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inquiry

Halloween listening (in any subject)

Yes, Halloween is very North American, but it seems that the tradition of costumes, candy, and spooky things is seeping into many other places as well. And if you want to weave a bit of Halloween fun into your lessons

Janine 23. October 20151. November 2015 Inquiry No Comments Read more

Questions and Student Inquiry

Today I just want to share an article I read. I’m not a huge fan of Alfie Kohn in general, but I think what he has written about getting down to truly essential questions, and encouraging thoughtful questioning from students,

Janine 14. September 201526. July 2020 Inquiry No Comments Read more

Getting started with (or checking in on) inquiry

When I first started working with PYP, I was beyond overwhelmed. I came with a lot of knowledge and ideas, and now I had to do everything a whole new way. I didn’t need convincing; obviously it was a great

Janine 1. September 201518. September 2015 Inquiry No Comments Read more

Inquiry: Musical Cycles

Following a previous post, someone asked about our inquiry into cycles. The main inquiry point is that the layering and varying of simple musical patterns can create a complex sound, and that this cycling technique is used in several musical

Janine 15. May 20155. July 2015 Inquiry, Unit No Comments Read more

What’s on your Walls?

Many PYP schools have guidelines about what should be on the walls, but it is worth stopping to reflect once in a while about what you are doing with this valuable teaching space. That’s right: teaching space. I’ve found that

Janine 6. May 20159. August 2015 Thoughts No Comments Read more

The Listening Walk, Part III: Following a Score

Now that the students had inquired into how they could make their observed environmental sounds into musical sounds (inspired by Paul Showers’ The Listening Walk; see my Part I and Part II posts), we took it a step further. We visualized the

Janine 30. April 20159. August 2015 Group activity, Inquiry, Performance 2 Comments Read more

The Listening Walk, Part II: Making Sounds into Music

Following our inquiry into environmental sounds (inspired by Paul Showers’ The Listening Walk), we explored how that might translate into music. Sitting together as a class, a few students shared some of the sounds they had drawn/written in their journals,

Janine 24. April 201521. July 2015 Group activity, Inquiry 4 Comments Read more

The Listening Walk, Part I: Exploring Sounds Around Us

My Kindergarten classes have been exploring sounds, and an unexpected discussion led us in an interesting direction: How do the sounds in our environment inspire us as musicians? Cue The Listening Walk by Paul Showers, illustrated by the fantastic Aliki.

Janine 16. April 201526. July 2020 Inquiry No Comments Read more

Developing New Units (PreK)

Once in a while I try to clean up my computer—call it “spring cleaning,” I guess—and this time around I’ve stumbled upon loads of interesting things that I’d mostly forgotten about. As I clean up, I’ll be rolling out the

Janine 18. March 20155. August 2015 Unit No Comments Read more

Exploring Musical Cultures Through Concepts

All the way back to my teacher training, I have always tried to incorporate as much “world music” (sorry, I don’t like that term) into my teaching as possible. From PreK and all the way up, we sing in many

Janine 7. March 20155. August 2015 Inquiry, Thoughts No Comments Read more
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