This week's reading made me really contemplate what I am doing with my fourth and
fifth grade students to reach them and get them interested in music. I have taught most of
them since they were in Kindergarten and they have gotten the experience of playing,
creating, and singing music throughout that time, but some have already made up their
mind that school music is not their favorite subject. Most of the time, I can get them
interested in one or two lessons throughout the year, but it is hard to connect with them
with every lesson. With my students, I have noticed that if I try to connect the music of our
world with their lives and families, they seem to connect more. When studying Latin
American music many of my students connect because they have heard the songs in their
own homes.
Another way that students can connect to music class is by sharing their own music. The
music that they listen to away from school and choose to listen to. I think that using the
connection with the music that they listen to at home is a great one, if it is appropriate for
school. That is becoming harder and harder as the songs on the radio do not always have
appropriate words or content for elementary school students. However, if they are able to
share what they choose to listen to, they could write about it using proper musical terms
already learned in my class. Developing students ability to respond emotionally to
expressions in music is one of the most important aspects of music education according to
Woody (2004). (Bauer, 2014, p. 109) Reaching students emotionally through music is
important to get them connected to other types of music other than what they already know
and are exposed to. Our job is to expose them to other genres, but somehow connect with
them where they are. Using WebQuests and YouTube are great ways to reach students
where they are.
References:
Bauer, W. I. (2014). Music learning today: Digital pedagogy for creating, performing, and responding to music. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
I think you're right, Angela. Some students are so difficult to reach within the curriculum laid out for us in music class. What did you think about Bauer's inclusion regarding blogs in the music classroom (p. 113)? I had never considered this to be an effective thing to spend time on during class (band class, specifically). However, after reading this section of the chapter, I wondered if this would be a good addition to my beginning jazz band. Most of my students have little to no experience with jazz music. We all know that listening to the type of music helps to develop the auditory skills necessary to perform jazz music, and creating blogs might be a way to encourage students to truly listen outside of rehearsal time. My students could then reply to each other's posts or suggest songs to each other (i.e. share a playlist). Would something like this be effective in your class? Maybe students could blog about their favorite genre of music or favorite artist. Perhaps blogs could be shared every now and then, with that student's music of choice being shared with the class. Just a thought!
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