S14: E260 The Summer Blueprint: Map Out Your Curriculum (Part I)
Schedule your curriculum and your fun.
Make lists by concepts by grade
Make material lists by concept
Create manipulatives
Select choir material
Select a musical
Buy something created by someone else
Many of us love our summers. And not just because things are a little slower, but because we can take time to plan and create for the upcoming year. We mix a little fun with a little work. But how do we intertwine non-school related things with school-related so that we don’t work the entire summer and start the school year tired? This isn’t something I’m really great at because I find it really easy to work all the time. Because I love to create, implement and try new things. It makes me excited to work and see the end product with students. But it also means that I have to work to get away from school-related tasks. This episode is as much a reminder for myself as it might be for you. I don’t have it all down or figured out, but because it’s something I try to work at every summer, I’ve got some systems and ideas that have worked for me. I’m not always consistent in implementing them, but better to do the best we can where we are, right?
Here are seven ideas for how to work on curriculum in the summer without working all summer. Choose one of the ideas to do or several!
1. Schedule your curriculum work and your fun
Set aside one morning or more each week to focus on school work. This could be the same day every week or you could look at each week on its own to determine what morning would work best for work time. Set aside one day to work on school-related tasks. In the same way you schedule when you want to work on school-related tasks, set aside a day or more where you don’t touch anything related to school. Give your mind and time some space to rest.
2. Make lists of concepts by grade
Is there a specific grade level that you want to focus on? Maybe you found that you feel really comfortable teaching fourth grade concepts this year, but that third grade doesn’t have a clear plan. Spend time looking at your district, state or national standards to help you figure out what you might plan for the school year. Keep in mind what you’ve seen your students do and what they’ve already been taught. Think about teaching one rhythmic and one melodic concept every month for each grade. It’s a good starting point. Figure out What concepts you want to teach in a specific grade. Then create lists of materials based on each concept.
3. Make lists of song materials by concept
Create plans for teaching rhythmic or melodic concepts. This is something I learned in my Kodály Levels that helped so much. Create a list of songs, games, and movement activities related to musical concepts. You don’t need tons of songs for each concept - you just need to discover and use song material that teaches the concept in a way that works for you and your students. There’s some trial and error here as you figure out what songs to use to teach concepts. Consider finding the following for each concept.
Two songs to sing
One game to play
One movement activity
This will give you four musical activities to do with students based on one concept. And if you do this for multiple concepts, you’ll have a great outline of what to teach throughout the year.
4. Create manipulatives
One year I saw a really cool way to teach the notes on the staff using felt music staff boards. I went to Michaels or Joanns and bought tons of felt to cut out so that I had 30 green felt staff boards with white felt lines glued across them. I created them over the summer so that they were ready for the school year. Another year I saw an activity using colored jenga blocks where you write a four beat rhythm pattern on the blocks and students review rhythms as they play the game. I ordered five or six jenga games from Amazon and wrote rhythms on the blocks while watching a movie in the background at home in the summer. If there are games or manipulatives you want to create for your classroom, summer can be a great time to do this. Pick one or two projects and create them.
5. Select choir concert material
As a younger teacher, one of my favorite things to do each summer was to head up to Penders and look through tons of choir octavos. This was before you could browse selections online and listen to them. Now I like to browse the choir music online and listen to examples, look at samples, and make lists of possible song material for my middle school choir.
6. Select your next musical
If you do a school musical each year in a specific grade level, select the musical at the start of the summer for the following year. You can even order a preview copy of the musical to peruse during the summer or if possible, place an order for the materials you will need next year so they’re already at school by the fall. Our eighth grade musical is performed in early May each year, but we’ve selected the musical each summer so that we can get some of the leg work done early.
7. Buy something that’s already been created by someone else
Sometimes the best thing we can do is take what others have already created and purchase it. It saves us time and we gain curricular materials that have been tested and tried. Then you can take time to look through the books, try out the activities, and figure out where they might fit in your curriculum. Your time is spent on learning about and then using what’s already been created! A few of my favorite places to purchase resources:
F-Flat Books
TpT: How to Teach Music With Jessica Grant
My Website: www.jessicagrant.org