Mused 341 Site

Billy Sefton's Blog for MusEd 341 Welcome to my blog! Here, sorted under the tabs, you will find teacher resources, curriculum structure theories and ideas, some journals about social justice in education, and several sample lessons from my fieldwork. By using the search bar at the bottom of the website, posts can be organized according to tags. For example, to find all repertoire/activities associated with the National Core Arts Standards, simply search "create" or "respond", et al., and posts related to those Core Standards will display. Additionally, there is an ask tab that allows you to send me your questions, anonymously or otherwise. Thank you for visiting!

[mused2876]

Actors Training Center offers professional acting classes for children, teens and adults in musical theater, on camera, improv, and classic theater.

For student performers- a top-ranking acting program right on the Northshore for Evanston-area students. Highly qualified faculty and high rates of alumni in collegiate acting programs!

[mused2876]

The Fine Arts Building is open to the public and we encourage visitors of all ages to explore the rich history of the building.

More local opportunities for Chicago-based teachers! The Fine Arts Building hosts a beautiful grand piano store, a music book library complete with a resident cat, and even a violin-making studio! Definitely a cool opportunity for kids who want to see music outside of the classroom!

[mused2876]

For music teachers in the Chicago area, Northwestern is an invaluable resources as it offers some of the best music faculty and facilities in the country. 

[mused2876]

Unit Title: Sounds of the Caribbean Grade Level: 5th

A unit outline for a unit about Reggae and its evolution in the Caribbean and worldwide!

[mused2876]

Lesson Sample K - Kid’s Song

Grade: 1st

Time: 15 min

Repertoire: “Peanut Butter” classic kid’s chant

Objectives

At the end of this lesson, students will be able to:

- feel a swung rhythm

- make a peanut butter sandwich

- develop a feel for the minor key

- explore different types of vocal exertion (whisper/talk/sing)

Prepare

The students should be seated in a circle on the floor. First, run the students through the three registers we will explore today: talking, whispering, singing. Each of these should be identified and modeled and written on the board. Then, we can start talking about the different things we like to eat for lunch. Prompting several students, if no student suggests a PB or PBJ sandwich, teacher can prompt himself. Once on the topic of peanut butter, teacher can say “we have a song for making peanut butter sandwiches”.

Present

This song is fairly simple and uses a lot of chanting, so it will be easy to have the students learn the first verse and then apply rhythms and vocal types to the verses.

Practice and Extend

Using multiple verses, the students can explore their voices across those as well as verses about any explanatory subject of their choosing- making breakfast or doing homework, for example.

Assess and Close

This song is fairly easy to assess, as it’s more of just an exercise in vocal control, but it should be fairly obvious when the students have a grasp on the lesson objectives of differentiating between voices and feeling the swung rhythm.

[mused2876]

Here is an example of my teaching in the field! Here we are at a small public elementary school in the heart of Ann Arbor, MI.

[mused2876]

[mused2876]

A document outlining the National Core Arts Standards, their ideology, and their implications in the music classroom.

[mused2876]

A helpful guide to navigating the terminology surrounding special needs education.

[mused2876]

Some information about the Education of All Handicapped Children Act and the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act.

[mused2876]

A .pdf file with annotations regarding proper protocol when addressing the needs of special needs students.

[mused2876]

A journal about the lack of curricular presence of LGBT content, and how that might affect students who are already socially marginalized.

[mused2876]

For teachers interested in the state of LGBT/MOGAI students in public schools, this is an eye-opening read with many revealing statistics sourced directly from student responses.

[mused2876]

Powerful journalistic piece by Jean Anyon about the differences in critical thinking between students of different educational funding backgrounds. Very thought provoking, a must-read for teachers interested in social justice and education.

[mused2876]

Vanderbilt University

A journal about Culturally Relevant Pedagogy and its implications in the classroom.

[mused2876]

Unit Sample A - Storybook (Abiyoyo)

A. Background

Our story is titled Abiyoyo, it is written by Pete Seeger and illustrated by Michael Hays. The publisher is Aladdin Paperbacks. According to the back cover, it is intended for ages 4-8. For our purposes, we will assume that this activity is intended for 2nd graders. Abiyoyo tells the story of a trickster magician and his ukulele-playing little boy, who rush to the rescue when their town is threatened by a huge monster. Our group chose this story because of its cleverly inserted musical sections, the striking sound effects and the engaging storyline. Our plan for this set of lessons centered around the theme of how music can be used to enhance a creative story, and be used as a tool in developing a dramatic narrative. We bolstered a lush musical arrangement with sound effects, movement, song and stringed accompaniment. Overall, we want the students to walk away from our lesson having broadened their musical horizons, having been exposed to the folk music and storytelling of another culture, and having learned how music can play an important role in advancing a dramatic plotline.

B. Outline of Story Presentation

1. Student’s skills and competencies (musical and other skills going into the activity)

a. Need to be able to distinguish duple meters from triple meters

b. Be able to keep a steady beat

c. Need to be able to dance on beat

d. Need to be able to hear and echo falling fourths, and rising sixths

2. Learning Outcomes

a. Students will have greater exposure to African folk music

b. Students will have greater exposure to Ukulele music

c. Students will have a better understanding of how music can be used to advance a dramatic storyline

3. Part 1

a. Introduce the story (without reading it), explain that the book and the associated song come from South Africa, show where South Africa is on a map, and refresh the concept of a folk song

b. Play video of Pete Seeger telling the story and playing the banjo

i. Encourage students to sing and engage with the story

ii. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4giML-Gd7o

4. Part 2

a.  Read the story from the book for the first time

b. Begin to teach children the gestures that will go along with different parts of the story. Try to teach these implicitly. Integrate them well with the telling of the story

c. Introduce the movement activity at the appropriate corresponding moment in

the story. Make sure to chunk directions and repeat this a few times. The goal is to have children comfortably feel the changing tempi and story such that children do not feel like they’re being “given directions” to the rhythms of the song physically.

5. Part 3

a. Introduce the story as a dramatic activity, with students divided into groups representing different characters.

C. The Music

The musical arrangement that we will employ is already partially notated in the book- this will be our primary musical foundation. The tune that is notated below will sung by the students as a group, accompanied by D major and G major chords on the ukulele played by a teacher. We will also incorporate sound effects created with the ukulele and by the group of students: while the boy in the story is playing his ukulele, the students will all pretend to make bad sounding ukulele chords by pretending to strum ukuleles. At other moments in the story, the father uses his magic wand to make things disappear. The word “zoop” is used as an onomatopoeia by the text to denote the noise that accompanies these actions. Students will come up with their own interpretation of this sound (we will suggest one with rising melodic contour) which they will make while the ukulele plays an augmented chord to accompany it. Finally, we will include a movement activity: when Abiyoyo begins dancing to the boy’s ukulele song, the students will all stand up and begin to slowly dance to the beat. As the tempo of the song increases, the students will increase the speed of their movements until the song culminates with Abiyoyo stumbling and falling down. In this moment, the students will pretend to stagger and will simulate a fall (safely, which we will have previously instructed and demonstrated) which will end with the students sitting down cross-legged. At various points throughout our lesson students will imagine that they are playing their own ukuleles by gesturing (air ukes). They will play along with various ukulele examples at corresponding moments in the story when the boy plays the ukulele.

[mused2876]

Literature by Dr. Shinichi Suzuki for teachers who are interested in his methods and philosophy.