RE Lesson 28 April

Hey guys,

Its Wen Ye posting again!

Its pretty sad that we wont be seeing the choir this Friday (30th Apr) as GOS is having a sports meet.
Therefore, we will only be seeing the choir on the 5th May, next week.

We're all busy during RE period, I've just completed the Lesson Plan for 5 May, Isaac is contacting recording studios and inquiring about their rates, and Benjamin and Benedict are planning the June Holiday Camp.

I've uploaded the Lesson Plan for 5 May!

Lesson Plan - 5 May
Things to note
1. Previous lesson was on 23 April, so it’s a two week break since they met us.
2. Interlink so that the choristers know why they are learning.
3. Group work works well (generates good response)
4. Add in fun activities in-between activities to stimulate and engage choristers.
5. Spread out the warm-ups, especially the fun ones.
6. Competition, Volunteering works well too

Warm-ups
1. Choir Sitting Position  Sit up straight, hands on lap.
2. Candle blowing  5, 7, 10 candles.
3. Snake Hissing – Huge Anaconda V.S. Smallest Rattlesnake.
4. Ma Meh Mi Moh Mu – Develop Tone!
Develop Tone (Tie in to Grace Orchard)
a. Close vocal cords (tuck neck)
b. Relax facial muscles
c. High cheekbones (open mouth)
d. Tongue on inner teeth
e. Ensure that pitch stays constant (use straight line pitch cards)
5. Tone Exercises  Ah/Eeh/Airh : 1-2-3-4-3-2-1(5) OR 1-2-3-4-3-4(2)-5(1)
6. Solfege Recap
- Do So Mi : Competition, have each group send one representative.
7. “Laughing is Contagious”  tie in with tone
8. Pitch Cards

Songs
1. Bugles’ Calling – Start on Canon
a. Start by demonstrating a two part canon (Wenye + Isaac)
b. Then get a volunteer to sing Do  Wen Ye then sings Mi
c. Divide into two groups, one row + teachers = two rows  one group sing Do, other Mi
d. Sing one line canon( Group 1: Bugles Calling ; once finish; Group 2 takes over.)
e. Then two lines canon.
f. NOTE: do not waste too much time on this activity.
-break-
2. Starjumps/Stretches
3. Clap Clap Jump
4. Grace Orchard School Song (Recap and Recap)
a. Breathing Techniques (breathing marks)
b. Recap on the more difficult words like “develop”
c. Phrasing
d. “Grace Orchard”  “Grace” louder (and more emphasis) than “Orchard”,
e. Develop a rhythmic flow for the song.
f. 2/3 way climax for most lines.

Fun Activity
1. Dog panting (tie in to stagger breathing)
2. Lips Loosening

5. Introduce National Day Song (Sing Singapore Medley)
a. Teach “Stand up for Singapore”

Thats pretty much what we're gonna do, I'm now working on the Powerpoint presentation.

Signing Off,
Wen Ye

NOTE: This post will be edited at the end of RE period

Lesson 3 (23 April)

This is admin Benjamin, I'm doing the post today. Just came back from GOS, after that hour long train ride from Lakeside to Paya Lebar but that's besides the point.

First, settle some admin and stats first. We clocked about 3hrs today, with Benedict and myself reaching at 2.20pm for setup and Wenye at 3.01pm for teaching. Isaac had some Earth Day event or something like that, so he couldn't make it for today's lessons.

Up next we'll have a chronological listing of today's events.

Before we formally started our lesson, a few girls from the morning session entered the class for a short session with the new conductor, Ms Chan. They were using the keyboard, so we couldn't start the lesson. There was a slight delay and we started the session only around 3.10pm.

When the lesson started, we forgot one fundamental thing, that is, to make sure that the students are actually sitting upright and with both soles on the ground. There wasn't much of an introduction, and we dove straight into warm ups. We started out with finger-candle blowing. First it was 5 counts, then 2 sets of 10, then 1 finger blow ten counts. Things started out alright, just that towards the end the students decided to become snakes and hiss at their fingers instead of blowing, so we "might-as-welled" moved on to the snakes/hissing warm up. This warm up was skewed to be more of a breathing control, teaching the students how much air they should release while making the sound. We tried 10 seconds, but some of our choristers couldn't hold it there, so we went to 7 seconds, and without much delay we moved on to the next activity.

