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Focusing on student and family well-being over content delivery is pretty mainstream right now. Delivering content while helping students connect with their families can be a really useful tool for distance learning.
I think it is wonderful we are spending more time consciously focusing on our community cultures. We notice what students' families need instead of focusing on the child alone. There's a lot of good that can happen when we get the whole family and community involved in students' education. I mean, it does take a whole village. 😊
Standards:
Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) has outlined performance descriptors for SEL.
National Core Arts Music Standards.
Anchor Standard 10: Synthesize and relate knowledge and personal experiences to make art. Essential Question(s): How do musicians make meaningful connections to creating, performing, and responding?
These activities work both in distance learning setups and in the traditional classroom. I encourage you to space them out throughout the year. At the beginning of the year, they are a great way to get to know your students, and as the year progresses it is helpful to get students to connect with their families through music in an intentional way. Especially as the year gets more stressful and connecting activities are dire.
My Musical Family
Students of all ages can draw a self-portrait of themselves with those they call family. Many students listen to music in the car on their commute to school, play dancing games like Just Dance! for family game night, or hear family members singing and playing instruments at home. Using a fill-in-the-blank option helps give students ideas for what to say. Let's be honest, a lot of our music consumption is subconscious! If you as a teacher struggle to name every musical thing you did outside of work, your kids might too. Hit the cross-curricular instruction with some art skills by drawing a picture.
Interview With a Family Member
My students have shared a lot of their musical tastes with me lately. Maybe online they feel more empowered to voice their opinions - who knows! I know next year I will be encouraging them to share with me more often because I HAD NO IDEA ABOUT SOME OF THESE BANDS/SINGERS! One way to connect that with their family is to do a little interview. My kids were encouraged to reach out to someone via video chat, but whoever is available is fine. We found out how different family members listened to music (lots of cassettes and CDs), what music they liked, and if their families liked the same music or not! Very insightful for me, and a lot of fun for the kids! I think their family members liked it too – who doesn't like to talk about themselves a little bit. 😉
Personal Mixtape
We can hit the SEL hard with this project. Students learn about a mixtape, cassettes, and recording on them. Then, students choose about five songs that fit a theme. In my case, I had students choose five songs that described them. But, if we want to reach SEL Standard 1B, E4, students can choose songs that describe how they feel their families support them. For example, I might choose "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" with the rationale that my parents told me nothing could stand in the way of my goals, no matter how big. You can also spin this project to be mixtapes about individual emotions or one song for happy/sad/angry/disappointed/excited.
Best of luck with your projects! Your students will really enjoy getting more in touch with their families through music.
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