Summer 2019 - Massachusetts Music Educators Association

A QUARTERLY PUBLICATION OF THE MASSACHUSETTS MUSIC EDUCATORS ASSOCIATION

VOL. 67, NO. 4 SUMMER 2019

MUSIC EDUCATORSM A SS ACH USET TS

JOURNAL

Innovation Inside!

Equity

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Advocacy

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MASSACHUSET TS MUSIC EDUCATORS JOURNAL | 3 2 | MASSACHUSET TS MUSIC EDUCATORS JOURNAL SUMMER 2019 | VOL. 67 NO. 4VOL . 67 NO. 4 | SUMMER 2019


SUMMER 2019

MUSIC EDUCATORSM A S S A C H U S E T T S

JOURNAL

CONTENTS

MASSACHUSETTS MUSIC EDUCATORS JOURNAL EDITORIAL STAFF

Managing Editor Susan Gedutis Lindsay c/o P.O. Box 3886 South Attleboro, MA 02703-3886 508.830.0651 [email protected]

Business Manager /Advertising

Kristen Harrington P.O. Box 811, Salem, MA 01970 617.680.1492 [email protected]

Editorial Board Tom Reynolds, Advocacy

Tom Westmoreland, IN-ovations

Faith M. Lueth, Choral

Cathy Ward, General Music

Rhoda Bernard, Higher Education

David Neves, Instrumental

Andrew Goodrich, Contemporary / Jazz

Stephanie Riley, Technology

Irene Idicheria, Urban/Rural

Tawnya Smith, Research and Music Teacher Education

Please send all manuscripts to:

Susan Gedutis Lindsay [email protected]

Manuscripts not included immediately will be kept on file for future use.

Deadlines: July 15 for fall, Oct. 15 for winter, Jan. 8 for spring/conference, and April 15 for summer

Please see the MMEJ page at massmea.org for rate and spec information.

The Massachusetts Music Educators Journal (ISSN 0147-2550) is issued quarterly to members of the Massachusetts Music Educators Association, Inc. (MMEA is tax exempt, 51-0147238, under 501-C3). Nonprofit postage paid at New Bedford, MA

The annual subscription price of $4.00 is included in the membership dues.

The MMEJ is available to nonmembers for a subscription price of $10.00.

Send change of address promptly to: NAfME, 1806 Robert Fulton Dr., Reston, VA 22091

Copies returned due to change of address will not be reissued.

7 PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

8 FROM THE EDITOR

9 CONFERENCE

All-State Conference Reflections

By Dr. Ruth Debrot

10 CONFERENCE HIGHLIGHTS

21 CHORAL Creating Lifelong Singers: How We Can Shape the Choirs of Tomorrow By Stephanie Riley

22 ADVOCACY

Thoughts About Music Education Advocacy Day, April 2, 2019 By Alexander P. Wang

23 INNOVATIONS

Important Concepts for Inclusion and Equity in Music Education By Karen Salvador, PhD.

29 HIGHER EDUCATION

Reaching Every Music Student in Higher Education By Rhoda Bernard, Ed.D.

30 INSTRUMENTAL TECHNIQUES

Strategies for the Instrumental Music Teacher By Marcia Neel

32 MUSIC TECHNOLOGY

Problem Solving in Music Education through Technology: What Makes a Successful Audio Recording? By Christopher Moretti

35 GENERAL MUSIC

Ukulele: Open Possibilities By David Piper

38 THE URBAN MUSIC CLASSROOM

Picture This! ELA and Arts Interdisciplinary Learning in an Urban High School By Charles Combs, PhD and Sandra Nicolucci, EdD

41 CONTEMPORARY / JAZZ

Choosing Jazz Ensemble Repertoire By Earl MacDonald

44 RESEARCH AND MUSIC TEACHER EDUCATION

An Analysis of the Guidelines for Pre-Practicum Experiences By Ronald P. Kos Jr., Ph.D.

46 MUSIC PROGRAM LEADERS

Council of Music Program Leaders Update By Dr. Heather Cote

48 EMBRACING THE NEW MUSIC EDUCATOR

ETNME Updates By Mary Correia

49 MAJE

MAJE Updates By Paul Pitts

51 DISTRICT UPDATES

53 MMEA EXECUTIVE BOARD AND STAFF

52 ADVERTISERS INDEX

mailto:[email protected]



massmea.org


Embracing Our Past and Exploring Our FutureBy Cecil Adderley, Ph.D., Berklee College of Music

It has been a pleasure to serve as the President-Elect, and as the Higher Educa-tion Representative to our organization, and I look forward to our continued work together as I assume the role of president. Each district has made numerous contribu-tions to the greater organization and the students we collectively serve to spread arts education throughout the Commonwealth. Under the leadership of President Sandra Doneski, we have as an organization reviewed our policies, procedures, and programs we offer to the membership, as well as our mentoring of the next genera-tion of arts leaders through the various affiliated collegiate organizations. We have also received a grant to assist MMEA with advocacy. During the brief pause of the summer months, we also should recharge and look forward to all the work ahead of us as we aim to include others and strengthen the music in our schools as well as the music we provide to the various com-munities in the east, west, central, north, and south regions of our Massachusetts.

Our charge each school year provides us an opportunity to reflect on what we have previously taught to those who have exited our classrooms. We fill seats in the numer-ous performing ensembles, general music classes, appreciation courses, and related non-performance experiences offered within the communities we teach. And, if we are lucky, we begin to think of new ways to introduce music to those who have never appeared at the doors of our classrooms.

As music educators in Massachusetts, we are the arts leaders who provide each learner who enters our classrooms with the tools they will need to succeed. Each of us reflects on what we have taught to make sure that we are providing an appropriate experience to everyone enrolled in the courses offered in our buildings. Similarly, as members of our greater organization MMEA, we hope to offer the same high-quality experiences we have been able to offer year after year.

Each of us believes that there is something about us, the music we teach, or the other students in these classes that draws others to the door of our music rooms. However, some learners do not cross the threshold of our rooms to learn the craft. As perceptive educators, we sense that these students can also contribute to our future if we find the topic that will bring them in.

Our communities and schools are changing, and the needs, wants, and educational experiences should adjust to how the next generation best learns. Community interest may change over time, but the love and need for arts instruction will enable us to weather these transitions if we work together to best maintain traditions of the past and embrace change with creative opportunities for those who learn differently and have interest outside of what was offered years before.

Each educator must reflect on what has worked in their community over time to engage music learners, and what would engage even more learners so that every student PK to 12 has an opportunity to explore creative music outlets. In some communities, this may mean looking carefully at how to maintain one program and grow another so that all feel that have an opportunity to learn music. It is time to collaborate and share best practices as to how each of us keeps students engaged, recruit new learners, and share our success with the communities in which we teach. The future of music

education depends on our ability to see the potential in diverse learners and their contributions as well as our creative ability to explore opportunities to strengthen what we have developed over time.

Each music educator must maintain the artistic excellence they have built in their host community. And, at the same time, they must open their doors to offer other opportunities to learners who have not entered their rooms before. We must share and discuss our success, our experiments, and failures, and explore solutions for each. As we move forward, we must look within the membership, as well as outside, for opportunities to collaborate and strengthen what we offer to our students so that they will experience music education in an environment that will be even better than the one in which we were privileged to have been educated. Let us think beyond what we have been offered or are offering to those currently enrolled and find ways to bring additional learners into the music and related arts rooms so that they too may experience the wonders and pleasures of arts education.

Some of our communities strive to offer performance and non-performance classes as a means of bridging the gap between those who represent a small percentage of a school’s population and those who select other courses offered by non-arts departments. It is our turn to engage these learners—and we can, if we think creatively and work together. If we are open to the possibilities, we will reach them all, helping them gain access to various creative outlets PK–12.

Today, more than ever we have an obliga-tion to enhance what we are currently teaching, engage in conversations, and ask questions leading to opportunities for all in our communities. No contribution is too small, as each helps us to grow, cultivate, and nurture an arts environment we will be proud of today and tomorrow.

—Cecil Adderley, President

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE


CONFERENCE

2019 Conference ReflectionBy Dr. Ruth Debrot, MMEA Conference Coordinator

This year the conference committee made a concerted effort to collaborate with national, regional, and state organizations in order to bring you a broad range of interesting and relevant presenters. At the suggestion of Scott Sheehan, NAfME Eastern Division Immediate Past President and Past PMEA State President, we formed strategic partnerships. This made it possible to bring a variety of clinicians to Boston. Scott Burstein from Little Kids Rock, a nonprofit, offered a viable, contemporary approach to modern band. John Feierabend shared his “First Steps in Music” methods for general music educators. We offered ASTA-quality string sessions featuring Bob Gillespie. Robert Duke, a prominent music researcher, author, and nationally renowned band educator, challenged us to think differently about teaching and learning. The New England Orff-Schulwerk Association brought us a sunny California approach by offering Keith Terry’s workshop on “Body Music.” There was a MICCA-inspired rehearsal clinic with Charles Peltz from the New England Conservatory. There were sessions on advocacy, standards-based instruction,

technology, ukulele, guitar, composition, program retention, big band pedagogy, and jazz improvisation. There were many reading sessions to attend.

In addition to strategic partnerships, a large number of educators from higher education participated and offered sessions this year. Rhoda Bernard (BoCo at Berklee) presented a highly relevant session on inclusion in the music class-room. Rachel Gibson (Westfield State) shared her vast knowledge of folk music and dancing. Darla Hanley (Berklee) discussed the importance of creativity and expression in the elementary classroom. Josef Hanson (UMass Boston) made contemporary learning theories relevant to pedagogical practice. Jeff Holmes and the UMass Amherst Jazz Band gave an outstanding performance on Friday night. Mary Ellen Junda (UConn) brought her cultural and historical perspective to choral music educators. Jeff Leonard (BoCo at Berklee) offered his jazz expertise. Sarah McQuarrie (Bridgewater State) gave us ideas about songwriting with ukuleles and Ida Pappas (Lesley University) took a holistic, integrated, and

I have been told by many people that they thought it was a great conference. Although the conference did not please all the people all of the time, both formal and informal feedback suggest that the MMEA conference committee offered up many valuable, worthwhile sessions for conference participants. It is a daunting task to put assemble conference offerings, particularly given the diverse range of profes-sional growth needs and interests in Massachusetts. Knowing that it not possible to offer an individualized approach to professional devel-opment we offer a range of topics that are relevant for the spectrum of teachers in rural, urban, and suburban schools. The purpose of the three-day conference is to put you in touch with people, research, and resources for further study and for use in the classroom.

FROM THE EDITOR

Sailing Toward Music Education’s Ex-panded Horizon: Not Just Better, But Different By Susan Lindsay, MMEA Managing Editor

Different Students. We are so fortunate to have leadership who are so open and embracing of new ways to make music. We welcome our new president Cecil Adderley, who in his inaugural letter, reminds us that this generation is different and we must open our minds to reach those in our schools who have yet to come through our doors.

Different Skills. As we train young students for success in the contemporary world, we also must focus on developing expanded creative skills in our students. Charles Combs and Sandra Nicolucci, in their article “ELA and Arts Interdisciplinary Learning in an Urban High School” note that creativity must be a priority for today’s student and remind us that “artistic literacy involves so much more than merely train-ing an elite class of artists. Rather it is a major factor in the democratic formation of an informed, multiliterate citizenry.” Music Program Leaders Chair Heather Cote, as she finishes her last term as chair, notes that even in the music classroom, we can develop in our students the top-10 skills for success according to the World Economic Forum, including problem solving, creativ-ity, and collaboration. “In thinking about how we teach ALL students,” she writes,

Ten years ago, the essential question behind every article in this journal seemed to be, “How can we teach music better?” In the years since, the tides of change have washed in slowly but they have shifted the very sand beneath our feet. Today music educators in Massachusetts are asking new essential questions. In this issue, we are asking, “How can we do music not just better, but differ-ently?” How can we expand the model that has been in place for more than 100 years to meet the needs of all of today’s students? It’s a different era—but thankfully, a rising tide lifts all boats.

“we cannot necessarily teach the way we’ve been taught . . . We need to think about teaching intentionally for creativity and critical thinking.”

Different Ways of Learning. This mindset shift is required because the students are changing as learners, but it is also a sign of a cultural opening—of an interest in offer-ing a more inclusive, equitable, and just music education. Karen Salvador, PhD., President-Elect, NAfME North Central Division, presents much food for thought on this topic in “Important Concepts for Inclusion and Equity in Music Education.” Rhoda Bernard in “Reaching Every Music Student in Higher Education” also writes on inclusivity, noting that we must teach differently because the pedagogical strategies and teaching approaches we have implemented in traditional teaching methods are not always the most effective ways to reach every student.

Different Training. Conference Coordinator Ruth Debrot’s conference report reminds of the ways we come together to be better at what we do, and how we learn from the varied yet ambitious and visionary ideas brought to us by leaders in the field at our last annual conference.

We are also thinking about how we can support pre-service and brand new teachers with training that is relevant to their students lives’ and to their actual classroom experiences. As Mary Correia steps down from her nine years of service in the Embracing the New Music Educator new-teacher mentoring program, she reminds us that it is vitally important to mentor our new teachers, while Ron Kos in “An Analysis of the Guidelines for Pre-Practicum Experiences” echoes the priority placed on relevance and integration happening at the administrative level. No longer are we satisfied to teach skills for their own sake; we must also ensure that they are relevant and applicable to the varied worldviews we hold.

Different Curriculum. In our classrooms, how closely is the music we teach con-nected with the music students hear around them each day? David Piper in “Ukulele: Open Possibilities” helps to share ways to teach ukulele, an instrument that owes its popularity not just to its accessibility but also to its connectedness to what students see and hear in the popular music around them. Christopher Moretti’s “Problem Solving in Music Education through Technology: What Makes a Successful Audio Recording?” helps fill the dearth of solid curriculum for teaching music technology. Earl McDonald in “Choosing Jazz Ensemble Repertoire” also reminds us to choose repertoire that is responsive to students and to our audiences.

…But the Same Love.

As we look for new ways to reach students, no one here has forgotten that love of music is what drives us. Stephanie Riley, in

“Creating Lifelong Singers: How We Can Shape the Choirs of Tomorrow,” reminds us of the value of musicmaking for its own

sake, a powerful experience that drove her to become a teacher in the first place. In

“Strategies for the Instrumental Music Teacher,” Marcia Neel, President of Music Education Consultants, Inc., reminds us that love is at the heart of it all. “Genuinely caring about students and sharing your love of music-making will keep you focused on the vital contributions you are making to the lives of each of your students.”

For all of this to remain afloat, we must advocate. Alex Wang, a music education student at UMass Amherst, shares a candid and personal account of Music Education Advocacy Day on Beacon Hill, where he set out with other music ed students to remind our legislators of the importance of music education in a balanced education.

For Alex, and for all of us, the success of what we do will come from sharing our stories about music’s power to cohere, educate, and empower. This issue is jam-packed with stories. These stories will help you reflect on the last school year and plan ahead for the next one with renewed vigor and an increased motivation to meet all of your students through music—that thing I think we all agree we shouldn’t live without.

