Teaching bell to bell with six C’s

The TED Talk is a very popular lecture series that is viewed either in person or online. These lectures discuss many different subjects, ranging from wellness to credit hacking. There is a binding rule among all the Talks which is a time consideration based on human adult attention span. Lecturers are generally not allowed to speak on a topic for more than eighteen minutes. Based on several studies that show student attention span being highly variable, not to mention the amount of distraction built into the school environment, it seems essential for the instructor to keep their classes moving. Otherwise, even their most focused students have likely partially checked out after a certain point. (Boudreau 2020)

In my classes, we play brass instruments and saxophones. The scholastic goal of the class is to learn proficient performance and proper rehearsal/practice techniques. I teach students from ages 10-18 with instructional time mostly varying from 25 minutes to 60 minutes, though during summer courses, 3 hours is not out of the ordinary. We very rarely work on the same subject matter for an entire class. Classes are broken up into three segments or more if class length exceeds one hour.

In 7th grade and beyond, these three segments are loosely defined by:

1. Warmup

2. Critical Thinking/Technique Application/Analysis

3. Performance material

Before 7th grade, the three segments are loosely defined by:

1. Assembly/Warm-up

2. Prepared Material

3. Reading/Comprehension

The ways in which educators provide instruction are as widely varied as the idiosyncrasies between the people in the profession. Some teachers are very traditional. Some are more offbeat. The cadences of pitch level, volume, and speed all contribute to a teacher’s delivery and style of instruction. Students receive all these elements in contrasting ways as there are just as many differences between students. These variations provide planning challenges when it comes to using every minute of class effectively.

Being able to provide instruction from “bell to bell” is only worthwhile if you can meet your students’ individual needs. In a band class, it would seem that from an outside perspective, the expectation is that the students show up, play together, and go on to the next class. The reality is that not all students have or make enough time for practice outside of school for them to meet the benchmarks set forth by the curriculum frameworks. This is particularly at the elementary and middle school levels where nearly all students are involved in some sort of extracurricular activity such as a sport, dance, scouts, or technology club. A study also shows that there is a direct correlation between parent involvement/observation and a student’s level of participation in music. (Margiotta 2011) Providing adequate support at home can be particularly difficult when parents are navigating work schedules on top of their children’s schedule.

If the curriculum frameworks are upheld, the students need more and more to be developing musical skills during class time, skills that previously would have been advanced during private lessons or practice time. The same study shows that parents do currently show more support for students being involved in performing in musical activities. However, when the parents of current students were in middle/high school, they did not have the same support and were dramatically less involved in private lessons/performing groups. Because of this, there is support for joining the groups in school for their children, but lower levels of support outside of the school day.

Because of all these factors, when breaking my classes up into the aforementioned three segments, extra attention is paid to individual body language. I carefully watch for all visible signs of either excellence or struggle so that students who may briefly need some support or praise can get the attention they need or deserve. It is often necessary to do individual playing evaluations, essentially a musical pop quiz. During these sessions, we may choose short predetermined parts of a given piece of music and have each student play unaccompanied. This provides opportunities for reflection and discussion as well as a necessary chance for me to formulate an evaluation of the students’ progress. This is something that I would generally do for a formative assessment.

In the 12 Touchstones of good teaching, Goodwin notes, via alliteration, six essential elements that teachers should be trying to foster in their students every day. These elements are referred to as the “6 essential C’s for learning”. I attempt to satisfy these six lesson plan components in the following ways:

Curiosity: I foster curiosity by giving students choices on playing assignments or written assignments. Allowing students to choose the subject matter with which they will spend possibly significant time can lead to a better chance that students will be more deeply engaged in the subject matter. Provided that the options will satisfy the standards of the assignment, the connection to the material is essential.

Connection: So much of class revolves around repetition and development of previously learned skills. When students begin their journey of learning a band instrument, learn the basics of making a sound and notation reading. From these introductory lessons, until we begin to discuss theory or composition, they are building on previously learned concepts. However, even with theory and composition the students are using their previously acquired knowledge revolving around basic scales which are part of our everyday warmup materials.

Coherence: When beginning to teach composition and ear training, I will transcribe a familiar melody on a display at the front of the class which reveals rhythmic values and numerical values which correspond to the notes of a major scale. I ask the students to apply the numerical values to a given scale and find out for themselves what they believe the melody to be. It is a great way for students to apply all of their fundamental knowledge, develop ear training, and think critically about what they are hearing. There are instances where they are able to find out the song from listening to another student’s performance as well. The next step is to change the scale and ask the students to produce the melody in a different key. This has additional musical benefits.

Concentration: By creating variables in the way they must perform on their instruments, I create opportunities to feel/hear differences in the response and sound of their instruments. Developing sensitivity to pitch/tuning is an essential part of wind instrument performance which requires great attention to detail. An example of fostering this skill is asking a saxophone student to push their mouthpiece further on to the bocle of the instrument, or not quite far enough which shortens/lengthens the instrument. This will raise or lower the overall pitch of the instrument and force the student to make muscular adjustments in their embouchure (lips, tongue, cheeks) to get the instrument to play up or down to pitch.

Coaching: Because learning bad habits can lead to a lot of frustration (or injury in extreme circumstances) immediate feedback is necessary. When students are performing by themselves this is easiest to do, but it is possible to provide individual feedback when students perform as a group when attention is paid to body language. Providing this individual feedback is something that goes quite a long way towards building a solid professional relationship with your students (Denton 2015) Most of the instruction I provide seems to have a level of coaching involved, particularly in the activities surrounding marching band.

Context: One of the best examples of putting knowledge into practice for a scholastic musician is performing a contiguous piece of music with a group of other musicians. It is the culmination of all the practicing.

By pursuing the execution of the “6 C’s” in daily practice, it is possible to teach effectively from bell to bell, providing excellent support and instruction to the group as well as the individual. While analyzing the definitions of the six categories, it seems like quite a bit of work to build them all into an average class without very rigid planning, but as instructors find their stride, it isn’t so hard to do each of these. In a personal way, it seems that they can overlap, with one feeding into the next. There is almost no way to do one “C” without somehow feeding another. By following Goodwin’s six C’s a teacher can and should provide thorough instruction.

References:

Boudreau, E., (2020) A curious mind, Harvard graduate school of education, https://www.gse.harvard.edu/news/uk/20/11/curious-mind

Arnone, M. P., (2003) Using Instructional Design Strategies to Foster Creativity, ERIC Clearinghouse on Information and Technology Syracuse NY, https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Marilyn-Arnone/publication/242063615_Using_Instructional_Design_Strategies_to_Foster_Curiosity/links/54e89be30cf25ba91c7e1448/Using-Instructional-Design-Strategies-to-Foster-Curiosity.pdf

Denton, C. A., & Hasbrouck, J.(2015) Effective Coaching: Improving Teacher Practice and Outcomes for All Learners, National center for systemic improvement

Neil A. Bradbury (2016) Attention span during lectures: 8 seconds, 10 minutes, or more?, the American Physiological Society, https://journals.physiology.org/doi/full/10.1152/advan.00109.2016

Margiotta, M.,(2011) Parental support in the development e of young musicians: a teacher’s perspective from a small-scale study of piano students and their parents, Australian Journal of Music Education, https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ952004.pdf