Diction Sub Plans- The latest product in my new series of Sub Plans for Chorus Teachers

Diction is so important for our choir singers, and if you need diction to be taught while you are absent for a day, these lessons are for you...and the good news is that you can do them with your students when you are in class with them too using this plan! It expands to as many as three days if you'd like it to do so through "enhancement" ideas that I've included to make it fun and to drive home the learning!

From tall mouths to voiced/unvoiced consonants, this 1-3 day lesson plan covers a lot.

What do you get?

*A 9-page google slide presentation with slides explaining exactly how to use the plan

*A link to a 20-page Google Doc that includes the YouTube links, video comprehension questions, answer keys and extension activity ideas like scavenger hunts and other gamification ideas to drive home the objectives of the lessons.

How can you use this lesson?

*As a one-day sub plan with a music or non-music sub.

*As a three-day lesson plan when you are with your students. You expand this lesson by choosing some or all of the extension activity ideas I've put into the Google Doc.

*If you are confident your sub can handle it, you can have them try some of the extension ideas that are included to extend this into a 2 or 3-day sub-plan.

Here is a link to the plans in my store!

Click here!

Biggest Giveaway of Mr. D products EVER! For April 2024.

So many of you use my program, S-Cubed Sight Singing Program for Beginners, and I need your help getting the word out about this giveaway.  Please forward this to a choral colleague or post it on social media!  The only reason that people know about my program is because of teachers...just like you...and I am forever grateful!  

I remember this time of year when I was in the classroom as quite stressful.  The students (and I) had spring fever, but there was a spring show lying ahead...and standardized testing in the middle of the final preparation weeks.  

So much to do before finally getting to summer and taking time to breathe, rest and reset.

Teachers may or may not have the bandwidth to think about curriculum for next year, but in case you do....or if you know of a young teacher who is about to enter the workforce post-graduation this May...or if you know someone who is re-entering the classroom after a break...

Tell them to enter this giveaway of the Google Slides Version of the Mega Bundle of the S-Cubed Sight Singing Program for Beginners.

They may just win it!

And they may also win some sub plans ...and a musical unit based on the Sound of Music!

And if they don't win it, but they enter the giveaway, they will get notified on the morning of April 28th about how to purchase the program 50% off S-Cubed, the sub plans and the musical unit any time on April 28, 29, and 30th.  I am going to be adding more sub plans and musical units into my store over the next few months for the 2024 back-to-school season, so keep an eye on my store and make sure to follow my email list.  Write "Subscribe" and send and email to inthemiddlewithmrd@gmail.com.

Go ahead...post this on social media where chorus teachers gather...send this to a colleague.  Let everyone know.  

To enter the giveaway, click the link below!  There are four ways to enter.  Do all four to increase your odds of winning one of the prizes.  The most important thing to do is to ensure that your email address is entered correctly in at least one of the entries so I can notify you if you won and how to get the sale price!  Good luck!  Mr. D!

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My First Choir Teacher- An epic example of what is really important

I was in 5th grade.

My sister, who was 6 years older than I was came home from school one day, and she said to me, "You're auditioning tomorrow for Amahl and the Night Visitors.  Mrs. Pierce says we need a boy to play Amahl.  Come in here for a quick voice lesson."  

She was bossy.

But I worshipped at her altar, and I said, OK.

Even though I hadn't sung very much at all at that point.  ...And certainly not a lead role in a high school production.  

I went in the next day to audition.  

I was so nervous.  

Ms. Pierce handled me with great care, and I felt so comfortable with her.  

I was double cast with a very good childhood friend named Tony.

So, it all felt very good to the young version of myself, and I moved forward.

Getting this part and moving toward production was such an epic experience... life-changing really.  

I was a 5th grader.  

I loved going to rehearsals and communing with my sister's peers.  I gained so much self-esteem from that experience, and it was a testament to how good Mrs. Pierce was at her job of being a choir teacher.

Her standards were so incredibly high.  I felt it even then.  I mean...we were singing Menotti for goodness sake.  

It's not easy.  

I had no concept of the difficulty. 

I just did what she asked me to do.  When I would miss a chromatic, she would help me hear it...so compassionately.  I never felt any negative energy from her in any way.  ...Just encouragement.

We ended up doing the show again the following year, and I was so happy to get to do it again. 

That really says it all...I wouldn't have wanted to do it in 6th grade if it had been in any way a negative experience in 5th grade.  All I felt was happiness for the opportunity and excitement to get started.

