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If there had been anything I’ve learn d since being in Italy, it’s that I hate being a tourist. I understand a new city and new surrounding puts a target on your back, but it’s very difficult for me to do things in a big group.
We started out this weekend bus-ing it to Naples! Our first stop was The Pompei ruins. It is always amazing to see history and learn about Ancient Roman culture! We saw Vesuvius, a volcano from a distance and got to walk around the ruins. I think my favorite part was seeing the housing of the ruins. I even made my own home in a very large oven pit. Highlight of my trip! We ate lunch near the ruins as well. Then we moved on to the city of Naples. Naples is a better minute of Rome and NYC. Bigger than Rome, but as many people as NYC but still the same aesthetic. The most interesting aspect of Italian cities has to be the random, still standing churches and art galleries! We saw the veiled Christ statue as well as two human sculptures with their circulatory systems intact! We had some time to shop, where I went to my favorite make up store, Kiko and bought some lipstick. Then we ventured to our hotel in Sorrento! Today, we visited Capri. The island of Capri is absolutely breathtaking in its views and is definitely a wealthy area to window shop. The weather was gorgeous and we took a boat tour around the island. I’m not going to lie, the boat tour was interesting in the rough water but it was so fun! This is definitely something I will remember forever. We had a really good lunch and then went shopping. I can assure you everything in Capri is far out of my price range, so I opted to window shop! This weekend has been great so far, but I do miss Torremaggiore and home. I’m excited to finish our trip tomorrow exploring Sorrento, Caserta and then back in Rome for a night! Pictures to come soon!
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Today we were greeted by the mayor of Torremaggiore. We met him last night at a medieval dinner (SUCH A FUN TIME) and today he addressed us in his office! Then, it was off to the school for our final thanks and goodbyes.
I want to start by saying I didn’t cry. In the moment, I felt such bliss and appreciation for such a welcoming group of students and teachers that I couldn’t help but feel happy. As I watched the students wave goodbye and walk indoors I couldn’t help but smile. They have impacted me in ways I never thought were possible. I learned a lot about communication and interaction on this trip. I learned that you can communicate with someone through music. I learned you can interact through smiles and gestures. I learned you can appreciate individuals of all ages no matter what language you speak based on your experiences with them. The students of the San Giovanni Bosco school were not only welcoming and supportive, but extremely forgiving. We helped each other grow in a safe environment and I wouldn’t have wanted a better experience. The teachers of the school are the sweetest and most motivated individuals. I am grateful for their guidance and acceptance of the Americanos into their hometown. I do not want to leave, but it has become a reality. Tomorrow morning we board the bus to Naples. While I am excited to see the west coast of Italy, I am sad to leave behind a community I have been a part of for 10 days. It flew by, and I as I sit in a small cafe with my last shot of Torremaggiore espresso, I am finally getting teary eyed. I never imagined that I would feel at home in a place so foreign to me. I was surrounded by good company and a lot of new friends. I have also had an infinite amount of time to self reflect on my teaching and personal character. I am proud of what I have learned in Torremaggiore and I cannot wait to use these tools when I get back to reality (whoop, there goes gravity)...and student teach! At times I didn’t even feel like I was away from home, and boy am I glad I found a new place to love in this world! Thank you, Torremaggiore. Last Teaching Day :(Wednesday was my last teaching day at the San Giovanni Bosco school. At this point in the trip, words cannot express how grateful I am for this experience. I have learned invaluable teaching skills, even with a language barrier. I have learned fantastic classroom management, charades communication and most importantly how to trust my students and myself. I started off the day observing a music class for first graders. I quickly learned that music is academic vs. an experience in Torremaggiore. Throughout the class there was a lot of discussion about rhythm. One positive outcome of the class was the high level of participation. Students were eager to go up in from of class and use the instruments such as tambourines, triangles and hand drums to demonstrate a steady beat. Unfortunately I had to leave, but this lead me to an amazing teaching experience! I worked with a 3rd grade class of about 18 students. I had never worked with them since being here so I was nervous and excited! I started with the Hello Song and taught it to the students in Italian. We practiced saying “my name is...” and sang to each student. The students were reluctant to respond at first, but once I engaged them in a call and response they were more participant. I jumped