Nonverbal Students in Elementary Music

The last few years I've had several nonverbal students and it has been amazing to learn how to better teach them as their music teacher and to see them make so much progress in both their musical and verbal skills through my class! Today I wanted to share a few tips I've picked up along the way through my experience working with non-verbal students in the elementary music classroom.

1. Nonverbal participation opportunities 

One of the great things about music class is that there are, in fact, so many nonverbal ways for students to fully participate in activities and communicate their learning. 

-If students are singing, include motions- preferably simplified sign language. If that's too complicated for some reason, at a minimum you can have them show the steady beat by patting on their laps with the music.

-If you are asking students to identify something, provide a way for students to answer nonverbally. Usually I use a simple gesture or hand signal for different response options, but sometimes I have cards with visuals that students can use. The great thing is that when you use a nonverbal response option, you can have all students give an answer at the same time instead of asking students to raise their hands and call on one student! So for example if I want them to tell me what instrument they heard, I give them cards with pictures of instruments and ask them to hold up the one they hear. If I'm asking them to identify the meter/ how many beats are in a measure, I have them show the number on their fingers. If I want them to identify if it's in major or minor (or any other multiple choice response), I tell them to hold up 1 finger for major, 2 for minor (etc). 

-If you are working on a performance, incorporate an instrument or movement prop that they can use to add another element to the performance (and have the other students also play the instrument or use the movement prop as well).

The great thing is these strategies are beneficial for ALL students: multilanguage learners can figure out the English vocabulary through the nonverbal signals, adding more elements to a performance increases the level of challenge and musicality for every student, and everyone benefits from incorporating kinesthetic learning and being asked to answer every question instead of waiting for a classmate to raise their hand.

2. Repetition

I have seen so many of my nonverbal students begin to be able to sing along with songs because I repeat the same song over and over again! My most successful song is the one I use at the end of every lesson before we line up. I have been using the same song every day for 2 years now and students sing, play egg shakers, and move with the song. My nonverbal students of course can move and play their egg shakers, but after hearing the same song so many times, several of the students have started singing the words along with us, which has been so exciting! But even with songs I do for a few weeks I find often they will pick up a word here and there and approximate the sounds if the song is highly repetitive. Repetition is so important for developing verbal skills!

3. Simple choice opportunities

One of the reasons I use the song I do at the end of class with egg shakers is because I go around the room before we sing the song with my box of egg shakers and ask students what color shaker they want. This is a great opportunity to get them to use their communication devices because colors are generally already loaded into their devices, but because they are motivated and because it is, again, repetitive, I find many of my students learn how to approximate the sounds for their favorite color and can start verbalizing the color they want without the devices as well! I've even asked the speech-language pathologist what sounds they are working on and identified a color word that we think they can approximate and prompt the student to say it by modeling the word while pointing to that color shaker as well. 

4. Pointing to chin

I learned this from watching some expert teachers and speech language pathologists: pointing to your chin while you say a sound/ word and then pointing to their chin can be a good cue for getting them to try saying the sound. If I know they can say a word, when they try to point to something or use their device I will get their attention, point to my chin while I say the word, and then point to their chin. I use this cue a lot if I am doing an echo song as well, by pointing to my ear when we are listening and pointing to my chin when we are echoing. 

**selective mutism

I also have had a few students over the years with selective mutism, so I want to mention a quick note about that as an aside. In the case of selective mutism, I am primarily using the first strategy on this list of providing nonverbal response opportunities, including even having a dry erase board where they can write things if needed (especially in the older grades), not the other strategies that encourage verbalizing. With selective mutism, trying to get them to verbalize in the classroom setting can often backfire. Let them start talking if and when they're ready, but in the meantime provide ways for them to fully participate and learn so they feel comfortable in your classroom!

**communication devices

One more note about assistive communication devices, or Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) systems: I used to put a lot more thought and time into incorporating the use of AAC devices in my lessons for students who had them, and if a student is just learning to use one and one of their primary learning goals is to become more comfortable using it, I still do. But I've found that my students love that they can fully participate in something without needing a device, and it's way less distracting- and more musical, because we (literally) don't miss a beat waiting for the device- when I can find strategies like these to get them involved without them. Then I also don't have to worry about if they remember to bring them to class, or if the device is charged and working!

There is so much more to say about this topic and I am BY NO MEANS an expert in this area- these are just some strategies that have worked for me. I hope this is helpful for other music teachers who may encounter the opportunity to teach nonverbal students for the first time, and I'd love to hear any other ideas you may have in the comments as well!

For general tips for teaching self-contained special education music classes, click here. For strategies for inclusion in the elementary music classroom for students with special needs, click here.