Ms. Pierce's husband got a job in another town, and she resigned in 1976.  It was my sister's senior year.  

5 years after she arrived, she was gone.

I never got the high school experience under her direction.

Fast forward to this past weekend...The weekend of March 1-3, 2024.

That's my sister.

She poured her heart into creating an event to honor Mrs. Pierce who entered my sister's life 50 years ago.  

She did it because this teacher saw her and supported her through all of the personal challenges my sister faced during her high school years...and there were many.

My sister and about 10 of her peers worked together for months putting together this event.

This was the group of singers who chose to be a part of it.

The organizers gave us tracks for the three songs so we could learn them.  One of the committee members arranged a special tribute song just for this event that included snippets of songs the choir had sung under Mrs. Pierce's leadership.

Our old high school had closed down because they built a new one down the street.  

The organizers contacted the school district and asked if they could open it for a day.

They did.

And if you teach public school, you know that is no small feat.

This was the photo I snapped as I walked up to the building to enter for the first time since I graduated in 1982.

And this is Mrs. Pierce.

81 years old.  

See that bin on the right?  

She brought things to US.  

What?!  We were honoring YOU.

She handed out framed posters to students who'd done special events.

She played the piano for us and sang for us.  It was so special.  

Three of her former students volunteered to conduct the three songs we sang and they rehearsed us all day.  Some of the people in the choir hadn't sung in a choir in 50 years.  Some had flown from as far away as Missouri to Durham, NC to be a part of honoring Mrs. Pierce.

The plan was to minimize the hardship on Mrs. Pierce.

She was to conduct us in singing the Northern High School Alma Mater.

My sister rehearsed us on it that day to make sure we had the rhythms and pitches, but she reminded us that we wouldn't get to work with Mrs. Pierce until we were in front of the audience on the stage.

This was that moment when she conducted us for the first time in front of the audience.

You know how when you sing with a group, and you are fully aware that everyone's heartbeat in the choir is exactly the same?  That you are totally in sync as a group?

That's what it felt like...on an Alma Mater that we had never rehearsed with her.

It says so much about who she is and the impact she had on each of us...That we wanted so much to sing for her...still...50 years later...and that she could wave her arms and we would respond with as much intent as possible.

I had goosebumps singing an Alma Mater.

-------

So, I asked myself why.

Why did she land at this moment?

Why did we land at this moment?

With that many singers who came from all over...with an audience of people who were there to see it...in our original space...with this woman, who, in five years, left such an indelible mark on us and on that community?

I've thought a lot about it, and here is what I've come up with.

She had incredibly high standards.  She pushed her choirs.

When they didn't meet the standard, she would say "Godzilla"...trying not to curse, I suppose...and then she'd push some more.

She poured herself into the musicals.

She took the students from Northern Durham to New York City, and they will never forget it.

She took her students to sing at the North Carolina Music Educator's Conference...one of her proudest accomplishments that she talked about this past weekend...She showed us the framed certificate of it that she's kept and she talked about it with joy.  That experience made her so happy when it happened.

------

But a lot of choir directors do those things and never get honored by their students 50 years after doing it.

And as I watched her. listened to her and sang for her, it all became clear.

  It never felt toxic when Betty Jo was in charge.  As a student of hers, you knew that, first, the space was safe and professional.

It was about the music, the community and the children who landed in front of her who were just that...children.

It was never about getting another Superior rating or winning another trophy.  

Although, she had plenty of all of those things.

One night, after a musical, the cast and Mrs. Pierce went to a pizza place to celebrate.  It was raining that night.  She told the students..."It's wet out there.  Please be careful when you are going home."

Mike Mooney, one of her students, raised his hand and said, "Mrs. Pierce, my tires are kind of bald."  

She reiterated...please be careful.

That night, he slid off the road and died.

She said that moment was one of her darkest.  

They sang parts of the Faure Requiem at his funeral in the auditorium of Northern High School...where we performed last weekend, and I remember it like it was yesterday.

She always worked to give the students an amazing musical experience all while remembering that they are children and that they need support, guidance, respect, and love and never crossing those lines.

As a 5th grader, I felt safe with her.

She always remembered what was most important...the safety and well-being of the children...all while pushing them to their limits musically...

Thank you Betty Jo.

And thank you to my sister and to all of the people who organized this incredible tribute to an amazing educator who should be a role model for us all.

