Getting your class to follow instructions can be a real time suck! Asking students to sit down or dealing with student disruptions can take up half of your teaching time. We’ve already talked about how visual cues can help to streamline your lessons, but how can you use sound cues to coordinate your class?
Instruments in the Academic Classroom
We’ve all been there… how many times a day do you find yourself repeating the phrases: ‘Please return to your seats.’, ‘Let’s all make a circle’ or ‘Can we be quiet now please?’ in some form or other? I’m guessing, A LOT! It can be frustrating and a real waste of time. One way I’ve found of streamlining this process is by using sound cues.
Simple percussion instruments can be your greatest asset to coordinate your class. Having a tambourine, triangle or drum on hand can help you control your class quickly.
Explain to your students that for different sounds signal that they must complete a different action. For example, hitting your triangle once may mean that they need to be silent. Hitting it twice may mean they must return to their seats. Shaking the tambourine can be a warning that an activity is ending with a final thump to finish.
I’ve often found this helps me to get students into a circle even more quickly and effectively than a countdown.
This is because auditory cues are a pattern interruption, breaking their attention from their current task. Especially when the class are being chatty, your voice may simply add to the din while the loud thud of a drum disturbs it. Spending a minute or two at the start of class reviewing your sound signals could save you a lot of time throughout the day. You could go even further and create a wall display to remind the students of the signals!
Instruments in the Drama Classroom
As you know, we’re all about drama here at Silly Fish. My love of instruments as a teaching tool first began in the drama classroom, but I soon found it to be applicable to all subjects. Instruments can be extra helpful in blocking a show as different sound cues can signal a change. Throughout the rehearsal process, it can be useful to use sound signals with younger actors to help them remember where they should be going and what they should be doing, without interrupting the flow of the story.
As you near the show, you can change these signals to a story related sound or visual to tighten up the whole performance and help with ensemble reactions. You can even include these signals in the show as a way to sneakily direct your young actors, without it being obvious to the audience.
Let us know if you use instruments in your classroom management!
