preparation for engaged

teaching and learning in the

high school choral classroom
Sandra Snow

Sandra Snow is professor in the college of music at Michigan

State University, where she teaches in the areas of choral con-
ducting and choral music education. She is the author of the
DVD Conducting-Teaching: Real World Strategies for Success,
2009 (GIA). The MSU Women s Chamber Ensemble was a
featured choir at 2008 ACDA Central Division Conference and
the 2009 ACDA National Conference.
 I n the seven minutes following the first bell, Ms. E s
choral classroom comes alive with the energy of
young teenagers. The teacher is calmly standing at
the door, greeting each student with a warm smile, a ques-
tion about his or her weekend, an observation about a new
haircut. The bantering among students is light, often silly,
and obviously respectful. This is a safe space. The classroom
is orderly and inviting. Students automatically make their
way to bins to collect materials. Everyone knows what to do,
where to sit, and how to begin working silently on the day s
assigned bell-work that will be the basis of a learning activity
later in the hour. Cues about the relationship between Ms. E
and her students are evident even before instruction begins.1
A glance around the classroom is revealing. On one wall
are posted the classroom rules, simple and succinct, setting
a tone for citizenship, for a positive learning environment,
and for the unwavering expectations for student success. A
bulletin board communicates logistical information with due
dates highlighted. A master calendar gives students a sense
of purpose and direction. Everything is labeled, from fold-
ers to uniforms to empty bins waiting for permission slips,
homework, and special projects. A far wall displays student
achievements, a list of All-Region and All-State students, solo
and ensemble results, a poem by a young man, and a musical
composition by a young woman. Student work in and outside
the classroom is on display.