—Susan Lindsay Managing Editor


Each year we work to improve the confer-ence. Committee members respond to informal feedback regarding their strand of sessions and from formal responses to the post-conference survey. The decision to run sessions concurrently during concert hours is by request from MMEA members; our surveys have indicated that many teachers, particularly those who do not direct performing ensembles, prefer to spend their time at the conference attending sessions rather than attending concerts.

As I step down as conference chair and pass the torch to Noreen Diamond-Burdett, I would like to thank the MMEA board and membership for providing me with the opportunity to serve as your confer-ence chair. It has been an honor to work alongside an amazing committee and dedicated council leaders. They are: Tim Anderson (Band/Jazz), Noreen Diamond-Burdett (General Interest), Kristy Foye (Strings), Chee Ping Ho (Technology), Joe Pondaco (Composition), Stephanie Riley (Choral), Tawnya Smith (Research), and

Tom Westmoreland (Innovations). The committee and council leaders have been extremely resourceful and have worked tirelessly on your behalf.

In closing, I hope you will consider volunteering at the district or state level. We need people to organize auditions, run festivals, populate committees, and serve on councils. Volunteering is highly rewarding way to have your voice be heard, meet people, get hands-on professional development, and to give back to the profession. You might consider submitting a conference session proposal this summer. The database opened in May 2019. In the meantime, I hope you have a well-deserved and restful summer! •

Dr. Ruth Debrot has spent a majority of her career demonstrating a joyful approach to teaching middle school music. She is a faculty member at Boston University,

where she completed her doctorate in music education.

interdisciplinary approach to music teach-ing and learning. Jarritt Sheel (Berklee) presented a cutting-edge session on issues surrounding hip-hop in contemporary music education. Tawnya Smith (Boston University) facilitated a session in which Sommer Forrester (UMass Boston) and Stephen Paparo (UMass Amherst) shared research and research-based practices. Kinh Vu and André de Quadros (Boston University) raised awareness regarding marginalized voices and the global issues surrounding social justice in music education.

The tightly packed master schedule was highly dependent on the timetables of clinicians who travel to Boston and the conference spaces made available by onsite chair Sandy Doneski. Somehow, we man-aged to organize 135 sessions into three full days. In case you are wondering, the reason there are very few breaks each day is so that attendees may get the most bang for their buck while spending time in Boston.

CONFERENCE

Symphony Hall Scholars Chair Tom Walters (ABOVE LEFT IN EACH PHOTO) presented Future Symphony Hall Scholars grant awards to:

South High Community School, Johnetta Smith, Dir. ; Dennis Yarmouth Regional High School (ABOVE LEFT), Stephanie Riley, Dir. ; Veritas Preparatory Charter School (ABOVE CENTER), Lincoln Smith, Dir. (ABOVE RIGHT)

ABOVE: Margot Reidy was this year’s Distinguished Service Award with her mother, Grace Reidy, previous DSA winner.

LEFT: Kayla Werlin of Longmeadow Public Schools accepts her MICCA Paul Smith Hall of Fame Award.

ABOVE AND LEFT: Dr. Cecil Adderley of Berklee College of Music with Promis-ing Future Music Educator award winners. This year’s winners were: Carla Restivo, Berklee College of Music; Jamie Fontaine, Westfield State University; Tristen Fuller, Bridgewater State University; Faith McKinley, Gordon Col-lege; Alexis Phillips, Anna Maria College; Leann Rosario, UMASS-Lowell; Ana Sangermano, Boston University; Edward Senn, UMASS-Amherst; Anthony Yee, UMASS-Boston.


CONFERENCE

ABOVE: George Murphy won this year’s MAJE Lifetime Achieve-ment award. Pictured here (left) with MAJE President Paul Pitts and David Kaminski, Marshfield Public Schools.

BELOW: Lowell Mason award winners Heather Cote, Rebecca Damiani, Gary Good, Heather Kirby, and Joseph Pondaco with MMEA President Sandra Doneski.

ABOVE: The Foxboro Music Association won this year’s Music Advocacy Award.

BELOW: The MMEA Collegiate Chapter, as always, are the hard workers that contribute in myriad ways to help keep the conference running smoothly.


This year’s concerts featured: The Belmont High School Chamber Orchestra, Margot Reavey, Dir.(ABOVE); The Weston High School Chamber Orchestra, Chris Memoli, Dir.(BELOW LEFT); The Boston Latin School Big Band, Paul Pitts, Dir.(BOTTOM RIGHT); and Berklee Steel Pan ensemble, Ron Reed, dir.(BELOW RIGHT); The UMASS Jazz Band, Jeff Holmes, Dir. also performed (BOTTOM LEFT)

Vendors at this year’s conference represented a wide array of music businesses, travel companies, colleges, and more.

CONFERENCE


At the conference, friends and colleagues gathered at sessions, concerts, and receptions to learn from each other, share stories, and celebrate the joy of teaching music.

(ABOVE)MMEA Presidents past and future, with division leadership, gather every year at the conference. Front, left to right: Sandra Doneski, Faith Lueth, Mark Kerouack, Eastern Division Chair Marc Greene. Back: Michael LaCava, Thomas Walters, Noreen Diamond Burdett, Cathy Connor Moen, William McManus, Grace Reidy, Cynthia Grammer, David Neves, Cecil Adderley.

CONFERENCE


All-State Ensembles rehearsed for two days leading up to a spectactular performance on Saturday at Symphony Hall.

CONFERENCE

Hundreds of sessions covered a wide range of topics. Above, the band reading session, John Feierabend presents on his First Steps in Music, and Bob Gillespie offered ASTA-quality string sessions.


Creating Lifelong Singers: How We Can Shape the Choirs of TomorrowBy Stephanie Riley, Dennis-Yarmouth Regional High School

of music consumed, and collaborations with various ensembles and organizations. When picking music, I try to reflect upon the “formula” that was given to me as an undergrad: include something sacred, secular, spiritual/gospel, classical, modern, and folk if possible. This isn’t always realistic, depending on the group in any given year and of course the type of concert we are performing. However, continually striving to give the students a variety of music, and yes, even seeking their input on music, not only gives them exposure to this vast menu that we have to choose from, but it also allows them to have ownership of what they’re doing.

Encouraging outside collaborations: “If you build it, they will come” is probably one of the most accurate and influential quotes in my career. If a student is given an opportunity, they’re going to run with it. Encouraging students to participate in local festivals, audition for districts, and supporting them in these endeavors does so much for these students. However, not all students have the time or means to audition and subsequently participate. A strong choral program finds a way to be inclusive of all students in addition to helping those who want to do more outside of the choral classroom. Collaborations with fine performing arts groups such as The Handel and Haydn Society exist around the state and are well worth their time spent preparing your groups for. Many community choirs are happy to do outreach programs with their local schools as it benefits them just as much as it benefits your students. Making students aware of these opportunities available post high school helps to connect them to their communities around them and gives them an outlet to continue singing. In addition to community groups, area symphonies will often look to collaborate with local high school choirs. Reach out to develop a project between your choir and their organization. Why is this just as important as working with professional or local community choirs? Singing with a symphony orchestra may be a once in a lifetime experience. After our students

At Crane, I enrolled in Phoenix Club and Crane Chorus—the all-campus SATB chorus, a requirement for every semester of for undergraduate vocal majors. My first rehearsal in Crane Chorus would forever cement the importance of choir in my life and ignite my desire to extend that experience to my future students. That all-encompassing and enveloping feeling I got when everyone around me sang was like none other. It was probably the best hug this super homesick girl could have asked for. In that moment, I felt I was a part of something bigger than myself and all I could think of in that moment was that everyone needed to feel that.

Prior to college, I had all of the wonderful choral experiences my high school had to offer: chorus, show choir, and bi-county, area all-state, all-state, and NYSSMA Festivals to better myself as an individual singer. Outside of school, I sang regularly in my church choir.

Fast forward nearly twenty years, and my purpose and philosophy as a choral music educator has become increasingly clear. My main job isn’t to create a music educator out of my students, though it is flattering when it happens. My job is to foster and

instill a love and appreciation of choral music in my students so that they may continue to both sing and consume choral music after they leave my classroom for the very last time. Over the years, the best news, second to hearing a student is thriv-ing at college or after college, is to hear that they have joined their local community choir or that they are enjoying attending various choral performances.

Why promote lifelong learners?

One answer: job security. This answer may come across as silly, but the end reason is still the same. If we aren’t creating these appreciators, contributors, and consumers of choral music, then we simply will not have anyone left to pass this passion on to, and eventually, choral music could dwindle and not be widely seen and celebrated as it is today.

What can do we make it happen?

Offering variety: I’ve asked students over the years what made them continue this passion they had in high school, and I have met with many responses: variety of music studied, exposure to a variety

In eighth grade, my dear friend’s mother asked me what I was interested in doing as a career. Without any hesitation at all, I replied, “I want to be the best choral conductor in the world.” At the ripe old age of 13, I knew exactly what mattered most to me in life, without knowing then how much it would change me for the better, humble and humiliate me, as well as give me some of the most life-altering experiences I could imagine. So, I placed all of my eggs into the proverbial “one basket” and, when college time came, I enrolled at Crane and became a full-blown “Cranie” to begin my musical career.

CHOR AL


leave our groups, they may not have that opportunity, or seek that opportunity out if they don’t experience it with us. Not only will they get to sing with a symphony orchestra, they’ll then be aware of the abundance of choral music that is meant to be performed with an orchestra.

Experiencing great performances. Equally important to collaborating with other organizations, professional or community based, is taking your students to hear these groups perform. Feeling the original wall of sound coming at you in real time can be life altering for a student. We are lucky to live in a state that places value on the performing arts and are never in shortage of places and types of ensembles to take them to see.

In creating these lifelong singers, you as a teacher benefit far beyond job security. We can be so consumed by our daily work and family obligations that we may sometimes forget what brought us to our career in the first place. Don’t forget to look for that variety of music and seek out opportunities for your students and yourself! •

Stephanie Riley is MMEJ’s technology editor. She is an 8–12 choral music educator at the Dennis-Yarmouth Regional High School where she is responsible for

choirs grades 8–12, beginning piano, music technology, and theory classes. She is also an avid lifelong singer of choirs.

CHOR AL

Music Education Advocacy Day’s success was largely due to the work of fourteen college students from all around the state and from different schools: UMass Amherst, Gordon, and Berklee. Our first task was to organize meetings with our senators and representatives. Leading up to Music Education Advocacy Day, we arranged sixteen different meetings for that day. I left Amherst at 5 a.m. to get to our first meeting with representative Jay Livingstone. Before our meeting with Representative Livingstone, we had a discussion with John Mlynczak about what we would be propos-ing in our meetings. The big topic was the new budget proposal that Governor Baker submitted, increasing the spending on edu-cation. Our job was to remind senators and representatives that music education was an important part of a balanced education but also that under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), music education is intended to be an equal part of every student’s education. We wanted to ensure that federal law was being practiced at the district level.

With sixteen meetings, we divided into groups, and I personally attended six different meetings. All the politicians that I met with that day were welcoming, friendly, and more than happy to hear what we had to say, which I heard was not always the case. I made it a personal point to ask senators and representatives about their own involvement with music. I was pleasantly surprised to find that all but one politician that I had met that day was affected directly by music education. They had all been a part of an instrumental or choral program in high school or middle school and all had

positive things to say about their experiences. One of the chiefs of staff that we met gave us a warmhearted story about his experience with marching band and performing on the trumpet. Most of the politicians talked about the benefits of their experiences with music and were practically advocating it themselves!

Did I feel like I was making a difference? I did, but maybe that’s the wrong way of looking at it. I had the opportunity to practice a basic right of an American: to fight for something I am passionate about by sharing my passion with people who have the power to make legislative change. That is a power we have in this country that I believe a lot of Americans overlook. At the end of the day, I felt very humbled and honored to have politicians take the time to acknowledge our passion for music education. Although we did not ask for any specific changes, such as increased budget or changes in already existing law, we increased the awareness and importance of music education in a balanced education. The success was in sharing our stories—the politicians’ as well as our own—about music’s power to cohere, educate, and empower people. •

Alex Wang is a Senior UMass-Amherst music education and clarinet performance major from Salem MA. During his time at UMass, he was the drum major of UMass Marching

band for 3 years, in the UMass Wind Ensemble, Secretary of cMMEA, and secretary and jazz band director of the Sigma Alpha chapter of Phi Mu Alpha and is preparing to student teach this fall in East Bridgewater and Pembroke.

The Music Education Advocacy Day arranged on April 2, 2019 by MMEA Advocacy Council chair John Mlynczak was a wonderful experi-ence. I attended as part of a group of MMEA Collegiates, and we were excited and nervous as we headed toward Beacon Hill to meet with our state politicians about the importance of music education.

Thoughts About Music Education Advocacy Day, April 2, 2019By Alexander P. Wang, Class of 2019, University of Massachusetts–Amherst

ADVOC AC Y INNOVATIONS

Recently, the National Association for Music Education (NAfME) revised their position statement on Inclusivity and Diversity in Music Education (NAfME, 2017b), created a new position state-ment on Equity and Access in Music Education (NAfME, 2017a), and issued a statement “On Affirming All Students” (NAfME, 2017c). These statements indicate increasing attention toward achieving our shared goal of music education for all students. However, statements and attention are not sufficient. Action toward inclusive, equitable, and just music education will need to come from the grassroots—from state MEAs and from members who are in schools teaching music every day.

Many music teachers are already working to create more inclusive and responsive music teaching and learning environments. Other teachers are interested in becoming more inclusive and responsive but unsure how to begin or proceed. Still other teachers reject the notion that self-examination and change are necessary for individual teachers or for music education as a whole, believing that we are already inclusive and responsive, and/or that increasing our focus on diversity, inclusion, equity, and access is too political.

In this article, I will address questions I am frequently asked about inclusion, equity, and justice in music education. As you read, please note that words like “inclu-sion,” “equity,” and “justice” each refer to a process rather than defining an object or endpoint. Furthermore, these processes are highly contextual, so there is not one right way or best practice for the process toward equity and justice in music education. Instead, I will provide information, ask questions, and give specific examples of more inclusive, equitable, and responsive practices that I hope that you can relate to your context. I will conclude the article with a list of resources.

Important Concepts for Inclusion and Equity in Music EducationBy Karen Salvador, PhD., President-Elect, NAfME North Central Division

What is “diversity,” anyway?

Student diversity is intersectional, and includes but is not limited to race, ethnic-ity, country/place of origin, home language, religion, socioeconomic status, location, (dis)ability, gender, and sexual orientation. The following table presents U.S. enroll-ment data from 1970–71 (Orfield, Kuscera, & Siegel-Hawley, 2012) and 2014–15 (Kena, et. al., 2016), alongside enrollment data for MA in 2014–15 (Massachusetts Department of Education [MDOE], n.d.) and 2026 projections for US enrollment (Kena, et. al., 2016).

