Eighth Reflection Part 2: Annotated Bibliography on Serris
This article addresses the same topics I talked about in my last reflection. The topic being, singling out one student for being different and dressing that as if theres a problem with that student. This is the issue of the idea of normalcy in society and especially in schools. Some of the main points I would like to highlight from this article are all regarding normalcy.
"Creates the illusion that a “normal” way of living/acting/being actually exists.
Forces compulsion to be “like everyone else”.
Puts emphasis on people to “overcome a disability” rather than seeking societal changes.
Makes people believe that everyone wants to be “Normal,” because their life must be full of suffering."
(Serres)
Serres, D. Think Everything’s “Normal?” Then It’s Time To Reconsider And Promote A New Narrative Of Disability. Retrieved from http://organizingchange.org/think-everythings-normal-then-its-time-to-reconsider-and-promote-a-new-narrative-of-disability/
"Creates the illusion that a “normal” way of living/acting/being actually exists.
Forces compulsion to be “like everyone else”.
Puts emphasis on people to “overcome a disability” rather than seeking societal changes.
Makes people believe that everyone wants to be “Normal,” because their life must be full of suffering."
(Serres)
Serres, D. Think Everything’s “Normal?” Then It’s Time To Reconsider And Promote A New Narrative Of Disability. Retrieved from http://organizingchange.org/think-everythings-normal-then-its-time-to-reconsider-and-promote-a-new-narrative-of-disability/
Eighth Reflection Part 1: Annotated bibliography on Hourigan
This weeks first article was about the "invisible student", which I found to be a rather rude term to give the student who has trouble fitting in. The article is divided into sections, gives an example of a student named Jason, in typical situations where he doesn't fit in with other students, and then gives solutions to fix the issue in Jason's particular situation, and perhaps in other situations as well but only in situations like this. Basically the article outlines traditional strategies for an ever evolving and changing problem. For example,in the last section titled, "Music Brings Joy", talks about masons experience and how his band experience was and right under it in the following paragraph, it reads "I hope that ensemble directors and music teachers will ask themselves the following questions, 1) Do I have an invisible student in my ensemble? and 2) what am I doing in my ensembles to promote social identity, construction, acceptance and tolerance?" (Hourigan 2009), the first question bothers me because its promoting teachers to pick out the students that are going to be their problem and immediately try and use these solutions to fix a problem they try not to be a part of.
Hourigan, R. M. (2009). The invisible student: Understanding social identity construction within performing ensembles. Music Educators Journal, 34-38.
Hourigan, R. M. (2009). The invisible student: Understanding social identity construction within performing ensembles. Music Educators Journal, 34-38.
Seventh Reflection: Annotated Bibliography on Dollof
This weeks article puzzled me. I found it very different from the content we've ben reading thus far, however it was quite insightful as to whats happening in the north of our country. I found that as Dolloff writes about how the south of Canada views the north of Canada, it made me reflect on my own thoughts about what northern Canada is like.
"The Southern Canadian quest for a definition of Canadian identity often views the North as an empty, unpeopled extension of the South. A vision in white that defines us, but which most of us will never visit. We have Romantic notions from the work of the Art of the Group of Seven, poems and novels about icebergs, polar bears and parkas. We think of ourselves as a winter people, the Arctic being the epitome of that winter. Any people that live there we consider still live in igloos as they were pre`contact, or living on welfare, drunk and hunting.—or maybe carving soapstone and eating seal " (Dolloff, 2015). This excerpt from the article is exactly what I'm talking about, most of Canada's south is thought to have no clue what its like in the Territories. I am the type of person that has a father that loves watching television shows about Alaska and people living in the mountains, this is basically how I see the north, which is most likely wrong, but theres no widely known information out there that tells people otherwise so this is how I imagine most of us see the north, which is an unhealthy way to view our own country in my opinion, because its that kind of thinking that creates hostility between peoples.
Dolloff, L. (2015) A Quallunaaq on Baffin Island: A Canadian experience of decolonizing the teacher. Forthcoming In Bartleet, B.L., Bennett, D., Power, A. & Sunderland, N. (Eds.). Arts-based service learning with First Peoples – Towards respectful and mutually beneficial educational practices. NY: Springer Publishing.
