Democracy in the Middle School Music Classroom

2019 ◽  
Vol 105 (3) ◽  
pp. 17-22
Author(s):  
Amanda R. Draper
Keyword(s):  
Middle School ◽  
Music Teacher ◽  
General Music ◽  
Music Classroom ◽  
Music Program ◽  
Motivation For Learning ◽  
Traditional Public School ◽  
School Music ◽  
Democratic Principles ◽  
Student Independence

Including democratic principles in a traditional public school general music program can be challenging, but the benefits are significant, including greater student independence and motivation for learning. Democratic practice is both an approach to teaching and an outcome of the experience. It prepares students to be participants in society by providing space for student voices and encouraging students to think deeply and ask challenging questions. It also involves negotiating a rebalance of control in which the music teacher is more of a teacher-facilitator, learning alongside the students and allowing their choices and decisions to be a driving force in the learning process. This article presents one model for incorporating democratic ideals in middle school general music.

Musical Creativity, Mobile Technology, and Middle School

2021 ◽  
pp. 107-125
Author(s):  
Rue Lee-Holmes
Keyword(s):  
Middle School ◽  
Mobile Technology ◽  
Music Teacher ◽  
Music Notation ◽  
General Music ◽  
Digital Audio ◽  
School Music ◽  
Digital Audio Workstation ◽  
Musical Creativity ◽  
Music Class

The chapter focuses on examining musical creativity in middle school general music by the use of digital technology, from the perspective of a middle school music teacher who is working with digital natives. It provides practical lesson plans concerning the use of digital audio workstation (DAW) apps and Chrome Music Lab apps to compose music, music notation apps for notating compositions, and ScratchJr for creating music tutorials. Tablets and hand-held devices are morphed into tools for adolescents to express their creative musicianship, leading to a transformation of a middle school general music class.

Taking the Digital Plunge

2021 ◽  
pp. 98-106
Author(s):  
Joseph Janack
Keyword(s):  
Music Education ◽  
Teaching Style ◽  
Music Teacher ◽  
General Music ◽  
Music Learning ◽  
Technology In The Classroom ◽  
Job Roles ◽  
Music Classroom ◽  
Informal Music Learning ◽  
School Music

Meant to serve as a teachers’ guide, this chapter is a result of first-hand experience from a school music teacher whose philosophies, teaching style, and job roles have all evolved over time. Drawing on philosophies such as informal music learning and praxial music education, suggestions for different programs, apps, and websites, sample lesson plans and their implementation for optimal student music engagement are presented. The ideas provided can help support a fully digital lesson or unit with ways to combine these technologies with instruments in the general music classroom and with performance ensembles. Practical insights that will help teachers successfully incorporate technology into the music classroom are given. The results of successfully using technology in the classroom can be seen by increased student engagement and enjoyment while offering the teacher more ways to teach the curriculum.

Equity in Music Education: Cultural Diversity in the Music Classroom—EMBRACE the Challenge

2019 ◽  
Vol 106 (2) ◽  
pp. 66-68
Author(s):  
Dee Ann Gray
Keyword(s):  
Middle School ◽  
Music Education ◽  
Cultural Diversity ◽  
Choral Music ◽  
Culturally Diverse ◽  
Music Classroom ◽  
Music Program ◽  
New Knowledge

Teaching middle school choral music in a culturally diverse middle school in Hawaii resulted in new knowledge about welcoming the challenges posed by diversity to the benefit of both students and educator. Concise strategies described in this article are applicable to any music program.

Painting a Big Soup: Teaching and Learning in a Second-Grade General Music Classroom

1998 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 281-302 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jackie Wiggins ◽  
Karen Bodoin
Keyword(s):  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Learning Processes ◽  
Music Teacher ◽  
Second Grade ◽  
General Music ◽  
Collaborative Process ◽  
Music Classroom ◽  
Analysis Process ◽  
Teaching Learning ◽  
The Impact

Through collaboration, a music teacher and a researcher attempted to learn more about the teaching/learning processes in one second-grade general music classroom. While some components of the teaching/learning processes that occurred in this music classroom were identified through tins qualitative study, the most important findings were those that emerged during the collaborative process of analysis and interpretation of data. Through active participation in the analysis process, the teacher came to understand the impact of the emergent issues on the teaching and learning in her own classroom and, as a result, made some concerted efforts to change her teaching. Her reactions point to the importance of providing teachers with opportunities to examine their own work and to consider how issues related to teaching and learning processes manifest themselves in their work. They also suggest that unless teachers have these opportunities, discussions of issues related to their teaching may be meaningless to them.

