Documentos de Académico
Documentos de Profesional
Documentos de Cultura
Discussion
Introduction
The idea for this study came from wanting my students to take charge and become
of teaching music, students often fall into the trap of trying to mimic what the instructor,
or other students around them are doing rather than taking an active approach to their
learning how to perform a song. While teaching and learning by rote in the music
experiences it can lead to boredom and lackluster performances. Teaching students solely
by rote also does them a disservice by not providing the tools they need to be successful
in their own learning of musical skills, and fails to teach them how to problem solve (a
necessary 21st century skill). Getting more students to take an active approach to their
learning in any music classroom will also help to move the group forward significantly in
skill level and level of performance. Knowing that deeper meaning of a subject can be
gained by making multiple connections to other areas, the researcher developed a theory
that students would perform better in a music classroom by bringing in techniques that
Cranmore (2015) suggests that it may be beneficial for music and math teachers
to form strong partnerships and even co-teach music and math concepts that are related to
reinforce concepts in both areas of study. The researcher found that talking with one of
our math teachers at the middle school about how to apply strategies from her room to
mine was extremely beneficial. There were some really cool experiences in applying the
use of area models to what a certain rhythm might look like. In the researchers
classroom teaching, the perception was that students got a deeper understanding of how
to perform unfamiliar rhythms. Using area models also helped to reinforce counting
techniques that the researcher have used since the beginning of teaching, along with
clarifying why certain rhythms are counted the way that they are.
During one class period, my students were working on a passage of music that we
had not gone over a whole lot in class in a tune called Entry of the Tumblers. It was not
a particularly difficult passage, but it was just not coming together. Students were going
different tempos and not holding notes for their full values, or holding them too long; it
was sonic chaos. The researcher was able to draw an area model on the board and let the
class know that this is what the violin 1 part would look like. The researcher was able to
connect that area model to one that showed what the second violins and violas were
doing at the same time. The researcher was able to then connect both of those to one that
showed what the cellos and basses were doing. When we went to play through the
passage again, it just clicked, and suddenly the students were able to perform it
accurately. This had a huge impact on the level of student success during the class period,
Essex (2012) emphasizes that Music content is not sacrificed with the integration
of [reading] strategies. On the contrary, utilizing effective reading strategies enhances the
content of the music classroom (Essex, 2012, p. 89). When handing out a new piece of
music to the class, the researcher gave the students class time to use text-coding strategies
to analyze the new music. This generally led to longer and deeper class discussions about
the music before even playing through it. This gave insight about what the students
already knew, along with what they did not know, or might need more review of. It
empowered the students to guide their own learning of a piece by asking about what was
unfamiliar to them, and allowed the more experienced musicians to share what they
already knew with their fellow classmates. While the discussions took some time, the
time for students to be able to perform a piece of music as a whole group was
significantly less. Songs that might normally take 3-4 class periods to get through were
performed with a fair level of accuracy in 1-2 class periods. The researcher also noticed
that the students level of motivation to carefully engage in the activity dropped off the
more they had been using these text-coding techniques as a whole group. On a string
orchestra version of In the Hall of the Mountain King the students spent more time
visiting with their neighbors than being engaged in the text coding process when given
class time to do so. The conversation about the music itself was extremely short, and few
questions were asked about what was unknown to the students or what might be difficult
on the sheet music (this was by far the most difficult piece that the students had
encountered at this point in the year). When the students played the piece for the first
time, the melody was barely recognizable, and a number of students were playing at
slower or faster tempos than the rest of the class. During the next class period, we took
class time to go back and use text-coding strategies again. The researcher let them know
that from looking at their sheet music it was clear that they had taken little care in their
analysis. After a longer and more in-depth discussion of the piece, the students attempted
to perform the song again. While this run-through was far from perfect, the students were
mostly together with each other, and the melody could be recognized. The students
agreed that their performance of the piece had gone much more smoothly after doing a
In adding a writing component into choir rehearsals, Cohen (2012) found that this
allowed the instructor to develop individualized instruction for her members. Cohen
(2012) was able to find out questions that members had about what was talked about in
the rehearsal if they did not quite grasp a certain concept or idea. In the researchers study
parallels were found with text coding opening the door to more student-centered learning
in individual and small group lessons. Even when students were unsure of what they
needed help with, the researcher was able to look at a students sheet music and base
what was done off of what was seen in the students annotations.
While it is happening outside of the time constraints of this study, the researcher
noticed a higher level, as a whole, of students preparation for their solo/ensemble pieces.
where they prepare a piece of music over the course of a few weeks to prepare in front of
a judge. The judge then gives them feedback and rates their performance based on a
rubric created by the Wisconsin School Music Association. While the researcher helps
students prepare their pieces, one of the goals is to be pretty hands off with the students in
their learning of the pieces. In this way, the students are truly showing what they know
and are able to do with their knowledge. Each year it feels like a struggle with many solos
and small groups to get the students prepared. This year, the researcher noted that
students have been preparing their pieces on their own, extremely accurately in
comparison to other years and the hope is that this study has empowered them to do so by
being able to analyze their music and break it down in ways that have not been used in
Cross-Curricular Collaboration
Rogers (2004) suggests that while one does not have to be a mathematician in
order to explain connections to students, music teachers may want to consult with math
teachers, but do not necessarily need to team teach with them in order for a lesson to be
successful. The researcher had a lot of fun collaborating with one of our middle school
math teachers. It was made apparent that she was apprehensive at first about
collaborating, and for a while she did not think that any of the strategies she was giving
were going to be of any help. Once the researcher started sharing stories about how area
models were being used in the teaching of rhythms and the effect it was having on the
instruction, she was really excited to be a part of what we were doing and our
The researcher had hoped that the students would see how interrelated music was
to both math and reading. Unfortunately, it is not apparent that the researcher was overly
successful in this realm as a number of surveys showed that students saw absolutely no
relationship among the three subject areas. While the researcher may not have been
satisfying to read because of the commonalities they saw among the disciplines. On one
of the survey questions asking students how they thought music and math were similar or
different, one student remarked, In math, we can learn to read calculations, formulas,
and fractions/decimals. In orchestra, we have to know whole, half, and quarter notes. All
of which are fractions. Another student said, Each note has a number of beats you need
to play, you can add them together to make bigger ones. Also, music is like a big equation
to me. While student perceptions of the relationship between reading and music did not
change, student comments tended to focus on the act of reading itself rather than the text
coding and annotation aspects. Had the question on the survey been reworded to include
Music teachers looking to work across the curriculum could also do well in
working with science and social studies teachers. Plenty of music has been written over
developed with social studies teachers that might create student buy-in to a piece of
music based on its background even if the student doesnt necessarily like how the piece
sounds. Lessons could also be developed with science teachers around the science of
sound. This could be extremely beneficial in the string orchestra room in getting students
to figure out unfamiliar notes for themselves if they were able to understand how finger
Conclusion
While this study did not definitively prove the value of teaching reading and math
strategies in the music classroom, it was apparent that with a little bit of collaboration
time with other teachers, the researcher was able to better my teaching in my classroom.
The researcher found that using the simple reading strategy of text coding gave my
students another tool to be analytical with new music, and allowed them to lead the
conversation about what they needed to know to be successful. Using area models
provided the researcher with a tool to make teaching counting and performance of