Shenandoah Arrangement

Here is my arrangement of Shenandoah!

Haslett Middle School Observation #8 - 7th grade choir

This past Tuesday, I had my final observation of Mrs. Valla's seventh grade choir.  During this obsrevation, I had the opportunity to do a sectional rehearsal with both the soprano and alto sections.  We worked through putting their parts together during a passage of "Hey, Soul Sister" (a piece they are working on for their upcoming Pops concert).  I had the girls sing through the passage with their parts together, and then we broke it down to review the notes for each section.  Once the sopranos and altos were both confident with their notes again, we put everything back together. At one point, I noticed that many of the girls were slouched over, and that was really affecting their sound.  I simply said, "let's sit up tall and let our posture reflect what we want our sound to be like." The students sat up straight, and their sound instantly improved. We sang through the passage again, this time paying attention to dynamic changes, and the girls sounded great! This was a great experience for me, and I cannot wait to have the opportunity to do this every day while I student teach next year!

CMS Observation #2

This past Monday I had the opportunity to observe the Community Music School"s Youth Chorale for the second time. One remarkable thing that I've noticed about Kyle's teaching is that he gives instructions not only through his gesture, but by giving one simple line of instruction. For example, to keep the kids from dragging at a certain point in a song, he gave the instruction "This phrase is like a snowplow that just keeps moving. Sing it like that." The students immediately responded to this, and the phrase instantly improved. He also uses this strategy to draw out more effort and excitement about singing from the kids. For instance, there was a moment after the kids sang through a passage of a piece and Kyle said, "Raise your hand if you can do something to make that better. OK do it." There was another moment in which the girls were rehearsing an upbeat African piece, and Kyle told them to put their music down and look happy while they sing; look like they're actually having fun.  They did so, and their sound immediately became brighter. There was never a moment where Kyle's instructions became confusing or contained too many words - it is amazing what just a few simple words can do to change the sound of a choir!

Final Teach Rehearsal Plan - from 4/13/2015

Week 7: Haslett Middle School, 7th Grade

On Tuesday I had my seventh observation of Samara Valla's seventh grade choir. The choir received a new piece for their upcoming pops concert, and I had the opportunity to do a sectional with the sopranos! The students were learning "Hey, Soul Sister," the song made popular by Train, and I had to teach the chorus of the piece. I started out by trying break everything down and had the girls chant the rhythm on rhythm syllables, but I was WAY too verbal in my instructions, and ended up with just a bunch of confused stares. I paused and took a breath, and then realized that these girls probably already knew the tune so I just had them sing through the passage, and it worked! We went back through and added in dynamics and such, and everything went smoothly from there. We finished a little early, and the girls even asked if we could keep going! This was a really great experience for me - I've learned not to let my nerves get the best of me, and sometimes you just have to pause and change your course of action in the moment. It's scary, but also quite exciting! I look forward to having another chance to work with the students next week!

CMS Observation #1

This past Monday I had the opportunity to observe the CMS Youth Chorale rehearsal, led by Kyle Zeuch. It was really interesting to observe a youth choir outside of the typical classroom setting! You can tell that these kids really love to sing, they are there to work hard and they clearly know what is expected of them. Since the choir only meets once a week, a lot of content is packed into the rehearsal time. One thing that I noticed about Kyle's teaching is that his instructions are nearly always non-verbal, and if they are verbal, he uses very few words. This clearly helps keep the students focused and engaged, providing zero opportunity for talking or fooling around. At one point, he paused the choir and simply said "Sing with a color that is fire engine red." The students clearly knew what he meant, and the sound immediately changed - it was beautiful! I really enjoyed observing the CMS Youth Choir, and I look forward to sitting in on another rehearsal next week!

