Three Tips for Choosing Concert Rep Your Big Kids Will Connect With

3 Tips for Choosing Concert Rep:

1. Let your students choose the music.
2. Break out the cool manipulatives. 
3. Let them design the way they want to present the song. 

Episode quotes:

[4:15] I started thinking about THAT class because you know, they're always in the back of your head - those kids that you just aren't connecting with, the ones that make you feel like a bad teacher. Even though you're really not a bad teacher, you're a fabulous teacher and I know this because you're listening to this podcast. You wouldn't be listening to this podcast and trying to improve anything if you weren't a good teacher. 

[9:48] They're going to be so much more on board if you let them choose the music, even if you give them two choices [that you select]. It is the same with the manipulatives. I give them a choice between two really cool things and they get to decide which one they want to use. 

[15:22 - Bonus tip on how I help my students work together in groups] When we split into groups, I always remind them that it is a big deal that everybody is allowed to say their opinion. I will demo it. I'll say, okay, if I'm in a group with John and Robert and Sally and we are all trying to figure out ideas, I'll say my idea. Then Robert gets to say his idea. Then Sally gets to say her idea. Then John gets to say his idea and everybody gets a chance to say their idea before you make a choice. And then you can talk. And then I'm always sure to say, if there's a disagreement, the first thing you do is take a vote. If a vote doesn't work, rock, paper, scissors. And if that doesn't work, come and see me. Please do not argue about it. 

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You know how you have that class? I know everybody has one of those classes. Usually it's a fourth grade or fifth grade. Or if you are lucky enough to teach sixth grade, it might be a sixth grade class. Well, I have that fourth grade class and it's so random because the fourth graders at my school are just the sweetest, most awesome, polite, respectful students. And then I have that class and that class is full of students who, they're just a little more street smart, a little more savvy, a little more eye rolly, you know, those kinds of students who are just so hard to connect with. And I was in front of them one day and we were in the process of developing some movement for the program that I was doing for the fourth grade in the fall. And I was really at my wits end because they just were not on board with anything I was doing.

It was so frustrating, and I don't know about you, but for me, when it's that class, they are the ones that I always want to connect with their, I, I feel like it's my goal in life to make them love music. That is what I don't know. Like I love the kids that are, that are, especially the little ones, the the ones that are just like, they're falling out of their chair and they're like just those kids. And I just love them. I love those kids. So, and, and they don't think I do because, you know, I'm constantly redirecting and I'm constantly, um, trying to get them to, you know, do better. So I'm always talking to them. So this is that class. And some of the kids are a little taller, I think, you know, they've already gone through puberty or, or they're headed that way or whatever.

I don't know. They might be a little bit older, some of them as well, but, and, and they are, they're, they're nice people, don't get me wrong, but you know how it is. They're just that class. So I am struggling hard and I'm starting to get a little panicky because I know that my fourth grade program is coming up and they're not ready and I can't get them ready because they just wouldn't cooperate. And I was at the ORFF National Conference, which if you've never gone to the Orff National Conference, I so highly recommend it. It is amazing. It is like music teacher heaven. And so I was there and I took some workshop and during the workshop, I don't even remember exactly what it was that the session leader was saying, but it somehow kind of got me thinking about that class because you know, they're always in the back of your head, those kids that you just aren't connecting with the ones that make you feel like a bad teacher.

Even though you're really not a bad teacher, you're a fabulous teacher and I know this because you're listening to this podcast. You wouldn't be listening to this podcast and trying to improve anything if you weren't a good teacher. So I'm thinking about this class and I'm like, I know what's going on. What I had done is I had given them an activity that another class designed and they were so not on board with it. It was so not their personality. So this is what I did. I got back and I was so excited to see them and I legit said to them, boys and girls, I think that the reason that you're not connecting to this movement is that you didn't get any part in designing it. I'm just trying to teach it to you. And they kind of looked at me with those deer in the headlights like, what are you kidding?

