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Thomas Massey  

Teacher Profile: Strategies for Teaching Music

During the past month at Riverside School for Makers and artists, I have been mentored by Mr. William Russell. Mr. Russell teaches guitar and general music to grades 4-8. He is an incredibly friendly and approachable professor who constructs lessons for his students that involve games and rhythmic exercises to engage his class. He is also very empathetic and has a remarkable ability in taking students who don’t want to learn and helping them turn their day around. Additionally, he is a talented saxophonist and a Steelers fan.

Teaching students written music notation can pose a challenge to even the most experienced teacher. Written notation can be confusing for students who have no experience in reading sheet music. It can feel like a chore which is the opposite of what learning music should feel like. Mr. Russell takes an aural approach to teaching music theory. This approach includes tapping various rhythms on bucket drums in group activities. Students mimic his rhythms by ear and then create their own exercises based on the rhythmic patterns that he has taught them. This is a different way of teaching theory in comparison to the more visual notated music which is read on staff paper. The professor reinforces his aural method using interactive videos with popular songs. The music video plays on the screen and the students keep the beat by tapping eighth and quarter notes. While watching the students perform this rhythmic exercise, I couldn’t help but think about our class discussions on media and technology, and the huge role they play in the 21st century classroom. Mr. Russell told me that the students respond much more to this aural method for learning music theory. He explained to me that by utilizing popular music and interactive videos as sources for his lessons he keeps his classroom motivated and engaged. Mr. Russell’s awareness of this allowed him to use media and technology to achieve student learning objectives. This aural exercise serves as an introduction to meters. Mr. Russell then transitions the class into reading the same music on the page that they performed aurally creating a connection. The rhythms on the staff are identical to those that he taught the class, and the students have no trouble transitioning from aural to visual. “Assimilation occurs when new information adds to what we already know about a concept.” (Theodore T) Mr. Russell utilizes this assimilative technique to allow his students to process new information.

Mr. Russell’s students are young, full of energy, and often out in and out of focus during class lectures. Mr. Russell uses technology for class lectures. He came up with a strategy of recording his own video lectures. Using humor and class concepts, he can provide essential information to the students and keep their attention. An example of this would be a hilarious video of Mr. Russell playing a pineapple ukulele with a chromakey Hawaiian background. He instructed students on various chords on the ukulele and would call out students by name in the video and have them interact with the lecture. The students are always focused and amused when he plays these video lectures.

Mr. Russell can take a tough situation and turn it into a learning experience. An example of this happened two weeks ago in one of his percussion classes. A student came into class and was completely disengaged with the lesson. He sat with his head down during the first ten minutes of class when the drumsticks were being handed out. Mr. Russell approached him and asked him why he was not participating in the lesson. The child responded that he was not interested in participating and felt tired. Mr. Russell then proceeded to empathize with the student and said that he was feeling tired as well. He then asked the student “why not make your beat a relaxed beat, something more laid back, we can go with the tired vibe today.” The student started tapping a slower, relaxed beat. The professor encouraged him and said that he liked what he was hearing. The student immediately became more enthusiastic and used his laid back/ tired beat as a class exercise. I was impressed by this brilliant teaching moment. The professor took what could have been perceived as a challenge and made an opportunity out of it. I think this is an important note for teachers to take during trying moments such as lack of motivation, disengagement, poor behavior, and other similar situations.

These kinds of moments offer a teacher an opportunity to weave the negative energy into something positive. “The passion for stretching yourself and sticking to it, even (or especially) when it’s not going well, is the hallmark of the growth mindset.” (Dweck, 2007) A similar situation occurred when Mr. Russell was using a game in which students would play and gradually be eliminated until there was one student standing. One of the students was eliminated early on and had a psychological breakdown about being taken out of the game. He began to scream, shout, and ran out of the classroom. Mr. Russell went to speak with him and said that he should be the game master for the next round. The student immediately perked up and ceased screaming. This may sound like a simple exercise in baby-sitting, but when dealing with students, there are different types of personalities. Mr. Russell understands his students and knows how to make negative moments into positive experiences.

A lot of Mr. Russell’s day to day work goes beyond teaching music. He also works hard to motivate his students and often must play the role of the intermediator when fights break out. I have only witnessed one fight during my time in the school and it was brief and relatively low key. Mr. Russell had to split the two students up and spoke with each one of them privately. He was able to contain the situation so that it did not affect the entire class. Mr. Russell told me that fights are a daily occurrence at the school and that for classes in the afternoon, most of his time is taken up in either controlling the classroom/trying to get their attention or breaking up fights. He told me that there had been several times where he was forced to hide instruments because students were using them as weapons in class. This was heartbreaking to hear. Mr. Russell is an excellent teacher, but I can tell that this part of the job puts a stress on him.

Mr. Russell is very eclectic in the repertoire he selects for his students. He picks a range of music that includes artists of various genres. There is something for everybody and that everyone can relate to. He incorporates classical music, rap, rock, country, and other genres into his lessons.  He uses songs of different genres as teaching devices for learning instruments and music theory. I like that Mr. Russell provides this diversity because it provides students a chance to both learn new music and perform popular songs that they are more familiar with.

In conclusion, I couldn’t help but reflect on our readings about fixed mindset vs growth mindset and how it applies not only to learning new skills but also to teaching. It is easy for teachers to get into “fixed mindsets” thinking that there is only one or two ways of doing something, that certain students are” fixed” in their ways and that we can only hope for the best. I think that “growth mindsets” apply to teaching in the sense that we must be willing to allow growth and flexibility in our own thinking.  We must understand our students and find ways of reaching them and helping them understand content based on assimilation as opposed to accommodational techniques. Mr. Russell personifies this perfectly in that he is able to understand his students and finds ways of reaching them where they stand while also maintaining common core music standards.

References:

Dweck, C. S. (2007). Mindset The new psychology of success: How we can learn to fulfill our potential. Chapter 1, updated edition.

Theodore, T. (2022, June 28). Assimilation vs. accommodation (definition and examples). https://practicalpie.com/assimilation-vs-accommodation/

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Hi Thomas!

This is really great! Thanks for sharing!

You created a nice documentation of Russell and his work with his students. You highlight some really interesting pedagogical choices (e.g., video taped lecture, empathy with a tired student, etc.). My question to you is why is this kind of practice so unique? When you read it, it all makes sense. But why don’t more teachers do these types of things? And why do education programs not foster this kind of creative and empathetic pedagogy?

I sincerely appreciate your tethering of this class to the idea of growth mindset. Please consider this closing question: “Is there a limit to a growth mindset? In short, is there a point when it is too difficult to grow? Or is there simply a limit on the rate of growth? How do we balance growth with sticking with what has previously worked so that there is not simply purposeless/unmotivated change?”

Thanks for sharing this portrait of Russell. It is sincerely appreciated!

Dino