Technology & Media Resources for the 21st Century Music Classroom

Today, notation software, including free trial software from Smartmusic (Finale) and Encore, gives us the ability to compose and arrange music to meet our students’ needs. We can create practice recordings for our students and make real-time changes in key and tempo with Superscope, slow down existing recordings without changing pitch with the Amazing Slow Downer, and use Make-Your-Own-Karaoke to remove vocal tracks.

Digital media resources have grown exponentially in the past decade and there is now a wealth of fantastic sites that can enhance our teaching and students’ learning. I have found the following sites helpful in my music teaching. The Ken Burns Jazz site has lesson plans that do a good job of addressing the national standards. The Continental Harmony site has interactive lesson plans that enhance student learning of the basics of music composition. And an extensive online Music Dictionary puts definitions just a click away. Our students can have fun developing skills and building knowledge at a variety of well-developed sites such as these.

PBS KIDS, San Francisco Symphony Kids, Dallas Symphony Orchestra for Kids, BBC Play! Track Mixing, and ThinkQuest’s music theory & history games all make learning fun for kids as a supplement to the classroom experience. The new PBS KIDS pre-school block hosted by Mr. Steve offers a variety of “Steve Songs” that will help spark young children’s interest in and enjoyment of music. You can find more resources and helpful tools at my website.

Making Assessment Meaningful

As our nation has ratcheted up the focus on standardized testing, we struggle as music educators with assessing a creative art form. Many of us have large numbers of students, making assessments potentially cumbersome and time-consuming. I have struggled with the challenges of creating meaningful assessments for the 600 students I see twice a week, while also managing student data and records day to day and year to year. I have found that recording each of my students a few times per year has created meaningful benchmarks that:

• significantly inform my teaching;
• motivate students to perform;
• enhance student listening skills;
• add value and interest to parent/teacher conferencing;
• assist our middle school band, orchestra, and choir directors as elementary students transition to the next school; and
• create a meaningful auditory portfolio that can follow students through the years in our school system.

Below, I will delineate a process of recording that is affordable and simple and has an acceptable level of fidelity; can be done during class-time; and moves students forward in their comfort level performing for their classmates. Each of the nine National Standards can tie into this recording process, but the following four standards are an integral part of student recordings each year:

• #1: Singing, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music
• #2: Performing on instruments, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music
• #6: Listening to, analyzing, and describing music
• #7: Evaluating music and music performances

This recording assessment can be effective and feasible with students of any age from pre-school through the college setting. I record my 600 students at least twice per academic year, once while singing and once while playing an instrument. Most class periods involve a lesson plan that has students making music. I rarely record more than four students in a 30-minute class period. Therefore, students do not all record the same piece of music or pattern. This takes no more than a few minutes, and gives the performer and the class an opportunity to cover National Standards 6 & 7. When the recording system is always set up and part of the classroom environment, it demystifies the process and becomes part of the classroom culture, and it does not take away precious teaching time. If the recording happens on a regular basis, it is not difficult to have a recording of each student by the time parent/teacher conferences roll around.

The vocal recording may be a program song that we are performing as a grade. For older students, I have used rounds and partner songs to demonstrate interdependence. As they are recording, I assess their vocal progress with a rubric evaluating pitch matching and volume. Through self-assessment, students identify their correctness with lyrics, steady beat, and rhythmic accuracy. At the same time, I will list students with potential issues surrounding vocal nodules or speech issues. I have subsequently contacted parents and school district speech therapists, often introducing them to the need for corrective actions. It is very helpful in these cases to then e-mail an MP3 recording to substantiate the observation.

Instrumental recordings have included Orff patterns, drum sequences, recorder excerpts, guitar patterns, and recital pieces. Some recordings will have the students singing and playing instruments at the same time. Assessment rubrics have included elements such as steady beat, pattern accuracy, and technique.

What Recording System Should I Use?

Two common ways of recording students in the classroom are recording directly into the computer or recording into an MP3 handheld device. Both of these recording processes create files (easily treated much like a Word document) that can be burned to a CD, e-mailed to students and parents, or cataloged in folders by name, grade, or classroom teacher. To read more details on these recording formats, download the MP3 document at www.brettsmith.org/curriculum/.

Some Kids Just Will Not Sing

Many of our students are shy or uncomfortable singing in front of others. I start each school year with a call and response game singing So Mi questions for students to answer the following questions:

• “How was your summer?”
• “What’s your favorite food?”
• “What’s your favorite color?”
• “Name your favorite movie?”

While students sing back one at a time, I play a game of catch with them with a Beanie Baby, one throw to each singer. As a result, many students focus on the Beanie Baby and relax about the vocal production. When it comes to recording, each student is thrown a different Beanie Baby to “babysit” after his or her recording. Here the focus is on the personality of the stuffed animal vs. the stress of “being tested.” The recording process becomes a very fun, positive game. With each new recording, I identify for each student an element that he or she has improved upon.

Given the popularity of the TV show “America Idol,” instead of telling students, “Each of you will have to make a recording,” I ask them “Who wants to be an American Idol?” on a given day. I almost always have more volunteers than there is time to record. And with a Beanie Baby to greet them following the recording, they are full of giggles and smiles.

Great Applications in the General Education Classroom

In addition to recording music, classroom teachers will find this recording technology helpful in their teaching in a variety of ways. They can:

• Make MP3 recordings of student speeches or presentations;
• Record directions or lectures for students to assist substitute teachers in their absence;
• Assess pronunciation as students record their voices in the world language classroom.

Food for Thought

What classroom recording structures have you found to be successful? What hurdles seem challenging to overcome when contemplating this process in your teaching circumstance? Has media and technology positively impacted teaching and learning in your classroom in other ways that you would like to share? If you are a general education teacher, what other applications do you see for recording your students in the classroom?