All students in the school report to a portable classroom for a one-half hour music class twice a week. This cooperative lesson involves 24 sixth grade students. As students enter the classroom, they pick up sheets of printed song lyrics, go to preassigned seats and begin to sing along as the teacher plays the piano. After the class settles in and completes the singing part of the class, the teacher announces the main activity for the day. Students in pairs will work together to learn to play a new song on xylophone-like instruments.
Instruments are already in place in a semi-circle on one side of the room.
First, students will work together to name the notes of the new song and write the names down on a worksheet. Then each will be assigned one portion of the notes on the scale and each will be responsible for playing those notes in rhythm as the pair learns to play the song. The teacher reviews the names of the notes on the blackboard in preparation for the students' work, and students number off into pairs and are assigned to instruments. They quickly move to their positions and each pair chooses a recorder. The recorder goes to the front of the room to pick up the worksheet, one per pair.