Speech Pieces

• Karen Stafford
• Posted 12/26/22
• 0 comments

Using Written Media for Music Creativity

As an Orff teacher, I was pleased to see the updated National Standards for Music emphasize creativity and improvisation more than before. After all, that is the top of Bloom’s Taxonomy and very desirable in the workforce.  

However, implementing improvisation, creativity, and composition can seem daunting. The planning! The notation! The music theory! But did you know that you can design improvisational and music-reading activities simply using objects lying around your house, classroom, or school library? All you need are words from printed media. 

Using a series of words can meet many music class requirements: identifying correct rhythm patterns, determining meter, using solfege, identifying form, using folk songs that are on topic with the words, etc.  

You can make this approach as straightforward or as advanced as you prefer. Students can work individually, with a partner, or in groups, depending on your class, their level, and the number of students. 

Finding Inspirational Sources for the Words

Some student-appropriate resources for finding words can be: 

• Weekly Reader 
• Classroom literature sets 
• Student-appropriate newspaper articles 
• Student-appropriate magazines. 
• Sight-word cards 
• Spelling lists 
• Textbooks 
• Assigned websites 
• Folk song and other source extensions. 
• Books of poetry (Amanda Gorman’s Change Sings a great book about perseverance. For lesson ideas on that book, check out my blog. ) 
• Kid-appropriate billboards 

I define the extra descriptors that come to mind when thinking about a subject as extensions. For instance, the extension words can be descriptive (slimy, crawly) or environmental (on the ground, hibernate) on a book about snakes. 

You can supply the words or materials, but it might be better for older students to do this if you are looking to newspapers or magazines for sources. If you do this, however, you will need to set parameters based on the responsibility level of the students in the class. 

Building a Lesson

1. Choose a picture book or a folk song. 
2. Students in each group bring in newspapers or magazine articles related to the story or song’s theme.  

Helpful hint: Review the material before you use it, or you might have some explaining to do! 

3. Students brainstorm words related to the theme.  

Helpful hint: Use individual words or create word chains depending on the meter. 

4. Students create an eight-beat word chain using their words. 
5. Using known rhythms, students decode the rhythm of their word chains. 
6. Students practice their rhythm.  

Create Grand Rondo Using Folk Song

• Folk song: A section 
• Each group becomes the other sections. 

Create Grand Rondo using Picture Book 

• Write a song to accompany the book 
• Each group becomes the other sections. 

Other Options

Choose one of the following ideas instead:  

1. Create a piggyback song using a folksong melody. 
2. Investigate Music for Children Volume 1 

Helpful Hint: The “volumes,” as Orff people call them, are purposefully written to encourage improvisation, not to be played or sung verbatim. Use one of the melodies (or part of a melody or tweak a melody) and add words. Better yet, see if your kids can create a verse as a class and modify it as necessary. 

3. Students compose sixteen beat rhythm patterns and then improvise a pentatonic melody using that rhythm.  
4. Create movement verb chains. Students find verbs within an article, write them on cards and then combine them to create a word chain. Students can accompany the movement chains with rhythm patterns or melodies created from one of the above ideas. 

Real-Life Examples

I used a book called Snail Trail: In Search of a Modern Masterpiece as a cross-curricular activity with first graders. In the picture, you can see the index cards with printed pictures to assist students while notating the rhythm of their text using craft sticks.  

We used the song “Snail, Snail” for the A section. However, instead of playing the familiar game, the students would walk in various pathways (zigzag, straight, curved, etc.). Then each group performed their composition for the alternating sections.

With fifth-grade students, I have successfully used characters of Minecraft. Students identified and notated the rhythms of the characters. Instead of performing a rondo, I used the word chain idea as a simple review assessment at the beginning of the year. 

In this example, a third-grade student created an acrostic poem. This type of poetry is simple for students to create in response to a book, song, or poem. 

We expanded this project by creating a melody by adding pitch names to each note and submitting their composition on SeeSaw. Students were able to work at their own pace because I could give step-by-step directions for students to follow.  

Conclusion

These projects can be designed to fit the need of your classroom perfectly. Each project can cover multiple objectives: a rhythm review, solfege, form, and even expression. You can use words for rhythm review, as I did in fifth grade, creating source material yourself or asking students to find a theme. 

Students can use text to explore simple forms of poetry such as haiku, acrostic, or diamante poems. You can ask the students to create body percussion with the rhythms and then layer the parts. 

Use SeeSaw as an online portfolio. Post your directions using single-step instructions to hold students accountable. (See this example.)  

Composing and improvising with text is one of my favorite activities with students. These activities can be as simple or complex as you want to make them; depending on what you choose, it can take very little prep time or an hour or two. They also provide excellent opportunities for students to contribute to their learning.  

The possibilities are endless using a few simple words!