How I Voice Check in Choir the First Week of School
…while not letting the rest of my class devolve into chaos.
Although I am currently fortunate to have an accompanist in my choir classes, during my first 10 years of teaching in a rural district, I did not. If you are in the same boat, but still need to voice check to create your sections, here are some ways to get it done.
First of all, stations and activities are your friend. Don’t just let the kids sit and wait. One of the reasons is obvious: you want to keep them busy.
The other reason may not be - you actually WANT noise.
Now you’re picturing some middle schoolers wrecking your room. I promise it won’t devolve into that - because of the activities that they need to complete.
The reason why you want some noise in the room so that kids that are part checking don’t feel self-conscious about being heard. If there are other things going on, no one can hear them, right? That’s the goal.
Step 1 - Team/Partner Picks
Step 2 - Voice Check Song and Data
Step 3 - Stations
Now the fun part. While you’re pulling groups for part checks, the rest of the groups will rotate through stations around the room. You can put a short instruction sheet for each station and the kids can log onto Google Classroom or your LMS to do everything online. I like the following stations because it let’s me get to know the kids, some of them double as bulletin board ideas, and it kicks off the year with doing something fun/meaningful.