Our First Stop...Creativity and Ownership

Reflecting back on my teaching practice for the last three years I have identified some areas where I need some growth in order to engage all students, specifically the boys, in a better, more holistic way.

Creativity and Composition:

I have always appreciated the value of composition in my classroom and thought that I had some good compositional based activities for students in grade 6, 7, and 8. Each year I have tried slightly different activities and completely new compositions to keep things exciting for the students.  When giving students their bucket drumming composition project in grade 6 and 7 I had rigid guidelines for them to follow from how many bars that the piece had to be, as well as dynamic markings, specific rhythms, and timbres. I also developed these rubrics on my own without any input from the students (more on this later).  Through the readings on creativity I have realized that I have to let go of the creative control and let students have more freedom and liberty in their composition projects. I have struggled with the assessment piece of this in the past but now have an more open mind about how to assess these types of creative works. On the contrary, the grade 8 STOMP project that I have done with the students has allowed for more creativity, yet there are still things that I will tweak next year to improve it, like incorporating more self and peer assessment.

Jackie Wiggins' article Creative Process as Meaningful Musical Thinking helped me to examine creativity and composition in my classroom and to see where changes could help to improve my practice.  One point that Wiggins addresses that resonated with me is "first, to be effective, an education experience must be meaningful to a learner.  Students need to perceive learning experiences as meaningful to their lives" (Wiggins, p. 79). Thinking back on the past year and working with the all boys class, they often wanted to learn about or talk about hip hop and rap music. I would often allow them to engage in these conversations but would often have to get them back on task to the lessons that I had planned to do with them. Often, this class would be off tasks and I think that next year if I can give them ways to have more input in their own learning, I think that they will be more engaged in what they are learning about and doing. I will also try to draw a stronger connection between what they are learning and their life outside of school. Malcim Edwards discusses how music education in our schools is a "conserving art".  "Music in the schools is essentially about live music making and we sometimes forget that live music performed by a band, orchestra, or choir is an increasingly rare phenomenon - in contrast to total music consumption. By this, I mean the totality of music available via mediated means - e.e., available via two wires and a loudspeaker" (Edwards, p.14). Edwards also says "Live music making in a school then is a conservation exercise in itself where we as music educators, preserving group endeavours and group acoustic skills that are worth of upholding in the midst of a fragmenting musical culture" (Edwards p. 14). These statements alone demonstrate the disconnect that exists in our music education classes and the lives that our students live in. I am starting to see the value in popular music in the classroom, both in listening and in composition. This is what students are listening to and appreciate, and if anything, it can be a good way to start to engage them in their own learning.

Often, we get so caught up in our own teaching practice and making sure that we cover curriculum and develop the proper assessments that we forget how important music is to students, especially those in middle and high school.  If we can capitalize on this passion that many students share for music we can better engage them in their own learning. Lashbrook and Willingham say in their article Music at Central Tech, One of Toronto's Oldest and Most Diverse Secondary Schools that music is so noteworthy because it is "so important to young people.  Today's youth define themselves through their music. If we can reach students through music then we have the opportunity to make wonderful, positive changes in their lives" (Lashbrook and Willingham, p. 32). Often the students in the all boys class are disengaged from learning in general and if we can hook them in through music, then they will start to experience success in

music.  I we can create more collaborative projects with the homeroom teachers that incorporate other curriculum strands, like media arts, than we can can start to engage these boys in new ways.

The project lead by Morrison, Farrow and Thomson called Composers In Virtual Interactive Classrooms (CIVIC) has had much success in engaging students of all ages in music composition. Upon reflection on the first year of the project teachers have noticed that the level of on task behaviour is very high during the composition process and the reason they give for this are as follows:

1. Composition engages all children in the learning process.  It allows children to work at their own levels. Some children enter quarter notes to create an ABA composition, while other children experiment with more complex rhythms and may even add lyrics to their work.
2. The use of technology in itself is a motivator. June Rigdon notes that "students are highly motivated to complete pencil and paper preparation of their compositions in anticipation of the opportunity to enter their 'good copies' on the computer and to up load these copies to the CIVIC site."
3. The act of composing validates the student of music theory and concepts. Melissa Hartery Power shared that "For the first time the students have a reason for wanting to know how many beats go in a measure and how many of what kind of note it takes to make it theoretically correct." (Morrison, Hennessy and Farrow, p. 11.)