Like, like I was legit telling them I was wrong and I was legit saying, you didn't get to participate in this. You didn't get to help create it. So I think that we need to revamp. And I was like, I asked their permission. I said, are you okay if we just kind of start over? And they were like, yeah. So what I did is we listened to the music and I let them choose their own groups. And I warned them before, I said, if you're not gonna talk about what I ask you to talk about or you're gonna just, you know, do random garash, then I will choose your groups for you. But I'm gonna allow you to choose your own group. I let them choose their own groups. They were so excited about that because who does that? Right? And then I let them talk about, you know, what kind of movement they might design.

And I kid you not for the first time all year, they were so excited and I didn't bring out any of my fun manipulatives at the beginning, but we designed some movement and then I added my scarves and then I said, okay, let's bring out the canopy scarves. And I said, let's split into two ginormous groups and let's do that. So I'm telling you literally the first time all year that they were on board and they are a class that nine times outta 10, if I'm doing something, even if it's something fun, they're still not on board. So don't think that I turned it all around and they're totally on board now because right now I'm struggling hard with them again. But I am about to do some revamping again. So one of the things that I've been reading about on Facebook is that big kids are not on board with the concert rep.

They're not on board with what's going on in your classrooms. And I feel you, because I am having the same problem. So I'm going to give you, let's see, 1, 2, 3, I'm gonna give you three , believe it or not, I had to count, cuz I wrote these notes last week and I couldn't remember how many, how many I gave you, but I'm giving you three tips to help you. Now if this is not you, don't worry about it. But I'm gonna say to you, if nothing else is working, why not try it? What's the worst that could happen? It might not work, but if you think I'm cray cray and you're like, Nope, that's not working for me, then you know, don't do it. So first thing is let them choose the music. Now I'm not saying, you know, have them give suggestions and uh, they're gonna suggest their three random pop songs or their hip hop songs that like, oh my gosh, it's 90 even appropriate for uh, class.

That kind of thing. I'm saying, I mean you can do that if you trust the kids. And I do have classes that I can do that with that I can say, okay, each group give me one cuz my kids are divided into groups. I've got them in groups of three and there are eight of them. Each group give me one song and then we vote on those eight songs. Now they have two minutes to discuss and if they do not come up with a song in two minutes, I give them a second go around. So I go like this group one, I write their suggestion down, group two, we don't know. And I'm like, okay, move on group three. And then I go back and I say, group two, do you have anything yet? No. Okay, well then we're going with seven choices instead of eight.

So I do not give them long. I'm not messing around, I we don't have time to waste and I've got 45 minutes. So if you've only got 30, you have even less time to waste. So I do that and then we vote. And you know, that's one way to do it. A second way to do it would be to bring out two songs that you think they'll connect with and that you really want to do because you have to be on board with it as well of course. So two songs that you really want to do and you let them, you listen to both of them and you tell them a little bit about what the activity is gonna look like that they'll do with it. Or we're gonna design an activity to go with one of these and I want you to get to choose which one to do.

They're gonna be so much more on board if you let them choose the music, even if you give them two choices, even if you give them, give them, give them two choices, they are going to be so much more on board with it. So that is the first thing. Let them choose the music. Tip number two, bring out your cool manipulatives. So I have spent the last, mm, maybe two years, so let me, let me tell you how blessed I am. I had a principal that left our school and before she left our school, she decided that she wanted to set up the music program and she wanted to set up the art program. So we had everything that we needed. So she gave me money to spend and I was able to buy orff instruments and non pitched percussion instruments that I really didn't have before.

So I did a lot of that. So when this year and last year when I got my cis money, my federal money, I had sort of money to burn because my instrument collection is amazing at this point. So what I did is I went and like found all of the coolest manipulatives when I was at the National Orff conference, I brought POS with me. If you don't know normally do that, I definitely recommend doing that. So I bought, brought pos with me and I walked around and I bought like a super stretchy and I bought these ombre gorgeous ombre scarves. They are amazing. And I bought these really satiny silky streamers and I bought canopy scarves. They are these ginormous scarves. And then I've got bean bags that we get out and I mean I've got all kinds of cool stuff. So one of the ways that I like to get my students on board is by bringing out those cool manipulatives and allowing them to choose what to do with them.

