, which will occur next week.

Last week the students started playing their instruments. Rather than teaching them notes and rhythms first (ie, theory) we started playing first. I taught the first three notes of each instruments B-flat major scale to each group, but I didn't assign note names, just 1, 2, 3. We played around with different melodies, the students even created their own melodies (no rhythms yet). Then we added in rhythms. The numbers underneath the rhythms represent the notes. Each student, regardless of their instrument, received this same paper because I taught them the transposed notes, but as numbers. For the most part, these melodies were recognizable to the students, so they were able to attach the rhythm with what they were playing. The best part about this is that the students were playing together and experiencing success as individuals and as a group-SO important in beginning band. I also have a "rhythm" deck, so students combined different rhythms and we played through them together. Lots of opportunity for students to create, thus reinforcing what we were learning in class. 

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Next week students will be delving into standard notation. I intend to discuss both clefs with the students, so that they understand how they both work. Then I will hand out sheets of music that have the first six notes of the B-flat scale (number 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 to the students) and we will then connect the number with the actual note. I think it will work. I HOPE it will work! 

For some reason, I feel really good about my lesson planning this year. Well, I should start off by commenting that this past week was the BEST first week of school I have ever had. Things got frantic at times, but overall, it was awesome! Great classes: students are enthusiastic and incredibly kind which makes the job so much easier. But I also wonder if part of it had to do with my planning.

​For many years I planned rehearsals and working towards achieving a certain sound with the groups. I do not want to dismiss that part of my life nor diminish that at all. There is tremendous work being done by music educators who work with performing groups, but I think I finally (FINALLY, after 13 years) figured out how to plan for learning. So, I am a pretty slow learner. I always have been, but my job has really transformed how I approach learning and teaching. My classes  focus on learning and the sound eventually comes along with that. It makes so much sense to me and I wish I would have seen the writing on the wall so many years ago. Of course, my students learned when I was in the band classroom, but this feels different to me. I often wonder if is because there is a lack of pressure to perform at a certain level. Allowing the students to experiment with sound and creating their own music has fostered some pretty incredible learning, even within the first week of school. Last week in the guitar classes, we learned a simple melody, the chords that went along with the melody, how to de-code tab and create our own songs, all within the first four days of having a guitar in our hands. The students weren't upset that they weren't learning how to shred their favorite solo, but they were amazed at how much they learned. I was amazed at how much we learned, and we get to do it again this week!

​It is likely that anyone reading this is thinking, "Seriously, Sarah, this is nothing new. You have been teaching for 14 years and you are now just figuring out how to plan for learning??" Well, this is my blog and I am still learning the ropes as well :) Considering that, I wonder how discovery and planning to learn might look like in different classrooms. Care to share?