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Review & Revisit List for Music Teachers

Every year, there are concepts and skills that I know students haven't quite grasped before I have to move on. In the past I've always just made a mental note to try to work on it more later, or come back to it again "if I have time". But let's be honest, mental notes are rarely effective, and most of the time the school year comes to a close without me ever revisiting that topic. This year I've started a "review and revisit" list for each grade and it has made it so much easier to make sure I'm being intentional with what skills and concepts each grade needs more practice with as we approach the end of the school year!

I'm always assessing student understanding- most of the time informally- as I teach, and I often move on to a new topic or concept before all of the students have mastered what they're learning. Sometimes it's intentional, because I know I will be coming back to it again later in my curriculum and they just need more time and practice. But sometimes it's because something happens to disrupt the calendar and I need to make sure I get to other things, or I know I'm just beating a dead horse and continuing to try to work on it right then won't help. I found myself dealing with a lot of that this year because we had a lot more snow days than we have had the last several years that really threw off my class schedule and put several classes too far behind the rest of the grade level, or we lost momentum on what we were working on before we got stuck at home. 

I realized I was juggling several topics for different grades in my mind that I wanted to try to find time to come back to at the end of the year. I already have review time built into my curriculum the last month of school anyway, and we obviously have a lot of makeup days added on for the snow days we missed, so I know I have time at the end of the year to revisit things that students didn't quite get yet. But I also know how busy the end of the school year can get, and there is no way I will have the time or mental energy to go back and remember what I wanted to review with each grade!

Enter my list. It's just a simple sheet from a paper pad I picked up years ago that I added to my teacher planner. I keep it in the upcoming week's planner pages so it's handy without being in the way of my day-to-day planning. If things come up again between now and May, I can add it to the list, and when the time comes it's there ready for me! I labeled each section with the grade levels I teach and just started jotting down things as they came up:

It's nothing earth-shattering but it really has helped me feel more confident heading into the last part of the school year, knowing that I have a record of where I need to focus my teaching in the last month of school to best set my students up for success coming into the next grade level, and I don't know why I didn't do this sooner in my teaching career!

Whether you keep a sticky note somewhere or even track the list digitally on your phone or computer somewhere, I highly recommend keeping a review and revisit list somewhere, and leave time in your yearly plans to come back to those at the end of the school year! For me, having everything on paper and all in one place in my planner has been the only way for me to stay on top of everything. You can see the planner printables I use here if you are looking for a paper planner that's tailored to music teachers!

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3 Spring Songs for Self-Contained and Early Childhood Music

Spring is officially upon us and that means flowers, rain showers, and insects coming out to play! I have a few songs I've learned and adapted for my self-contained special education and early childhood students that have been very effective and engaging: here are 3 fantastic songs for spring and the lesson activities I use with them.

1. The Flower Song

I found this song by Nancy Stewart (see notation from original source here) a few years ago via this video by Krista Chencharick when I was looking for something to use in my sub plans to have my 1st graders practice sol mi and quarter and paired eighth note rhythms (which I highly recommend this for too, by the way). For my special education classes, I added my own motions to the song and first taught students to sing the song while doing the hand motions like this:

Once students learned the song, I turned on Krista's video and I had them echo the flower names on so mi and clapping, rather than reading it along with the recording, and it worked perfectly! The students all loved it and I had several nonverbal students verbalizing and even singing on pitch with the flower names, and the ones who didn't verbalize were able to do the entire song with motions and clap the rhythms. The first time we just did 2 of the flowers, and every time since we have added a couple more until they could do them all. 

2. A Little Seed Scarf Song

I've seen this song by Mabel Watts and Mary Lou Siegel shared by so many early childhood music educators, but I first saw the scarf routine I use from this video by Miss Katie. After doing a longer, more active scarf movement activity, this is a great song to slow down the pace and lead into the Flower Song above! I also use it as a way to get some individual time with each student and make it easier for students to put away scarves by going around to each student and singing it with/ for them while they do the motions, and when they open their hand at the end to make the flower I have them put their scarf in the box and go to their seat to get ready for the next activity. 

3. Busy Like a Bee

No early childhood music compilation of mine would be complete without a Stephanie Leavell song! I always thought this song was so cute but this year have not been able to do much gross motor activities, especially where students are moving around the room in scattered formation, because of the groups that I have. For other groups this would be a great song to use to practice moving in different ways and stopping on cue though! I use the recording from this video of Busy Like a Bee by Stephanie Leavell from Music for Kiddos and, instead of having them move around the room, I came up with motions to have them do from their seats, like this: 

Once they learn the moves and can do it with just their finger, I add egg shakers! I have them leave their shakers on the floor in front of them or in their laps for the verses, and then pick it up and fly the shaker around like a bee for the chorus.