Often when I have had the all boys class composing they are extra loud, usually both talking and singing, and you frequently see them breaking out into random dance.  From afar, it appears that these students could be off task (especially when they are singing when we are studying bucket drumming) but this is not necessarily the case. In her article, Wiggins talks about her composition experiences with students.  Some important points she identifies is that students will play melodies in their entirety, when they make a mistake they will go back to the beginning and start again, and they have a holistic approach to composition. First, they look at overall broad organizational elements like texture, form and sense of ensemble. From there they look at thematic materials and usually organize it into "chunks" and often they articulate it in a way (singing and chanting) before before they play it on an instrument.  Often they will conceive ideas in relation

to others ideas of the individual or their peers, sometimes sung and spoken rhythmically as the student plays the thematic material for the first time.  This indicates to me that although the classroom may seem like it is too loud at times, it is more likely that students are thinking through their ideas and exploring thematic material than being completely off task which in the past I have assumed to have been happening (Wiggins, p.81).  

The random outbursts of dance accompanied by their singing, often seen during compositional based activities, is what Marian T. Dura describes as "a complete picture of the music listening experience and musical understanding, however, must include this foundational kinesthetic aspect. An experience that can be so profoundly "moving" must at the very least leave its trace or effect upon the body and, at most, involve and implicate the body in tis essential workings (Dura, p. 199). I have always connected with music kinesthetically but have always thought that it was because of my background in dance. Dura explains how it goes beyond this and that physical involvement is a component of the music listening experience. One quote that resonated and really solidified this idea for me is as follows:

"It is widely agreed that the music-listening experience does involve the entire body, not only in the physical act of hearing (as, for example, in vibrations felt from approaching jet planes, loud rock music being heard in the stomach, and deaf persons hearing through bone conduction), but also in the physical reaction to the heard music (Ihde, 1976).  This response appears to be an inseparable, simultaneous integration of cognition and emotion, sometimes characterized as musical perception and reaction, and it does have an identified physical component. The body has an essential, integral role to play in cognition, including musical cognition, since, as Howard Gardner (1985) puts it, our "muscle memories" of past experiences, symbolized kinesthetically, enable us to experience aesthetically (p.228)" (Dura, p. 121). Dura also suggests that there are similarities between physical reactions to music and physical reactions to emotion, and each is closely associated with cognition. There may be a possibility that an association of music and movement might leave a lasting trace upon the brain that would be strengthened when repeated with subsequent listening experiences (Dura, p.125).  Generally, the all boys class is way more active than other classes in general and I am now able to understand the cognitive reasoning for their overactive nature in my classroom.  From now on I will encourage more movement in my classroom, especially when we are listening to or composing music. The benefits to this movement will have a positive outcome on their learning experience and engagement with the music.

Wiggins also identifies that when teachers try to make creative problems accessible to their students they often design problems that emanate from and require the ability to think about music in an isolated way rather than in a holistic manner.  Teachers will often provide students with most of the information and they will often do only a small portion of what needs to be done. Wiggins believes that it is essential for teachers to understand the broad, holistic nature of students' conception of musical ideas and the holistic nature of their work processes.  "If composing is originating original musical ideas, then the compositional tasks have to be designed to enable and support this process. Creative problems must be designed in ways that allow opportunity for the flow of musical ideas" (Wiggins, 86). My bucket drum compositional projects need to be revamped so that less restrictions are placed on the students in order for them to more fully develop their compositional skills.  This may also help create motivation to understand theory, since it will be applicable to their learning.

Dura, Marian, T.  Movement and Music: The Kinesthetic Dimension of the Music Listening Experience in Hanley, B. & Goolsby, T (2002). Musical Understanding – Perspectives in Theory and Practice. C.M.E.A. Publication.
Edwards, M., Music Education as a Conserving Activity. Canadian Music Educator article in full text. (Available in the Course Readings)

Lashbrook, S. and Willingham, L. Music at Central Tech, One of Toronto's Oldest and Most Diverse Secondary Schools. Canadian Music Educator article in full text. (Available in the Course Readings)

Morrison, R. , P. Farrow, R. Thomson , CIVIC Composers in Virtual Interactive Classrooms. Canadian Music Educator article in full text. (Available in the Course Readings)

Wiggins, Jackie. Chapter 5: Creative Process as Meaningful Musical Thinking in Sullivan, T & Willingham, L (2002). Creativity and Music Education, Research to Practice, Volume 1. C.M.E.A. Publication.