right into my main activity which had a learning objective to be able to identify 5 verbs: walk, run, jump, dance and stop. I used the songs “Shake, shake, shake” and “Oh, You Walk” to implement the verbs into song! I used cue cards with the vocabulary words and a picture, as well as cards without a picture as an aid for teaching. Teaching Process: ResearchWednesday was my last teaching day at the San Giovanni Bosco school. At this point in the trip, words cannot express how grateful I am for this experience. I have learned invaluable teaching skills, even with a language barrier. I have learned fantastic classroom management, charades communication and most importantly how to trust my students and myself. I started off the day observing a music class for first graders. I quickly learned that music is academic vs. an experience in Torremaggiore. Throughout the class there was a lot of discussion about rhythm. One positive outcome of the class was the high level of participation. Students were eager to go up in from of class and use the instruments such as tambourines, triangles and hand drums to demonstrate a steady beat. Unfortunately I had to leave, but this lead me to an amazing teaching experience! I worked with a 3rd grade class of about 18 students. I had never worked with them since being here so I was nervous and excited! I started with the Hello Song and taught it to the students in Italian. We practiced saying “my name is...” and sang to each student. The students were reluctant to respond at first, but once I engaged them in a call and response they were more participant. I jumped right into my main activity which had a learning objective to be able to identify 5 verbs: walk, run, jump, dance and stop. I used the songs “Shake, shake, shake” and “Oh, You Walk” to implement the verbs into song! I used cue cards with the vocabulary words and a picture, as well as cards without a picture as an aid for teaching. (Overall, I learned a lot of language acquisition and music when teaching these students. I was thinking on my feet, making and fixing mistakes and engaging students in an English and musical environment! It was 50 minutes of pure amazement. Check out the videos above to see! (Coming Soon)
Sunday's are for a Relaxing Busy Day...Yesterday, we took an excursion to the Lesina Marina and got to see some Roman history! The lake used to be a part of The Roman Empire. A tsunami took over the area and the area had to be rebuilt. The lake is half natural, half sea water from the tsunami and where the lake meets the Adriatic Sea. There was one are in the middle of the lake, where you could see some of the structure from before the tsunami in the water! (Pictures below). Another bit of history: the lake used to be owned by one person, and fisherman used to get shot and killed for fishing in the lake without permission. There is a cross monument in the water to honor all those who died fishing and for the WOMEN who revolted to make the lake open to the public! Of course Woman Power made a turn for bettering history! Woo! We then went to a nice lunch on the other side of the lake. The lake is known for its eel, which I thankfully did not have to try. However I, Kristine Murnieks, are fish. That’s right. Fish. Our first fish was mussels and shrimp. I like shrimps don the mussels were yummy because there was not a lot. Then, we had bass and potatoes. I can’t believe I tried it! I was so proud of myself :) I really enjoyed the meal! It felt very natural to try seafood while near a body of water so I just went for it! After eating, we walked off our meal and explored the area. Our next stop was the Adriatic Sea! It was gorgeous. I first went along the rock and found volcanic rock, crystallized lava, marble chunks, pottery and so many cool rocks! It was amazing to see all of that history in one small area. Pottery designs were attached to rocks, lava rock was everywhere and the marble pieces were huge! The view from this area was awesome too! I was so excited to have gone to an Italian ocean and only wish it was summer time! A Holy ExperienceWhen I got back from the excursion, I went to an Italian mass in a beautiful church down the street from the bed and breakfast. The architecture of these building are incredible. From the outside the building looks rectangular and small, but you open the doors and it seems like you have entered an alternate universe. The ceilings are high and arched with beautiful paintings and statues on display! This was a catholic mass, so I knew the process very well. I was happy the Church was beautiful and there was a lot to look at because the sermon was 30 minutes long in a language I do not comprehend. It was still something new. The music was very upbeat with backtracks of percussion, amplified with a keyboardist and a small choir. Nobody kneeled during mass, which I found odd and the men received communion after the women. It was very interesting to say the least! Monday FundayI called it an early night after dinner so I could rest up for the trip we took to the market and Torremaggiore Cemetery today! I bought an umbrella (it was rainy and a great price) and two nice scarves! I also got a handful of cranberry raisins to snack on and a cappuccino down the block. Then the group traveled to the cemetery.
