Product Description: This program is cumulative in nature. For best results, start with Lesson 1-The Game! By Lesson 16 of S-Cubed!, we are approaching the half-way point on our Sight Singing journey with our Middle School Children! The students have mastered stepwise sight singing examples with some difficult rhythms. They have the tools in their toolbox to deal with many challenges, and they can figure out many things on their own.….and all of it is done acapella…with success! We have been preparing skips for weeks. Now, it is time for us to help our beginning students learn to see, interpret and successfully sign and sing skips on the actual staff. In this 4 day Power Point lesson, you will get 3 Sight Singing examples, 2 Rhythm exercises, guidance on the game Forbidden Pattern using Chromatics, three written/oral warm up exercises, handouts to supplement the learning of skips vs. steps, and, as always, you will get links to video teaching tips from Mr D for each daily lesson. Also included, as always, are the video teaching clips of Mr D actually teaching Days 1-3 of the lesson to his beginning students. You will get information about his own test results with his beginners so you can see how he is doing as he takes this journey with you while teaching his own beginners how to Sight Sing. S-Cubed! is like a 7 month long Sight Singing workshop for choral music teachers that includes lesson plans, teaching tips, teaching examples, rhythm exercises, games and, of course, PDF, reproducible files of everything including Sight Singing examples. It’s all about success and fun instead of dread, silence and moans. Developed by a real middle school teacher who is using the method successfully in his own classroom, S-Cubed! is not a Sight Singing book. There are tons of those on the market. It’s an all-inclusive 10/15 minutes-per-day system. It is tried and true and doesn’t skip any steps in the teaching process. The method meets the students where they are and gives them only the information they need to be successful and to stay excited about learning to sight sing. And at the end of the course, you have fluent, excited, literate sight singers who are reading difficult two part examples with success and ease! To learn more about the S-Cubed Middle School Sight Singing Program for Beginners, go to: http://inthemiddlewithmrd1.blogspot.com/p/about-s-cubed-successful-sight-singing.html

Product Description: This program is cumulative in nature. For best results, start with Lesson 1-The Game! In this lesson: *We will help the students discover ways to read skips quickly. *We will begin giving students strategies for successful 2-part sight singing through the Group Rhythm Exercises. *We will continue refining the ears of our students by using Chromatics during the game “Forbidden Pattern”. *We will challenge the ears of our students by Scoring the Scale using the Chromatic Scale. *We will continue to refine our students ability to sight sing skips of the major I Chord while using all of the “tools in their toolbox” that they have learned along the way during the previous lessons. This lesson is 10-15 minutes per day for 3 days. The lessons follow the normal daily lesson procedure outlined in the three freebies in the S-Cubed program. Please check those out! (Written/Oral warm up; Group Rhythm Practice; Forbidden Pattern; Follow the Hand; Sight Singing Example). This method is cumulative in nature. Teachers should begin with Lesson 1 and implement each lesson progressively. In this lesson, you will get: *Three Sight Singing examples *Three Two-part Group Rhythm exercises *Guidance on the game Forbidden Pattern, Follow the Hand and Sight Singing preparation. *Individual YouTube links for each day of the lesson with short 2-3 minutes of guidance and teaching tips geared specifically to the lesson of the day. *YouTube links showing Mr D actually teaching the lesson to his students so you can get ideas about how to deliver the material. Your students will stop moaning when you pull out the Sight Singing materials with S-Cubed! It is the 21st century way to improve how you teach Sight Singing! It is carefully progressive in sequence in a manner that encourages and increases the chances of success for your Upper Elementary and Middle School students each and every day. The method is developed by a real teacher in a real classroom. The method is like a teacher workshop that includes lesson plans and lesson guidance by a teacher who is using it in his classroom everyday. S-Cubed is the perfect system to use in the Chorus Classroom with inexperienced students. They will love “beating the page”! One successful step at a time…The S-Cubed way! It’s real. It’s proven. It works....the 21st century way! To learn more about the S-Cubed Middle School Sight Singing Program for Beginners, go to: http://inthemiddlewithmrd1.blogspot.com/p/about-s-cubed-successful-sight-singing.html

