Editor’s Note: This post is the second in a series by MIE guided intern Devin Ulibarri. Devin is a first year graduate student of Eliot Fisk. His internship at the Wang YMCA is supported both by the MIE department and NEC Prep’s Community Engagement program. Read others in the series here.

Overview of my Proposal
In 2009, I wrote “Guitar Music for Children and Beginners” in response to needs that I saw in the classrooms that I taught, which I will describe later. The rationale is that “pre-reading” children ages 5-7 can learn simple ways to read music that are connected to their listening that are not necessarily the same literacy as standard notation, but will benefit them at their current learning level as well as the future. A simple example of this is guitar tablature, which has both the ability to expediently teach the method of guitar playing, as well as having a historical significance in 16^th century lute music, (which was written in tablature) as well as multidisciplinary benefits, such as mathematical. An understanding of music in multiple representations has also proven to improve the brain’s functionality in a multitude of different ways, which we are working on in Music-In-Education (MIE). 

Goals for my Internship

My goals can be summed up in three different categories: I would like to know how and in what ways my children’s book benefits children; I would like to make further steps toward creating a lesson plan that keeps students’ musical literacy skills in step with their technical ability and helps students who are stronger in areas other that music; and I would like to document my student’s progress based on their improvement in overall musical literacy. I would hope that by the time I finish my Internship that I will have articulated a method that improves a beginner’s overall musicianship as well as their technical skills on guitar. 

Documentation

I plan to begin before the Internship begins by articulating a detailed rubric and lesson plans for the entire semester. During the Internship I plan to write down all of my reflections, which I will use to assess my progress. I also plan to assess the student’s musical aptitude according to a method developed by the MIE department. I also plan to occasionally record lessons through various electronic media which I will compare to the lesson plans and an after class assessment. I plan to use any media that I take during class for my after-class assessment. I will focus on key points and moments in the classroom and highlight them in my portfolio based on the material collected from my lesson plans, reflections and media.
Questions that I would like to like to pursue during the course of my Internship:

• How does one integrate music theory, music history and ear-training into instrumental education at a young age?
• How does the introduction of multiple literacies supplement traditional music education for beginning guitarists?
• How does my “Guitar Music for Children and Beginners” book supplement traditional music education?

Details of Internship: Location

The tentative location of the Internship is the Wang YMCA in Chinatown. The music teacher there is Johnny McInnes. Wang YMCA has a variety of different programs for youth from an array of different ethnic backgrounds. I would like to do the same internship over the course of two semesters to improve the accuracy of my data. Wang YMCA in Chinatown: http://www.ymcaboston.org/wang/

Applications of my Internship and Future Plans

After I receive my Masters in Music from the New England Conservatory I plan to return to my life as a full-time musician and teach and perform within the community. My desire is to use my time at the Conservatory to reflect upon my previous teaching experience, identify and learn key areas that are important to myself as an Artist/Teacher/Scholar, to try out and collect data on new ideas during experiences like my internship and to use this scholarship to build upon my current teaching and performing style. The hope is that this research will help me find new opportunities as a musician as well as work with more satisfaction. As for my book, I would like to republish my “Guitar Music for Children and Beginners” book and method in a way that draws a broader audience of students, parents and teachers that are looking for material to supplement their traditional guitar program.

Editor’s Note: This post is the first in a series by MIE guided intern Devin Ulibarri. Devin is a first year graduate student of Eliot Fisk. His internship at the Wang YMCA is supported both by the MIE department and NEC Prep’s Community Engagement program. Read others in the series here.

I have begun my MIE Guided Internship and will be teaching classical guitar at the Wang YMCA in Chinatown in Boston, MA. The main focus of my internship is to better myself as an educator through scholarship. Everything that I have done in teaching before I will try to make improvements upon by implementing some of the suggestions my colleagues have published about children’s education, video recording classes and examining student progress based on a strict set of goals. I will also conduct research as to how “Guitar Music for Children and Beginners” works in a classroom setting and see exactly what areas of musical aptitude a child makes improvements in. The research from this internship will be used to benefit the concepts brought up in “Guitar Music for Children and Beginners.” I hope that you will follow this blog through my internship for Spring 2011.

Editor’s Note: This post is the fifth in a series by MIE guided intern Devin Ulibarri. Devin is a first year graduate student of Eliot Fisk. His internship at the Wang YMCA is supported both by the MIE department and NEC Prep’s Community Engagement program. Read others in the series here.

Janea and Jason were excited to learn more about the guitar. Janea’s father teaches guitar around Boston, so she already had some familiarity by being around the instrument. Both Jason and Janea played instruments before, so they had a body of knowledge that they could use to transfer to this new instrument. They both asked very good questions. Janea noticed that I play mostly with my fingers and asked if I would play something for her with a pick that she had in her pocket and Jason asked about the footstool. I introduced them to the sound of the guitar by playing songs that came to mind. All of this is included in the video above – Jason and Janea’s first moments in class with the guitar!

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.