Music Instructional Framework:
A Guide to Comprehensive Musicianship through Performance
10/31/2013
Drafted by a Woodburn School District Music Teachers in October of 2013.
Title Page
IntroductionAn historical overview of the Woodburn School District’s (WSD) journey into and through comprehensive music programming.
Philosophy
A brief statement that identifies the philosophical underpinnings and research of music education in Woodburn.
Methodology
An explanation of the systems and processes that support our philosophy.
Methods
An overview of the and components of comprehensive musicianship through performance.
Assessment
Organization
An overview of possible schedules within a classroom.
Common Agreements
Woodburn School District music norms on a variety of topics in Q&A format.
References
An annotated list of resources that support various components of the WSD instructional framework.
Glossary
A short dictionary of terminology used throughout the document.
Appendix Index
A compilation of articles and executive summaries that serve to explain or expand upon various aspects of the music framework.
Introduction
Historically, Woodburn School District has supported and valued the contribution music education makes to the depth and richness of students’ lives.
“The Academic Benefits of Music Education
Researchers have studied the benefits of music education for decades, consistently finding strong correlations between music and academic achievement. For example,
positive results have been noted in standardized tests. Regardless of socioeconomic background, according to a 10-year study that tracked more than 25,000 middle and high school students, music-making students get higher marks on standardized tests than those who have little or no music involvement. The College Entrance Examination Board found that students in music programs scored 63 points higher on the verbal and 44 points higher on the math sections of the SATs than students with no music participation. Additionally, students performed better on other standardized tests such as reading proficiency exams.
Similarly, a study examining the relationship between participation in high or low-quality school music programs and standardized test scores showed that students in high-quality programs scored higher on both English and mathematics standardized tests than their counterparts who did not have high-quality instruction (Johnson, 2006). The researchers also found that students in exceptional music programs as well as low-quality instrumental programs still performed better in English and mathematics than those students receiving no music classes…
Mathematics Skills
Research has clearly found that music instruction helps develop the capacity for spatial-temporal reasoning, which is integral to the acquisition of important mathematics skills. One explanation for this observation is that musical training in rhythm emphasizes proportion, patterns, fractions and ratios expressed as mathematical relations.
U.S. Department of Education data showed that students involved in band or orchestra during their middle and high school years demonstrated significantly higher levels of math proficiency by grade 12. The results were even more pronounced for low-income families. Those who took instrumental music were more than twice as likely to perform at the highest levels in math as their peers who were not involved in music (Catterall, 2002). Similar findings were found by Helmrich (2010) who concluded that formal instrumental instruction was positively correlated with algebra achievement. He also analyzed the data for differences between white and black students, finding that students of both races performed better than those who received no music instruction. Interestingly, the degree to which music instruction affects the achievement of black students is greater than that of white students.
A meta-analysis of 15 studies involving 701 children ages 3 to 12 years (Hetland, 2000) suggested that children provided with music instruction score higher than controls on spatial-temporal tasks. Children who begin music instruction very early in life are likely to show the greatest benefits. And longitudinal research suggested that at least two years of music instruction are required for sustained enhancement of spatial abilities (Rauscher, 2002)…
Reading and Language Skills
…In 2000, Ron Butzlaff conducted a year-long study on 162 sixth graders to determine whether instrumental music instruction helps children acquire reading skills. At the end of the year, all the students were given the Stanford Achievement Test, which explores reading and verbal skills, and Butzlaff found that students with two or three years of instrumental musical experience performed significantly higher on the exam than the students with no instrumental music instruction. Similarly, in 2000, using a sample size of more than 500,000 high school students, Butzlaff found a strong and reliable association between music instruction and reading test scores.” (Judson, 2012)
In October of 2013, WSD pulled together music teachers from across the district to develop an instructional framework that would set a vision of excellence in music education and would guide music education in the district for years to come.
