12th Street Rag

As I have said before, I LOVE GamePlan.  While I don't use it exclusively to teach my kids, I do enjoy many of the lessons and games.  One I have used this year was from the 3rd Grade Book.  The lesson is playing rhythms along to 12th Street Rag (Rhythmically Moving 5).  My kids have always loved this and it was a great way to reinforce rhythm patterns, especially the whole rest.

This year when I taught the lesson, I added my own twist.

Lesson:

• Review known notes and rests using people rhythms. 
• Look at the form (Randy and Jeff have a nice visual for this in their curriculum.)
• Review Intro, Interlude, Coda
• Have a student perform the A section rhythm pattern.
• Class echoes
• Repeat with B, C, and D.
• Perform along with recording of 12th Street Rag (clap patterns)                                              (After performing the first time through, I add my twist.)
• Divide students up into 4 groups.
• Assign each group a section of the piece.
• Groups have 5-7 minutes to create a movement that can be performed using the rhythm from their section.
• Have each group demonstrate movement.
• Play music, each group performs during their section.

I have found that this twist on the lesson really helps the kids with playing the rhythms accurately.  They can create and discuss among themselves what works and why.  I find these more independent moments are when the light bulbs go off.  I wish I had video of the lesson in action!  It's interesting to see how the kids discuss and play with the idea of how to interpret a whole note with movement.  I hear them saying things like "What if we bounced our hand four times like this!"  "No, that's more like quarter notes."

Another addition I have made to this lesson is playing instruments.  I didn't include them this time but rhythm sticks are nice.  I like this instrument choice because it isn't a heavy sound, so you can still actually hear the recording and playing whole and half notes are accessible.  When students have one smooth and one bumpy stick, they can scrape the sound of the half/whole notes.  This gives them a feeling of how long the notes last.