US Enrollment 1970–1971

US Enrollment 2014–2015

MA Enrollment 2018–2019

Projected US Enrollment 2026

White 79% 50% 59% 45%

Hispanic 5.1% 25% 20.8% 29%

Black 15% 16% 9.2% 15%

Asian/Pacific Islander

0.5% 5% 7.1%** 6%

American In-dian/Alaska Native

0.4% 1% 0.2% 1%

Two or more races

* 3% 3.8% 4%

* = data not available ** = In MA, this is 7% Asian and 0.1% Pacific Islander

Race/Ethnicity. The federal categories utilized for reporting race/ethnicity do not adequately describe student diversity. For example, what category describes a student who identifies as Arab or Arab-American? Ethnicity encompasses but does not neces-sarily predict cultural distinctions such as religion, home language, and country/place of origin. How recently a family immi-grated to the U.S. can also affect a child’s educational experience. In 2008, nearly 1 of every 4 children under the age of 8 had an immigrant parent (Fortuny, Hernandez, & Chaudry, 2010). Although 43% of immigrant parents are from Mexico, the rest come from all over the world. Thus, across the U.S., children and families speak an increasing number of languages at home, and 9.4% of U.S. students are English Language Learners (ELLs; Kena et al., 2016). Children and families also practice a variety of religions (in culture-specific ways), and have other cultural norms, including dispositions toward and expecta-tions regarding education, schools, and authority. Currently, 16.1% of Massachu-setts residents are immigrants, and one in five Massachusetts workers is an immigrant (American Immigration Council, 2019). The most common countries of origin for Mass. immigrants are China (8.8% of immigrants), the Dominican Republic (7.4%), India (6%), Brazil (5.6%), and Haiti (5.1%). In 2018–19, 21.9% of MA students had a first language other than English, and 10.5% were defined as English Language Learners (ELLs; MDOE, n.d.).


Socioeconomic Status (SES) and Location. SES indicators include factors such as fam-ily income, family structure, and parental educational attainment. In 2015, 20% of US children lived in poverty, including 13% of MA children (Kena et al., 2016). Using a different standard, MDOE (n.d.) characterized 31.2% of students as “eco-nomically disadvantaged.” SES is complex and complicated, because our nation’s history of segregation and racism (Orfield, Kuscera, & Siegel-Hawley, 2012) and some immigration trends (Kena et al., 2016) mean that Black and Hispanic students disproportionately come from families with low income and/or educational attainment. Moreover, location is important, as poverty is concentrated both among inner city and rural schools, and both concentrated and generational poverty are particularly challenging for students, families, and schools. Only 2.9% of MA students attend rural schools (MDOE, 2018).

(Dis)Ability. In 2014–15, 13% of all public school students in the US (6.6 million children ages 3–21) received special education services (Kena et al., 2016). In 2018–19, 18.1% of MA students received special education services (MDOE, n.d.). In the same year, MDOE defined 47.6% of students as “high needs.”

Gender and Sexuality. While it is difficult to conjecture about trends, it is fair to say that students are increasingly open about their gender expression and sexuality diversity. In addition, girls and boys are treated differently in schools and have different outcomes as a result (e.g., Freudenthaler, Spinath,& Neubauer, 2008; Myhill & Jones, 2006; Sadker & Sadker, 2010). Moreover, pressure to conform to gendered ideals for appearance and behavior is associated with bullying, eating disorders, depression, and suicide, particularly (although not solely) among LGBTQ youth (e.g., Griffiths, Murray, & Touyz, 2015; Good & Sanchez, 2010; Mustanski & Liu, 2013).

Intersectionality. Intersectionality refers to the way that social identities (such as those listed above) are not separate, but instead coexist and even co-construct one another. That means that when we describe people in terms of membership in social groups

(whether or not these are things they can change), the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. For example, my notions about being female (and your perceptions of me as female) are informed and created in part by my ethnicity and my socioeconomic status. Successful efforts to increase inclusion, equity, and justice in music education must consider intersectionality in addition to understanding individual aspects of social identity.

What does it mean to have “access” to music education?

In their position on Inclusiveness and Diversity, NAfME wrote,

A well-rounded and comprehensive music education program should exist in every American school; should be built on a curricular framework that promotes awareness of, respect for, and responsive-ness to the variety and diversity of cultures; and should be delivered by teachers whose culturally responsive pedagogy enable[s] them to successfully design and implement such an inclusive curricular framework (2017b).

This statement addresses two aspects of access (1) the presence of a program in every school and (2) the sociocultural and practical accessibility of that program. Although we must continue to fight for the presence of music education in every school, this article is primarily written for practicing teachers, so I will focus on the second type of access.

In U.S. high schools that offer music, about 21% of students participate in ensembles (Elpus & Abril, 2011). Within these pro-grams, “male[s], English language learners, Hispanic[s], children of parents holding a high school diploma or less, and [students] in the lowest SES quartile were significantly underrepresented” (p. 1)1. Students who have Individual Education Programs (IEPs) are also significantly underrepresented in secondary music classes (Hoffman, 2011). Considering sociological and practical access to music courses leads to questions

1 Black students may not be on this list because the study was of schools with music programs; school segregation means that Black students are disproportionately served in schools that may not offer music (Orfield, Kuscera, & Siegel-Hawley, 2012; Salvador & Allegood, 2014).

such as: Are there additional expenses or extracurricular requirements that might be preventing lower-income students from participating? Do scheduling and com-munication with other educators facilitate participation for ELLs and students with IEPs? Are there options for students at all levels of ability to join in music education at any time in their education? Does the music program reflect the needs, desires, and cultures of the school and community? What would make a student and/or family believe “this class is for me/my child?”2

Inclusion: In special education, inclusion is when students with exceptionalities learn alongside their age peers, engaging as full participants in a range of activities with individual supports and curricular modi-fications when needed. In a broader sense, inclusion implies making space for the “other” within already existing structures. For example, when a student with physical impairments uses an adaptive instrument in wind band, or a student who is blind pairs with a sighted student to facilitate participation in marching band. According to Stewart (2017), a person or system with a diversity/inclusion mindset seeks incremental growth toward representation of all populations, but with minimal or no changes to the ways things are done.

Equity: In contrast, equity in education involves changing systems and structures to create conditions in which all children can achieve their educational potential. An equity or justice mindset “celebrates reductions in harm, revisions to abusive systems and increases in supports . . . [including] getting rid of practices and policies that were having disparate impacts on minoritized groups” (Stewart, 2017). Elpus and Abril (2011) demonstrated that our current practices and policies result in underrepresentation of minoritized groups in secondary ensembles. Are we ready to examine and change our systems and practices?

Culturally Responsive Pedagogy. Culturally responsive pedagogies reject deficit mind-sets about minoritized communities, “ . . . 2 By virtue of teaching all students in a given school building, elementary general music is more inclusive. However, elementary general music teachers might consider equity-oriented questions (see “…where do I start” below).

acknowledg[ing] the value of the cultural heritages of differing groups, both in terms of curriculum content and in terms of how these respective cultural legacies influence students’ attitudes, dispositions, and ways of learning” (Lind & McCoy, 2016, p. 18). Thus, culturally responsive pedagogies emerge from teachers learning about—and developing strategies for connecting music education to—the cultures present in their school and community. Culturally responsive teaching is validating, compre-hensive, multidimensional, empowering, transformative, and emancipatory (Gay, 2010, in Lind & McCoy, 2016, p. 17).

There is very little diversity at my school . . . do I really need to think about this?

I hear this question often, and I answer with a resounding “YES,” for three reasons. (1) Race and ethnicity are only two of the many ways that students are diverse. For example, your school has students who are male, female, LGBTQ. Furthermore, diversity is often invisible: your school has students who have exceptionalities, students with varied SES, students who practice different religions (or no religion), etc. (2) Equity- and justice-oriented mindsets celebrate reductions in harm. Even if you teach nearly all White, nearly all middle/upper middle class suburban kids, a failure to recognize the identities of the “few” students is potentially harmful. (3) If somehow you teach in a setting made up entirely of the dominant culture (which is not really possible, see #1 and #2), your students are heading out for life in our very diverse country. There is very little potential harm in creating music education that reflects and embraces human diversity, and very much for students to gain.

I was taught to treat everyone the same—that ignoring difference was polite and fair. Aren’t we creating divisions by labeling people? Well, first, we know that teachers/schools do not treat everyone the same. For reasons ranging from unconscious bias to cultural norms, most aspects of school life, includ-ing discipline referrals, rates of diagnosis for special education, and achievement are highly correlated with gender and race. Moreover, children are already learning about human diversity . . . they are inundated with negative and harmful messages about race, ethnicity, gender, and

ability (etc.) every day. When we as teachers do not explicitly model and discuss respect for and valuing of cultures, genders, and musics, we are allowing these messages to remain unchallenged. While we certainly should not single out or tokenize a child on the basis of a difference, our instruction should reflect awareness and valuing of all students in the room. The way that we talk, the materials we choose, the behavior we expect, and our relationships with families and the community should reflect our commitment to understanding and valuing our students as whole people.

This is so complex . . . Where do I even start? Sometimes a “diversity/inclusion” mindset is a good place to start. Find out how the demographics of your classes compare to the school as a whole (gender, race/ethnicity, students with IEPs, students who receive free/reduced lunch, etc.). If you notice a group is underrepresented in a class or your program, try to find out why. For more equity/justice-oriented changes, in addition to implementing culturally responsive pedagogy, you could try to:

• Restore voices silenced by the traditional canon of music education literature and pedagogy. Seek out musics from Massachusetts, the U.S., and around the world, created by diverse peoples and composers3.

• Value oral/aural traditions and learning styles alongside written forms, e.g., by teaching musics from aural traditions aurally.

• Blur the line between school and community by partnering with local musicians and dancers—invite them as guests, collaborate with them for performances, etc.

• Adapt instructional practices and materi-als to meet individual music learning needs of all students, including not only students with IEPs, but also students with religious differences. Sitting out of music making is likely an acceptable adaptation only if a student’s IEP

3 Conversely, perhaps it is time to stop performing music associated with oppression, such as minstrel songs, songs with lyrics that reinforce gender stereotypes, etc., unless it is very sensitively and explicitly taught for the purpose of engaging students in empowering, emancipatory transformation of these messages.

specifies it is necessary due to sensory or emotional/behavioral needs.

• Offer entry points to music classes for all students at all levels.

• Ameliorate the effects of SES by consid-ering: transportation (to concerts, before and after school events, etc.), cost of instruments, cost of uniforms, etc. How many of these things are so essential to music education that they should hold someone out of participation?

• Interrogate gender practices in your school/classroom. Can you avoid the use of gender in classroom management (e.g., pairing or choosing based on “boys” or “girls”)? What can you do when you see gender-related teasing or bullying? Think through the names of classes/ensembles. Could you have a “treble choir” instead of a “women’s choir”? Consider your uniforms and uniform policy. How can you make sure that all students are comfortable on stage?

• Consider adding to (or breaking out of) our current focus on band, orchestra, choir, and sometimes jazz, by foregrounding high-status creative projects. How can you create experiences that focus on individual musicianship, individual creative voice, and/or musics that our students (and their families) enjoy? Are there music classes available that focus on collaborative and creative musicianship? Can students study instru-ments that are more common outside of Western Classical music, such as guitars, keyboards, drums, and voices?

What does this mean for our MEA?

MEAs have reputations as “old boys’ clubs.” In interacting with state and national leadership, I have observed that we do have some of those characteristics . . . and also that our “old boys” love music and love students. Further, many want to create more inclusive and equitable school music programs and MEAs, even if they do not always know what to do or where to start. Here are some suggestions:

• Examine required lists for festival. Purge racist material such as minstrel songs. Add new pieces so that the composers

INNOVATIONS


and styles reflect more of the diversity in our country (and the world).

• Showcase music programs for reasons other than their achievement of a particular set of performance practices on a narrow selection of music. How could we recognize programs for exemplary (a) student creativity? (b) quality of inclusion for students with exceptionalities? (c) fusion of school music with community musics? What else?

• Offer professional development that helps practicing teachers learn about inclusion, equity, and justice in practical and applicable ways, perhaps reflecting the list above.

• Find out what students and teachers who are underrepresented in your current programming want and need, and commit to creating it.

• Create participatory music making (Turino, 2008) opportunities as a part of state and regional MEA activities.

• Partner with teacher education programs—they (we) are also interested in increasing the diversity of the music teacher workforce, and working toward inclusion, equity, and justice in music education.

• Recruit students from a variety of backgrounds to become music teachers, and recruit teachers from a variety of backgrounds (and who teach in a variety of places) to be on your MEA’s board(s) and committees.

Closing

Many teachers find the above arguments for inclusion, equity, and justice in music education convincing, but nevertheless do not make changes in their practices. The reasons I hear essentially amount to: this is outside of my comfort zone. Teachers say:

• I am teaching the things I know, in the best ways that I know how to teach.

• I am terrified that I will do or say the wrong thing, and someone will be upset.

• I am afraid of poor scores at festival or on my teacher evaluations if I change my practices, especially when I am on a

learning curve toward something I have never tried.

Each of these are understandable, but not sufficient reasons to continue our erasure of “other” musics and “other people’s children” (see Delpit, 2006). We must acknowledge and value human differences, if not because it matches our country’s ideals about liberty and justice, then because research and experience indicate that social identities affect the educational experiences of our students. Teaching—especially teaching music—is an act of vulnerability.

Music is personal; it is a part of who we are, and it is a part of who our students are. We teach in a subject area that is integrated into the human psyche, a subject area that is a rich and vibrant reflection of our humanness (Lind & McCoy, 2016, p. 131).

Therefore, as you head back to your class-room, don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good. Remember that inclusion, equity, and justice are processes. Just as our students make incremental progress toward their music learning goals, we can make progress toward being more responsive to student needs. We are only truly stuck if we never begin. •

SELECTED RESOURCES

Teaching Tolerance www.tolerance.org

This website (and free magazine) has resources, materials, and information for creating inclusive learning environments and teaching students about difference, focusing on Ability, Bullying and Bias, Class, Gender

and Sexual Identity, Immigration, Race and Ethnicity, Religion, and Rights and Activism. Although the materials are not music-specific, the information is excellent, and some activities and ideas fit well with/in music teaching and learning, particularly the social justice standards https://www.tolerance.org/frameworks/social-justice-standards and critical practices frameworks https://www.tolerance.org/frameworks/critical-practices

RACE AND ETHNICIT Y

Lind V. R., McKoy, C. (2016). Culturally responsive teaching in music education: From understanding to application. London, England: Routledge.

Delpit, L. (2006). Other people’s children: Cultural conflict in the classroom. The New Press.

Coates, T. N. (2015). Between the world and me. Text publishing.

Turino, T. (2008). Music as social life: The politics of participation. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

SES AND LOCATION

Fitzpatrick-Harnish, K. (2015). Urban music education: A practical guide for teachers. Oxford University Press.

Kozol, Jonathan. (2012) Savage inequalities: Children in America’s schools. Broadway Books.

Isbell, D. (2005). Music education in rural areas: A few keys to suc-cess. Music Educators Journal, 92(2), 30-34.

(DIS)ABILIT Y

www.wrightslaw.org offers parents, educators, advocates, and at-torneys accurate, reliable information about special education law, education law, and advocacy for children with disabilities. They also offer a free, weekly newsletter: Special Ed Advocate.

Ademek, M. S. & Darrow, A.A. (2010). Music in Special Education. (2nd Edition). American Music Therapy Association.

Hammel, A. M. & Hourigan, R. M. (2011). Teaching Music to Students with Special Needs: A Label-Free Approach. (2nd Edition). Oxford University Press.