 

Mastering "CHAOS" in S-Cubed Sight Singing Program from Day 1- A Pop Quiz for your student

In Lesson 6 of S-Cubed Sight Singing Program for Beginners, we introduce one of the most important skill sets in the entire program, and it is critical to teach it well the very first day. Not doing so can result in timid "CHAOS" sessions all year. If you are new to the program or if you've struggled with teaching "CHAOS" to your students, this product is for you. In this product, you will get a link to the video of me teaching "CHAOS" to my beginners. Your students will watch the video and then you will give them the 10-question quiz to make sure they've got it!

Then, the next day, you will review the concepts, and have them do it for the first time. Make sure you have fun with them that day when you try to make them lose "DO"! S-Cubed must always have the fun factor that allows you to use your personality in ways that connect you to the students. Remember...S-Cubed is part method and part philosophy!

Go get it here!

Hamilton the Musical- Assessment Questions for Music Class and Social Studies Class

My students loved Hamilton the Musical from the moment it came out on Broadway in 2015.

When that happens, I always work to take the energy and excitement and turn it into learning, and in my case since I was in the chorus classroom, passionate singing, and in the case of Hamilton the Musical, rapping that comes from the heart and is performed with conviction.

Hamilton the Musical is a valuable tool for teaching about and discussing American history, and it is appropriate for upper middle school and high school students to see.  Students who are in chorus class will take it to the next level while learning about history.  Most students from 5th grade up absolutely love the music from this show.

This was a passion project for the creator of this show, Lin Manuel Miranda, because of his own background, and it followed his amazing show called "In the Heights" earlier in his career.

Lin Manuel's parents came here from Puerto Rico.  

He was born in 1980 in NYC.  

He has an understanding of America and all of the opportunity that comes from the realness of what America really is and always was supposed to be all about- People from all over the world coming to the melting pot and achieving the America Dream.

Many of us who've lived here for a long time have lost touch with that.  

He has not, and it is reflected in his work on both "In the Heights" and "Hamilton".

I highly recommend that you watch Hamilton with your students on Disney Plus, where it is currently available exclusively as of this writing (2/27/2024).

Discuss the events of the musical.  Create new projects around it to spur more interest.  If you are a chorus teacher, by all means, sing songs from the show.  The music in this show appeals very strongly to students from upper elementary through high school and beyond.  

I created some assessment questions that you can use once students have finished watching the show.

It includes the answer key.

Click here.

I hope it helps you in your classroom!

Listen to Great Choirs- New One Day Lesson Plan for you, your music or non-music sub!

I just finished conducting the Colorado Middle Allstate Choir.  

I studied and prepared really hard for it because I chose music I'd never conducted before.

I blogged about it here.

I decided to create a one-day lesson that you can use for you and your students or you can use it for a substitute (music or non-music).  Click here to see it in my TpT store.

It has links to the performances I studied as I prepared.  

I included questions for the students to answer with you in discussion or in writing with a substitute.

The total listening time is about 25 minutes, so the rest will be discussing/writing about the performances.

The goal is to have your students hear and see really strong choirs that have strong technical skills with diction, intonation, dynamic control, and all of the other seven criteria of a great choir.

I included those seven criteria in the Google Slide Deck along with a link to a google doc for the students.  

I hope it helps you and leads to great discussions and stronger technical and artistic results from your students!  Click here to get it in my TpT store!

Goosebumps- Colorado Middle Allstate Choir- Out of the comfort zone.

They say the growth happens outside of our comfort zone.

And I was WAY outside my comfort zone.

In February of 2023, I presented some sessions at the annual Colorado Music Educator's Convention.  

At the end of one of my sessions, two energetic teachers came up to me and asked if I would be interested in conducting their 2024 Middle School Allstate Choir.  

What an honor!  So, I immediately said yes.  

This would be my third Allstate Chorus conducting experience of my post-retirement career, and I have loved every single one.   I am so grateful for each opportunity to work with such high-level students who've worked hard to get their spots.  

Being the third, I've learned which questions to ask so that I can help the students reach their peaks in the rehearsal time we've got.  

For me, it was always the third year in a new school when things turned around, and I guess the same is true for this sort of endeavor because this experience was beyond magical.  I definitely haven't gotten goosebumps while conducting this many times since 2019/pre-covid, and I think this experience gave me more goosebumps than I've ever had.  