"The Southern Canadian quest for a definition of Canadian identity often views the North as an empty, unpeopled extension of the South. A vision in white that defines us, but which most of us will never visit. We have Romantic notions from the work of the Art of the Group of Seven, poems and novels about icebergs, polar bears and parkas. We think of ourselves as a winter people, the Arctic being the epitome of that winter. Any people that live there we consider still live in igloos as they were pre`contact, or living on welfare, drunk and hunting.—or maybe carving soapstone and eating seal " (Dolloff, 2015). This excerpt from the article is exactly what I'm talking about, most of Canada's south is thought to have no clue what its like in the Territories. I am the type of person that has a father that loves watching television shows about Alaska and people living in the mountains, this is basically how I see the north, which is most likely wrong, but theres no widely known information out there that tells people otherwise so this is how I imagine most of us see the north, which is an unhealthy way to view our own country in my opinion, because its that kind of thinking that creates hostility between peoples.
Dolloff, L. (2015) A Quallunaaq on Baffin Island: A Canadian experience of decolonizing the teacher. Forthcoming In Bartleet, B.L., Bennett, D., Power, A. & Sunderland, N. (Eds.). Arts-based service learning with First Peoples – Towards respectful and mutually beneficial educational practices. NY: Springer Publishing.
Sixth Reflection: Annotated Bibliography on Tobias
The Tobias article was very engaging for me. I enjoyed the idea that was presented about re-thinking music class and asking how the students can use their skills from class to engage in society. I also found table 1 particularly interesting because it outlined many of the ways music is integrated into society, and everything that students do with music.
Re-thinking Music Class
Although the article doesn't talk about rethinking music class, that is how I would respond to this question. In the article, in the Pedagogies of Participatory Culture section, Tobias writes, "Moving toward convergence and participatory culture takes more than simply adding on to what currently exists in a program or creating separate classes for these ways of learning and doing music." I agree with this statement because I believe that there needs to be a paradigm shift in music classes, rather than an addition on to what is already there. I also believe that this shift should happen slowly, rather than the "cold turkey" approach to change, because that would only upset the system and it would throw students off track from what they're learning.
All The Ways Music Happens
In Table 1, Tobias shows most if not all of the ways that music happens, I say happens because of the nature of some of the musical activities. This was interesting to read for me because some of these things I've seen outside of schools and class but never thought about them as possible things to do in a classroom setting. I am including table 1 in my reflection to show all of the different things, may of which I could imagine could be class projects and things like that.
Covering
Individuals or groups performing replications or variations of original songs, sometimes in new musical contexts (“cover”; name of an instrument, e.g., “flute”)
Arranging
Reorchestrating an original work for new musical contexts, often making use of computer music applications (“arrangement”)
Parodying
Performing live or produced versions, altering lyrics or video to poke fun at the original (“parody”)
Satirizing
Performing live or produced versions, altering the lyrics or video to comment on society or express one’s lived experience (“satire,” “parody”)
Multitracking
Producing versions that layer multiple audio and video parts performed by an individual or groups and visually displaying the parts being performed (“multitrack,” “a capella”)
Remixing
Producing versions that maintain the original work’s essence while adding musical content to change the context or genre, typically with technology (“remix”)
Sample-based producing
Producing or performing different music by repeating, manipulating, or reordering musical content (samples) of the original (“beat,” “instrumental”)
Creating mash-ups
Combining elements of the original with one or more different songs through juxtapositions, or less traditionally segueing between them, to create new composites and offer new ways of hearing the originals (“mash-up”)
Creating tutorials
Creating videos to teach others how to perform or produce the original (“tutorial,” “how to play”)
Remediating
Using original music as content for other media, such as videos or choreography (“choreography,” “dance,” “machinima,” “animation,” “film,” or “fanfic”)
Commenting and discussing
Sharing comments and feedback related to original works, versions resulting from any of the preceding practices, or comments of others via social media, such as Twitter and Facebook, blogs, and website comment sections (“comment,” “discuss”)
Tobias, E. S. (2013). Toward convergence: Adapting music education to contemporary society and participatory culture. Music Educators Journal, 99(4), 29-36. doi: 10.1177/0027432113483318
Re-thinking Music Class
Although the article doesn't talk about rethinking music class, that is how I would respond to this question. In the article, in the Pedagogies of Participatory Culture section, Tobias writes, "Moving toward convergence and participatory culture takes more than simply adding on to what currently exists in a program or creating separate classes for these ways of learning and doing music." I agree with this statement because I believe that there needs to be a paradigm shift in music classes, rather than an addition on to what is already there. I also believe that this shift should happen slowly, rather than the "cold turkey" approach to change, because that would only upset the system and it would throw students off track from what they're learning.