Hammel, A. M. (2017). Teaching Music to Students with Special Needs: A Practical Resource. Oxford University Press.

GENDER AND SEXUALIT Y

Bryan, J. (2017). Embracing gender and sexuality diversity. Indepen-dent School. Downloaded from: https://www.nais.org/magazine/independent-school/winter-2017/embracing-gender-and-sexuality-diversity/ This article presents a good overview of gender and sexuality in school, and gives ideas for examining policies and practices such as how gender inclusive practices align with existing school missions.

Gender Spectrum https://www.genderspectrum.org has resources, information, trainings, and opportunities to interact with others who are learning about gender, including: https://www.gender-spectrum.org/CommonQuestions/ which is a great set of FAQs about teaching children about gender and https://genderspectrum.org/lounge/ a space with facilitated online activities and groups.

Palkki, J. (2015). Choral music’s Gender Trouble: Males, adolescence, and masculinity. Choral Journal. 56(4), 24-35.

O’Toole, P. (1998). A missing chapter from choral methods books: How choirs neglect girls. Choral Journal, 39(5), 9–32.

Nichols, J. (2013). Rie’s story, Ryan’s journey: Music in the life of a transgender student. Journal of Research in Music Education, 61(3), 262–279. doi:10.1177/0022429413498259

REFERENCES

American Immigration Council. (2019). Fact Sheet: Immigrants in Michigan. Downloaded from: https://www.americanimmigration-council.org/research/immigrants-in-massachusetts

Elpus, K., & Abril, C. R. (2011). High school music ensemble students in the United States: A demographic profile. Journal of Research in Music Education, 59(2), 128-145.

Fortuny, K., Hernandez, D. J., & Chaudry, A. (2010). Young Children of Immigrants: The Leading Edge of America’s Future. Brief No. 3. Urban Institute (NJ1). Downloaded from http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED511771.pdf

Freudenthaler, H. H., Spinath, B. and Neubauer, A. C. (2008), Predict-ing school achievement in boys and girls. European Journal of Personality, 22: 231–245. doi:10.1002/per.678

Good, J. J., & Sanchez, D. T. (2010). Doing gender for different reasons: Why gender conformity positively and negatively predicts self-esteem. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 34(2), 203-214.

Griffiths, S., Murray, S. B., & Touyz, S. (2015). Extending the masculinity hypothesis: An investigation of gender role conformity, body dissatisfaction, and disordered eating in young heterosexual men. Psychology of Men & Masculinity, 16(1), 108.

Hoffman, E. C., III (2011). The status of students with special needs in the instrumental musical ensemble and the effect of selected edu-cator and institutional variables on rates of inclusion (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). University of Nebraska–Lincoln.

Kena, G., Hussar W., McFarland J., de Brey C., Musu-Gillette, L., Wang, X., Zhang, J., Rathbun, A., Wilkinson- Flicker, S., Diliberti M., Barmer, A., Bullock Mann, F., and Dunlop Velez, E. (2016). The Condition of Education 2016 (NCES 2016-144). U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. Washington, DC. Downloaded from https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indica-tor_cge.asp (race/ethnicity)

https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator_cgf.asp (ELLS)

https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator_cce.asp (SES)

https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator_cgg.asp (Special Education)

Massachusetts Department of Education. (MDE, n.d.). School and district profiles.

Downloaded from:

http://profiles.doe.mass.edu/profiles/student.aspx?orgcode=00000000&orgtypecode=0&

Massachusetts Department of Education (2018). Fiscal conditions in rural school districts.


Mustanski, B., & Liu, R. T. (2013). A longitudinal study of predictors of suicide attempts among lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender youth. Archives of sexual behavior, 42(3), 437-448.

Myhill, D., & Jones, S. (2006). ‘She doesn’t shout at no girls’: pupils’ perceptions of gender equity in the classroom. Cambridge Journal of Education, 36(1), 99-113.

National Association for Music Education. (2017a). Equity and Access in Music Education.

Downloaded from: https://nafme.org/about/position-statements/equity-access/

National Association for Music Education. (2017b). Inclusiveness and Diversity in Music Education. Downloaded from: https://nafme.org/about/position-statements/inclusivity-diversity/

National Association for Music Education. (2017c). On affirming all students. Downloaded from: https://nafme.org/on-affirming-all-students/

Orfield, G., Ee, J., Frankenberg, E., & Siegel-Hawley, G. (2016). “ Brown” at 62: School Segregation by Race, Poverty and State. Civil Rights Project-Proyecto Derechos Civiles. Downloaded from: http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED565900.pdf

Orfield, G., Kuscera, J., & Siegel-Hawley, G. (2012). E Pluribus... separation: Deepening double segregation for more students. Los Angeles: Civil Rights Project UCLA. Downloaded from http://eschol-arship.org/uc/item/8g58m2v9

Sadker, M., & Sadker, D. (2010). Failing at fairness: How America’s schools cheat girls. Simon and Schuster.

Stewart, D. L. (2017). Language of Appeasement. Inside Higher Ed. Downloaded from: https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2017/03/30/colleges-need-language-shift-not-one-you-think-essay

INNOVATIONS

http://www.tolerance.org

http://www.tolerance.org

https://www.tolerance.org/frameworks/social-justice-standards

https://www.tolerance.org/frameworks/social-justice-standards

https://www.tolerance.org/frameworks/critical-practices

https://www.tolerance.org/frameworks/critical-practices

http://www.wrightslaw.org

https://www.nais.org/magazine/independent-school/winter-2017/embracing-gender-and-sexuality-diversity/




https://www.genderspectrum.org

https://www.genderspectrum.org/CommonQuestions/

https://www.genderspectrum.org/CommonQuestions/

https://genderspectrum.org/lounge/

https://genderspectrum.org/lounge/

https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/research/immigrants-in-massachusetts

https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/research/immigrants-in-massachusetts

http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED511771.pdf


https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator_cge.asp

https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator_cge.asp

https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator_cgf.asp

https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator_cce.asp

https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator_cgg.asp





https://nafme.org/about/position-statements/equity-access/

https://nafme.org/about/position-statements/equity-access/

https://nafme.org/about/position-statements/inclusivity-diversity/

https://nafme.org/about/position-statements/inclusivity-diversity/

https://nafme.org/on-affirming-all-students/

https://nafme.org/on-affirming-all-students/



http://escholarship.org/uc/item/8g58m2v9



https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2017/03/30/colleges-need-language-shift-not-one-you-think-essay




• Preparing students for unknown material with preview opportunities can be helpful for students who may be anxious about making mistakes in front of their peers. When possible, provide students with recordings, videos, or information about repertoire or materi-als that you will be working with in the next class session. This allows them the opportunity to become familiar with the new material before they work with it in class.

• Breathing exercises and short meditation moments during class—either as a warmup or during a short mid-class break can be extremely helpful for students who experience anxiety. In just two minutes, you and the students can perform a short breathing activity (with or without musical accompaniment) that can help all of you feel centered and ready to learn. Recent research on incorporating these techniques in the classroom has shown them to be effec-tive at allaying anxiety and promoting student learning.

Open Lines of Communication

By the time our students reach us in higher education settings, they have many years of experience in educational settings. They know how they learn best, and they know the supports that they need in order to be successful.

As a faculty member, you will receive information from your school’s disability services office if a student has requested accommodations. However, there may be students in your classes who have not requested accommodations, but whom you are having trouble reaching. In those cases,

HIGHER EDUC ATION

Reaching Every Music Student in Higher EducationBy Rhoda Bernard, Ed.D., Managing Director, Berklee Institute for Arts Education and Special Needs, Berklee College of Music

Faculty teaching music in higher education settings are seeing increasing numbers of students with disabilities and diagnoses in their classes, studios, and rehearsals. As a result, they are learning that the pedagogical strategies and teaching approaches that they have implemented in their teaching up to this point are no longer effective at reaching every student. The good news is that effective teaching for students with disabilities and diagnoses relies on some of the same principles that undergird effective teaching for every student—they just need to be tweaked, magnified, personalized, or deepened. This article describes a few of these principles that you will be able to use right away in your teaching.

Visuals, Visuals, Visuals

While all of the arts are multimodal by nature, involving the visual, auditory, and kinesthetic modalities, each artform is dominated by one modality in particular. In music, this is, of course, the auditory modality. Musicians work in/with/through sound. And music teachers, no matter how aware they are of multimodal teaching, tend to privilege the auditory modality in their classrooms.

One problem with the auditory modality is that it provides very little support for students who need additional processing time. The auditory is temporary—it disappears when the sound has ended. The visual modality, by contrast, stays around. Having visual representations of important information, processes, procedures, and concepts makes your teaching more effective, not only because some students learn better through visuals, but because items that can be seen last longer and are available to students who need additional time to process information that they receive.

Allay Anxiety

Anxiety is on the rise in our society at large. College faculty often report that they have seen increasing anxiety among their students. At the same time, it has long been established by researchers that students with disabilities and diagnoses often experience anxiety, as well. There are some things that you can do in your classroom, studio, and rehearsal room to allay your students’ anxiety.

• Structure and schedules can be extremely helpful for all students. Using an agenda on the board and following it can provide safety and security for individuals who feel anxious. In addition, having a general

“flow” to your classes that is consistent across sessions can help, as well. For example, a class can start with a warmup exercise, then a review of the homework assignment, then working with something new, and then wrapping up with a review of known material. Keeping the overall structure consistent can help students feel less anxious about what to expect in their sessions with you.


INS TRUMENTAL TECHNIQUES

Strategies for the Instrumental Music TeacherBy Marcia Neel, President of Music Education Consultants, Inc. Previously published in School Band and Orchestra, July 2013

The new school year provides us with opportunities to enhance what we have done in the past, and it is in this spirit of lifelong learning that the following ideas are presented as you prepare for the fall.

• Consider developing a personal checklist that will remind you throughout the year of how important it is to be genuine, enthusiastic, fair, and consistent. Although these seem to be traits that should come naturally, we can sometimes get bogged down in minutia that can chip away from all of the above.

• Genuinely caring about students and sharing your love of music-making will keep you focused on the vital contribu-tions you are making to the lives of each of your students. Enthusiasm is contagious and this will help with classroom management since students will be inspired to remain productively engaged by your level of energy. If students see that YOU are sold on your product—active music-making—it will become infectious and they will be inspired by your passion.

• Being fair is a challenge that takes constant vigilance. We naturally like some students more than others but we should look for good qualities in each and capitalize on them. Acknowledge and reward all students for their achievements—both in the music classroom as well as in other school and out-of-school activities. Viewing our students as individuals, as well as members of the ensemble, helps us to see the positive attributes of each.

• Establishing a routine not only makes rehearsals easier for you—it makes them easier for the students you serve

because it provides structure. To ensure consistency, consider the following sequence.

1. Students enter quickly and quietly (music may be playing in the background).

2. Students retrieve their folders and take their seats.

3. Students put their music in rehearsal order as indicated by the detailed lesson plan which should be clearly visible on the board in the same place each day. The plan should not only indicate the order of the selections you will rehearse but which sections and what specifically will be rehearsed—i.e. dynamics, articula-tion, etc.

4. Attendance is taken as soon as the bell rings—can you require students to be in their seats with folders in hand by the time the bell rings? If not and students are still getting to their seats from retrieving their folders, it should be done as quickly as possible. I know of a band director who starts a recording of a march (changes weekly) when the bell rings. Students are not considered to be tardy so long as they are in their seats with instruments in hand by the conclu-sion. It works well because the march encourages a prescriptive expectation as well as a weekly listening lesson. The students love it!

5. Begin with scales and warmups, and ensure there is relevance to the literature you will be rehearsing that day.

As the first day of school gets closer and closer, questions like, “How might I do things better this year?” will grow louder and louder.

talk with the students individually. Ask them to tell you how they learn best. Ask them to tell you about the supports that they need in order to succeed in your class. Remember that you are not permitted, as a faculty member, to ask any student whether s/he has a disability or a diagnosis. However, it can be very informative to talk with your students and find out what sorts of learning activities and teaching approaches work best for them. One music theory professor gives out index cards on the first day of class and asks every student to answer several questions, including

“How do you learn best?”

As you prepare to meet your new students this fall, think about how you might use these principles in your teaching to better reach all of your students. Remember that you don’t need to become a different educator—you just need to make some adjustments to the good teaching that you already do. As one of my mentors puts it, teaching students with disabilities is “good teaching on steroids.” The above tips are just a few ways that you can deepen and strengthen your teaching practices to make them more effective for every student. •

Rhoda Bernard is the Higher Education Editor of MMN.

HIGHER EDUC ATION

6. Try to make strides in at least three pieces of music each day. Remember that the more you expect, the better. I am not referring to level of difficulty of literature, but to the achievement of musical aspects within each work.

7. At the end of the rehearsal, do two (2) things.

a. Review the musical accomplish-ments made by asking the students a question like, “What improvements did we make in the Mozart today?” At the high school level, it is recom-mended that teachers use rehearsal review forms to record daily achieve-ments made in rehearsals. Have students submit them every Friday as part of their course requirements. These could be used in authentic assessment and your commitment to literacy will be appreciated by all. Be certain to expect good writing, spelling, punctuation, etc.

b. Articulate what needs be worked on “tomorrow” as a result of what was achieved “today.”

8. Make relevant announcements within the last couple of minutes. Never start rehearsals with announcements—always begin rehearsals promptly with music-making.

9. Dismiss.

• We should also strive to continually improve our communication skills, which also includes listening. Being a more effective communicator means building meaningful relationships with everyone you come in contact with each and every day. Communication is often viewed simply as the passing of informa-tion from one source to another but it is so much more extensive than this. Communication is also the special way that you walk through the hallway with that “approachable aura” surrounding you; the way in which you look at your colleagues with a smile on your face; the way you work cooperatively with others and the genuine concern you show by being a good listener. In short, how you communicate defines you as a person as well as you as an educator.

• If you are a young teacher, seek out the advice of your immediate supervisor often. If you are an experienced educator, provide counsel and assistance to your younger colleagues—even when they aren’t asking. A simple phone call from a friendly voice will be a welcomed respite to any new teacher who is going through those initial growing pains. When you think about it, instrumental ensemble directors are (or at some time “will be”) accountants, architects, authors, career planners, financial planners, travel agents, politicians, psychologists, public relations executives, quality assurance executives, sales executives and, at times, magicians! To do all of these well (especially within the prescribed school or district guidelines that administrators know in detail) we need the help of these leaders as we move forward. When supervisors become actively involved in decision-making, they soon see that you are committed to providing what is best for the students. The best directors say that they have wonderful principals yet in most cases, the reason for this is because the director has repeatedly sought out the counsel of the principal along the way and has thus developed more of a professional partnership.

• Questions that young educators may want to ask of more experienced directors might include, What selections are best for my particular instrumentation this year? What classroom management techniques work best? How can I inspire my students to practice? What grading policies do you have in place? What does your handbook include? The best “mentors” always make the time to answer questions because they want to help others achieve success. Ask away!