Note that at this point of time we forgot to do dog panting, despite a cue to Wenye to initiate the activity. That aside, we moved on to the ma me mi mo mu warm ups, which was somewhat, to me, not fully taken advantage of. We stayed at one note for this warm up, before we moved up one note higher. That is, we only did two notes, which wasn't exactly a good thing because they are not warming up their vocal range. Last week, we moved relatively high up the scale and we could stretch the students a little, and I was a little disappointed on how fast we moved away from this warm up. Next lesson, we should work on stretching the students a little. Last week's lesson showed that they could go pretty high on the scales.

Then we had star jumps within the confined space, which i thought was not a good idea because the choristers were less than half an arm length away from each other, and there was a bit of knocking on the chairs and on each other. Not good. Jumping on the spot and other games would have been better.

After this we did solfege, and it is quite heartening to see that the choristers remembered all the hand signs, which was a good thing because it indicates that they are paying attention to us and absorbing whatever we say. We made them sing the note with the piano, which generated relatively good response from the choristers. Moving on, we also tried without the piano, which wasn't very successful because they only had an impression of doh in their minds.

Next we did the "hello, how are you" warm up. We tried getting volunteers to do, but apart from some of our choristers the response was not very good, so we decided to do by group, that is, front bench and back bench. We started out by asking the front bench to ask the back bench for a reply, then we reversed roles. Then we made each pair demonstrate, and the volume of each pair wasn't very impressive. We should work on their confidence, in view of this.

After that we moved in to laughing is contagious, but at this point in time i noticed many of our choristers we drinking a lot of water, so i gathered we made them do quite a bit at the start so we asked them to take a sip of water. Then the choristers understood it as a break, so they started insisting on going to the toilet. The sit-at-your-place water break became the normal break we had, so there was a disruption in our plans.

After the break we moved away from laughing is contagious for a while. We started the post-break with the loosening of lips, then we inserting dog panting here. We got some of the choristers to demonstrate laughing is contagious to us after that, and then we had two or three rounds of the song before moving into GOS school song.

First was the run-through of the lyrics. How to read and enunciate etc, and I recapped on the meanings of the difficult words in the song, but it turned out that none of them recalled it, so it was kinda awkward in that situation. We quickly moved on to both volume and vocal range, and this time we tried the parabolas happy curve and sad curve and the exponential curve and the downwards version of it, etc. The choristers grabbed this concept well, maybe we could exploit this.

After that we went through GOS again, very in depth, with breathing, enunciation, loudness all incorporated in today's session. We split the song into 3-line segments, and went through the song. Response here was extremely poor, but we can't blame them because they have been working in the same song for the past month, and indeed it is getting a bit dry. Nevertheless, we're working towards our goal of a recording that seems a bit difficult now, but it's a task worth undertaking.

Finally we went on to Bugles' Calling, but it was really late in the lesson and our dear teacher failed to understand the cues that time was up until 4.55pm, after the bell had rung. Within the course of five minutes we complicated Bugles' Calling a lot, and it was not very good for the students.

Either way, the students were super restless and touchy today. Ms Phoon says that it could be due to the girls from the morning session appearing before the session, making them a bit sensitive. It was quite a problem for us, because today's productivity was at an all time low, and we failed to do anything properly.

Moving away from the lesson, the new conductor, Ms Chan, gave us some advice that I thought made sense to me. She said we need not focus on being too perfectionist with the students, and should instead get them to grasp the concept before we go for perfection. In other words, as long as the students get the idea that so is higher than me and doh, and can illustrate this concept properly, we can then fine tune that to perfection.

I can't remember anything now, and whatever i noted down in teaching minutes has been used up, so I'll end the post here. Might be edits, might not, we'll see if I recall anything I missed out.
[EDIT: Hey this is Wen Ye posting - I do agree that this lesson was not very productive, and I missed certain cues on our planned lesson, particularly because I had missed the previous lesson and I had little sense of continuity. Given that I will be taking the next lesson, I will definitely improve on this lesson to do better. To ensure that choristers are engaged, some of the less-important warmups will be spread throughout the lesson - (esp the more engaging ones.).]

Benjamin

Edited by Wen Ye

Lesson Plan for 23th April

Hey Guys,
This is Wen Ye posting our lesson plan for 23th April, 2 days from now!
We will be teaching the choir infront of their choir conductor, hope we are able to get some tips after/during the lesson!

