Final Paper for EDU 370
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School
Montana State University *
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Course
370
Subject
English
Date
Jan 9, 2024
Type
docx
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6
Uploaded by MinisterSardine3803
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EDU 370 Final Paper
By: Natalie Eastham
Contextual Factors
I am an intern for the after school program at a small rural school in northeastern Montana. Our
school building serves students grades kindergarten through eighth for the entire community and its surrounding area. There is also a recently built high school next to our school that serves grades ninth through twelfth, which is the only high school for the entire community and its surrounding area. The community places a high value on education, and is therefore very supportive of the students, faculty, and the many programs a small rural school can offer. For my part in the after school program, I work at the after school music club with mainly younger aged students (k-5) where we listen, discuss, and work with musical instruments and associated technology that influences/enhances the creation of music. There is usually little to no middle school aged students that attend the after school music club and the age range of my students vary week to week. Although most of my students know each other, I hope to bring my students closer together through the use of digital music and the activities I plan throughout my internship. Since I will be having my students create music using the Garage Band application, music and the associated arts will be the focus of the lesson. Since the class is composed of students aged kindergarten through fifth grade, they will all be at a different skill level when using the Garage Band application. This activity will focus on the creation of music, so students of any age can participate. If a student is in need of attention, I would encourage that student to work on the project on his/her own instead of with their assigned group for the activity. In doing so, it will allow that student to work at their
own pace and it will give them the flexibility and encouragement they need to complete the activity without feeling stressed or left behind. Music can be a very personal subject and some students may feel the need to complete the activity on their own and that is perfectly okay. This activity will include the use of the mobile Mac laptops (and perhaps the Mac computer lab) because Garage Band has been downloaded and installed on both the school’s Mac laptops and computers. Background Research
Rekha S. Rajan, in his article “Tapping into Technology: Experiencing Music in a Child’s Digital World” discusses just how technologically advanced the children born into and after the 21
st
century are.
He talks about how technology must be integrated to help students better understand music and many other subjects taught in the classroom. Rajan focuses on how technology can be integrated to teach students musical literacy through a digital context. He starts his article by discussing just how different this new generation of students are. He starts by writing, “In our growing digital age, young children are inevitably exposed to a variety of technology and media devices. We see 2-year olds taking "selfies" on their parents' phones, iPads and e-readers filled with children's books and games, and thousands of songs stored on iPods for children to listen to and sing along. The ways in which young children experience music has drastically changed during the past few years.” (Rajan 1) He goes on to talk about how Garage Band and the use of other music making applications are an excellent way to teach students
how to create digital music in the classroom. “One particular, and largely popular, genre of apps are those allowing individuals to play instruments. If one types the keywords "playing instruments" during a search, nearly 400 applications appear for playing a variety of music instruments. Some apps are more realistic in how they replicate the sounds and patterns found on actual instruments, such as drums, guitars, or the keyboard.” (Rajan 1). Through participating in this activity, students will replicate real
musical sound through the use of digital instruments and will gain musical knowledge about the many different sounds an instrument can create on a computer and in real life as well. Jennifer Demski, in her article “How Music Teachers Got Their Groove Back: Music Instruction Goes Digital,” Demski explains how making music through Garage Band and other musical applications is
a complicated process made fun and easy in a classroom setting. Demski cites two teachers understanding of digital learning and uses their beliefs in her article. Demski writes about two teachers named Carol Broos and Barbara Freedman, who primarily focus on the importance of teaching digital literacy in the classroom. The author goes on to talk about how Broos and Freedman are determined to transform traditional music classes into musical classrooms that use digital tools, like Garage Band and many others. Demski writes, “Technology allows us the opportunity to teach students with very little musical background by having them create music and compose music," Freedman says. “It allows us to take them through the process of understanding music and what goes into creating music--things that students would typically learn in a performance class--like harmony, melody, and rhythm.” (Demski 1) The two educators and the author support the use of digital tools to promote a student’s understanding of musical concepts like harmony and rhythm. Through participating in this activity students will better understand musical concepts and how instruments create a rhythm, melody, etc. Students will be given the opportunity to work on their creativity and communication skills by working in groups during this activity. (Demski 1-2) Activity Plan
Content Standards: Grade 2
-MT Art Standard 1.2 The student will use a variety of materials and sources to experiment with an art form
-MT Art Standard 1.3 Students will perform/exhibit their work to the class -MT Arts Standard 1.4 Students will collaborate with others using the creative process (group work)
-MT Arts Standard 2.1 Students will be able to apply the elements of rhythm, melody, harmony, timbre/tone color, and form in a musical process. -MT Technology Standard 3.1 The student will apply digital tools and skills with creativity and innovation to express
his/herself -ISTE Student Standard 1b Students will demonstrate creative thinking, construct knowledge, and develop innovative products and processes using technology by creating original works as a means of personal
or group expression
Learning Objectives:
1.
Students will be able to create music through the use of digital tools (Garage Band, etc.)
2.
Students will be able to distinguish between the various types of digital instruments provided by Garage Band in order to create their desired sound
3.
Students will compare and contrast the use of certain digital instruments and their associated sounds to achieve their desired sound
4.
Students will identify with their own desired form of music
5.
