Using Picture Books as a Tool for Creating a Culturally Inclusive Elementary Music Classroom

2020 ◽  
pp. 104837132096137
Author(s):  
Suzanne Hall
Keyword(s):  
Picture Books ◽  
Ethnically Diverse ◽  
Cultural Knowledge ◽  
Elementary Music ◽  
Music And Literature ◽  
Music Classroom ◽  
Teachers And Students ◽  
Imaginative Play ◽  
Dramatic Arts ◽  
Music Activities

The use of picture books in the elementary music classroom not only promotes imaginative play but also contributes to exposure and involvement in the dramatic arts. Picture books can also assist teachers and students in developing cultural knowledge and help promote inclusivity in a meaningful way within the classroom. The inclusion of ethnically diverse children’s literature, in tandem with music activities and experiences, can cultivate an environment where students see themselves. Mini-lessons presented in the article offer examples of music and literature activities that reflect the various cultures that make up today’s classroom.

Music and Social Justice

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cathy Benedict
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Music Education ◽  
Elementary Students ◽  
Music Teachers ◽  
Elementary Music ◽  
Elementary Student ◽  
Teachers And Students ◽  
The Voice ◽  
Elementary Music Education ◽  
The Way

This book challenges and reframes traditional ways of addressing many of the topics we have come to think of as social justice. Offering practical suggestions for helping both teachers and students think philosophically (and thus critically) about the world around them, each chapter engages with important themes through music making and learning as it presents scenarios, examples of dialogue with students, unit ideas, and lesson plans geared toward elementary students (ages 6–14). Taken-for-granted subjects often considered sacrosanct or beyond the understanding of elementary students, such as friendship, racism, poverty, religion, and class, are addressed and interrogated in a way that honors the voice and critical thinking of the elementary student. Suggestions are given that help both teachers and students to pause, reflect, and redirect dialogue with questions that uncover bias, misinformation, and misunderstandings that too often stand in the way of coming to know and embracing difference. Guiding questions, which anchor many curricular mandates, are used throughout in order to scaffold critical and reflective thinking beginning in the earliest grades of elementary music education. Where does social justice reside? Whose voice is being heard, and whose is being silenced? How do we come to think of and construct poverty? How is it that musics become used the way they are used? What happens to songs initially intended for socially driven purposes when their significance is undermined? These questions and more are explored, encouraging music teachers to embrace a path toward socially just engagements at the elementary level.

Project-Based Learning

2020 ◽  
pp. 173-206
Author(s):  
Amy M. Burns
Keyword(s):  
Problem Solving ◽  
Learning Process ◽  
Design Thinking ◽  
Elementary Classrooms ◽  
Project Based Learning ◽  
Elementary Music ◽  
Music Classroom ◽  
The Core ◽  
Essential Questions ◽  
Problem Solve

Amy M. Burns presents the approach of Project-Based Learning (PBL) in the elementary music classroom. The PBL approach focuses on the students learning the skills of research and problem-solving by answering essential questions over a period of time. Burns and Cherie Herring contributed to the PBL activities. In addition, they also address the process of Design Thinking, where students problem-solve solutions using the method of empathizing, defining, ideating, creating a prototype, testing, and going through the process again to redefine and improve. Burns and Herring demonstrate how PBL and DT can span across the curriculum, while still keeping music at the core of the learning process in the music classroom. The projects are versatile and can be used in young to older elementary classrooms from one device in the classroom to a 1:1 classroom.

Technology Integration with the Kodály Approach

2020 ◽  
pp. 85-138
Author(s):  
Amy M. Burns
Keyword(s):  
Higher Order Thinking ◽  
Thinking Skills ◽  
Music Educators ◽  
Elementary Music ◽  
Zoltan Kodaly ◽  
Higher Order Thinking Skills ◽  
Music Classroom ◽  
Elementary Music Educators ◽  
Educational Paradigm ◽  
Paradigm Shifting

Amy M. Burns integrates technology into the approach developed by Zoltán Kodály. With the current educational paradigm shifting to include more distance learning, these lessons demonstrate how to create online manipulatives that can be used in a classroom setting as well as an online platform. With the addition of a supplemental website that includes downloadable manipulatives, elementary music educators can successfully teach the approach in a variety of settings and scenarios with novice to advanced technological skills. In addition, the lessons can also be used for assessments, cross-curricular connections, higher order thinking skills, and sharing music making outside of the music classroom.

Why Would We Use Technology in the Elementary Music Classroom?

