iListenWI
Well-Rounded WITHIN Music Julie Ropers-Rosendahl, iListenWI Committee Co-Chair
Close reading is one of the educational focuses in the school where I teach (Phoe- nix Middle School in Delavan). The technique of close reading uses re- peated and directed readings of a short
example of quality literature. This intense focus helps students understand the many aspects of reading comprehension includ- ing the craft, the voice and the hidden meanings.
Similar to close reading text, active listen- ing to music can deepen the impact of the instruction and guiding we do and can also help move students past the remember- ing and understanding levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy to the upper levels of applying, analyzing, evaluating and creating. Rather than simply playing a recording for the sake of doing so, giving students specific things to listen for intensifies student fo- cus. For example, one of the iListenWI pieces this year is the “Toy Symphony.” Initially, students could be directed to listen for tone colors in the piece. In a subsequent lesson they could focus their attention on a different element. This type of active listening helps our students “dig deeper” into the compositions to really understand and gain a richer experience.
Music inundates the lives of many our students as background noise, so they are more accustomed to passive hearing and not really listening to anything, including those lyrics that make those “in the know” cringe. How do we help our students re- ally listen to music? How can we help our students make sense of and appreciate thoughtfully composed music from differ- ent cultures, genres and historical periods? Check out what iListenWI has to offer to help extend your curriculum to include active listening!
iListenWI has put together some ready- made lesson plans to offer you ideas to help focus and refine your students’ listen- ing skills especially in the General Music K-8 setting. These differentiated strate- gies help teach and reinforce students’ understanding of the elements of music and help cover the National Association for Music Education (NAfME) standards and the newly adopted WMEA Wisconsin Music Standards. Many of the activities can also be used as learning assessment strategies (which save teacher planning time!). The unifying theme this year is “Toys and Games.”
Here are three outcome-based examples of what you will find in this year’s iListenWI materials:
• In exploring Vivace from “The Children’s Carnival” by Amy Beach, students learn about the suite and rondo forms and will compose in one or both of these forms. They will also learn about the challenges facing a female composer during the late 1800s and early 1900s.
• In “O trenzinho do caipira” (“The Little Train of the Caipira”) by Heitor Villa-Lobos, students dis- cuss programmatic music and how instruments can be used to portray ideas. Included in the lesson is a comparison of this piece and Erik Honegger’s “Pacific 231.”
• The classical style is explored in the “Toy Symphony” by Leopold Mozart, (or Joseph Haydn, or Haydn’s brother?). Students will be able to transfer their knowledge of the Classical style to other Clas- sical compositions they have not studied.
As we have focused on close reading, our students at Phoenix have made tre- mendous growth. The following is from a recent school web post (Source: https://
www.ddschools.org/phoenixmap2017/ #toggle-id-1):
• The learning by Phoenix Middle School students has accelerated faster than at least 9 out of every 10 students nationwide in both reading and math, data from 2016- 17 national Measure of Academic Progress (MAP) tests shows.
• “We aren’t as proficient as we’d like to be as far as overall achieve- ment, but our students’ incredible growth in knowledge and abilities is quickly closing the achievement gaps,” Phoenix Middle School Principal Hank Schmelz said. “We are growing our reading and math skills at pace that’s much
20 September 2017
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