Here goes,

Things to note


1. Previous lesson was on 16 April

2. Interlink so that the choristers know why they are learning.

3. Group work works well (generates good response)

4. Add in fun activities in-between activities to stimulate and engage choristers.

5. Competition, Volunteering works well too.

Warm-ups

1. Dog panting (tie in to stagger breathing)

2. Candle blowing and breathing techniques

The following warm ups will be used in-between the practice to engage choristers.

3. Ma Meh Mi Moh Mu

- Ensure that pitch stays constant (use straight line pitch cards)

4. Solfege Recap

- Do So Mi : Competition, have each group send one representative.

5. “Hello, how are you?” “I’m fine, thank you.” (Tie in with Solfege)

6. “Laughing is Contagious”

7. Lips loosening: Brrr (with the lips, drink water before doing this activity)

- Use in between activities.

8. Starjumps, Stretches

- Use in between activities.

Fun Activity – Vocal Range

Bring along pitch cards/PowerPoint (Pitch Cards.ppt). Ask choristers to sing and modify their pitches according to the lines on the pitch cards. Optional.

Do note that only the pitch increase, and reinforce the fact that a higher pitch does not equate a louder volume.

-Break-

Songs

1. Bugles’ Calling (Recap)

a. Use solfege to demonstrate the notes  Point to ladder on screen.

b. Phrasing (Bugles’ Calling, Calling, Calling  climax on second “ling”)

c. Start on two-part canon, divide into two groups, one row + teachers = two rows.

2. Grace Orchard School Song (Recap)

a. Breathing Techniques (breathing marks)

b. Recap on the more difficult words like “develop”

c. Phrasing

d. “Grace Orchard”  “Grace” louder (and more emphasis) than “Orchard”,

e. Develop a rhythmic flow for the song.

f. Start introducing climaxes.

g. 2/3 way climax for most lines.

3. Develop Tone (Tie in to Grace Orchard)

a. Close vocal cords (tuck neck)

b. Relax facial muscles

c. High cheekbones (open mouth)

d. Tongue on inner teeth

e. Tone Exercises Ah/Eeh/Airh : 1-2-3-4-3-2-1(5) OR 1-2-3-4-3-4(2)-5(1)

4. Introduce National Day Song (Sing Singapore Medley)(optional - time constraints)

a. Start with ‘Stand up for Singapore’ (just a teaser)

b. Choir should be excited to learn more songs next lesson

Lesson Goal: Settle all memorization works, recap on Solfege and develop “Grace Orchard” musically. Lastly, develop tone.

Hopefully, we will be able to accomplish all things planned.
 
Last week, Benjamin and Isaac took over as teachers as I had personal committments.
This Lesson, I will be teaching the choir, and hopefully they still remember me! =)
 
Signing off,
Wen Ye

2nd Lesson - 16th April

Benedict here, I'll be posting for this lesson.

This post will be rather... long, but I feel that it fulfils our "research requirements" - from the report part, anyway. Detailed data logs, you know...

As a random piece of trivia, this post is 2,062 words long (including this line).

We loaned a tablet PC from RI's Aesthetics dept. for its capability to let us annotate, and probably will be doing so for the upcoming weeks as well. It was signed out by Benjamin, but is currently relaxing in my room. I'll be bringing it back Monday recess.

Attendance - Wen Ye wasn't here today, other than that the rest of us were present. Benjamin and I arrived at Grace Orchard at about 2.20 to set up everything first. Isaac came at about 3.

Ah yes, I almost forgot to mention - Isaac and Benjamin took over Wen Ye's teaching job for today.

We began by reacquainting the students with our team members (refer to slide "we're back~ ! who's who?"). They were able to identify us each by name, which was good. Following which, we went on to warm-ups.

For this post, I'll be listing each activity as we carried it out - well, in chronological order. Since that's pretty much how I've taken notes. There were 14 activities today. I'll start off with the warm-ups section, followed by the main lesson. The format will be arranged as follows - main points and sub-points, followed by elaboration (much like that of movesets on the smogon.com forums, for those who know)

1) Breathing Exercises
- Snake Hissing
- Candle Blowing
- Dog Panting

Overall, these activites were well carried out. Our new teacher(s) did a very good job, despite being generally less well-prepared, I suppose? Our choristers actually remembered each warm-up from our previous lessons. Whether this was due to the warmups being frequently used, or to their own memory - it's quite hard to be sure at this point in time. The transition between each exercise was good, except that a few people had problems changing (hissing when they're supposed to be blowing candles?)

