Short post, but some nagging questions that've been on my mind...
How can project-based/student inquiry-based teaching and learning apply to the primary grades (PreK, Kindergarten, First, and Second grades)?
And how do you assess students through self-assessment at this young age? I suppose this depends on your philosophy, but how well can we rely on these students' interests and desires to drive our teaching at this point in their lives?
At what age level do students have the ability to effectively self assess and utilize critical thinking skills? Is there a way to cultivate these dispositions?
I would REALLY appreciate any thoughts people have on this!!!
Maybe self-assessment at this age means videotaping conversations/interviews with the students (alone or in small groups) to talk about work they've done... for example if they drew a picture to represent how a piece of a music makes them feel, you could then guide them with questions to describe why they made the decisions they did. You could create a sort of video journal over time, to track learning over the year, or with a particular concept or project.
ReplyDeleteI also think this is one of the best ages to encourage exploratory/discovery learning. What is sound? How can they create music without instruments? With "found sounds"? With a new instrument? They're unafraid of improvisation... see what ideas you get from them!
I had my Kindergartners start each class by choosing any instrument in the room for every student to play. They had plenty of their own ideas on the piano, and I would ask listeners what their style/songs made them imagine or made them feel. They are quite insightful at this age. you'd be surprised! And I scaffolded a bit with the glockenspiel day, asking students to improvise what they thought a lullaby would sound like, then gave a glock to a second student and asked them to partly imitate and/or answer the first lullaby with their own.
Endless possibilities... but you can start with them! They're FULL of ideas!