Teaching Academic Skills Through the Exploration of Music
Sloan Edward Williams III
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At the high school level, students can accomplish a lot that will prepare them for later life. The high school music teacher might be teaching a very specific course in music in which he or she might ask students to orchestrate a film score for other instrumentalists in the same class. The assignment might include a central type of characterization like
fear
. If students have the music and writing skills, they could write in the style of another film or other composer. Goals, strategies and objectives for these grade levels are as follows:
Strategies, Goals and Objectives
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1. Pre-screening and musical activities should only take one class at the most. Explain the structure of your class and give them a list of films and books to choose from, reminding them that music will also be studied during the course of your unit.
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2. Pass out a journal for them to use for the course. Each student should have a section for music, art, film, literature and personal observations. Give students a syllabus with a list of choices, so that they can make selections for the next class of two.
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3. Towards the mid-point of your unit, you might want to have each student bring to class his or her favorite film clip. They should be prepared to give an analysis of the main idea, theme, musical characteristics, and film devices used in the film clip.
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4. If electronic musical instruments are available, students might write their own mood music to a short video created by another class.
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5. Find a studio musician, scientist and actor to visit the class or provide materials that enhance student awareness of central concepts being presented.
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6. Make a list of other resources for the students to use.
Special Students
Special students that use this curriculum unit benefit greatly due to the use of more than one discipline or the interdisciplinary approach. The student that is either physically or emotionally challenged has more occasions to comprehend, processs, and retain the information presented. For the exceptionally gifted or talented student, this approach can be adapted to support the most inquiring of minds in search of a creative and educational feast. Teachers that teach special students can adapt the goals, objectives, and strategies from the range of the above listed approaches that best relate to the needs of their students.
This might be as follows:
1. Observation Skills
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a. Each student might keep a journal of just what they might see in films being viewed, scientific facts observed, historical facts learned, the technology either being used or developed, etc.
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b. For early grades (K-5), the teacher might want to simplify or bring into closer focus need areas to observe for each student.
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c. Each student should be able to trace the increase in his or her awareness of your stated objectives for the class.
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2. Listening skills
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a. Students should make a list of songs that they like and dislike at the beginning of your teaching unit and then make another list of songs at the end of your teaching unit. Have them comment on how their listening may have changed over the course of study.
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b. Each student might log into different lists music skills, hearing skills, and combined skills covered after each session, either as home work or as a review at the beginning of the next lesson.
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c. For grades (K-5), keep whatever the music skill learned fun and simple for each lesson.
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3. Documentation Skills
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a. The teacher might set up each lesson plan in a way that both observation and listening skills grow with good documentation skills at the end of each lesson.
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b. Each student might be given a booklet that has a section for each area covered:
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I OBSERVATIONS, OR {THINGS THAT I SAW IN TODAY’S LESSON}
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II LISTENING SKILLS, OR {THINGS THAT I HEARD IN TODAY’S LESSON}
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III HISTORICAL FACTS, OR {WHAT I LEARNED ABOUT THE HISTORY OF——}
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IV MUSICAL FACTS, OR {WHAT I LEARNED ABOUT MUSIC IN TODAY’S LESSON}
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V VOCABULARY WORDS, {NEW WORDS THAT I LEARNED IN TODAYS LESSON}
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VI FILM FACTS, {WHAT I LEARNED ABOUT FILM TODAY}
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VII SCIENTIFIC FACTS, {WHAT I HAVE LEARNED ABOUT MATH, NUMBERS, SCIENTIFIC METHOD, WEATHER, ENVIRONMENT}
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At the beginning of the unit the teacher might tell the students which section to write in. Toward the middle of teaching the unit your students should begin to select the section to write in independently.
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c. Each lesson should have a central theme or concept to be entered and documented in different areas at the end of the lesson. (The teacher might want to start off with each discipline as a single subject and gradually integrate the disciplines as they approach the end of their unit, as the needs of the students might dictate).