Questions about Tarwathie from another class..

I really appreciated some of these questions so I wanted to post them on this blog to share..I hope you enjoy them-

Is the song in the only one perspective throughout?
What does the song mean when it says, "But there's no bird in Greenland to sing to the whale."?

What does the singer mean when he says, "The longer the absence the more loving she'll feel?"

The singer mentions many unpleasant things about Greenland, why do they still choose to go there?
Is the singer afraid for his life?
What emotions are present in the song?
Why is the voyage to Greenland so dangerous?
How does the music and instruments in this song affect the feel of it?
Does this song take place before it was illegal to hunt whales? Are they hunting illegally?
What will the men use the whale for once they catch it?
Based on the lyrics, how long will the person be gone?
Who is the singer's lass? How is she feeling when the singer leaves? Is she afraid for his life?
Will they go back to their homeland?
Why is it 3/4 time?

I love that question, Why is it 3/4 time, because there is a real reason for this.  It is the feel of the boat as they are singing, which causes it to be in 3/4 time! Hope you enjoy these questions, they made for a very rich and developed discussion that afternoon.  Very exciting, and less about me, more about them, always what I want to feel. Making progress, one day at a time.  Thank you for listening.

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Farewell to Tarwathie

Judy Collins

Farewell to Tarwathie
Adieu Mormond Hill
And the dear land of Crimmond
I bid you farewell
I'm bound off for Greenland
And ready to sail
In hopes to find riches
In hunting the whale

Farewell to my comrades
For a while we must part
And likewise the dear lass
Who first won my heart
The cold coast of Greenland
My love will not chill
And the longer my absence
More loving she'll feel

Our ship is well rigged
And she's ready to sail
The crew they are anxious
To follow the whale
Where the icebergs do float
And the stormy winds blow
Where the land and the ocean
Is covered with snow

The cold coast of Greenland
Is barren and bare
No see time nor harvest
Is ever known there
And the birds here sing sweetly
In mountain and dale
But there's no bird in Greenland
To sing to the whale

Quest for Questions

Today we discussed a song from Scotland called "Farewell to Tarwathie."  This is a song about the whaling industry from the nineteenth century.  Last year I wrote a blog about my discussion with the class about the difference between the original version of the song and the version recorded by Judy Collins in the 1970's.  Today I would simply like to post some of their questions that they thought of when I played the song for them.  We discussed many of these questions as well, and I was not always the one answering the questions that they asked.  It is the beginning of student centered learning while creating a safe place for questions to be asked by all members of the class.

What is the meaning of the song?
Where or what is Crimond, Mormond Hill, or Tarwathie?
Why does the singer keep mentioning the whale?
Is this song meant to be happy or sad?
What does "Signs of Time" mean?
Is this a pirate song?
Is it about love?
Is it about whales?
Are they going to Greenland?
What does Adieu mean?
Why do they want to hunt the whales?
Where was this song written?
What is the time period this song is from?
Where was this song written?
Why are they saying "Farewell to Tarwathie?
How old are they?
Do they have families?
Do they all die in the end?
Do they plan to fight each other?
Is Tarwathie a real place?
What is a comrade?
What is mountain and vale?
What is seedling?
What is whale hunting?
How old is this song?
How long of a sail will it be?
When is this in time?
Is the crew all men?
Are they Dads and Moms?

What I notice is that these are still all factual questions with one correct answer, or maybe two.  But the questions did generate some real discussion, where we talked about whaling and it was directed about their knowledge and adding to their knowledge instead of lecturing.  I have never been one to lecture anyway, but I have spent a lot of time manipulating the discussion to go the way I want it to go, so I am going to continue to experiment with this technique and see if it doesn't continue to generate more student centered discussions rather than teacher directed discussions.  I will be back with more soon.
Corries Farewell to Tarwathie

El Condor Pasa

Today I worked on teaching students how to ask more thoughtful, probing questions to help discussions be more educational and inspiring.  My learning targets were "I can discuss and sing a song from the Andes Mountains" and "I can talk about how questions can be useful or probing or thoughtful or instead, factual."  I chose to work with a song called "El Condor Pasa" because there are a few different interpretations of this song, and it also has many questions embedded in the song itself.  It is a song about love, and it is compared to a condor flying through the air, and how it comes and goes.

