The Art of Listening

     Why and how do we teach listening skills in the music classroom? "Listening is the fundamental music skill....Such listening is a skill in and of itself, as well as a vital part of all other musical skills," (Haack, 1992 as cited in Bauer, 2014, p. 106). I believe that we should be teaching our students music theory and music performance, but our most important responsibility is to teach our students how to listen, interpret, and understand the music they hear.
     Why should we teach listening skills? I think that we must do so because our students will be life-long music listeners. When an elementary student begins to play an instrument, we as teachers have no idea whether they will continue to play through the entire school year, let alone into their adult life. When we encourage them to join a choral group, we may wonder if they will be singing in that type of setting when they are adults. But when we include Bauer's (2014) music listening suggestions on page 110, we are helping them to acquire the skills and information they need to listen and appreciate the music they will listen to throughout their lifetime. Giving students a voice in what they listen to in music class, exposing them to many different world music genres, and giving them the musical tools they need to accurately describe their listening experiences are all important in helping them to become successful music listeners.
     How do we teach these listening skills and give our students the necessary tools to critically listen to music throughout their lives? Technology can play a large role in this process. First of all, through  music streaming sites like Pandora, Spotify, and YouTube, students have access to many different genres of music. This music can be enjoyed using smartphones, computers, tablets, or digital music players. In order to speak intelligently about the music that they hear, students need to have an understanding of music theory concepts like pitch, dynamics, and form. Bauer (2014) mentions tools like Music Ace and MusicTheory.net that students can use to learn and practice these types of concepts. Cross-curricular teaching can also be beneficial to student learning, but Bauer (2014) cautions that "a concern some educators have is that when music study is combined with another discipline, music can be used in a superficial manner," (p. 120). Rather than using music to learn rote facts, teachers should use music in conjunction with the other subject. Students learning about the Civil War in history class could learn about the music used by slaves and the impact that music had on their lives. Finally, WebQuests can be used to guide students in the learning process. The WebQuest provides a structured approach to internet-based research and learning on a particular subject. Students learning about instruments of the orchestra could take part in a WebQuest that guides them to learn more in-depth about a particular family of instruments or even an individual instrument.
     Teaching listening skills to our students takes planning and thought. Different methods and technologies can be employed to support this learning in the music classroom. It is important that music teachers do the planning and teaching to assist their students in acquiring these listening skills. As Bauer (2014) states, "by aligning musical outcomes related to responding to music with appropriate pedagogies and supporting technologies, music educators can assist students in their continuing development of knowledge and skills essential for meaningful, lifelong involvement with music," (p. 122).

Reference:
Bauer, W. I.  (2014).  Music learning today: Digital pedagogy for creating, performing, and responding to music. New York, New York: Oxford University Press.

Assessment...Why?...and How?

            Assessment is an integral part of the learning process. As Bauer (2013) notes, “Not only is assessment necessary to determine whether students have learned what teachers think they have taught, but it also informs the design of instruction and can direct adjustments of the specific teaching and learning strategies that are used over time.” Teachers use two types of assessments within their classrooms: formative and summative. Summative assessments are used at the end of a learning experience to determine the level of understanding. Formative assessments are used throughout the learning process to help the teacher adjust the learning experience to the needs of the students. Technology can play a role in the administering of assessments as well as the organizing and managing of the information gathered during the assessment process.

            The Google platform offers some tools to assist teachers in the assessment process. Google Docs can be used to create written work such as research papers. One feature of Google Docs allows multiple people to collaborate on a document. If editing privileges are shared with each member of a group, they all can write and revise information in the document quite easily.

Google Forms can be used to create quizzes that can be shared with students and then graded automatically. The quiz can include various kinds of questions, including short answer, paragraph, and multiple choice. The students take the quiz and their answers are recorded and sent to the teacher. The teacher is able to set up the Google Form with the correct answers so that the quizzes are graded automatically.  

