Hello again, friends! From what I’ve seen on social media, many of you are in the midst of distance learning right now. Me? Well right now we’re in person, but who knows what each new day will bring. Either way, I find that music class just isn’t the same without these five activities, whether in person or online with a distance learning lesson. Hopefully no matter what your teaching situation, these tips can help. 🙂
Greeting
Do you have a hello song? Is there a typical procedure for the beginning of your classes? Keep it up online, too! My students enter the room with the agenda and objectives posted on the board. We sing our hello song, and then we go over what I have projected. During distance learning, I try to keep it as similar as possible, to try to give the students (and myself) some normalcy. When I open the Zoom meeting, I have music playing in the background, and I share my screen so the students can see our agenda slide. To read more about how I use agenda slides, click here.
While students enter the meeting, this is also a great time to give them a small task. For example, when we were going to play along with “In the Hall of the Mountain King,” I left this message at the bottom of the agenda.
If you don’t need students to grab anything for the lesson, you could leave a fun question for them. If the students are old enough, I have them put their answer in the chat. For younger students, they can raise their hand and unmute to share their answer with the class. This is a wonderful way to bond with your students, while giving them the social time they very much need. Here are some examples of prompts you might want to give your students.
- If you were an instrument, which one would you be, and why?
- Would you rather be able to fly or have super speed?
- Name one song that makes you happy.
- What are you looking forward to doing this weekend?
- What is a hidden talent of yours?
Review
This school year, we can’t count on most of our students coming to class every single day. With all of the students going in and out of quarantine, I find it has been even more important to review from lesson to lesson. Our warm-up activity and the first part of each class is spent on reinforcement activities. Before we return to any concept, students volunteer to review what we previously learned. I find that having students go over the learning that their classmates might have missed is much more engaging than explaining it all myself. Time for review is always a good idea, especially during such unstable times.
Instruments/Playing
Students miss making music together, so this one is extremely important. Like I showed earlier in this post, I will sometimes give the students a task of finding an at-home instrument while we wait for class to begin. Students can of course use body percussion, but they have fun finding something around them to tap, shake, or scrape. I provide examples of at-home instruments on the agenda, but the students know they can get creative with it.
Play-along videos from YouTube have been a total lifesaver this year. We can play the rhythms with found instruments, or get our bodies moving with body percussion play-alongs. I’ll link a few of my favorites below.
Movement
Finding ways to move during a distance learning lesson can be a challenge, but it’s possible. Full disclosure: sometimes a few students in a class don’t move with us, or have their cameras turned off. There’s nothing I can do about that, and it is not the hill I want to die on. But the majority of our students are PUMPED to get out of their seats and wiggle.
Body percussion is a double-dipper activity in my book, since it counts as a play-along as well as a movement activity. But when you want more movement, there are other options. Click here to read a blog post full of no-touch movement activities. My favorites are sharing Music and Movement Cards on my screen, or playing the Copycat Game.
Wrap it Up
Isn’t it nice to bring closure to your lesson? At the end, I do an exit ticket with my students. Some are fancier, like a quick Google Slides or Forms activity, and other times I have the students put their answer in the chat, or hold up a number to show their level of understanding.
After I’ve explained the exit ticket to the students and answered any questions, they are welcomed to unmute to join us in the goodbye song. Is there a lag? Yup. Do I care? Nope. The kids love the familiarity, and being able to sing with their classmates. Afterward, they can complete their exit ticket and sign off.
Each of my lessons, whether in-person or distance learning, includes these five types of activities, because I find it works for my kids. Distance learning lesson planning doesn’t need to be super complicated. And in my opinion, it shouldn’t be complicated. Just like us, our students have a lot going on right now, so each lesson should have a familiar structure. Do students want to do activities on five different sites or apps during one class? Probably not, so don’t be hard on yourself for not creating every PearDeck, Jam Board, and NearPod activity known to humankind. Using new technology is awesome, but pace yourself. You don’t want to overwhelm yourself or your students. What things do you always include in your lessons? Did I leave out any of your favorites?
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