Mixing Middle Methods: One Choir Teachers Account

In my six years of teaching I have always had repeat materials that are staple lesson resources. Likewise, there have been even more resources that I experiment with and do not repeat in my classroom. The qualifications for the staple curriculum revolve around efficacy and context. I am the first to admit that my experience up until now has been hugely diverse in context; with so many full-time and part-time programs with their different expectations it can be a challenge to approach each year and maintain the same high standards. All this leads me to my point of this post, I promise to keep this productive!

I find that the following have been successful regardless of context: Conversational Solfege Levels 1 and 2, First Steps in Part Singing, First Steps in Music, all of which are attributed to the Feierabend model of elementary and choral music education. Here is methodology which advocates for folk music of the highest caliber and makes it meaningful by strategically emphasizing elements of musicality throughout the students development. John Feierabend has shared his story with the international music education community by leading many workshops based on these books. I have had the most teacher training in this particular methodology which is simply coincidental to the times and places of my previous ten years. All my opportunities for free or low cost professional development have featured these resources, and have been presented by John, Lilly (co-founder) and other licensed instructors.

I feel called to continue training in this methodology and continue my development as a music educator. However, there are plenty of classes which lend themselves for me to supplement these songs and techniques. My most obvious example stems from my time with middle school choir. I have Level 3 Conversational Solfege and understand that it is meant to continue through middle school. However, I haven't had the stability at one program long enough to have student buy-in for folk song education. The repertoire in there is really great with my female students who are typically mature enough to see value in them. Yet, I am simultaneously encourage adolescent males to open up and sing which is a large undertaking for their physical and emotional maturities. What I have done to  provide music literacy at the middle school level is experiment with sight-singing books including: Patterns of Sound Vol 1, Sing on Sight Level 1, and Sight Sing a Song! set 1.

For my conclusion I'd like to share a few results at the mid-way part of the school year. I am pleased with the scaffolding advice I received from Roger Emerson via the choral director forum on Facebook. He encouraged me to continue mixing methodologies as was my hunch after much conflicting advice. Overwhelmingly clear results have been noted in my middle school level choirs as a result of this mixing and matching. My students in grades 5 and 6 can easily read and sing in the keys of C major with occasional success in F and G major. Students in 7 and 8 choir can easily sing and read in C, G and F major with occasional success in B flat major. By limiting the keys in which they are using, I am allowing students to focus more on the elements of music without overwhelming them with range of pitch or theory beyond their range of development. Without these other resources, I suspect these older students (who have not had equal musical foundations) would feel misplaced by the emphasis in a part singing and repertoire based curriculum.

I encourage anyone with more experience in these methodologies to share their results with me in the comment area as I am interested in the bigger picture of music learning outside of my programs.
Thanks for visiting!