Young, Week 3 Blog

Boy oh Boy: That section said "Blog AND respond to two peer blogs...oops! At least I did 1/2...giggle. As of today 10 lesson plans, two article reviews, and 15 items in my resource list are done. Presentations are being thought about. I have to admit I am a little nervous about putting something on youtube....yikes! I am not necessarily scared to film myself, yet I almost feel I am going to look fake live.  I have thoughts about making an adapted lesson plan off of a lesson plan already created.  So often music teachers ask me how to adapt the music curriculum for children with intellectual disabilities.   I thought about recording myself using the software Boardmaker to show how music/non music instructions can be adapted.

Young, Assignment 3

iPod:  A technological marvel that can store thousands of songs and allows you to retrieve them almost instantly. In the classroom, this can be used to quickly and easily provide musical examples of different genres, performance methods, a genre “history” (listening to older songs and comparing them to newer songs of the same genre), etc.  In a therapeutic setting, the iPod is useful for allowing the therapist to easily provide the right genre of music for the goals of the therapy; for example, one hospice client might prefer a certain genre versus another hospice client.  While the music therapist does her best to play/sing as many of the preferred songs as possible using instruments/voice, it is impossible to know all songs from all genres; the iPod can provide those songs for the client.

Digital recorder:  In the classroom, the educator can record the student playing a instrument or singing, and then afterwards play the recording back to the student in order to provide proper feedback.  In the therapeutic setting, a digital recorder will record an intervention, which allows the therapist to help determine if progress is being made towards a goal and allows for the sharing of the intervention with parents, teachers, and other therapists.

Boardmaker software:  Boardmaker is sort of an advanced “clip-art” software that creates a “picture language” similar to sign language.  In the classroom and in a therapeutic setting, this software is invaluable for communicating with students/clients that are non-verbal or struggle with expressive language.  This is what is engaging about this software - how music can be expressed in pictures. 

For example, if a student with a disability is in the audience, the performer on stage could use Boardmaker to meet the needs of their audience.

 

Electronic keyboard:  This technology allows both the educator and therapist to have the ability to “play” an instrument without actually playing the instrument.  For example, when a client wishes to hear harp music, it is often impractical to bring a harp to the therapy session and the therapist might not be able to play it.  The keyboard can be easily switched to “harp” and the therapist can fulfill the client’s wishes.

Finale software:  Finale is a wonderful piece of software that allows the user to compose music.  In the classroom, this can be used by the student to compose music without actually being able to play an instrument; Finale plays the composed music back. 

Young, Assignment 1

Compare:

At first glance, the 9 National Standards appear to have Bloom’s Taxonomy as a “backbone” for the musical development of a K-12 student.  Standards 4, 5, 6 and 7 could be classified as knowledge-based; note the common descriptive words for these standards and Bloom’s 1^st domain:  create; identify; explain; demonstrate; and use.  Standards 1, 2, and 3 could be classified as skill-based, and while “sing,” “perform,” and “improvise” are not specifically listed in Bloom’s 3^rd domain examples, there are references to “performing” and “performance” in the category descriptions. Standards 7, 8, and 9 could be classified as attitude-based; again, while specific key words are not among the examples for Bloom’s 2^nd domain, there are references to attitudes regarding culture and being an active listener in the category descriptions.

Contrast:

The obvious contrast is that there are numerous key words from Bloom’s 3 learning types that “cross-over” between the classifications listed above.  This suggests that the standards don’t necessarily use Bloom’s Taxonomy as a “backbone,” but more like an “inspiration” towards giving the K-12 student a “balanced, comprehensive, and sequential” musical experience.  Another relatively obvious contrast is that the standards are specifically written to define learning goals for a musical experience, where the taxonomy defines learning styles for any non-specific educational experience.