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A Musician’s Case Against Narrowing the Curriculum

Steve Williams, Fine Arts ConsultantMO Dept. of Elem. and Secondary

Education

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A May 2005 Harris Poll on the attitudes of Americans toward arts education found:

93% Agree the arts are vital to providing a well-rounded education for children, a 2% increase over 2001

86% Agree an arts education encourages and assists in the improvement of a child’s attitudes toward school

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Furthermore…

83% Believe that an arts education helps teach children to communicate effectively with adults and peers

79% Agree incorporating the arts into education is the first step in adding back what’s missing in public education today

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Academic Atrophy

75% of principals reported increases in instructional and professional development time for reading, writing, and math

50% reported increases in science

25% reported decreases in the arts

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To Satisfy NCLB Testing…

71% of schools reduced elementary instructional time in at least one other subject. 33% cut social studies 29% cut science 22% cut art and music 14% cut physical education

(ASCD Compact for Learning, p. 8)

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2007 NAEP Results

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2007 NAEP Results

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Missouri DataMISSOURI COMMUNICATION ARTS MAP SCORES

YEAR FEDERAL AYP MO AVERAGE LOWEST / HIGHEST SUBGROUPS

2002 18.4 30.7 8.5 / 40.5

2003 19.4 29.7 8.9 / 41.6

2004 20.4 29.8 10.3 / 41.5

2005 26.6 30.4 11.1 / 42.2

2006 34.7 43.7 16.3 / 54.2

2007 42.9 44.3 16.5 / 55.3

2008 51.0

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Show-Me Standards40 Content Standards

What students should know Specific by content area, and requires High

Quality teacher instruction

33 Process Standards What students should be able to do All teachers can use Process Standards to

administer their content

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Process Standards Process Standards (also called Perfor-

mance Standards) have inherent DOK Use Process to teach Content Most Process Standards utilize higher

levels of DOK Most GLE documents have referenced

the Process Standards, but the fine arts have not

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2007 Communication Arts MAP Test

Goal 1: Gather, analyze, and apply information and ideas 1.1, 1.5, 1.6, 1.7, 1.8

Goal 2: Communicate effectively within and beyond the classroom 2.1, 2.2, 2.4

Goal 3: Recognize and solve problems 3.1, 3.5, 3.7

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Frequency1.6 1263.5 1202.2 961.5 312.4 103.1 102.1 91.7 31.8 21.1 13.7 1

Number of test items that assess specific Process Standards in tests for grades 3-8 and 11*.

*http://www.dese.mo.gov/divimprove/assess/tech/align_ca_rpt_final_06.pdf

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Process Standard 1.6 Discover and evaluate patterns and

relationships in information, ideas and structures Patterns in music: scales and arpeggios,

forms (ABA, AABA, ABACABA, etc.), motifs, chords

Relationships in music: similarities and differences in styles and periods, relationship between music and culture/history, chord progressions

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Purposeful Examples of 1.6 When rehearsing, use form designations

instead of rehearsal letters. Instead of: “start at letter c” Say: “start at the beginning of the 2nd strain”

Challenge students to extrapolate patterns found in their music (by ear, possibly).

Dance sequences, physical movements are examples of patterns.

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Process Standard 3.5 Reason inductively from a set of facts and

deductively from general premises

Inductive reasoning: using specific facts, details and information, students make a generalization or rule

Deductive reasoning: using a principle, theory, or statement, students must supply supporting details

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Purposeful Example of 3.5 Give students the opportunity to use

deductive reasoning:

Given a key signature that contains 2 flats, ask students to determine the key using 3 supporting details from the music: 1.2.3.

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Purposeful Example of 3.5 Give students the opportunity to use

inductive reasoning:

What is the key based on these facts?

1.There are 3 sharps in the key signature

2.The first note is A

3. There are no accidentals that would imply a minor key.

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Process Standard 2.2 Review and revise communications to

improve accuracy and clarity

Musicians do this when they: Practice and self-assess Make tuning, articulation, and balance

adjustments Listen to their own

performance and critique

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Process Standard 2.2 Review and revise communications to

improve accuracy and clarity

Artists do this when they:o Develop a plan and maintain focuso Choose elements for effecto Create artwork and self-assess

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Content + Process = Learning

Music GLE AP2B9-12 Use musical terminology to describe their

personal response to a musical example

Process Standard 1.5 Comprehend and evaluate written, visual,

and oral presentations and works

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Content + Process = Learning

Art GLE PP3A6 Create original artwork using the following

subjects: realistic portrait, abstract portrait

Process Standard 2.5 Perform or produce works in the fine and

practical arts.

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Higher Order Thinking Skills

Use effective questioning techniques to draw higher-order thinking out of your students.

The MAP test frequently asks students to justify their answer.

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Eliciting Useful Student Feedback Questioning is necessary to formatively

assess student understanding Often students who don’t understand will

not volunteer Learning that a small minority of students

“get it” is not a sufficient factor in deciding to move on

Don’t ask for comprehension, check for it

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Checking for Comprehension Follow-up questioning – hold students

accountable for their responses What makes you think that? What might happen next? What if this was different? Can you support your answer with details? How do you feel about the composers

choices? Why did the artist choose this media?

