How do we monitor, assess, and evaluate student learning? Check out the video below for a brief introduction to process portfolios.

Editor’s Note: This post is part of a series documenting the Atrium School M+MI Program’s Violin Project. Documentation efforts, including this post, are being led by NewsBlog moderator Randy Wong.

One of the most exciting roles (I think) within a Music Learning Leadership team is the role of Documentation Specialist, which is someone charged with collecting, articulating, and making visible any evidence from the MLL team’s project. In other words, the DS will probably be collecting student work samples, interviewing other team members, gathering reflections (by students, teachers, or other team members), etc. and helping to compile it into a digital portfolio that really showcases his/her MLL team’s work. They also assist in the design of rubrics, student assessments, and classroom activities, with the purpose of skillful documentation in mind.

Last Friday was my first opportunity to collect documentation of our new M+MI violin project at the Atrium School. We asked students to reflect on the Music-Math Matrix ‘play & sing’ by drawing and/or writing. As each was completing his/her work, I asked each student to interpret his/her reflection for me. I then assembled some of their responses into the video below.

I’m looking forward to future documentation from this project!

Editor’s Note: This post is part of a series documenting the Atrium School M+MI Program’s Violin Project. Documentation efforts, including this post, are being led by NewsBlog moderator Randy Wong.

In addition to learning the basics of being a violinist (like knowing what the parts are called on a violin, and how to hold the thing), a key component of the Atrium School violin project comes in the integration of the students’ regular music curricula with violin instruction.

For the past two years, Atrium students have received innovative ‘music plus music integration’ (”M+MI”) curricula designed by the Music-In-Education National Consortium, and implemented by a Music Learning Leadership team consisting of music teachers, teaching artists, and guided interns trained by the Center for Music-In-Education. Understanding symbol and coordinate systems are among other music literacy skills the Atrium M+MI curricula stresses; it is through the use of music-math matrices that said skills are taught.

Therefore, integrating and adapting music-math matrices for the violin program is a total no-brainer! In the video below, students are taking the first steps towards adapting their knowledge of music-math matrices to violin playing. Their violin teachers (Beatrice Affron and Helen Liu) chose simple matrix operations (e.g. identifying and singing pitches “Re” and “La”) to match with their new motor skills (i.e. plucking the open D and open A strings, respectively) on their instruments. The video below shows this in action, and also acts as a reference for Atrium parents who may be helping their children practice.

Editor’s Note: This post is part of a series documenting the Atrium School M+MI Program’s Violin Project. Documentation efforts, including this post are being led by NewsBlog moderator Randy Wong.

Students at the Atrium School (Watertown, MA) are the newest cohort to pilot the MIENC’s ‘Music Plus Music Integration” Program Violin Project. (Last summer, students from across Mankato, MN received M+MI violin instruction for ten weeks). The videos below show a glimpse of what the first day of instruction looked like.

I found it exhilarating to experience how excited the students were when they received their instruments for the first time. The buzz in the air was definitely electric.

Yet for all the energy in the room, the students were able to contain and focus it on learning. Among the first activities was learning how to stand in Rest Position.

Also: How to hold the violin securely with one’s chin.

Students also learned the “body parts” of the violin, thanks to a song that Helen made up in which each part of the violin corresponds to a scale degree. The first lyric, “This is the scroll” begins at the bottom of the scale. As the scale ascends, the students learn each successive part of the violin; for example, “These are the tuning pegs” is sung on scale degree 2. While I was confused at first why Helen started at with the scroll—I always visualized the scroll as the “top” of the instrument—after thinking about it, I realized her rationale has to do with the pitch range of the strings! “Open” strings (meaning: unfingered) have the lowest pitches on the instrument. As one lays fingers down on the finger board, the pitches get higher. Thus, even from what-could-be a simple song, she’s laying down the framework for teaching students about pitch and intonation. Very clever.

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!

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!