CHORAL JOURNAL Volume 51 Number 7 11

 As the bell rings, Ms. E
is already engaging singers
in voice building through a
simple call and response
activity. Four student sec-
tion leaders are standing
Sandra Snow
and taking attendance.
Announcements will not disrupt this important
period of learning and will come later in the
hour. In the next few minutes, voice building and
the deliberate coaching of singing will serve as
an umbrella for other important learning goals
designed to increase musical thinking and un-
derstanding. Singers learn to audiate intervals
and to connect inner hearing with de-coding
of the musical score. Students will solfege,
count-sing, and sight-read. A single exercise
notated on the white board prepares students
for an upcoming complex rhythmic challenge,
and the teacher will reinforce and refer to this
exercise many times in coming weeks to aid
the decoding process. It is now ten minutes into
the fifty-minute hour.1
12 CHORAL JOURNAL Volume 51 Number 7
How complex is the art of teaching, re-
quiring of the teacher significant preparation
and planning for the learning moment!
Distinguishing Preparation
from Planning
Were one to study the remainder of Ms.
E’s rehearsal, one would observe a dance
of sorts. The interaction between teacher
and students would be characterized by
the teacher’s ability to interact authentically
in sound by involving students in musical
problem-solving needed to advance learn-
ing. Thinking in sound, manipulating musical
materials, and exploring the voice as self-
expression present limitless possibilities for
learning and meaning making. The choral
rehearsal as a form of play and experi-
mentation coalesces around the teacher’s
procedural knowledge of the score, the
interpretative decisions made, the music
under study, and the myriad ways singers
can engage musical ideas. Under the con-
ditions of a safe classroom environment,
careful consideration in choosing the musics
explored, and rich thinking about the music
to be taught, deep learning can take place by
members of the choir.
No doubt, the practice of a teacher
develops and matures with time and experi-
ence. Ms. E may have shown early promise as
a teacher, but it is unlikely that the first day
of the first week of the first year of school
functioned as smoothly as the classroom
described in the vignette above.2 Research-
ers are looking at important questions
surrounding the development of teaching
expertise and the preparation and planning
processes used by effective teachers. Robert
Yinger makes a useful distinction between
the processes of planning for instruction
versus the intense level of preparation re-
quired to carry out instruction in real time
in a specific context.3
The image of a funnel is useful in under-
standing Yinger’s concept. Preparation, ac-
cording to Yinger, involves musing, dreaming,
and imagining for the teaching moment. The
wide mouth of the funnel represents this
imaginative, creative, and ongoing process. In
the choral teaching context, musing includes
an ongoing process of score study and imag-
ining toward bringing a musical work to life. It
involves active reflection, taking into account
what happened in today’s rehearsal toward
further refinement or adaptation. Teachers
reflect in formal and informal ways. The
drive home, radio off, may provide fertile
ground for active reflection just as sitting
with musical scores and recordings fuels
self-evaluation.
Other researchers have noted that a
hallmark of expertise in any domain is the
ability to push oneself at the outer limits of
competence.4 As choral teachers, this ex-
tends to the idea of score study as a means
of finding deeper and deeper expression of
the musical ideas to be experienced. Sing-
ing musics outside personal background is
another means of challenging oneself to
grow in teaching practice. Deep listening to
the work of others improves a conductor-
teacher’s ability to hear. Social media sites
such as Facebook and tools such as You
Tube are radically changing the way teachers
prepare for instruction, as opportunities to
share in a communal and global environment
may inform practice and stimulate curiosity.
Planning, as represented by the nar-
rowing of the funnel, is the end-game of
preparation for pedagogical teaching. The
outward expression of deep teacher think-
ing, planning is prescriptive in nature as the
teacher makes conscious choices for instruc-
tion that align with daily curricular goals and
assessment strategies. It is the “how,” and a
relative “how” at that, as the effective teacher
is ready to adapt to a learning situation at
any given moment. Planning represents the
thoughtful connection of the preparatory
process to the constraints of the choral
classroom. Planning requires consideration
of the minutes available, the specific content
to be experienced, the school calendar, of
upcoming events, and the sequence in which
the rehearsal will evolve.Writing lesson plans
is a form of rehearsal planning, as is the cre-
ation of assessments such as singing tests or
listening tasks. Planning organizes the limitless
choices a conductor-teacher has before her
in order to shape a productive rehearsal.5
Beyond Microrehearsing:
Teaching as Relationship Making
Microrehearsing is so embedded in our
practice as choral educators that it risks
being unexamined in teacher training and
professional development. It is the practice
of stopping to fix each “error,” as if music
making and the reasons we sing are bound
ers (“shorter,” “longer,” “faster,”). Students
learn to follow instructions but are unlikely
to make transfers or applications to other
settings or to develop a sense of confidence
about their abilities to make musical judg-
ments and discernments. Singing the correct
pitches at the correct time is obviously a
reasonable and necessary goal, but it is an
ability to toggle between understanding the
essence of a musical gesture and the con-
tinual refinement of the singing experience
that is at the heart of effective rehearsing.
So, “meaning making” is an actual choral
term. The responsibility of the conductor-
teacher, then, is to shape rehearsals in a way
that allows such connections to be felt and
performed. When rehearsals are reduced
to error detection and unthinking repetition,
the singer is excluded from all but a superfi-
cial understanding of what is sung.
Off-Podium Brainstorming for
On-Podium Improvisation
How then, does one make choices in
real time, on the podium, that connect prior
teacher preparation so that an organic, fulfill-
ing rehearsal takes place? Brainstorming is an
activation of the imagination toward a future
action. A powerful feature of the creative act,
it is characterized by pondering, reflecting,
questioning, and connecting of prior experi-
ences to current problems. If one brain-
storms “on one’s feet,” it may be considered
improvisation. When one steps away from
real time, however, and allows free-floating
consideration of an upcoming rehearsal, one
is able to connect past experience with the
score study process as is realizing the music
from a keyboard.
A second level of thinking by the con-
ductor-teacher connects or bridges musical
decisions (interpretation) to the choral
rehearsal. This dimension can be thought
of as the generator of teaching strategies,
designed to specifically connect a musical
interpretation with how singers are brought
to an understanding of the musical mate-
rial. When one brainstorms in this second
dimension, one is spinning out as many pos-
sibilities for future action as can be imagined.
In a rehearsal that is philosophically oriented
to involve singers in musical decision-making,
FREE
Online Learning Community
Join Today!
www.ChoralArts.org
Voices: A Teacher’s Guide
Student
Readings
Activities for
K-12
Includes
Information on
Composers

up solely in technical perfection. Microre- possibilities of a new rehearsal.6 Accompanying

hearsing loses larger musical “gestures for
small, often unimportant drill and kill.” It is a
practice of discipline for the choral educator
to learn what to ignore so that singers can
experience whole ideas (phrases, sections,
stanzas). When conductor/teachers stop
each time a mistake is made, the rehearsal
is re-oriented to the verbal domain that is,
talk about the music that alters the experi-
ence from “thinking in sound” to “thinking
in language.”
We give instructions to passive receiv-
Through the score-study process, Book & CD
Available
conductor-teachers are working in at least
a two-dimensional environment.7 First, deci- Enhance your study of the
sions about how the music should sound Civil Rights Movement TODAY!
form the basis of a musical interpretation.
By studying the score in the quest to un- All Resources Aligned
derstand the musical ideas represented by with the
a composer, conductor/teachers decide how National Standards
the music is to be interpreted on both large
www.choralarts.org
and small levels.The first dimension then is a 888.349.7464
musical interpretation of the work. Listening education@choralarts.org
to the work of others, is as informative in