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Self-Assessment“Students feed-forward their learning when

they match their work to samples, self-assess, or work with peers to make their

products of better quality. Teachers support this learning by helping students determine their next steps so they can eventually learn

how to get to the learning destination themselves.”

- Anne Davies, Involving Students in the Classroom Assessment Process, in Ahead of the Curve (2007), Douglas Reeves, ed., p. 37-38

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The Music Teacher and Student Achievement Music teachers should teach music, English

teachers should teach English…

However, there are strategies that music teachers can use to help students think more critically.

How can music teachers contribute to their own content while reinforcing what is taught in other areas?

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Singing in General Music A child’s reading success depends upon their

effective use and understanding of oral language1

Elementary music students develop skill in oral language by telling/re-telling stories (sequencing) and acting them out (kinesthetic connection)

1Chrys Dougherty, ed. (1999). Improving Early Literacy of Preschool Children. Austin, TX: University of Texas

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CA Reading 1B:Phonemic Awareness Grade K – develop the ability to recognize

sounds (phonemes) in words; recognize rhyming words.

Children enjoy and learn from rhyming and alliterative text, and thrive on rhythmic and repetitive phrases.

Early phonemic awareness is a proven predictor of later reading success

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Activities that Develop Phonemic Awareness Sing nursery rhymes, rhyming songs, and

alliterative songs and chants Play listening and rhyming games

Call and response Count words and syllables

one note = one syllable Blend onset-rimes (CA Reading 1B, grade 1)

Onset = initial consonant sound of a word Rime = rest of the word Ex: cat = /c/ - at

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The Reading Process – Eye Movement How do the eyes move as we read words? Saccade

Movement of the eyes during reading. The saccade includes the fixation and movement to the next fixation, with an occasional return (regression) to check for understanding.

During reading, the average fixation duration is about 225-250 ms and the average saccade size is 8-9 character spaces.

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How the Eye Moves

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CA Reading 1D:Fluency Grade 3 – Read grade-level instructional

text with fluency, accuracy, and expression; adjust reading rate to difficulty and type of text. Music reading helps students pace their

saccadic eye movements, forcing them to maintain a steady rate

Rate of music reading also adjusts with the difficulty of the music.

Better music readers are able to capture more notes and have shorter fixations.

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Purposeful Activities that Develop Fluency Singing with expression

Focus on diction, articulation

Playing an instrument with expression

Rhythmic recitation

Call and response

Working with languages involves applying appropriate inflections and stress

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CA Reading 1F:Pre-Reading Strategies

Grade 6-8 – Apply pre-reading strategies to aid comprehension: access prior knowledge, preview, predict with evidence, set a purpose and rate for reading. Music teachers do this when they “walk through”

a new piece of music. Teach students to scan music for information,

devise a plan for sight-reading. Have students pre-determine the speed of their

sight-reading

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When We Have to Write… Student writing is not improving

at an acceptable rate.

Music and art teachers are being asked to administer writing prompts to their students.

When we have to write, make sure that the student writing contributes to the curricular goals of the fine arts program.

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Writing Effective Promptsby Jana Scott, Central RPDC

A. Set the stage or tell the situationB. Give suggestions for how to think

about the topicC. Identify the audience or purpose and

give clues as to the writing being elicited Narrative: tell, describe Expository: describe, explain Persuasive: convince, persuade

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Expository Example

(A) Audience behavior expectations are different for school concerts and “arena” concerts. (B) Students need to learn what is acceptable behavior at various types of performances. (C) Write an essay that explains to younger students how to act at a school concert.

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Assessing Student Writing

Music and art teachers should use the same scoring guide/criteria as the English teachers use.

Work with English teachers to learn how to use the scoring guide, and ask for their help the first few times you use it.

Show students that effective writing is expected not only in English class, but also in music and art class.

Using 6 Traits to AssessIdeas The heart of the message, the content,

main theme, and details

Organization Internal structure, central meaning, logical pattern

Voice Unique perspective of the writer

Word Choice Use of rich, colorful, precise language

Sentence Fluency Rhythm and flow of language, sound of word patterns

Conventions Mechanical correctness, spelling, grammar and usage, punctuation

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Graphic Organizers Graphic organizers are anything where

students represent information visually:1. Venn Diagrams2. T-charts3. Tables4. Flow charts/time lines5. Pictographs6. Pie charts

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MAP Test = Graphic Organizers On ALL communication arts MAP tests,

students will be asked to create or fill in a graphic organizer.

In lower grades, the ability to make sense of the graphic organizer provided is a common struggle.

The ability to comprehend, create and use tables, charts and other graphic organizers is critical to student success.

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DESE Resources Scoring Guides and Released Items used to

assess student writing: http://www.dese.mo.gov/divimprove/curriculum/newwebpages/commarts.html

Assessment webpage with specific MAP data:http://www.dese.mo.gov/divimprove/assess/

Curriculum webpage for GLEs:

http://www.dese.mo.gov/divimprove/curriculum/GLE/

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Evaluations

Please take a few moments to complete an evaluation for this workshop.

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Thank You!

Steve Williams, Fine Arts ConsultantMO Department of Education

Ph: (573) 751-2857E-mail: steve.williams@dese.mo.gov