I had the students listen to the song and study the lyrics while they listened.  What is the meaning of the song?  That was the "Do Now" .  Then I talked to them about the learning targets, and reminded them of the questions we asked ourselves and answered for "The Magic Flute".  The students remembered that well, and they talked about the questions they had asked.  I got them to understand that most of these questions were "factual" questions with only ONE answer to them. Who is Pamina for example, or what happens to the queen at the end of the opera?  Do we have another type of question we can ask?   How about a question with more than one answer to it?  We had a few questions that were more factual questions about the song, like where did it come from, and why was it in Spanish, and what were the instruments that were played in it.  The tables turned when a student asked, "What inspired the composer to write the song?"  We kept on with this idea, and it is more of a process than I ever imagined.  There is a lot of Metacognition that is required for this exercise, yet if they begin to understand it better, then I will teach less, and they will learn more.

We sang the song after this, and we discussed the differences between sections A and sections B.  These were interesting questions, because there was room for interpretation, and some opposite ideas.  Some students thought the first section was happier, but some thought the second section was happier.  If you are to look at this song from a completely musical perspective, the second section is in major and higher on the staff, so it sounds happier.  Also, it is questionable as to whether the first section is happier or sadder..the story is about nostalgia, where we feel happy about the past but we also feel sad that we have lost the love we had.  The second section is both happy and sad, because the question is: Will love come again? We don't know.  Just holding opposite ideas in one's head at the same time is a complicated, and perhaps too sophisticated idea for this age group, but if I don't ask for it, I cannot expect to ever find it from these students?



My realization is that the idea of generating questions from students is a metacognitive experience.  It is not something that can be mastered or even attempted in one lesson, and it is something that I am even more intrigued by as I continue this quest for teaching and learning, thinking and singing, reading and dancing, all in one class experience.
El Condor Pasa the ultimate version

I am poems, quarter two!!

I am poem

I am 11 years old

I am a basketball player

I am a student

I am a cat lover

I am a brother

I am a democrat

I am a percussionist

I am a baseball player

I am a Celtics fan

I am a Red Sox fan

I am a son

I am a kid

I am a gamer

I am love sports

I am a guinea pig lover

I am a Trump hater

I am a Hillary supporter

I am poem

I am athletic and intelligent
I wonder what the world will be like in one million years

I hear the leaves rustle

I see the river flow by as I watch the leaves fall

I want a clean world for all the animals

I am athletic and intelligent

I pretend to find life on Mars

I feel powerful and strong

I touch the fallen leaves blanketing the ground

I worry about what our new president will do

I cry when death approaches

I am athletic and intelligent

I understand the new president but do not support him

I say save the animals

I dream to one day have a family of my own

I try to make the world a better place

I hope to live to 100

I am athletic and intelligent

And in case you needed the Exemplar..by ME

I Am

I am a grandmother

I am a mother

I am a runner

I am a knitter

I am a classical singer

I am a piano player

I am a teacher

I am a sensitive person

I am thoughtful, wise, kind

I am a fiancee

I am a daughter

I am a sister

I am a mother-in-law

I am a motherless woman

I am a stylish dresser

I am a lover of bright colors

I am bilingual

I am a hard worker

I am a thinker

I am a believer

I am a facilitator of music

I am helpless sometimes to change the world.

I am someone you can count on

I am flexible

I am a graduate of Smith College

I am a graduate of Northwestern University

I am a passionate reader

I am a choral singer

I am a soloist

I am an opera lover

I am a moviegoer

I am an aunt

I am a cousin

I am someone who does at least one thing

I am fair

I am an art appreciator

I am lover of naps

I am a pop music lover

I am a concert-goer

I am a friend

I am a confidante

I am a listener

I am a walker

I am a laugher

a giggler

I am a giver of light

I am a perfectionist, a risk taker, a leader

I am an ocean lover, an island lover, a dog lover.

I am lover of the songs of birds

I am a sunrise and sunset worshipper

I am a list maker

I am well-educated, an intellectual, a lifelong learner

I am sensitive to the moods and emotions of others

I am a dancer

I am a food lover

I am a baker

I am critical of mistakes of my own and others

I am compassionate

I am a composer of songs

I am a writer of poetry

Short Blog on what is going on lately..

I have not written in a while because I have had to handle some situations which have made it impossible to keep up with everything here.  I am back and strong, however, and will be finding some wonderful topics to discuss very soon.  This past week was the first week of putting out grades on our new Powerteacher program.  It was complicated, because we are trying to tailor it to our needs, to our use of proficiency based learning, and grading, and it was not originally built for this purpose.  I believe it has potential, and I appreciate being able to write comments on every project or habit of work and learning that my students are working on, but I am also wishing that it would show what it is we are trying to show, and it would calculate only what we need to have it calculate.  Let us hope that quarter two is better for this and that we are in good shape to work with students on making their standards work for them and for us in Quarter 2!! Have a great day!