Submitted by Meredith Harley Inserra , New Bern, North Carolina
Idea posted February 21, 2006
I put the students in small groups of three or four and let them each create their own patterns to overlap, just like Philip Glass. I demonstrated this with a group in class once so everyone had a clear idea of what to do. I let fourth and fifth graders go out to my patio with the instruments they chose to play independently. I assigned one team leader who played a xylo/Orff instrument, and the other students had to coordinate their patterns with the team leader. Most groups came up with some really interesting, well organized, contrasting patterns to play together.
With my first through third graders, we did this one group at a time in front of the class. I told them they had THREE jobs to do: 1) create their own patterns to play on an instrument, 2) be good/respectful listeners, and 3) judge each group and then tell why they did or didn't like what was played. I got a lot of curriculum bang for my buck on this lesson plan! I called up three students and assigned one to the xylo/Orff instrument as pattern leader. The other two students could choose from several instruments I laid out for them. I also played an instrument to demonstrate how to create patterns. The xylo player started a pattern, then we each created our patterns to play along with it. A few children weren't able to maintain a pattern when other patterns were playing. This was a challenge, but all worked hard and enjoyed it a lot. A couple of my lowest achieving students could do little more than copy the pattern of a neighbor, but they tried.
When we finished each piece, the rest of the class gave a "thumbs up" (if each player had played an independent, interesting pattern that coordinated well with the others), "thumbs down" (if some players had copied others and/or the patterns didn't go well together and/or one or more of the players could not maintain their patterns so it sounded like noise), or "thumbs sideways" (if some played well, but sometimes the patterns weren't steady, maybe one person copied someone else's pattern, or it wasn't coordinated all the time). Then I called on them to justify their "thumb" and tell what they liked or didn't like. As we went, they became more and more adept at verbalizing what was good and what wasn't. I listened to them speak more and more intelligently about the music. It gave me chills to hear them give their comments! They were wonderful!