Focus on the benefits of teaching with stories, songs, scripts, and video productions, particularly if the students are involved in the writing.
Samples of songs, poems and stories, many written with Penelope Torribio in her classes.
Penelope’s motto is, “Never teach one thing when you can teach two or more.”
“From ancient times to modern times, making music has been a quintessential human capacity—a powerful channel for communication, expression, and communality. Dan Lewis Foundation.org
The Power of Music
“Music has a power of forming the character and should therefore be introduced into the education of the young.” – Aristotle.
“I would teach children music, physics, and philosophy; but most importantly music, for the patterns in music and all the arts are the keys to learning.” – Plato.
This was my first SED class. I was teaching this challenging class when I spontaneously bought a guitar for ten dollars at a local swap meet, and when I began teaching myself to play guitar. My first book was entitled “Beginning Rock Guitar,” but the songs were folk songs, songs I had learned to sing when I was in elementary school. As I learned to play a new folk song, I would teach it to my students.
My songwriting career began when I found the next song in the book too difficult. I began writing songs about my life and about topics I was teaching in class. In fact, many of these songs were written in the classroom.
These students were significantly behind, not only in academics, but also in social skills. My songs in this class centered around farm animals and character development.
Why should we teach songs and rhyming poetry?
Because your brain loves rhymes.
I still remember advertisements that I heard on TV decades ago, Like Brylcreem brylcreem brylcreem! Brylcreem – a little dab’ll do ya
Brylcreem – you look so debonair
Brylcreem – the girls will all pursue ya
They love to get their fingers in your hair!
I was a young girl. I didn’t even know what debonair meant, or anything about girls pursuing guys. I never bought Brylcreem, but my mind remembers this ad, its lyrics, and its simple tune.
Also, Alka-Seltzer: “Plop plop fizz fizz, Oh, what a relief it is.” Just try to get this jingle out of your head. It was penned in 1976 and was so popular that Sammy Davis Jr recorded a version of it.
Please visit the THINK LIKE A WRITER page for more information.
I selected farm animals, because most of my students were familiar with farm animals.
We always begin with a brainstorming session. What is a farm? Who owns the farm? What animals are on a farm? What else is on the farm? We would go over these questions until most students could call out the answer. Then we would ask more questions: who wakes the farmer up in the morning? How do you think the farmer would feel? This was actually short lessons repeated over the course of weeks.
I sketched out a story. A girl who lives in a big city is sent to her aunt and uncle on a farm. Because her parents are fighting, and they need to settle things. The girl had never been to a farm, and she didn’t know her aunt and uncle. You could talk about a lot of things in the little story, and we did. She didn’t want to leave her parents, nor her friends. She was mad. Like many of my students.
The first animal the character meets is a bull. What does a bull say? What is a baby cow called?
Moo, I’m a bull, I’m a male cow. I’d make milk, but I don’t know how. I leave it up to my better half. She makes milk for our baby calf. Moo, moo, moo, moo, moo, moo, And she makes milk for kids like you.
That was our first song. It has a simple melody.
The second song is sung by a farm dog. The cow introduces the girl and says she is from the city. The dog defends the country.
Some Dogs Live in the City
Some dogs live in the city, in the lap of luxury. Me, I’m from the country, a farm dog you can see. I wake up at the crack of dawn, herd the cows back to the barn. Wake the rooster, chase the cat, do important stuff like that. Some dogs live in the city, they eat, sleep, and play, But me, I’m from the country, making my own way. I help the farmer feed the pigs their meal, brings the sheep from the back field. Wake the rooster, chase the cat, do important things like that. Some dogs live in the city, in the lap of luxury. Me, I’m from the country, as happy as can be, Arff, arff. Cow: That’s nice, Burnaby.
My students were 4 to 8 years old. I am going to put up their little video soon. The entire musical is entitled “The Grass is Green.” Following is the title song.
The Grass is Green
If you want to be happy, I’ll tell you how. Be contented as a cow. Don’t worry what tomorrow brings, just sing. La La La, the grass is green. La La La, the sky is blue, There’s a million things that we can do, So sing. There’s something that you just can not change, something you can not rearrange, So don’t sit around always feeling blue, Just sing……
This is the cover for Penelope’s farm animal musical,
“The Grass is Green.”
Over the years, I have written many songs, mostly as examples in the classroom. Go to The Musical Page for more details about the stories and performances.
Einstein in My Garden, photos and reflections on bugs, is a model I used for middle school and high school. In those days, we didn’t have phones with cameras. So, I lent my camera to my students, a canon with a micro lens.
This is the structure for the poem or reflections.
- Photograph something in nature.
- Research the subject
- Introduce the subject
- Write some from a specific perspective, the observer, the subject, or some imaginative.
- A concluding Statement
Sample Reflections
"I watch you crawl so purposefully, so slowly, across my patio.
I know you dream of flying,
of being anything
but your weighted-down self.
But do you know that the slug behind you dreams of being you?
You, the snail, the holder of the secret knowledge, master of the golden ratio, 1.6180339887498948482
and the digits go on and on,
forever without repeating.
They dream of being you, building their own home and then adding on and on
with such beauty and precision.
They dream of being studied
by mathematicians like Leonardo Fibonacci and the Renaissance artists, and small children.
Thinking about you
makes me wonder about my own self."
"Even if you don't like bugs, you will love, "Einsten in My Garden, photos and reflections on bugs."
a cartoon, by Penelope Torribio
“The Magic in You, from vacant lot to community garden,”
by Penelope Torribio- using Photoshop to turn photos
into painting.
“The Magic in You” delivers a magic both fanciful and practical, a contemporary fairy tale in an urban setting that encourages children to care for and invest in their surroundings and the earth itself. The illustrations, incorporating images of the author’s grandchildren, grace the tale with shimmering, painterly impressions. —Suzanne Lummis, author, editor, poet, Los Angeles, CA
Please visit the page, Think Like a Writer, for more information.
Contact 1 World Education. Email Penelope Torribio