This was very interesting and seemed super expensive. The cemetery was almost entirely family plots of mausoleums. They were absolutely extravagant. There were individual plots, but not many. Also each one had such beautiful artwork or statues which resembled something sacred. I was taken away from the beauty and intricacy of each site. We ended the tour with viewing the Sacco and Vanzetti memorial. More history wee! Now, it’s time to relax and prepare for yet another big Italian dinner! Saturday we took another trip to San Severo, but this time to visit a High School! The High School was very career centered and had four different core learning areas all in one building. I took a tour of the Visual Arts and Architecture career track and was left speechless. The talent, patience and aspirations of the students guiding our tour were outstanding! Students showed of mosaics, architecture plans and models, recycled art work and more! Students wanted to be interior designers, animators, musicians and graphic designers. SO COOL! I learned that students have middle school music, but no music in high school because students do not want to continue. This was sad, but there were still students who valued music a lot! After the tour, I went to about 4-5 different classrooms. Students were eager to practice their English with us! Every single classroom asked us to sing with them and their favorite English song has turned out to be “Perfect” by Ed Sheehan. I’m totally not complaining. The last classroom I was in, Brianna and I talked about Buffalo, and our school and the students loved us! They even showed us Italian Trap Music, which is similar to American Trap music. They were eager to compare and talk about culture. While at the High School I was surprised at how many students smoked in the school. It smelled awful. I also sat in on a lesson, where students were disrespecting a teacher and she seemed to only be teaching one or two students. That made me question their quality of education, but I think it mostly resembled teacher burn-out with her lack of motivation to use classroom management as a tool to effectively communicate material to all students. It was definitely an eye-opener and I thought about how it even related to conversation I had in an Educational Philosophy class (which I hated) this semester. Information really does come around full circle. Overall, I thought the High School had great potential and ways of educating their students. Teachers know their students strengths and weaknesses. The students reminded me of typical high schoolers and the school resembled a little bit of my own high school. It was a great experience to see the similarities and differences between Italian and American education in a different setting. I just wish they had music! After observing the High School, we all went to a lunch and walked around the smaller streets of San Severo. It is beautiful and very Italian! The cities here have such an interesting vibe. I am so glad I get to experience it! Not to mention the bus! We took public transportation and I am surprised it was as good as it was considering the size of the area we are in. Their buses are similar to express buses at home. It was also fun to take public transportation with people who never have! Also, I have learned that wandering around has given me a bit of a sense of direction? Sometimes I know where we are headed!! We made the Torremaggiore Newspaper!We made it into the Torremaggiore newspaper after meeting with the Buffalo-Torremaggiore Association! :)
Click Below for teaching videos with 3rd graders!Friday was a great teaching day. I went in with my usual plan which is was to do the Hello Song and Walking in a Winter Wonderland. When teaching the Hello Song, the students retained most of the song from when Angela and Katie taught it! I reviewed the English text with the students by chanting and then on pitches. They caught on so quickly and we sang everybody's names! I taught them to sing "My name is..." after I sang "Ciao Ciao ....". They once again caught on quickly. We moved on to "Winter Wonderland" and Angela taught this to them as well. I handed out sleigh bells to use as a manipulative. The students barely touched them until my direction - something I was completely shocked and impressed by! We started shaking the bells to the beat and I started singing. After singing through, I retaught the English words. The students reviewed quickly and we sang together a few times, which was a great transition into the vocabulary lesson Christine led! Christine reviewed vocabulary and made kinesthetic and visual connections to our book vocabulary by asking the students to draw a picture of a Winter Wonderland. She also fostered better English writing skills by having the students copy a sentence from our book, relating Buffalo, a Winter Wonderland and their drawing together. It was magnificent to see the creativity of these students! Their work was indescribable! Early Childhood Music: The 3rd Grade ApproachI started with a “finger-play” chant. This is a rhythmic chant with words and some kind of hand movement. I chose “Two Little Apples” since it is a great way to manipulate children into creating their own rhythms. I started the chant and before I got to the second line, the students instinctively repeated me. At first, I thought this was going to hinder their full understanding of the rhythms, but as we continued I think it helped. Once we went through the chant with finger movement, I demonstrated rhythm patterns. I would chant “my Apple says” and then insert a rhythmic pattern. I then chanted patterns and the students would repeat them, something natural to their education. I tried to teach them “same” vs. “different”. I would demonstrate “one apple says....” and then “my other Apple says....”