Music is engaging!

Steph, I do agree that the fundamental ideas can and should definitely be applied to music education.  I think that often, music is underused, even in the arts as people believe that you have to be able to sing or play an instrument to be musical.  This week’s music workshop reminded me that this is not the case.  A quote from a case study in Jeanneret and Swainston (2012) sum up my thoughts from this week:

“ Music if fun.  Everyone has musical ability.  Even if you can’t sing, you can be musical.  Everyone has the ability to compose” (p. 91).

This resonates with me as when reflecting on activities that could be done, I realise that there is plenty of opportunity to compose and use music in everyday class activities.  This is particularly successful with enthusiastic teachers, proper resources and a respect for music (Jeanneret and Swainston, 2012).  Two examples stick in my mind and I am eager to try them my own classroom:

The first includes using clapping beats like we did in class with activities such as the ‘Three Bears rap’ or ‘who stole the cookie from the cookie jar’.  In the music resource folder, Bill suggests using clapping beats to for students to introduce themselves e.g. ‘My name is Mel . . what’s yours?’  This could be modified for any number of situations including the first week of school where students could add something that they like to the clap e.g. ‘My name is Mel and I like dogs. Pass it on to Steph’ *clap clap clap*.  This kind of rhythmic clap with hand, knee, hand, knee in the 4/4 time allows for almost anything to be said but still requires that students talk in a beat.  The game could be made longer or shorter depending on student’s age or ability and preference of the teacher.

Another activity I would like to try in class is asking students to make up songs or rhymes about information that they have learned.  This can be used for any subject where students have to research and remember information.  It would also be a great way for students to look deeper into inquiry questions.  Students could research and inquire, making their thoughts into a rap, rhyme, or song… anything they want (which would further engage students as they can work in the mediums that they listen to everyday).  After this, they can present and teach it to the rest of the class.  Jeanneret and Swainston (2012) state that creating and performing music to others are both equally as important in understanding music.  Also, repeating this information over and over whilst writing it as well as making it fun seems like a better way of assimilating information.  

This idea is only rough, but what do you think Steph?  Do you think it would work and can you think of any improvements?

Moving on… I am so glad that you have included the pictures of activities we did in class this week.  I realised that I learnt a lot about music, even music theory, without realising it.  And this is coming from a person who has 15 years of piano learning and theory under her belt!  I am also very interested in the way that students with Hyper-activity disorders can be calmed using music.  I definitely need to do more research on this…  the theory doesn’t surprise me though because I know when I listen to music, I become still and calm and entirely caught up in it so that nothing else matters.

Webpage Teaching Tool Kit

I would like to finish with a resource page  that I found that has a lot of good activities for primary music including songs, games and music posters.

Another site that has a few interesting resources: http://www.mtrs.co.uk/

 References

Jeanneret, N., & Swainston, A. (2012). Making music and cultural connections. In C. Sinclair, N, Jeanneret, & J. O’Toole (Eds.). Education in the arts (2^nd ed.). South Melbourne, VIC: Oxford University Press.