Repositioning 'The Elements' January 15 2017 I found this paper incredibly fascinating, especially since a lot of it reminded me of my own elementary and high school music experiences. The section that discussed how few students enrolled in high school music courses really stuck out to me. From my own experiences, I know that the majority of teenagers love listening and talking about music, the issue is what the music courses are focused on. In my high school, the focus was primarily on band, and the teaching of classical western music. This excluded the more modern music that most of my peers were interested in learning about. The excerpt from an interview of a teacher who described their fear of disqualification due to playing music that was to closely linked to popular culture really frustrated me. As a student, especially one studying music, I completely understand the importance of historical selections, from a learning standpoint. That being said, the same techniques historical composers used are still being practiced today in more modern music. If the curriculum started including more modern studies and discussions comparing different musical genres past to present, I think it would begin to interest a lot more students. I found the second part of the paper, the one exploring how students talk about music, very interesting. I really appreciated how the author included so much detail about the discussion, such as the teenager’s body postures, engagement levels, and their choices of terminology. Those details made the paper much more graspable and made me want to lead a similar listening discussion with a group of my peers, to see if I received similar results. Overall, I think the ideas the author discussed in this paper challenge the current school curriculum in a positive way, and would allow for change in the right areas. Rose, L. S., & Countryman, J. (2013). Repositioning 'The Elements': How Students Talk about Music. Action, Criticism & Theory For Music Education, 12(3), 45-64.
Fumbling Towards Vulnerability January 22, 2017 I enjoyed and connected personally to this reading much more than the first one. This author wrote with a much more personal touch that I enjoyed, and many of their personal experiences I had also experienced or understood. At one point they mentioned getting a feeling of unease and being self-conscious when asked to create something and play a blues solo. I could completely relate to those feelings, and have often struggled when faced with a creative assignment within my music classes. I can remember during a choir rehearsal my teacher had us try improvising a vocal part during a 4 bar refrain, and when it came to be my turn I was absolutely terrified. Voice is my primary instrument and if I had been on my own I would have had no problem experimenting and having fun, but in a classroom setting the fear of making a mistake or singing something that didn’t fit in with the music terrified me. At the same time, I feel like musical creativity and expression is a vital part to creating music, and one that I seemed to miss out on. It’s because of this that I think incorporating more room for creativity and self-expression within music programs to be very important. The question, then, is how to do that, and this author presented a few good starting blocks to beginning to incorporate more creativity in the classroom. As she points out, though, there is still a lot of learning and exploring to be done, and I look forward to seeing how the future may change for the music industry. Dawe, Lesley (2016) Fumbling Towards Vulnerability: Moving Out of the Familiar for Music Education's Sake. In: Canadian Music Educator, Vol. 57, No. 2, pp. 22-24.
Think Everything’s “Normal?” January 29th 2017 I found this entire article incredibly fascinating. On the surface, I think this is a big issue that deserves to be addressed. I personally did not know much about the issues, so I really enjoyed learning about many of the points the author brought up. This entire article is incredible informative and full of resources, and I really appreciated when the author linked the reader to another source or article, I found that very useful. The article did not focus on education, instead on the issue on a more broad scale, but I am going to focus my response on the education aspects. Growing up, I noticed a big shift in how people with disabilities were handled between high school and elementary school. In elementary school, the disabled kids were in the same classes as everyone else, but in high school they got their own classroom, and didn’t have the choice to take a lot of the courses that everyone else could. I think that right away creates an issue that the author brought up in the article, being that the disabled students are now ‘isolated’. They now feel more separated from the rest of the students, and feel even more pressure to ‘fit in’ or try and be ‘normal’. Another big issue the author talked about surrounded labeling. The education system doesn’t wait to see how student progress, and usually jump to labeling kids that act out or struggle more with lessons. This label poses a lot of problems, the first being one that the author worded perfectly, “once a student is “labeled,” they often carry that label with them for the rest of their lives”. The other issue is that students go through a multitude of changes during their first few years in the general education system. What may appear to be a student with ADHD could also be a student who is struggling with their new teacher’s teaching style, or a student who receives no support or help at home, and assumes the same environment at school. Giving that student a ‘label’ automatically puts them on a completely different roster from all the other students, and makes them improving even more challenging. This is a big issue, one that isn’t going to be solved overnight. That being said, I found the suggestions the author gave to improving these issues in schools to be very strong. I think the first steps in solving issues is spreading awareness, and this article provided multitudes of information that hopefully people can learn and grow from. Series, D. Think Everything’s “Normal?” Then It’s Time To Reconsider And Promote A New Narrative Of Disability.
