184 | Baby Steps Toward Movement (Sequencing Unstructured Movement to Prevent Chaos) - HD 1080p
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[00:00:00] Bryson Tarbet: If you've never done any movement before in your classroom and you decide to just try this wonderfully complex. Dance or play party, you're gonna be disappointed and your students are gonna be frustrated. So let's talk about what you should do instead. You are listening to that music podcast with Bryson Tart, the curriculum designer and educational consultant behind that music teacher in the elementary music summit.
[00:00:28] Bryson Tarbet: Each week, Bryson and his guests will dive into the reality of being an elementary music teacher and how music can truly be transformative in the lives of the students you serve. Show notes and resources mentioned in this episode can be [email protected].
[00:00:50] Bryson Tarbet: Welcome back to that music podcast. Today we are gonna be talking about movement and more than just the way we've been talking about in the last few weeks, we're gonna talk about how we can sequence that to make sure [00:01:00] that people are successful. Before we get too far into the weeds, I wanna talk a little bit and kind of give us a little bit of an understanding of what I mean when I say sequencing.
[00:01:07] Bryson Tarbet: Um, because sometimes we, you know, we, this is a word that we use in teaching a lot, but sometimes we forget about it with movement. We feel like a movement is the extra thing. Uh, and one of the biggest changes that I was able, you know, I kind of made internally as a teacher was realizing that my students don't know how to move.
[00:01:25] Bryson Tarbet: I need to teach them, I need to put, bring them into these things. You know, I started doing a folk dance party with my third graders, uh, a folk dance night with my, with my third graders, with their, and their, their families. Um, and I quickly realized that I can't just start doing movement and structured movement in third grade and expect that to go, well, we need to start earlier.
[00:01:42] Bryson Tarbet: We need to build, give them more of an opportunity to build these different types of skills so that it's not all. They're not learning all the things all at once, right? They're just learning the new bit, just like we do with, with melodies and rhythms, right? We're not throwing all of the soul at them at once.
[00:01:57] Bryson Tarbet: We're slowly building in these different pieces that they know [00:02:00] to build on and kind of keep leveling up their, their skills and their understanding. I wanna propose three different types of movements, or not really different types of movement, but three, three steps to get us from chaos of movement to this more structured movement where things are actually working.
[00:02:15] Bryson Tarbet: So. I think the first thing we need to do is give them unstructured exploration. So this is something, we're not going in with a play party, we're not going in with a dance. This is just getting them to move their bodies. Um, I've, what I've noticed is that there's some students that really don't understand this open-ended concept.
[00:02:33] Bryson Tarbet: You know, if we, if we say, all right, move your body. As to what you know, listen to this song and move your body to what it sounds like. That can be a really abstract thing. So what can we do? The biggest thing that we can do when we're giving our students the opportunity to, to move. Is to model, right? So if we're saying, listen to this song and I want you to move how you, how it makes you feel, show them what that means.
[00:02:56] Bryson Tarbet: And sometimes that makes us as the teacher a little bit uncomfortable, uh, because we are a [00:03:00] little bit more uncomfortable with this type of movement. Um, which is where I kind of flip it around and say, you know, if we are this uncomfortable with this movement, our students are probably gonna be a little bit uncomfortable too.
[00:03:08] Bryson Tarbet: So we really need to model that understanding and model that. That, just that openness and that trying new things. And there are no real wrong answers right now In this stage of unstructured exploration, I would highly encourage you to start with, uh, non locomotor movement and then go with up to locomotor movement.
[00:03:26] Bryson Tarbet: So in case I'm not clear, non locomotor movement is movement where you're moving, but you're not traveling through space. You know, your feet are glued to the ground, you're in your same spot. Right. And the way that I explain this to my students is actually, you know, I always start out in kindergarten with engine engine number nine.
[00:03:40] Bryson Tarbet: That's always where I go from steady beat. Um, and then somehow I get into a book that talks about a locomotor, right? Locomotion. Um, and then I use that, that term kind of brings that, bring it back to that connection. Uh, so non locomotor is. Movement where you might be standing up and you know, moving your arms around or moving your feet, but you're not moving through space.
[00:03:59] Bryson Tarbet: You're in your [00:04:00] own little bubble. Your bubble is not moving and everyone's able to move. In their own dot or on their own spot or wherever. I, when you start with not locomotor movement, it gives them the opportunity to, to look around a little bit more because they're not worried about running into people or running around the room.
[00:04:16] Bryson Tarbet: Um, but it also allows them to be a little bit safer. We've talked a little bit about Mo, um, in previous episodes about keeping things safe when you're doing movement, especially when, when you're working with a class that isn't necessarily super used to doing this type of movement, giving them. Non locomotor is an opportunity to allow them to move without having as much chaos.
[00:04:38] Bryson Tarbet: Now once students are able to, to do some non locomotive movement, they're able to listen to a piece of music and, you know, move their body up when the song goes high, move the body down when the song goes low or whatever, then you can add in, all right, now we're gonna do that, but we're gonna do locomotive movement.