. Student would use a hand sign to signal same or different. When it came to producing something different, the students struggled. To foster improvisation I said “on bag make up whatever you want” and would chant, and the students joined. I think they were trying to mimick me, but since if was free improvisation they couldn’t keep up. I wonder if giving direction with the vocabulary word “different” and showing the hand sign would have given them better knowledge of what I was asking. That’s what I’m going to try next time I teach, if time allows. Also demonstrating with a game asking for a “Same” response and a “different” response. I worried the students weren’t retaining some key vocabulary words in English. Musically, the students were great at replicating what I gave them. I moved on to a Greek Folk Song I learned from Dr. Renzoni to use as a transition. I used a tambourine and walked around the room singing. I quickly did two “jumps” with a dominant to tonic resting tone and the students loved it. After, I moved onto “Shake Shake Shake” and worked on directive movement vocabulary. I did not focus on the words as much, but intend to next time I teach. Instead, I worked on tonal patterns and added solfege since the students were definitely ready! I used a fake microphone to do ask students to respond. I noticed they are much stronger with rhythm. I think this is because when I sing, they immediately try to sing along. Therefore they are not audiating. Next time, I would like them to guide them to audiate and then redo this exercise. Even though most of them were spot on! The students get a little restless when I work on individual call and response so I made up a new attention call and response on the spot. It goes “Hands on Head, Hands on Shoulders, Hands on Knees, Clap Clap Clap, and Freeze!”. It is said in duple rhythm and the students repeated every line, but in the word freeze we jumped and froze. It’s a little long, but worked well with this class. I moved on to a dog called “What do I Have” which goes over body parts! I thought to do this after I made up that chant. The students love they song because of the like that goes “Hey, Hey, Hey!” And after I sang a body part, I hand them repeat it on the resting tone. They loved this song as much as I do! And this is another song I can expand on musically because it is in a different tonality and works on vocabulary. This also gave Dr. Tredo the idea to do a song “Toe-Knee Nose” which uses body parts to create words! I’m definitely going to steal this :)! My last activity was also rhythm based. It was a chant about Elevators and I did drastic movements with the students. It goes, “Elevator Up, Elevator Down. The Elevator is bouncing all around the town. The Elevator is bouncing and it will not stop! Elevator elevator please don’t.....drop!” Imagining our movements... I also didn’t rhythmic patterns with students like from “Two Little Apples”. I was thoroughly surprised from this activity because the first rhythmic pattern I did, the student responded with something different. I was caught off guard, but I asked the whole class if it was the same or different. They all responded different! I knew they had retained what I taught in the first activity based on this response. It was a super cool feeling and as I went around the classroom, the kept saying “same or different” depending on the student response. This was also a starting moment to their improvisation skills. I super excited to work with them again! After working with this third grade class, I learned that exposure to music is very important. These students could have been capable of so much more (if you could even imagine it) had they done this at an earlier age. This is why Early Childhood Music is so important! I also think it is very interesting to see that students are responding to music very well here because it is a replication of their expectations in the regular classroom. It has been an asset to my music teaching here, but also a concern for their creativity. I know these students have creativity based on Christine’s lesson when they were drawing! So it is a matter of transferring this creative to music. Lastly, I will use this same plan in whatever classroom I go to next and make it more vocabulary detainment based to support my research! I’m an super happy with all of the experience I have been given from the San Giovanni Bosco school! Friday Nights are for Celebrating!Friday was the end of a long week in Torremaggiore! We ended our week with a tour of Old Torremaggiore and learned a lot about the architecture and legends of the town. It is truly amazing how much history lies within the walls of a small town! We met with the tour guides as a group and had a lot of fun learning about the place we have called home for the last week.
