The Times Are Changing. Approach Teaching Differently. Create Student Lead Discussion And Student Lead Classes, Meghan Cabral

Have you heard this lately? Have you thought to yourself how does this apply to my music classroom; How can you change the introduction to an instrument; or teaching vocal pedagogy; or teaching folk songs in general music classes?

It may sound very cliché but I constantly am trying to find new ways to approach teaching differently. How? I started “flipping my classroom.” Has anyone in your school or district begun doing this? I was not a believer until I started doing some research and then decided just to try it out. Now, not only do I believe in it and utilize it in my class but I was to continue to strive to find different ways to incorporate it into my classroom and tweak the lessons so they hold students more accountable.

So what is “flipped learning?” In a nutshell, it takes a classroom lesson and instead of teaching the students during class, students watch a recorded video or listen to a podcast the night before class to learn the lesson. Students then come back to class and the teacher reinforces the lessons learned at home.

In our beginning band class we reinforce embouchure from the first time we play our instruments. Students are asked to take home their instrument from the first time we put our mouthpieces and barrels together. We want the students to have good reinforcement on the techniques we went over in school, or an introduction for anyone who might have been absent. When students watch a video such as this one, we created, Clarinet Mouthpiece With Barrel. We utilized these videos for every instrument.

Now you might be thinking, I don’t teach band, I teach choir, orchestra, or general music. How can this pertain to me? Teachers can flip these classrooms with lessons on solfege, introductions to new songs, introductions to rhythms. We have recorded lessons on how to count dotted quarter notes, so students can watch the video, understand how to count dotted quarter notes, and then come to class the next day to review and reinforce.

Lessons can be created on how to read chord charts, theory lessons about scale creation, half vs whole steps. Students could even do listening lessons with YouTube or other video or audio recordings of professional orchestras. These lessons do not have to all be recorded by you but could be recordings of Boston Pops, NY Philharmonic, or professional choirs, orchestras or even Army bands. Students at home listen to a recording, and through a guided worksheet, write down specific adjectives describing the piece and what they hear. In class the next day, the entire group can spend a few minutes discussing good techniques used by the group that you want your own students to model. Instead of spending 10 minutes listening in class, and having students write notes, they’ve already done the initial part at home. Students who are very interested could have additional listening activities if they wanted to and it also gives the students time to start and stop the recordings if you wanted them to listen to specific things.

The “flipped classroom” model is about putting the learning onus on the student so that classroom discussions can be lead during school. The teacher becomes the facilitator and the students begin leading the class. “Flipped classrooms” don’t need to happen every class period; they could happen as frequently as once a week or as in frequently as once a quarter or semester.

As we continue with the APPR and Danielson Rubric in so many schools, “flipped learning” can give teachers an opportunity to achieve the Level 4’s. For example, 3c; “Enganging students in learning, the “flipped classroom” model would allow for many opportunities for students to be “provide(d) (with) suitable scaffolding and challenges (to) students to explain their thinking.” A student could do a listening lesson at home and have to (through a guided worksheet created by the teacher) explain what they hear, how it makes them feel, and give detailed musical reasons why. For another example, students could listen to a professional recording and then create standards and an assessment they could use against their own performance. This would fit directly with 3d, “using assessment in instruction.” As musicians we always want our students to strive to do better and there is no better assessment then self-assessment. If students have an exemplar to model after students can find ways to achieve higher goals.

The Times Are Changing: Approach Teaching Differently. Create Student Lead Discussion And Student Lead Classes

Meghan Cabral musicmegs@gmail.com

Meghan Cabral is a Middle School band teacher in Carmel, NY. She is an active guest conductor as well as clinician. She has guest conducted for Dutchess County, as well as both Suffolk and Nassau counties on Long Island. Meghan has presented at Connecticut Music Educator’s Association Conference, New York State School Music Educator’s Association Conference as well as had her clarinet choir perform at New Jersey Music Educator’s Association Conference. Meghan is an active author for MEJ, Teaching Music, the Instrumentalist as well as state publications in Connecticut and New York. If you have any additional questions feel free to e-mail at anewbanapproach@gmail.com, and checkout www.payhip.com/musicmegs Follow on twitter @band_mcabral and Instagram @band_ cabral