Transcript AMusiciansCaseAgainstNarrowingtheCurriculum

A Musician’s Case
Against Narrowing the
Curriculum
Steve Williams, Fine Arts Consultant
MO Dept. of Elem. and Secondary
Education
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A May 2005 Harris Poll on the attitudes of
Americans toward arts education found:
93%
Agree the arts are vital
to providing a wellrounded education for
children, a 2% increase
over 2001
86%
Agree an arts education
encourages and assists in
the improvement of a
child’s attitudes toward
school
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Furthermore…
83%
Believe that an arts
education helps teach
children to communicate
effectively with adults and
peers
79%
Agree incorporating the arts
into education is the first step
in adding back what’s
missing in public education
today
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Academic Atrophy
75% of principals reported increases
in instructional and professional
development time for reading,
writing, and math
50% reported increases in science
25% reported decreases in the arts
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To Satisfy NCLB Testing…
 71% of schools reduced elementary
instructional time in at least one other
subject.
 33%
cut social studies
 29% cut science
 22% cut art and music
 14% cut physical education
(ASCD Compact for Learning, p. 8)
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2007 NAEP Results
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2007 NAEP Results
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Missouri Data
MISSOURI COMMUNICATION ARTS MAP SCORES
YEAR
FEDERAL AYP
MO AVERAGE
LOWEST / HIGHEST
SUBGROUPS
2002
18.4
30.7
8.5 / 40.5
2003
19.4
29.7
8.9 / 41.6
2004
20.4
29.8
10.3 / 41.5
2005
26.6
30.4
11.1 / 42.2
2006
34.7
43.7
16.3 / 54.2
2007
42.9
44.3
16.5 / 55.3
2008
51.0
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Show-Me Standards
 40 Content Standards


What students should know
Specific by content area, and requires High
Quality teacher instruction
 33 Process Standards


What students should be able to do
All teachers can use Process Standards to
administer their content
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Process Standards
 Process Standards (also called Perfor-
mance Standards) have inherent DOK
 Use Process to teach Content
 Most Process Standards utilize higher
levels of DOK
 Most GLE documents have referenced
the Process Standards, but the fine arts
have not
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2007 Communication Arts MAP
Test
 Goal 1: Gather, analyze, and apply
information and ideas

1.1, 1.5, 1.6, 1.7, 1.8
 Goal 2: Communicate effectively within
and beyond the classroom

2.1, 2.2, 2.4
 Goal 3: Recognize and solve problems
 3.1, 3.5, 3.7
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Frequency
1.6
126
3.5
2.2
1.5
2.4
120
96
31
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Number of test items
that assess specific
Process Standards in
tests for grades 3-8
and 11*.
3.1
2.1
1.7
10
9
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*http://www.dese.mo.gov/
1.8
1.1
3.7
2
1
1
divimprove/assess/tech/a
lign_ca_rpt_final_06.pdf
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Process Standard 1.6
 Discover and evaluate patterns and
relationships in information, ideas and
structures


Patterns in music: scales and arpeggios,
forms (ABA, AABA, ABACABA, etc.), motifs,
chords
Relationships in music: similarities and
differences in styles and periods, relationship
between music and culture/history, chord
progressions
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Purposeful Examples of 1.6
 When rehearsing, use form designations
instead of rehearsal letters.


Instead of: “start at letter c”
Say: “start at the beginning of the 2nd strain”
 Challenge students to extrapolate patterns
found in their music (by ear, possibly).
 Dance sequences, physical movements are
examples of patterns.
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Process Standard 3.5
 Reason inductively from a set of facts and
deductively from general premises
 Inductive reasoning: using specific facts,
details and information, students make a
generalization or rule
 Deductive reasoning: using a principle,
theory, or statement, students must supply
supporting details
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Purposeful Example of 3.5
 Give students the opportunity to use
deductive reasoning:

Given a key signature that contains 2 flats,
ask students to determine the key using 3
supporting details from the music:
1.
2.
3.
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Purposeful Example of 3.5
 Give students the opportunity to use
inductive reasoning:
What is the key based on these facts?
1. There are 3 sharps in the key
signature
2. The first note is A
3. There are no accidentals that would
imply a minor key.
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Process Standard 2.2
 Review and revise communications to
improve accuracy and clarity
 Musicians do this when they:
 Practice and self-assess
 Make tuning, articulation, and balance
adjustments
 Listen to their own
performance and critique
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Process Standard 2.2
 Review and revise communications to
improve accuracy and clarity
 Artists do this when they:
o Develop a plan and maintain focus
o Choose elements for effect
o Create artwork and self-assess
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Content + Process = Learning
 Music GLE AP2B9-12

Use musical terminology to describe their
personal response to a musical example
 Process Standard 1.5

Comprehend and evaluate written, visual,
and oral presentations and works
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Content + Process = Learning
 Art GLE PP3A6

Create original artwork using the following
subjects: realistic portrait, abstract portrait
 Process Standard 2.5

Perform or produce works in the fine and
practical arts.
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Higher Order Thinking Skills
 Use effective questioning techniques to
draw higher-order thinking out of your
students.
 The MAP test frequently asks students
to justify their answer.
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Eliciting Useful Student Feedback
 Questioning is necessary to formatively
assess student understanding
 Often students who don’t understand will not
volunteer
 Learning that a small minority of students
“get it” is not a sufficient factor in deciding to
move on
 Don’t ask for comprehension, check for it
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Checking for Comprehension
 Follow-up questioning – hold students
accountable for their responses