Participants:
Administrators / Teachers / FacilitatorLaurie Cooper / Sarah Vraneza
Jason Rodgers
Brian Robertson
Brian Gingerich / Rolonda Meye
Debra Hopkins
Gary Burgin Sr.
Sig Paulson / Lena Baucum
Philosophy
Music is a creative process with its own distinct symbol system, which requires students to access multiple modes of perception to struggle with problems and discover novel solutions; the student learning environment is structured to foster this process. Students learn in a student-centered environment where teachers differentiate teaching according to student needs (Tomlinson, 2000). Teachers employ a wide variety of instructional approaches, which include the gradual release of responsibility (Pearson & Gallagher, 1983) wherein teaching of new strategies is done in a scaffolded (Gibbons, 2005) format targeting the needs of the learner, and the constructivist model (Johnson, 2004). Formal and informal authentic assessments (Stiggins, 2002) track student achievement toward demonstration of a competency at each level. (Oregon Music Education Standards, 2010, pg.10)
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Methodology
Teachers instruct students through the balanced approach of Comprehensive Musicianship through Performance, (Norgren, 1980) which synthesizes instruction in music history, authentic repertoire, formal analysis, composition/improvisation, rehearsal, and performance.
Most Comprehensive Musicianship (CM) programs include the following specific traits:
1. All style periods are treated as being equally important. This progressive development has resulted in the rightful inclusion of both twentieth-century and pre-tonal music in the theory curriculum along with jazz, ethnic, and non-Western music.
2. Authentic compositions in a variety of textures and mediums, as opposed to artificial exercises, form the core study. Thus, the learning of music literature (although not necessarily in a chronological sequence) assumes a central role as a goal of its own along with synthesizing basic theoretical principles.
3. Both written and aural musical analysis feature balanced attention to pitch, rhythm, timbre, texture, form, expression, and dynamics.
4. Composition and improvisation projects, are stressed. Real composition work, both style imitation and purely original creation, are useful to make a closer connection to real music and also add interest.
5. Reading, rehearsing and performing of student or other compositions in class is a part of Comprehensive Musicianship. Just as swimming cannot be learned from a book, real music learning rarely takes place without this live contact; composing, analyzing, and then hearing and playing actual pieces is the musician’s equivalent of jumping in the water and actually getting wet.
6. Literacy in the music classroom is reflected in the students’ ability to interact with live and written music and effectively communicate about that interaction both orally and in written form.
7. The most important aspect in the Comprehensive Musicianship philosophy is that all of these activities and components be related to one another and lead to a unified and complete understanding. To rectify the compartmentalization of music study and to substitute holistic learning is the ultimate goal. All facts are originally learned one at a time, but genuine musical insight is usually only achieved when facts and ideas are brought together and seen in true relationship by totaling more than the sum of their parts.
Components of Comprehensive Musicianship from “Teaching Approaches in Music Theory” by Michael Rodgers, 2004. Modified by Music Teachers of WSD to provide additional clarity, October, 2013.
Methods
Woodburn School District music students are offered a classical music education. A classical music education centers on Music Theory: the study of music, specifically relating to rhythm, melody and form. A strong foundation in music theory helps students hear and create music in more meaningful and fulfilling ways. This Classical Music education is attained in different ways, dependent upon the developmental level of the students and instrumental choices.
General Music
Music educators in WSD utilize a variety of methods to engage students in learning. At the elementary level, the methods of Orff, Kodaly, Dalcroze, Weikart, as well as traditional classical methods, are incorporated in lessons . Students create, perform, and respond to music in a variety of ways through child-centered, engaging activities.
The Orff Method is a way of teaching children about music that engages their mind and body through a mixture of body percussion, singing, movement, and the use of percussion instruments (i.e. xylophones, metallophones, glockenspiels) and recorders. Lessons are presented in such a way that improvisation, composition and a child's natural sense of play are encouraged and children are helped to learn at their own level of understanding. (about.com)
The Kodaly Method is a way of developing musical skills and teaching musical concepts beginning in very young children. This method uses folk songs, Curwen hand signs, pictures, movable-do, rhythm symbols and syllables, and singing is viewed as the foundation of musical learning. The teacher sequentially follows a child’s natural learning development, incorporating games, movement, playing instruments, and reading and writing music with singing.
