Creating Your Own Learning Songs

Register for this course on the ChiME website at: 

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScF06GTYtMd2gEqcAeQaoVsTi3NI5H697gfon8e-wWq6y6JUg/viewform

We know that songs help students learn, but finding just the right song for our students, subject, teaching style, and circumstances can be time-consuming and unproductive. Thankfully, we can use melodies many teachers and students already know to create our own! Teachers will learn how to use melodies from familiar children’s songs and apply their own words to create custom songs for their classroom and lessons. Advanced learners will also have the opportunity to create entirely new songs with their own melodies to share with their students.

By the end of the session, participants will be able to:
• describe some ways in which music supports student learning
• describe some ways in which music can support teaching
• identify the common lyric forms of children’s songs (AABA, AAAB, Echo, AaaAB)
• compose new lyrics for the melody of one familiar children’s song, based on a component of the students’ curriculum
• design a student assessment activity where students create new lyrics for a familiar melody to demonstrate learning

This PD explores ways that teachers can use familiar melodies to create unique songs that will help students learn academic content, and it aligns with elements of Domains 1, 3, and 4 of the CPS Framework for Teaching, namely: 1a (Demonstrating knowledge of content and pedagogy), 1b (demonstrating knowledge of students), 1d (designing coherent instruction), 3a (communicating with students), 3c (engaging students in learning), and 4d (growing and developing professionally). Teacher participation in this PD will also support student achievement in any content area that the teacher chooses to focus on, and can also be used for student assessments in any content area.