It was also Jessica’s 21st Birthday! At lunch, we have a cake for her and at night we went to a Wine Cellar! Although the drinking age in Italy is 18, it was still a treat for everyone. We arrived in San Severo, which is the capital of Foggia. We got to see the process of fermenting and aging wine! It was so interesting! We were given a meal (I unfortunately wasn’t a fan) and we got to try their famous sparkling wine! It was delicious; as was their res wine served with dinner. This part at the Wine Cellar was planned by the elementary school teachers and most of the people there were excited to speak English! After eating, we started the party with lots of dancing! It was easily one of the most fun nights I have ever had. To top it off, Jess got a GIANT muffin and we sang Happy Birthday to her! It was a great time had by all and I am so happy we got to experience it together!
Wednesday Mornings are for Music!
When Christine and I arrived to our classroom for our second day, we were extremely nervous and anxious to teach! We planned a lot the night before for both music and literacy plans. We were sooooo ready to co-teach! When we arrived in the classroom, our teacher was not there and the one that was...just left! It was interesting to communicate, but our students were very helpful and forgiving. We started off with the Hello Song and I ROTE taught students the song in Italian. ROTE teaching is teacher modeling, and student repeating until they can do it on their own. This allowed our class to feel more comfortable singing. Then, we taught our students to say "My name is". While singing the Hello Song, we all sang "Ciao, Ciao ____" and the student responded "My name is ____" on the same pitches. The students struggles with singing their names, but all of them said it in English! I think this was an asset to my research question. The students may not have been singing the phrase "My name is ____", but 97% of them said it at the right time. I think the routine of the song gave the students guidance for stating their name. I eventually moved on to "Winter Wonderland". I reviewed the words with the children and then we sang the song multiple times with different movements. The segued perfectly into the write aloud lesson Christine had planned. To start the lesson, we handed out paper copies of our book. Christine taught the students the word "snow" and this became their anchor word, which would eventually be used on the write aloud. I read the first few pages of the book and we asked students to circle the word "snow" in both Italian and English. I noticed that the words were already bolded. As we walked around helping students and observing their progress, I noticed some of the students went ahead and circled all of the bolded words. I am not sure if they were really making the connection to the word "snow". However, Christine said the write aloud wen beautifully! So the correlation of "snow" as an anchor word definitely helped them prepare for this portion of the lesson. Unfortunately, I could not stay for the write aloud because I was asked to teach 4 year olds music with Dr. Renzoni and Rebeca! Music and Italian Structure For those of you who don't know, I LOVE Early Childhood Music. The three of us have taught together before, made a quick game plan and were ready for whatever walked through the door. These students walked in quiet and timidly. We started the Hello Song and after starting names with only about 15 kids, another 15 walked in! We went around the circle though and learned the most beautiful names. It is definitely hard to replicate the sounds of their names...until there was a Kevin. I got that one! We continued the class with a movement song led by Rebeca. She did a fantastic job leading movement with very little words and great expression. We calmed down a bit and used scarves, singing a song in Italian! Then, Dr. Renzoni brought out a drum with our next song. We ended with the goodbye song! While teaching this class, it was evident that students at this school are taught to "do as the teachers do". It was amazing for their musical development because students sang tonal patterns and echoed rhythms as they were given the individual opportunity. It even fostered rhythmic improvisation during the vocal "Rollercoaster" warm-up. If Rebeca walked, the students walked. If the teacher sang, the students sang. I noticed during the song with the drum, a teacher reprimanded a student for not responding with 100% accuracy. Dr. Renzoni played the drum 3 times chanting "bum, bum, bum" to which the student responded "bum, bum" (only 2 times). As soon as his turn was over, his classroom teacher