Description

A complete pedagogical Level 1 method for teachers and directors. This long-awaited teaching method is now available! Proven in classroom and concert, Square One builds ringer confidence and knowledge step by confident step. Note reading on the staff and good ringing technique are introduced with carefully planned first-ringing experiences. Sixteen successive lessons, lettered A through P, are crafted to build skills and use rote/unison & chordal exercises, engaging etudes, and assessment pages. Square One’s teaching method uses two important pedagogical tools: 1. “Screen projection” presentation for teaching materials using either a digital format like Google Slides, PowerPoint, Smart Board – or hard copies using a Document Camera/Visualizer or Overhead transparencies. This method of visual presentation allows the teacher to guide all ringers’ attention directly through a single visual example or score. Ringers can focus on the skill at hand while they learn to read notes and track a musical score as the director leads. 2. “Unison Exercises” in which all ringers play the same example at the same time: A single-line staff with the line note and the space note below it representing the two bells in hand for every ringer. These unison exercises introduce each new skill and theory lesson in a simplified format that includes every ringer, making teaching time more efficient and effective. Written by a well-respected handbell educator/composer/director/clinician with 15 years of classroom experience and 30 years of experience composing for and directing all levels of ringers; and edited by a cadre of experienced handbell educators, “Square One” employs a logical, successive progression of lessons using teaching techniques that spiral (teach skills in their simplest form, then include them in progressively more complex examples) and scaffold (use a variety of experiences to learn a new skill, broadening the base of understanding). Hints for adapting scores and differentiating parts are included. A fully-illustrated Teacher’s Manual (Vol. 1, 130 pages) includes set-up tips, detailed illustrated lesson plans and additional resource recommendations, plus flashcards and many blank templates for your own use. The coordinating Ringer Edition (Vol. II, 180 pages) contains full-sized pages of all the musical exercises and etudes culminating in a 3-piece suite (Square One Suite) that recaps all skills learned – plus two 11” x 17” pull-out posters. The two books (and the digital files of each!) are sold as a set – and all are completely reproducible by the original purchaser for making hard copies or digital files and for projection on a screen. Note: Square One Suite is also available as a stand-alone score for general use in school, worship or festival (RE3015), and a sample lesson from Square One is also available as a stand-alone folio (Square One Sampler F, RE3013SF) for a single lesson experience, workshop use or for using the etude “Painted Desert L1” in a concert or festival setting.