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Music Tech Blog Post Week 6

This week's reading had several great reminders, and it also added much more in depth information on those topics as well! The emphasis on listening in the beginning of the chapter helped to put into context information that almost seems to be common sense. For example, Bauer (2014) indicates that people listen to music at certain times like while in a car (p. 107). He also discusses how students have a view of a separation of music at school and home. Therefore, we must teach our students how to listen to better appreciate the difference rather than shoving it off as boring or unimportant. To me, listening seems like such an obscure skill to teach. It also is hard for me to generate assessments that would provide evidence for data tracking. However, I understand the importance especially when teaching elementary music.
As stated in the text, I have used commercial listening resources at the elementary level. Dr. Denise Gange has wonderful multi-level Listening Resource Kits available for purchase. Unfortunately, I do not have access to this resource at my new position. However, at my previous school, I would devote a specific day for one of her listening lessons. We would listen by CD. I would project call charts or listening maps to my IWB through a USB projector. From there, we could write on it for reference as needed. I would also locate visual listening maps like the one found below.



As a side note, I honestly love all the MusicPlay resources, and if I planned on solely teaching elementary music I would invest in personal copies of all of her materials. Click here for her website.

One of the best pieces of advice I had as I was starting my teaching career was to always have students actively listen with visuals and movement. Unfortunately, I found it to be true the hard way. This advice should be adhered to even more closely with younger elementary students. I found that those ages were more engaged, retained more information, and grew farther in skill as we incorporated all sorts of visual technology with music and movement. With technology available today, listening lessons are not difficult. They simply take careful attention in planning and implementation.

I also found the section on WebQuests to be very informative, inspiring, and helpful as I work on  creating the WebQuest for next week. The possibilities are truly endless, and I look forward to implementing the one that I create into one of my classes. I can remember as a student getting excited while doing lessons designed as a "quest." Perhaps it is the fantasy lover inside me, but I also believe that it helps students to engage more in the activity when it seems less like "school" and more of a mystery that needs to be solved or a discovery that needs to be made.


Bauer, W. I. (2014). Music learning today: Digital pedagogy for creating,                   
            performing, and  responding to music. New York City: Oxford University
            Press.

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