went over to him hand reprimanded him saying "3, 3 times". It was intense to witness, since we don't expect all students to even try to participate. The idea that everyone was participating was a surprise. When it comes to musical response, I was not expecting students to be extremely accurate since I did not know their musical background and not all students musical aptitudes are the same. The same student who only hit the drum twice, sang the most in tune when Rebeca did tonal patterns. This is not uncommon. This experience was definitely rewarding and educational. I learned a lot about the musical capabilities of these students, as well as how the structure of Italian education effects student response. Something I will never forget! Where do I start? I am literally in food heaven. This is my overdue food appreciation post! When I arrived in Rome, my first mission was to find food after our very long travels! We find a small pizzeria near our hotel in Rome and I got a delicious pizza, potato croquette and drink for 6 euro! It was a steal, because...FOOD. I had my first gelato experience soon after and though it couldn't get any better. The first nights diner was so, so. However it has only gotten better since! The second day of Rome, my small group went to a small restaurant in a residential area of Rome. Yum. After walking off our lunch, I got the best gelato of my life. The Rome-ing Roamers were definitely a little lost, but we stumbled upon the cutest, nicest and most delicious gelato! I haven't had it since and I am just hoping my next experience is equivalent or better. The last day of Rome, we went to the Hard Rock Cafe...peep my only American meal in the photos below. For dinner I got the fried galamad and was impressed! Onward to more food from Torremagiorre! Local is definitely better. I took a selfie of how big our table is the first day! Oh my goodness. I have never been open to trying new foods, bust I have enjoyed EVERYTHING I have eaten in Torremaggiore. Our first meal was "light" with four courses and we were given the tomato and mozzarella platter shown below...wow. The second day I tried some new foods and loved them all...except sausage. Which I have never enjoyed. Dr. Renzoni madeeeee me try a piece, so I did. Much to her chagrin, it did not tickle my fancy. Yesterday, the teachers of San Giovanni Bosco took us to a HUGE lunch! I was soooooo full. We had a lot of courses, but I can assure the roastbeef and potatoes did not disappoint. The only downside was that we still had to eat dinner. Oh boy. We had a light dinner again and I had the best meatballs EVER. For dessert, we had biscotti with sweet wine and well...I can't turn down Italian wine! I even bought local Torremaggiore wine for 1.29 euro! More recently to a coffee shop and got a chocolate croissant and cappuccino. Not only was it DELICIOUS, it was soooooo cheap! If I could stay here in food heaven forever, I totally would! I am off to tour the Castles of Torremaggiore before my next big meal. I will keep you updated with more details! Stay tuned :) We have Arrived!Yesterday, my classmates and I were welcomed with the most wonderful greeting from the students and faculty if the San Giovanni Bosco primary school. The emotions were overwhelming. We could see the children cheering and eager to meet us from outside the gates, but walking in made me feel famous. As we walked through the crowds a few of us introduced ourselves to students. The first group of students I spoke too laughed at me because I didn't know how to speak Italian. I tell myself they were laughing because they were fascinated by English, but they kept asking m to speak Italian and made fun of me when I pronounced things weird. I was sad, but the next group of students were much nicer and definitely more forgiving. I quickly learned the 3rd grade students practiced saying "My name is..." and we so eager to answer "Come ti chiami?" Which was one of the only Italian phrases I knew at the time. We took a grand tour of the school and met our cooperating teachers. Everyone was so lovely and the students were ADORABLE! My cooperating teacher does not speak any English, which made me extremely anxious for the next day... We have taught...Today was one of the most nerve-wrecking, yet amazing teaching experience. For some background information, Christine and I wrote a book about Buffalo winters prior to arriving in Italy. We are doing research along with gaining teaching experience with these lovely students. We are currently researching how music is used as an education tool when learning English vocabulary. Christine is an exceptional education major, while I am