Reflection on Folk Songs 11/2/2005

Why we are singing folk songs in class?

ø Singing in general is a great activity to do with children in the morning as it helps the brain absorb more oxygen to get a good start to learning. 

ø Singing helps with reading fluency as the children follow along with the words and try to sing them fairly fast.  When the songs are sung over and over again, it is like practising reading a text to read it more fluently.

ø Singing Folk Songs is another way to introduce Australian history to the children.  Folk songs tell a story and affirms cultural identity.

ø The children love singing and will often ask to sing at different times of the day and will request their favourite songs from our song book.

The songs have become great discussion starters in our classroom and have lead to the introduction of more historical details that underlie the songs.  These have included:

Waltzing Matilda

ø What is a swagman?  What is a swag, jumbuck, trooper, thoroughbred?  Why did he jump in the billabong?

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ø Listening to the song on CD, with a commentary explaining the language and story.

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ø Listening and singing different versions of the song.  One song can have different versions where either the words or the tune or both differ.  This will help the children when we do our 'version' of Affirmation.

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Children's question: "Is Waltzing Matilda real, did it really happen?"  

Future possibility: Read biography on Banjo Patterson describing the inspiration for the song.

Botany Bay

ø From what type of person's perspective is the song written?  What is a convict?  What did the person do?  What is the song trying to tell others?

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ø Reading a non-fiction text on the first fleet.  This lead to a vocabulary discussion, with particular interest in the words 'civilised' and 'cultivate'.  There was continued discussion on why Aborigines were said to be 'uncivilised' by the Europeans and therefore Australia as 'uninhabited'.  The children were also very interested in the convicts, why there was so much crime and why they were sent away.

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ø Website with a list of the names of convicts who arrived in Australia.  The children were very excited when they found their surnames in the list.

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Future possibilities: Visit to Fremantle Jail to see what life was like for early prisoners.  Visit to the Welcome Wall to read the names of people who came to Perth by boat.  Visit to the Maritime Museum to find out a bit more on what it was like to travel for almost a year in a crowded ship.

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Singing 'The Wild Colonial Boy' and reading a story from a convict's perspective.

Mining

At the library on Thursday the children were read a story on the Eureka Stockade, then on Friday were read a bit more on the gold rush and the immigration of Chinese people during that time.  The children, during both sessions, were interested in the conflict that arose between two different groups of people.  This seems to be a trend in a lot of Australian folk songs and history and the children always seem to be interested in that aspect.  I wonder why that is?  I wonder if the children see that someone or a group of people are hard done by and feel a sense ofinjustice?   Is it a part of the Australian story we can all relate too?  Maybe conflict is what makes historical information exciting and turns it into a story.  Can we use this observation to encourage the children to make their story writing more interesting by centring it around a conflict?

Trudi