scholarly journals (Re)telling Stories of Middle School Student-Led Bands: How One Music Teacher Becomes a Narrative Researcher

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (1-2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephanie Cronenberg
Keyword(s):  
Middle School ◽  
Peer Review ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Writing Process ◽  
Middle School Student ◽  
Music Teacher ◽  
Music Students ◽  
Inquiry Process ◽  
Scholarly Publications ◽  
School Music

Finely polished prose and clean analysis is abundant in scholarly publications. Yet the academic writing process of drafts, peer review, and revisions that lead to these polished papers is one of trials, triumphs, discovery, and self-doubt rarely revealed to new scholars. This paper is one attempt to demystify the writing as inquiry process through the lens of narrative inquiry. Using three drafts of the same researched text, this paper tells the story of twin journeys: my journey from music teacher to narrative researcher and my middle school music students’ journeys through a student-led curricular unit.

General Music Learning Is Also Social and Emotional Learning

2019 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 74-78
Author(s):  
Edward Varner
Keyword(s):  
Music Teachers ◽  
Social And Emotional Learning ◽  
Primary Objective ◽  
Emotional Learning ◽  
General Music ◽  
Self Awareness ◽  
Music Learning ◽  
Social And Emotional ◽  
Music Classroom ◽  
Music Program

The purpose of this article is to highlight the relationship between general music and social and emotional learning. Social and emotional learning involves a set of social, emotional, behavioral, and character competencies that are essential to success in school, in the workplace, within relationships, in the community, and in life. Music teachers are uniquely positioned to help students become more socially and emotionally competent while simultaneously developing the skills outlined in the general music curriculum. Many general music program activities reinforce and help students understand the concepts of self-management, self-awareness, responsible decisionmaking, relationship skills, and social awareness. Activities such as improvisation, ensemble playing and singing, and defining emotions with music can be used to develop social and emotional learning skills in the general music classroom. The primary objective of this article is to help general music teachers understand that general music learning environments naturally lend themselves well to aiding in these efforts.

Mapping Your Place: Developing a Place-Conscious Music Classroom

2019 ◽  
Vol 106 (2) ◽  
pp. 37-44
Author(s):  
Jonathan G. Schaller
Keyword(s):  
Teaching Practices ◽  
Music Teachers ◽  
Music Teacher ◽  
Music Classroom ◽  
Music Program ◽  
First Time ◽  
Teaching Decisions

When beginning music teachers enter a new classroom for the first time, they start a journey toward understanding a new context and community. Place consciousness develops as they become embedded in their community and begin to recognize how its culture and environment interact with their teaching practices. By mapping the objects, people, and history that inhabit the music classroom, a music teacher will develop a clearer understanding of what is happening and has happened in this place, prompting critical considerations for its future. Teaching decisions informed by place-conscious inquiry such as mapping may lead to the development of a music program that nurtures and sustains a deep and harmonious relationship with its students and surrounding community.

The Influence of Music Teacher Beliefs and Practices on the Expression of Musical Identity in an Elementary General Music Classroom

2013 ◽  
Vol 61 (2) ◽  
pp. 195-216 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacqueline Kelly-McHale
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Cultural Responsiveness ◽  
Music Teacher ◽  
General Music ◽  
Instructional Approach ◽  
Musical Identity ◽  
Beliefs And Practices ◽  
Music Classroom ◽  
Elementary General Music

The purpose of this qualitative collective case study was to examine the ways an elementary general music teacher’s curricular beliefs and practices influence the expression of music in identity and identity in music for second-generation students. In addition to the music teacher, participants were 4 students whose families had immigrated to the United States from Mexico and who were attending the midwestern suburban school within the United States where the study took place. This research was designed to provide an understanding of the interactions between the roles of music instruction, cultural responsiveness, and musical identity. Within-case and cross-case analysis generated specific and broad themes that addressed the purpose of the study. The findings revealed that the role of the teacher’s view of the self as musician and educator, combined with the choice of instructional approach, created a music classroom environment that successfully met the teacher-directed goals for sequence-centered instruction. Nonetheless, the data revealed that the choice of instructional approach resulted in an isolated musical experience that did not support the integration of cultural, linguistic, and popular music experiences and largely ignored issues of cultural responsiveness.

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