All The Ways Music Happens
In Table 1, Tobias shows most if not all of the ways that music happens, I say happens because of the nature of some of the musical activities. This was interesting to read for me because some of these things I've seen outside of schools and class but never thought about them as possible things to do in a classroom setting. I am including table 1 in my reflection to show all of the different things, may of which I could imagine could be class projects and things like that.
Covering
Individuals or groups performing replications or variations of original songs, sometimes in new musical contexts (“cover”; name of an instrument, e.g., “flute”)
Arranging
Reorchestrating an original work for new musical contexts, often making use of computer music applications (“arrangement”)
Parodying
Performing live or produced versions, altering lyrics or video to poke fun at the original (“parody”)
Satirizing
Performing live or produced versions, altering the lyrics or video to comment on society or express one’s lived experience (“satire,” “parody”)
Multitracking
Producing versions that layer multiple audio and video parts performed by an individual or groups and visually displaying the parts being performed (“multitrack,” “a capella”)
Remixing
Producing versions that maintain the original work’s essence while adding musical content to change the context or genre, typically with technology (“remix”)
Sample-based producing
Producing or performing different music by repeating, manipulating, or reordering musical content (samples) of the original (“beat,” “instrumental”)
Creating mash-ups
Combining elements of the original with one or more different songs through juxtapositions, or less traditionally segueing between them, to create new composites and offer new ways of hearing the originals (“mash-up”)
Creating tutorials
Creating videos to teach others how to perform or produce the original (“tutorial,” “how to play”)
Remediating
Using original music as content for other media, such as videos or choreography (“choreography,” “dance,” “machinima,” “animation,” “film,” or “fanfic”)
Commenting and discussing
Sharing comments and feedback related to original works, versions resulting from any of the preceding practices, or comments of others via social media, such as Twitter and Facebook, blogs, and website comment sections (“comment,” “discuss”)
Tobias, E. S. (2013). Toward convergence: Adapting music education to contemporary society and participatory culture. Music Educators Journal, 99(4), 29-36. doi: 10.1177/0027432113483318
Fifth Reflection: Annotated Bibliography on Hickey
This was an extremely interesting article to me. I am a huge fan of jazz improvisation as well as improvisation and composition as a learning technique and teaching method. One thing I found interesting in this article was the idea from page 9 (292) that was about balance being needed between improv and learning traditional skills. Another thing I found interesting was the idea of free improvisation on page 11 (294).
Balance
The first idea I'd like to talk about is the idea of balance while learning improvisation. Balance being between learning technical skills and learning how to improvise. I believe that balance is a good philosophy to have when teaching anything, or doing anything for that matter. Balance was an important thing to keep in mind for me when I was learning how to improvise. I learned from two different teachers, and when i say learned from, I do not mean that they taught me their ways of improvising, I mean that they helped me learn on my own. Part of helping me learn on my own was helping me balance my technical skills with improvising and how to use them to my advantage, rather than get frustrated.
Free Improvisation
The idea of free improvisation caught my attention in this article. I had mainly thought of improvisation as mainly a concept in jazz music. This idea of freedom made me think of composition, which can also be used as a teaching technique, but cannot really be taught in a universal way, much like most of music in schools.