Now I'm not gonna bring all of them out. I'm gonna say to them, do you want to use scarves or streamers? Do you want to use basketballs or drums? And you know, so I, I give them a choice between two really cool things and they get to decide which one they want to use. And then the way that I do it is I give each group, again, I've got my groups of three, but sometimes I'll combine them into groups of five or six because you know, in some classes I've only got a group of two and then other groups of three whatever. So sometimes I'll do groups of five or six and I will give them, I will show them, I don't give out the manipulatives right away because if I do that then you know what they're doing. They're twisting and turning and doing all kinds of silly crazy things with them.

Another way you could do this is you could give them the manipulatives first and say okay, you have 30 seconds to play with the manipulative, with the scarf, with the beanbag and find some cool things to do with it. Maybe a minute. And then I have Siri set a timer or if you've got one of those cool timers as digital timers in your classroom or, or look up a digital timer I should say. That way they know how much time they have and you will see them glancing at the timer. So that is what I like to do with that is I give them some time to play with the manipulatives and then I take them and I say, okay, now I want you to design with that in mind so that they stay on task. And I'll be like, okay, you've got, let's say two minutes, three minutes depending to go ahead and do some designing.

When those two or three minutes are up, I say I, I do my stop my stop signal for them and then I have them show me and, but I'll do like thumbs up if you're ready, thumbs and I'll, I'll show them. I don't, I don't actually say thumbs up, I'm ready, I do my thumbs up, I'm almost ready. I do my thumb in the middle, I need more time. I do my thumb at the bottom and if I've got a lot of people in the middle or around the bottom, then I will actually give them another 30 seconds to a minute so that they have some time to really work things out and then they have to demo to me. And if they demo to me and I like it, I'll be like, yep, that's good, let's move on. If I don't like it, I'm gonna say first I really liked this about it, but I think you need to change this and this is why.

So that is how I do that. So they know that they need to show me so they're gonna be working hard. There was a time when I used to try and do whole group design of that kind of thing, design of movements or movement I should say. And what I found is that it's so much harder to do it that way. It's so much easier if you give the students time to talk. Cuz just like when you are trying to work something out, isn't it so much easier if you have somebody to talk out loud with it and come up with ideas and bounce ideas off of and that sort of thing. The other thing is when we split into groups, I always remind them this is a big deal that everybody is allowed to say their opinion and I will demo it. I'll say, okay, if I'm in a group with John and Robert and Sally and we are all trying to figure out ideas, I'll say my idea.

Then Robert gets to say his idea. Then Sally gets to say her idea. Then John gets to say his idea and everybody gets a chance to say their idea before you make a choice. And then you can talk. And then I'm always sure to say, if there's a disagreement, the first thing you do is take a vote. If a vote doesn't work, rock, paper, scissors. And if that doesn't work, come and see me. Please do not argue about it. And believe it or not, that tends to work even with younger kids. So that is tip number two, bring out your cool manipulatives. Tip number three, let them design the way they want to present the song. So what I like to do there is I like to let them listen to the song and then I'll say to them, okay boys and girls, what do you think we should do with this song?

Should we add? And then I'll put up on the board, should we add movement? Should we play our ukuleles with this song? Of course you wanna make sure that if you're gonna suggest ukuleles, that it's a song that they actually can play to. Do we want to add some drumming? Do we want to add basketballs? Do we want to add some sort of scarves or, or bean bags or or bouncy ball tossing or something like that. Do we wanna use tennis balls? I try to do lots of that sort of stuff with my kiddos all throughout the year so that when we get to something like this, they have some background knowledge to pull from. And so I like to say to them, let's come up with, I don't know, five or six things. Or if you've got your groups, like I've got my groups of three.

