What’s the drum game?
I was mildly interested in the phonics chant (which I can guess), but my interest piqued with the drum game.
The drum game challenges you to follow the rhythm.
It is part memory game part tempo/rhythm. Must keep time in your head as the game get progressively more difficult.
I used the video because there was a large circle of drummers and my very young learners could easily understand what was going on. Monkey see monkey do.
I’m an English teacher not a drum circle teacher.
The kids were all playing improvised percussion instruments.
I’m not the best teacher. I’m part clown/idiot/entertainer/singer/smartass/sillyass etc… I am great with kids. They love me. They think I’m crazy. The mommies love me. They think I would make a great pet.
There is always someone better.
I’ve got a very unique skill set.
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I use jazz chants and a djembe for teaching sentence rhythm to adults, was hoping you might have something I could add to that lesson but if it is just a regular drum circle with no language outcome i guess not
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I’ve never had to teach absolute beginners to read, allah be praised
Yes. You could use this to teach sentence patterns. Here you go -
I love eating ice cream.
So you have a beat for each syllable.
So the drum circle would hit on the last syllable. They follow the sentence being said and hit on the syllable you tell them.
Change the syllable they hit on. Add hits.
Change the sentence.
Remove words but keep the same rhythm.
Replace the words with your own hits so instead of words use hits for them to follow the same sentence pattern in their head.
This was a video the kids had only watched 2 or 3 times. It was a challenge for me to hit the beats correctly.
The phonics class I observed by one of their seasoned teachers - had been there for years - it was obvious the kids had seen the video a dozen times already. They could sing it backwards and forwards.
The phonics video the ass wanted me to use had a really fast pace, too fast for these young learners and much faster than I would ever teach it. The video was of very low production quality and had ridiculous music which the ass cited as one reason to use it.
Miserable people
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I think we’re using different words to describe the same thing, because as I said:
What are jazz chants?
I’m always using a tambourine or a food bowl to hit with something to provide the rhythms for the phonics chants.
The drum circle game is different. The class only hits on a certain word or syllable - not all of the words/syllables. Maybe the same. Maybe different.
I teach them this quite specifically, not randomly
https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/english-sentence-stress
And i used to have a card game for contrastive stress, but had to cut it because that pronunciation and stress lesson was too long. Contrastive stress wasnt that important for them i decided…
808 cowbells
It’s fertile ground!
Yes. It is natural to use rhythm to teach. Singing songs and reading rhythmic poems etc.
What I was doing for this music class was different - the drum circle.
I used the video because it demonstrates what the kids are expected to do - hit the drum on a certain word/beat.
This wasn’t an English learning class. It was an exploring music class being led by an English speaker.
Using jazz is fine. I prefer metal, classic rock, and obscure tunes from the 30s along with folksy songs from the 60s - all sung a cappella.
Here is an example of the drum circle game the kids enjoyed but the boss complained about.
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What is the objective? They’re learning no words, other than drum.
Well you quoted it. It was an exploring music class.
Might you be one of the people who work at my school?
Maybe you didn’t watch the video either. There is English in the video. The guy is speaking English. Could you tell?
This is a game to play while exploring music. The kids are challenged to keep time in their little heads. The kids are challenged to adjust to the changing tempo. Did you get any of this? You’d fit right in with the management of my school. They don’t understand siht either.
I see. I thought it was an English class.
No, I don’t work at your school.
I was genuinely interested about what the objective of the drumming was.
Yes, I think there are many great benefits to drumming games like this. This was my first exposure to this but after singing and making music all of my life I was very happy to come across this.
If I ever have more time to explore I’d like to find more such activities for my class using these drumming games.
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You must be American.
More than 300 million of you think you are unique and special.
Thats a lot of special people.
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