Balance
The first idea I'd like to talk about is the idea of balance while learning improvisation. Balance being between learning technical skills and learning how to improvise. I believe that balance is a good philosophy to have when teaching anything, or doing anything for that matter. Balance was an important thing to keep in mind for me when I was learning how to improvise. I learned from two different teachers, and when i say learned from, I do not mean that they taught me their ways of improvising, I mean that they helped me learn on my own. Part of helping me learn on my own was helping me balance my technical skills with improvising and how to use them to my advantage, rather than get frustrated.
Free Improvisation
The idea of free improvisation caught my attention in this article. I had mainly thought of improvisation as mainly a concept in jazz music. This idea of freedom made me think of composition, which can also be used as a teaching technique, but cannot really be taught in a universal way, much like most of music in schools.
Fourth Reflection: Annotated Bibliography on Eisner
The main things that stood out to me in this weeks article were: 1) a comment about standardizing education and what it reinforces, and 2) a quote that states “the mind and the senses are one not two”.
Standardized Testing
The first quote I found compelling in this article was this: “The idea that education is best served by standardizing method, content, goals and evaluation procedures leads to another consequence. It tends to convert education into a race. Those who achieve goals the most quickly win” (Eisner, 1998). I found this quote rather insightful as to the results of using standardized testing in schools. My thoughts on standardized testing are that it helps some kinds of learners, but not others; also, that it only tests objective subjects. This quote states that standardized testing turns educations into a race. This made me think that Eisner is suggesting that there is a hierarchy in learners as there was thought to be in races in past years.
One Not Two
The second quote I liked was: “The separation, this dichotomy, is philosophically naive, psychologically ill-conceived, and educationally mischievous. There is no competent work of the hand that does not depend on the competent use of the mind. The mind and senses are one, not two” (Eisner, 1998). The most important part of this quote to me was the latter bit, “The mind and senses are one not two.” This caught my attention because it pertains to the issue of educators prioritizing the mind over the body, which means that the hierarchy I mentioned earlier is between the “traditional” learners, who are thought to be superior and the kinaesthetic learners, who are often mocked. This concept in practice is useless to society, because things that are to be made, need to be made, not thought of.
Reference
Eisner, E. (1998). The kind of schools we need: Personal essays. Portsmouth NH: Heinemann
Standardized Testing
The first quote I found compelling in this article was this: “The idea that education is best served by standardizing method, content, goals and evaluation procedures leads to another consequence. It tends to convert education into a race. Those who achieve goals the most quickly win” (Eisner, 1998). I found this quote rather insightful as to the results of using standardized testing in schools. My thoughts on standardized testing are that it helps some kinds of learners, but not others; also, that it only tests objective subjects. This quote states that standardized testing turns educations into a race. This made me think that Eisner is suggesting that there is a hierarchy in learners as there was thought to be in races in past years.
One Not Two
The second quote I liked was: “The separation, this dichotomy, is philosophically naive, psychologically ill-conceived, and educationally mischievous. There is no competent work of the hand that does not depend on the competent use of the mind. The mind and senses are one, not two” (Eisner, 1998). The most important part of this quote to me was the latter bit, “The mind and senses are one not two.” This caught my attention because it pertains to the issue of educators prioritizing the mind over the body, which means that the hierarchy I mentioned earlier is between the “traditional” learners, who are thought to be superior and the kinaesthetic learners, who are often mocked. This concept in practice is useless to society, because things that are to be made, need to be made, not thought of.
Reference
Eisner, E. (1998). The kind of schools we need: Personal essays. Portsmouth NH: Heinemann
Third Reflection: Annotated Bibliography on Veblen
Points from this article that really caught my attention in this article were: 1) a shift from old music to new music in church communities and 2) community music schools only being available for the privileged because of cost.
Old to New in Church
This article made an interesting point about Religious-Based Community Music, saying that society is becoming more secular and divided, and as a result of that, forming the “Praise Band, with new facilities that support a huge stage, band pit, electronic keyboard, drums, and electric guitars replacing the traditional music of Christian-based churches that usually centred on an organ and choir loft” (Veblen, 2012). I found this to be an interesting shift in the way that people think of worship because music for worship used to be so carefully arranged and simple and now it is more free and modern in some societies. In reading this I am reminded of my own experiences with church music in high school, I attended a Catholic high school and was required to attend mass once a month with the student body. Words the end of my five years there, I noticed a shift of worship music from being largely from the old hen books, to being from newer composers of worship music, this validates the point in the article about this shift from old to new.
