assignment # 7

1. I believe, along with the author, that just passively listening to music will not make a child smarter. However, like the author, I believe that when music is applied within a child's curriculum and daily life, it can greatly benefit the child's cognitive abilities. In addition, research shows that if music is understood, appreciated and played by children that it can greatly benefit a child's education and their cognitive abilities within all aspects of learning.
2. The first type of research finding provided by the author that suggests music has strong biological roots is that animals have strong fundamental music abilities. For instance, research shows that monkeys are able to think in terms of musical abstractions. Another finding provided by the author that suggests music has biological roots is that the use of music is universal. Specifically, there are many cultures across the world that use music to soothe their children such as in lullabies. Another finding provided by the author that suggests music has biological roots is that musically biological factors are found in infants before culture is able to effect them. For instance, research shows that infants have musical capabilities because they can remember two notes just as well as adults can. Finally, the fourth finding that suggests music has strong biological roots is that the brain is organized to process musical activities. Specifically, the two hemispheres of the brain play a certain role in processing music in that the right hemisphere deals with melody and the right deals with the results of that melody and the assessment.
3. According to the article, playing music makes the synapses stonger by exercisng the brain and specifically the parts of it needed for strong cognitive abilities. For example, playing music uses teh sensory and perceptual systems, along with the cognitive system of the brain. Because of this, these systems grow stronger making students ahve better auditory, visual, tactile and kinesthetic abilites. Children will also do better with reading and linguistics seeing that they are apart of the cognitive system. Also, playing music influences planning movements including fine and gross muscle action and coordination. Playing music also increases synaptic strength because there is feedback and evaluation going on within the brain after a performance, strengthening the synapses once more. Lastly, playing music betters the brains memory therefore strengthening the synapses.
4. Research seems to suggest that music does help to improve reading comprehension. Specifically, a study has found that music helps children learn most in the phenomic stage of reading comprehension. More specifically, studies show that a child's ability to discriminate between pitches of music can help benefit the second stage of reading comprehension or the sound-outing stage. The author believes that there needs to be further studies to help clarify what exactly music does in the specific stages of reading comprehension but feels that it provides a good deal of insight and support for musics ability to improve reading comprehension. I agree with the author in that there does need to be more studies done to find more details in this process, however the research already done proves to me that music has a good deal of influence on reading comprehension.
5. The most interesting fact that I found within this article dealing with music is that the entire cerebral cortex of the human brain is active when musicians are playing music. This is fascinating because it shows just how active music makes the brain and how much power it has over the brain.
5.

Journal # 2

Throughout these past few weeks of class my class has learned a great deal of information specifically geared toward teaching children musical skills and concepts. While we learned new information, we also expanded on ideas that we had previously discussed in the first few weeks of class. There were many aspects within this past unit that focused on ways to teach music to children, specifically how to sing and to keep a steady beat. Therefore, one of the first things that our teacher taught us to do was write lesson plans. Our teacher had us fairly simple, ten minute lesson plans that focused on teaching a group of students how to sing a particular children's song. We were then taught a few key classroom management skills in order to prepare us to teach a lesson plan to ten of our peers. Therefore, in this process of writing lesson plans and presenting them to our peers, I know I learned a wealth of information that will help me when I have a career as a teacher one day. Another concept that we learned as a class were the vocal characteristics and abilities of the different age groups of children ranging from pre-k to upper elementary or age 4 to 12. Once these characteristics and abilites were learned we were taught that it is important to keep these in mind when teaching. It is these characteristics and abilities and their importance that led us into the next concept we learned. We were then taught various techniques that teachers have used to provide a foundation for children to learn how to sing. Within this unit we were taught about the famous Hungarian composer named Kodaly and the importance of his pedagogy and its effect on the teaching of music around the world. Lastly, my class was taught solfage and how it is used to teach children how to sing.
The way in which I learned how to write a music lesson was that I was given an example of a lesson plan by our teacher and she went through the various steps and explained what she was looking for in each of them. Once that was clear, she had us students choose a song to teach and write a lesson plan for. We were allowed to bring our lesson plans in for feedback and to practice them and once we did she had us actually present the ten minute lessons to ten of our peers. After doing our singing lesson plans, we went more into depth on the appropriate ways to teach children music, and what is necessary to know about the students before teaching them the actual musical skills and concepts. Specifically, my teacher had us read chapter four in our textbooks which discussed the exact vocal characteristics of both boys and girls as they age from preschool to upper elementary. The abilities to be expected of the students at these various ages were displayed as well. My teacher also demonstrated while we were in class various ways in which a teacher should speak to certain ages of children and what to expect out of them based upon their ages and how to incorporate that into our lesson plans. I know that I was specifically told by my teacher to take a few musical concepts out of my lesson to make it simpler for my younger students who need to just focus on one task at a time in order to truely master the lesson. The way in which I learned about Kodaly and his pedagogy was through discussions in our class with our teacher and reading a packet that had information in it about his pedagogy and views on music education. Finally, my class learned the musical concept of solfage by listening to the sound of music soundtrack, and doing various class activities that involved singing, dancing and physically jumping from note to note while singing the proper solfage.
In general, all of the musical concepts and teaching strategies that I have learned in this past unit are important because they will help me become the most efficient teacher of music possible. Specifically, it is very important for me to know how to write good lesson plans because they will be the foundation for my class. Lesson plans will make up my curriculum and with the proper lesson plans I will be able to teach my classes all of the necessary musical skills and concepts while making sure they have fun at the same time. Also, it is important for me to learn the vocal characteristics and abilities of children from pre-k to upper elementary age groups because this is the time when they can build their musical foundations and I need to know what is the best way to teach these students according to their ages. In relation to this, it is important for me to know the various teaching techniques that work best when teaching students within these ages in order for them to be as successful in music as possible. Finally, it is important for me to know about Kodaly because he was a leader in musical education and brought forth ideas on how to teach children music that have stood the test of time, such as solfage. Kodaly's ideas have provided the core ideas found in music education and it is important as a music teacher for me to know them.
It is important for children in elementary school to learn musical concepts such as how to sing and how to keep a steady beat because those are the first steps in them becoming musically inclined. Children can learn a great deal through music, even in other subjects, which is why it is important for them to learn how to express themselves through music and use it as a tool for learning. If children learn at this age to sing properly, keep a steady beat, and know how to read musical notation it will only benefit their educational standings. This age range is a crucial time for children to learn because they get all of their foundational knowledge which is why it is important to teach foundational musical concepts to them.