CHORAL JOURNAL Volume 51 Number 7 13

the teaching strategies determined are full
of action-oriented experiences. Ideally, the
conductor-teacher will use strategies in the
non-verbal domain as a means of experienc-
ing new musical ideas. Strategies in the verbal
domain are an excellent choice after singers
have experienced the music in a variety of
ways. In other words, verbal strategies are
a means of reflecting on deep learning and
occur later in the rehearsal process (Table 1).
Visual Mapping
Experienced teachers likely spend more
time reflecting mentally and less time writing
formal lesson plans. New teachers, or those
who feel teaching practice has become

Table 1 The Conversion of Brainstorming to a Visual Construct: Beginnings of a Musical Interpretation

long, requires crescendo 1

listening for
suspension paramount
match orch and vocal shaping
appropriate to period/style
2 decisions should include consideration
line
of text meaning: center on weeping motive,
gestures of grief
3
ornamentation
write out ornaments

meno vibrato per style 1 Vocal challenges

vocal
doubled w/ strings
keep breath spinning 2 color

story narrates impact words:

warm vocal color, piu experience of dolorosa, lacrimosa, crucem
vibrato at points of drama 3 Mary as mother
text unusual as mother's
perspective is tense

originally established in
tonic f minor 1 Stabat Mater
Variation
Pergolesi Dimension #1
of pitch 1 assigned to dolorosa, lacrimosa
re-statement of stabat levels
mater at fifth creates weeping
2 tension 2 grief
sopranos in upper motives
part of range
3 suggests moaning or weeping

variation also
through alternating word DNA of movement established
homophony/polyphony 3 structure/form painting 1 through interval of second

▲ long note values on

suspensions 2 suspensions add drama
stabat mater:
suspensions/long values 1
most acute when sung
juxta crucem: 3 by single voice, mm. 41/42
three
plodding quarter notes
major
2 motives
paints picture of
final walk to cross

dum pendebat/
treated as duet throughout
3
string introduction contains
all three motives

14 CHORAL JOURNAL Volume 51 Number 7

stalled in a rut, have benefited from the pro-
cess of visual mapping for rehearsal.7 Visual
mapping documents the brainstorming of
both dimensions of preparing for rehearsal:
musical interpretation and the generation of
teaching strategies.
Computer software such as MindMa-
nager8 allows the conversion of related
thoughts to a visual construct.Table 1 below
illustrates thinking by Ms. E, who, after ten
minutes of warm-up and sight-reading, is
now ready to rehearse the first movement
of Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater9 with the tenth
grade women’s chorus.
Decisions by the conductor-teacher are
derived directly from the music. The more
often Ms. E returns to score study, the more
developed the map will become with the ad-
dition of new extensions and connections or
refinements to existing discoveries (Table 2).
The conductor-teacher is able to articulate
what it is she wants students to take from
the music by deliberately brainstorming for
later action on the podium.
Once the musical ideas are fully de-
scribed, she is ready to consider how singers
will experience the ideas. In a rehearsal that
emphasizes musical doing as represented by
both nonverbal and verbal teaching strate-
gies, a second dimension emerges: (Table 2)
CHORAL JOURNAL Volume 51 Number 7
The rich potential for engaged rehearsing
is evident by both the number of strategies
developed and by the fluency evident in
the decisions. The strategies devised by the
conductor-teacher are intimately related to
her understanding of the music. The inten-
tional pairing of teaching strategies with the
musical score will result in an inside-out ap-
proach to rehearsal, one that is more organic
and satisfying for both teacher and singer.
It is at this point, after deep thinking by
the conductor/teacher in both dimensions,
that a rehearsal plan can be formed. The
conductor/teacher transitions from prepara-
tion to the planning phase by making choices
15
 Table 2 Bridging a Musical Interpretation to Generation of Teaching Strategies

work from
breath exercise
sing through:
do these work
inhale cool singers mark for our voices?
air sip over 4 breathe often ornaments
counts; sink and early 1 ornamentation as provided make adjustments
into knees on on handout as necessary
inhalation.
exhale on singers brainstorm
shush different figures
listening
line
create listening spheres/
read text and
2 singers per part 2 translation

slowly rotate sphere Vocal chant color text:

by walking on tactus, challenges delorosa, lacrimosa
singing to center story/ underline
chant
text syllabic in scores
"freeze" chords, stress
esp. suspension 3 storytelling:
loss and
ask singers to mothering
warm sound as
phrases climax
model for singers choir sings each
Stabat Mater iteration of
evaluate whether 1 Pergolesi Dimension #2 with and
drama was without emphasis weeping motive
enhanced 1 on suspension
singers mark vocal sing weeping
color moments 2 color motive on [bi] and
weeping other material on
prioritize text motives 2 [nu]
in terms of drama,
singers underline 3 singers conduct
motive, emphasizing
3 suspension
sing at tonic level,
then at fifth singers experience
1 word through partner
singers describe painting exercise
effect
create drama
through take forearm of
singers describe pitch level crescendo into partner, pull on
dynamics of as 1 suspension long notes
each statement 2 expression
singers evaluate
mark in scores 3 whether drama
was created
structure/ dalcroze
singers identify each 1 form exercize
suspensions 2
teacher models three step, on main tracks,
articulations of each motive primary forward through suspensions,
2 motives backward on release