The Invisible Student January 29th 2017 This reading really struck a good chord with me, because I have experienced and witnessed what the author was describing, and have seen first-hand how easy this issue it is to forget. I think as a teacher, it is incredibly important to have an eye out for students that aren’t reaching out and making connections to other students. Music is a vitally collaborative field, and students that struggle socially will falter. I thought all of the suggestions the author gave were very strong and well thought out. For example, setting up new students with older students is a very effective way of making all the new students (not just the struggling ones) feel supported and welcomed socially into the new environment. Running group icebreakers and setting up social events right off the bat is also a good idea. Another point that I really agreed with that the author mentioned was making sure that you as a teacher are reaching out as well. Getting to know all your students personally is a big step in making sure that all of their needs are met, and that they are happy and feel safe in their classroom environment. The other section that I really appreciated was the travelling part. I sang with a children’s choir for many years and we did quite a few trips to festivals across the country. My mom was a big organizer for most of the events, so I was fortunate to see all of the behind the scenes work in planning trips with a group. Setting up rooming assignments was often a big issue, and one that had to be handled very carefully. My mom put a lot of work into making sure that the choristers who were more isolated and shy were put in a room with nice and not cliquey people. If all teachers and conductors put in those same efforts as the author mentioned, issues such as isolation and not having friends would slowly resolve themselves. I think just being aware is the best way to tackle these issues. And the fact that you are not alone while working with the students. As the author stated many times, there are other people at the school who are there specifically to work with children who struggle socially. As long as teachers continue to be active in their students’ lives, and maintain a fun and social environment in the classroom these students can begin to feel more and more welcome and wanted.
Hourigan, R. (2009). The Invisible Student: Understanding Social Identity Construction within Performing Ensembles. Music Educators Journal, 95(4), 34-38.
The Elephant in the Room March 12th 2017 One of my biggest pet peeves with articles are ones that address an issue and don't give any ways to solve the problem. This article is a perfect example of one that doesn't do that, it addressed a very big issue surrounding music education in schools, one that most music teachers feel afraid to speak up about, and posed a large amount of possible solutions. I think this article is great for music educators and students to read because of the vast array of options the author gives to help solve the issues. It allows music educators to really think critically about how they are approaching their classroom, and even can try to adopt a few of his ideas into their own teaching plans and play around with new and creative ideas. I really appreciated how the author of this article stressed the importance of the issue at hand, but also made it clear that current music educators do not have to completely change what they are doing. Williams appeared to really value the idea of baby steps and trying new things, and I think that method is very suitable for this issue because, as he points out in the article, many of our current music educators have been teaching the same way for years, and that is how they were taught. For those reasons, it can be very difficult to change your methods, and definitely very scary. Many teacher could be scared away by the idea of having to completely change what they have been doing for years, but Williams article is an excellent middle ground for providing new ideas that educators can try and begin incorporating in their programs. All of the ideas Williams proposed I thought were very reasonable. The only one I questioned was his suggestion that incorporating new musical styles would be better received in its own classroom. Although I completely agree that having multiple and diverse course options for students would likely increase the percentage of students participating, and also that new material would receive better attention within its own classroom, I worry that some schools simply do not have the funding or support to accommodate for that many new classes. It would be an excellent idea to try out the new classes in a few larger schools, however, and then if they are successful, try and bring them into more schools. Overall, I thought this article was incredibly well thought out and full of positive and good ideas to solving the issue of students not enrolling in music programs. It is a big goal, but I think having a more creative and student centered music program would definitely increase the students interest, and also provide them with even more opportunity to grow and find out where their passions lie in the world of music. Williams, D. A. (2011). The Elephant In The Room. Music Educators Journal, 98(1), 51-57.