Each group gets to come up with something they wanna do, something they want to use or some way they want to present it and then they, we take a vote. So that is a really good way to do it because then they get to present it. Once you've taken your vote and you've decided on what to then I like to split the song up into pieces. Give everybody a part, but we don't necessarily use everyone's part. And I'm gonna say that to them to begin with, you are coming up with ideas. This is a brainstorming session. Again, everybody in the group gets to give their idea and then we may take a vote and we may say, okay, what do we think works? What do we think doesn't work? Now you always get the prerogative and I always have the prerogative to just choose once they have given me ideas.

If you don't have the time to put into, okay, let's listen to all the ideas and then let's vote and let's this and let's that, that is okay, you don't have to do it that way. And you don't have to do any of this, I'm just telling you, it is so much easier to get your big kids and even your little kids on board with singing, with performing if you give them some control. Because think about how rarely they have any control in their lives in school, at home, in their day-to-day activities. They don't get a lot of control. And you know, especially those big kids, they are dying for that control. Now I have a bonus tip for you and that is this. If your students don't want to participate in the concert, the last thing you want to do is punish them in some way.

The last thing you want to do is give them a consequence. Usually what I'll do, and I really don't have that many students because of the way I do this, that are like, nope, I'm not doing it. I had a couple of fourth graders and so I took them aside at a completely different time away from their class and I talked the to them a little bit about it and was like, okay, so what's going on? And nine times outta 10 it's like a stage fright thing or people are gonna laugh at me or you know, that sort of thing. So it is really, really important that you don't punish students for not wanting to participate because nine times outta 10 it may look like attitude to you, but it's really not attitude. There is something going on that's making them uncomfortable about going on stage.

And legit, every single one of my fourth graders performed. Even one guy who was like, I don't wanna do this, and he got a little bit irritable with me and we talked about it. And sometimes what helps is if you give them a special part, like I gave this kiddo a special like part that nobody else got and that put him on board. So I, I just don't think it's necessary with elementary school kids, first of all to shove anything down their throat and second to give them a consequence because they're uncomfortable about something. I truly tell you almost always, it's not an attitude, it's not a level of disrespect. It's truly something that they're feeling uncomfortable about. And if you force the issue or you shove something at them that they don't want to do, are they probably gonna do it? Yeah, but they're not going to enjoy it.

They're not gonna have a good experience. You are not going to enjoy it because you're gonna be getting pushback all the time. So isn't it easier to just allow them to have some choices and allow them to have some control and just allow them the responsibility to be people because they are people, they are and they don't get any control in their lives. Like figure, you know, they have to do math and they have to do reading and they most, for of the time have to be in a certain place. Like they follow a certain regimen all the time. So there is no reason why we can't lead them along the merry path of making music and being joyful about it. Let us go ahead and review. So first of all, let your students choose the music. Either give them a choice between two or three songs or give them a choice between we're gonna choose this song, but let's try and do it a different way.

What do you think? How can we do it differently? Or give them the option to suggest songs. So those are some ways to do that. Bring out your cool manipulatives, your canopy scarves, your super stretchies, that sort of thing. If you don't have those things, write a grant and get some of them. There are, there's so much money out there that's going to waste that people are not using. I, I kid you not, I hear that all the time from people that are, you know, in charge of grants. Number three, let them design the way they want to present the song. And our bonus, please, please, please let them be joyful about music and don't give them a consequence if they don't want to participate. Instead have a conversation with them and you know, try it that way. This is one of the ways that you get to be a happy music teacher.

This is one of the ways that I am a happy music teacher because I don't fight with my kiddos and I don't shove things down their throat. I am so careful to make sure that they are joyful and happy because isn't our job as elementary school music teachers to create a love of music so that when they get to middle school they're like, yes, I'm doing band, or I'm doing choir, or whatever other musical opportunities they have in their lives. Well, that's all I have for you today, but before I go, let me remind you, keep learning, keep growing and keep being fabulous. You.