            The creation of rubrics specific to lessons and/or concepts can also be simplified using technology. There are many websites that are available to help a teacher in the rubric-creation process. If the rubric is created and filled out in Google, it can easily be shared electronically with the student, parents, even administrators. This would be helpful in providing documentation to support report card grades. The application Goobric works in conjunction with Doctopus to provide assignments and corresponding rubrics right in Google. Any type of project that can be created in Google will work with Goobric, including presentations and written documents. This allows the teacher to provide feedback and a grade right in the same place, as the rubric is attached to the assignment.

            Teachers could also use recordings (both audio and video) to allow students to demonstrate their performance ability. Recordings are a great method of assessing student performance rather than simple understanding of a concept. Another method of assessment involves the creation of a digital student portfolio. Students must gather written work and recorded work to include within the portfolio. These portfolios can be a work in progress, where the student adds to the portfolio as they complete an assignment. It can also be something that a student organizes into a more formal grouping of their work. This would contain the student’s best efforts and could be used to apply for college or scholarship monies.

            When using various technologies in the assessment process, it can be beneficial to manage these assessments using technology. School districts may utilize a learning management system (LMS) that teachers must use with their assessments. My district uses Skyward to track student attendance and grades.

            In my own teaching, I find assessment to be an area in which I need to grow. I do a lot of informal formative assessments (listening to students clap rhythmic patterns, observe students using manipulatives to notate melodic patterns) but do not record data from those assessments. As our curriculum is updated, the need for corresponding assessments is evident. I struggle with how to use assessments to determine grades for my elementary general music students, though, because I feel that elementary music should be a time of exploration. I am torn between assessing for mastery and assessing the student effort in trying new musical activities. I want to create a positive and enjoyable atmosphere in music and am hesitant to have assessments hinder that atmosphere. I am curious to know how other music teachers (specifically elementary level teachers) feel about assessments and grading in the music classroom. I understand that I will gain more information on the subject of assessment in another graduate class. That information will allow me to more effectively incorporate assessments into my lessons in order to provide information to students, parents, and administrators about the learning that is occurring in my classroom.

SmartMusic...Is It Really Smart??

            What exactly makes SmartMusic so smart? SmartMusic is an online program designed for music teachers and music students. The mission of SmartMusic really spells out exactly what the program is all about in an easy-to-understand way.

Let’s take a look at the features and benefits that make SmartMusic such a smart way to teach and learn music on a daily basis, for instrumental students, vocal students, general music students, and music teachers. We will investigate the costs of the program, discuss the challenges and reasons why not to use SmartMusic, and determine if SmartMusic really is a smart technological addition to the music education world.

            There are many benefits in SmartMusic for instrumental musicians. There are features that are relevant to the classroom as well as features to support individual practice sessions. Within the classroom, teachers have access to a rhythm of the day feature, which allows the teacher to show a rhythm on the Smart Board and have students clap, tap, or otherwise perform that rhythm. The rhythms can also be created by the teacher to address rhythms found in the literature they are using within the ensemble. Warm-up exercises are another useful feature in SmartMusic. The teacher can choose from prepared exercises such as scales or can create warm-up exercises that are individualized to the ensemble’s needs. The listening library feature provides easy access to quality recordings of a variety of genres. Using these recordings to demonstrate desired musical interpretations can assist ensemble members as they work to improve their performance. Another helpful feature within the listening library is the ability to isolate individual voices or instruments, which can help the teacher to focus on problem areas for the individual parts.

            The features that support individual or small-group practice sessions include the availability of methods books, immediate feedback during practice, tracking of practice time, assessment options, and other features such as tuners and metronomes. There are a large

 

number of popular instrumental method books available within SmartMusic. The books can be opened in the program, and individual songs viewed during practice time. The teacher can make notes for the individual student within the method book, in a manner similar to traditional method books. When the students are practicing at home, SmartMusic not only provides immediate feedback in the form of colored notes (green notes were the ones played correctly and red notes were not played correctly) but also by computing a percentage score based on the performance of the piece.  Student practice time is also tracked. The program notes the time actually spent playing, and not the time taken to set up the practice area or putting the instrument together. The teacher can observe practice patterns and habits and help their students to understand the importance of practice outside of the classroom. The program also can be used for assessment purposes, where the teacher creates an assignment and the student records their performance of the assignment. These assessments can be useful for grading purposes as well as for evidence when conferencing with parents or administrators about the effectiveness of the music program. Finally, features such as tuners and metronomes can assist students with details like pitch, intonation, and tempos when practicing at home.

