Art Survey: An Educational Journey or Required Torture?

I am horribly optimistic when it comes to teaching. I think maybe all first year teachers and interns are, but I mean I think I can do ANYTHING!

It's not my fault completely. In college they say "You can teach anything to anyone at any age if you find the right way to reach them".

And ready to set the world on fire, I jumped right on that bandwagon. I am busy teaching my 3rd graders genres like waltz and fanfare, and my kindergarteners rhythm and patterns. 

But this art survey class is a special challenge. I can not get my pacing down pat. This class is 11th grade non-music readers (except for a couple of band students), and there are not that many of them. I was READY TO START, and since this class is a half a year class, it started when I got there. So I took it over from the beginning.

Now this class is supposed to cover basic music reading and understanding, and then it moves through basic music history for the last 2 months. However, I started creating a pacing guide and then became overcome with excitement. I FLEW through reading music. Those kids did not have any hats, as it is against school policy, but if they did they would have had to hold on to them while I made them learn EVERYTHING I could possibly cram into one lesson.

 

A hurricane of Music Theory comes to devastate the land

I did not want them to be bored, so when I felt like they had a grasp on something I moved on. I'm not saying this was wrong, because the students still have a strong understand of everything we have done. But it may have been overwhelming, and this class is not supposed to be a core academic class. I am not trying to belittle art survey, but it is supposed to be a mild class and I maaaaay have turned up the heat.

 

 Now that I can look back at my lessons and see just how much I crammed in there, I realize I did not make it interesting, I just kept a constant flow of information going. 

So now I have a new goal: less pumping them full of facts and figures every day, more tailoring the learning to what they want to know. 

So after the last quiz on Friday, I asked them what they wanted to know. These were the respsonses I got:

Student 1: "French composers? I'm in a quiz bowl and no one on our team knows about French composers, and they always ask 4 or 5 questions about them."
Me: "Okay, what era of French composers?"
Student 1: "I don't know...all of them?"
Me: "Is there a set time period? Like what years?"
Student 1: "I don't know... all of them?"
Me: "That's like 1500 years of recorded history. We can not possibly cover all of that."
Student 1: "......so, is that a yes or a no?"

Student 2: "Have you seen American Horror Story?"
Me: "What?"
Student 2: "American Horror Story? It's a show."
Me: "Uh, I mean I've heard of it, but I've never watched it. Why? What does that have to do with music history?"
Student 2: "Well, there's this girl, and she plays this thing and it goes like this (begins moving his hands all around) and it makes like the Halloween noises. You know what I mean?"
Me: ".....what?"
Student 2: "Like, she's this girl, and it's got like this stick thing and it makes Halloween noises."
Me: "Okay, I guess I can look that up....."

Student 3: "Do we have to learn about art too?"
Me: "Yes. Music, Art, and maybe even some Dance.
Student 4: "I love dance!"
Student 3: "This sounds boring."
Me: "Well, I'll try and keep it fresh."

Student 2: "Can you bring in a didgeridoo?"
Me: "I can try. They're really big instruments though."
Student 2: "Cool. Also, what is yodeling?"
Me: "I'll have to look it up."

Student 5: "Was Bach an artist or a music person"
Me: "Bach was a composer."
Student 5: "Aww man, student 3, you were right."
Student 4: "Did Da Vinci write music or did he just paint?"
Student 2: "He invented a helicopter! And was an Assassin in Assassin's Creed."
Me: "He was a painter and inventor, but no music background there."
Student 2: "And assassin. In Assassin's Creed."

Student 4: "Are we going to learn about Donatello?"
Me: "Yes, eventually."
Student 4: "What about Rafael?"
Me: "Are you just going through the ninja turtles?"
Student 4: "....."
Whole class laughs. 

This went on for quite some time, and eventually I realized I was giving them too much freedom. They do not know what they are supposed to learn, so how will they know what parts we should focus on? So now here I sit, writing a lesson plan, hoping I can keep their attention at least for a little while.

I do not have high hopes for this first lesson. It's unfortunately about Gregorian Chant.

But I know I do not have to go in depth, as long as I can get them to learn what they need to to build on that. I know without a good foundation they will crumble like a powerline in a hurricane. Time to sloooooow down, even if it means extra work on my part to keep them interested.