Submitted by Anonymous

Idea posted January 31, 2005

Here's a little trick I've used for some time; you can address higher order thinking skills if you keep this in mind any time you're asking the class a question.

Whenever you're covering something new with a class, always try to help them discover the answer rather than just telling them "this is this" or "that is that." This avoids the "sage on the stage" syndrome, or as I like to call it "dropping pearls" (i.e., pearls of wisdom). Here are a couple quick examples:

Lower grades:

Sing a song with the class. Sing it again yourself, and ask them to listen for what is different. When you sing it alone, sing it faster/slower, louder/softer, etc. Have them tell you what it is different. This is a great music vocabulary builder, too.

Tell the class the title of a song. Then ask, What do you think this song will sound like? Will it have a steady beat? Will it be fast or slow? etc. Then have them listen to the song.

Upper grades:

Point to two eighth-notes. Explain that "When we see two eighth notes like this, we say 'ti-ti.' When we see four sixteenths together, we say 'ti-ra ti-ra' (or whatever syllables you use)." Then show two sixteenths and an eighth beamed together. "How do you think we would say THIS pattern then?"

When introducing a new song with notation, "Look through the notation for this song. Pay particular attention to the way the melody moves. Will we be singing a lot of leaping, stepping, or repeating notes? Are there parts of the song that are the same as others?"

Also, make sure you allow for your students to create their own music. This covers the synthesis part of higher order thinking skills.

If you generally act as facilitator rather than "giver of knowledge," you can't go wrong addressing the thinking skills issue.