Worksheet chapter 4

1a.Children who are ages four and five who attend preschool and kindergarten.

1b. Children who are ages four and five have vocal characteristics that include their voices being small and light, and they are generally unable to sing in tune. Also, the children's singing range is from D-A for some and D-D for most. Children who are ages four and five have the ability to sing play chants and easy tonal patterns. The children can also sing melodies which are short in major, minor or pentatonic scales. Children in this age range can also keep a steady beat and can sing melodies with one note to a syllable. Children ages four and five can also sing accurately repeated rhythmic patterns and can sing melodies with or without accompaniment. Lastly, children ages four and five can sing both soft and loud.

1c. The song interests of children ages four and five are ones that tell a story. Specifically, children of this age like songs about familiar experiences such as helping songs and wake up songs. Also, children liek songs about seasons, special occasions, and ones that overall deal with make believe.

2a. In the early/primary age range, children are ages six and seven.

2b. The vocal characteristics of children this age are taht their voices are light and high, with a few being a little low. The children still have a hard time singing in tune at age six and by age seven most of the children will be able to sing short phrases and tune and will try to sing alone. Also, the children can understand what high and low pitches are and can sustain a single pitch. The children's range in pitches can go from D-B to a full octave D-D. The children within this age group have the ability to understand the difference between a playground voice and a singing voice. The children can start to understand why breathing is important in singing. The children can also sing call and response songs, along with two and three part songs. The children can also sing while paying attention to dynamics and changes in tempo. The children can sing from simple music notation and can sing melodies with simple harmonic or rhythmic accompaniment.

2c. The song interests of six and seven year olds are songs about animals, friends, community, pretending, one with action and movement along with folk game songs.

3a. The children in the intermediate age group are ages eight and nine.

3b. The vocal characteristics and abilities of children in this age group are that they can sing a song in tune and some children can sing in rounds, partner songs, canons and descants. Also, the girl's voices are still very light and thin. The boy's voices are becoming more mature due to development of resonance and they have the soprano-alto voice. also, children in this age group have more control over their singings, specifically the legato, dynamics and sustained phrases. There are also some children who are able to sing melodies and parts of music notation and can harmonize. Children of this age also have the ability to sing songs with complex rhythms.

3c. The song interests of children ages eight and nine are ones that involve early America, specifically songs about Native Americans and Pilgrims. Children of this age also like songs involving geography and planets. Lastly, children ages eight and nine like songs that express emotion.

4a. The children in the upper elementary age group are ten and eleven years old.

4b. In the intermediate age group the childrens vocal characteristics are that their voices remain clear and light but the boy's voices become more resonant. The differences between children's ability to sing in two and three parts become evident. There are also differences in that some children have a heightenened rhythmic sinse and respond to music with strong rhythms. Also, children try and imitate their voices to sound like popular singers and celebrities. Lastly, some children can read simple music notes.

4c. The song interests of children ages ten and eleven have to do with adventure, transportation, work, history and especially emotions. Children in this age group like songs about happiness, sadness, and love. Children also like popular songs and songs about places and events.

2. One of the techniques teachers use to teach children to sing is creating an environment efficient for singing experiences. Specifically, teachers help students become ready to sing by singing to them or playing recordings of children their age singing songs. Children first learn how to sing the proper tones, pitch, melody and rhythm after hearing songs repeatedly. It is a good idea to have children be surrounded by good songs, with helpful instructors.

Another technique teachers can use to teach children to sing is by having them improve their posture. A good way to do this is to tell the children that their bodies are their singing instruments and that they must be held upright whether sitting or standing. A good way to practice this good posture is to have the students play games surrounding the idea and to get them used to the position.

A third technique used by teachers to help children learn to sing is teaching good breathing habits to help support tone. Specifically, teachers can help the students learn to support their tone by feeling the pitches by doing variuos breathing exercises like blowing out candles in a certain way and pretending to suck air through a straw.

A fourth technique used by teachers is to teach students how to find their head voice. One way to have the students try and find their head voice is by having them sing in various voices. Another way is to help the students find their speech inflection. Finding speech inflection can be done practicing speaking phrases in tonal intervals. A third way to accomplish this is by having the students imitate familiar sounds found in their environment like sirens and owl hoots. Lastly, teachers can help students find their head voice by using having the students read children's literature and talk in different voices for the various characters as well as say the different animal and environment sounds.