• Actively engage your beginners within the first 6-7 weeks of school. The best instrumental recruiters have received an enormous response from parents by host-ing an “Informance” early in the school year. The Music Achievement Council has implemented the First Performance National Day of Celebration (FPNDoC) to recognize beginners as the “graduate” to a full-fledged member of the band/orchestra. This innovative

program was designed to help increase retention, and it works! All you have to do is choose the pieces to play right from the method book. All of the materials (including modifiable certificates and letter samples) are complimentary and available to download at www.nammfoundation.org/fpndoc. This is when our students and their parents are the most excited about playing an instru-ment, and we should capitalize on this level of enthusiasm. Ask your principal to serve as the emcee of your program and provide him with the included FPNDoC that can be used or improvised on while your students demonstrate what they have learned so far. You might begin by having the principal ask the students to demonstrate how they tried to put together their instrument when they first received it. Students could then open their cases, pull out their instruments then display a very confused look on their faces as they try, unsuccessfully, to assemble the pieces. The emcee could then continue by asking the students to demonstrate how they have now learned to put their instrument together and, of course, they will do it flawlessly and get a great round of applause. This performance should last no more than 30 minutes and should demonstrate to parents how well their children perform when part of an ensemble. The students will be extremely excited to show off for their families all that they have learned, and it will go a long way to creating that excitement for performing. Students will practice more because they are preparing for a concert and parents will be thrilled with the outcome.

• A number of directors have also actively engaged these parents by asking the beginning students to teach their parents how to play their chosen instrument. At the final performance of the year, the parents take the stage to play several selections from the method book as they stand side-by-side with their budding musician sons and daughters. The parents enjoy participating in this supportive activity and the students learn a great deal from teaching their parents

http://www.nammfoundation.org/fpndoc

http://www.nammfoundation.org/fpndoc


MUSIC TECHNOLOGY

Problem Solving in Music Education through Technology: What Makes a Successful Audio Recording?By Christopher Moretti, Boston University

In this project I created a standardized process for assessing high school student’s abilities to use musical problem solving within the context of a music technology class. Musical problem solving is taking a musical idea (e.g., a recording) that is not performance ready and making a finished project. Specifically, for recorded audio and musical instrument digital interface (MIDI) files, educators might present a practice file containing premade errors and ask students to use accrued skills learned in the course to fix issues such as quantization, equalization, compression, and time-based effects. This problem-solving process extends students’ abilities beyond music making; when technology is used as an assess-ment tool, students begin to activate their artistic sensibilities, analytical listening, and correction-making skills.

Foundations

The current project serves as a foundation for in-service music educators and as a supplemental guide for those who have participated in some form of music technology for educators. As it stands,

there are music technology curriculums in existence developed or grades 9–12. Unfortunately, these curriculums are often localized to the school where the creator of these courses is the primary educator. Furthermore, these curriculums only contain the grading rubrics for assessing students, which is not helpful for educators lacking the technical knowledge required to understand the rubric language. My project is designed to break these location-specific barriers and provide a curriculum that can be used more broadly across districts, states, the nation, and perhaps have global reach. I have designed this project to increase educational and music-making opportunities within a structure of cur-rent secondary general music programs in Massachusetts. The material covers one nine-week unit, with each week having a specific area of focus and each day having a goal. Prior to each week, I outline various technical knowledge required to teach each unit. Below is a synopsis of the nine-week curriculum that I have developed to be paired with Soundtrap (soundtrap.com) as the primary Digital Audio Workstation.

It is mid-August and you are gathering materials for the start of the new school year when you receive an e-mail from the district super-intendent. She explains that you must incorporate technology into your general music classroom even though you are not well versed in the subject. What do you do? Pre-service teachers entering the field of music education are not always equipped with the necessary toolkit to promote teaching and learning with and through the use of music technology. High school music curricula, as an example, sometimes provide moments for students to create songs or evaluate their own compositions or teacher-provided sound samples. However, there is a lack of real-world application in which learners engineer recorded projects that call for them to utilize personal musical expertise to master a viable, consumer-ready final master.

how to play. Everyone gets a kick out of seeing the parents as they struggle to play the perfect performance.

• The final concept to keep in mind is to always-always-always ensure that “the student” is at the center of everything that you do—especially in your decision-making. It is very easy for “the good of the program” to supplant what was once “the good of the student.” These are not always the same thing.

A much more extensive Teacher Checklist is available in the Tips for Success: A Guide for Instrumental Music Teachers available from the Music Achievement Council at www.musicachievementcouncil.org. The first Tip provides an extensive checklist for teachers to not only help us become the best professional music educator possible, but also to help us realize the full potential in each and every one of our students. The list delineates a core of noteworthy concepts to keep in mind—particularly for those in the earlier stages of their careers. It also serves, however, as an effective reminder for all of us no matter at what stage of our career.•

Marcia Neel serves as president of Music Edu-cation Consultants, Inc., a consortium of music education professionals who work with a variety of educational organiza-tions, arts associations,

and school districts to foster the growth and breadth of standards-based, articulated music education programs. She also serves as Education Advisor to the Music Achievement Council, a 501(c)(6) organization whose sole purpose is to assist directors in recruiting and retaining students in instrumental music programs through effective professional development programs. In 2016, Marcia was named Senior Director of Education for the Band and Orchestral Division of Yamaha Corporation of America and subsequently, a Yamaha Master Educator. Neel also serves as a member of the Board of Directors of the Percussive Arts Society.

INS TRUMENTAL TECHNIQUES

THE CURRICULUM

Week 1: Getting Started

Students are encouraged to explore Soundtrap’s navigation in addition to completing a loop-based project.

• Learning the software

• Loops

• Bass lines

• Adding melodies

Week 2: Recording MIDI

Students begin to understand the fundamentals of recording MIDI through a project focused on overdub-bing a groove underneath the melody of “Mary Had a Little Lamb.”

• Fundamentals

• Record MIDI

• Overdub

• Quantizing

Week 3: Recording Audio

Through lectures and a Soundtrap project students learn the fundamentals of record-ing audio signals in a musical context.

• Gain staging

• Cables and microphones

• Record voice

• Record instruments

• Microphone techniques

Week 4: Group Project

Students working in groups of no more than three work on a team project where they are tasked with creating a musical phrase that summarizes their knowledge of material learned in the first three weeks. This project should include loops, MIDI, and audio recordings.

• Brainstorm

• Record day 1

• Record day 2

• Record day 3

• Edit

Week 5: Using FX

We discuss effects processing and how they can be used in a musical or experimental application.

• Reverb

• Delay

• Distortion

• Add FX to full mix

Week 6: Editing Audio

We discuss how audio signals often contain unwanted sounds before, during, and after a specific take and how to deal with these issues. Furthermore, we engage in a conversation on the ethics of auto-tune and how to use the software.

• Remove clicks and pops

• Change tonality of recorded material

• Auto-tune day 1

• Auto-tune day 2

Week 7: Mixing 101

Through lecture and mini projects, stu-dents learn fundamental mixing techniques for shaping the sound of recorded material.

• Panning

• Equalization

• Compression

• Automation

Week 8: Mix Project

In a premade Soundtrap project, students focus on implemented their accrued mixing techniques on unedited source material.

• Clean audio

• Pan/volume

• EQ/compression

• FX

• Automation

Week 9: Live Sound and Audio/Visual Synchronization

In real world applications, audio is often paired with video as a final medium and we explore various post production methods of editing.

• Stereo recording techniques

• Record ambient materials

• Edit recorded audio

• Pair audio to video

Equalization: Making Access a Reality

Educators such as Kevin Coyne at McDevitt Middle School are moving away from iPads and Garage Band not necessarily because of choice, but because of economics. The Chromebook is a less expensive device and schools are relinquishing iPads due to cost. Therefore, teachers are employing Soundtrap, an inexpensive DAW that is compatible on either a Mac or Windows (PC) operating system. Software such as Apple Logic, Pro Tools, and Ableton require the purchase of one license per computer. The initial cost for these programs begins at $99 for the most basic version of Ableton, and these programs can only be used in the “lab.” Soundtrap, however, is $250 per 50 accounts, and since the software is web-based it can be used on any computer at any time so long as it has a stable Internet connection. Furthermore, online Google products enable students to access in class resources at home. Coyne uses Google Classroom with Soundtrap and noted:

I use Google Classroom integration a lot. At the start of the year my students join a Google Classroom for their specific music class and a Soundtrap class/group for that specific class. One of my favorite features of Soundtrap is the ability to create assignments within Google Classroom. I can create a template of something I want my students to work on in Soundtrap (i.e. a batch of unmixed stems). Then I can post it as an assignment on Google. When a student clicks on the link, it creates a copy for each individual student that is already shared with me, and placed in a project folder in Soundtrap.

Conclusion

While this curriculum is specific to Soundtrap—the process is transferable to teaching other DAWs such as Pro Tools, Logic Pro, Ableton, Cubase, and others. Furthermore, this project can be repeated in the context of a spiral curriculum with more advanced software, third-party plugins, and perhaps additional hardware (e.g. Teletronix LA-2A, Pultec EQP-1a,). For example, in the first year teachers can

Continued on page 39

http://soundtrap.com

http://www.musicachievementcouncil.org


GENER AL MUSIC

Ukulele: Open Possibilities by David Piper, Willard Elementary School, Concord, Mass.

What instruments do we teach and why, in elementary classroom music? As a Kodaly-inspired teacher, my curriculum revolves around singing—especially in the early years. But I also find that to be relevant, I need to offer older students new and exciting challenges. Ukulele fits the bill.

Much has been written about how the ukulele is a child-sized guitar, easy on the fingers, and a manageable level of sound to work with in the classroom. That’s all true! Less has been written about the ukuleles unique “re-entrant” tuning (G-C-E-A) and how it might be leveraged to help students play melodically. That is the focus of this article.

Even when we are in an instrument unit, I still start every music class with 10–15 minutes of singing. I want to teach instruments as a natural outgrowth of a singing- and song-based approach. I also want students to feel successful relatively quickly on an instrument they are not able to take home, which is a huge challenge. The ideas below on using the ukulele to play melodically instead of just strum-ming chords have made my students feel successful and been a natural outgrowth of the rhythms and sol-fa pitches we already sing in the classroom.

My Dog Has Fleas!

When I started teaching ukulele I quickly realized I needed to teach students how to hold the instrument and how to get a good sound playing open strings. My kindergarten curriculum is based around John Feierabend’s First Steps in Music, and I wondered why there wasn’t a simple call & response song on the memorable melodic pattern “My Dog Has Fleas.” So I made one up!

Coach students on cradling the instrument using their left hand underneath the ukulele’s neck, in the spot where it begins to widen out into the headstock. Use the webbed part of your left hand where the thumb joins the palm, and be sure not to touch any of the strings as they ring.

For the right hand, the thumb will play one string at a time where the neck meets the body of the instrument. Students want to strum over or behind the sound hole, like a guitar, but the short scale-length of the ukulele creates a brittle sound there. Tell students to play “the string toward the sky” first, and then go one string at a time toward “the string near the ground.”

Teach the call and response song below by singing first, then model playing open strings with one or two students in front of the class. For the first lesson, consider one ukulele to every two students, so they can work together and coach each other. Some students will hold the uke the wrong way at first. I make a joke and remind them that holding the uke’s neck with their right hand would reverse the order of the strings, and make the song “Fleas Has Dog My” . . . a different tune entirely! Gently quell any grumbling by telling left-handed students they are lucky, because later we will need the left hand to do all the tricky things on the fretboard. I’ve done this quick intro les-son with students as young as kindergarten, and with adult learners.

Apple Tree

Once students can hold the instrument and confidently play open strings, they have a beautiful little portable instrument that can support them in singing any song with a la-so-mi-do tone set. In a Kodaly curricu-lum, this would probably be introduced in second or third grade. The ringing quality of the open strings also has a harp-like sound that can lend a nice resonance to the melodies when played as a whole class. It is difficult to find songs that include “do” that don’t also include “re,” but they are out there!


Now the challenge becomes navigating the open strings with the right-hand thumb and developing the accuracy necessary for string skips and smooth playing. I present staff notation here, but I don’t get too hung up on absolute note names or string numbers. In my experience, students enjoy the ear-training experience of trying to figure it out on their own.

Try playing the old elementary standby “Apple Tree” on the open strings of the uku-lele. In my experience, third or fourth grade

is the sweet spot for this activity. It works especially well if the students remember the song from first grade (where it can be used to teach quarter note and beamed eighth note), or second grade (where it can be used to teach the sol-fa pitch “do” as the final note). But I also had fifth-grade students ask to play the game this year.

The song gained new life in my classes when we added the xylophone ostinato below. I knew this melodic snippet as the “band room riff” growing up, but

it was Eileen Miracle’s “The Music Room” podcast that suggested putting it with Apple Tree. Swing the sixteenth notes, and the simple melody takes on an almost hip-hop feel in the subdivisions. I composed the four-bar descant, with the image of “reaching” for the apples at the top of the tree. I wanted to make sure students activated their head voices during the lesson.

I See the Moon

My students were also successful with “I See the Moon” this year, with lyrics adapted from Jean Ritchie. I love the downward motion of the tonic triad in the melody and the placement of “la” as an upper neighbor tone. We added singing, bass bars, and finger cymbals and made a satisfying arrangement out of this!

Where to Go Next

I do eventually get to playing chords, but I find students are much more successful when they have gained a feel for the strings and a touch on the instrument through these melodic activities first. They also come to understand all the possibilities of the instrument, and it becomes integrated with the melodic elements they are already learning in the curriculum. I hope these ideas help your students feel successful, love the ukulele, and imagine ways that they could be lifelong music makers beyond the walls of our classrooms. •

David Piper teaches K-5 grade classroom music at the Willard Elementary School in Concord, MA. He can be reached at [email protected]

GENER AL MUSIC



THE URBAN MUSIC CL A SSROOM

Picture This!ELA and Arts Interdisciplinary Learning in an Urban High SchoolBy Charles Combs, PhD and Sandra Nicolucci, EdD

While these three young women were deeply immersed in their own investigation, they were surrounded by several similar cross-graded groups of students, each dissecting songs from different American musicals. Observers could see that students in all groups similarly demonstrated rapt attention to detail, active communication, collaborative decision-making, and critical thinking that would result in informed conclusions.

Later, after focus group deliberations were completed and each group’s historical, cultural, and contextual inferences had been revealed to the whole class, students would find out which American musicals had been the sources of their groups’ assigned songs. Jewel’s group would learn that their song is “Old Man River” from the classic American musical Show Boat. In their private discussion, they had decided that this song portrays the Southern U.S. during the time when slaves had worked the cotton plantations. Their inferences will be proven to be true. They feel resultant pride and satisfaction.

The content of the lesson described may lead one to think that this is a course offered by the school’s music or theater departments. However, this classroom scenario took place in a mixed-grade high school English Language Arts elective course entitled The American Musical: A Literary Genre taught by ELA specialist and masterful cross-disciplinary teacher, Joanne (Jodie) Nelson. Nelson describes her specific intention for her students in this lesson as follows:

They will begin by working independently to analyze their assigned text so they have something “to bring to the table” then they will begin discussing and sharing their ideas about colors, shapes, images, theme, and speaker, as well as addressing any unfamiliar vocabulary.