Last summer, when it was time to send in my music choices, I was paralyzed.  I couldn't get over the hump.  I'm not sure why exactly...other than the fact that I had actually been to Colorado's Music Convention and saw how well run it was?!  So, maybe I felt extra pressure?  Not sure.  Or maybe it was because I was conducting the SSAA Treble Choir (mostly female), and I knew I needed to find all literature that was brand new to me so I could grow and stretch my own skills.  

I had chosen three of the six songs.  It was turning out to be a girl power concert for sure, but I couldn't find the other three songs.  

Enter Alicia Moreno Mulloy from Alabama.  I had adjudicated her choirs in March 2023, and I was blown away by her work with them...so much so, that I, for a quick fleeting moment, thought I wanted to get back into the classroom.  I interviewed her in July 2023 for "Ask Mr. D".  She gave lots of great insights about how she works her magic.  If you missed it, here is the link.  She is authentically Alicia, and middle school kids love that.  

Then, I came to my senses!  Loved that chapter...Next.  No regrets.

I messaged her and asked if she'd help me finish out the program, and she sent me a ton of options until we finally came up with this.

I loved every piece.  I loved the flow...the message...

I sent it in.

And then, I started to question myself.  Were they going to be able to do Sisters?  I picked it because I found this video, and loved the choreography.  I went back and looked at the video after I sent it in, and the song was performed by a University Choir.  I am conducting 7th and 8th graders!  

I'm talking to myself...Ok...I'll just cut it if I have to.  That way we can make magic with the other songs...

But the flow of the concert won't be the same?!  

And I kept having more thoughts like this about the other songs.  "Those dissonances...Those Sondheim rhythms..."   And on and on.

November approached, and I knew I had to start preparing.  My Mississippi Allstate conducting gig was just 14 days ahead of this one, so I had two things going at once.  

I dug in.  I loved every second of the preparation process for both events, but this music...this concert flow...oh how I wanted it to work.

I started emailing the organizers.

How are the students screened?

When did they get the music?

Are they expected to walk in memorized?

Who checks?

Anxiety...mixed with excitement.  

The day arrives when I meet the singers.

I did my a capella vocal warm-up.   Tone quality is very nice.  They respond well to my conducting cues.  The energy is definitely good.

Then, I do my normal thing.  I have them pretend that it's the night of the concert.  They, the collaborative pianist whom I've just met and I sing straight through the concert.  I told them that no matter what happens, we are not stopping.  We will recover and move on.

First song...very nice!  It is clear they are prepared with all pitches and rhythms.

Same for second and third.  

Fourth is Sisters.

I don't tell them I'm scared, but I am shaking a bit.

It's a capella, and I've told the collaborative pianist that if she needed to bang a pitch or five half way through to save them, then she should do it.

She didn't have to do it AND they stayed in tune throughout...not missing anything.

After they sang Sisters, I broke my rule, and talked to them.  I let them know how scared I'd been, and thanked them for prepping so well.

The final two pieces went great.

I don't 'have to cut anything!  And...I don't have to do any remediation of pitches/rhythms.  YIPPEE!

Instead, I get to take them straight to the magic of creating meaningful choral art and give them and the audience an experience they'll always remember because of how it made them feel, and they can take that excitement back to their classrooms and lead.  

It truly was magical.

Here are some samples of dress rehearsal.

Sisters

I am.

Lineage.

I think we will have professional recordings within 2 weeks, and I'll try to find a way to share.

I am so grateful for this experience, and I hoping to have more opportunities like this in coming years.

Thank you to all of the S-Cubed teachers who invite me to to Allstates and Honor's Choirs.  It gives me the opportunity to keep working with children since I am not doing it daily any longer, and I love it.  It makes me push myself outside of my comfort zone.   I am so grateful for S-Cubed because no one would know anything about my work without it, but these opportunities give me the chance to show that I'm not a one-trick pony, and that means a lot to me at this point in my career.

Thank you!

ACDA Choral Journal Article on Sight Singing Requirements at Allstate Auditions~ Lift Every Voice

I just read an article in the Choral Journal written by Marshaun R. Hyman about the manner in which various states weigh sight singing scores at Allstate Auditions.  

The premise~ why are many states weighing the sight singing component of Allstate auditions so heavily?   In most states, they learn the music with tracks.   

I’m simplifying.    

You can read it here…. https://choralnet.org/archives/780507

In my view, annual choral assessments and adjudications are where sight singing should be evaluated.   Allstate chorus is not the place…especially if Allstate prep occurs as it does in most states where students are given tracks to learn basically by rote.  

