When I first started teaching, I saw Write the Rooms and thought they were simply a filler activity. After a few years, and some enlightenment, here’s why I think using a Write the Room is the right idea in the music class.
1. Practice Makes Perfect
When we learn to write, the alphabet, we practice. We trace, we copy, and see examples to follow. Allowing students time to copy helps them discover notation norms, practice attaching noteheads to stems correctly, coloring things in and seeing how the notes attach to the side of the notehead rather than like a balloon, and how noteheads need to be a consistent size, touch the top and the bottom line without going over if they are in a space, and not touch other lines if they are on a line.
2. On their Own Time
Write the room allows students to copy at their own pace. If you put out some music books to look at after students finish, students that may have trouble or want to take their time don’t feel like they are being rushed. Make sure whatever activity you do put out is something that won’t feel like a punishment to miss. Another good add on is some egg shakers or rhythm sticks to play the rhythms or patterns they wrote out.
3. Really Important For Younger Grades
As students understand notation norms, this won’t be as essential but especially for those younger students it’s a really good activity to include. Some of the top issues I’ve seen in notation writing are tied to younger students:
- Where the stem is attached to the notehead
- Colored in vs hollow noteheads: Calling attention to it when teaching quarters and half notes helps!
- What bars look like, how the stems go through the bottom bar on sixteenth notes, bars aren’t boxes, etc
- How to draw a rest – those quarter rests are tricky. I love giving the Z option just for time’s sake.
How to Use
Print and cut the target rhythms/patterns (laminating recommended so you don’t have to reprint every year!), and place them around the classroom. Students each get a worksheet with icons pictured next to a space to write the pattern. Students explore the room to find the pattern cards. They then write the pattern next to the picture that corresponds to it on their worksheet.
Pattern cards:
Worksheet with pattern cards:
Want to try it out?
I’ve got few variations you can use:
- Favorite Treats Write the Room: Non seasonal for any time of year!
- Winter Write the Room: Perfect for cold weather
- Spring Write the Room: When spring fever hits
- Fall Write the Room: Great during back to school season to review note norms
I hope this gives you a little push to include some practice writing with your students!
I print my rhythm/patterns on cardstock and then place them in a plastic protective sleeve. That way I can store all my cards in a 3-ring binder for organization/storage purposes. I can also put a different level on the other side so I can simply flip them over for a different grade level and they are still protected.
Smart!