"Recipes" for Teaching Music!

As for lessons, what works for me may or may not work for you. Nonetheless, here are some thoughts on how I go about laying out my ideas for the week, month and semester. I hope, at least, some of you will find them helpful.

The older I get, the more need I have to do things in units or segments, so that I can keep things straight in my head.

The first 6 weeks, I concentrate solely on American folk songs, work songs, spirituals and the like, because I teach music using the Kodaly Approach. Kodaly believed that it was very important for students to know their own mother-tongue, rich, music heritage first.

There are some Folksongs that can be found on this page but this is not solely a Folksong page.

Each grade level should be able to sing from memory at least 25 folks songs by the end of each year. Each year, I build upon the previous year's songs and so on, so that by the time the fifth graders go on to middle school, they have a hefty repertoire in American folk songs.

The second six weeks, we work on holiday music, and of course my upper grades begin preparation for their Christmas pageant.

The third six weeks, we continue our holiday songs and, all along, I try to have extension activities on Fridays, calling them Fun Fridays, and at least one listening lesson or composer lesson per week. I see my students daily for 25 minutes, except for kindergarten, which I see every other day. I have eleven classes each day. The classes begin learning folk songs from other countries during this six weeks and I continue these studies, mixed with their own heritage songs for the remainder of the year.

The fourth six weeks, I do an intensive coverage of Blues songs and Jazz artists, composers, and also an intensive study of Scott Joplin's opera, Treemonisha. The students view a video of The Houston Grand Opera performing Treemonisha and then they create a book based on the various Acts and Scenes in cooperative groups. We display these books at the end of school in the Author/Illustrator's Club end of school program.

The fifth six weeks, we begin recorders in the upper grades and the rest of my classes will begin an intense study of playing percussion instruments, Orff instrumentation and the like. However, we have one or two days each week where we practice playing parts to accompany our songs using the Orff instruments through-out the year. I also introduce improvisation during the Black History studies during the months of January and February.