Success!
My grade one music class is EXTREMELY chatty – they always have a story to tell! With only a 30 minute class, it makes it hard for the students to talk to me. It’s been all business. They come in, we do our thing, and then I have to shoo them out quickly because I have another class coming in right after them. If I let them, they would definitely use all thirty minutes (and then some!) to tell me their stories.
I’ve been overwhelmed with all of the stories – I’d be in the middle of a lesson and 3 hands would go up with comments having nothing to do with the lesson.
Today I tried a new strategy. I got the students in the room, we sang our welcome song, and then we got into a circle formation (using the song, “Let’s Make a Circle”). Then, I told the students that we had 3 minutes for story time. They could raise their hand and tell Miss Gallant whatever they needed to say. And then, the rest of the music class would be for music things only. I can’t believe it, but it made complete sense to them, and they loved it! I also loved the social/bonding time with them – because of time constraints, I rarely have the chance to just talk with them and hear about their lives outside of music class.
Funny story for today – I had a student submit an assignment that I’d given out (what kind of music do you like and why) – and this particular student said that he liked rock music, more specifically, AC/DC, becasuse his best friends older brother is in the band 
2 Responses to “Success!”
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“more specifically, AC/DC, because his best friends older brother is in the band”
ROFL *grin* ….I wonder if the older brother is in a cover band? Funny how they get stuff mixed up – little story that goes the same way..My brother is a Pittsburgh Penguins fan (hockey) and Cindy has heard me say “my brother’s team” many times before…well, it turned out that she had misunderstood and thought that my brother PLAYED on that hockey team!
Sounds like a great strategy – those little ones sure love to chatter.
Developmentally those little guys really, really need to talk to adults. You can fight it altogether but in my experience it’s a losing battle! Far better to do what you have described here and build some talking into your lesson.
Even if you’re doing a song like “Had a Little Rooster” and you allow the kids to raise hands and suggest the next animal to sing about it sometimes satisfies their need to be heard.