            The benefits for a vocalist in SmartMusic are similar to the benefits for an instrumentalist. Within the classroom, the teacher can use the included warm-up exercises or create individual exercises to focus on elements of which the ensemble is working. A very important feature, especially to the ensemble director who may be piano-challenged, is the availability of rehearsal accompaniments for individual pieces. Using these accompaniments during rehearsals allows the director to be free from the piano and instead focus on the singers. Again, there are a variety of vocal pieces available from the SmartMusic library for this purpose. These accompaniments would also be beneficial to students practicing their music at home, where a pianist probably would not be available. Individual practice times and assessments would be much the same for the vocal students as it is for the instrumental students.

           Several features of SmartMusic seem to lend themselves easily to the general music classroom. The daily rhythm feature could be used with all grade levels in a variety of ways. Students could simply clap the rhythms or they could use classroom instruments to play them. The rhythms could be used in discussions of note values or time signatures. They could also be used to have the students experience other musical elements such as tempo or dynamics. The listening library could be used to provide students with quality musical examples. Within the listening examples, the teacher could isolate an individual voice to emphasize timbre or other musical elements. The composition tool feature could be used as a whole-class exercise with students taking turns manipulating the notes on the SmartBoard. The playback feature would give the class immediate feedback on their compositions and allow them to easily revise and improve their work.

            There are several features within SmartMusic that would be beneficial to a teacher as well. There is a gradebook feature where the teacher can set up classes, enter assignments, and have the student grades recorded right in the gradebook. The SmartMusic program also has a feature that allows teacher accounts to be combined, which would be helpful if the teacher had classes in several different buildings. The composition feature could be used to write or arrange music for specific needs or ensembles. Using the SmartMusic program with students for individual practice allows easy communication between school and home, where the parents are able to quickly see what their child should be working on, and how their student is performing on those assignments.

           The current pricing for SmartMusic seems to be fairly reasonable. There are many features and benefits for teachers and students who opt to purchase a subscription to the program. One notable piece of information involves the cost of a student method book versus the cost of the SmartMusic subscription. One method book that is available in SmartMusic (for the basic program at $4 per year) can cost nearly $10 when purchased online. For beginning instrumental students, the basic program would probably provide enough material to work with as they learn the basics of their instrument.

            When comparing the benefits of SmartMusic to the limitations, it seems that SmartMusic might be the “smart” way to go for music educators and students. The largest concern that I can see is the availability of internet for all students. Those students in rural, low-income areas may not be able to afford or have access to internet at home. This would prohibit them from practicing their instrument at home. If internet access is not an issue, SmartMusic seems like a low-cost, high-benefit program for music students. When looking at the teacher side of SmartMusic, one could argue that many of the benefits could be achieved for free in other ways. The rhythm of the day could be written on a chalkboard or whiteboard each day. The music recordings of various pieces could be found on YouTube or publisher websites. Students could compose music with paper and pencil, or using other free online tools like Noteflight, MuseScore, or Finale (which is a part of the SmartMusic family within the MakeMusic company). Teachers have been creating assignments and grading them for many years without the assistance of technology. All of these arguments are valid but having these features in one easily-accessible place just makes sense. After all, technology should support our teaching of music. As Dorfman (2013) states, “technology is an important means by which we can teach music – introduce its concepts, reinforce them, provide experience, provide practice, assess and evaluate achievement, structure aesthetic interactions, and do all the educational activities that make learning music a distinct, artful pursuit.”

References

Dorfman, J. (2013). Theory and practice of technology-based music instruction. New York:

Oxford University Press.