Lesson 24 Product Description HUNT and FOCUS This program is cumulative in nature. For best results, begin with Lesson 1. Congratulations to you for making it to Lesson 24! This is the final lesson that includes unison sight singing. In this 3-day lesson, we focus entirely on teaching each individual child to recognize his own areas of weakness and then QUICKLY hunt for and find the parts of the example that can cause him/her the most difficulty. We teach process. We encourage independent and varied use of tools from the tool box that we’ve developed over the last 23 lessons. It is critical that every child in the room confidently understands what works for him/her and how to refine the problem-solving skills to be as effective as possible as they work an example during the Chaos period. The better each child is at recognizing their own weaknesses and knowing which tools help him/her solve problems, they more successful our singers will be as they approach the all-important 2-part sight singing in Lesson 25! This lesson is our last chance to do just that! If we are successful, they will breeze through the 2-part sight singing examples, and that is our goal! The procedures in this Lesson are different than previous lessons. It is almost entirely “Sight Singing Example” focused. In this 23 slide, three-day lesson, you will receive: 3 Sight Singing examples that includes dotted-quarter eighth note combinations and difficult intervals. 1 Written Warm/Oral Warm up for Day 1. You will get a special “Procedures” guide for Days 1 and 2 because we aren’t following our normal daily procedures during this lesson. We are helping them to refine their Chaos PROCESS now that the examples are more difficult. You will get helpful written guidelines to ensure that you properly prepare them for becoming more and more independent as they learn the refine their Chaos process so it is maximally effective for each individual student. You will get special written guidelines for the procedures of Day 3 since, on that day, they are responsible almost entirely for using their newly refined, individualized Chaos processes more effectively to ensure that they successfully sing the example and beat the page. The activity is timed, and it is up to them to work it out successfully. As always, you will get links to videos of Mr D actually implementing the lesson to his own students, and you will get the direct links to the video teaching tips. To learn more about the S-Cubed Middle School Sight Singing Program for Beginners, go to: http://inthemiddlewithmrd1.blogspot.com/p/about-s-cubed-successful-sight-singing.html

If we had a dollar for every time we asked our upper elementary and middle school choir students to watch us while they sing, we'd all be rich! The goal in this offering is to give you four quick, memorable, fun activities to help your young singers learn the important concept of how important it is to watch the conductor while they sing! You can use the activities all at once or break them up over time. Each activity will take under 5 minutes to teach. You are likely to get a lot of mileage out of these exercises, and the ideas are likely to make you think of even more ways to help your students learn the importance of watching the conductor! In this offering, you will get: *15 page power point with guidelines and rules for the four activities. *YouTube links of Mr D talking to the camera directly to you to describe in detail how he uses the activities with his students. *YouTube links of Mr D actually doing the activities with his beginning choir students. Get outrageous with "Keep your Eyes on Me!" ...and maybe...just maybe... you won't have to say "Watch me" again! Mr D is the creator of the S-Cubed Middle School Sight Singing Program for Beginners. For more info, go to: http://inthemiddlewithmrd1.blogspot.com/p/about-s-cubed-successful-sight-singing.html

Product Description: This program is cumulative in nature. For best results, start with Lesson 1-The Game! By Lesson 12 of S-Cubed, your students are rockin' and rollin' with their Sight Singing! By now, you have created daily habits that include games, exercises and procedures that helped your students look forward to their 10-15 minutes of Sight Singing every day rather than moan with dread! Lesson 12 is a four day offering. In the lesson, we harken back to an earlier lesson in the S-Cubed training system where we focused on training the eye. In this lesson, we start the process of helping the students to recognize rhythmic patterns and intervals in their examples. Lesson 12 includes 4 Sight Singing examples, 4 group rhythm exercises introducing Eighth notes, YouTube links that include teaching tips for every single day, and YouTube links of Mr D actually teaching the material to his students so that you can get ideas on how to approach the material to help it work for your upper elementary and middle school students. Join the S-Cubed Sight Singing program today and your young, inexperienced singers will be Sight Singing fluently in just a matter of months. To learn more about the S-Cubed Middle School Sight Singing Program for Beginners, go to: http://inthemiddlewithmrd1.blogspot.com/p/about-s-cubed-successful-sight-singing.html

Product Description: This program is cumulative in nature. For best results, start with Lesson 1-The Game. In Lesson 3 of S-Cubed: Successful Sight Singing for Middle School Teachers, we focus on the development of ear. Having a good ear that is able to hear the differences between "sharp", "flat" and "in tune" singing impacts all areas of our Choral Programs, so this lesson is great for teachers who haven't already done Lesson 1 and Lesson 2 of this method. This lesson contains specific descriptions of five listening exercises that will help your students in the development of their ears. Video teaching tips and video teaching examples included! More info on S-Cubed: http://inthemiddlewithmrd1.blogspot.com/p/about-s-cubed-successful-sight-singing.html

