Submitted by Diane Joslin, Michigan
Idea posted June 13, 2011
I have a very rough 6th grade choir class - everything is "boring," and they don't like to sing. While searching for motivating ideas, I came across "Complaint Choirs," which is apparently sweeping the globe. My version: The kids get into small groups (three or four kids) and write down all of the their complaints about life, school, home, parents - anything and everything. They read these aloud to the class. Then, we discuss how to put their complaints into a song. Some kids will be creative and actually compose a song, but some will be intimidated by this. So, we brainstormed songs that everyone would know, to which we could fit our complaints. Suggestions were: "Mary Had A Little Lamb"; "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star"; "Row, Row, Row Your Boat"; "Jingle Bells"; "London Bridge"; and "The Itsy Bitsy Spider." Their task is to write several verses, fitting their words to one of these tunes. These unmotivated students really enjoyed this assignment.