As this unit progresses, students will eventually hear their analyzed “mystery” songs performed within the contexts of full musicals. These song analyses will become entry points into the viewing of full-length theatrical productions through which students gain deep insight into, and

Picture this! Jewel, Charlie, and Sally are deeply engaged in focus group work, scrutinizing the lyrics of a “mystery” song extracted from an unidentified American musical. They have been prompted to seek out and record unfamiliar vocabulary, colors, images, themes, and symbols within the text. They analyze the dialect of the lyrics, attempting to deduce the geographical origin. They debate clues in the lyrics that hint at the historical period portrayed in the song. As they collaborate and communicate throughout this problem-solving activity, these three young people confidently assert their individual opinions and respectfully consider the ideas of their colleagues. They feel safe to do so. Eventually they form consensual hypotheses about the song’s meaning, historical and cultural contexts, and embedded symbolism that will soon be revealed to their entire class.

ownership of, several gems of American musical theatre, as well as an empathic understanding of the cultural worlds they represent. They acquire acute interdisci-plinary literacy.

Nelson’s school, Brockton High School, is located in an industrial city south of Boston known historically for shoe manufactur-ing. Brockton, with a population of over 90,000, is characterized as a “Gateway City,” a term used to describe cities across Massachusetts that are struggling regional economic centers with household incomes and rates of post-secondary educational attainment that are below the state average.

Within this large city, Brockton High School itself could be characterized as a small “town” housed within a massive concrete structure that accommodates approximately 4,500 students and scores of teachers and staff members. The student body contains a significant percentage of ethnic minorities. The number of recent immigrants in the student population is significant—a high number are English Language Learners. Many students come from families that earn well below the average income. A large number of students qualify for the free or reduced school lunch program. Under such circumstances, it would seem that the cards could be stacked against student success as described in college and career readiness metrics. However, in the past decade, Brockton HS has achieved a major turnaround and has received awards from US News & World Report and other citations for excellence as it becomes a model community for student achievement.

Nelson’s expertise in English Language Arts, her standards-based curriculum content, and her seamless interdisciplinary connections with multiple art forms result in students’ acquisition of and ability to apply multiple literacies. It is notable that, in 2015, every tenth grader in Nelson’s ELA class scored “Proficient” on Massachusetts’ standardized ELA Test. Nelson enables students to move seamlessly among multiple disciplines to deepen understand-

ing. They create journals that contain both reflective and descriptive writing punctuated frequently by vibrant bursts of colorful collages and sketches that help personalize visualization of texts. Students translate literary themes into original posters, collages, drama scenes, and even into sewn quilts, several of which have been on long-term display at the MA Depart-ment of Education Office for the “world” to see and admire. Choreography, songs, and video/film clips all find their way into Nelson’s multifaceted, dynamic curriculum. The “symbol systems” of multiple art forms (music, drama, dance, visual art, media arts) meld seamlessly with the “symbol system” of the English language and literature creating a paramount multidimen-sional literacy.

By teaching students to decipher and employ multiple symbol systems as both distinct and interrelated ways to commu-nicate, teachers like Nelson cultivate and nurture the development of “multiliterate” students who can become innovative twenty-first-century thinkers and problem-solvers. Integration with the arts motivates and sustains students in a life-long quest for “artistic literacy”— the ability to decode and encode (“read” and “write”) messages and ideas expressed through the arts. Abil-ity to discern connections among disparate ideas is vitally important for all who are constantly bombarded by an unrelenting barrage of information conveyed through soundbites, pops ups, social media, advertising, fast-paced images, video games, and the Internet. Jodie Nelson is a teacher who understands that artistic literacy involves so much more than merely training an elite class of artists. Rather it is a major factor in the democratic formation of an informed, multiliterate citizenry.

As Brockton’s schools continue to stand strong in the face of complex contemporary challenges, inspirational teachers like Jodie Nelson will also continue to dig in and develop multimodal, cross-disciplinary curriculum strategies that enable both “at-risk” as well as highly motivated students to realize and exceed their potential. Nelson’s dogged determination to motivate all of her students to become competent, confident, and richly literate

adults gains remarkable traction within her arts-saturated ELA courses. She is a teacher who recognizes that robust connections between her own subject specialty and the “multiple literacies” of the arts provide all of her students with a choice of “on-ramps” to sophisticated understanding, lifelong success, and personal satisfaction.

Picture how fortunate this is and will continue to be for Jewel, Charlie, Sally, and all of their fellow classmates! * Then put yourself in another picture as the music educator in a school full of potential for rich integration and collaboration across subject areas. Visualize ways to engage in multidisciplinary teaching with your colleagues. Then bring that picture to life. We’d love to hear what you come up with! •

* Student names have been changed

Dr. Sandra Nicolucci served on the Gr. 3-5 General Music Writing Team for the 2014 National Core Arts Standards (NCAS) and on the Music Writing

Team for the 2019 revision of the MA Arts Curriculum Framework. She is an active consultant for school systems working on development of sequential arts curricula and assessments. She is Associate Professor Emerita from Boston University.

[email protected]

Dr. Charles Combs is Board President of Arts|Learning, and has served as co-chair of the DESE Arts Education Advisory Council for the past 5 years. He

formerly was Editor of the Children’s Theatre Review, the Youth Theatre Journal, and the New England Theatre Journal, and served as Board Member of the Children’s Theatre Association, Amercan Alliance for Theatre and Education, and New England Theatre Conference. He is Liberal Arts Chair Emeritus from Berklee College of Music.

[email protected]

instruct the basics of equalization through Soundtrap, then in the following year teachers can teach the same process, however, this time using Logic Pro’s native plugins. In the third year, students can perform the same task of equalization in Logic using a third-party plugin while concluding in the fourth year by performing an equalization task with a true hardware unit such as the API 5500. My project offers knowledge, guidance, and, when repeated, the opportunity to scaffold musicians to more advanced software in a spiral curriculum. •

RESOURCES:

Retrieved at www.soundtrap.com/edu

Manzo, V.J. (2016). Foundations of Music Technol-ogy. New York, Oxford: Oxford University Press

Christopher Moretti is currently pursuing his Bachelor of Music (BM) in Saxophone Performance and Music Education at Boston University. Mr. Moretti is a student of Dr. Jennifer Bill

and is a performing member of the Boston University Wind Ensemble and the BamBü Saxophone Quartet. During the Fall 2017 semester, Mr. Moretti studied in London at the Royal College of Music under the tutelage of Kyle Horch. Mr. Moretti currently holds the position of audio engineer for the Boston University Bands.

Continued from page 33

MUSIC TECHNOLOGY



http://www.soundtrap.com/edu


CONTEMPOR ARY / JA Z Z

Choosing Jazz Ensemble RepertoireBy Earl MacDonald, University of Connecticut

Selecting repertoire is one of the most important decisions a jazz band director makes each year. Beyond choosing what will be performed at the next concert, repertoire selection reflects the director’s core beliefs about jazz education and curriculum. It is through repertoire that les-sons are taught in style, musicality, articulation, technique, and even history. The repertoire selections need to challenge and captivate the student’s interest over an extended period, while also having the func-tion of engaging an audience. Selecting repertoire can be challenging for new directors with limited big band experience. New directors are the intended audience for this article, although the following insights and approaches are helpful for any director in finding appropriate jazz ensemble pieces.

Listen, Listen, Listen

There are several options for finding repertoire for your jazz band. Peruse the various catalogues and websites of publish-ers, and listen to sound bites. J.W. Pepper is one of the most popular publishers, but also investigate eJazzLines, Sierra Music, Pro Jazz Charts, UNC Jazz Press, 3-2 Music Publishing, and Smart Chart Music. These companies publish a wide array of repertoire at all levels. Another way to learn about repertoire is to attend concerts, festivals, and conferences. Be sure to keep a copy of the program, and write down notes about each chart. If there are no programs, write down the titles and arranger’s names for future reference.

Know Your Arrangers

If you are looking for new publications, cer-tain arrangers “hit the ball out of the park” every time: Mark Taylor, Mike Tomaro, and Eric Richards never disappoint. Their charts are well-crafted and accessible. Mike Mossman and the late Fred Sturm also fit this category, but the difficulty level increases. Although Maria Schneider could be considered the most highly regarded

jazz composer of the current era, her music is written at an extremely challenging professional level and requires woodwind doubling expertise.

Considerably more important is exposing students to classic big band repertoire, from which they can learn the nuances of swing by studying and playing along with recordings. Composers including Duke Ellington, Count Basie, and Thad Jones are comparably significant to Bach, Beethoven, and Mozart, only in a different genre. The Count Basie Big Band produced countless classics with composers and arrangers that included Sammy Nestico, Neal Hefti, and Frank Foster. A short list of their notable works that are accessible to play by school jazz bands includes:

• Sammy Nestico: Basie Straight Ahead, The Queen Bee, Hay Burner, I’m Beginning to See the Light, Smack Dab in the Middle, High Five

• Neal Hefti: That Warm Feeling, L’il Darlin, Splanky

• Frank Foster: Blues in Hoss Flat, Four-Five-Six, Shiny Stockings

Thad Jones made an extraordinary contri-bution to the classic big band canon. Until recently, most of the music was beyond the technical reach of the average high school ensemble. However, Mike Carubia of Smart Chart Music (http://smartchartmusic.com) has created a solution to this problem. He re-scored many of Thad Jones’ charts in lower keys (thereby reducing range demands), added breathing spots, simplified solis, and provided some written solos. These orchestrations are really well done and receive my unequivocal endorsement.

David Berger’s transcriptions of Duke Ellington repertoire are a tremendous resource. Written for the annual Essentially Ellington high school competition at Lincoln Center, they are available through eJazzLines.com. Ellington’s music can be difficult. For example, there are often clarinet doubles in the reed section, extended ranges in all of the brass parts, and many of his orchestrations are for a somewhat smaller band (three trumpets and three trombones).

Ask

In addition to publishers and recordings of big bands, you can ask clinicians, festival adjudicators, guest artists, jazz educators, and professional players, for they are all great resources for finding appropriate charts for your band. Do not hesitate to ask for recommendations. Additionally, many of them will gladly express their opinions regarding what writers and publishers produce second-rate pabulum (off the record, of course!), and what songs they would wish to never hear again at an educational festival.

Retention

When working as a high school director, my UConn colleague Doug Maher used the following motto as a guide: “One for the kids, one for the parents, and one for you.” One for you might be a Thad Jones piece. One for the kids might be a funky selection. One for the parents used to be “In the Mood,” although these days, great-grandparents are the ones who might recognize a Glenn Miller hit. This approach

http://smartchartmusic.com

http://smartchartmusic.com

http://eJazzLines.com


can be especially helpful in the early stages of building a program, when parental support is needed. The challenge is not crossing the line into audience pandering. From the standpoint of curricular value, I would suggest that there is no place for a unison arrangement of “Louie, Louie” in a jazz band set. Is there pop music for jazz band worth playing? Perhaps. If you firmly believe kids will stay in the band if their parents relate to the music, Mike Tomaro’s charts of Stevie Wonder, Tower of Power, and Steely Dan tunes are valid options, but only in conjunction with introducing them to great repertoire and jazz in general. In my experience, students and audiences alike gravitate towards whatever is excellent.

Assess Strengths, Weaknesses, and Growth

When selecting repertoire, start by identify-ing the strongest players and sections of your band. Considerations include deter-mining who could be featured and assessing what brass ranges are feasible. In addition, diagnose where there are less experienced players and how repertoire might help to improve and elevate their performing skills and those all of the students by year’s end. The dilemma for most music educators is whether to select easier charts that cater to the strengths of young bands, or to pick music slightly above their band’s level to challenge and motivate the group. Students typically appreciate the challenge and will be better served by not taking the safe route. That said, disregarding range (and some technical limitations) can yield disastrous results. You might consider incorporating music at an increased level of difficulty in the second half of the year.

Modify, As Needed

After identifying potential selections, evalu-ate the charts’ playability in relationship to the band’s strengths. Some slight edits might be necessary; if the arrangement calls for a trombone solo and you don’t have a trombone soloist, simply transpose the solo changes for trumpet (or another instrument). Or, if you have too many tenor saxophonists and not enough trombones, you can transpose a trombone part for a saxophonist.

Festival Sets

In a three-song festival set, you can’t go wrong with two canonical selections, say Basie and Thad Jones, with something more contemporary or unconventional to provide contrast. This could be a Latin or straight-eighths funky piece. One of the three selections could be a ballad. A ballad could be a great vehicle for featuring an especially capable soloist.

It is a reality that at most schools, festival music is rehearsed from September until the festival date, and it may not be ready for the winter concert in December. Because festival charts typically feature advanced players, selections that encourage all students to try improvising would be advisable for winter and spring concerts.

Commissions

Another option for selecting repertoire is commissioning up-and-coming jazz composers to create new, customized pieces for your band. This not only gives your students the amazing opportunity to work directly with a composer, but you get to play a personal role in helping to advance the art form. The experience is worth every penny. If the higher rates of some well-known composers are inhibiting, you can easily identify skilled, younger composers by Googling the major annual competitions for jazz composers and arrangers. These include the Sammy Nestico Award, the Charlie Parker Jazz Composition Prize/Manny Albam Commission, and the Wohlhueter Jazz Composition Contest at Ithaca College. Commissioning fees are generally negotiable and surprisingly affordable, considering the benefits. If possible, include at least one rehearsal with the composer in your agreement.

Standards

At the easy levels, there is a glut of weak music published, much of which is void of strong melodic content. Working with

arrangements of American Songbook standards by George Gershwin or Cole Porter, for example, ensures the presence of strong melodies. A litmus test for identify-ing standards is searching a song title to see if it has been recorded by known jazz artists. If so, then it is more likely to be a worthwhile investment of the band’s time. Have students listen to a variety of versions, including renditions by vocalists like Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, and Tony Bennett.

There are so many choices at a music educa-tor’s disposal. Unfortunately, there are just as many pieces not worthy of consideration as there are gems. I hope these guidelines help you choose wisely. •

Earl MacDonald is the Director of Jazz Studies at the Univer-sity of Connecticut. As a composer, he has completed big band commissions for the USAF Airmen of Note, the Westchester

Jazz Orchestra, UMASS Jazz Ensemble 1, Grant MacEwan University, Amherst College, the Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra, Marshall University’s Jazz One Ensemble, and Manchester High School, among others. His latest CD, Open Borders features his arrangements for a 10-piece band. This article, extensive repertoire lists, and other educational resources are archived at www.earlmacdonald.com. Commenting is enabled, should you wish to continue the conversation.

CONTEMPOR ARY / JA Z Z

http://www.earlmacdonald.com

http://www.earlmacdonald.com


RESE ARCH AND MUSIC TE ACHER EDUC ATION

Since 2012, the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) has been working to improve the preparation of educators. Their aim has been “to raise expectations and deepen experiences for individuals preparing to be teachers” in order “to [ensure] that all students have access to effective educators.”1 The process began with the revising of the regulations that govern teacher licensure and the state’s educator preparation programs. In 2014, new professional standards for teachers (PSTs) were adopted and the Candidate Assessment of Performance (CAP) was developed as a way to standardize the evaluation of a prospective teacher’s readiness to teach at the conclusion of their practicum. Following the implementation of CAP in 2016, the DESE turned their attention to developing new guidelines for pre-practicum experiences. In this article, I will outline the new guidelines and their implications for the colleges and universities that prepare music teachers.

