chapter 14 Reflections

This chapter brought a lot of very good creative ideas using technology that I could use in my classroom. My favorite that I would like to use is the new clothes for an old tune lesson. I often like to ask my middle school students what they would want to change about a tune to make it more their style or something that they would find interesting. I believe this is good for students to start identifying the unique characteristics that are in music that isn’t as popular anymore like the baroque and classical style. They also begin to contrast those older styles with the style that they listen to every day. They may not be able to put into words what they are learning but they are experiencing a contrast between the styles that I believe is very important.

As a middle school choir teacher I teach a lot of fundamentals involving solfege and basic rhythms. The 8 creative principals could really help give students an opportunity to not only be taught these fundamental ideas but also practice them in a creative environment. I teach solfege by using two or three scale degrees at a time for students to hear the sounds in their head first. This year, I want students to begin creating with those two solfege syllables before they even know what they look like on the page. I have collections of sounds like: smsm, sssm, mmms, etc. that represent a measure of sound using the 3rd and 5th scale degrees. I can give each student or a group of students 3-4 measures to create a melody. They have to hear the melody in their head and be able to perform it. This can be adapted through the year by using notes on a staff instead of solfege letters and as I add more notes to their internal thoughts they can create using those notes as well. The national standards that would be addressed are, singing alone and with others, improvising melodies, harmonies and accompaniments, composing and arranging music within specific guidelines, evaluating music, listening to and describing music, and eventually once students learn music notation they will be reading and notating music.