Teaching an Introduction to the Elements

 If you've read my Elements Overview blog post, you might be wondering 

"How do we actually teach these elements?!"

Well, that's what music class is all about! How you teach them will depend on a few factors:

As you can see, that's a lot to consider! It would be near impossible for one stranger to teach another stranger through a blog, exactly how to teach each element. 

Before we get into depth with each of the elements, lets look at different ways we might approach introducing the elements. If you teach science, think of this as teaching the scientific method or particle theory. If you teach language, this is similar to ....ummm....I don't teach language! Let me know a comparison. If it were geography, it's sort of similar to parts of a map, or in particular, a map of a country. Art has it's own specific elements, so if you're familiar, it's easy to compare.

I start with a class discussion. 

"What are the Elements of Music?"

If they stare at you with blank expressions, ask them

I then put them into groups (choose a "fun" way" to do this, I like to use a deck of cards--or 2--and have either all the 4s together, or have all the hearts together, or all the red, etc). I give them a sheet of easel paper and have them brainstorm what they think the elements are. After a few minutes when they seem to be winding down, I reveal that there are 6 elements and to refine their brainstorming.

While they're brainstorming, I write 1-6 on the board, and blank lines for each letter of each element. Leave some space between each element. Once they are done brainstorming, we go through each of the elements one by one. If they name one in a different order than what I plan to teach, I write it where it falls in my order of units. Usually though, students are thinking too specific. They'll think "Tempo" instead of the bigger concept of "Duration". If they do call out Tempo, I'll leave the Duration element lines blank, but write #1-3 beneath, and Tempo beside #3. 

This is an example of things might look as we go along. I'll give hints if they need a little push.

This will likely take all a 30 minute class, especially if you're travelling to their room or have some sort of class opener routine. 

A lot of teachers then assigns a project, such as an infographic or poster detailing the elements, or analyzing their favourite song. I have seen a couple issues with these though. With the infographic, students just copy and paste definitions and images. They aren't applying the elements to music in any way. Often, because their base knowledge is still really shallow, they don't actually know if what they Googled is what is intended. I've seen some crazy definitions! With the Analyze Your Favourite Song projects, they do better at connecting the elements with a song, but often their skills at writing about these elements is weak. For example, I'll see "The song starts with a crescendo to a fast beat". There is always a lot of "It has a good beat". More on that in the Duration post!

Instead of these approaches, I have started a three pronged approach. First up is defining the element (using the Elements of Music Dictionary). This dictionary could be done all at once (4-6 classes) but I felt that created too much pencil work and not enough actual music time. I'll introduce the element and ask for comments. I'll give some musical examples that they can relate to, as well as music they probably haven't encountered. They'll write the definitions in their dictionary. I collect this page so that when the next unit starts, I can hand them back (the grades 4-6 classes use duotangs, so that's not an issue, but for the grade 7-8 students who use binders....). 

The second part of teaching each element is analyzing a song. Usually, to encourage buy in, teachers have students choose their favourite song. This tends to result in some musically questionable choices! Instead, I opt to have them choose a song from the year they were born! This leads to a lot of fun finding out what songs were from the year they were born. You can provide them a list, with different genres, to make the process a little quicker. Some students go down some deep rabbit holes when left to free choice. One thing I've noticed that a lot of students don't understand is the difference between YouTube's published date, and a song's release date. When studying about Elvis, many students were confused how we were watching videos on YouTube from 2009 (example) when he died in 1977. They don't even realize YouTube wasn't a thing in 1977! We work on the elements one by one in their "SFTY" (Analyzing a Song from the Year I Was Born). Again, this booklet could be done as a unit on its own, but I like to spread it out over the year as we learn the elements. 

The third part of learning about the elements in action. Make music! I don't do this in the introduction portion, I wait until we start learning about Duration. We have a composition that we work on through the year, adding each element as we go. 

As we go through the year, I try to make a point of highlighting when they're encountering elements they've learned about. "Is that a beat or a rhythm?", "Is this minor or major tonality"? Or, I'll remind them of the element and let them know it's still to come. 

The Ontario Music Curriculum can seem, at the same time, both very loose and open but very specific. Yes, the three Overall Expectations are the same for all grades, and they're very general. Then there are the elements for each grade which must seem intense to a non-music teacher, and also the Specific Expectations. The good news is that we don't report on Specific Expectations. They are there to guide your programming and give examples. That's it! You can do whatever fits you, your students, and your school. This is both a great thing, and a sad thing. It does mean that the quality of the music education students receive is a direct result of the music teacher and the school/board administration. Despite whatever your board feels about music education though, you can still provide a quality program! Don't despair! In fact, in some ways, not having access to band instruments, pianos, ukuleles can really show students how music can be integrated into their lives. Most of your students won't play ukulele after elementary school. Almost no one plays recorder as an adult. But almost every person experiences music still in their lives! Our goals is to develop musical literacy and conscious consumers of music. At the very least, we want to rid the world of those that create items like this:

(If you're not fully musically literate yet, the melody and rhythm are NOT Jingle Bells!)