adaptive folk dances is so much more than making sure a student in a wheelchair is able to do the dance. It's about making sure in the planning phases that every student is able to be a successful part of that dance. Let's talk about it.
You're listening to that music podcast with Bryson Tarbet, the curriculum designer and educational consultant behind that music teacher at the elementary music summit 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 found at that music teacher.com.
Welcome back to that music Podcast. Today, we're gonna be talking about how we can take both dances, play parties, moving activities, anything like that, and adapt them in a way that is making sure that all students are able to access it. So there are a lot of conversations that you know are probably coming to mind right now. Or a lot of students that maybe like really were not successful with folk dances, or maybe students, maybe you just haven't been doing folk dances because you weren't sure how to include some students. And one that is a problem that the the educational systems have, because we're not getting a lot of that training sometimes. But also, it's not as hard as you think. A lot of times, it comes down to understanding what the goal is, you know, Is the goal to have a super cool choreographed routine that is flawless and you know, could be on Dance Moms No, probably not. I you know if that's if that's you, I argue that we should probably have a better deeper conversation, a deeper introspection on why we're doing dances and folk dances and movement in the classroom. For me, I use folk dances, play parties, structured movement, whatever you want to call it, whatever background comes from, I use it for the opportunity to allow students to explore music through a different modality. So we're not just singing, sometimes we are seeing sometimes we're not, we're not just playing instruments, sometimes we're playing instruments, sometimes we're not, we're not just moving. A lot of times we're moving and responding to the music or singing along with it, there's so many different layers on top of it, that it really just allows for such an increased connection, and integration of the music. So for me, the goal isn't for it to look pretty. It'd be cool if it did. But goal for me isn't for it to have that wow factor. Because quite honestly, getting a bunch of elementary kids to do something all together, and have it connect to the music already is a wow factor. Sometimes we're just kind of perfectionist. So what I want you to do is I want you to think when you're doing a folk dance, when you're doing a play party, when you're doing any sort of structured movement, I want the first thing that you think of is, are there any students that would not be able to do it as written? Do this in the planning, do not do this the day of do not do this as the kids are walking in. That is such a disservice. And you're not you're not going to help yourself, you're not gonna help that student? You need to do it as you're planning? And if the answer is yes, every single student will be able to do it perfect. Now we can move on to the next step. But if the answer is no, there are going to be some students that struggle, what can we do. So here are some things that I have done in my classroom to help students be successful with some sort of movement. First, there are some students that they just need a little extra help, they need a little extra help, well, you know what comes next. So I might have them, I might place them strategically next to a friend who is really good at understanding the form or remembering what comes next. Or it's just understanding when their mistakes happen. So that is an easy way to do things. Another way thing that we that I've done before is, you know, for instance, if we're doing something where there are two circles, and there's a circle that that moves on the outside, and then there's a circle that that doesn't move on the inside, I might have a student that struggles a little bit more with movement or with changing direction, or with whatever that student was struggling with in this song, I just have them in the inner circle, they're still part of it. They're not being other, they're not being excluded. They're just any other thing. Another thing is if we have students that might be in a wheelchair, that is a huge variety, right, I have still had students that have that prefer to get out of their wheelchairs whenever possible for these movement activities. And I have students that have been eight that would prefer to you know, use their the wheels and move themselves. I've had some students that weren't quite able to do that or didn't prefer it and would rather have a friend come with him or you know, have a friend help maneuver them or help an aide have an aid maneuver them, talk to the kids talk to see what they want. Again, this comes in the planning phase and we'll talk a little bit about the practicality of that and a little bit so don't worry I am aware of everything. So sometimes it can be as simple as that. Just how are we going to get the kids to move? How are we going to make sure that they're in the right place at the right time? But I think a lot of it comes down to how understanding are we going to be when it's not perfect? And how do we model that for our students, our class as a whole, so that when students make a mistake, and maybe quite possibly mess up the whole thing? How do we model that in a way of? How can we offer more support rather than Oh, my gosh, can we get just Johnny just can he just like, go to the office for a minute? Like, obviously, don't do that. But that might be going through the mind of some of your students, because they want to be successful. So how do we reframe what success is, so we're going to kind of keep that in your mind, and kind of be aware of how you will respond when things don't quite get necessarily go, quote, unquote, perfect. Beyond the obvious, maybe, maybe, you know, quote, unquote, obvious discussion of accessibility for students with maybe physical disabilities, emotional disabilities, mental disabilities, whatever, there's also going to be some other things and other students that might not necessarily have an IEP, or have have this label or that label that just need a little extra help. And, you know, some students might have had trauma and touching is not not something that's going to be successful with them. So if we have, you know, a folk dance or something that traditionally you'd grab on the shoulders, how can we modify that and give a choice? Or how am i How can you even if that choice is, you know, just pretend, or, you know, just whatever? How can we do be aware of what our students need and give that to them? Thinking back to COVID, I did a lot of folk dancing at COVID, because we couldn't sing. We couldn't sing. We couldn't use instruments, but we also couldn't touch each other. So how do we do that? We spread it out, we sometimes we change the instructions, the codec guy is telling you to do things differently. Yeah, we can do things differently. Because sometimes things don't work. Sometimes things don't work the traditional way, in our classroom, maybe your classroom has a bunch of desks, maybe you're doing teaching from a cart, maybe you have to, you have a very small classrooms, you can't do multiple circles, whatever. Just be aware of the environment that you're in the students that you're serving, and the background information of your students. So I think those are really the three things that if you think about the three ways that we as teachers can plan for accessibility, the first one is understanding our students, right? We want to make sure that we understand what our students previously know, what they are able to do physically, what students might need more help with what what students might be able to help others. And with what, what, what previous knowledge have they done with folk dancing, right? No student, regardless of any sort of label this that or the other is going to be successful at a very complicated folk dance if they've never done any basic ones. And just being aware of that being aware of the environment, right? If you have a bunch of desks, or if you are, God forbid, in one of those classrooms that have like the different stairs for like, maybe it was an old band room, how are we going to make that work? It might not be easy, but I promise you can do something related to something that were somewhat resembles the traditional folk dance in that environment. And sometimes this is where you show a video of, you know, the quote, unquote, actual thing, and have your students that area, how can we adapt this to our classroom? What can we do, because that's a really cool way to get student choice to be able to get a little bit more engagement because they have to figure out the problem. And it's also a great way of Prop just teaching problem solving of like, hey, this was try and see if it works, maybe well, maybe. So this episode is a little short, little sweet. But my challenge for you is when you go to do a movement activity, which you totally should start with making sure the students all students are able to do it, are able to access it. Don't let it be an afterthought. Don't let it be something you're figuring out in the moment. Because that is when we typically panic. And we might accidentally do something that makes it worse or others a student. Or even worse, we might not even notice that a student is struggling. Because they might be they might be hiding it they might you know act out in behaviors instead. So that it's not obvious that they're struggling and that's where we lose the kids we lose the classroom, we lose the goal of allowing these students to engage in music in a different way. And if you enjoyed this discussion on folk dances, I hope that you'll join us inside that Mr. Teacher community, we will be having a guest masterclass all about folk dances in the elementary music classroom. And if you're in the future high future friends we have the episode will be loaded into our growing professional development library so that you can watch any of our past master classes on demand after they have been recorded. So with that being said, thank you so much for making a difference in the lives of the students you teach. And if nobody has told that told you that you deserve to hear it. Anyway.