Students will be able to identify their groups desired form of music and collaborate/agree on the type of music they will create together
Evidence of Learning:
To start off this lesson, the teacher will ask the students a series of questions before beginning the super fun activity. Some of the questions the teacher will ask the students are: What is digital music? Have you created digital music before? If so, what applications or websites have you used to create digital music before? What real life instruments do you know of? The teacher will only call on students who are sitting quietly with their hands raised. After discussing the four Preassessment questions and the students have created their music using Garage Band on the Mac Laptops the teacher will call the students back to their individual desks for a formative discussion regarding the activity. The final
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questions the teacher will ask his/her students are: Did you have fun? How did you decide which digital instruments to use in your final product? Was it hard to find common ground with your group mates? And what did you learn from this experience? Learning Activities:
After discussing the four pre assessment questions, the teacher will give each student a number that is either a 1, 2, 3, or 4. After the student has their number they will assemble into groups with their same given number. Sitting in their groups the teacher will give pertinent instructions before letting each group begin the activity. The instructions include: only using the garage band application: if a group is caught using an application other than garage band all laptop privileges will be revoked for the remainder of the activity, no yelling at or with their group members (collaboration is key to a successful creation), there are no right answers in music, remember to record the music you would like to present and have us hear, and lastly have fun. Next, the teacher will have each group talk with their members for exactly one minute to create a band name of their choice. After each group has created their band name the teacher will then come around and give each group an apple laptop. Once each group receives their laptop with the Garage Band software already downloaded they are free to begin their musical creation using Garage Band. After ten minutes of creation the teacher will call time and have each group come up one at a time to present their recorded music to the class. After each group presents their recorded music on their laptops, the teacher will have the class return to their original seats for a formative discussion about their musical creations.
Technology Integration:
For this lesson students will be using apple laptops with the musical application Garage Band installed because it provides a lot of different digital instruments and gadgets to create beautiful music. The use of this technology directly ties into my objectives because I would have my students use this application
to create and perform music using this form of digital technology and to have students distinguish between the different forms of digital instruments and their value/ use to their musical creations.
Technology Integration Rationale
In order for my students to compose digital music, technology must be integrated. Garage Band is one of the hundred applications found online that can achieve this goal but Garage Band is a great starting point for my younger aged students. In order for students to create digital music they must use technology. This form of technology is necessary to fulfill each of the learning goals listed above in the activity plan. The research above strongly suggests that this form of technology teaches our students digital literacy. This is defined as the ability to understand and collaborate with others through the use of digital tools. Digital literacy is an important skill that current employers are asking of their employees. It is my job as an educator to help my students become digitally literate so that they are prepared for the new and demanding job market ahead. Teaching students how to use Garage Band in the creation of
music will teach them how to be flexible with the tools given and cooperative with others. It teaches students that music can be created in more than one fashion. Through the use of this technology, students will understand how to use software to replicate real musical sound, what digital instruments are and what sounds they make to create flowing music on the computer. This activity will involve instruction on how to use Mac laptops and the Garage Band application.
Students will apply their knowledge of the different musical instruments provided on the application. They will play around with the digital components of the application to accomplish the learning goals of this activity. This is where the ARCS model comes into play. Attention: by composing their own creative
music, working collaboratively in groups, and presenting their work to the class, there is much incentive for students to be engaged in the activity. Relevance: students will develop their listening, presentation, communication, and their creativity skills through participating in this activity. Confidence: students will have the opportunity to express themselves through the use of digital media. Satisfaction: students will present their newly composed music, which will reflect their hard work and give them a sense of accomplishment. Every student will have a reason to feel proud of their work because of the warm, engaging, and friendly classroom environment that I have created. I designed this activity so that the use of Garage Band is imperative for composing digital music. Since my content area is forms of music and the associated arts, I centered my lesson on music and specifically the creation of music. I decided that instead of using traditional instruments, I will use digital instruments instead to promote digital literacy in the classroom. I firmly believe that music can be taught in more than one way and across the curriculum. The use of technology in my activity plan supports my beliefs as an educator because the use of technology is a way to teach music in a non-
traditional manner. I changed the intent of the technology to meet my students learning needs by taking a musical application designed for composing digital music and using it in a classroom setting to have my students learn about the components of digital music, how this can be created, and what sounds the digital instruments make to create musical sound on the computer. I took a simple classroom music lesson about the different types of instruments and their associated sounds and transformed it into a digital music lesson to teach the exact same content but with a concentration on my student’s digital literacy needs. Because of this activity, students will understand and come to terms with the digital components of music in a fun and exciting manner and will learn just how flexible subjects like the arts and music truly are. Furthermore, the use of this technology is not the intent or the outcome of this lesson but more like a component to how music can be taught in a school setting. The main objective of this activity
is to show students that music can be taught in more than one way. Overall, there are infinite ways that the use of this technology is beneficial, not only for each student as an individual, but for the after school music club as a whole.
Works Cited
Rajan, Rekha S. "Tapping Into Technology: Experiencing Music In A Child’s Digital World." General Music Today
28.1 (2014): 8-11. Academic Search Elite
. Web. 30 Apr. 2015.
Demski, Jennifer. "How Music Teachers Got Their Groove Back: Music Instruction Goes Digital." The
Journal
(2010): 1-5. Public Sector Media Group
. Web. 01 May 2015.
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