The Dalcroze Method an approach music educators use to internalize rhythm, foster music appreciation, aid in ear-training, and facilitate improvisation while improving musical abilities. In this method, the body is the main instrument. Students listen to the rhythm of a musical piece and express what they hear through movement. Simply put, this approach connects music, movement, mind, and body.
Weikart Method is used to teach and engage learners in all types of movement-based activities. The method has three major components: Separate - involves initiating experiences or presenting information by using only one mode of presentation at a time. Simplify - involves beginning with what is easy or manageable to learn. Facilitate - concerns all the ways that teachers engage students through action, thought and language as they support them in developing awareness and skills constructing their own knowledge.
Choral/Vocal
While it is the goal at all levels to attain comprehensive musicianship, the Kodaly and the Orff methods heavily influence music education in the elementary grades. Beginning at the middle school level, a gradual shift to a more classical music training takes place. However, even at the highest levels echos of Kodaly and Orff remain. Smaller ensembles may focus more heavily on different areas of comprehensive Musicianship than others.
Instrumental Ensembles
Band classes in Woodburn draw from a variety of methods to instruct students and ensure comprehensive Musicianship. Student musicians are classically trained. From the beginning students are taught to read, write, improvise and perform music. Smaller ensembles may focus more heavily on different areas of comprehensive Musicianship than others.
Orchestra
Woodburn school district does not currently offer an orchestral program, however if it were to offer a program
In the process of attaining comprehensive musicianship, orchestral classes in Woodburn School District use the Suzuki method to teach string performance at the very beginning stages with a gradual shift to the traditional classical training of musicians.
Suzuki believed that all people are capable of learning from their environment. He believed that music education should begin at a very young age. In the beginning, learning by ear is emphasized over reading musical notation. There is emphasis on the teacher being a performer and a role model for the student. As a result, in a classroom using the Suzuki system, there will be much teacher-student “call and response.” Suzuki also believed that students learning environment is enhanced through the use of audio musical recordings. So, in the Suzuki classroom, students playing along with recordings will be occurring. The introduction of music theory and music reading is left entirely up to the judgement of the teacher.
Stages of Artistic Development:
Music development occurs in stages. These stages are not necessarily linear in nature. A student may be at a multiple stages, both different and similar, in different areas of musicianship at any given time. For example, a student learning to play the trumpet may be at the imitation stage of folk music, at the exploration stage mute usage, yet functioning at the visualization/audiation phase of composition. These stages, like the gradual release of responsibility, help a teacher to determine the level of scaffolding that may be appropriate for a given student on a given musical task.
● Using imitation, the teacher demonstrates a musical task and the students either perform the task simultaneously, or immediately after the teacher so that the student may understand the task at a deeper level, and then build on it.
● During the exploration stage, the students use trial and error to come to a predetermined conclusion, or to create a new song or dance using prior knowledge and the guidelines set by the teacher.
● Through improvisation, students begin to synthesize prior knowledge in order to manipulate, create, and apply learned material. wherein the learning is internalized and is owned by the learner.
● Visualization/Audiation is the stage wherein students recognize the connection between the written representation of music and the resulting sound. For example, the process of looking at notation for the first time and accurately predicting the pitches and rhythms, as well as imagining a series of pitches and rhythms, and then being able to transfer those pitches into musical notation.
Music educators utilize the gradual release of responsibility as a means of helping students to learn music content. Examples of this type of music content might include, but are not limited to, the instrumental families, music history, tone production, musical etiquette, etc.
Music teachers in Woodburn School District use a variety of grouping strategies to arrive at the goal of comprehensive musicianship. During any given lesson a teacher may choose to employ any or all of the following groupings to facilitate a high level of learning.