Thursday, July 26, 2012

Singing in the class

I don't know about you, but I always have a song stuck in my head. The exact song varies, but there's always one there. Right now, for example, the song stuck in my head is "Banjo" by Rascal Flatts. I heard it earlier today, and it just stuck with me. Last year, I was thinking of a way I could incorporate music into my classroom a little bit more. One problem area I wanted to tackle was literary elements. I think students really know what these things are, but when it comes to a standardized test, where they are asking for the exact definition, they get confused and unsure. I wanted to come up with a catchy song that would help them remember what each of the terms were.
My man Mozart wrote a lovely little number, "Eine Kleine Nachtmusik" that I based my literary elements song around. It definitely gets stuck in your head. I love when I heard the kids humming it to themselves while taking a test or trying to answer a question. Even sixth graders, who aren't thrilled about singing in front of there peers, will get into this song. I usually introduce it at the beginning of the year and come back to it when I see a need. I get requests, though, to sing it from time to time without any prodding which is fun.
The song includes brief definitions of things like characters, main idea, theme, etc. I tried to make it in a way that it was easy to sing and easy to understand.
The song is now available here at my TpT store. Teach it to your students, sing it with them often, and you can be sure to hear it all the time from your students!


No comments:

Post a Comment