but they asked me to think about studying the life of the 'Von Trapp Family Singers,” a singing family that immigrated to America and were the subject of the movie “The Sound of Music.” I loved the idea because many of the students have seen the movie but were not aware of how the movie embellished the actual story; moreover, the songs from the movie are great to sing in class.


Keeping The Music Curriculum Intact


I have read via social media and music educators’ networks that when some music educators hear that music needs to be more “cross curricular,” a fear overwhelms them. This is because the implication is that the music curriculum will no longer be intact and it will be replaced with reading, writing, arithmetic, and more. When I ap- proached this PbL, I felt that having the students study immigration and empathy in music class was fairly natural and did not require much tweaking to the current curriculum. The process of this PbL in music class begins in the winter and finishes with the “Coming to America Day” in May.


1. Begin with singing: I am an elementary music educator. My students sing in every class. We started off in the winter by learn- ing and singing songs from “The Sound of Music.” This helped the students understand solfege better and helped us with reading lyr- ics, singing in tune, enunciating words, and knowing the difference between singing with our head and chest voices; all aspects of the second-grade music curriculum. 2. Experience empathy: In the winter, my second graders study


the life of Beethoven. Through this study, they learn about his life as well as his music. One of the activities we perform is viewing the movie, “Beethoven Lives Upstairs.” After the movie, the students discuss why the main character, Christoph, changed his opinion of Beethoven from a “mad man” to a man who is brilliant and should be respected. The students come to the realization through discus- sion that Christoph felt empathy for Beethoven and discovered how difficult it would be to compose and listen to music when you are almost deaf. 3. Study of the von Trapp Family: In the spring, we continue singing songs from “The Sound of Music.” The students were also introduced to Maria von Trapp, the main character of the film. The students learned about how she came to the family as a tutor (not as a governess) and decided to forego becoming a nun to marry Georg von Trapp, the patriarch of the family who was a retired captain of the Austrian Navy. Maria then became the mother of seven children: Rupert, Agathe, Maria, Wemer, Hedwig, Johanna, and Martina. Af- ter Maria and Georg married, they had three more children: Ros- marie, Eleonore, and Johannes; he was born in Philadelphia right after they immigrated to America. The students also learned that the von Trapps lost most of their wealth in the early 1930s, which caused them to dismiss their servants, to rent out the top floor of their mansion, and to sing in public in order to make a living. We discussed the decisions the von Trapps were forced to make when the Nazis annexed Austria in 1938. The regime had offered wealth and a variety of opportunities for the entire family if they would stay and work for the Nazis. However, Georg and Maria abhorred the regime and ultimately decided not to compromise their principles and to leave the country instead. They told people that they were departing


OCTOBER 2014 29


the country due to singing opportunities, and took the train to Italy, where Georg had citizenship. They had a contract with an American booking agent, who paid for them to come to America. They even- tually settled in Stowe, Vermont. 4. Study of the Film: As the students were learning the songs


from the film, we viewed portions of the film that correlated with the music and with the story. This helped the students visualize the von Trapp story as well as see where the film had made embellishments. 5. Study of Empathy and Comprehending the Story: The students then answered a series of questions. The students had to answer the questions as if they were walking in the shoes of the von Trapp children. These questions were the following: How do you think the von Trapp children felt when they could


not live as they were used to and had to say goodbye to people that had worked for them and had been close to their family? • How do you think the von Trapp children felt when they now had to do something that they loved [singing] as a job?


• How do you think the von Trapp children felt when they had to live under a ruler who was unfair and made life difficult for many people?


• How do you think the von Trapp children felt when they learned that they were leaving Austria and eventually immigrating to America? The students’ answers were in-depth and thought provoking.


Responses ranged from students trying to figure out how they could keep their servants so the servants would not be homeless, to being very proud of their dad for sticking to his principles. 6. Presenting the Music Portion at “Coming to America”:


On the day of “Coming to America”, the students sang songs from “The Sound of Music.” Before each song selection, I described the musical concepts that we worked on to learn the song from reading and memorizing lyrics, to singing on pitch, to studying solfege, to singing in two parts (Do-Re-Mi), and more. After each song, I pre- sented one of the questions that the students answered when study- ing the life and immigration of the von Trapp family. Throughout the PbL process, the students received feedback to


refine their work before they presented it. This also occurred in mu- sic class as the students recorded and listened to their singing and refined their performance skills in order to be ready for the “Com- ing to America Day.” When the past second graders became my third-grade music students, they often referenced this project and performance. The students remarked how much they liked learning about the family, seeing portions of the film, learning about the rea- sons they immigrated, and learning and performing the songs from the film. Project-based learning was an effective and enjoyable way for second graders to hone key academic foundation skills, to learn about immigration in an in-depth and engaging way, and to deepen their empathy. In addition, the students were able to focus on and refine their singing and performing skills. I thank the second grade


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