Kids need to explore music to appreciate it
Courtney Tedesco has been teaching music at Park View Elementary School in Glen Ellyn for one year. She has been teaching three years overall.
Q. Elementary students aren't likely to become virtuosos before they leave fifth grade. What's your goal for, say, a kindergartner over the course of a school year, and how do you build on that throughout elementary school?
A. In kindergarten, we start with fundamentals such as steady beat, loud vs. quiet, fast vs. slow, etc. As years progress and the students move through elementary school, we build on these basic concepts.
For example, I might tell kindergartners to imagine you are sneaking downstairs in the middle of the night to get your favorite dessert from the kitchen, but don't get caught! Kids show me how they might sneak downstairs to get that cookie, but they do so by tiptoeing to the steady beat I am keeping on my drum.
By first and second grade, I'm having students come up with ideas on their own. By third and fourth, we switch the focus more to rhythm as opposed to steady beat, and by fifth grade, the students are able to notate and dictate rhythms.
The main goal I have for students in my music classroom is to get exposure to and build appreciation for different types of music. When given the opportunity to explore music in ways that interest them (games, instruments, technology, movement), they learn in a way that they can relate to.
Of course my hope is that fifth-graders leave with knowledge of my music objectives, but, more importantly, that they had a positive and fun experience and they can appreciate various aspects of music.
Q. Kids are natural noisemakers. How do you harness that inclination and shape it into vocal or instrumental talent?
A. Students need time to explore, even if it can get noisy. Even in kindergarten, we talk about body percussion, or appropriate ways to use your body to make noise. The kindergartners LOVE to stomp - if they can stomp and still meet the objective, then I'm all for it!
In the spring, I take the fifth-graders outside and we do bucket drumming. Kids love to bang away on buckets, and it's a great way to work on rhythm, instrument independency, improvisation and more. It's all about turning that noise into something engaging and purposeful.
Q. What music - a composer, an artist, a song, etc. - is essential for students to know and appreciate? Why?
A. I tend to focus more on the musical aspects of songs I show my students, not necessarily the composer or title.
If we are working on tempo (speed), then I might show a piece by Beethoven one day and show one by Taylor Swift the next. I will, of course, give them a little background/history if possible, but I think that at a young age it's important to use whatever the students can relate to best.
If they can make connections to class through the music they like to listen to on the radio, then I consider that a success.
Q. What song's your favorite guilty pleasure?
A. Definitely "Cheap Thrills" by Sia. I listen to it on repeat!