This is Lesson 2 in the S-Cubed Level 2 Series. This product is only intended for teachers and students who have completed the Original S-Cubed Series for Beginners, and who have completed Lesson 1 of Level TWO. All are located in my store. This method is intended only for SAB or Three-part choirs that include the boy's changing or changed voice... all of whom have completed S-Cubed Original Series before their voices changed.   It is not intended for people who have completed other sight singing programs and who believe they are ready for S-Cubed Level 2.  Do not buy this lesson in that situation. It will be a waste of your money. This is best used upon immediate completion of the original series. In this lesson, we focus on hearing the two types of unisons, and we begin the task of helping our students to be able to visually identify the two types of unisons on the written page. We continue to work on balance and blend through rhythm exercises. There are four 10-15 minute sight singing lessons included in this purchase. All links to the video teaching tips and video teaching examples are included. One step at a time...the S-Cubed way.  Preparing them to be curious, life-long, literate singers as they are ready.   Stay connected with Mr D: Subscribe to my email list by sending me an email at inthemiddlewithmrd@gmail.com and write SUBSCRIBE in the subject line.

S-Cubed Level 4 Lesson 2 Product Description This is Lesson 4 in the S-Cubed Level 2 Series. This product is only intended for teachers and students who have completed the Original S-Cubed Series for Beginners, and who have also completed Lessons 1-3 in Level 2. All are located in my store. This method is intended only for SAB or Three-part choirs that include the boy's changing or changed voice all of whom have completed S-Cubed Original Series before their voices changed.   It is not intended for people who have completed other sight singing programs and who believe they are ready for S-Cubed Level 2.  Do not buy this lesson in that situation. It will be a waste of your money.  Here is the link to the original series.  Please start there before buying this product.  In this lesson, we continue helping out students to connect the dots from solfege reading to reading letter names. We give them tools to help them name the notes on both clefs, and we continue to help them connect the sound to the where it occurs on the keyboard. The first three lessons are 10-15 minutes long. The 4th and final day of this lesson includes their first assessment that will take 45-50 minutes to complete. All links to the video teaching tips and video teaching examples are included. One step at a time...the S-Cubed way.  Preparing them to be curious, life-long, literate singers as they are ready.   Stay connected with Mr D: Subscribe to my email list by emailing me at inthemiddlewithmrd@gmail.com and writing SUBSCRIBE in the subject line.

Lesson 13 Product Description This program is cumulative in nature. For best results, start with Lesson 1-The Game! In this lesson: *Introduce SYN-CO-PA rhythmic pattern and train them to see the pattern quickly *Assess their ability to identify intervals *We continue the preparation for singing skips of the Major 1 chord through the game Forbidden Pattern and the activity Follow the Hand *We increase the difficulty of the Sight Singing examples and begin to train their eyes to see and identify pitch patterns as well as rhythmic patterns. This lesson is 10-15 minutes per day for 4 days. The first three days of this lesson follow the normal procedure (Written/Oral warm up; Group Rhythm Practice; Forbidden Pattern; Follow the Hand; Sight Singing Example). On the fourth day, you will give the Interval assessment. In this lesson, you will get: *Three Sight Singing examples *Three Group Rhythm Practice exercises *Guidance on Forbidden Patterns, Follow the Hand and Sight Singing preparation. *Individual YouTube links for each day of the lesson with short 2-3 minutes of guidance and teaching tips. *YouTube links showing Mr D teaching the lesson to his students so you can get ideas about how to deliver the material. Your students will stop moaning when you pull out the Sight Singing materials with S-Cubed! It is carefully progressive in order to encourage success for your Upper Elementary and Middle School students each and every day. S-Cubed is the perfect system to use in the Chorus Classroom with inexperienced students, and they will love “beating the page”! One successful step at a time…The S-Cubed way! Start with Lesson 1 today, and your students will be Sight Singing two parts with difficult rhythms and skips in a matter of months! To learn more about the S-Cubed Middle School Sight Singing Program for Beginners, go to: http://inthemiddlewithmrd1.blogspot.com/p/about-s-cubed-successful-sight-singing.html

Product Description: This program is cumulative in nature. For best results, start with Lesson 1-The Game! In Lesson 2 of S-Cubed, you will take two important steps on the journey...Learning to recognize and perform half steps successfully with your voice and your hands, and learning to "Follow the Hand" while recognizing and correctly singing repeated pitches and stepwise pitches. For more info on S-Cubed, go to: www.inthemiddlewithmrd1.blogspot.com

