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.