Using Seesaw in Elementary General Music Part 2
In this post, we looked at a framework for how to create virtual lessons that are still active and engaging.
With that framework in mind, I want to share some possibilities for authentic musicing experiences that you can design for your specific scenario with the Seesaw app. This application can serve any of the skills, media, content, and assessments mentioned in this post, but today we’ll highlight literacy, creativity, and evaluation.
All the activities mentioned here are available for you to use in your own classroom!
Seesaw for Literacy
Because it utilizes screen recordings, audio, and video, seesaw is a great way to work through literacy skills! And literacy work does not need to be drill work.
Here are some examples for Kinder - 5th grades.
Kinder / 1st Grade:
Students trace the melody of a known song and submit an audio recording.
2nd / 3rd Grades:
Here, students clap the rhythm you see on the left, and then guess the song they think the rhythm matches.
4th / 5th Grades:
In this example, students catch the teacher’s mistake. Students can use the move tool to drag the notes to their correct place on the staff.
Seesaw for Composing and Arranging
I’ve grouped these together, because the line between the two can be blurred, depending on how much teacher input is involved.
Here are some examples for Kinder - 5th grades using composition and arranging.
Kinder / 1st Grade:
Students explore high and low sounds vocally. They represent their sounds with graphic notation.
2nd / 3rd Grades:
Here, students read the rhythm to Bow Wow Wow. Then, they rearrange the order of the cards to create a new rhythmic version of the song.
4th / 5th Grades:
In this activity, students add a new melody to an existing rhythm. This has some flexibility to it! If students have brought home recorders, they can use recorders to add a melody. You can also limit the toneset to this arrangement to mi re do, or expand the directions to include the full pentatone, or even extended pitches (like low la or low sol). You can adapt the directions to fit your students’ needs!
Seesaw for Improvisation:
I always want divergent musical thinking to be a part of my curriculum, so I love that seesaw lets students submit improvised musical products.
Here are some examples.
Kinder / 1st Grade:
This is another example that uses vocal exploration. The difference is that students do not use graphic notation to document their musical output. (That’s what makes it improvisation!)
2nd / 3rd Grades:
Here, students sing the known song, Ickle Ockle. Next, they improvise the rhyme on body percussion. You can add more directions to help students if it would be appropriate for your scenario. For example, you could limit the body percussion choices to patting and clapping.
4th / 5th Grades:
In this activity, students read the rhythm on the left. Then, they improvise the missing beats. This could be done clapping, on other body percussion options, or vocally with rhythmic syllables.
Seesaw for Assessment
Assessments - not grades
Seesaw assessment is very easy to use and it gives us a lot of data!
When I reference assessment, I am not necessarily talking about grades.
The purpose of assessment is simply to get evidence about what students need from us.
This is especially true at the time this blog post comes out, when music educators are being challenged to adapt their models of education into virtual learning. When we land in our classrooms again with our students, we will want to know where our feet are. We will want to know where to start as we make up for lost instructional time. Assessment provides measurements of student progress so we have a better picture of the next steps we need to take.
In other words, we assess now because we don’t want to feel lost later.
Musical Skills and Standards
The seesaw app serves music education well because it lets you enter your own skills that you want to track. You can also assign codes as categories. This is important because we know our skills and standards look very different from our colleagues in general education.
Here are the skills I’ve added for the collection of Seesaw activities in this post. I’ve also categorized them by their National Core Arts Standard.
Evaluation
When it’s time to evaluate, it takes about five seconds to listen to the student’s recording. Then you can assign on a scale of 1 - 4 in standards-based grading.
Data Tracking
What are we going to do with all that data?
This is the skills view in seesaw and lets you see at a glance how students are progressing in each skill area.
It also shows you which students haven’t completed anything yet, and as we know, that is a challenge many educators are facing.
Seesaw and Equal Opportunity Education
Access to this kind of technology is limited for some of our students. All of our students have a right to equal opportunity education, and data can be one piece of our strategy to serve students moving forward.
For the students who can show up with this technology, let’s serve them and use data to track their progress so we know what they need next.
For the students who can’t show up right now because of a lack of opportunity, let’s serve them too by taking data to count them as missing from arts education, so we have a better idea of how to meet their social and emotional, as well as musical needs, when we finally get to see them again.
In the next post, we’ll talk about some frequently asked questions around the Seesaw app, and how to make it work for you.
In the meantime, you can find more Seesaw activities in The Planning Binder’s 2019 - 2020 curriculum!