Private for the Privileged
Another point that was made in this article that interested me was that community music schools are often reserved for the privileged, those who can afford it. I found this to be an unfortunate reality and a problem that cannot be so simply solved. However, this private instruction through community music is the “foundation for Canada’s professional performers in the classical genre” (Veblen, 2012).
Reference
Veblen, K.K. (2012). Community music making: Challenging the stereotypes of traditional music education. In C.A. Beynon & K.K. Veblen (Eds.). Critical perspectives in Canadian music education. Waterloo, ON: Wilfrid Laurier University Press.
Old to New in Church
This article made an interesting point about Religious-Based Community Music, saying that society is becoming more secular and divided, and as a result of that, forming the “Praise Band, with new facilities that support a huge stage, band pit, electronic keyboard, drums, and electric guitars replacing the traditional music of Christian-based churches that usually centred on an organ and choir loft” (Veblen, 2012). I found this to be an interesting shift in the way that people think of worship because music for worship used to be so carefully arranged and simple and now it is more free and modern in some societies. In reading this I am reminded of my own experiences with church music in high school, I attended a Catholic high school and was required to attend mass once a month with the student body. Words the end of my five years there, I noticed a shift of worship music from being largely from the old hen books, to being from newer composers of worship music, this validates the point in the article about this shift from old to new.
Private for the Privileged
Another point that was made in this article that interested me was that community music schools are often reserved for the privileged, those who can afford it. I found this to be an unfortunate reality and a problem that cannot be so simply solved. However, this private instruction through community music is the “foundation for Canada’s professional performers in the classical genre” (Veblen, 2012).
Reference
Veblen, K.K. (2012). Community music making: Challenging the stereotypes of traditional music education. In C.A. Beynon & K.K. Veblen (Eds.). Critical perspectives in Canadian music education. Waterloo, ON: Wilfrid Laurier University Press.
Second Reflection: Annotated Bibliography on Bowman
Some things that stood out to me in this article were firstly: Popular studies in music need to be included in the core curriculum and secondly: the utter lack of ability to define what popular music actually is.
Integrating Popular Studies
Bowman believes that bringing popular music studies into the curriculum as a core focus is what needs to happen, and we need to not worry so much about maintaining the old style and old way of teaching music. Saying that “the problems created by excluding popular music far outweigh the perils of including it” (Bowman, 2004), it is clear that there is a solid belief out there for incorporating popular studies into the music curriculum. In my opinion, there should absolutely be popular music included, however, to implement it properly, it would have to be integrated into primary music and completely separate in the secondary level, with enough cross-over to switch freely between do both popular and classical studies. I believe that this would create an interest in young kids and teens that classical music studies does not, but would still provide the opportunity because this does not mean that classical music studies should by any means be phased out.
Defining Popular Music
The problem with “popular” music is that theres is no solid definition for what it is exactly, which in turn makes it even more difficult to pinpoint what exactly should be included in the curriculum. Furthermore, the way popular music is perceived could be different to different people in the same way people view classical music. For example, there are many genres that can be considered “popular music” such as dance music, hip hop or alternative; in the same way that within the genre that most people identify as classical, there is baroque, romantic and renaissance music. I believe that this lack of ability to define music is a large issue that is difficult to address, and if it addressed properly, that definition will only be relevant as long as popular music stays the same, and with music changing and developing all the time, it most certainly will not be relevant for long.
Reference
Wayne D. Bowman, Wayne D. (2004). "Pop" goes ...? Taking popular music seriously “ In Rodrigues, C. (Ed.). Bridging the gap: Popular music and music education. US: MENC.
