The Art of Teaching Children, page 23
Have Your Kids Respond to Great Music
I’m very fond of this activity because it combines music and writing, and it exposes children to some of the greatest composers and musical compositions of all time. To start, have your students sit at their desks and close their eyes. Let them put their heads down if they wish. You might also want to turn out the lights. Each student should have a piece of paper and a pencil. Then play a piece of classical music or a selection from it. When it’s over, ask the kids to jot down how the music made them feel and what it made them think about. (“Today we listened to __________. It made me think of __________.”) Don’t say the title of the piece until after they’re finished writing, as this might sway their thinking. When everyone’s done, ask who’d like to share.
There are so many famous works to choose from. Some of my favorites included: the “Hornpipe” movement from Handel’s Water Music, Mozart’s “Eine Kleine Nachtmusik,” Vivaldi’s “Spring” from The Four Seasons, Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata,” “Für Elise,” and Fifth Symphony, as well as Tchaikovsky’s “Waltz of the Flowers” and “Russian Dance” from The Nutcracker. Other popular pieces with children include Wagner’s “The Ride of the Valkyries,” Khachaturian’s “Sabre Dance,” Mussorgsky’s Night on Bald Mountain, Strauss’s “The Blue Danube,” Bizet’s overture to Carmen, and Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue. As you play the pieces, expect to observe tapping feet, bouncing knees, and bodies swaying with the music. A couple of kids will be conducting.
Attend a Performance
If the opportunity is available to you, take your class to a live performance. For children, there is great value in it. For some of your students, it may be the first one they have ever seen.
It’s a lot of work to take children to a live performance, that’s for sure. The most difficult part is not the planning or getting there. The hardest part is that window of time between when kids sit down in the theater and when the show begins. This period of time (there should be a name for it) requires rapid problem solving skills and split-second thinking on the part of the teacher. As your students begin taking their seats, you have to quickly figure out which kids should be separated and who needs to sit as close to you as possible. After everyone is seated and until the lights come down, you will spend all your time telling children to not turn around, to get their feet off the seats in front of them, and to stop standing up so they can see their seats snap up when they get out of them.
If you can’t go to a performance, bring them to your classroom. Just as the internet offers an abundance of virtual museum tours, art classes, and dance numbers, a myriad of theatrical performances are available online too. Take students behind the scenes of the making of Broadway shows such as Disney’s Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, or The Lion King. Show them clips from The Nutcracker and symphony concerts. While you’re at it, teach the names of the instruments. Acquaint your kids with the performances of Marcel Marceau, then ask them to pantomime like him. Introduce your students to the laugh-out-loud antics of Lucille Ball and silent screen actors Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd.
A lot of teachers like to give their students “brain breaks”—short pauses during the day to rest the brain cells. Children need them. Sometimes for my brain breaks, I would take my class on short virtual trips like the ones I just mentioned. I liked giving breaks like this. In doing so, my students were getting a little rest and a little culture at the same time.
Welcome an Artist to the Classroom
Children enjoy having guests visit. Classroom visitors liven things up. When guests speak to your class, you get an opportunity to see your students from a different perspective. If you have the opportunity, invite an artist into your classroom. Ask them to bring in their work and give a demonstration. The artists don’t have to be professional. They can be parents or colleagues. When I lived in California, sometimes I invited my mom in. She painted landscapes. My mom would bring in a painting that she was working on and talk about the process. Although it was nice to have her visit, I wouldn’t recommend inviting your mom. If you do, your students will ask her more questions about what kind of trouble you got into as a kid than about her painting. After one of my mom’s visits, a student asked why she didn’t bring in cupcakes on my birthday. The children knew she lived close by. Later, I told her what the child said, and we had a good laugh about it. The next day she brought in thirty-two cupcakes. Smart kid.
Encourage the Artists
Sometimes I wonder what it would have been like to teach some of the world’s most famous artists. Take Meryl Streep, as an example. Imagine having had her in your class play! Or Mikhail Baryshnikov. How many times did his teacher have to tell him to stop jumping in line? Or what about Pablo Picasso? Can you imagine if you had saved all the doodles he scribbled in class? You’d be a gazillionaire!
Whenever I’m watching an award show like the Academy Awards, and an actor thanks his teacher, the corners of my mouth turn up into a big teacher smile. It makes me proud. I once heard an interview with actress Hilary Swank after she won her first Oscar, during which she thanked her fourth-grade teacher for casting her in The Jungle Book. It made me wonder just how many professional artists got their start because a teacher recognized a talent and said, “You should think about pursuing this.”
As we all know, school isn’t geared for artists. Just look at the amount of time we spend on math and science compared to the time we devote to the arts. But we all have students who may one day choose professions in the arts. In our classrooms sit the future performers, designers, filmmakers, photographers, and choreographers. We teach tomorrow’s recording engineers, commercial artists, architects, illustrators, and teachers of the arts. These children deserve to be nurtured and celebrated too. So take every chance to elevate the artists in your room. Acknowledge and celebrate their talents. Talk about their dreams. Help these kids discover their gifts. Some might not even know what they are.