a music teacher. Coming from very different backgrounds knowledge, we put our heads together and made it work! We are placed in a 2nd grade classroom, with the cutest students; so full of energy and expression. My favorite pronunciation of an Italian name today was "Dante". My heart literally melted. We were totally thrown into this... Christine and I were definitely not expecting to teach today. From our understanding, we believe we were going to be observing. We did bring a copy of our book and teaching tools just in case. THANK GOODNESS. We walked into the classroom, the teacher cleared her desk and gave us the floor. I was sooooooooo scared. Not only does our teach only speak Italian, I was totally unaware of the capability of the children. Christine and I went for it though, and it ended up being an unforgettable and educational experience for both us and the children! Our lessons as a glance: We started with a Hello Song in Italian, which is often at the beginning of every music lesson. I started off singing in English and doing simple "steady beat" movement such as tapping on the knees and shoulders. The children looked clueless, making me more nervous. To modify, I starting singing the same song in Italian repeatedly. The teacher caught on immediately which encouraged the students to at least hum along. During the song, the teacher sings "Ciao, Ciao _____" and the student fills in their name. The first student did not respond immediately, so the teacher asked "Come ti chiami" to which the student answered. Then everyone repeats "Ciao, Ciao ____" with the name. The students caught on the the repetition very well, but did not sing along to the chorus. For tomorrow I have bigger and better plans to get them singing this song and to say "My name is____" in English! This not only supports our research, but presents a great opportunity for these students to learn something new in English! Musically, I taught a lot today. After the Hello Song, I taught “Winter Wonderland” which is a connection between our book and music! Our book is about Buffalo’s Winter. When teaching, I used a neutral syllable for most of the song. I did sing “Walking in a Winter Wonderland” on text. I held up a vocabulary card with the English words “Winter Wonderland” and a picture to help guide the students. I kept the students engaged in movement during the song, but t was difficult for them to sing “Walking in a Winter Wonderland” on pitch and in rhythm. I broke down the words by phrase. This did not help so I broke it down even more by syllable. Students were eventually able to chant the phrase, but not sing. Instead, I did more movement and repeated the song a few times. After reading the book though, student response to the phrase was much better! Christine had a vocabulary card with both the Italian and English translation. I think this helped students with translanguaging. When we revisited the song, students we able to chant the phrase with much more ease. I was able to put the words to pitches for them! I broke it down by syllable and by pitch. Therefore students were able to sing along with more accuracy. I thought this was the end of my teaching for the day, but wait! There’s more! I used a song I would used with younger children and manipulatives such as shakers to teach English vocabulary. I introduced the song without lyrics, but included the end which is “And….stop” on the musical pitches “Sol...Do”. I taught the word “stop” by holding up the vocabulary card and having students move and chant the word. They caught on super fast! I’m pretttty sure stop is a word they already knew, but let’s just pretend I taught them that! I used the same strategy to introduce the words “Dance, Jump, Walk and Run”. In addition to students acting out the word and chanting it, I gave the word pitches so the students could sing part of the song. In one of the videos posted below, you can see how I did this with the word dance. I sang “Dance dance dance” on “Mi re do” and repeated on “mi fa sol”. The children sang back beautifully! I thought this was a very successful lesson. The next step is going to be the retainment of the new vocabulary! Overall, I loved this experience. I was ready to conquer my lesson for the next day and learned the children are so ready to learn and explore their potential. I cannot wait for the rest of my teaching plans to come to life!
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AuthorI am a senior Music Education major and this is my first trip to Europe. I am excited to dive into Italian culture and to learn from my Italian students, while making memories to last a lifetime! ArchivesCategories |