Student Contributor: K. Larson
Music for volume is helpful for classes of all ages and I think can help productivity. When using this tool it is best to use instrumental music at a quieter volume but audible to the class. When the class gets too loud, you can refer to the music and if they can’t hear it that means it’s too loud in the classroom.
This tool is great for all age groups and classes. This is best used when doing individual, partner, or small group work but not whole class instruction or discussion times. When using this tool try to find a playlist or collection of music that is instrumental and play it at a quieter volume. Students should be able to hear each other still and not get distracted or overpowered by the music. Once you notice students are getting a little too loud, ask other groups if they can hear the music and then bring the classes attention to whether or not they can hear the music or not. In my experience, this works really well for classes with a lot of students who get loud easily. It is a simple reminder to bring down the volume without having to constantly remind them that their voices are too loud because they start to notice it themselves.
I placed this in the supportive phase because it helps students remain at a desired volume and not get too loud, where they would need to be corrected. I could also see this being in the corrective phase depending on where you are with using it, if you are reminding students they need to be able to hear the music this could take it to corrective, so it changes depending on where you are with it’s use. But, I think that it is more supportive because it gives students a good way to gauge how loud is too loud themselves and takes out the guess-work for what a level one voice actually means. Which leads me into the theory of influence it best fits, student-directed and collaborative because it gives students the tools to take their behavior into their own hands and not constantly need a teacher telling them what they need to be doing.
More Information –
Tool Source: Gus Nollmeyer
2nd grade
19 students
Suburban
The tool was easy to prepare for since I only had to find music for the students to listen to. Teaching the tool was also very simple. I told the students that we are going to listen to music during independent and small group work time and if we cannot hear the music while we are working, that means our voices are too loud. When the voices were too loud, I asked the students if they could hear the music and they adjusted their voices accordingly. The tool was very simple to use since the students caught onto the idea pretty quickly.
The success I noticed was that the students were much more aware of the volume of their voices. I noticed quite a few students started whispering to ensure that they could still hear the music. It also helped with the overall noise level of the room.
The students understood their role with the new tool because they adjusted their voices accordingly when they needed to.
The adjustments that can be made to make this tool better are specific playlists that the students can listen to.
I tried this management strategy in my sixth grade placement. There are 28 students in the classroom and surrounding them is an urban area. I decided to use the music for volume strategy because my mentor teacher already typically plays music during independent work time for the students. The students do tend to get quite loud at times and apart from noise, it causes distractions and students begin to do less of their work and get off task. My mentor teacher usually redirects them but I noticed that they would often get loud again, and this happened repeatedly. When integrating this strategy, we reinforced the expectation where the noise level needed to be during the upcoming independent work time. We explained to the students that they are in full control of the noise level of the classroom. We explained that we should be able to hear the music while everybody works. This does not mean it needs to be absolutely silent, but it means voices need to be soft enough that the music can still be heard clearly. Soon enough the students understood that when there was music playing, the noise level “rule” applied. This was an effective tool because students encouraged each other to be quiet and kindly reminded each other of it when the noise level started to rise.