Week 6 - Responding to Music

This week's topic centers around how students listen to music and ways to engage students in music listening. I found it interesting that students are more open-minded to listening to new or different music at a young age, and loose that interest or willingness as they get older. Bauer never explains why this is, but explains that it increases in adolescence. 

I have two hypothesises based on my experiences teaching elementary students. Firstly, this bend in willingness to listen to new music seems to correlate acquisition of new language - young children that are exposed to multiple languages as a child are more likely to be fluent in those languages when they are older. Similarly, Bauer cites "Early exposure to specific musics may positively impact students' reaction to them later in life" (p.109). While I have no proof of this, there seems to be some sort of correlation. 

Secondly, the willingness to listen to a wide variety of music may decrease because of peer influence / pressure. Students develop inhibitions about themselves around their peers as they advance through elementary school. They are more aware of what the 'norm' is and tend to shy away from things that are deemed 'uncool'. I see this all the time with singing in general music class. When I have moved between schools (as we have 7 elementary schools, it is not unusual to move assignments due to changing the number of classes in schools), I often have to gradually work to break down the barrier for students to participate in singing and especially dancing activities. With the youngest students, it's easy - they enjoy moving and singing, and often get unknowingly swept into the activity. In fourth and fifth grade, it is harder to engage all of the students as they have developed those inhibitions. However, when I was at the same school for 4 years, my fifth graders (who started with me as second graders), were much more willing to participate in singing and dancing - it was the norm in our music class! Perhaps this is the way I need to think about listening to music with my students.

Ways to Listen and Respond to Music

Technology - As I have more technology resources this year than ever before, I have been using technology to help students listen to and even watch musical performances. YouTube has been an excellent resource for this. An example: My 1st and 2nd grade students listened to, moved, and even played along with one or two of the movements from the Nutcracker close to our winter break. After completing these activities, I wanted them to be able to visualize what is happening in the ballet when they hear the music in the future. I was able to find (and pre-watch) a few excellent performances of the movements we listened to. It helped bring the story to life for them, and gave them deeper meaning to what we listened to.

Listening Maps - I use listening maps often while listening to music with my students. As Bauer mentioned in the book, they "are effective ways to help direct students' attention to important aspects of a composition" (p. 113). My students, especially the youngest ones, seem to benefit from having something to look at and track while they listen. They likely develop this skill when they are tracking words while being read to. I use listening maps from John Jacobson's Music Express Magazine or from a resource I have, Music Moves Me. I am very excited to find, explore, and use animated listening maps mentioned in the book - it would be easy to use with my IWB!

Interdisciplinary Connections - I have been struggling with keeping integrated music lessons authentic - meaning that music goals are met along with the goals of the other subject. My elementary school became an arts and technology magnet school this year, with the focus being on arts integration. Our goal is to expose students to a variety of the arts - visual, music, dance, theatre, and media arts. At first, the easiest thing to do was to sing about facts, and that seemed to be what the classroom teachers were comfortable with. But that isn't authentic integration. Our integrated lessons now are more involved and meet goals of all subjects. My integrated unit with GarageBand and writing raps about the branches of the U.S. Government is an excellent example. I'd love to answer any questions about music integration or share some of our successful lessons!