By the time I introduce dotted quarter and single eighth notes in 6th grade, they already know quarter notes, eighth notes, the single eighth- quarter- eighth "syncopa" pattern, and dotted half notes, so they have all the building blocks to understand the concept. But I've found it's still quite challenging to get students to really be fluent with the rhythm and be able to decode it from notation as well.
The biggest key to success has been finding a song that gets students to feel the beat while performing and hearing the rhythm pattern over and over, and for that I have found "Acitrón de un Fandango" (aka
"Al Citron") to be the key to success. If you haven't heard of this Mexican passing game song, you can read more about the song, including the various versions of the lyrics and translations, here. This is a clear recording by native speakers (although honestly I don't play any recordings with my 6th graders because they're more likely to roll their eyes if I do). The basic idea is to pass something around the circle on the beat until you get to the last 3 beats of the verse, where you tap back and forth before passing- here's a video showing the game:
As with most singing games with upper elementary/ middle school grades, I start by challenging them with the game first before I have them sing. First I have them practice passing bean bags or rhythm sticks around the circle on the beat while I sing. Once they can do that and they've heard the song a few times, I tell them to tap back and forth on "triqui triqui tran", and continue to have them focus on just passing. Once they can do that, we go back and I up the ante by telling them they have to be able to sing while doing the passing (this way they are less focused on being self conscious about singing and more focused on showing off that they can beat the challenge)- I teach them the song and then we add it back to the game. Obviously once they can do that then we repeat it and try to increase the speed, then we make it a game where if you mess up, you sit out, and the circle gets smaller until there are only 2 students left standing!
As a sidenote: I finally this school year figured out how to make this game, and all the other passing games I've used in the past, successful again after finding them frustratingly difficult post-pandemic. I wrote an entire post about my process here but basically I found that having them practice the passing game in smaller groups first and then gradually making the circles bigger works. Now I am enjoying teaching passing games like this one again!
Once they have sung the song many times and felt the beat with it in their bodies, I ask students to tell me how many beats the word "un" is in the first line where we sing "un fandango". I have them pat the beat while I slowly sing it so they can see where the notes fall with the beat, and eventually they figure out that it is 1.5 beats long. Then I introduce the dotted quarter note, reminding them what they learned about how dotted notes work when they learned dotted half notes in 4th grade. From there it's an easy final step to figure out how many beats the next syllable is and recall the single eighth note they learned in 5th grade with the "syncopa" pattern.
Once they've been introduced to the notation and they've thought through how many beats each note is in the melody, I have half of the class pat the beat while the sing, while the other half of the class claps the rhythm while they sing. Once they can do that, we remove the singing so they are just clapping and patting.
Over the next few lessons we practice the rhythm and notation more with other songs and with rhythm play-alongs that include the new rhythm. My favorite videos to use for this are:
Of course there are lots of other great songs with dotted quarter/ single eighth notes that we use to practice them throughout the year, but this is definitely my favorite song to use to introduce them and it has finally helped my students be successful with the new rhythm! What is your favorite song for introducing this tricky rhythm pattern? I'd love to hear more of your favorites in the comments below. And if you want to see my favorite lessons for teaching other specific rhythmic elements, you'll find them all in this post:
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