Songs That Teach - Video
Video Presentation Format
Subtitles on the video - Melvin Avenue
Elementary School Introduction Mr. R standing in front
of his classroom addressing the viewing audience:
Hello, My name is Arnold Rosenthal. I have
created the program, Mr. R's Songs That Teach.
My desire and goal is to make teachers' lives a
little more enjoyable and somewhat less
stressed. This program will increase teachers'
effectiveness, as well as their students'
academic achievement. I am currently employed
with the Los Angeles Unified School District
where I teach second grade at Melvin Avenue
Elementary School in Reseda, California . I am
not a music teacher. Beings to slowly walk toward his class room:
In this video presentation I would like talk a
little bit about the program and demonstrate
how easy it is to use. To begin with, this program
offers all students a language enriched musical
experience. This is a high potential practice,
allowing all students the opportunity to become
effective communicators.
Walks into the classroom:
We know that all students can learn. However,
research indicates we all learn differently. The
point is, we, as teachers, need to apply different
approaches and strategies to meet and
accomplish our educational goals.
Music is playing in the background, students
are listening and enjoying themselves:
Music sense is one of Howard Gardener's multiple
intelligences and can be a useful tool in teaching
curriculum. These songs and materials address a
balanced learning approach which utilizes a
variety of learning modalities, including visual,
audio, and kinesthetic. The program addresses a
variety of subjects: reading, writing, math,
social sciences, health, and physical education.
Picks up the book and points to it:
The content of these songs address the state
and district standards across the curriculum.
Cut away to teacher discussing with a student
his/her portfolio at the desk
Voice over:
Students will be assessed utilizing authentic
assessment with students creating artifacts
that follow the themes of the music. Rubrics are
provided to complete the comprehensive
assessment process. Students sitting in a circle
on the carpet with the teacher listening to songs
dissolves into playing parts of several songs on
the CD player:
The learning process in curricular music is similar
to language acquisition theory. The students have a listening
period, they assimilate and acquire information
gradually, not memorization. There are basically
two approaches to teaching this music. The
traditional way is to take a one-song-at-a-time
approach. This is okay and will work. However, I
prefer giving the students up to twenty minutes
of songs, back-to-back at one time. This
technique has served us well in the past.
Cut back to Mr. R:
With Songs That Teach, music can again take its
deserved place in our classrooms, without taking
time away from other needy areas. It augments,
refines, and enriches the language arts and math
programs because it is integrated into all these
activities. There is no wasted or down time, in
fact, it gives us more time. Once you observe first hand
how it works, you will be amazed. Hopefully you will agree,
Songs That Teach deserves a place in our curricular planning agendas.
Subtitles on the video Goal And Purpose:
Cut to panning the components of the kit; dictation, sequence, reading boards, etc.
Subtitles on the video Procedures: activities:
Cut back to students listening to the music in the
background:
The students listen to and sing along with the
selected group of songs every day during the
week. The average length of each song is
approximately one minute and thirty seconds.
This sing along session should take no more than
twenty minutes of class time daily.
Show students with the lyric sheets:
The lyric sheets of the selected songs are then
handed out to each student. In the beginning
they can track and read along as they listen to
the CD, gradually assimilating the song. You can
see them anticipating the next word as they
follow the lyrics.
Passing out dictation sheets:
On the first day of the week you can let the
students know that they will be getting various
dictation materials based on the songs. After
several weeks, there should be enough songs
internalized to present a program.
Cut to CD player finger pushing buttons:
The recorded CDs have vocal and instrumental
tracks. You can create additional lyrics to suit
your curricular needs. For example the song "Clap
Your Hands" can be modified to brushing teeth,
combing hair, eating properly, etc.. The song
"Times Table Blues" can be changed into the
"Mathematics Blues" by adding and subtracting
factors of ones, twos, etc.. The "Counting Song"
can be modified to count by threes, fours, fives,
... all the way up to what ever number you want
Subtitles on the video Integrated Dictation:
Stop - Listen - Think It - Say It - Write It - Read It
Subtitles on the video
Dictation Sheet:
Cut to dictation sheet:
When you copy the black line masters make
enough dictation sheets to pass out copies for
each student three fold.
Show office barriers, some students copying,
some not:
The music is introduced one week before the
dictation. The music is played and the students
just listen. We do this at least three times. They
pass out paper to the class. Have them put up
office barriers between each student. Give each
emergent reader and writer a copy of what you
are about to dictate.
Teacher tells students to put their pencils down:
When everyone is ready,
have them put their pencils down and listen.
Teacher will demonstrate all the following
concepts with Mr. R's voice over:
(1.)Read the first sentence pointing to your ear
as you talk.