Product Description This program is cumulative in nature. For best results, start with Lesson 1-The Game! Building Sight Singing skills in young beginners is like building a house. In Lesson 10, we finish pouring the foundation! ....And with S-Cubed, we are working methodically to build a sound structure that will last them a lifetime! In this 4 day, 10-minutes-per-day offering, you will get *Three Sight Singing exercises *Three group rhythm exercises *Several oral/written warm up exercises *An assessment designed to test your students ability to read pitch as we prepare to learn to identify skips and teach about key signatures in later S-Cubed lessons. *You will also receive two YouTube links of Mr D teaching his own beginners some of the lessons in Lesson 10. S-Cubed is a Sight Singing teacher training course that includes all of the student exercises you need plus a video guide of the method being used in real time! Have fun! Teach well! ....The S-Cubed way! To learn more about the S-Cubed Middle School Sight Singing Program for Beginners, go to: http://inthemiddlewithmrd1.blogspot.com/p/about-s-cubed-successful-sight-singing.html

Product Description: This program is cumulative in nature. For best results, start with Lesson 1-The Game! In Lesson 11, Tools in your Toolbox, it's all coming together! In Lessons 1-10, we assembled and sharpened all of the tools that our students need in the toolbox to successfully Sight Sing varied rhythms and stepwise pitches, and now it is time to put those tools to use in the most challenging Sight Singing examples yet! In Lesson 11, you will get 3 days of lessons that are intended to be 10-15 minutes long. They include: *Written/Oral Warm Ups *Three group rhythm exercises *Three Sight Singing examples *Individual coaching in YouTube links that are intended for the teacher that include specific instructions for each lesson. *YouTube links that will take you directly to examples of Mr D teaching the lessons to his own students. *A video link about Philosophy and suggestions about how to help your students handle the new, higher levels of difficulty in the Sight Singing examples so they continue to fight hard to beat the page. It's just like coaching a football team! Positively guiding them helps them strive for their best work! It's time to put all of the tools in the toolbox to good use in Lesson 11 as they continue on their journey with S-Cubed: Successful Sight Singing for Middle School Teachers and their students! To learn more about the S-Cubed Middle School Sight Singing Program for Beginners, go to: http://inthemiddlewithmrd1.blogspot.com/p/about-s-cubed-successful-sight-singing.html

Product Description: This program is cumulative in nature. For best results, start with Lesson 1-The Game! In Lesson 8 of S-Cubed, we continue to build the skill sets that will help your young singers become fluent readers in months with these 10-15 minute daily lessons! In this 4-day offering, you will receive several rhythm exercises, four Sight Singing exercises and many teaching tips related to helping you effectively deliver the material in order to make sure your students master the new rhythm skills. Lesson 8 is a direct extension of Lesson 7 and is focused on habits and skills that relate to performing rhythm exercises in 2/4 and 3/4. In this lesson we, also work toward successfully demonstrating understanding of meter in the Sight Singing exercises in all three time signatures. One step at a time! That is the S-Cubed way! To learn more about the S-Cubed Middle School Sight Singing Program for Beginners, go to: http://inthemiddlewithmrd1.blogspot.com/p/about-s-cubed-successful-sight-singing.html

Octaves, Balance, Blend and Review This product is only intended for teachers and students who have completed the Original S-Cubed Series for Beginners.   This method is intended only for SAB or Three-part choirs that include the boy's changing or changed voice all of whom have completed S-Cubed Original Series before their voices changed.   It is not intended for people who have completed other sight singing programs and who believe they are ready for S-Cubed Level 2.  Do not buy this lesson in that situation. It will be a waste of your money. This is best used when you've completed the first series. In this lesson, we review items from the previous S-Cubed program.  We learn the "Cup Up' Game to generate an atmosphere of teamwork. It will help them as they face tougher work in sight singing.  We "test" ourselves in the mixed choir sight singing arena.  We learn about tuning "octaves".  With S-Cubed Level 2, we will build skills that help them begin to ask questions as they get ready to move to high school.  We will begin to address the theoretical items that they have questions about.  If you are looking for a Freshman Theory class, S-Cubed Level 2 isn’t it. S-Cubed is designed to appeal to real middle school students who walk into your classroom with little or no experience and to the teachers who teach them. Please start with the original series which is located in my store. One step at a time...the S-Cubed way.  Preparing them to be curious, life-long, literate singers as they are ready.   Stay connected with Mr D:

