By Dave Burgess
Pp. 107-141
Wednesday, May 1, 2019
The author of this book loves the idea of performance and entertainment as an integral part of teaching. In this section of the book, he brings in all the tricks of the trade to make it easier for people who have never “performed” in their lives. This section directly applies to the visual and performing arts classroom. For example, this chapter is actually called, “All the World is a Stage”, (thank you, Shakespeare) and he wants teachers to think about what you can do with lighting, the space you are using, the sound effects that might add to the lesson to spur on learning, and the decorations on the walls, like sets in a production. Even in my general music class, I think of storytelling, drama, colorful drawings and the connections to performing arts that make my class more fun and interesting. The “board message hook” reminds me of our “Do Now” messages on the whiteboard, for students to do before the class starts to get engaged right away. These ideas definitely made me re-imagine what my “Do Nows” could look like to increase engagement and excitement in my general music classroom.
The “mime” hook reminded me of a really amazing technique that my colleague uses for her chorus rehearsals sometimes. She lets students know beforehand that the chorus rehearsal will be directed silently, and she conducts the whole class without a word, just uses her conducting techniques, and the music itself to teach the class. I have observed her do this, and it is incredibly effective. What I notice about all these techniques is that you cannot overuse any of them, or they lose their effectiveness. So, if you are silent all the time, students would begin to take advantage of her silence, and start to act up, but if it is a special once in a long while event, the students love the experience and learn so much from the rehearsal without words.
On page 133 and 134 Burgess talks about doing a challenge or a contest. I have tried to teach music notation using different challenges, contests and games, however, I find that then it all becomes about who wins and loses, not about the learning. There are ways, I am sure, to make the games so that students are more focused on the learning, but I still think it kills intrinsic motivation for the learning at hand, and the students remember the game and not the concepts they are supposed to learn. I also don’t really enjoy competitive games myself, so I have found that the whole class ends up rubbing me the wrong way!
Also, when he spoke about this game of trench warfare, I just wrote on the side of the section, “Isn’t our world violent enough, do we really need to re-enact it in class?” I also think you need to be careful of your students needs and feelings, because it is possible that some students may have post-trauma stress from violent experiences and this could trigger a bad reaction.
I have used Mnemonic devices my whole career for teaching music notation, Every Good Boy Does Fine, or All Cows Eat Grass, or Great Big Dogs Fight Always, so I enjoyed seeing how clever you can be with these different devices. I could relate perfectly as a general music teacher with this mnemonic hook idea!
Finally, I LOVED reading the section on “Fantasy Football” about how important Burgess believes the arts are to students’ learning. It is so obvious to US, visual and performing arts teachers, how essential our work is to our students. However, it is not obvious to the general classroom teachers sometimes, and I really appreciated that he was able to focus on the essential nature of what we do. He also spoke of the advantages to studying visual and performing arts, such as how you develop a richer, more balanced lifestyle, how you become a more empathetic person, how you become a better problem solver, and how it raises and fulfills human potential. He is right on target!