2) Ma Me Mi Mo Mu
- Varied pitch
- Volunteering
- Pitching problems
- Timing

Okay, this was our second warmup. We began by calling for volunteers, and there were actually students who took the initiative. Not bad at all. However, when we started to vary the pitch (from middle C to about A, then back down), they were unable to hit the same note five times in a row (as required by the warmup). Their pitch went off a couple of times, which we tried to correct. Weren't very successful.

3) Solfege
- Revision - Sol Doh Mi
- Improvements
- Competition/Confidence training
- Involvement

We began by revising what we did last week, with the hand　signs and all. Again, we called for volunteers, with a positive response. The choir had a rather big improvement, compared to last week - when they were just learning the ropes. After our teaching, we asked them - which sign is which sign? - and I suppose it turned out ok.

Then, we had that little competition thing. Call a representative from each bench to the front, and such. We got the people sitting down to join the representatives as well, as a form of getting them to be more used to the signs. This also boosted the representatives' confidence, as it involved going up in front of the class and doing things. We clapped even though they could have been much better - but this is also part of encouraging them to want to improve.

I feel that putting this right after #1 Breathing Exercises might work - we can teach them that #2 Ma Me Mi Mo Mu is actually the same note - this might help them to pitch better. Comments anyone?

4) Our little game
- Jump 10 times
- Jump & Clap

(16th April slides - time to loosen up!)

This was slotted in between Solfege and #5, Hello, How Are You. It was actually to let the students loosen up a bit, as Solfege was rather dry, with just us teaching and them following. No offense intended anywhere. So, we made the students jump 10 times, repeatedly - followed by the jumping and clapping activity. It helps the students to focus more, I think. The activity served its purpose in the end, so all's well.

5) Hello, How Are You?
- Line-by-line
- Volume decreasing
- Mixing of lines
- Question-and-response (benches)
- Singing "happily"

We did this song line by line. Which isn't saying much, as there are only two lines to this rather short "song"... Referenced to Solfege here as well. Then, we got them to face each other by benches, as last week. Then, we switched their roles (ie. first bench sang reply). After a while, they started mixing up their lines (blue bench sang yellow benchs' line). Well, they started to sing a little more 'sadly' as well - lack of enthusiasm, boredom perhaps. "We must sing happily!".

6) Laughing is Contagious
- Memory
- Tempo Increase
- Pitch Variation

Well, perhaps it shouldn't come as much of a surprise that our choir was able to remember all the lyrics of this - we, after all, have done it quite a few times. Still, this is something worth mentioning...

We changed the tempo, making them sing faster and faster. They were able to keep in time, for most of it... until we reached a certain point, then it was observable that most of them could not keep up with the pace. I think we'll have to work on this and try to increase their maximum speed.

Ah, and the pitch variation. Since this warmup of sorts actually has a 5-note range, which is rather large compared to our other warmups, we might try to get our students to sing higher. As in, in different keys - this may also help them with the concept that solfege is actually relative pitch.

7) [New!] Volume Control
- Imitation
- Volunteering
- Encouragement

Here, we (extensively) made use of the tablet's annotation capabilities. Drawing curves and everything (reference: pitch cards) we *tried* to get the choir to vary their volumes. This wasn't really very successful, but it's acceptable as it's just out first try. Improvements can be made on this in future lessons.

Like the previous activities, we called for volunteers again. This is a good way to bring out some of the quieter students in our class, I suppose. It's also good that we had different volunteers most of the time. Encouragement is needed to push our students further...

8) Break Time

Nothing much to be said here, everyone went to fill their water bottles and the like. The classroom was unusually empty today, though.

9) Recap - Volume Control
- De/crescendo
- If you did it before...?

We found it useful to do a recap on what we taught before the break. Softer then louder, louder then softer - we used the tablet again to draw those curves again. When a few members weren't able to follow, Benjamin encouraged them by saying, "Let's try again. If you did it before..." - which I suppose, was good. After a while they caught up.

