Week 3

Something that I have been thinking about recently is creating a class where understanding is the main goal. I reflect on my middle and high school music experiences and realize that I was taught pieces of music-not music itself. My teacher would teach us parts and then we would sing them back to her and believe that we had done great work that day... However, were she not there-could I have replicated that process? Could I have learned on my own the music? Probably not-because I did not really understand music.

Now that I am in college and getting closer and closer to Student Teaching- I am contemplating what will be most important to me as a teacher. We have to teach mini-lessons on Fridays for my Secondary Music Education class-and I am constantly striving to get students (my college classmates) to figure out the music on their own, rather than me just playing it on the piano and them mimicking what they hear. 

I believe Backwards Learning is a great way of planning in a way that will enable students to best learn. When I watched the videos about essential questions-I initially did not see a way that could work in a music class-but upon further thought I found a few that I think could work:

-what is the mood of this piece of music and how is that mood demonstrated/executed?

-what stylistic considerations were made by the composer to portray their meaning?

Anyways, I missed having classes today.

Hope to see everyone Thursday.

Peace,

Austin