power of listening & teaching rock and roll history with 3rd & 4th graders
After school teachers can face challenges of children being exhausted from learning in their classrooms all day. They want to run and climb and be FREE until it’s time for homework... What we do at my school is something truly fascinating and takes a high level of patience. Clubs are planned for children to sign up for and must hold an academic standard as well as objective. The clubs I have taught range from sculpture to ZINE to D.I.Y. and today was the first day of ROCK & ROLL through the ages.
For each week I have prepared playlists and activities relevant to the listening decade. Each week is packed with non-stop awesome. Today we covered everything from native African drumming to B.B. King. Each student has a notebook to record initial reactions after listening to the first 30 seconds of each song. They rank the songs and explain what they hear, how they feel, etc. Afterwards, the playlist will resume and allow for full listening while either doing the twist, creating psychedelic art, writing lyrics, making their own playlist, and so on.
Over the next couple of months I will be audio recording reactions in the class as well as taking written notes for sharing and to document. For nearly two hours these children had smiles ear to ear and moved their bodies around-- tapping, shaking, hanging upside down - it was unlike any other activity I have witnessed. After I reviewed their notepads, it was apparent they even took detailed notes on my introduction - they wrote down topics [and drew instruments] such as :
‘’blues rock & roll’’ ‘’native drums’’ ‘’American rock & roll’’ ‘’ELECTRIC piano’’ BASS guitar, saxaphone, BACK-BEAT
I can not be more excited to watch and listen to their reactions here on out. This is going to be a blast and a successful club for me to continue and push further in the future. This is what it’s all about!
The following are notes from today.
[[Letters indicate names. Children in rock n roll are 7-8 years of age.]]
5-6-15
Bo Diddley - Bring It To Jerome
‘’LOUD electric piano’’
E favorite.
L: “Do I hear a maraca?”
Louie Louie - The Kingsmen
M: “I can’t understand the words but it’s catchy. I like it.’’
eyes are widening - looking at each other - smiles
Mess Around - Ray Charles
L: ‘’I just fell in love.’’
L is laying down shaking in her chair - legs are moving!
M: ‘’weird - I like it’’
Lucille - B.B. King
“The rhythm is slow and nice.’’ P favorite.
F is not a fan.
P: “I feel like I am in Hawaii. I want a mango.”
E: “Electric guitar sounds so good.’’
Fats Domino - The Fat Man
F breaks into a full body shakin’ and groovin’ dance.
E: ‘’CRAZY I like it’’
Long Tall Sally - Little Richard
F can not stop! He decides to indicate his feelings by drawing faces by each song title instead of using words.
M and P say they do not like because ‘not ENOUGH’ music
Johnny B. Goode - Chuck Berry
L sings along
everyone is bee boppin
M favorite - she knows this one
Blue Suede Shoes - Elvis Presley
E, L, F favorite this tune - they ask to hear on repeat.
L “Reminds me of car rides with dad.’’
jumping out of seats - ask to watch the TWIST dance videos
P: “rhymes are fun’’
Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On - Jerry Lee Lewis
everyone still moving but move back to dancing in their seats
they ask to listen to this in full
F still going strong on the dance floor
L knows this tune too.
Ice Cream Man - Screamin’ Jay Hawkins
mysterious, cool, jazzy, deep smooth voice
F slows down the pace and does a snapping and tapping walk around the room
M: ‘’Is he rapping? He said strawberry - I like what he’s talking about.’’
Higher Ground - Stevie Wonder
[although it appeared on the wrong playlist - 70s is its real home…]
M: ‘’WOW, WOW that guitar!’’
E: ‘’This is real rock and roll.’’
Bring It On Home To Me - Sam Cooke
P: ‘’Sam Cooke sounds nice - it must be his voice.’’
E: “Sometimes I like just one person singing.”
Respect - Aretha Franklin
P favorite.
expected more reactions but not much from their expressions to add
Big Maybelle - That’s a Pretty Good Love
L favorite: ‘’I don’t know what it is but this song, I just love it.’’
‘’strong voice’’
Click-ettes - Why Oh Why
F shouts instantly it becomes his favorite
catchy, fast, jazzy
this is a hit - great reactions all around
E - [without asking my opinion proclaims] ‘’You and I like it.’’
words we like to hear when talking about the way songs make us FEEL or how they sound today:
WOW
CRAZY
CATCHY
JAZZY
RHYTHM
OLD TIME FEEL
ROCKIN
FAST
WEIRD
ELECTRIC
LOUD
HEAVY DRUMMING
COMMON OVERHEARD PHRASES & REACTIONS:
TAKES ME SOMEPLACE ELSE…
REMINDS ME OF…
I HAVE HEARD A NEW SONG THAT SOUNDS SIMILAR TO THIS…
SOMETHING ABOUT IT…
CAN’T UNDERSTAND THE WORDS…
I LIKE FAST SONGS...
at the end of the session, of course, P asks “Can we listen to Sha La?’’ - she is refering to The Ramones “Howlin at the Moon’’. Since I introduced this in zine, this is a common request.’’ L says “I can’t wait til 80s day!’’ who knows what she expects...
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