Keyboarding

Walker Elementary is blessed to have 15 Yamaha keyboards in their music room. The Yamaha Keyboard system provides education to over 500 students at Walker with preliminary education given in kindergarten and the first part of the first grade year with actual keyboard activities beginning later in the year. Up to 30 students can be accommodated in the classroom of 15 keyboards with dividers, plus the teacher keyboard. Thirty-one sets of headsets with the keyboards and a compact disc player all interface a Macintosh computer. A remote control is included to activate the software from anywhere in the room if the teacher is not at the computer.

Variables such as whether each keyboard will be heard through headphones or over speakers are controlled by the teacher. This option lets the teacher decide after listening to a student privately whether he or she is ready to perform aloud the given assignment. Also, all students may play together as a group, individually, or hear only their partner through their headphones.

Curriculum is divided into modules, each containing multiple skill levels for each activity. It is non-graded and sequential with onward movement determined by student understanding rather than student experience. This allows for more objective means of evaluation to be used, even though music learning is achieved through singing, listening, movement, and playing other musical instruments.

Evaluations are great motivators with this system. Students enter quiz answers into the computer via their keyboard, and they love it! With headphones on, the student may, at the discretion of the teacher, hear a computer-generated voice give the instant feedback for each answer whether it is correct or incorrect. The computer monitor shows the teacher each students' answers enabling her to provide help to needy students immediately. All students' answers and scores are efficiently stored on each base with which students' progress reports can be prepared and defended in parent teacher conferences or for the student in the classroom.

Walker students have benefited greatly from the use of technology in the music room. Not only are fine motor skills improved (especially in the lower grades), but higher order thinking skills and creativity are encouraged and supported through the keyboards.

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Web page last modified on 10/08/07 by A. Winfrey