Here we are – music educators in a totally unprecedented time with no idea how to get started with distance learning in music. You may have found yourself being expected to come up with lessons immediately. You may be like me and been told the focus is on core curriculum areas like literacy and math. We all have questions and uncertainty, right now, but I hope you can take comfort in the fact that we are all in this together. ***Cue High School Musical Soundtrack***
1. Take it Slowly
Distance Learning in Music doesn’t have to be intense. Issues of equality in access to technology and the internet are prevalent. The mental health issues and feelings of overwhelm are real for many of our families.
Start with a read-aloud.Scholastic has given digital read aloud permission to educators. Click here for the guidelines. Read a music book to your students. You can find a list of music-related books published by Scholastic here.
“Giraffes Can’t Dance” is one of my faves. I love the ending: “Anyone can dance when they find music that they love.” Take a video of yourself reading this story and post it on Google Classroom. Keep it simple and ask your students a question like, “What kind of music do you love?” If you read it on a Zoom/Google Meet call, you can have each student take a turn sharing their favourite music.
2. Tweak an Existing Lesson to Make it Digital
Don’t let Distance Learning in Music keep you down. Sometimes, all you need to do is take an existing lesson and go digital.
For example, we do a Theme and Variations Unit in Grade 6. I would usually end with an individual composition and performance but that won’t work this time since not all of my students have instruments at home. I spent some time looking through my unit to figure out what I could put online to have them complete independently. Then, I decided which handouts I could convert to a Google Slide.
Here is part of my lesson:
First, the students can change a box in some way. They can resize it, add colour or add shapes. This helps demonstrate that the original box (that they can’t change) is the theme and the box that they changed is a variation on the original.
Next, students explore the definition of theme and variations and can listen to an example using Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.
Then, the students are given a piece of music, “Hey Jude” by The Beatles and are asked to identify the elements of music that they hear. They type their response right on the Google Slide. I also shared with them three variations on “Hey Jude” where they discover how the artists changed the elements of music.
This lesson is available in my store and includes the Google Slides if you think it might be helpful for you and your students.
3. Create New Lessons Geared Towards Distance Learning in Music
Once you feel comfortable with modifying your current lessons for distance learning you can create new ones that are geared specifically to distance learning in music!
For this lesson, I am taking my students on a journey through time from the Medieval Period right up to the music of today. The students will use these Distance Learning Music Journals to respond to different pieces of music. (To see how I introduced listening activities in the brick and mortar classroom you can read this post.) They pick one piece from each time period to listen to. Then, they choose one of the journal prompts and type their response on the slide.
There is no right way or wrong way to do this whole distance learning in music thing. You know yourself and you know your students. Pay attention to how your students respond to the learning activities you give them and then adjust your plans.
I’d love it if you would go on this distance learning journey with me. I’ll be sharing ideas on Instagram so come on over.
