PLE 6 Constructivist Approach

Question: Make a list of the sequence of skills necessary for ultimate mastery of the content of your lesson through a constructivist approach. Which of these learning activities/skills lend themselves to student’s individual or group construction? How might you structure learning activities that lead students to discover these skills/principles? 



In an approach to teach music and art during the time period of WWI, the teacher will first discuss the history of WWI while engaging the class with questions and response of the time period. To include social interaction, the teacher can spit the class into groups to create their interpretation of  historical events that they have grasped from the text by making a timeline.

Next the teacher will incorporate music and art of the time by letting the class listen to band marches written for WWI and show slides of artwork done throughout the DaDa movement.  A constructivist approach would be letting the class interact with each other to come up with a piece of work to demonstrate in front of the class what they have learned in this arts/humanities unit with music and art. The students draw from the aspects they have learned in order to "teach" the class a song, skit, or show a piece of art as a way for the teacher to assess in an engaging and fun environment  During class time, the teacher should move about the room to assist students and ask questions to encourage creative thinking skills. 

I feel that in my area, music, a constructivist approach will almost be an every day teaching in order to assess students. The students should feel comfortable to ask questions and to perform in front of one another.  Below is a quote from an article in ERIC.

"A Constructivist View of Music Education: Perspectives for Deep Learning"

"A constructivist music classroom exemplifies deep learning when students formulate questions, acquire new knowledge by developing and implementing plans for investigating these questions, and reflect on the results." -  Sheila Scott

PLE 5 Chapter 6 Question 2 [Memory]

How might your knowledge of the memory processes guide your instructional decisions?

In the music classroom, memory can be a very important aspect of learning. It may not be as significant to memorizing math equations, historical dates or people for a standardized test, but encoding information for students in music will still benefit them in the long run.

Repetition is key. I like to think of Bruner's 'spiral curriculum' concept. 

Walker, Robert. Innovation in the Music Classroom: II The Manhattanville Music Curriculum Project. Psychology of Music, Vol. 12, No. 1, 25-33

Repetition is key and learning can be done by the sequence effect. I believe setting short term goals for information to be stored in students' minds will help them to rememeber musical concepts and skills, and repeating these skills on a daily information starts the memorization process. This will eventually be applicable as they move to each grade level. Applying music to stories and ideas has a successful impact in creating an aural image for student learning and can be easily retrieved because of its' uniqueness. 

PLE 5 Chapter 6 Question 1 [Cognitive Learning]

What are the essential skills and/or learning outcomes you want your students to know and be able to do that relate to cognitive learning?


I think in my music classroom, there will be many skills involved that relate to cognitive learning. Much of cognitive learning is the process of information that the students are learning. This process can include learning by model, listening, and reading. Listening is an essential skill in the music classroom. This includes peer interaction by listening to different musical phrases, for concepts within the music and scores, and learning together how to actively make music. The teacher can help guide students by doing clap rhythms or singing for students to hear phrases in a variety of ways. 

I also believe the use of representations help students learn cognitively. In my classroom, maybe this could be finding a story to read along with the piece of music, or a historical background that paints a picture of what the music should sound like. After writing this post on my personal thoughts, I actually found a study online that investigated children's perception of melodic construction in hope of finding clues about their broader cognitive development in nonmusical domains. 

Here is a short excerpt from the study:



"Bamberger (1991, 1994) also advocates using children’s descriptions as crucial 
evidence for understanding a child’s musical development. In Bamberger’s (1991) 
experiments with Montessori bells, children are asked not only to build a melody, but also 
to make instructions for someone else to play the melody. This type of response is 
specifically designed to produce a broader scope of children’s cognitive abilities. 
Bamberger (1994) also draws on children’s verbal descriptions, drawings, and spatial 
ordering of the bells as possible ways to externally reveal the private and internal nature of 
inner hearing, approximating a more genuine understanding of musical development 
(Bamberger, 1991; Bamberger, 1994; Hargreaves, 1986)"

http://www-usr.rider.edu/~vrme/v17n1/visions/article3

PLE 4 Chp. 14 Assessment

 Prompt:

Think of a lesson plan from your licensure area.  Knowing that assessment is an integral part of teaching, explain at least four informal and formal assessments that you will use in your lesson plan to provide you with feedback and involve the students in assessing their own learning.

My teaching area is music education. This includes primary, secondary and high school students. For each grade level, the National Standards for Music Education must be met, and because of this, formal AND informal assessments should be utilized throughout the school year. Below is a list of the National Standards for Music Education provided by the National Association for Music Education. (NAfME is an organization and credible website that the entire nation utilizes for music education) All music teachers must meet these standards and plan their lessons accordingly.

1. Singing, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music.

2. Performing on instruments, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music.

3. Improvising melodies, variations, and accompaniments.

4. Composing and arranging music within specified guidelines.

5. Reading and notating music.

6. Listening to, analyzing, and describing music.

7. Evaluating music and music performances.

8. Understanding relationships between music, the other arts, and disciplines outside the arts.

9. Understanding music in relation to history and culture.

These are a few assessments I have come up with to cater to my specialty area:

Formal assessing for music students would include:

1. Individual Playing Tests (This would coincide with the performance aspect of the national standards)

- Students will show their ability of range, repertoire, technique and musicality 

2. Composer of the month essay (This would coincide with the history/culture aspect of the national standards)

- Students will write one or two paragraphs at the end of every month about the biography of a composer and his/her time period. 

3. Computerized Standardized Listening Exam (#6 and #7 shown above)

 - There are music theory technologies available in certain schools for students to use in a lab.

4. Yearly Final Exam (All standards minus performance)

- This would be a test including a composition portion, listening portion, analyzed portion, and music history portion.

Informal assessing for music students would include: 

1. Group ensembles performing in front of the class

2. Composition Project (writing your own music to share)

3. Multimedia presentations (video, group projects)

4. Relay Music games for assessing music theory and terminology

 * THIS IS A GREAT SYLLABUS I FOUND ONLINE FOR PROGRAMMING AND ASSESSMENT IS HELPFUL FOR ALL AREAS NO JUST MUSIC. Please take the time to just copy and paste the link and scroll through.

 http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=6&ved=0CFAQFjAF&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au%2Fsyllabus_sc%2Fpdf_doc%2Fmusic_710_support.pdf&ei=jEEVUbSsC4m-8ASDmoGwBg&usg=AFQjCNH8a6V8qE0rY8mFKLCXCyHgnhIzeA&sig2=pAvBgWhzkNp6HcYQPWQyVg&bvm=bv.42080656,d.eWU