Ward is the answer, but it takes daily practice. There really is no short cut. Mrs. Ward was clear that EVERY child can learn to sing, but it takes some longer to learn that others. Still, she was not shy in asking monotones to only listen until they worked it out. Even if she were singing very softly she is not hearing that her pitch is off, which is why she has to listen and only listen until she figures it out. Listening to the other singers sing the correct pitch will help her to train her ear. Singing along off pitch not only hurts the choir as a whole but her individual development as well.

Still this is very difficult thing to do especially in today's society. If she and/or her parents don't believe that you have her best interest at heart when you ask he to refrain from singing (temporarily) then you have to either let her walk away, or tolerate the monotone and accept the fact that you are not doing what is best for her or the choir (sadly, sometimes we are forced into these situations). Hopefully she will accept that you are trying to help her and will continue to stand with the choir and listen until she can sing with them. The extra tutoring is essential, but practically you may not have the time to do it all. If the parents are musicality inclined perhaps they can help her at home or seek out a private voice teacher.

Above all, you must stress that she can learn to sing and that this only a temporary setback. Too many young spirits have been crushed by teachers telling them they can't sing and that results in a church of adults who don't even open the hymnal and try.

Hmmm... Thanks to both of you for responses.

Earl_Grey: I have recently been reading through the Ward materials, but feel a bit overwhelmed by them. I am tempted to pursue the summer courses in Ward at the CUA, but that wouldn't be until this summer at the earliest. I could get behind temporarily "silencing" her. The parents are actually quite kind and appreciative. I would actually love to be able to work with her more than once a week, but they're homeschoolers from a big family that commutes a long way, so I'm sensing that seeing her daily would not be possible, and I'm betting that finances for lessons also are not there. I'm not sure how musically inclined the parents are, although given that none of their children sing particularly well (at least innately), I'm sensing that it's a rather musically "mute" household. However, I feel that they might be diligent with exercises at home if I had some to prescribe. Do you have any suggestions or know of any online resources that might be helpful for them?

Maybe there is some internet program that she could at least listen to for 10 minutes a day on her own at home? (Simple scales or pitch matching exercises... even if she is still singing monotone at home, at least listening to it might be helping her?)

Marajoy's got a good suggestion, as usual - there are free programs that let you see when you are flat or sharp...there are many.

Here's a basic one: http://www.aptuner.com/cgi-bin/aptuner/apmain.html

Also, why not create a tiny group of three, two really strong singers and put her in the middle, as a special learning project in the 10 minutes you have? Being in-between two singers there is a chance that she will be able to begin to feel and hear the pitches she should be singing - just as on a piano as a tuner hears the beats between on string that is out of time from the other two that play that pitch. When she's in the group she reverts to what she has always done. During the time that she is in training, ask her to hum when she is in the choir. Not requiring her to deal with vocalization of vowels in a language that she does not speak and humming instead may help as well. Put her to work as a page turner as well. The last thing she needs is discouragement, but you have already proved you know better than that, thanks!

Anyone that can speak and ask a question with the rise in pitch that we use in english can also learn to sing. Ignore anyone who says otherwise. IF she only could speak on one tone, then it could be a lost cause. But how many people in life have you run into who could only speak on one tone? Me, none.

The loudness problem. She can't sense that she is singing loud. At this point, spend time blending all the voices in the choir by going along and, with your hand, indicate to each one how loud to sing to blend. When you are ready for her to stop humming, tell her that you are going to be showing her how loud to sing in the group, and that she should watch you, just as everyone else. Do not be afraid to cut her way back almost to silence. Since she is trying to sing and doing it loud, she cannot hear and sense the intervals that she should be singing until she can hear them.

Good article: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=tone-deafness-bad-singing

Thanks again, everyone!

JPike1028: Last year, we were working on matching pitch and then stepping up do re, do re mi, and trying for do mi...slow progress :S But I'll work on continuing to reinforce that.

frogman noel/marajoy: I hadn't thought about an internet program for tuning. Heck, I'm almost tempted to give her one of my old tuners... But how might one work with it? Set it for "x" pitch and then try to match?

Also, vis a vis Words with Wings, I actually HAVE the books... I never really gleaned much from them about actual intonation...it seemed to be more geared specifically toward learning chant techniques. But it seems that I will have to revisit!

I know while I wasn't montous. I had to work at matching pitch. I would sit at the piano and match pitches and intervals most every day.
I would think you could make a tape/cd that should could work from or as suggested something from the computer.
and could it be her RANGE is maybe tenor.
Also could be that she is not hearing in certain octaves.
Just some thoughts. Don't give up.