10) Grace Orchard: Volume Control
- Volunteering
- Application

Much like the previous activities, we called for volunteers. What is rather strange is that it's different students volunteering each time - it would be expected that the same few students would dominate the class. However, it's not that this is a bad thing...

We applied the volume control thing here again, writing lyrics and then writing the de/cresc signs above them. I think this went quite well, the students were able to follow us. Meaning, teaching pace was OK.

11) Pitching Activity
- Repeated curves

This is perhaps where we have room for improvement - like Ms. Phoon mentioned, if we first used the curve-thingies to teach the students volume control, they'd get confused if we re-used them for pitch. Perhaps we can look into using different colors for annotation (isn't really much of an issue, as we have the tablet with us).

Other than that... the students generally understood after a while.

12) Bugles' Calling
- Revision of words
- Volunteering (again)
- Solfege application
- "We'll do the first line."

We begun revising the words. Bugles' Calling is relatively new compared to things like Laughing Is Contagious, but the students were still able to remember the lyrics. That's a good sign, isn't it? The volunteering thing was repeated, and I think it has produced quite good results. Since it's pretty much different people volunteering anyway.

Applied solfege to this song, since it's rather simple and covers only 3 different notes. The choir followed us rather well here as well. Following which, we tried to get them to sing line-by-line, but resulted in them singing the whole thing. Singing the whole thing well. This is a big improvement from last week.

15) Grace Orchard
- Marking de/cresc, difficult words
- Repeat words 5 times, defined
- Revision of most difficult line
- Blacking out lyrics
- Volume control, emphasis

Our final activity, the school song. We started off by marking out the changes in volume throughout the song, using the de/cresc signs we used in the Volume Control section. Then, we revised the 'difficult words' - humility, integrity, and another one which I can't recall. We said them five times each (slowly) to help the students with their timing, I suppose... then we defined them, hopefully to give the students a greater impression of the words. We then revised the most difficult line to sing (a person of integrity, ---). They did this very well.

Next, we started to black out lyrics using the tablet's annotation thingy. They could still sing the song fluently, with no detectable pauses or confusion. This was really good. We wound up blanking out the whole song, but they were still able to sing it. Whether this was due to our teachers singing along and guiding them, or their own memory - this, we should be testing next lesson.

14) Rounding Up

We briefly ran through the whole lesson again, going through everything. This served as more of a refresher course for the earlier part of the lesson, which the students may have forgotten already. Saying our goodbyes, we dismissed them at about 5, in time for their assembly.

Now that the data log is done, let's move on to implications/learning points.

Generally, the students' performance today was very good. They're willing to learn and everything, so I think that we won't really have that much of a problem teaching them. Perhaps, what would have taken them a month to learn before would take only three weeks now?

Another point I'd like to note is our lesson order - we could move Grace Orchard's volume control part to the end with the whole song itself. Teaching them the volume for just two words, Grace and Orchard, might actually disrupt the flow of the lesson. If we took that and put it at the end, then it'd flow from our recap on volume control to Pitch Variation.

Ah yes, and volunteering. We noted that many of them were actually eager to volunteer today. This is a good sign, as they're actually building up their self-confidence through this as well. We might have to actually call on the quieter students as well, as they may not be as enthusiastic (for the lack of a better word) as compared to the other students.

And as mentioned above, the thing about using two different symbols for pitch/volume variation. Perhaps, different coloring might work. We'll have to experiment with that, though. I feel it'll help the students grasp things better - "oh, the teacher's using blue now, that indicates pitch!" - and will also make our lives simpler.

It would seem that their memories are actually quite good, as they've exhibited multiple times this lesson. As mentioned previously, this might help us achieve our goals faster - the faster we teach them the songs, the more we can do revision and stuff.

Well, that's all for this lesson - sorry for the *rather* long read.

RE Meeting 14 April 2010 ; Lesson Plan 16 April 2010

Hello everyone,

this is Wen Ye posting again!

Basically, for this lesson, we completed the lesson plan for 16th April's lesson, and there aren't much changes.
We added a new activity: Pitching Cards
We'll go more in-depth later.

