NewsBlog Editor’s Note: This is the second post in a semester-long series by Jenny Giardina, a new CMIE Guided Intern working as Teaching Artist and Documentation Specialist for her internship at the Josiah Quincy Upper School in Boston, MA.  Our thanks to JQUS music teacher Laura Bouix for hosting Jenny’s guided internship.

I was anxious last Friday as the first class walked in and found their seats; I know from first-hand experience (as we all do) that junior high and high school students have a way of completely rejecting any idea that doesn’t immediately impress them. I wondered if they’d give my approach a chance and, fortunately, I didn’t have to wait long to find out.

High school:

The composition exercise with the high schoolers was challenging; composition is never simple, regardless of who you are. Composition that requires an original approach to notation involves creativity that takes some time and a lot of thought. The class worked diligently the entire period and I let them continue past the point I had planned. I could see that what I had presented to them was going to take more time that I had thought, which is a great learning experience for me.

Some of the groups’ approaches to creative notation were more intuitive than others. We found out that assigning a line to an instrument and layering the parts (as you’d see in a full score) was a more clear spatial representation and allowed the second group of performers to better understand the original composition.

Some groups were missing students due to absence, which made the assignment a little more challenging for those who had to try to remember what their classmates had done the previous week.

We’ll continue this project on another day, and I think it’ll be much simpler the second time around now that everyone has a better idea of what it is we’re trying to accomplish. I can’t wait for them to perform!

8th and 7th graders:

When the eighth graders arrived and I began selecting students to come up for the walking/listening exercise, their terror of being singled out and put in front of their peers became painfully obvious. I finally convinced them to come to side of the room by promising them they wouldn’t have to do anything but walk (which I now know should have been the first thing to come out of my mouth). I decided to begin the exercise differently with the seventh graders and asked for volunteers. Almost everyone’s hands flew up and I knew it was going to be a very different experience. Sure enough, they seemed to enjoy the exercise and were equally creative in there “sounds we associate with…” lists. The 7th graders list for sounds you’d hear in a park was very impressive, and it looked something like this:

Sounds we’d hear in a park

1. dogs barking
2. kids playing/babies crying
3. parents calling to their kids
4. pigeons/birds chirping
5. sizzling hot dogs
6. leaves blowing in the wind
7. a trickling stream
8. basketballs bouncing

We followed with an open discussion about which instruments in the room could best imitate these sounds. After we’d figured it out, they played together and created this particular “soundscape.”

The 7th graders brought interesting sounds, although some were more thought-out than others. The bell rang before we had time to explore the activity any further, but we’ll definitely revisit it soon.

The 8th grade’s final exercise was to break into groups of four or five students and compose a piece based on the lists they made for sounds you’d hear at the ocean, a park, or in a forest. I walked around and listened to them while they worked and contributed when needed to help them get on/back on the right track. I heard some really great collaboration and leadership going on, which was one of my goals! Only one group had time to perform, but we’ll have them do it another time.

All in all, I think the day was a huge success and I’m thrilled to go back in a few days. I’ve completed the lesson plan for this week (think Halloween!) and I’ll be posting it here within the next day or two, so check back! In all of the excitement of the first day I completely forgot my camera, but there will be pictures in the very near future. And, as always, I welcome any questions or comments!

We have been working hard on updating the CMIE NewsBlog so it’s more content-friendly. We’re expecting many readers this year to be visiting specifically for info on our Atrium School partnership—so, we added a big button in the top menu that will automatically show only Atrium stories! Reporting on our Atrium School Violin Program will be our two program co-teachers: the esteemed Pennsylvania Ballet music director (and Atrium parent) Beatrice Affron and NEC MIE alumna Dr. Helen Liu, as well as MIENC guided practices consultant Randy Wong (also documentation specialist for Atrium), MIENC Executive Director (and Atrium parent) Larry Scripp, and Atrium music director and NEC MIE alum Mike Glicksman.  

This semester, we also have a robust team NewsBlog contributors, some of whom who have already begun sharing their stories and documentation with you. Jenny Giardina, Justin Stanley, and Diana Ortega are all conducting guided internships this semester at the Josiah Quincy Upper School. Justin is also Documentation Specialist for Larry’s MIE 501 – Introduction to Music-In-Education course, and some of his blog posts will pertain to that. We are also proud to announce our first official guided intern from the Harvard Graduate School of Education Field Experience Program, Ms. Ruyi Lu.

