Through two consecutive music classes, students learned a four-measure rhyme and

discovered the rhythmic notation of the rhyme together with teacher guidance (Appendix

A). The teacher and students said the rhyme, played the rhyme on non-pitched

percussion instruments, and then notated the rhythm of the rhyme using iconic notation.

Students were then guided to notate the rhythm of the rhyme using standard notation of

quarter notes, quarter rests, and eighth notes.

      In the following two class meetings, students were taught how to compose a

melody for the rhyme using only the pitches "sol" and "mi" (Appendix A). Students in

Group One notated their compositions using a regular pencil and played their

composition using non-colored mallets (Figure 3-1). Students in Group Two notated

their compositions using a green colored pencil for "sol" and an orange colored pencil

for "mi" (Figure 3-2). The color of the notation corresponded to the color placed on the

mallets used for performance. Because "sol" was notated using a green colored pencil,

the mallet used to play "sol" on the xylophone was also labeled green. "Mi" was notated

using an orange colored pencil and the mallet used to play "mi" was labeled orange.

Color was added to the mallets using a 2-inch-wide strip of colored paper wrapped

around the stick of the mallet. The teacher set up the xylophones with only the two

necessary pitches available to the students.