What makes you think that?
What might happen next?
What if this was different?
Can you support your answer with details?
How do you feel about the composers
choices?
Why did the artist choose this media?
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Self-Assessment
“Students feed-forward their learning when
they match their work to samples, selfassess, or work with peers to make their
products of better quality. Teachers support
this learning by helping students determine
their next steps so they can eventually learn
how to get to the learning destination
themselves.”
- Anne Davies, Involving Students in the Classroom Assessment Process,
in Ahead of the Curve (2007), Douglas Reeves, ed., p. 37-38
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The Music Teacher and
Student Achievement
 Music teachers should teach music, English
teachers should teach English…
 However, there are strategies that music
teachers can use to help students think more
critically.
 How can music teachers contribute to their
own content while reinforcing what is taught
in other areas?
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Singing in General Music
 A child’s reading success depends upon their
effective use and understanding of oral
language1
 Elementary music students develop skill in
oral language by telling/re-telling stories
(sequencing) and acting them out (kinesthetic
connection)
1Chrys
Dougherty, ed. (1999). Improving Early Literacy of Preschool
Children. Austin, TX: University of Texas
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CA Reading 1B:
Phonemic Awareness
 Grade K – develop the ability to recognize
sounds (phonemes) in words; recognize
rhyming words.

Children enjoy and learn from rhyming and
alliterative text, and thrive on rhythmic and
repetitive phrases.

Early phonemic awareness is a proven
predictor of later reading success
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Activities that Develop
Phonemic Awareness
 Sing nursery rhymes, rhyming songs, and
alliterative songs and chants
 Play listening and rhyming games

Call and response
 Count words and syllables

one note = one syllable
 Blend onset-rimes (CA Reading 1B, grade 1)



Onset = initial consonant sound of a word
Rime = rest of the word
Ex: cat = /c/ - at
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The Reading Process – Eye
Movement
 How do the eyes move as we read words?
 Saccade

Movement of the eyes during reading. The
saccade includes the fixation and movement
to the next fixation, with an occasional return
(regression) to check for understanding.

During reading, the average fixation duration
is about 225-250 ms and the average saccade
size is 8-9 character spaces.
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How the Eye Moves
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CA Reading 1D:
Fluency
 Grade 3 – Read grade-level instructional
text with fluency, accuracy, and
expression; adjust reading rate to
difficulty and type of text.



Music reading helps students pace their
saccadic eye movements, forcing them to
maintain a steady rate
Rate of music reading also adjusts with the
difficulty of the music.
Better music readers are able to capture more
notes and have shorter fixations.
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Purposeful Activities that
Develop Fluency
 Singing with expression

Focus on diction, articulation
 Playing an instrument with expression
 Rhythmic recitation
 Call and response
 Working with languages involves applying
appropriate inflections and stress
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CA Reading 1F:
Pre-Reading Strategies
 Grade 6-8 – Apply pre-reading strategies to
aid comprehension: access prior knowledge,
preview, predict with evidence, set a
purpose and rate for reading.
Music teachers do this when they “walk through”
a new piece of music.
 Teach students to scan music for information,
devise a plan for sight-reading.
 Have students pre-determine the speed of their
sight-reading

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When We Have to Write…
 Student writing is not
improving at an acceptable
rate.
 Music and art teachers are
being asked to administer
writing prompts to their
students.
 When we have to write, make
sure that the student writing
contributes to the curricular
goals of the fine arts program.
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Writing Effective Prompts
by Jana Scott, Central RPDC
A. Set the stage or tell the situation
B. Give suggestions for how to think about the
topic
C. Identify the audience or purpose and give
clues as to the writing being elicited



Narrative: tell, describe
Expository: describe, explain
Persuasive: convince, persuade
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Expository Example
(A) Audience behavior expectations are
different for school concerts and “arena”
concerts.
(B) Students need to learn what is acceptable
behavior at various types of performances.
(C) Write an essay that explains to younger
students how to act at a school concert.
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Assessing Student Writing
 Music and art teachers should use the same
scoring guide/criteria as the English teachers
use.
 Work with English teachers to learn how to
use the scoring guide, and ask for their help
the first few times you use it.
 Show students that effective writing is
expected not only in English class, but also in
music and art class.
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Using 6 Traits to Assess
Ideas
The heart of the message, the content,
main theme, and details
Organization
Internal structure, central meaning, logical
pattern
Voice
Unique perspective of the writer
Word Choice
Use of rich, colorful, precise language
Sentence Fluency Rhythm and flow of language, sound of
word patterns
Conventions
Mechanical correctness, spelling, grammar
and usage, punctuation
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Graphic Organizers
 Graphic organizers are anything where
students represent information visually:
1. Venn Diagrams
2. T-charts
3. Tables
4. Flow charts/time lines
5. Pictographs
6. Pie charts
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MAP Test = Graphic Organizers
 On ALL communication arts MAP tests,
students will be asked to create or fill in a
graphic organizer.
 In lower grades, the ability to make sense of
the graphic organizer provided is a common
struggle.
 The ability to comprehend, create and use
tables, charts and other graphic organizers is
critical to student success.
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DESE Resources
 Scoring Guides and Released Items used to
assess student writing:
http://www.dese.mo.gov/divimprove/curriculum/
newwebpages/commarts.html
 Assessment webpage with specific MAP data:
http://www.dese.mo.gov/divimprove/assess/
 Curriculum webpage for GLEs:
http://www.dese.mo.gov/divimprove/curriculum/
GLE/
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Evaluations
Please take a few
moments to complete
an evaluation for this
workshop.
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Thank You!
Steve Williams, Fine Arts Consultant
MO Department of Education
Ph: (573) 751-2857
E-mail: [email protected]
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