This week's reading and lecture challenged the thought that a person either is creative or is not. Teachers should foster creativity in the classroom through many different resources and mediums. Technology is a great way for students to be challenged to create in an educational setting. In the lecture this week, it is noted that our national standards have been revised to include notating music as a national standard.
Classrooms should be nurturing environments and creative opportunities should be readily available. Teachers should be encouraging and helpful in the creative process. Necessary resources, such as notation software, should be present in the classroom, along with proper instruction on use of said technology. Notation software can help with students' compositions. With most of our students being digital natives, using technology could speed up their process. Teachers should stimulate the students' creativity with different genres of music and composers. Students should be exposed to different music so that they can find a genre that "speaks" to them and helps them create their own. Sufficient time should be allowed, but also have parameters on assignments to help the creative process along. Giving the students a rubric to follow and a time limit to finish can help them push through to create their composition. Ken Robinson (2011) believes that creativity is as important as literacy and that schools need to offer more opportunities for students to develop their creative abilities. The ability to think creatively should be a high priority for a well-rounded education.
The creative process should involve these 4 steps and are sometimes cyclical - preparation, incubation, illumination, and verification. Preparation is the collection of information, knowledge, and skills. Incubation is the inward problem solving. Illumination could include elaboration and insight on the problem. Verification is when others see the finished product. This can circle back to step one after the assessment of verification. These steps should be fostered in the classroom by the teacher and peers. The student should be prepared by the teacher, given time to think on the problem or piece being created, resources to illuminate and create a product, and then assessed - either by the teacher or by peers.
Webster (2012) said "Creative thinking is a dynamic process of alternation between convergent and divergent thinking, moving in stages over time, enabled by certain skills (both innate and learned), and by certain conditions, all resulting in a final product." We, as teachers, have to create an environment that fosters creativity through the teaching of skills, encouraging environment, and resources that will help our students soar.
Bauer, W. I. (2014) Music learning today Digital Pedagogy for Creating Performing and Responding to Music. New York, NY Oxford University Press.
Hello Angela,
ReplyDeleteIt seems to me that while you desire to integrate musical creativity and technology into your teaching but are unsure of how to go about it. I am right there with you. Here are a few ideas I brainstormed just now.
One idea is to do a class a class composition project with an interactive whiteboard. You could open MuseScore or Noteflight (Sibelius or Finale if you have access) and notate student’s ideas. I believe it would be good to perform the piece as a class after the composition is complete, so make sure it is something the students could either sing or play on instruments. For example, if you are teaching recorder to 4th graders, you could limit the piece to the notes B, A, and G. You could even use instruments such as Orff instruments with pentatonic bars as a medium for students to express their musical ideas to you as you notate them. I believe this project would foster creativity and familiarize students to music notation software.
Structured improvisation using whatever instruments you have in your classroom is another way to get students creating original musical ideas. You could teach the class to sing a simple song such as “Rain, Rain Go Away.” You could have one or more students playing a simple accompaniment such as a bordun on Orff instruments or an ostinato on tambourine. After the class sings the song, the bordun and/or ostinato would continue. Students would then be given the opportunity to take turns improvising over the accompaniment. Try singing the song again after students improvise to teach about ternary (ABA) form.
I hope these ideas are of use!
Josh