Our district's current music curriculum is great for the younger primary students, but by the time the kids get to 5th grade, they lose focus, interest, and many have "checked out".

As in any classroom, if I don't have the students' attention, then they decide to entertain themselves. They get very creative and discipline problems multiply. The basic issue is that classroom management is now the issue, instead of learning. If I cannot get student buy-in into the curriculum, I will not be able to reach the students and teach them to their fullest potential. Tons of learning opportunities are lost when students aren't engaged.

If students can see the end goal, the big picture, or know why they are learning a lesson, it is easier for them to be focused and engaged.

In order to do that, our team of teachers decided to create more Unit-Based Lessons with engaging materials and technology.

Blended Learning is one way that we might be able to achieve this. Technology alone will begin to engage students. As each new unit may be totally different from the next, blended learning would give the flexibility of both online and face-to-face instruction to address the different needs of each unit. The classroom's physical structure can be flexible as well.

In order to address our problem, and explore our possible solution, we need to know the next step to take. Michael Horn and Heather Staker, in their book "Blended Learning: Using Disruptive Innovation to Improve Schools" (2015) suggests "organizing the right team to turn a rallying cry into a concrete, high-impact initiative" (p. 112)

As our problem seems to be district-wide, it would be beneficial to have all of the elementary music teachers on the problem-solving team. In our district, that is a small group of five knowledgeable, dedicated teachers. This also includes our Elementary Music Department Head.

This group would begin as a small functional team as we currently don't anticipate needed to involve activities outside of our individual music rooms.

If, in the future, we would decide that some more innovative and disruptive model would be better, then a Lightweight Team would be necessary to get district-level support. This would most likely consist of our Music Department Head, the Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum, and at least one adventurous building principal.

As we work through implementing a Blended Learning concept, many questions will need to be answered. What level of student control and ownership do you want? What should the teacher's primary role be? What blended learning model will work best for you? What will your physical space look like? What technology will you need?

Students crave some control over their own learning. Within Blended Learning there are several options for allowing students that control. The main areas would be in pacing of their instruction and the path they take to learn.

Students could control these through just the online portion of the course, throughout almost all of the course, or even have the option to not attend a scheduled class (Horn & Staker, 2015, p.226).

As we are in an elementary school, students will not be able to decide if they want to attend class or not. I believe the best way to allow for student control in our music rooms would be to allow self-pacing on the online portion of the course only. There might be a way to allow choice of which station the student goes to first which would effect his or her path. However, they would most likely still need to do all the stations. There is definitely a possibility of allowing for "side quests" or optional small activities or projects for those that want to learn more on a specific unit.

The use of blended learning creates the opportunity for the teacher to be more than the "sage on the stage". Music teachers are used to being at the front of the class. They are, to begin with, performers! However, we also realize that there is no way to connect and help every child learn from the front of the classroom. All passionate teachers want to be more than that. They want to guide students, mentor them, help them learn life and content, and inspire them to go beyond their teaching.

As students are engaged in their own learning, the teacher is freed up to help individual students, to check understanding and help solve problems quickly, or to simply be available to a student who needs that extra guidance.

Small, teacher-led groups also give the chance for the teacher to give the instruction that each individual student needs.

Technology can also allow for more differentiated instruction in lessons, assignments, and assessments.

The teacher is there at the student's side instead of lecturing. This can create a student-teacher relationship that allows for more in-depth learning, mentoring, and coaching that can extend the students' skills from the classroom to job and life in general.

Which model gives us the student control we want, and allows the teacher's role to be as a guide and mentor?

Each different unit that we teach with our 5th graders might need a different Blended Learning model than the one before. Flexibility is always our top priority. Which model will also accommodate for that need?

There are two models that seem to be able to handle our needs best in the elementary music room. These are the "Station Rotation" and the "Flipped Classroom" models.

Our district has several different sizes of music rooms. As a traveling teacher, I use three different rooms in different buildings. The smallest room, on a stage, needs to be extremely flexible as others frequently need the room. The other two rooms are quite large, but they also need to be flexible as the band also meets in the room.

This video shows a 360 degree view of one of those classrooms packed up for the summer. On the wall with the clock and the long shelves is where the Orff instrumentarium is usually placed.

The back left corner is also the entrance to the elevator so a clear path is needed for access for students on crutches or in wheelchairs.

The back right corner has all of the necessary music stands. Chairs for band are in one of the storage rooms and need to be available twice a week.

Of the three practice rooms, one is the other music teacher's office, one is her storage room, one is my storage room. At this point, they are unable to use for student space, although I might be able to get creative with my storage space.


Link to Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jUPWMGw4ks

Here is a possible room layout using a Station Rotation model.

At the top of the page is Station 1: The instrumentarium. This area has all the classroom instruments available, already set out to learn. I can see having small groups learning to perform a skill or song. As a teacher, I would be able to really help individual students with their musical skills.

Station 2: This would be an open area that students can use for individual study and work on their iPads. The students naturally gravitate toward this area anyway. (Notice how far away the teacher desk is! Good thing I don't sit at my desk much!)

Station 3: This has two small tables with seating for small group work/collaboration/project space. Since my students are K-5, I won't be able to do high tables, or standing desks.

Station 4: Interactive White Board station...this allows the option for a small group to do a lesson right at the SmartBoard. This is also the main area where students would sit to receive instructions before heading to their stations.

Luckily, our district has been working on a Technology Rich Classroom environment for several years. As of this last year, we have 1:1 iPads for 3rd-12th grades. It is possible that soon all grades will be 1:1. Therefore, in our case, we would want to have 1:1 iPads in our music classroom as well.

This creates a much more streamlined and efficient experience as each student has their own ipad, with their own sign-ins and does not need to share. Student's compositions, projects, and lessons would all be available on their own device without the need to sign on/off, or find the same device they were using the previous class.

In the music classroom we do have one logistics problem with our devices. Students need to bring their devices with them. IPads may not be used the entire class time, so what do students do to safely store their iPad until needed? We don't have desks, and most of us don't even have chairs. If students keep the iPad with them, you risk kids trying to use the iPad when they are supposed to be doing something else. There is also the element of safety for the device. If the iPad is on the floor, it could get stepped on by another student.

If students store the devices on a table or counter, then you have a traffic jam when students need their iPad. That, or an extended amount of time handing them out to the right students. When you only have 45 minutes twice a week for class, time is precious.

With support from our fellow teachers, technology, and administration, Blended Learning could be a great way to engage our 5th graders (and every other grade level as well!).

As stated several times, flexibility is very important. In fact, Blended Learning probably could not be accomplished during a performance quarter. With so little time available, rehearsal time for performances is at a premium and the online environment might prove to be too much of a distraction. It's not impossible, but unlikely that at this time we could use it.

In conclusion, after considering these issues of student control, the teacher's role, the Blended Learning models, physical space, and technology resources, I believe that the Station Rotation model would be successful for most of the school year, especially in the 5th grade classroom.

References:

Horn, M. B., & Staker, H. (2015). Blended: Using disruptive innovation to improve schools [Kindle]. Retrieved June 27, 2016