Overview

The Educator Licensure and Preparation Program Approval Regulations define pre-practicum as “early field-based experiences with diverse student learners, integrated into courses or seminars that address . . . the Professional Standards for Teachers . . . in accordance with the Pre-practicum Guidelines” (603 CMR 7.02). The PSTs “define the pedagogical and other profes-sional knowledge and skills required of all teachers” (603 CMR 7.08(1)) and address (a) curriculum, planning, and assessment, (b) teaching all students, (c) family and community engagement, and (d) profes-sional culture (603 CMR 7.08(2)). The regulations require that the DESE publish guidelines that prescribe more specific indicators for the department to use when approving preparation programs.

Citing evidence that pre-service teachers need authentic experiences, supported practice, and feedback, as well as calls for stronger connections between what is learned while enrolled in preparation

An Analysis of the Guidelines for Pre-Practicum ExperiencesBy Ronald P. Kos Jr., Ph.D., Boston University

programs and what teachers do in practice, the new guidelines call for pre-practicum experiences that “provide candidates with multiple opportunities to apply learning from coursework into practice through increasingly authentic teaching experi-ences.” They call for the scaffolding of experiences in order to support candidates’ individual developmental needs, with the ultimate goal being “full readiness for the licensure role.” The guidelines suggest a two-stage framework in which candidates are first introduced to the PSTs and Subject Matter Knowledge through activities that are embedded in coursework, such as guided observations and peer teaching, and then practice their skills in PK–12 settings as they prepare for practicum. The guidelines also require at least two gateways assessments to ensure that candidates are ready for the practicum experience.1

1This quote is from a letter to sponsoring programs that accompanied the final draft of the pre-practicum guidelines from Megan Comb, the Director of Educator Effectiveness for DESE.

Types of Experiences

Pre-practicum field experiences must be “fully embedded” within the candidates’ coursework, so that the candidate can connect the theory and practice. Those connections must be made explicit. Therefore, rather than a standalone fieldwork requirement in which a candidate is required to spend, for example, twenty hours during a semester observing music classrooms, their fieldwork must be directly connected to the content of whatever methods course they might be taking in a particular semester.

The pre-practicum guidelines do not specify what experiences should be included in a program, although they include several examples, which are not meant to be exhaustive. During the early stages of the pre-practicum, candidates might engage in observations of PK–12 classrooms, provided that those observations are guided and are connected to their current coursework. They might also design and teach lessons to their classmates during their methods classes, receiving feedback from their instructor. Alternately, they might par-ticipate in “mixed-reality simulations,” in which they respond in real time to scenarios presented in a digital environment. Later in the pre-practicum, candidates begin working with directly with PK–12 students.

One way to think about scaffolding experiences is by gradually increasing the responsibility for teaching. Candidates may begin by observing the classroom, then working for short periods with smaller groups of students, and increasing the length of time and the number of students until eventually the candidate is able to assume full control of the classroom. It may mean that initial teaching experiences are structured peer teaching experiences, with later fieldwork happening with PK–12 students. Scaffolding could also mean that

with any type of experience, candidates initially receive significant guidance from university faculty or from classroom teach-ers, with that guidance gradually becoming less structured.

Providing Feedback

During fieldwork, candidates must receive “high-quality, targeted feedback” at least twice during the entire duration of the pre-practicum. The individual providing the feedback can observe the candidate in person, remotely using Skype, Face Time, or similar applications, or view a video recording. The pre-practicum guidelines specify who may provide this feedback: the instructor of the course in which the experience is embedded, Program Supervisors, and Supervising Practitioners. The latter two are defined in the state regulations: A Program Supervisor is someone “from the sponsoring organiza-tion, under whose immediate supervision the candidate for licensure practices,” and a Supervising Practitioner is a teacher “who has at least three full years of experience under an appropriate initial or professional license and has received an evaluation rating of proficient or higher, under whose immediate supervision the candidate for licensure practices” (603 CMR 7.02). The pre-practicum guidelines describe another role that a PK–12 teacher might undertake: A host teacher is one “who opens up his/her classroom to candidates as a model of practice and may provide informal support and feedback.”

The requirement that this feedback occur at least two times may seem, on the surface, to be insufficient. Ideally, candidates would receive feedback throughout their pre-practicum, and all feedback would be of high quality and would be targeted. It is important to note, however, that the requirement is specific to feedback

from instructors, program supervisors, or supervising practitioners. Programs can, therefore, partner with host teachers who may be less experienced to provide adequate opportunities for school-based field experi-ences throughout the pre-practicum.

Assessing Students

The pre-practicum guidelines require that programs administer at least two gateway assessments in order to “evaluate candidate readiness prior to practicum.” These assessments allow programs to identify candidates who may not be successful in the practicum and to provide them with support and guidance so that they can either improve or exit the program. One assessment must be conducted with PK–12 students; the other may occur in the context of a methods course. For example, the initial gateway might occur when candidates are teaching their peers in a methods course during their junior year, and the second gateway might occur toward the end of their pre-practicum when they are teaching a lesson in a PK–12 music classroom.

Gateway assessments must be the same for every student in any given licensure area. Therefore, every student seeking licensure in music at a particular institution must complete the same assessment, regardless of the course in which they are enrolled or the instructor of the course when they complete it. The assessment must have clearly defined minimum performance expectations, and candidates must meet those expectations before they can advance to the practicum. Just as the targeted feedback can be based on video-recorded observations, gateway assessments may also use recordings. Furthermore, gateway assessments need not be separate from assessments that are part of coursework. The two required assess-ments may even be the same experiences

that are used to meet the requirement for two instances of targeted feedback described above.

Implementation of the Guidelines

The new pre-practicum requirements were finalized and announced to sponsoring programs in May of 2018. The 2019–2020 academic year is intended as a planning year, with the new requirements in place for students entering programs in the Fall of 2020. In planning, music departments should consider several things. First, consider the extent to which the program is already meeting the requirements. What courses already include experiences in which students are connecting theory to practice through guided observations or practice teaching? Of those, which include experiences in which candidates are teaching PK–12 students? In which coursework do students already receive high-quality, targeted feedback from instructors, program supervisors, or supervising practitioners?

Second, determine the extent to which those experiences are scaffolded to support the development of candidates. How might the existing experiences be adapted, and what additional experiences are needed? How can the program best partner with schools and experienced music teachers to provide opportunities for guided observations during the early stages of the pre-practicum, and for practice teaching in the later stages?

Finally, how will candidates’ readiness be evaluated? What are the criteria, and what are the minimum standards that must be met? When is the ideal time for each gateway assessment, and how can those assessments be embedded into coursework in a manner that does not place unreason-able burdens on the candidate or on those who must conduct the assessment?


Conclusion

The new pre-practicum guidelines will likely require a number of adjustments for licensure programs. Although the require-ments may initially be seen as onerous, most programs are likely including many elements already. The implementation process is, however, an opportunity to ensure that candidates are truly ready to step into the teaching role when they begin the practicum, which should lead to their being better prepared to teach in their own classrooms. •

Ronald Kos is an assistant professor of music at Boston University, where he teaches undergradu-ate and graduate courses including Introduction to Music Teaching and

Learning and Instrumental Music Methods. His research interests include state and federal policy implementation and the development of preservice music teachers’ identities and belief systems.

REFERENCES

Educator Licensure and Preparation Program Approval Regulations, 603 CMR 7.00 (2018). http://www.doe.mass.edu/lawsregs/603cmr7.html

Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Educa-tion. (2018). Guidelines for pre-practicum for teachers. http://www.doe.mass.edu/edprep/resources/pre-practicum.pdf

As the 2018–19 school year begins to wind down, I’d like to first thank all of you who I have been fortunate enough to interact with, whether it be at the NAfME Music Program Leaders forum, connecting with each other via e-mail, or collaborating at All-State. As I reflect on this past year, I think about where we are now and where we are headed in the future. I’d like to share three key things from this year that resonated most with me.

Council of Music Program Leaders UpdateBy Dr. Heather Cote, Westwood Public Schools

“If understanding is the key that unlocks the door to knowledge, then we must remember that not every door can be opened with the same key.”

–Dr. Connie McCoy

I am an ensemble conductor. I stand in front of my band with my score, and my students look to me for the answers. While sometimes I need to tell them those answers, it’s also my job to make them discover the answers themselves. My way of teaching material, or choosing repertoire reflects who I am, how I have learned and what makes sense to me—but just because I see things this way, doesn’t mean that all of my students will. By creating oppor-tunities for discovery, I learn from my students about how they learn, how they see the world, and how they understand what we do in class. While I may have the “answers” on the score in front of me, many times those answers don’t answer the right questions.

“The pluralities of who we are are found in ALL the ways we play, make and create music”

—Dr. Randall Allsup

In thinking about how we teach ALL students, we cannot necessarily teach the way we’ve been taught. Our students bring

a wealth of things into our classroom—many parts of their identities. If we teach in one specific way, year after year, we are not tapping into the many different parts of their varied identities. The more students experience, the more they make discoveries about themselves. In my mind, there can be no “wrong” in playing, making, and creating music. It’s only wrong if you’re never taking risks to try new things and engaging the students in many ways. As teachers and supervisors we must support a student/learner-centered model. We need to think about teaching intentionally for creativity and critical thinking. We must teach intentionally for the habits of mind or dispositions that allow the learner to build on the skills they learn/know. And we must continue to not forget to support the process of teaching and learning, not just the outcome.

I hear stories all the time from teachers and supervisors who feel they are not supported in their program. Advocacy is something that we all have to engage constantly in, regardless of how supported you feel in your program. At some point in our careers, we’ve all had to answer, “Why is this important?” While my performances are, of course, a big part of what I do, I am still always thinking about what my students will take with them from me and my classroom, especially if they never play in an ensemble again. This reminds me that through music, we teach

MUSIC PROGR AM LE ADERS

September, there will be another group of students walking through my doors, bring-ing their own pluralities of their identities. It will be up to me to figure them out, guide them, and ensure they have a voice so that I instill in them a lifelong passion, curiosity, and love for the performing arts.

As my term at Music Program Leader Council Chair comes to an end, I want to thank everyone. It truly has been a pleasure to serve in this position for the past few years. I look forward to serving you in a different capacity as President-Elect in the fall. As I enter my second year as NAfME Music Program Leaders Council Chair, I hope to see some of you in Orlando in November at the 3rd MPL Forum. But until then, take some time for yourself, and have a wonderful summer! •

RESOURCES

Allsup, R.E. (2018, April) All That Remains to Be Seen and Heard. Presented at CMEA’s Casting a Wider Net, Azusa Pacific University.

Chan, S. (2019, January 30). World Economic Forum: Top 10 skills and workforce strategies in 2020. Retrieved from https://www.humanresourcesonline.net/world-economic-forum-on-the-top-10-skills-and-workforce-strategies-in-2020/

Lind, V. R., & McKoy, C. L. (2016). Culturally responsive teaching in music education: From understanding to application. New York, NY: Routledge.

Dr. Heather Cote is currently in her eighteenth year with the Westwood Public Schools in Westwood, Mass., where she serves as the K-12 Director of Performing Arts as well

as conducts the WHS concert band and wind ensemble.

do many skills to our students that don’t just make them better musicians, but make them better community members and better people.

And so this is the final thing I’ll share with you: if these are the skills that students will need to succeed in the future, then our classrooms foster many of these. And that makes me look at what I’m doing and figure I must be doing something right.

The Top-10 Skills in 2020 from the World Economic forum

1. Complex problem solving

2. Critical thinking

3. Creativity

4. People management

5. Coordinating with others

6. Emotional intelligence

7. Judgement and decision-making

8. Service orientation

9. Negotiation

10. Cognitive flexibility

We continue to live and work in challeng-ing times, as we navigate our way through new elements every year that challenge us, make us think, and ultimately grow our programs. It’s up to us be the leaders that our districts need to advocate for our pro-grams, our students and help our teachers grow in their practice. None of this would be possible if we weren’t passionate about what we do and committed to providing for our teachers and students. The job will never be “done.” I will never be the perfect teacher or the perfect administrator. But in

RESEARCH AND MUSIC TEACHER EDUCATION

http://www.doe.mass.edu/lawsregs/603cmr7.html

http://www.doe.mass.edu/lawsregs/603cmr7.html

http://www.doe.mass.edu/edprep/resources/pre-practicum.pdf

http://www.doe.mass.edu/edprep/resources/pre-practicum.pdf

https://www.humanresourcesonline.net/world-economic-forum-on-the-top-10-skills-and-workforce-strategies-in-2020/




EMBR ACING THE NE W MUSIC EDUC ATOR

ETNME UpdatesBy Mary Correia, Gordon College

Embracing the New Music Educator was recently mentioned as one of the nation’s four outstanding mentoring programs for music educa-tion! Published in Arts Education Policy Review Journal, the article,

“From the inside out: Exemplary music education association mentor-ing programs,” compared Massachusetts’ ETNME to programs in Iowa, North Carolina, and California.

Although the recognition is noteworthy, “exemplary” could mean so much more if mentoring were a statewide endeavor, as opposed to one adopted by one or two districts.

Nine years ago, Embracing the New Music Educator was the outgrowth initiative of Dr. Sandra Doneski and me recognizing the need to provide the missing step in the paradigm of a new teacher support system. Mentoring must be longitudinal rather than a quick survival fix for the first-year novice. Although ETNME has been recognized by MMEA as the mentoring program for the state, we are not reaching all the new professionals, those re-entering the field, those new to the state, or anyone that may benefit from such a program.

I applaud the Office of Educator Prepara-tion in its dedication to improving the academic and preparation of new teachers, but how do we hold on to that teaching talent that we have taken such great care to cultivate? If we are going to support a

“career continuum,” then subject-specific mentoring, especially in the arts, is a neces-sary component to avoid attrition. I did reach out to the Massachusetts Department of Elementary Secondary Education and received in return an “attaboy” letter with no plan for support.

Here are my suggestions to improve new teacher retention and to possibly avoid migration, and I would be willing to mentor the districts in scaffolding this mentoring program.

• Utilize all five districts that comprise the Massachusetts Music Educators Association in order to make the program geographically accessible.

• Contact school superintendents through the Massachusetts Music Educators Association and music organization databases informing them of the mentoring program.

• Contact higher education institutions concerning recent graduates and professional placements.

• Build a network/community of beginning teachers.

• Provide “in person” opportunities for mentors and mentees to “ice break” and interact.

Although I am retiring from my position as ETNME coordinator and this will be my

“final” submission to Massachusetts Music Educators Journal, I will always be looking forward to the new “first” opportunity to meet and mentor those who have the passion to pursue the profession that I have been blessed to enjoy for the past forty-five years.

I would like to thank those who have shared their time and talent serving as mentors for Embracing the New Music Educator as well as to those who took the leap of faith to attend meetings in the hopes of meeting a friend to share concerns and to celebrate the joys of accomplishment through music!

Here is the official link to the Online First version of the article.

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10632913.2019.1596852

The unfortunate part is that if one is not connected to a library service that offers this journal, it won’t be accessible. This journal is not included in the NAfME membership, but it is part of most institu-tions (including high schools). •

Mary Correia is the cofounder of Embracing the New Music Educa-tor mentoring program and is a member of the music education faculty at Gordon College.

