Reflection Post Week 6 - Using Conformity

While I am a strong advocate for students being individuals and not being afraid of expressing who they are, in a performance setting, conformity is very important.  As an ensemble, it is important for my students to all look the same, as one performing unit.  My choir students know that they are required to hem their dress to a certain length, wear shoes that are closed-toed and not heels, wear their hair up and off the shoulder, and to apply subtle red lipstick.  This often goes against their own fashion styles (so does a long black choir dress and pearls).  However, they understand (through my teaching) that a choir's appearance has a large impact on the impression it leaves with an audience or adjudicator.  Our boys wear tuxedos with black shoes, black ties, and black vests.  By all dressing the same, the students feel a sense of unity and pride in their group.  I don't have research to back this up, but it seems as though students who are well put together, and are uniformly dressed seem to have better audience behavior than groups which are not.  Beyond their uniforms, my students have a distinct process for entering the stage, taking their place on the risers, and exiting.  All of these activities serve to show a sense of professionalism and seriousness in my students. 

Seating charts are very important in a choral classroom, for various reasons.  Some directors choose to seat students according to section, or quartets, or octets.  Vocally, there are lots of opinions as to which seating arrangement is best.  Regardless of the reasoning, seating charts are another example of conformity in the music classroom.  Additionally, I use seating charts as a disciplinary tool in my classroom. If I know that two students cannot stop talking (or cannot get along), I am sure to move them to seats where they are not able to distract the rest of the group.  Students are required to conform to the seating chart, and I change their seating often.  I change their seating to either work on their sound, or their behavior.

On trips, I find that the best way to have students dress is in their chorus t-shirt and jeans or shorts (depending on the time of year).  This type of conformity for students achieves several goals.  It assures that students remain in dress code (an issue sometimes on theme park trips).  More importantly, it allows the chaperones to quickly identify students who are part of our group.  I also believe it encourages my students to behave more appropriately because they are wearing the name of their school on their backs.


Much like in the text, I like to choose one or two songs that I know most of the students will really enjoy, this will allow the others to "come along" with the group and have a good time singing it. 

In all of these aspects of my classroom, I find that by getting a significant number of students to "buy in" to the ideas of uniform, seating, etc, the others will follow the guidelines simply to do what the others are doing.  I rely heavily on my seniors and chorus officers to set the tone for what is expected in my classroom, and (in general) the other students come along mostly because it's "what everyone else does" (that famous teenage excuse for some of the questionable decisions they make).  We can use that mindset to our advantage as teachers!