(2.)Tell the students to repeat what they just
heard to themselves, pointing to your head.
(3.)Tell the students to say the sentence out
loud, pointing to your mouth.
(4.)Tell the students to write the sentence down
on the paper.
(5.) After doing a paragraph, point to your eyes
and have the students read out loud what they
have written. When you are finished, have the students choose
which vocabulary words they want and have
them put the words in alphabetical order.
Subtitles on the video Sequence component:
As you give the original dictation to the class on
Mondays, you will print the dictation on sentence
strip cards and place them in a pocket chart. I
call this the sequence game. Distribute the
original dictation form to the students. Now,
with their dictation in hand they will go to the
pocket chart and identify the proper sequence of
the sentences and phrases when called upon.
*Note: You will want to assist the emergent
readers and writers in this activity, in a way not
to bring attention. Now distribute the sequence
papers to the students. The instructions on this
component are as follows: "Using your original
dictation form, find and underline each of these
sentences or phrases. Write the sentences in the
correct order below. Write as much as you can fit
into the space."
Subtitles on the video
Step by step procedure:
(1.)Students read each sentence of the dictation
form.
(2.)Then they check the sequence form to see if
it is there. If not they continue to read on.
(3.) When they find a sentence that matches,
they underline it on the dictation form.
(4.) On the sequence form they put a check
mark by the number of the identified sentence.
*Note - Not all sentences fit onto the sequence
form, therefore only the first part of some
sentences are used.
(6.) Finally, the student writes only as much
of the identified sentence that will fit into the
allotted space.
Subtitles on the video The Correction Form:
Cut to the board to see the correction game with
a student pointing to the mistakes:
As a prompt for this activity, write the dictation
on the board intentionally making errors. Some
of the errors are spelling, punctuation,
capitalization, and contextual in nature. I call
this the Subtitles on the video Correction Game.
Distribute the original dictation form to the
students. They will go to the board with their
dictation form when called upon and find the
errors and indicate the appropriate corrections.
This can be done with cooperative learning
groups competing with each other in the spirit of
fun. It is important that no one perceives
themselves as a loser. When the situation
warrants you can assist emergent readers and
writers by asking leading or open ended
questions.
Show the correction sheet:
Now distribute the correction papers to the
students. The instructions on this component are
as follows: "There are twelve underlined
mistakes below. Using your original dictation
form, find and circle these words. Correct the
mistakes on this paper by writing them in their
correct form in the spaces below."
Subtitles on the video
Step by step procedure:
(1.)Students read each sentence of the
correction form looking for an underlined error.
(2.)Then they cross reference and check the
dictation form, identify the errors, and underline
them.
(3.)They write the corrected words in the spaces
provided below on the correction paper.
*Note - There is sometimes some confusion
identifying the difference between the
correction paper and the dictation form. With
some discussion this can be easily overcome.
Subtitles on the video
The Wordsmith Form:
Show the Wordsmith form:
This activity is self explanatory. It is language
arts skill specific in nature and does not usually
deal with content. However, there are some
exceptions (fill in the missing space). This
component is usually administered at the end of
the week or as a homework assignment. There
are spelling elements which are aligned with the
Stanford 9 test format. Also, grammar and
punctuation skills are addressed as well.
Subtitles on the video
Directed Reading Boards:
Show the Directed Reading Boards:
Teacher demonstrates:
These useful tools can be utilized in several
ways. They can be used for directed and shared
reading techniques. Choral and echo reading with
time-out pauses using the CDs are effective
ways to facilitate the acquisition of reading
skills. Emergent readers feel good about
themselves when they can be successful. When
the students are familiar with a song's lyrics, it
is easy to track the words on the reading boards
with the visual cues.
Subtitles on the video
Movement Charts:
Show the Movement charts:
Teacher and students will demonstrate on The Short Vowel Song:
The movement charts are suggestive only. We
encourage you to create your own movements.
As a matter of fact, from our experience, we
have noticed that the students love to create
their own. It is important that you try to balance
the movements from right to left as equally as
possible because it facilitates the use of both
hemispheres of the brain. These movement
components suggest possible kinesthetic
activities with the lyrics. Associating movement
with information helps to place the information
solidly into place in the brain. Also, these
movements are physical in nature and
constitute, vigorous physical exercise activities
which is physical education in no uncertain
terms.
Cut back to Mr. R leaving the classroom:
The learning process is truly a blessed
phenomenon. One that I feel privileged to
witness. I enjoy observing students engaged and
involved in the learning process that takes place
as they sing "Songs That Teach."
