Saturday, February 27, 2010
Teacher dispenses little lessons through song
Top: Members of the Northwest Child Development Center children's choir rehearse for a fundraising concert to take place Sunday. About 25 youngsters between the ages of 3 and 12 will sing at Garden of Prayer No. 7 in Roanoke.
Right: Dorothy Wilson instructs the Northwest Child Development Center children's choir during a rehearsal.
Photos by KYLE GREEN The Roanoke Times
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To organize her choir of after-schoolers into five rows, Dorothy Wilson sings the directions:
"Stand next to each other."
"Move to the back."
"Stay in this row."
In her 12 years instructing 3- to 12-year-olds at the Northwest Child Development Center, Wilson has learned the best way to grab their attention is through melodies.
Teaching how to read a clock? Sing it. To count? Sing it. The alphabet? Sing it.
"Singing soothes them," said Wilson, a tenor in a church choir called The Gospelettes. "It keeps their attention span great, instead of just talking."
Wilson rehearsed with some 25 after-schoolers this week for the center's fundraising concert, in which they'll sing "This Little Light of Mine."
She told five students to stay in a row, and they giggled before lining up and singing in the B-flat scale.
"It makes it silly for them," she said. "It's just another way of teaching."
-- Jorge Valencia