@elaine60: I do not want to come across rude, being new to the forum and all, but suggesting that a 6th grade female student may be a tenor is not in the realm of possibilities. In general, barring severe vocal damage no woman should ever have a tenor tessitura to the voice. Perhaps a contralto range, which overlaps a lot of the tenor range, however the tenor voice is a specifically male one. In most cases, speaking in the classical vocal music realm, if a female student has that much substance in the lower portion of her voice there is usually one of two options: she is a true contralto (very rare), or she is a coloratura soprano. Also, being in sixth grade, the female voice has not begun to mature enough yet to even make that classification. Sorry for the rant, but this is a particular pet peeve of mine.

@nicolem: Another option, taken from the Gordon MLT would be to find a pitch that the student can match pitch on and expand out from there. The process will be slow since she has missed some important years earlier in her life, but patience will win out. Also, sometime pitch problems are due to technical issues getting in the way.

Could be semantics, but a female cannot naturally be a tenor. I don't like to label any voice student at such a young age as it can often mentally limit their range. If you are singing in parts, then soprano, alto etc. indicates what line to read and where to sit, but it shouldn't tell you anything about your voice (at least until you are more mature). Generally speaking, most young, untrained singers are unfamiliar with their head voice and are not comfortable using it. This is due to a lack of good vocal examples and age appropriate repertoire from a very young age. A group of preschoolers shouting some twaddle at the school musical only to have the "teacher" shout at them, "louder, I can't hear you." Is one of my biggest pet-peeves.

Yes, matching the monotones one good tone and having her move up and down from there is an excellent suggestion.

As for Ward method. I'm very excited about it mostly because I'm a neophyte (Book 1 last summer in DC). Never in all of my choral methods courses did I hear her name mentioned once, and that is just sad. If you can get to Ward school this summer it is well worth the time and effort. That being said, it was designed for non-musically inclined classroom teachers to teach a daily music lesson while the music teacher does a check up once a week and introduces new concepts. Basically it amounts to daily practice. All of you who have private music students can relate. The student goes home after a lesson, a week goes by and nothing happens. They have to put the effort in at home. The beauty of Ward is that she basically gives you the daily lesson plans. Still it can be daunting trying to decipher all of her idiosyncrasies without the help of a Ward teacher.

Also, the program does need to updated for today's educational culture. I think it would be a great project to create a series of Ward lesson videos with a group of well trained young singers so that those students watching the videos could hear and see good vocal technique and work through the various intonation and rhythmic exercises. Like an exercise video, it might not work for everyone, but for the self-motivated student it would be a boon to have. I'm still trying to develop something. I have a group of home school students who are very receptive, but the limited time we have to rehearse is simply not enough. Obviously the videos would not be a cure-all. A trained ear still has to tell the student whether or not they are on pitch, etc. Still it would a useful supplement to the once a week choral rehearsal where the entire time can't be spent on singing technique or learning to read etc.

I do think a computer program that works aural skills in general would be helpful. I've been previewing a few, but haven't had much time to do so. There's Ear Master Pro, Auralia, and Musica Practica all of which run around $75-$150. Anyone else of insight into which computer based ear training method works best? I grew up rote-singing only. So any ear training--especially at a young age would be helpful for the next generation of choir and schola members.

MJO,
There are plenteous NATS and other published studies proving that female vocal physiology during the pubescent stages of development are in flux, though not so dramatically as in males, and great care must be a factor in any pedagogically sound choral or studio program of said development. Just saying.

While side-tracking into other areas is generally a feature here (as opposed to a bug) I can't help but think this thread has gone way off. The problem of the little girl in question is almost certainly not that she is a Tenor. There are remarkably few male tenors in 6th grade.

She has a problem between her ears and her mouth- just as surely as I have a problem between my eyes and my hands which prohibits me from being able to draw. At 30, it is unlikely my problem will be resolved. At 10 or 11, this girl's problem is almost certainly solvable, as long as she is interested.

And I was only half joking about teaching her piano (or organ). It will give her something to do, and may solve the ear problem.

AW -
It seems to be a natural tendency for conversations in fora such as these to wander from one topic to another tangential one. This happens in ordinary conversation (sometimes fortuitously) and should be no cause for getting upset about. We are all concerned about the young lady who is the original subject of this conversation. The related matters which sprouted from that subject are also of interest. Nor are they, ultimately, unrelated.

To solve the problem in the future, I second Earl_Grey with studying and using the Ward Method. It works great for training the ear. With the current monotone child, try having her sing one pitch and you sing the exact pitch back to her -whatever it is. See if she can understand that you both match. Then move up/down slowly. She may only have a few notes at first. If that fails go back to having HER sing first and you matching her. This will take some one-on-one time.

Finally to keep up with the tangent state of mind, check out https://sightreadingfactory.com/. Great for assistance with note reading and pitch matching (with the playback).

There ya go: your choir too can sing Tavener!