These songs have been a huge hit with my classes this year and I hope you enjoy using them with your students as well! For more songs and lesson ideas to use throughout the year with self-contained and early childhood music classes, click here. I'd love to hear your favorite spring songs for early childhood music in the comments as well!

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Handling the Hand-Off

I don't know how we got here but for some reason there is A LOT of tension between the homeroom teacher camp and the subject specialist teacher camp around what is and is not appropriate to say or not say when a class is transitioning from, say, music class back to their homeroom. Managing transitions well can truly make or break your day, especially in elementary school, and we all know that there is a lot of work to be done towards getting different kinds of teachers to work together productively and respectfully. Here are my tips for making that hand-off back to the homeroom teacher go more smoothly, especially when things have gone awry during the lesson.

1. Do NOT ask the homeroom teachers to discipline in your place

I honestly have never met a music, art, PE, library, or any other teacher who thinks that they should not have to address misbehavior that happens in their class themselves, and that the homeroom teacher should be the sole disciplinarian, but there seem to be a lot of homeroom teachers who think that's what their colleagues are saying so, in case any of those people are out there giving us all a bad name, let's start here: if something happens in our class, it's our job to figure out how to handle it. Often we don't have enough time or reach to fully address everything within the constraints of our limited class time, and it may be most appropriate and effective to involve other adults- including, possibly, the homeroom teacher- in whatever the follow up is, but we definitely should not be expecting to tell the homeroom teacher what happened and have them figure out how to handle it. Not only is that unfair to the homeroom teacher but it sends the message to the students that you have no power or authority, and in most cases the consequence will be far less effective because the homeroom teacher wasn't there and won't fully know what happened.

2. DO communicate major issues, along with your plan

If it's just small issues, or issues that are chronic that the homeroom teacher is already aware of, I don't mention them unless there will be some follow up that will be happening later- that's just tattling. But if a student is visibly still upset, whether it's because something just happened or because it was a bigger problem, I let them homeroom teacher know what happened and how I handled/ will be handling it. That way if any students try to tattle on their friends about what happened the homeroom teacher knows they don't have to address it again- they can simply remind them of what is already being done and not have to rehash the whole issue. It also helps homeroom teachers know why a student may still be upset without having to ask them to re-explain the whole thing, and be aware of what's happening if a student gets called to the office later, or a parent asks them at pickup what happened. If I'm reporting on something, it usually sounds something like:

"Student A and B got into an argument in the hallway but we already talked through it, everyone apologized, it has been handled so nobody should need to keep talking about it but they might need some space from each other still."

"Student A was being so disrespectful today. I am going to be messaging their family and come up with a plan before their next music class because we are not doing this again."

3. DO ask for input if you're unsure

Some homeroom teachers, unfortunately, are less receptive to this than others, but if you're not sure how much a student is having the same difficulty in other classes and if so, how it is currently being addressed, or you don't know what type of consequence would be most effective for a particular student, I think you should be able to ask the homeroom teacher in a way that still communicates you are taking responsibility for the situation but just want their advice. Most of the time I will say something like:

"Student A was having a hard time today... I already spoke with them but I wanna talk to you later before I do anything else."

Not only does it communicate to the homeroom teacher that I am addressing the situation while giving them a heads up so when you come to them later to ask what they've been doing in class etc they know why, but it also sends the message to the student that you are working together as a team. The one question I will sometimes just ask right then in the transition instead of following up later is to ask the homeroom teacher how they most often communicate with home if I'm not sure who to contact/ the best way to make sure I get in touch. Everything else I save for a private conversation later.

4. To the homeroom teachers: stop assuming

I doubt any homeroom teachers will be reading this but just in case: please stop assuming we are expecting you to do our work when we talk to you about something that happened in our classes. I am willing to bet most of the time, your colleague is just trying to give you a heads up. Because we see students for such short slivers of time, and because we are so used to being excluded from behavior and academic support plan conversations, we know that having more information about how a student's day is going is helpful for informing how to respond to that student the rest of the day. If it were us, we would want to know. With everything that we are dealing with as teachers, we do not need more division between colleagues. We are all working hard, we all care about our students and what happens in our classroom, and we are on the same team!

Of course a major part of making the transitions go more smoothly is to have solid procedures in place that ensure students are calm and focused before sending them off. Here is my post explaining my routine for the end of class to get them lined up quietly and ready for the next thing, and here is my post on my strategies for the various aspects of management for elementary music.

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