I'd LOVE to have her range, but it'll never happen this side of heaven! However, I do love to sing, and I love to learn new things through music. I still remember the jingle my 5th grade teacher taught me so I could remember the "helping verbs!" Am is are, was were be, being been has have; had do done, did may might, can could shall should will would must..(all to the tune of Jingle Bells). I've learned the books of the Bible, Bible verses, and even how to remember a 3rd or 4th in a musical chord by associating it with a familiar song, like "Here Comes the Bride". So it only seemed logical to use music in my Immersion classroom as well.
Sometimes I make up my own little jingles...who cares if they never make it to the Top 10? What matters is that your students remember and apply the new knowledge to their language skills. I have translated songs from English to Spanish, & adapted them to better fit the rhythm of the 2nd language. I sing songs to sit down, line up, greet the students, and to send them off at the end of the day. During Writing Workshop, the students know that when the classical music is on, it's time to put on their thinking caps & start some serious writing. My student teacher last year got so inspired by the musical atmosphere, that she wrote her own version of a couple of familiar songs to go along with our Writing Workshop: "Somos Detectives" that lines up with the Lucy Calkins writing curriculum; and "Es Tiempo de Venir" which uses the Adam's family tune to call students to the rug to listen to their friends' stories. My colleague, Megan, was also inspired to use music in her classroom to help with grammatical understanding. Her idea to help students who struggle to use "Me Gusta" instead of "yo me gusta", is to use Beethoven's 5th with these lyrics: A-A-A-A, mi-mi-mi-mi, me-me-me-me....gusta.
However, when it comes to teaching my students more about the language and culture, I work hard to find typical children's Spanish songs. I call on my memory from when my children were in school in Venezuela, the birthday party songs, and the recess playtime jingles. I hunt down CDs from Spanish speaking countries. And I totally accept offers from parents who vacation in Spanish speaking countries to bring back CDs from their vacation destination! I also make sure the students have a songs folder, which they use to sing, but also to read...Yea! more application!!!
I'm kind of picky, though. I won't use bi-lingual CDs, as I am a firm believer in keeping the instruction in the target language. I've also found that not all translators are as finicky as I am about words fitting the rhythm of the music, and the music fitting the rhythm of the words. These days there is so much available on youtube as well. Check it out under your Immersion language! Take the plunge! Start your day with some music, end your day with some music, teach new vocabulary with some music!
¡A-A-A-A, mi-mi-mi-mi, me-me-me-me, gusta!
Sheryl René
Sheryl-
ReplyDeleteLove this post! I am so on board with having music in the classroom.
Beginning the school year I was a bit nervous that my 5th graders wouldn't really jump on board with the whole concept of music in the classroom, but once again in this whole learning process that I have embarked upon...I found my fears to be completely misguided.
Upon walking into our classroom you will always hear a song in the morning to greet them playing in the background. Usually something light and mellow by Elefante, Reik, or any other "appropriate" culture-fitting song in the target language. Now that we are more than halfway through the school year, several of them have even caught onto lyrics and have learned new vocabulary just by the lyrics themselves. We just have to be cautious about the lyrics that they're learning :)
During Writing time we also have our soft music that plays in the classroom. I would love to take some time to write something more "5th grade friendly" to open up with Writing Workshop because I don't think the songs written from last year would work well for them :) I also think at this age I could challenge them with the idea of perhaps writing some songs that we could all vote on to be our "opening song" for a subject.
Fridays are our fun days. I pick an upbeat Spanish song, usually something from Belanova, Miranda...or even something silly like Gominola and we end our last 3 minutes of the day singing and dancing to it. Another fun way to incorporate music and they love the music so much that the Spanish continues to flow.
¡¡¡YUPI!!! (For my other than Spanish Immersion followers, that's Yippee!) Amber, I think your fifth graders could soooooo write their own songs! This could be such an exhilirating challenge for your upper elementary students! Try it & let us know how it goes. I can't wait to hear more!
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