Mindmap/Rehearsal Plan 4/1/2015

Week Six: Haslett Middle School, 7th Grade

Today was my sixth observation of Mrs. Valla's seventh grade choir, and it was a wonderful learning experience! The students were going to Festival right after class, so it was a pretty exciting day. I finally had the chance to work with the students a bit. We had limited time because the class had to prepare to leave for Festival, but I was able to do a quick body warm-up exercise with the students. We started by shaking out our arms and legs for counts of 8 down to 1, and the students seemed to be really into it! I heard one of them say "Ohh we did this in gym class!" As I looked around the room, it appeared that everyone was participating enthusiastically. I tried to give instructions with as few words as possible, and I think that really helped to keep them engaged. Afterwards, we did some stretching and got into a good singer's stance for the rest of the warm-up led by Mrs. Valla.  The class then sang through their two festival pieces, and they sounded great! It was really inspiring to see middle schoolers so excited and focused for Festival. I look forward to having the opportunity to work with the students more next week!

Week Five: Haslett Middle School, 7th Grade

This past week I had my fifth observation of Mrs. Valla's seventh grade choir.  Since the school had their choir concert that evening I was unable to do a teaching exercise with the class, but it was really cool to watch the students prepare for their program!

The class met in the high school auditorium to get used to singing in the space before concert time, so the students were pretty keyed up with excitement at the beginning of rehearsal.  Mrs. Valla pulled them into focus right away, though. Each week I am so fascinated by her classroom management skills - she doesn't allow for any wasted time. Moving right along between exercises without breaks means no room for talking or fooling around!

One of the warm up exercises really stuck out in my mind - the students sang "I love to sing" (do-mi-sol-do-sol-mi-do) and were having a difficult time projecting their sound in such a large auditorium, because it's not the space that they're used to.  Mrs. Valla instructed the students to aim their sound to the back of the aud.  This helped the singers to focus their sound and had them singing more on their breath.  Mrs. Valla didn't need to give a ton of instructions or talk a lot, it was just one simple, to-the-point request that was effective.

The class ran their repertoire, stopping only in between pieces to work a few things.  The music is memorized for the concert, which appears to have the students more engaged and focused on the conductor (because they're not buried in their music).  One thing that I've noticed in all my observations is that Mrs. Valla is constantly modeling for her students, portraying good diction, tone, energy, etc, and their sound pretty much always improves when she does this.  She also commented before rehearsing one of the pieces, "Think about how much energy you have to employ." This was a great reminder for the students - short and to-the-point, it had them standing up taller and using their breath more efficiently.

This was a very informative observation for me, and I look forward to having the opportunity to work with the students a bit next week!  



  

Sight Singing Exercise

Week 4: Haslett Middle School, 7th Grade

This week I had my fourth observation of Mrs. Valla's seventh grade choir.  This was an interesting class to observe, as it was "Job Day" for the high school students.  In other words, some of the choir students from the high school were shadowing Mrs. Valla for the day.  It was really cool to see the high school and middle school students interact with each other.  It seemed to me that the middle school kids were trying really hard to impress the high school students - they sat up straighter, they were more active in making the solfege hand signs, they sang on their breath more, etc.  The high school students sang through a 4-part sight singing example, and the middle schoolers were SO fascinated by this...they really lit up and went wild with excitement over what to expect in high school choir.  It was truly inspiring to observe this!  The seventh graders then sang through one of their pieces for the high school kids, and then the high schoolers provided some positive feedback before Mrs. Valla worked on some things in the music.  Mrs. Valla agreed with and reiterated many of the things that the high school students offered up, and I think that it was really beneficial for the seventh graders to hear some constructive criticism from "cool high school kids." The seventh graders have about two weeks until they perform their spring concert, and the music is sounding really great! It is truly a joy to watch these students grow and learn each week, and I look forward to having the opportunity to work with them a little bit when I return from spring break!