[00:04:51] Bryson Tarbet: We're gonna move around the room, and this adds an extra layer because we have to make sure that people aren't running into each other. Um, so little [00:05:00] bonus tip is when you first do non, or when you first do locomotive movement, pick a slow song. So that there's more, there's less opportunities for students to be running into each other, um, and, and model what is appropriate, what is, you know, what is, what is a safe choice, what is not, and, and set those expectations.
[00:05:16] Bryson Tarbet: So within structured explorations, we're in our f this is our kind of our first, our first block of unstructured exploration. And we're gonna start with non locomotive movement, and then we're gonna move into locomotive movement. Once we feel like they're pretty good and they kinda, the understanding of the basics of this unstructured movement, then we can move into guided movement.
[00:05:34] Bryson Tarbet: So this could be something as directed movements like, all right, we're gonna follow a beat. I'm gonna, I'm gonna do a motion and then you're gonna do the motion. So we're, we're kind of using the teacher as a guide, and then once they can do that May, then maybe they have a student as the guide. You know, the student's gonna show us what to do and then everyone else is gonna follow them in, maybe give them verbal instructions, giving them, showing them, you know, modeling, things like that.
[00:05:54] Bryson Tarbet: Um, giving them, helping them build up their movement repertoire so it's not just walking, but they could be jumping, they could be skipping, they [00:06:00] could be hopping, they could be crawling, all these different things to kind of help them build their understanding of like, oh, these are some different choices that I can use.
[00:06:08] Bryson Tarbet: When I, when we're doing these type of activity. So at this point we're still kind of, we're not super structured. This isn't like something where you have choreo choreography or anything. Um, but we're st we're just giving them a little bit more support, um, starting with teacher support and then with student support.
[00:06:23] Bryson Tarbet: After we do that guided ex guided movement, that's when we can start doing these structured activities. Um, so this could be something like movement games that have very specific rules or instructions, uh, choreograph dances, folk dances, play parties, movement sequences, all these different things. You don't wanna do any of this until that we can, they can move without, without there being a, a wrong answer.
[00:06:45] Bryson Tarbet: Right? Uh, you know, there are some activities that if they move incorrectly, quote unquote, um, they're out. And you don't wanna start with that because then immediately they, under that, they're kind of being told, oh, if I don't do this, it's wrong. And a lot of movement in the music [00:07:00] classroom. There really isn't a wrong answer.
[00:07:02] Bryson Tarbet: There might be ones that are a little bit more appropriate, more that more safe, or more within our expectations, but there isn't necessarily a wrong answer. So what are three different categories within this kind of step? We have unstructured guided movement structured, and what I love about this is this could be on a very macro sense where, you know, kindergarten, we're doing all kinds of unstructured sixth grade, we're doing lots of structured or, and honestly, I think and would probably work better.
[00:07:29] Bryson Tarbet: On a micro census works a little bit better, right? Within any grade, you're gonna start the year with more unstructured exploration, then you're gonna start moving into some guided exploration. And if they're not doing great, move it backwards, go back to some unstructured activities, then move it back into guided.
[00:07:44] Bryson Tarbet: If we're starting to get understanding and we starting to see that they're, they're doing things safely, they're able to move, travel through space, they're able to see, then we can give them a little bit more and give them more of those, those structured activities within each grade. There are opportunities.
[00:07:56] Bryson Tarbet: To do all three of these, and what I love about this is [00:08:00] if you're coming into a place where your students really ha don't have a lot of experience with movement in the past. You don't have to wait until you know, you don't have to start in kindergarten and wait until they get to fifth grade. Having that experience, you can start in fifth grade with this unstructured exploration, using what we talked about last week, making sure that it's appropriate for that age, and just going through this process in the micro sense rather than the macro sense.
[00:08:23] Bryson Tarbet: The biggest point that I wanna leave you with is that this is a gradual progression. Try not to push things too quickly. Because then you're gonna start things falling off and the chaos. And then when the students get, start getting, feeling that chaos and feeling like they're not doing it correctly or feeling like it's just not working, then we can start seeing walls build up.
[00:08:42] Bryson Tarbet: I see a lot of walls build up around movement. Um, and that can be a really big issue. And I think the whatever we can do to make these small steps and accelerate the wind along the way. That's gonna be helpful. Um, regardless of if you ever wanna do a huge, you know, folk dance night or any, any sort of big structured movement, just giving them the [00:09:00] opportunity of the understanding of these three different phases can be really helpful to get movement in your classroom.
[00:09:06] Bryson Tarbet: If you haven't left us a review on iTunes or YouTube or wherever you're listening or watching, it would mean the world to us. If you were to leave us a five star review or maybe one less, but maybe not, uh, let us know what you like about it. What, what are some podcast episodes you'd like to see? Uh, what are some things you'd like us to revisit?
[00:09:21] Bryson Tarbet: Um, it really helps us understand, you know, what you guys are vibing with, but it also helps us get in front of new teachers, um, just like you. Uh, with that being said, I really appreciate you taking some time and, and joining us for this week, week's episode. Um, and in case nobody has told you lately, thank you so much for making a difference in the lives of the students that you teach.
