• Sign In
  • ACDA.org
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
ChoralNet

ChoralNet

The professional networking site for the global online choral community.

  • Home
  • Blog
  • ACDA News
  • Events
  • Community
    • Announcements
    • Classifieds

Sixth Graders in your Choral Music Classroom

October 29, 2016 by Dale Duncan Leave a Comment


Here in Georgia, I lead classes for all three grades of the middle school years-sixth, seventh and eighth.  I love getting to experience their growth during the three years, but my teaching improved a lot when I really this important fact:

6th, 7th and 8th graders are vastly different.  

For sixth graders, the world of middle school is new and exciting, but it is also incredibly frightening for many.   Most middle schools in my state include well over 1400 children.  Most of the elementary schools contain fewer than 400 children. 

There are so many new things for 6th graders to deal with.

Lockers…Teachers with many varied expectations…Accountability in ways they’ve never encountered before…Children from other schools who are from different socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds.   The list is long.

It’s a huge transition.

Each year, I see the stress in their faces.  In the first weeks of school, I always encounter tears.  I almost always teach children who struggle to survive in this new world of middle school, and they start racking up absences as their mental and/or physical well-being take a hit from all of the stress.

When they walk into my room each day, I look into their faces and say hello and try to assess how they are feeling and what they’ve faced before walking through my door.  

I want my chorus classroom to bring some light into their day.  

Does that mean that I am easy on them? 

Oh no.

Far from it…We work bell-to-bell, and my expectations are high.

But, I work to make them smile and laugh with silly humor at least once per day whenever I can.

They can be an energy-sucking challenge when we don’t recognize how their brains work, so I want to share three strategies that have helped me.

They thrive on structure, and they need answers!

 Routines are so important for them.  From the beginning of the year, I make sure I’ve set up my room in a very clear, functional way to help improve their chances for success.  I talk about it in this video.

“What will a 6th grader want to know that I have not covered?”

8th graders don’t raise their hands to ask 15 questions, but 6th graders do.  It’s just where they are in their learning curve, but if you are careful and thoughtful and clear, you can avoid lots of these issues.  

When I am explaining the procedures for concert night, for example, I try to think like a sixth grader.  In order to keep them from raising their hands before I finish explaining something and interrupting and delaying the work we are doing, I have to make sure I’ve thought of every single detail.  

I don’t allow my 6th graders to ask questions until I’m finished explaining everything about whatever I’m talking about.  If they raise their hand to interrupt, I politely say, “Put the hand down.” Then, when I’ve finished, I allow for a brief question/answer session.  I don’t let it go too long because they lose focus quickly and inappropriate behaviors will begin or they’ll start to ask questions about lunch or something else totally unrelated.  I cut off the question/answer session and allow them to come up to me after class to ask the remaining questions one-on-one as they are exiting the room.

They need a change of routine every few minutes.

 It is a bad idea to spend 15 minutes trying to get them to sing the DO-MI-SOL perfectly in tune in measure 31.  It’s not going to happen today, so let it go.  🙂

When it comes to learning singing in the group setting, Sixth Graders cannot bear to sit in the same location doing the same thing for very long.  They need you to change it up way more frequently than their older peers. Get them up out of the chairs.  Find physical ways to do teach your lesson when you can, but do it in a very clear and structured way. 

Then, find a silent way to teach the next concept.  

The roller coaster ride keeps them interested.

When they get bored, they start tattling and talking.

 …and isn’t that why we decided NOT to teach elementary school in the first place?  

Teach them how to listen while they sing

They don’t know how when they arrive in your classroom.  They’ve only had music once per week in their previous school.  It is nearly impossible to develop great listening skills in a 30 minute music lesson once per week.  The elementary teacher did the best they could with the time they had to do it.

Ear-training is up to you.  You have to teach them how to listen while they sing, and it takes time.  Doing it while they are so young will serve you beautifully over the next two years, so make it happen! 

 Some of the things I notice in my sixth graders regarding listening while they sing:

1)    They almost never sing DO in tune when they try to sing a scale.  They sing DO and 3/4.  We have to help them realize that. Don’t ignore it.  It won’t go away.  Give them DO when you want them to sing a scale and ask them to sing the DO back to you before they sing the scale.

2)  On the descending scale, TI is always a hot mess.  It sounds like chopsticks.  Teach them to hear it.  Sing it back to them the way you hear it…they’ll laugh…

3)  And MI/FA?  Wow.  It’s always going to be FA and 3/4 unless you fix it.

In their repertoire, if there is any passage that includes “MI/FA” or “TI/DO” or other chromatic pitch, they are going to struggle, so teach it carefully!  I like to use a solfege preview before they actually try to sing the song that includes the tricky passages.  This helps to get them centered on the pitch before they get distracted by the words and symbols on the page of music.  

Ear development takes time!  We didn’t develop ours overnight either!  🙂

For more ideas for teaching in the middle school choral music classroom, check out my blog.

Dale


Filed Under: Music in the Middle Tagged With: sight singing

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

  • ACDA.org
  • The ChoralNet Daily Newsletter
Advertise on ChoralNet

On This Day
June 30

Giovanni Maria Sabino, Italian organist, composer, and educator, was born on this day in 1588.

Would you like to submit a blog post for consideration?

Are you interested in becoming a regular ChoralNet blogger? Please contact ACDA Director of Membership & Communications Sundra Flansburg at .

RSS JW Pepper

  • 5 Things to Consider When Buying Color Guard Equipment
  • PYO Music Institute Presents the 9th Annual Ovation Award in Partnership with J.W. Pepper, Jacobs Music, and WRTI 90.1 FM
  • 10 Easy-To-Learn Funky Tunes for the Stands
  • Zoom F3 Field Recorder Review: The Easiest Way to Get Pro Audio for Your Music Ensembles
  • J.W. Pepper Names Eric King as New Chief Financial Officer
  • The Music Teachers’ Guide to Recording an Ensemble: The Samson C02 Mics Review
  • The Zoom Q8n-4K Handy Video Recorder Review
  • Directors & Parents: Download Our New Contest & Festival Checklist
  • If You Love West Side Story, Listen to These!
  • The Music of Rita Moreno, a West Side Story Icon

RSS NAfME

  • Recruiting and Maintaining a Diversified Teacher Workforce
  • Assessing the Standards: An Exploration of the Respond Model Cornerstone Assessment
  • Nearly Half of the 2023 GRAMMY Music Educator AwardTM Quarterfinalists Are NAfME Members
  • Reevaluating Professional Practice
  • The Importance of Knowledge Transfer in Music Education
  • Star-Songs and Constellations: Lessons from the Global Jukebox
  • NAfME Endorses the Reopen and Rebuild America’s Schools Act of 2021
  • 5 Things Teachers Can Do to Recharge over the Summer
  • 2022 Call for Applications: SRME Executive Committee
  • Yay Storytime! Musical Adventures with Children’s Picture Books, Part Sixteen

Footer

Connect with us!

  • Home
  • About
  • Help
  • Contact Us
  • ACDA.org

Recent Blogs

  • Choral Potpourri/Choral Ethics: Talking With Friends
  • Gratitude for Those Who Serve in State Leadership
  • Midweek Meditation: The Inner Critic
  • K-12 Teaching: Repertoire Selections for School Choirs
  • Dropping the Covid Ball with Dr. Nikki Johnson

American Choral Directors Association

PO Box 1705
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
73101-1705

© 2022 American Choral Directors Association. All rights reserved.
Terms of Use | Privacy Policy