Now you can follow the exciting field of Music-In-Education on Twitter! Hook up with us via our MIE National Consortium account, @MIENC. Also be sure to check out some of our friends’ tweets too … like @MarkSlavkin (Music Center of Los Angeles County) and @GuildArtsEd (Jesse Cohen, Metropolitan Opera Guild). C’mon, you know you’ve always wanted bite-size (140 character) encapsulations of MIE. Now here’s proof it can be done.

Editor’s Note: This post is the 2nd in a series written by NEC/MIE alumna and music educator Helen Liu reporting on the emerging violin M+MI program at the Atrium School in Watertown, MA. Read all of the posts in this series here.

This morning was a good one at the Atrium School where the Explorers (persona of the 2nd and 3rd graders) were each fitted with an appropriate sized violin and shoulder sponge, and his or her own foot chart. It was my first contact with them so it was nice to connect the faces to the list of names.

As you can imagine, things got pretty hectic soon enough. We started off well with the first two kids, then slowly kids started popping out due to curiosity. They were all good and well-behaved kids but we made to sure to be firm about not touching the instruments and materials. It was also nice to work with Beatrice and figure out which sizes worked for each kid. I think we’re going to be successful in the “posture” area, which is sooo important! To quote her, they “already look like Paganinis.”

While Beatrice worked on the fitting of violins, I helped each kid make their own foot chart. Foot charts are important, especially in a group setting, because it centers their attention and maintains personal space. We used manila folders and drew their different feet positions: rest position in blue, “unzip” position in red, and playing position in green.

After all the kids are done, we made sure to fit the adults and classroom teachers too. I even got a chance to hold a violin using a sponge (size 6) and surprisingly, it was very comfortable. I would have to try to play with it before I rave about it. I’m honestly starting to get tired of my Wolf Secondo rest. Anyways, this a good learning experience for me and the excitement is contagious. I’m looking forward to this Friday when the school experiences the first day of violin class :]

Check out Helen’s website: helengliu.info/blog

NewsBlog Editor’s Note: We are pleased to re-introduce to you Dr. Helen Liu, a MIE alumna who is helping teach a new violin program at the Atrium School in Watertown, MA. Atrium is a Pre K-6 independent school. Now in the third year of its CMIE-designed music program, Atrium is partnered with New England Conservatory as a Music-In-Education Focus School, and with the MIE National Consortium as a Learning Laboratory School partnership. Helen is co-teaching at Atrium with Pennsylvania Ballet music director Beatrice Affron and MIENC Guided Internship Director Randy Wong. Read all of the posts in this series here.

This week I will be part of a team to pilot a new string program at the Atrium School in Watertown, MA. More specifically, I will be working with Randy and our mentors/colleagues, Larry and Beatrice along with their little daughter Miranda, to promote and develop Music Plus Music Integration (M+MI) into the curriculum for second and third graders by teaching them literacy in all areas through playing the violin. We presented our mission and ideas to an intimate group of parents last night, and all seems well and swell. They are highly supportive of us and of the notion that their children are going to be making music very soon. We are all so excited–I’ve never really done this in my life. Even though I’ve started plenty of beginners, both old and young, the fact that there will be a GROUP of them in one place at the same time will be challenging. There are so many things to think about: discipline and silence methods, organization, making lesson plans and goals, time management, other logistical things, making a newsblog, etc. Good thing we will have lots of help from the classroom teachers which means the teacher to student ratio is 1:2 for each group. In terms of acquiring instruments, we are working with Johnson Strings in Newton. They are the best at what they do and the most reliable, and I think they are excited about working with us too.

Please check back for updates on this new teaching project as there will be photos and videos to come!

NewsBlog Editor’s Note: We are pleased to re-introduce to you Jenny Giardina, a new CMIE Guided Intern working as Teaching Artist and Documentation Specialist for her internship at the Josiah Quincy Upper School in Boston, MA. Jenny is a senior classical voice major finishing up her MIE Concentration. Our thanks to JQUS music teacher Laura Bouix for hosting Jenny’s guided internship.