Effect Change
When Winston Churchill was asked to cut funding for the arts during World War II, he replied, “Then what are we fighting for?” In education, sometimes we have to fight for a student, a schedule, a program, something we believe in. Years ago, my school district decided to cancel all instrumental music in the elementary grades due to budget cuts. Up until that time, fourth and fifth graders could learn to play an instrument. It was a wonderful program—the same one that I’d participated in as a child. When I heard that it was on the chopping block, I was terribly disappointed. I went to the board meeting, where I explained on the open mike the positive impact that learning to play an instrument had made on my life. It didn’t help. The program was eliminated. Actually, my own principal at the time seemed to be furious with me for speaking up. She’d supported the cuts and acted as though I was undermining her. My dad had always said to me, “Pick your battles.” Well, this was a battle that I was willing to fight. And so, even though I had no idea what I was doing, I decided to start a band.
I sent a flyer to all the parents of the students in grades four and five at my school explaining my idea and asking if they’d be interested. The children would meet once a week after school for band practice. We would teach three instruments: flute, trumpet, and clarinet. The response from parents was overwhelmingly positive, so I decided to move ahead. I found a flute teacher who believed in instrumental music as much as I did. She was paid out of the fee we charged the parents. The dad of one of the kids volunteered to teach the trumpets. I taught the clarinets. The families rented instruments and bought their music at a local music store. Parents chipped in to a scholarship fund for those who couldn’t afford it so that every child who wanted to participate could. To my surprise, it wasn’t that hard to set it all up. On the first day of band practice, we had forty-seven students.
After rehearsing for several months, it was time for our debut concert. The kids wore red T-shirts donated by a local company. On each shirt was a circle of white letters that spelled out “Cumberland Band.” (The name of the school was Cumberland.) One of the moms offered to accompany us on the piano, and I found a former student to play the drums. The multipurpose room was full of parents. A few board members even came. And there on the stage, I conducted forty-seven young musicians in “Hot Cross Buns,” “Mary Had a Little Lamb,” “Three Blind Mice,” and “Jingle Bells” (in June). For thirty minutes, clarinets squawked, trumpets pointed toward the floor, and flutes bounced up and down to keep the beat. Music fell off the stands, and the band got out of sync with the drummer. It was one of the proudest moments of my life. When we finished our last piece, and the kids stood up for their bows to a standing ovation, the smiles on the children’s faces showed how proud and happy they were too.
I share this story not to bring attention to myself or pat myself on the back. I tell it because oftentimes teachers feel powerless to effect change. But we can. If you want to start a chorus during lunch, why not? If you’d like to offer a little art class or drama club after school, just dive in. Heck, if you want to start a band, go for it.
There’s a nice ending to this story. When I left that school, the band kept going. The parents took it over. I was pleased about that. It’s been years since I taught there, but once in a while, a photo of a red T-shirt with the words “Cumberland Band” will pop up on my Facebook feed. It warms me up when I read the comments from the former band members, who are all adults now: “I still have that, too!” “Loved it!” “Great memories!” And the best comment of all—“Well, I’ve come full circle. I can’t believe it. Now I teach band!”
Indent Your Teaching
A few years before I retired, I received an email from a former student named Caleb who had been in my fourth-grade class twenty years earlier. It was nice to hear from him. In the note, Caleb reminisced about fourth grade, recalled things he had learned, and asked if I remembered the time he had hidden my glasses. I did. I remembered the hour it took me to find them too.
Caleb wrote that his favorite memory of the class was when we pushed the desks together and pretended it was a covered wagon. I recollected the lesson. After the kids piled into the “wagon,” I walked around spraying water on them for that authentic crossing-the-Missouri-River experience. I also recalled that as the children tossed back and forth, Caleb leapt off and pretended he was drowning.
It didn’t surprise me that Caleb’s fondest memory was when he’d acted something out. Very often, when children participate in dramatic play, it produces a lasting impact. Drama and children are a winning combination. When I speak about drama here, I’m referring to creative dramatics, which doesn’t involve reading scripts, handing out parts, memorizing lines, or performing for an audience. Those activities, which are also valuable, fall under what is known as theater arts. Another way to think of it is this: In theater arts, the focus is the audience. Creative dramatics focuses on the participants.
All kids love pretend. They default to it. And schools are full of it. In grade schools, you don’t just find students and teachers, principals and secretaries, custodians and crossing guards. You also come across kings and queens, soldiers and police officers, pilots and prisoners. One morning I spotted a group of boys digging a hole beside the bike racks. When I asked what they were doing, they proclaimed, “We’re escaping from Alcatraz!” To witness pretending at school, just stick your head into any kindergarten classroom. There you’ll see boys and girls role-playing in make-believe houses, grocery stores, bakeries, flower shops, pizza parlors, and hospitals. My friend Jill changes out the role-playing area in her kindergarten classroom every few months. One time she set up a veterinarian’s office where her little ones could listen to their stuffed animals’ heartbeats with stethoscopes. Cute. Another time she put together a mini coffee shop with real Starbucks cups. For fun, one day I ordered a coffee from a five-year-old barista. After scribbling my order on a pad of paper, she handed me a cup and asked me to write my name on it. Then she leaned over the counter and whispered, “I can’t write yet. I’m really only in kindergarten.”
