iPads

Something beyond description is happening in my 4th grade recorder class. Teaching recorder with a SMARTBoard + iPads is a magical way to differentiate learning in the Music Classroom. This is my first year teaching with 1:1 iPads in the music classroom and I was anxious to see how my lessons, and specifically the learning, would change because of the iPads. I want to share a the wonderful way I’ve been using a SMARTBoard and iPads to differentiate learning in the music classroom. A bit of background: I use an adapted version of the Recorder Karate method. Kudos to Barb Philipak and MK-8! I love the concept and the accompaniment files make even the simplest songs sound important! I own all of the MK-8 Recorder Classroom Magazines and find these pieces to be the perfect supplement to the required pieces in Recorder Karate. Paul Jennings, of MK-8,  is masterful at orchestrating and anything he arranges is golden in my book!  Artie Almedia shared her teaching wisdom in the Recorder Classroom Magazines, and her guidance and insight on teaching recorder keeps me grounded and inspired. I feel very fortunate to have such rich resources I can use to create a plan for teaching recorder in my specific situation. 30 minutes of frustration! My music classes are 30 minutes in length and it is a challenge to manage the learning in that short amount of time – especially with recorders. (I’m sure you can read between the lines!) It has always been a frustration in such a short amount of time, to teach the concept, play through the piece, work with the little fingers, make sure they are actually reading the notes and not just memorizing, help the frustrated, and feed those who really “get it” and want to move on! Yikes! This year is different! Using the Interactive SMARTBoard to teach Recorder I haven’t been posting much on this blog lately, mainly because I’ve been hard at work creating  a way to use the iPads and the SMARTBoard to bring a traditionally taught lesson into the 21st century. The SMARTBoard is perfect for projecting the recorder pieces. Students can see the music and I can link the accompaniment files to each page so that I don’t have to use my iPod  – it’s all right there on the SMART notebook page when I need it. That musical link alone makes the flow of my 30-minute lesson efficient. The SMARTBoard is more than just a projector and music player! Use the magic pen to spotlight specific notes. The magic pen spotlight guarantees their eyeballs are where you want them! Let the children use the magic pen to enlarge phrases for comparison. It’s truly difficult for some children to see the difference between B and G! Create movable notes for note-reading practice. Have students create the note patterns. Start with just BAG and add-on. Great warm-up. Use disappearing ink for dictation. Draw a phrase and the students have to copy it down before the ink disappears. Use disappearing ink and draw a rhythmic pattern the students have to play using a newly learned fingering. Create good and bad (mp3) examples for songs and have students critique each performance for correct tone, leaks and squeaks, correct notes, etc. Nothing teaches like a bad example! Have fun! Those are just a few examples of how I turn the SMARTBoard projected image into an interactive lesson that grabs and keeps students’ attention. My students and I WORK things out together on the SMARTBoard. Music making on the SMARTBoard is alive… it changes… it gets in my students’  heads and HEART! The SMARTBoard gives my students a way to play together with the tiny pieces of musical notation that pencil and paper can’t duplicate. It doesn’t stop there! Using the iPad to Differentiate Learning in the Music Classroom I’ve spent the last month creating a detailed plan for mastering the Recorder. Granted, I played the recorder in college (pretty nerdy!) and I don’t expect my students to get to that level. We only study the recorder for 9 weeks, so I also want to be able to move them through the belts quickly with options for remedial work when necessary. However, I needed to know where I was taking them and get everything ready because I knew that if the iPad did what I thought it would do, I had better be prepared! I needed a way to teach to the common level during class, but also manage those students who would be able to move along faster. I needed to plan for differentiated learning among my students. With only 30 minutes and no real options for after-school help, the iPad is the perfect way to reach my students at different levels. Here’s what I did: I created a QR code linked to the recorder song image To make an mp3 musical example, I played and recorded each song . I created a front/ back hand-out for each Recorder Karate level with QR code links to all the files needed for that level. During class, I have students scan QR codes to pull in the musical score on their iPad rather than use their camera to take a picture of the music. I created fingering activities  and students have to draw in the correct fingering for a song before they play it. This works especially well for the slower students who say, “I can’t play it… I don’t know the notes!) They actually do know the notes, they just haven’t associated them with the fingering yet. Students complete this fingering activity anytime they are struggling and it always helps! This fingering activity is in contrast to writing in the note names. Students Make Videos on their iPads Students use Explain Everything or Book Creator on their iPad to record themselves playing the required piece. Sometimes, I have them work in small groups to make just one recording. They bring me the recording at the end of the lesson. If I don’t have time