At the beginning of our remote learning this year, I asked students for input on the kinds of activities they most like to do independently as well as what topics most interest them. After getting a wide variety of topics, I wondered how I might be able to help address as many of them as possible in a short amount of time. The conundrum reminded me of an oft felt feeling when attending professional music conferences-- there are so many sessions I want to attend, but I can't possibly go to all of them at once.
OK, so follow me for a moment.... A Virtual Music Conference for Students. What if we created a music conference for students based around their interests in music? Much like a professional conference, students could choose different sessions that interested them and explore more in depth some of the topics in music we typically don't address. Would it even be possible?
I think so. Here's what I think we're going to do.
First of all, it's worth noting that I am looking for this to take one "zoom" class period. For us at the moment, one class period is 90 min long. I'm thinking we will try it, see how it goes, and consider doing more based on how it's received. It's also worth noting that I currently have a student teacher to help plan out different sessions and offer a wider variety of sessions based on our students' interests.
Here is the chart of where my students' interests lie:
I think it's also important to note that these short sessions will absolutely not even scratch the surface on the topics listed here. The topics are WAY too broad and the time is way too short. Given that, we will look to break these topics down in ways that are manageable and present the material in ways that does not scaffold with each lesson. That way, should this be successful and we look to do another "Conference" day, students who didn't attend the first session on the topic will easily be able to step in to the second session without having missed any context. We'll break things down in different ways, including different...
- Genres, Artists, Albums, or Titles
- Independent Techniques, Styles, or Processes
- Time Periods
With 90 minutes of total time, I'm thinking we will divide our class period into 3 sessions (~20 min each) with breaks in between. Taking our student teacher into account, we can potentially offer 6 different sessions from which students can choose. Students will be asked to attend two of the three sessions for the class period (so they aren't on Zoom the *entire* time) and are encouraged to pick whichever two are most appealing to them. Each session will have a mini-lesson and brief activity for students to contribute & "dig in" to the content for themselves.
Here is a chart of activities in which students said they found themselves most motivated to participate:
Using this, we can also better plan what sort of activity might work best for the end of each session, along with what makes sense based on the topic for each.
I think it could work. Not only do I think it could work, I think it could be FUN. (I hope my students will think so too!)
Next up, planning the sessions...
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