16/4/10 Lesson Plan
Things to note
1. Previous lesson was on 9 March
2. Interlink so that the choristers know why they are learning.
3. Group work works well (generates good response)
4. Add in fun activities in-between activities to stimulate and engage choristers.
Warm-ups
1. “Hello, how are you?” “I’m fine, thank you.” (Tie in with Solfege)
2. Ma Meh Mi Moh Mu
3. “Laughing is Contagious”
4. Dog panting (tie in to stagger breathing)
5. Candle blowing and breathing techniques
The following warm ups will be used in-between the practice to engage choristers.
6. Lips loosening: Brrr (with the lips, drink water before doing this activity)
7. Starjumps, Stretches
Teach Solfege
1. Do – Hands clenched
2. Mi – Hands parallel to ground
3. So – Hands perpendicular to ground
4. I sing Do, you sing Mi (tie in to Canon)
5. Which is higher? Do, Mi or So?
6. Draw solfege ladder.
Fun Activity – Vocal Range
Bring along pitch cards/PowerPoint (Pitch Cards.ppt). Ask choristers to sing and modify their pitches according to the lines on the pitch cards. Optional.
Do note that only the pitch increase, and reinforce the fact that a higher pitch does not equate a louder volume.
-Break-
Songs
1. Bugles’ Calling
a. Use solfege to demonstrate the notes  Point to ladder on screen.
b. Phrasing (Bugles’ Calling, Calling, Calling  climax on second “ling”)
2. Grace Orchard School Song
a. Breathing Techniques (breathing marks)
b. Recap on the more difficult words like “develop”
c. Phrasing
d. “Grace Orchard”  “Grace” louder (and more emphasis) than “Orchard”,
e. Develop a rhythmic flow for the song.
f. Start introducing climaxes.
g. 2/3 way climax for most lines.
Lesson Goal: Settle all memorization works, recap on Solfege and develop “Grace Orchard” musically.

For the pitching cards, some examplse would be

As can be seen, choristers will sing a note and then vary their pitch based on the direction of the lines, when the lines go upwards, the pitch increase, and vice-versa. This way, choristers will be able to explore their vocal ranges and also have some fun. =D

That pretty much concludes our lesson plan for Friday.
Isaac and Benjamin will be taking the lesson this Friday, as I have personal matters to attend to.
Isaac, remember to drink lots of water and good luck for your lesson on Friday!

Signing off,
Wen Ye

Friday 9 April Choir Practice @ GOS.

Hey guys,

This is Wen Ye writing.
I checked this blog today, and noticied there wasn't any new post on yesterday's choir practice, so I thought I should just write this post.

Benjamin, Benedict and Me arrived at GOS at around 2.30pm to set up the powerpoint slides and prepare for the lesson. Isaac arrived at around 2.45pm.

[start edit]

The projector system was very friendly. It was direct input so there was not much trouble during setup. More importantly, I think the system supports audio, so it'll come in very handy when we teach songs that they've never heard before. By the way, we heard from Ms Phoon that the students missed us when we were absent during Cross Country, which is a good thing, because it means that they want us to be around and they are happy that we're around :)

We made some changes to the powerpoint to reorder our teaching content, but we were fully prepared when the students came in.

[end edit]

Ms Phoon started the practice by measuring everyone's sizes for the choir t-shirt.
Once we got the choir members to settle down, I started the lesson with warm-ups.
We started with the breathing exercises, Dog Panting and Candle Blowing.
We proceeded on to Laughing is Contagious and Ma Me Mi Mo Mu.
We then taught them the solfege for Do Mi So. Basically, we showed them the solfege signs for the 3 notes, and I got a bit confused too, as I was busy looking out for any members who was not doing it correctly.
Before we continued, we rounded up the warmups with Hello, how are you, this time with solfege.

After the lesson, Ms Phoon pointed out that we should gradually introduced the solfege, so instead of making them do Solfege and Singing and Actions, we should introduce them gradually.
Then, we let them listen to the three intervals, Do-Mi (Major 3rd), Do-So (Perfect 5th) and Mi-So (Minor 3rd).
We then proceeded to have them listen to me singing Do, and we tried to have them to figure out what Mi/So was. Although the choir managed to figure the note, I suspect that if we were to try it in another Key, they might not get the note correctly, as the older choir members seemed to have sort of 'memorized' the upper note, rather than figuring it out, and the younger members just listening to the older ones and followed.
Now that we were finished with solfege, we let the choir members have a 5 minutes break while we discussed on whether we should modify our lesson a bit. (We didn't)

After the break, we started on the two songs, Bugles Calling and Grace Orchard.
For Bugles Calling, we basically wanted them to do the Solfege together with the song, but similarly with Hello, how are you, we introduced the solfege elements too quickly, and the choir members were unable to cope. Also, we also introduced phrasing marks, and crescendo signs, and this really confused them alot. As we have some leftover time this lesson, we will spend more time introducing new things to the members instead during the next lesson. Overall, we could hear a gradual crescendo during each line of Bugles Calling, and this is pretty good. Also, the choir members managed to breath at the right time too.

