Teaching Music to Neurodiverse Students

If you are like me, you have a wide diversity of students as far as how they think, process, and behave.  The fancy term for this is neurodiversity.  I presented on neurodiversity at The Music Crew virtual conference in July, mainly focusing on autistic students and people with CI.  If you have these students in your music class or have a self-contained music class, this presentation is for you!  

Please note:  I used the term neurodiverse throughout the presentation, but avoided the terms neurodivergent/neurotypical because I was unsure if they were still considered appropriate.  As of this writing, they are still used, so I apologize for any confusion.  

Neurodivergent would refer to people with ADHD, ASD, CI, etc.  

Neurotypical would be people without those divergent thinking patterns.  

I have also learned since recording this that autistic people prefer to use the term "autistic" instead of "people with autism," so please know that if I ever present on this again, I will make those changes!  It's always good to learn and grow!!

Here is a handout to help you if you like taking notes or want to look up the resources mentioned.

I hope this is helpful to you:

Here is the ASD Visual Schedule mentioned in the presentation.

Catch you next time I have something noteworthy!

Tips for the End of the Year

     It's getting close to the end of the school year--and boy, do the students seem to know!  Or maybe it's the teachers :)  Here are some tips for the end of the year to keep it fresh, purposeful, and fun:

End of the Year Tips

1.  Review what your students learned this year!

     I have a word wall for each grade in my classroom.  When we get near the end of the year, I like to do a whirlwind of activities to review the concepts we learned throughout the year while pointing back to the word wall and talking about what we did.  It keeps the students on their toes and also helps them to be proud of all that they have learned!  Here's a sample of part of my 3rd grade word wall (we do a unit playing the violin).  Someday I hope to have the word wall all printed out and pretty. 

 2.  Try a new activity

     I always like to go to workshops to get new ideas each year, otherwise I don't feel as excited about my teaching!  Other great places to search for music activities are blogs and Pinterest.  Recently, my kindergarten students were "painting" their bodies to the beat while we sang "I Ain't Gonna Paint No More." I think we will create our own rhyming verses next week just for fun.  I have the CD that I got through scholastic books, but I don't know where it's available now :( 

3.  Have a choice day!

     The very last day of my music classes is always a game day where students can pick their favorite activities from the year and revisit them!  I also include folk dancing and the broom game as options.  Sometimes we even have our last class outside if the weather is nice. 

4.  Set goals for the summer

     I am the queen of post-it notes.  My desk is covered in them!  But, it allows me to take those small ideas I get throughout the day and not forget them.   So, now is the time of year I look through my ideas for the summer and start working on it.  This year's goals?
     1.  Redo the costume closet at my school.
     2.  Take Kodaly Level I (or Orff Level II if that doesn't work out).  Either way, it will be invaluable!
     3.  Read some books. It's always nice to hear how someone else runs their classroom so you can pick their best ideas and use them in yours.  Here's one I'm going to check out for sure:

     4.  Pick out possible music and musicals for the upcoming school year.  I normally wait to make my final decisions until the school year is in session, but it's always good to have a list to choose from instead of starting from scratch.  And next year I will be K-12--so it's never to early to start planning!

     Catch you next time I have something noteworthy!  Feel free to share how you are making it to the end of the year!

     For more great tips on what to do at the end of the year, click here to see who else is blogging about it!

Sing

     My daughter LOVES to read books from the library and every once in a while we find a gem that she just can't put down.  Most recently, she has been addicted to this book:

     When I opened it up to read it, I realized it was a song that I heard the Carpenters sing growing up (no, I'm not quite in that generation, but it's what my parents listened to!).  Anyway, Lexi wants to read the book over and over again because she loves that a little bird learns how to sing!  What a great message for our students to hear.  You DON'T need to be the best singer in the world, you just need to find YOUR own voice and USE it!  Without everyone's voice, the world is a less beautiful place. 
      To prove my point, the actual composer of the song is heard in the recording below.  Not the best voice, but what if he had never used it?  I bet we would have never heard this song:

     Let's encourage all of our students to SING! 

PS--Oh, and the book comes with a nice CD recording of the song performed by Becca Kauffman with The Midnight Sun Ensemble :)