SmartMusic. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.smartmusic.com

Ten Characteristics of a Successful TBMI Teacher

            In chapter five of Theory and Practice of Technology-Based Music Instruction (2013), Dorfman lists ten characteristics that he believes a teacher should have in order to be effective in teaching technology-based music classes. These include “willingness to experiment/be lost, willingness to ask for help, focus on musical fundamentals, willingness to listen to/teach new music, desire to teach non-traditional music students, willingness to fight the good fight, willingness to relinquish control, knowing the software and hardware, interest in fostering creativity, and willingness to fail” (Dorfman, 2013).  As I look at this list, I feel that I have five of those characteristics, there are three that (if I’m being completely honest) I definitely struggle with, one that I just have no idea about, and one that falls squarely in the middle.

            The five characteristics I feel I embody are  the willingness to experiment/be lost, willingness to listen to/teach new music, focus on musical fundamentals, interest in fostering creativity, and willingness to fail. One of my other teaching duties, and one which I really love, is working with our elementary gifted students. The first thing I learned when I started working with the gifted students more than ten years ago is that I had to be willing to experiment and get lost. I am continually doing new things with my students, based on their strengths and interests. I have had many successful lessons and I’ve had some complete failures. I think that this mindset has followed me as I moved back into a music position. I am always looking for new lessons and new ways to teach concepts. I’m afraid I’d be bored if I always did everything the same way! I also enjoy listening to new music - when my students talk about a genre or artist that I don’t know much about, I explore that. I think that being open to other music helps me to connect to my students in a meaningful way. Also, they get a big laugh from watching me try to beat-box!

I find my lessons to be focused on the fundamentals mentioned by Dorfman (2013); “rhythm and pulse, pitch, harmony, and form” (p. 74). These are the building blocks to understanding music, and I feel that if I can give my students a solid background in these concepts, they will be able to appreciate music throughout their lives, even if they never play an instrument or sing. I also work to help my students be creative, whether it is through movements to express the music they are hearing, or through writing or improvising their own music.

The final characteristic that I believe I possess is the willingness to fail. I liked the quote that Dorfman mentions from one of his “Profile of Practice” segments (p. 95). “Mrs. V” had a poster displayed on her classroom wall that read, “Life is all about making mistakes and learning from them.” If we are willing to learn from our mistakes and failures, we are showing our students in a very real way that it is okay to fail because that is where the real learning takes place.

            The three concepts with which I struggle the most are willingness to ask for help, willingness to relinquish control, and the knowledge of software and hardware. I struggle with the idea of asking for help. I am a very independent person, and I will expend a lot of energy and time to resolve issues on my own. (Interestingly, though, I am fine with having my students help me. If I am having trouble making some of the technology work in my classroom, I will first ask the students if they have any ideas of how I can fix the problem.) I think that the lack of this characteristic is related to another - the willingness to relinquish control. I am definitely happier when I am in control of what is going on in my classroom. I am better at turning over that control when I am in my gifted world, but not so much in the musical realm. I know that letting my students have more control over the learning process would give them more ownership in their learning, but this is a difficult area for me. The other characteristic that I know I have trouble with is the knowledge of software and hardware. I do not find it easy to learn new technology, and so I am always struggling with using technology in my classroom. I very much relate to the example that Dorfman shares about the interactive whiteboard (p. 77). I would love to have the board be more interactive for the students, but I find myself using it to show them information in a passive rather than active way.

            I am not sure how I feel about teaching the “non-traditional music students.” I certainly want to reach all of my students, whether they are interested in the more traditional types of music learning or not. I do know that I struggle with those few students who don’t seem interested in anything we do in music class, and that frustrates me. I am really on the fence about the willingness to fight the good fight. I definitely advocate for my students whenever I get the opportunity, but I am realistic enough to know that the supply of funding is finite, and there are many areas that should be supported with that funding. I think that is one of the reasons that this class represents a bit of a dream world for me. I would love to be able to design lessons using a music technology lab that we have read about, but I also know that the reality of my school district is that there is not the funding to support such a lab. Dorfman (2013) states that, “It is safe to assume that teachers who do not possess some degree of each of these elements would experience tremendous frustration with TBMI” (p. 81). I believe that I would have to do a lot of professional growing in order to be an effective TBMI teacher.