singers echo
singers draw
long phrases,
singers describe voices follow more drama
differences in at phrase level
articulation, pitched a fifth
mark score 3 singers evaluate
3 how phrases higher: singers
relate to one sing and conduct
another
about what to rehearse in light of particular
strategies for teaching and learning. The
teacher is now ready to order the rehearsal.
The visual maps serve not as rehearsal plans
but as seeds for possibility of exploration in
the choral rehearsal.
It is a habit of mind, an orientation of
thinking, to then step on the podium and
listen receptively in the sound. Preparation
allows for what is perhaps a third dimension
of the teaching/learning experience: an ability
to be present with the singers and the musi-
cal sounding. Listening deeply is the ultimate
assessment tool for the conductor-teacher,
fueling choices to be made. Listening is both
a skill and a philosophical choice. We choose
to cultivate an environment in which we
are open to truly hearing. Visual mapping
is merely an aid to uncovering the mental
processes needed to rehearse imaginatively.
Experienced teachers may not need such
a tool, but emerging teachers may benefit
from off-podium brainstorming through
visual mapping.
Score study, identifying musical challenges
and goals, and brainstorming for multiple
ways of interacting with musical material
serve as a platform upon which a conductor-
teacher can make decisions that acknowl-
edge the situated context of a particular
classroom on a particular day, at a particular
time. Why, after all, does a choral educator
commit to a preparatory process that costs
significant time and resources?
Choral teachers acknowledge the
transformative power of singing in commu-
nity with others. They understand the deep
satisfaction of using the human voice as an
exquisite means of self-expression. They
cultivate the development of intellectual and
emotional growth.They realize choral singing
is an important site of identity development,
personally and collectively. They strive to
connect meaningful musics and composers
to broaden singers’ experiences. The inspir-
ing conductor-teacher provides a canvas
upon which singers explore and experience.
The canvas is framed, the materials are near
at hand, and the conductor-teacher is ready
and willing to guide.
NOTES
1
Vignette written in admiration of Denise R. Eaton,
Choral Educator, Spring HS ISD, Spring
TX, and President, Texas Music Educator’s
Association—and all inspiring teachers
making a difference in the choral classroom.
2
A resource for new teachers: Wong, Harry and
Wong, Rosemary. The First Days of School:
How To Be An Effective Teacher. Mountain View,
CA: Harry Wong Publications, 2009.
3
Yinger, Robert. “The Conversation of Practice” in
Encouraging Reflective Practice in Education: An
Analysis of Issues and Programs, Clift, Houston,
and Pugach, Eds. New York: Teachers College
Press, 1990.
4
Among others; Bereiter, Carl, and Scardamalia,
Marlene. Surpassing Ourselves: An Inquiry
into the Nature and Implications of Expertise.
Chicago: Open Court, 1993.
5
For a more detailed discussion: Snow, Sandra.
“Brainstorming for Improvisation: Developing
Imaginative Teaching Strategies in the
Choral Rehearsal” in Teaching Music Through
Performance in Choir (Vol. 4), Buchanan,
Heather and Mahaffey, Michael, Eds. (GIA) in
press.
6
A seminal discussion of reflective practice is found
in Schön, Donald. The Reflective Practitioner.
New York: Basic Books, 1993.
7
For a specific system of scores analysis and fuller
discussion of the pre-conditions for score
CHORAL JOURNAL Volume 51 Number 7
study, including exercises to develop inner
hearing: Snow, Sandra. Choral Conducting/
Teaching: Real World Strategies for Sucess
(DVD). Chicago, IL: GIA, 2009.
8
Visual mapping developed through an action
research project aimed at improving teacher
training in the choral pedagogy (methods)
classroom. Snow, Sandra. “Rehearsing in the
Choral Context: A Qualitative Examination
of Undergraduate Conductor-Teacher
Planning Processes and Relationships to
Emergent Pedagogical Knowledge Evidenced
in Teaching.” (PhD dissertation, Michigan State
University, 1998).
9
MindManager is one option for visual mapping,
a standard business software.Mindjet ®
MindManager® Patents Pending (Copyright
1994-2007 Mindjet LLC, U.S.A. All rights
reserved.) Mindjet® and MindManager® are
registered trademarks of Mindjet LLC in the
United States and/or other countries. Xerces
C++ v2.7.0( Copyright © 1999-2005, The
Apache Software Foundation. Copyright (C)
2004, 2005 Ingo Berg
9
Pergolesi, Giovanni Battista, Stabat Mater. (Kalmus).
17