The use of creative dramatics has long been recognized as a potent teaching strategy. When students engage in it, their learning is active. Drama creates excitement and nurtures creativity. When children participate in playacting, they’re not just using their imagination. They’re immersed in it. Einstein once said that the highest level of creativity unfolds through play. When teachers incorporate drama into their lessons, they tap into this. Creative dramatics is especially beneficial because it gets kids moving. Their bodies become the learning tool. Furthermore, this kind of imaginative play provides children with an emotional outlet. I always say that drama is the only subject in school that allows students to scream, whine, argue, throw a tantrum, and clown around, and it’s totally okay. In other words, it gives kids permission to act out—in the good way. Of course, I can’t leave out the fact that for children, playacting is just plain fun. When we learn with pleasure, we remember.
Creative dramatics is also powerful in enhancing the curriculum. Drama helps develop literacy skills by supporting speaking and listening. Incorporating dramatic play into history, math, or science can increase students’ interest in these subjects. It can decrease kids’ anxiety in these subjects as well. We all know the old proverb “Tell me, and I will forget. Show me, and I will remember. Involve me, and I will understand.” Drama involves the learner completely. It deepens learning. In other words, it indents it. Years ago, I had a very good friend named Betty who used to talk to her house keys whenever she’d leave her home. “Okay, keys,” she would say, “you’re in my purse now.” Betty told me that saying the words out loud helped her remember where she put them. “It indents it,” she said. Well, creative dramatics has the same effect on learning. When you incorporate it into your teaching, it helps kids remember. It indents it too.
Time and time again, I witnessed the power of drama in the classroom. I saw students who struggled in academics come alive when given a chance to play make-believe. I observed children who spoke little English become active participants when asked to act something out. I watched kids who had trouble getting along with their classmates suddenly able to collaborate. I saw shy children come out of their shells when allowed to play in an imaginary world. Every teacher witnesses these things when they invite children to pretend.
Many teachers recognize the value of drama as a teaching strategy but don’t know where to start. A lot of them lack confidence. Many lack training. In the following pages, I will share some of my favorite drama activities for the classroom. Most of them can be modified for different grade levels. I won’t include any games or warm-ups here (you’ll find lots of those online), just activities that can be used to augment your teaching of the core subjects. Give them a try. Your smiling students will be glad you did. I guarantee that these strategies will make a valuable contribution to your instruction—and indent your kids’ learning as well.
Showing Words
I have one hard-and-fast rule for teaching vocabulary: If a word can be acted out, do so. The best way to learn any new word is with your body. This is especially beneficial for ELL students. Like the Synonyms for Said activity I wrote about earlier, when discussing “feeling words” such as exhausted and petrified, famished and disgusted, skeptical and astonished, invite your kids to act them out. When you’re reading to children, and a character in the book “pierces his lips,” “furrows her brows,” “sighs deeply,” or “gives a mischievous grin,” ask your students to do these things too. If you’re discussing the different ways that characters move, let the kids creep, dash, hobble, limp, march, pace, saunter, shuffle, stagger, and trudge around the room. Your little thespians will love this. When teaching children what sizzle means, tell them to lie down with their backs on the floor and pretend they’re eggs in a frying pan. Announce that you’re turning up the heat. Then observe your little eggs shake, tremble, and shout, “It’s getting hot in here!” Warning: When asking kids to act out words, stay clear of crash, demolish, destroy, explode, smash, and wreck. Children perform these words too well. And never, under any circumstances, ask third-grade boys to act out predator and prey. If you do, you’ll end up shouting, “Okay, that’s enough. Break it up!” as you pull them apart.
Hot Seating
Hot seating is when a student takes on the role of a character from history or a book and responds to questions posed by the class. Before sitting in the hot seat, the children need to have researched their characters and know them pretty well. Students don’t have to be famous people. They can also be eyewitnesses to a historical event. In my classroom, many famous people sat in the hot seat. Among them were Thomas Edison, Jane Goodall, Walt Disney, Neil Armstrong, Sacajawea, Louis Armstrong, Brazilian soccer star Pelé, and Charlie Chaplin. Gold miners, pioneers, and witnesses to the San Francisco earthquake sat in it too. When hot seating, invite your kids to dress up. It adds to the fun. Some children will go all out. One year “Jacques Cousteau” wore flippers, swimming goggles, and two oxygen tanks on his back that he’d made out of empty liter-sized plastic Coke bottles painted silver. Clever. Before asking students to sit in the hot seat, it’s best that you model it first. When I modeled it, I would usually show up as Johnny Appleseed and field questions with a pot on my head.
