6th Graders Write Science Song and Perform Dance
Classroom Examples Tagged science grade6 astronomy podcast January 11th, 2008Jean Buller, a sixth grade teacher at Clifford Smart Middle School, assigned her students to write songs to go along with the astronomy unit they were studying. When I heard of this, I encouraged Jean to podcast. With some brief training, Jean was using Audacity to record the students, converting to mp3s and posting the files to her website. I had the pleasure of assisting her for a portion of the day while the students were performing. The students really enjoyed watching their classmates sing their songs. They were also very excited to be able to share their creative works with their family and friends! Jean reported that her students did remarkably well on the unit test and she attributes their success to this activity.
I happened to have my Flip videocamera in my purse (I don’t go anywhere without it… I never know when I might need it!) One group of students had choreographed a dance to go with their song. I grabbed them and took them into the hall to record their performance on video. Enjoy!
January 11th, 2008 at 10:43 am
That was very cool!! I know I will NOT forget the difference between rotate and revolve now that I have your song and dance stored in my brain! Thanks for sharing.
January 11th, 2008 at 12:07 pm
Hello, Pam and Yes Tech! partners.
I agree with Laura Cummings: very cool! I (and others as well, I’m sure) also feel, as Laura does, that the difference between rotating and revolving is clear now that the young women’s song and dance are stored in our brains!
This is a very good example of how learning has been impacted by developments in technology. People understand “Web 2.0″ in many ways; one is related to its social orientation and its inclusion of interactivity, participation, sharing, and co-teaching / co-learning as key dynamics affecting content. As such, there also seems to be a natural move toward multiple learning modalities such as what’s shown in the wonderful video above: the students took an abstract concept, re-fit it into a song in their own “idiom”, added a kinesthetic element (the choreography), and then “mashed” these three elements together. The end result is much more engaging than text or audio or even video alone would be individually. I’m sure the young women’s peers will relate far better to the “lesson” embedded in this video than they would to static words in a textbook, an audio-only recorded lecture, or even a video-only presentation because as a result of experiencing the video, their attention is simultaneously “grabbed” in multiple ways. The end result (in my opinion): a deeper, more active learning experience.
Fun? — Yes!
Meaningful? — Yes!
Participative? — Yes!
Engaging? —Yes!
Likely to result in learning? — Yes!
Congratulations to the teacher who enabled students to create the video! Kudos to the students for meeting the challenge and creating something which demonstrates the power of co-teaching and co-learning!
Dennis in Phoenix
January 11th, 2008 at 12:30 pm
An addendum:
Another element often associated with “Web 2.0″ is collaboration, I find myself re-casting into co-teaching and co-learning. I don’t know whether I “absorbed” these terms experientially from one or more computer-mediated-teaching-and-learning sites or whether “co-teaching” and “co-learning” are my own “translation.” However, it doesn’t matter very much, it seems to me, because collaborative learning has as its goals teachers becoming facilitators and students becoming active participants in the learning process, and I think “co-teaching” and “co-learning” do a pretty good job of encapsulating teacher-as-facilitator and students-as-active-participants within a single interactive, engaged gestalt.
Dennis in Phoenix
January 11th, 2008 at 1:33 pm
This is a great example of incorporating Gardner’s musical intelligence as well as using TPR or “total physical response,” for learning difficult abstract concepts.
So while one can discuss the type of content created, the students obviously also had fun modifying a popular song that appeals to a broad audience of other 6th graders.
January 11th, 2008 at 2:19 pm
Those learners are not likely to forget that principle! Great job girls!!
January 12th, 2008 at 7:09 pm
Jean,
I can’t wait to share the video with students and teachers in my school. It is so obvious the young ladies are having tons of fun while learning. Thanks so much for sharing.
Nags Head Elementary School
Nags Head, North Carolina
January 13th, 2008 at 8:41 am
These learners have surpassed the actual learning situation and are teaching, as well as enjoying themselves. I hope teachers of all ages will show this during their units on astronomy.
Great job Pam, Jean, and the students in this Clifford Smart Middle School class!
January 13th, 2008 at 10:26 am
What a wonderful learning experience for those girls! While I was viewing this video, my fourth grade daughter came running in, “that is a High School Musical tune” it certainly caught her attention. That group will remember this activities and these concepts for a long, long time.
Keep up the excellent work!
January 13th, 2008 at 5:41 pm
It’s great to see this type of work. I enjoyed the songs as well. I had my sixth graders write little songs about metric measure this year and last. It is a good way to let those with musical intelligence shine. The song writing and singing capture the imagination of some of the students who are not otherwise engaged in a subject. I’m looking forward to getting a couple of flip video cameras next year.
January 14th, 2008 at 9:19 am
I’ll bet in 20 years, these girls will still remember their song, dance and the science concepts they’ve learned. Congratulations on tapping into their creativity and using technology to share it.
January 15th, 2008 at 12:06 pm
The impact of this assignment now reaches far beyond the walls of this classroom. I suspect these students will remember this information for a long time. And now, perhaps, students all around the world will learn from these podcasts. Thanks for letting me be part of this experience. Congratulations to Mrs. Buller’s Classes! I can’t wait for the next set of songs to be produced!
January 21st, 2008 at 5:01 pm
A long held researched based instructional/motivational strategy is to connect the interests of students to the learning we want them to acquire. Mrs. Buller, like always, you have struck gold. Kudos to you and your students.
February 2nd, 2008 at 10:40 am
Pam and Jean. This is fabulous! I wish we could use more of our BA assessment day time to share ideas like this. Obviously the assignment was left open for creativity and these girls took it and ran. How fun! Plus, they clearly learned in the process. In addition the other students in the class, (and others most likely) will learn from watching this as well.
I have been out of touch with bloglines for a bit but I am now getting back into it again and I am so glad I did. I am able to find great ideas like this. I was just awarded a minigrant so that I can start podcasting in my classroom. Way to go!