As a clinician who has had the honor and privilege of conducting two Allstate Chorus events thus far in 2024, my wish is simple when I walk in the door to prepare the students  ~ please know every pitch and every rhythm perfectly and preferably have it memorized.   That way, I’m not doing remediation, and I’m not having to make the difficult decision to cut a song so we can create artistic memorable moments.  As a conductor who has the privilege so conducting the highest achieving choral music students in your state, I want to create experiences for the students, their parents, and their teachers to FEEL because the feelings are what art is about.  Maya Angelou~. People forget what you say.   They forget what you do.   They don’t forget how you made them feel.   The art we create if they know pitches, rhythms and words will ignite passion for the students to take back and create a hunger to experience and create more…and we will truly change our art form because we served the highest young achievers in our art form.  

In my own state of Georgia, sight singing is weighted very heavily for Allstate auditions.  … Too heavily in my opinion.  But in the past, (and maybe currently… I retired in 2022 after 30 years) they’ve included an audition to “check” the music and they cut students who weren’t ready.  

This is ideal. 

The time to create your sight singing standards for teachers to try to accomplish is at annual state choral assessments.  

Two prepared pieces and choral group sight singing.   

During my career, I taught in three states.  North Carolinas requirement for middle school sight singing was unison stepwise with no syncopations.  

New Jersey had no sight singing requirement at choral assessment.  

Georgia, where I spent 20 of the 30 years, had such a high requirement that I called a colleague and said-  “Is this for real?   I couldn’t have done this a capella in my junior year of college.   Seriously.”   

I had to find a way to address the high standards so my beginners could avoid walking out of the sight singing room dejected and wanting to quit chorus and that’s what I did.  

So thank you for this article.  It is sure to ignite conversation.  

I hope our national organizations will continue to guide states on standards and best practices as they relate to sight singing so our beginning students walk out of chorus classes literate musically.   

I waited for 30 years for my little middle school Mozart to show up and lead the alto section. 

It never happened.  

In public school especially, we’ve got to serve the students who land before us.  

Thank you,  

Dale Duncan

Creator o S~Cubed Sight Singing Program for Beginners 

Sound of Music Unit Giveaway-Enter until 1/30/24 midnight

I am a Sound of Music nerd.  

I've watched it hundreds of times.  

I went to Austria and did the Sound of Music bus tour in Salzburg and stayed in one of the filming locations near where the children fell into the lake wearing curtains as play clothes.

I taught about the Sound of Music for 30 years as part of my curriculum in middle school and tied into real world history, and it led to many awesome conversations and lots of learning about both music and history.

So, I created a unit to share with you and your students, and it is offered in my store on Teachers Pay Teachers, and I am giving it away on January 30th, 2024.  Everyone who enters the giveaway will receive an email from me on the morning on 1/30 with an announcement of the winner PLUS, as I have done for years with S-Cubed Sight Singing Program for Beginners, I will tell you in the email how to get the Sound of Music Unit for 50% on 1/31/24.  AND, included in this one day offer, I will also let you know how to get the Google Slides Version of S-Cubed for 50% off on 1/31/24.

Enter below on the Rafflecopter to win the Sound of Music Unit a Rafflecopter giveaway  for free!

Teachers Pulling Together for the Kids and their Families

It's January in Mississippi, and it's time for Allstate Chorus and the MMEA/MCDA Allstate Concert, and of course, you would expect snow and ice to disrupt it, right?

I mean...in Hattiesburg, the average January high temperature is 62 and the average low is 39.  

Well, this year, snow and ice came...along with cold temperatures afterward leading to no melting and lots of disruptions...from members of leadership, accompanists, teachers, and sadly many students who made the Allstate Chorus not getting to be a part of the event after auditioning, making it and learning the music.  

Everything and everyone shifted focus and the teamwork kicked in.  Everything still ran like clockwork.  It was so impressive.  This organization is top notch in every way, and I was honored to be there and to get to watch it in action.  

Sorry for the stress they endured as they navigated the changes....but it was so awesome to see the people in MMEA/MCDA are doing so much great work for the students and for their families.  

It's what teachers do every single day, actually.  ....Pivoting at a moment's notice and re-configuring the lesson plan.

The opportunity to be a clinician in Mississippi brought me great joy, and I certainly hope it brought joy to the children and their families.  I hope the teachers received children in their classrooms Monday who heard reinforcements of everything you've been teaching...and I hope they have fire in their belly to keep singing!