Finally, we did the Grace Orchard song, and we managed to fix the problems with the first two lines ( Grace being softer than Orchard) by teaching them about the decrescendo sign, and they got softer when needed, adding a sense of rhythm to the song. We also taught them how to pronounce the more difficult words like 'develop' and 'integrity' and 'humility'. Overall, quite good singing, and we will tackle tone issues and rhythm issues during the next few lessons.

Overall, this concluded our entire lesson, and if I think of anything more, I'll edit it in.

Next lesson will be taken by Isaac, and I have to attend to personal commitments next Friday.
I will be coaching Isaac next Wednesday, so that he will be well prepared.

Isaac: remember to drink lots of water, so you dont lose your voice. like me.

[start edit (again)]

Feedback was generally good this week, and Ms Phoon thought that we were very prepared, which we were, and I'm glad our efforts went appreciated. Overall the powerpoint worked well for us, and we're probably going to reuse it for the next few lessons. Saves us the time of writing on the board. One thing however, the powerpoint isnt as friendly as the board because my laptop isn't a tablet pc, so when we want to do annotations, it's rather difficult, and I was struggling with the annotations. I'm currently thinking of a way. One of them is to roll up the screen and write on the whiteboard with the projection, but we couldn't do it that day because we weren't allowed to clean the board. I've checked the glare of the projector, isn't so bad. We might test it out next week, if the students get distracted, then we'll not roll up the screen again.

Also, Ms Phoon pointed out that we can afford to go slower at some points, like the teaching of the solfege. Wenye already mentioned briefly in his post, I'll add on here. Basically, we're supposed to drill in the idea that if you don't do it well, we'll keep on repeating the same thing over and over again. Which might work, although I'm worried about the fact that our students may have shorter attention spans. Of course, we need to try this out, if the response isnt good we'll adapt again.

As for something new this week, we had a form of loosening up when we were teaching the school song, as in, they jumped up and down so that they'll sound more enthusiastic when they sung the song later. It worked, because they really sounded much more energetic after the moving and loosening up. I have half a mind to implement this in warm ups and every once in a while during the course of the lesson so they'll be alert and energetic throughout the lesson.

Finally, next week we'll also need to work on memory of school song, this week we did not have the time. I also noticed some of them said "love" as "ove" and "hope" as "ope" in the school song, I might correct it next week, or get Isaac to look out for that. We might go for a little editing of the lesson content, but that will be discussed on Wednesday, during RE.

That's all.

[End edit]

[Edited by Benjamin]

RE Meeting 7th April

Hey readers,

This is admin Benjamin posting again. I’m at RE now, and all of us are hard at work. Full attendance clocked.

We’re now working on our individual portfolio, and also our literature review. Our portfolio is supposed to be submitted today anyway.

Right so there are plans to edit the lesson plan in the previous post. According to Wenye, we’ll be scraping rhythm, and teaching solfege instead. Rationale? Not sure. Wenye please edit here.

Wen Ye EDIT: It is important that the choir members know how the sounds they produce are related to each other. For example, in the next lesson, we will be asking them to point out which note is higher, so that they can begin to understand the relationship between notes. Also, getting them to recognize intervals will also lay the foundation for students to be able to do a song in canon, and subsequently a two-part song. Personally, rhythm can be imitated, and as we have chosen songs which are not difficult to remember and have simple rhythms, so that we can tackle the rhythm part of the song later. From past lessons, we have realized that the choir members can sing in unison, but some are unable to accurately sing the right note. Thus, we hope that by gradually introducing solfege, choir members will be able to visualize the sounds they are singing. =)

Our objectives of the day is to complete our literature review, and at the same time submit our portfolio. We are quite on task, so everything should be alright.

We’ll be heading down to Grace Orchard this Friday, and we’ll be much prepared to meet them after more than a month of break.

That’s all for today.

Benjamin