Hello MIE NewsBlog readers!  My name is Jenny Giardina and I’m back for my second MIE Guided Internship as a “Creative Composition Workshop” leader in Boston’s Josiah Quincy Upper School.  Following the methods and practices of music educator R. Murray Schafer, I’ll be leading composition and improvisation classes with three separate bands: the high school band, comprised of 9th-12th graders, and the 8th and 7th grade bands.

R. Murray Schafer’s approach to music education emphasizes listening and creativity, encourages discussion, and builds a solid foundation for personal growth.  I’ll be referencing a few of his publications more often than others; these will include A Sound Education, The Composer in the Classroom, and The Thinking Ear.

Each week, I’ll be designing three lesson plans inspired and guided by Mr. Schafer’s ideas and experiences in these books.  I’ll upload a short-hand version of these plans onto the NewsBlog by Thursday evenings and submit a second entry following Fridays’ classes.  In the second entry I’ll discuss what worked, what didn’t, and what everyone learned, and I’ll include any pictures or scanned images from that week.

My goal during this internship is to encourage the students to create original ideas, improvise on these ideas, perform the resulting “compositions,” and grow in their self-confidence, both musically and otherwise.  Learning about music and musicianship will be a wonderfully unavoidable by-product of the exercises they’ll encounter, and I personally cannot wait to find out what I’ll learn over the course of this semester’s adventures.

Today was my first day in front of the classes and I used the following lesson plan:

HS Band:

Objective:  The students will exercise listening, creativity, and critical thinking in order to most accurately perform a composition.

Last week, the students were put into small groups and asked to compose a piece based on anything—Human, Natural, or Machine.  This week I’ll be asking them to diagram their compositions using symbols and drawings in a way that would allow another group to reproduce their piece.  Once they’ve finished their diagram they’ll hand it off to another group and I’ll call two of them to the front of the class.  Group A will play their piece while Group B looks on at their diagram.  Following the performance, group B will be given some time to figure out how to most closely imitate the performance with help from myself and the class.  Group B will then perform and the class will discuss what worked, what didn’t and how it could have been better.  We’ll do this with a few different pairs of groups.

8th Grade Band:

Objective: The students should become more aware of the sounds associated with certain people and places and transfer these sounds to their instruments in various ways.

The following are exercises extracted from A Sound Education, by R. Murray Schafer.

I’ll ask five students to stand to the side of the room and the rest of the class will close their eyes.  I’ll have one of the five walk across the front of the room and the class will have to guess who it is.  If they can’t, I’ll ask them to describe what it is that they can hear (clothing, jewelry, etc.) and see if we can’t figure it out.

What sounds do we associate with guys and girls?  In groups of three, students will make lists of sounds associated with the two genders, as well as sounds they hear when they think of the forest, the ocean, and a park.

I’ll then group the students by five and ask them to compose Human/Nature/Machine pieces.  With 15 minutes of class time to spare, we’ll regroup and perform the pieces.  Immediately following each performance the class will guess what each groups’ piece was about, and the group will explain and demonstrate.  I’ll ask students with instruments not represented in the piece to suggest what they might be able to add to the texture.

7th Grade Band:

Objective: After exercises in active listening, the students will create original compositions from interesting sounds they bring to class.

We’ll repeat the first exercise from the 8th grade band and follow with a slightly modified version of the sound association exercise.

After designing lists of sounds we associate with the genders and natural locations I’ll have the students write them on the board.  I’ll select two contrasting lists and ask the students to demonstrate what their instruments could represent from one of the lists.  Once we’ve found the sounds for one entire list I’ll facilitate an improvisation structured around creating the sounds of the chosen environment.

The students will have brought an interesting sound to class today; something ordinary that makes an extraordinary sound.  I’ll ask them to talk about why they brought their specific sound and what they think is interesting about it.  I’ll play for them a recording of my friends and I improvising with interesting sounds.  If there’s time, the students will be placed into small groups to compose an improvisatory piece using their sounds and one instrument per group, and perform them for the class.

Check out this video I made to promote the MIENC’s Mankato Walkabout Literacy Partnership program!