comprehesive musicianship through performance Know Your Students!
Using the Assessment Point of the CMP Model to Embrace Diversity Marcia Russell, CMP Committee Member
I recently spent a week with 50 fel- low music educators at the annual CMP Summer Workshop on the beaut iful campus of UW-Riv- er Falls. For those of you who have attended the work-
shop within the past 10 years, you know the experience: philosophical discussions about what is great music; intense self- reflection on our role as music educator; shared laughter and/or tears while using the CMP model to create a teaching plan to implement with students. For those of you who have not attended a CMP workshop, it is important to note that the workshop is for ALL music educators, no matter what subject or grade level. The CMP model embodies good teaching in that it can be used in a high school band room, an el- ementary general music class, a collegiate choral rehearsal, a private studio lesson or for beginning strings summer lessons! In fact, the model itself transcends music teaching and could be applied to any content area or current WSM issue topic, including “Embracing Diversity.”
Embracing Diversity Through a Pre-Assessment Process Perhaps one thing that music educators in Wisconsin have in common (other than newly acquired lifetime licensure) is that we teach a lot of students, sometimes all at once and sometimes over the course of a day or week. Whether you are the K-12 music educator in rural southwest Wisconsin, one of three band teachers in a suburban Milwaukee school, or an elementary general music teacher…(ev- erywhere), we teach so many students that we need to get to know them quickly and efficiently. Once we know our students, then we can embrace the diversity (or lack thereof) within the class. With this article, I hope to provide some practical assessment strategies for getting to know your students.
wmeamusic.org/cmp 24
Back to School Student Surveys: Make It Meaningful I assume that all experienced teachers use some sort of survey at the beginning of the year to get to know students. These surveys can be somewhat shallow (name, birthday, favorite ice cream). While this type of survey is helpful to learn students’ names and interests, they only scratch the surface. I have learned over the years to ask deeper, more meaning- ful questions that are tied to a concert theme or a school initiative. For example, as a part of a larger all-school learning objective to embrace diversity and grow empathy, I tailored the questions of the survey to focus on each student’s cultural heritage. The information was used to then invite family members to the school to showcase an aspect of their culture for all of the students. A sample survey can be found online at my school website: http://plattevillemiddleschoolmusic.
weebly.com/wmea-wisconsin-school- musician-article-links.html.
Go to the online version of WSM to easily access links within this article.
Music Experiences Interview
(Credit to Miriam Altman, CMP Chair, from whom I “borrowed/stole” this idea.)
One of the educational initiatives com- ing to your school (if it has not already arrived) is Culturally Responsive Teach- ing. My take on this buzz-phrase is that I, as educator, must know my students’ background/interests so that I can better meet their educational needs. I also found this process requires intense self-reflection to reveal my own misunderstandings and unintentional bias which may lead to devastating educational blunders. (I highly suggest you read Stephen Sieck’s book Teaching with Respect: Inclusive Pedagogy for Choral Directors. It is ap- propriate for all music areas.)
Miriam’s Music Experiences Interview is a student-centered assignment in which students interview a parent/guardian about their own musical habits. An excerpt ex- ample is at the top of the next page, but the full document can be found at this link: http://plattevillemiddleschoolmusic.
weebly.com/wmea-wisconsin-school- musician-article-links.html.
I use this information to assess several things: personal musical preference, who listens to music outside of class and who does not, the relationship between
September 2018
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