Joseph Mulligan will be taking over as president as of July 1, 2019. His e-mail is [email protected]. Please do not hesitate to contact me via e-mail at [email protected] if you have any questions about this past year. It has been a pleasure serving as president for the last four years, and I look forward to supporting Joe as past president for the next two years.

Best wishes to everyone for a great year,

—Paul J Pitts, M.A.J.E. President 2015–2019

2018-2019 Festival Schedule Announcement:

Information about Junior and Senior District Jazz Festivals, including online reg-istration forms, registration fees, program information, MVP Award information, adjudicator commentary, and performance guidelines can all be found online at: www.MAJAZZED.org . The season will be very similar to this year. We are currently working on finalizing the dates and sites for next year as I write this letter. They will be complete on the website by the time this issue of the journal comes out.

Clinics at All-State 2019

MAJE will be continuing to sponsor clinics at All-State again this year. Topics to be covered will be: the Jazz Rhythm Section 201, section clinics, and improvisation clinics. Please visit www.MAJAZZED.org for more information about these topics and the dates for our festivals for next year.

MAJE Sponsored Clinicians Available

This program offers funds to MMEA member schools to offset the cost of bringing in an expert jazz musician/educator into your school. MAJE has a long list of excellent musicians and educators that can address the specific needs of your group or program. Improvisation, ensemble skills, rhythm section skills, and stylistic performance are examples of clinic topics. Jazz education techniques for teachers can be addressed as well. Once an application is submitted and accepted, the MAJE will pair you with an appropriate clinician who will schedule a two-hour clinic with you and your ensemble. This has been a highly used asset for jazz educators for the past year. For more information, please visit www.MAJAZZED.org or contact Doulas Olsen, Worcester Polytech Institute, [email protected].

I hope that you are looking forward to the summer and your end of the year perfor-mances have just about finished. I trust that you will be getting some vacation time and recharging your battery for next year. With little snow this year all of our festivals ran on their original days, and we had a great show at the state finals.

The rotation of professional jazz perfor-mances at our state finals has continued to increase the excitement at the awards ceremonies. There was a great audience this year at the finals, and the students really enjoyed the BT ALC Big Band. We are planning to continue to provide educational, entertaining, and inspiring performances for our teachers and student performers. The clinics at All-State were well attended, and we are planning a session called “Rhythm Section 201,” which will be more in-depth and geared to high school and advanced junior high rhythm sections. Additionally, Paul Alberta has once again done a great job bringing in new judges from college jazz programs in the New England area. If you have any ideas for additional clinics please send them to me.

If you have any billing questions please send them to our treasurer, Mr. David Kaminski from Marshfield Public Schools. His e-mail is [email protected]. Please let your purchasing agent know about the change.

As I finish my fourth year as your president I feel that the association is in a good place to continue to promote jazz education in our state. I am glad to announce that

UpdatesBy Paul Pitts, MAJE President

MA JE





http://www.MAJAZZED.org







District Updates

NORTHEASTERN DISTRICT

Thank you to Tom Bankert, Ana Morel, and everyone at Wakefield Public Schools for making our Junior Festival a fantastic experience for everyone involved. Senior audition lists will be posted in June, and Junior audition lists will be posted in September. We are currently working on updating our audition/festival handbook and will post the updated one when it is completed.

2019-20 MMEA-ND Dates

• Senior Auditions: Saturday, Nov. 23

• Junior Auditions: Saturday, Feb. 1

• Senior Festival: January 8, 10, 11

• Treble Chorus Festival: March 21 (rehearsals TBD)

• Junior Festival: March 25, 27, 28

• Meet next year’s Board, 2019–2021 Term

- Chairperson: Tom Bankert, Wakefield Public Schools

- Past-Chairperson: Chris Nelson, North Andover Public Schools

- Chair-Elect: Jared Cassedy, Lexington Public Schools

- Secretary-Ana Morel, Wakefield Public Schools

- Technology Coordinator: Brian Fulks, Methuen Public Schools

- General Music/Treble Chorus Coordi-nator: Chris Zini, Wakefield Public Schools

- Professional Development Coordina-tor: Brian Spignese, Methuen Public Schools

- Historian: Agatha Marano, Retired Teacher

- Senior Festival Coordinator: Luke Miller, Melrose Public Schools

- Junior Festival Coordinator: Allison Lacasse, Chelmsford Public Schools

- Librarian: (open, Chris Nelson will serve as interim librarian)

- Treasurer (non-voting): Stephen Correia, Retired Teacher

- Auditions Coordinator (non-voting): Lauren Ignos, UMASS Lowell

- 2021-23 Term

- Senior Festival Coordinator: Zach Cooper, Dracut Public Schools

- Junior Festival Coordinator: Kristen Dye, North Reading Public Schools

- Looking for a recording of one of this year’s concerts? Check here: https://soundwaves.org/shoppingcart/search.php?search_query=MMEA+northeastern&x=16&y=9

As always, if you have any questions, concerns, or feedback please e-mail me at [email protected]. It has been my pleasure to serve the Northeastern District as chairperson these past two years. The district chair will be in the very capable hands of Tom Bankert next

year and look forward to his leadership.

—Chris Nelson, Northeastern District Chair

WESTERN DISTRICT

The work our students and colleagues have accomplished this year fills me with pride. Our Junior and Senior Festivals involved 109 schools, 167 teachers, and 616 students. We appreciate the effort of our managers, Ryan Caster, Tyler Cook, Charles Emery, Ryan Emken, Todd Fruth, David Gomes, Frank Newton, Margaret Reidy, and Erin Sosnoski. Our students had amazing experiences working with their conductors: Patricia Cornett, Robert Ferrier, Jamie Hillman, John Mastroianni, Kevin McDonald, Walter Pavasaris, Joseph Stillitano, David Winer, and Cynthia Woods. Thanks to UMass Amherst and Belchertown High School for hosting us. Thanks to everyone who pitched in to help with programs, tickets, assistant managing,

sectional rehearsals, chaperoning, and all the other details necessary to provide these experiences.

The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education has approved MMEA Western District as an official provider of Professional Development Points. District members who participate in ten or more hours of profes-sional development at district events can submit a form, which you will find posted on our district website. Forms are due annually by June 15th, and you will receive a certificate by the end of the month.

I love reading. During the school year I mostly stick to works of fiction. I find them a great buffer to help my mind let go of the day’s work. (Recent fiction favorites to rec-

ommend: Louise Penny’s Inspector Gamache series; anything by Fredrik Backman; A Gentleman in Moscow; The Elegance of the Hedgehog; and, for delightful nonfiction, anything by Calvin Trillin). During the summer I feel more motivated to read for professional development. If you’re looking for inspiring professional reading, there are several books I can recommend: Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain by Zaretta Hammond; Leonard Bernstein by Allen Shawm; Choral Charisma by Tom Carter; Wisdom, Wit and Will: Women Choral Conductors on Their Art, ed. By Joan C. Conlon; Symphony for the Dead: Dmitri Shostakovich and the Siege of Leningrad.

—Kayla Werlin, Western District Chair

https://soundwaves.org/shoppingcart/search.php?search_query=MMEA+northeastern&x=16&y=9






EASTERN DISTRICT

• The past few months have been exciting for Eastern District with an outstanding Junior Festival and the first ever General Music Treble Chorus festival.

• Thursday, August 22nd is our 3rd Annual Back to School BBQ. We look forward to seeing you there!

• Audition lists for our Junior and Senior Festivals are available on the website.

• As always, please make sure to log in to the festival registration area and update your contact information, as well as add any colleagues not currently listed.

• You can find the full calendar of events and information on everything men-tioned above at mmeaeasterndistrict.org

—Chris Noce, Eastern District Chair

• CD has adopted the following goals for 2019–2020.

- Update handbook including new policies regarding expanded eligibility at Junior Festival for 2020–2021 school year. See below for more details.

- Offer new and relevant professional development clinics during festival rehearsals.

- Update professional contact informa-tion for all music teachers in the district.

• After surveying the directors of central district, the executive board has decided to expand the eligibility of our Junior Festival from grade 7 and 8 to grades 7 through 9. The Senior Festival will still be eligible to students in grades 9 through 12. A subcommittee made up of members of the executive board and ensemble managers will be spending the 2019–2020 school year researching and creating policies to implement this expanded eligibility during the 2020–2021 school year. There will be no changes to eligibility for the 2019–2020 school year for either the Senior or Junior Festival.

• Our membership and publicity chairs have begun to update our professional contact information for all teachers in CD.

• Audition and festival registration forms for Senior High and Junior High festivals will continue to be available online.

• We will continue to use sight reading that is created using SightReadingFac-tory.com. for auditions. There is a discount code for CD teachers who would like to create an account to use for practice. This is an awesome,

exciting, and affordable way to teach sight reading in private lessons and in an ensemble format. Contact CD auditions coordinator Steve Archambault for more information.

• Want to save money on music? Check out the library link on our website (cdm-mea.org). Michelle Blake at Middlesex Regional High School is hosting both the CD and All-State music library. Check out the list of music then contact Jason for information. This library is open to all MMEA educators statewide.

• Looking to make music this summer? Check out our web page at www.cdmmea.org and take a moment to check out the “Camps & Community Ensembles” page. It is a great list of musical opportunities for students and adults. Please contact us if you have suggestions for programs that should be included.

If you have questions, concerns, comments, or feedback, please contact one of the CD-MMEA Executive Board members. We are always happy to help. Please join us at our Fall Dinner Meeting on Wednesday, October 2 at 5:30 pm at O’Connor’s Restaurant in Worcester. Finally, always check our website (cdmmea.org), for continued updates and information. I hope you have a relaxing and productive summer and are ready to come back for an enjoyable year of teaching and making music.

—Arthur Pierce, Central District Chair

CENTRAL DISTRICT

ADVERTISERS

University of New Hampshire IFCACDA 3Yamaha 4Gordon College 6Salem State University 27Bridgewater State University 28Plymouth State University 34UMASS Dartmoth 37Berklee 40Powers Music School 43Gordon College Graduate 50Westfield State IBCDavid French Music Co. BC

DIS TR IC T UPDATES

We had a very successful Junior Festival at Attleboro High School. Thank you to Gary Hyman for hosting!

• We are still searching for a site for our 2020 Junior Festival—please e-mail [email protected] if you are interested.

• The Southeastern District is adding a senior treble chorus for the 2019–2020 school year. If you are interested in managing for this ensemble, please e-mail [email protected].

• We are currently reviewing our audition rubrics and revamping our website. Please follow us on Facebook and Twitter, and check often for updates. If you do not receive district e-mails, please e-mail [email protected] to be added.

• Check the website and social media for updates to the 2019–2020 Audition List and for information about the general meeting in October.

Happy Summer, everyone!

2019-2020 SEMMEA Dates:

Senior Auditions: Saturday, Nov. 23

Junior Auditions: Saturday, December 7

Senior Festival: January 10–11

Junior Festival: March 13–14

—Jillian Griffin Southeast District Chair

SOUTHEASTERN DISTRICT

SE-MMEA would like to acknowledge and honor the recent passing of Rachel Hallenbeck, music director at Braintree High School. Rachel was a vibrant and influential presence in the Southeastern district, and her loss will be felt by her family, staff, students, and colleagues. Our hearts and our thoughts are with her family in this difficult time.

Board of Directors

Executive Officers

PRESIDENTDr. Sandra Doneski

PRESIDENT-ELECTDr. Cecil Adderley

IMMEDIATE PAST PRESIDENTThomas Walters

CLERKDr. Ruth Debrot

TREASURERThomas O’Toole

District Chairs

CENTRAL DISTRICTArthur Pierce

EASTERN DISTRICTChris Noce

NORTHEAST DISTRICTChristopher Nelson (2017-2019)

SOUTHEAST DISTRICTJillian Griffin

WESTERN DISTRICTKayla Werlin

Representatives

ELEMENTARYSara Allen

MIDDLE SCHOOLMeredith Lord

HIGH SCHOOLMargaret Reidy

HIGHER EDUCATIONDr. Felicia Barber

K–12 ADMINISTRATIVE REPChristopher Martin

Past District Chair

Michael Lapomardo

Administrative LiaisonsNAFME E. DIV. PRESIDENT Marc Greene

NAFME E. DIV. PRESIDENT-ELECTKeith Hodgson

NAFME E. DIV IMMEDIATE PAST PRESIDENTScott Sheehan

SUPERINTENDENTS ASSOCIATIONDr. Kim Smith

CMMEA CHAPTER PRESIDENTFaith McKinley

PRINCIPALS ASSOCIATIONMichael LaCava

TRI-M LIAISONDr. Noreen Diamond Burdett

Subcommittee ChairsCONSTITUTION/BY-LAWSDr. Cecil Adderley

NOMINATINGThomas Walters

SYMPHONY HALL SCHOLARSDr. David Neves

DISTINGUISHED SERVICE AWARDDr. Noreen Diamond Burdett

ADVOCAC Y CHAIRJohn Mlynczak

LOWELL MASON AWARDDr. Noreen Diamond Burdett

ADVOCAC Y AWARDDr. Noreen Diamond Burdett

Committee ChairALL-STATE AUDITIONSMichael Lapomardo

ALL-STATE CONCERTMatthew Cunningham

ALL-STATE CONFERENCEDr. Ruth Debrot

AWARDSDr. Noreen Diamond Burdett

MEMBERSHIPCynthia Grammer

SYMPHONY HALL SCHOLARSThomas Walters

Staff Members & Support Personnel

Staff Members

INTERIM EXECUTIVE DIRECTORMichael LaCava

INTERIM ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR Dr. Noreen Diamond-Burdett

P.O. Box 3886 South Attleboro, MA 02703-3886 Fax: 401-822-5151

MMEJ MANAGING EDITORSusan G. Lindsay

MMEJ BUSINESS MGR.Kristen Harrington

DESIGN PRODUCTIONMegan Verdugo

Support Personnel

AUDITIONS COORDINATORMichael Lapomardo

DATABASE MANAGERRick Lueth

Council ChairsBAND COUNCILDr. Timothy Anderson

CHORAL COUNCILCatherine Connor-Moen

JAZZ COUNCILJeffrey Holmes

ORCHESTRA COUNCILJing-Huey Wei

GUITAR COUNCILTBA

MUSIC COMPOSITION COUNCILJoseph Pandaco

GENERAL MUSIC COUNCILCathy Ward

IN-OVATIONS COUNCILTom Westmoreland

PROGRAM LEADERS COUNCILDr. Heather Cote

RESEARCH & MUSIC TEACHER EDUCATIONDr. Tawnya Smith

MMEA Executive Board & Staff

MME A E XECUTIVE BOARD & S TAFF

http://mmeaeasterndistrict.org

https://www.sightreadingfactory.com/

https://www.sightreadingfactory.com/

http://cdmmea.org

http://cdmmea.org

http://www.cdmmea.org

http://www.cdmmea.org

http://cdmmea.org




54 | MASSACHUSET TS MUSIC EDUCATORS JOURNAL VOL . 67 NO. 4 | SUMMER 2019

Massachusetts Music Educators JournalP.O. Box 3886 South Attleboro, MA 02703-3886

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Summer 2019 - Massachusetts Music Educators Association

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