Teaching Music With Technology

Music is a fascinating subject when it comes into alignment with Bronfenbrenner's Bioecological model.  Music is a subject that has roots that have a deeper connection to the community than most other subjects experience.  For example, the Western tradition of music has a deep history with Christianity that is difficult to ignore.  But, programming choices need to take into account many "circles" of a student's bioecological situation.  When programming (read "choosing curriculum") for the year several questions should be asked: How will this piece help my student as an individual? How will parents feel if the student reports at home about this piece? (microsystem thinking) Does the piece align with the school's guidelines? Does the piece serve the community well and align with their values and traditions?  (macrosystem thinking) Is there anyone in the middle that might take issue?  (mesosystem thinking) I saw Mr. Choir go through the process ...

James Marcia, in furthering Erik Erikson’s work, theorized that there are four stages of psychosocial development.  Many of these stages are faced in adolescence.  In fact, I would argue that a secondary educator will, more than likely, have to contend with all four stages in a classroom.  It would be interesting to delve into the four development stages and see what correlation they have to different parenting styles and/or marital success and modeling in the home.  But, I digress... The four stages of development are: Identity Diffusion - where an adolescent feels that they have to make little to no choices but they have little to no commitment. Identity Foreclosure - where and adolescent seems willing to make some longer range plans, takes on significant roles, or begin to form values but still rely on those around them.  They have not explored a lot of options in terms of career and future but mostly trust parents or their sensei (MKO) in their suggestio...

I'm going to include a video... mostly because the video refers to Vygotsky as "the Mozart of Psychology" and we all know how I feel about Mozart! Okay... now that you've brushed up on your Vygotsky (or if you're ADD like me, you ended up listening to Mozart for a half an hour before you ended up back here.) I'd like to tell you how I've seen this in the classroom.  In a rehearsal environment, it is easy to identify the teacher as the More Knowledgeable Other (MKO).  The teacher knows more about music than the students do in terms of phrasing, dynamics, performance standards, etc.  Vygotsky theorized that learning came through social interactions.  And, other than a team sport, I'm not sure of any other classroom that is more social than a choral classroom.  I think that group work can be highly effective in a choral setting if used for the right reasons.  I have watched this with Mr. Choir many times.  He will model a sound or an articulation...