The goal of the MUED 371 (Beginning Methods and Materials for Instrumental Methods) Leadership Project was to “work in a group to collaboratively plan, implement, and evaluate an innovative beginning instrumental music experience in the community that is grounded in participatory music making and learning”. Throughout the past few semesters, I have realized my desire to teach internationally. I thought that the best way to get experience understanding people from different cultures during my time here at JMU was to interact more with the international students on campus. During Student Org Night, I reached out to the Bridges International Club at JMU. Bridges International’s goal is to “bridge the gap between international and American students by connecting socially and spiritually”. When I got connected with them, I asked them about the possibility of doing a music making night with them, and they happily agreed to talk and brainstorm ideas. The first step of the process was to get in contact with the organization; Dr. Stringham had us draft a letter to the main contact, which he then edited to help us make it more professional. Through this I learned to be specific in what I asked and clear in stating what I needed the organization to do. Below is a draft of the email with corrections. However, because the organization was student run, we ended up contacting one another through text messages because it was easier. When designing our experience, we had to consider time constraints, amount of people attending the event, language barriers, access to materials, and religious and cultural considerations. Below is our original lesson plan and an experience design that we wrote after the event .The event consisted of teaching the students the Thankfulness Song in Veggie Tales on ukuleles, bucket drums, and Orff instruments, and then having them write their own song in small groups. The experience I designed with my peers was informed by course content through the research I have been doing this past semester on multicultural music education. After reading a lot of books and scholarly articles, I’ve found ways to be a culturally responsive teacher and learned about some of the expectations about culture laid out by NAfME and the Virginia Standards of Learning. Amy Lewis, a doctoral student at Michigan State University, also guest presented at JMU this past semester and I learned how to be listening and loving, values stemming from Black Lives Matter, when trying to understand those from a different cultural background. We applied some of the tools on modalities and winding forward/back by having different colors on the slides for different chords (adaptation), and allowed students to choose what instrument group they felt comfortable with (pacing-some were easier than others to pick up). We also winded forward/back by giving them a variety of strumming patterns to choose from and options of notes/patterns to play on the Orff instruments. A huge element we incorporated in the night was improvisation and composition by allowing them to create their own song, but giving them parameters of what chords they could use and what theme for their song to use. As a teacher, I thought it was cool seeing this event finally come together and for all the hard work beforehand to come to fruition. Trying to line up six MUED students’ schedules to get work done was frustrating at times, but there was so much laughter and experimentation that it was worth it. I also thought it was cool as a teacher to see a group of people from a variety of backgrounds come together and just make music. It was important for me to be flexible because international students tend take their own time schedules and usually run late, but also to recognize that this is very much a cultural thing. Lastly, I think self-evaluation at the end of the event was key for me as a teacher. I knew that overall it went well, but I recognized that there were things that could have gone better (scaffolding of teaching instruments or placing the loud bucket drums in a separate room) for the students to have a more fruitful learning experience. I was happy to have established this connection with Bridges International and hope to do another event with them soon! Comments are closed.
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Davina MiawOn this page, I will present examples of my leadership through videos, lesson plans, and reflections. Archives
December 2019
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