Success Stories

I invite you to share small success stories of using music in your classrooms.

For example:
Remember Tony's presentation at the conference regarding reading music? He used the concept of song dotting to focus the students' reading skills. He also used the textbook, having students share the job of reading the songs (following along with their fingers), switching leaders every line. Then he sang the song on a neutral syllable, having the students follow the actual notes of the song, once again, sharing the job. He would stop suddenly and the students had to give ideas of where they thought he stopped.
Well, I did this yesterday with my 3rd graders. The LOVED it! Then some of them asked if THEY could be the leader, singing the song on a neutral syllable then stopping in the middle somewhere. We were careful not to make it a competition, however. Just like Tony did, we took a variety of answers, then figured out how to check, as a class, to see how we did.
Yay, success with a new strategy!