Rote Teaching

Much of my teaching experience before this program was at a music school that had a “medal level” system: a set of standards and levels for students to achieve. While I appreciated these standards and the goals they provided for teachers and students, some of the demands of these standards caused me to reject rote teaching. I feared rote teaching would detract from musical literacy rather than enhance it. My first term in this program, however, I learned how to teach songs by rote using the whole-part-whole method. I also taught MUS 322, in which I provided many techniques for student teachers to facilitate music in their future classrooms. I learned rote teaching was an effective tool to quickly teach songs to children and adults, and it became indispensable to me. I also realized that it builds student memorization and ear-training skills, while giving them the ability to sing and play music they may not have the literacy skills for yet. When students are not consumed with the demands of symbolic notation, other opportunities emerge for practicing expression and furthered technique. The benefits of rote teaching are numerous, and I am somewhat ashamed I snubbed my nose at it previously to this program. I continue to use rote teaching, facilitated by whole-part-whole in all elementary lessons I teach. I also use rote teaching in my private piano lessons. All of my private piano students have at least one rote song per quarter, alongside their notated repertoire. The “instant gratification” they experience seems refreshing for them, and the benefits I have observed are gratifying for everyone involved.

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