A Reflective Lens: Music Pedagogical Research to Transform Practice | Page 108
Becoming a Reflective Practitioner:
A Music Teacher’s Exploration of Singing Games
The last person who gets the ball will play a clapping game with a teacher, then a friend first
in 2s, then 3s, then 4s, others play the boomwackers
• Teacher introduces sight-reading of a new song to pupils which the still have much difficulties with
○ Not familiar with rhythm
○ Not familiar with the tone set
• Pupils really enjoyed the games but find it a challenge to do the ‘theory’ part of the lesson on
rhythm
○ Accurate pitching is still the issue
Teacher’s Reflection: Lesson 6
• Most pupils are more familiar with the tone set of s-m-l-d
• Able to do inner hearing of the songs by themselves thus able to recognise the songs found
in the game
• Pupil are able to recognise the different songs through the solfège
○ Learnt the songs
• Hopefully to scaffold their 1st compositional writing
○ Teacher scaffolded the 1st line of the song and the last ending note do where the song
goes back to the tonic
○ Teacher also scaffolded the rhythmic notations of the composition where pupils needed
more help
○ Pupils were also able to work in groups
-
Natural leader emerges (usually pupils with a stronger sense of rhythm and solfège
leads) e.g. Pupils Ir, Am, A, Kh
• Able to lead, coach, praise, encourage, team mates
• Though the musical idea is there, but accuracy in pitching correctly is not seen in many groups.
Teacher’s Reflection: Lesson 7
• Inner hearing game as an AFL was quite effective as it gives me a gauge to whether pupils
are able to:
○ Know the hand signs
○ Know the pitch and the tone set
○ Memorise the solfège for the different songs that they have learnt
• Pupils still like it as a game even though it was an assessment
• Some pupils know what have prior knowledge of what a lullaby is, able to share that it is
something that they listen to before they sleep
• Respecting other cultures and remembering the greetings from a previous song that we’ve
learnt (Not laughing at the “konnichiwa” the pronunciation of the words of the song)
• Pupils are exposed to different genres of music, gave an example of improvisation to a rock
song – repeated some phrases.
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