S-Cubed Level 2 Lesson 3 Product Description This product is only intended for teachers and students who have completed the Original S-Cubed Series for Beginners, and who have also completed Lesson 1 and Lesson 2 in Level 2 which are available in my store. This method is intended only for SAB or Three-part choirs that include the boy's changing or changed voice all of whom have completed S-Cubed Original Series before their voices changed.   It is not intended for people who have completed other sight singing programs and who believe they are ready for S-Cubed Level 2.  Do not buy this lesson in that situation. It will be a waste of your money. In this lesson, we begin our transition toward the learning more about the theory of music while we continue working on their ears to help them hear and see true/perfect unisons and octave unisons. Using kinesthetic, aural and visual techniques to help our students begin to connect the dots from solfege to reading the letter names, we are easing them into the understanding that is required to excel as true musicians. We continue to use rhythm exercises to further develop their balance and blend in the mixed choir setting. There are four 10-15 minute sight singing lessons included in this purchase. All links to the video teaching tips and video teaching examples are included. One step at a time...the S-Cubed way.  Preparing them to be curious, life-long, literate singers as they are ready.   Stay connected with Mr D: Subscribe to my email list. Send me an email at inthemiddlewithmrd@gmail.com and write SUBSCRIBE in the subject line.

Product Description: S-Cubed: How to Teach Sight Singing to Your Middle School Beginners! This program is cumulative in nature. You should begin with Lesson 1 The Game. It's in my store. In this Power Point Presentation, you will learn about another important layer in the S-Cubed process that will help your singers become stronger and more independent Sight Singers. In Lesson 6, you will be guided through how to use what Mr D calls "Chaos" during your Sight Singing lessons. You will learn what Chaos is (as if middle school teachers don't already know!) and how to apply it to your daily sight singing ritual. The new layer will help your students work at their own pace and gradually improve as the process continues. In this lesson, you will also receive 4 more Sight Singing examples, numerous teaching tips (video tips as well as written tips) on how to use Chaos effectively, and several YouTube clips of Mr D teaching the process to his own beginners (2013-2014 school year) so you can see the process in action. You will also continue using the teaching techniques that we learned about in Lessons 1-5. However, this lesson is also good as a "stand alone" lesson for teachers who have a good method in place for teaching pitch and rhythm, but who are looking for another way to help improve some of the weaker Sight Singers. The independent component of Chaos is the part that helps all levels to improve and work at their own pace. Most importantly, using Chaos in your lessons helps you rely less and less on that soprano who has been taking private lessons for 8 of her 11 years on the planet! ....and we want all of them to become better Sight Singers anyway...that is a big part of the S-Cubed philosophy! Try CHAOS today in your classroom and watch how quickly the structured use of it will help your singers become great readers! To learn more about S-Cubed Middle School Sight Singing Program, go to: http://inthemiddlewithmrd1.blogspot.com/p/about-s-cubed-successful-sight-singing.html

S-Cubed: Successful Sight Singing for Middle School Choir Teachers and Students is a course that was developed by Mr D during his 24 years of teaching chorus to this age group. Endorsed and used by the Choral program in Durham School of the Arts in Durham, NC, and programs around the world! Think of the S-Cubed Sight Singing system as a workshop-lesson plan combination that includes video teaching links and video teaching tip links to help buyers have at their fingertips many varied tools to help them teach sight singing to their middle school beginners successfully. Recognize what the children don't know. Don't fault them for not knowing it... Then, teach it to them in a fun way they will remember forever. ...That's the philosophy of S-Cubed. To learn more about S-Cubed, go to www.inthemiddlewithmrd1.blogspot.com and click "About My Sight Singing Program".

This is a freebie to help explain what you will find if you purchase individual lessons or bundles for S-Cubed! Recognize what the children don't know. Don't fault them for not knowing it... Then, teach it to them in a fun way they will remember forever. ...That's the philosophy of S-Cubed. In this Power Point, you will see the basic lesson plan that will be used throughout the series "S-Cubed: Successful Sight Singing for Middle School Teachers and Students". The purpose of this free offering is for you to see how easy it will be to follow the series. For more info on S-Cubed, go to: www.inthemiddlewithmrd1.blogspot.com

S-Cubed Level TWO is coming! This program is intended only for folks who've completed the original S-Cubed series in full. It is not intended for people who've used other sight singing methods. It is a continuation of the original series. Please +1 all of my products on Google Plus! Stay in touch with Mr D by subscribing to my email list: Email me at inthemiddlewithmrd@gmail.com and write SUBSCRIBE in the subject line.

In the middle school choral music classroom, individualized assessment can be very challenging. Not any more! Mr D, creator of the S-Cubed Middle School Sight Singing Program for Beginners is partnering with Music Prodigy to enhance the assessment component of his program using one of the most incredible pieces of 21st technology ever created for the classroom. It is available to S-Cubed users! Download the free power point to learn more!