2020 ◽  
pp. 11-18
Author(s):  
Amy M. Burns
Keyword(s):  
Learning Styles ◽  
Music Educators ◽  
Elementary Music ◽  
Space Technology ◽  
Student Centered ◽  
Music Classroom ◽  
Music Making ◽  
Elementary Music Educators

If the music classroom is meant to be a creative, safe, music-making space, how do educators balance technology in that space? Technology can be used in the simplest teacher-directed ways, as well as in a more student-centered “doing music” environment, depending on how the teacher wants to utilize it and how the students respond to it. Using approaches like Dr. Ruben Puentedura’s SAMR (Substitution, Augmentation, Modification, and Redefinition) model and Liz Kolb’s Triple E (Engage, Enhance, Extend) Framework can help elementary music educators realize how much technology they want to use and when it would be the best tool for the students’ learning styles.

What Is This Book About?

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Amy M. Burns
Keyword(s):  
Music Educators ◽  
Digital Natives ◽  
Elementary Music ◽  
Efficient Tool ◽  
Music Classroom

Technology evokes numerous feelings in educators, from frustrations to joy, when they try to utilize it in the classroom. It has the ability to be a very purposeful and efficient tool when used correctly. Research is showing that technology is becoming more prominent in education as more schools are adopting 1:1 technology. In addition, music educators are being evaluated on ways they use technology in their classrooms. Finally, educators are now teaching students who are digital natives. With all of this in mind, when technology is used well and has a meaningful purpose in the elementary music classroom, embracing it can enhance and bring another level of success to students.

scholarly journals General Music Today Music Ideas Series: Viewpoints in Secondary General Music—Article Two: Power Trio: Three Ideas for Renewed Success With Classroom Ensembles

2019 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 6-14
Author(s):  
Virginia Wayman Davis ◽  
Laura Singletary ◽  
Kimberly VanWeelden
Keyword(s):  
Music Education ◽  
Popular Music ◽  
Practical Experience ◽  
Upper Elementary ◽  
Elementary Music ◽  
General Music ◽  
Music Classroom ◽  
Music Ensembles ◽  
Music Class ◽  
Instrumental Ensembles

In this second of three in the series, we explore methods for incorporating instrumental ensembles into your music classroom. Experiences such as performing on ukulele, bucket drums, and in modern popular music ensembles are excellent ways to provide meaningful, relevant music education to students of all ages. Using both research-based information and practical experience, we will discuss ideas for three common instrumental ensembles. The techniques and resources provided in this article are starting points, appropriate for various levels and configurations of music classes: upper elementary music classes, secondary general music classes, afterschool or extracurricular music groups, or for teachers seeking to start an alternative ensemble or rebrand an existing nonperformance music class.

Informal Learning as a Catalyst for Social Justice in Music Education

2015 ◽  
pp. 301-317
Author(s):  
Lucy Green ◽  
Flavia Narita
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Critical Pedagogy ◽  
Music Education ◽  
Informal Learning ◽  
Critical Consciousness ◽  
Music Classroom ◽  
Informal Music Learning ◽  
Learning Practices ◽  
School Music ◽  
Teachers And Students

This chapter considers social justice in relation to the incorporation of a set of informal learning practices within the secondary school music classroom and teacher education. It interprets Nancy Fraser’s view of social justice as “parity of participation” in order to suggest that the dialogical approach of informal music learning practices can potentially promote such participatory parity. It then examines Paulo Freire’s concept of critical pedagogy, which emphasizes the need for teachers and students to participate together in the learning process so as to enhance critical consciousness. Through an application of Green’s theory of musical meaning, the authors suggest that critical consciousness in music can be aided through a deeper understanding of music’s sonic materials and their inter-relations. Informal learning in the music classroom may promote both parity of participation and critical consciousness, with the potential to lead to a liberating musical experience.

The Promise and Pitfalls of the Digital Studio

2017 ◽  
pp. 232-240
Author(s):  
Ethan Hein
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Music Education ◽  
Informal Learning ◽  
Ad Hoc ◽  
Group Activity ◽  
Educational Settings ◽  
Music Classroom ◽  
Use Of Technology ◽  
School Music ◽  
Imaginative Play

Whether or not we make the best use of technology in the music classroom, young people will continue to find unexpected uses for it elsewhere. There is no historical precedent for the informal learning possibilities afforded by inexpensive and ubiquitous computers. Are young music learners best left to their own devices, literally and figuratively? Or can we structure a classroom around these devices, combining independent play with guided group activity? Will formal educational settings always compromise or even negate young people’s autonomy and independence? Perhaps if we think of the music room as a maker space rather than a classroom, we can admit some of the imaginative play and authentic expressiveness that students find outside school. Music education will happen wherever people gather together, using whatever materials are at hand. A school is necessarily an ad hoc society; ideally, it can be a genuine artistic community as well.

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