Week Three: Haslett Middle School, 7th Grade

This past week I had my third observation of Mrs. Valla's seventh grade choir.  My colleague, Marcus, and I asked Mrs. Valla about her grading and evaluation policies.  She began by telling us that she does small-scale, informal evaluation daily through her own listening and observation. Mrs. Valla also offers up "candy questions" in which she will ask the class a question, and if a student answers correctly, she tosses a piece of candy to them. (We have seen this in action during her rehearsals, and I must say it is quite effective!) In addition, Mrs. Valla has sporadic assignments such as worksheets that count for a grade. She also collects the students' music from time to time to check their markings. Mrs. Valla also explained to us the state required evaluations. She told us that there are two state evaluations, and that the goal is to show growth from the first test to the second. The students often do short sight reading examples or writing samples about the text, meaning and context of a piece for these evaluations. Mrs. Valla's grading/evaluation policies provide a good amount of structure and responsibility for this age group, and make for a really productive classroom.



    

Week Two: Haslett Middle School, 7th Grade

This past week, I had my second observation of Mrs. Valla's seventh grade choir.  This rehearsal was chock full of activity and singing, and it was really enjoyable to watch!

Mrs. Valla began the rehearsal right off the bat by just sitting at the piano to play for the warm up. As soon as she began to play, the students immediately stood up and began to sing. The warm up included a wide variety of vocalizes, that covered the areas of breathing, voiced consonants, resonators and singing. It appears that the classroom is really well structured, and that the students are conditioned to be in the habit of showing up to work from the moment a note on the piano is played. Every so often throughout the warm up, Mrs. Valla would chime in with a reminder such as "I don't hear singing supported by the diaphragm!" or "When you get up on the top notes, I need more 'Minnie Mouse!'" These notes really improved the quality of singing, and kept the students focused on producing a good, supported sound. One of the main teaching techniques that Mrs. Valla uses in her classroom is modeling. She has really mastered the ability to model the sounds that the students should be creating at this level, and I look forward to observing this more, as I personally have difficulty simplifying my own vocal model for choral students.

The organization of the rehearsal was very fluid and the class moved swiftly from one activity to the next. Mrs. Valla does not do much talking, she just jumps right into the next activity and the kids follow right along. To me, this is a sign of rock-solid classroom management because everyone is on the same page the entire rehearsal. It's really impressive! Mrs. Valla also has a great rapport/relationship with the students - the class is able to talk and joke around with her, but they also know when it is time to work.

Overall, this was another great rehearsal! I am looking forward to observing the class more, and eventually having the opportunity to work with the kids a little bit!    

Week One: Haslett Middle School, 7th Grade

This past week, I had the opportunity to begin my observations of Samara Valla’s seventh grade choir.  It was truly a pleasure to experience Mrs. Valla’s rehearsal.  For the most part, the students were really well behaved – which is remarkable for this age group.  From the beginning warm-ups, to the sight-singing activities, to the repertoire work, the class was chock full of engaged learning! 

            

The transitions between activities were swift, and the class just moved right along.  Mrs. Valla is really great with classroom management.  There were a few moments in which the students got a bit chatty, but Mrs. Valla pulled them right back into focus by chanting, “sh-sh-sh-sh-sh.”  The students would repeat it back to her, and then the rehearsal would continue on, right back into focus.  There was one particular moment in which she asked the students to stand up, and they did so with a wave of talking.  Mrs. Valla simply responded by saying, “You can stand faster and without talking. Try it again.”  This was extremely effective, and the rehearsal carried right on. 

           

One individual behavior that I noticed was in the soprano section, where a few of the girls had their iPhones out throughout the entire rehearsal.  I’m not sure if Mrs. Valla saw this and chose not to call attention to it, or if she just didn’t see it.  I find it interesting and pretty alarming that such an engaging and exciting rehearsal couldn’t even pull these kids away from their technology.

            

Overall, I thought that this rehearsal was great!  It was such a joy to watch Mrs. Valla interact with her students.  Most of the kids really seemed to be enjoying themselves, and Mrs. Valla clearly has a great relationship with the class.  I am excited have the opportunity to watch this class grow and learn over the course of the next seven weeks!