Integrating Popular Studies
Bowman believes that bringing popular music studies into the curriculum as a core focus is what needs to happen, and we need to not worry so much about maintaining the old style and old way of teaching music. Saying that “the problems created by excluding popular music far outweigh the perils of including it” (Bowman, 2004), it is clear that there is a solid belief out there for incorporating popular studies into the music curriculum. In my opinion, there should absolutely be popular music included, however, to implement it properly, it would have to be integrated into primary music and completely separate in the secondary level, with enough cross-over to switch freely between do both popular and classical studies. I believe that this would create an interest in young kids and teens that classical music studies does not, but would still provide the opportunity because this does not mean that classical music studies should by any means be phased out.
Defining Popular Music
The problem with “popular” music is that theres is no solid definition for what it is exactly, which in turn makes it even more difficult to pinpoint what exactly should be included in the curriculum. Furthermore, the way popular music is perceived could be different to different people in the same way people view classical music. For example, there are many genres that can be considered “popular music” such as dance music, hip hop or alternative; in the same way that within the genre that most people identify as classical, there is baroque, romantic and renaissance music. I believe that this lack of ability to define music is a large issue that is difficult to address, and if it addressed properly, that definition will only be relevant as long as popular music stays the same, and with music changing and developing all the time, it most certainly will not be relevant for long.
Reference
Wayne D. Bowman, Wayne D. (2004). "Pop" goes ...? Taking popular music seriously “ In Rodrigues, C. (Ed.). Bridging the gap: Popular music and music education. US: MENC.
Teaching Videos
This video spoke to me because of how versatile this concept is. All that the speaker (Bobby McFerrin) is teaching is the pentatonic scale, using this unique method, he jumps from note to note as the audience responds with the pitch. What I found most interesting was that the audience responded without even being taught. Which leads me to wonder about this teaching method, if he could get an entire audience to sing back to him, I could use the same type of method in a class setting.
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Okay, so obviously this isn't exactly real, but i think there is still a lesson to be learned from this clip. The teacher gets so fired up about these kids playing music. He gets them all to play something different and exciting thats not exactly traditional. This speaks to the pressing issue that musical education is falling behind in relevance and that there needs to be more modern opportunities for music education, and also more than one type of music class implemented in schools.
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First Reflection: Annotated Bibliography on Kratus
From this article, some of the things I took away were: 1) the lack of formal education in music among music teachers and 2) the fact that among the arts, music has the highest decline in enrolment.
Lack of Formal Education Among Music Educators
The fact that in “a May 2005 report conducted for the Coalition for Music Education in Canada” (Kratus, 2007), “fully one-half of the schools surveyed employed at least one music teacher who did not possess a provincial teaching certificate in music”(Kratus, 2007) astounded me. This report was done in 2005, and therefore the stats about this topic may have changed, however the utter lack of formal music education in teachers would have affected a large part of the generation attending school at the time, which is unfortunate for that group of people who experienced that level of unprofessionalism in the school system.
The lack of properly educated music teachers may have been a large cause of declining enrolment in music programs. In a traditional music class setting at the high school level, a teacher who is not familiar with things like conducting, instructing proper playing technique, and instrument care, would be in over their head. This would possibly lead to changes in the course curriculum, to something more user-friendly to teach, leading to a diluted and unstimulating musical experience.
Highest Enrolment Decline Among the Arts
I was puzzled with the knowledge that “during the five-year period that participation in school music programs dropped by half” (Kratus, 2007) in California, the other arts programs generally did not have declining enrolment. My thoughts about this issue is that compared to the other arts, music is a more traditional and less modernized discipline, making it much more apt to fall behind in relevancy. The other arts; visual, dramatic and dance, are more easily modernized, the dramatic arts for example are easily modernized, with playwrights able to easily write about social issues, modern tragedies such as 9/11 or even modernizing older plays like Shakespeares Macbeth, the same would go for improvisation acting, where relevant topics and situations can be used readily, making it easy for teachers to adapt the curriculum to today while still teaching core principles. Music however, is not so easily modernized in the classroom, because teaching a traditional band-style class require a certain amount of knowledge on how to teach in the proper way.
Reference
Kratus, J. (2007). Music education at the tipping point. Music Educators Journal, 94(2), 42-48. doi:10.1177/002743210709400209