The first concept I am going to talk about is from child development. It is called scaffolding. Its the idea that children learn best from other kids who are older, or know more than they do. In our music class there are kids from all different levels, since some of them take band or orchestra, or private piano lessons, and others do not. My mentor does a good job of involving all the kids, and having the kid who know more help to teach the ones who do not quite understand.
There is also a theory out there that learning music helps children to be more apt to understand other subjects in school. As I look around at the kids who are activily engaged in music, I notice that generally they are the ones who are bright and eager to be interactive with whatever we are presenting. I havent dont any specific research or anything, but to me it does seem like music makes a difference in the lives of these middle aged kids.
In child development, the social learning theories say that kids behave better with positive reinforcement and when they are treated with respect. They learn to behave by observing what consequences come from different actions. Bandura was a social learning thoerist. In my mentors classroom she has a daily positive reinforcement "star" that she gives to the kids for good behavior. If they are behaving badly, she gives them 3 strikes before she takes the star aways for the day. This seems to work really well, and the kids respond extremely fast, because she is very consistant with her reinforcement.
In music there is a concept that music teachers talk about that says that kids who learn the theory behind the music, will be able to undrestand the music they perform much easier and better. We are working on this this year, and are trying new ways of incorporating teaching music theory to the kids, in fun ways, so that they understand how to read music, and not just listen to the radio. I am just barely starting to see results from this, especially with the 5th graders, who have seemed to pick it up easier than the others. I hope to see more improvement with how they are able to read music and learn songs more quickly as the semester progresses.
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"The true key to happiness in life is to labor for the happiness of others." Heber J. Grant
The Internship
This semester I am interning at McCarter Elementary School in the music classroom. I am excited to use the knowledge I have learned from my two disciplines of child development and music to further my education in interdisciplinary studies. Should be fun!
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About Me
- Michelle Johnston
- I am married to a wonderful man, and we have 3 beautiful children. I am able to do my internship at my two older childrens school, so I am excited about that! My family and I are living in Kansas while my husband attends law school. This is our last year here, and although we love it, we are excited to get back to AZ. I love life, and I love learning. I'm looking forward to this learning experience.
4 comments:
That's really cool that your mentor allows the older kids to teach things to the younger kids. This is important because it allows the kids to interact with eachother on an educational level. I also think it is pretty cool because sometimes adults have a hard time explaining things to kids (even the ones who have been doing it for years), and it is a cool way for the kids to understand something from a different perspective - one more similar to their own. It sounds like you are truly passionate about your concentration areas and you seem to be really enjoying yourself at your site :) That's great that the kids are enjoying the music as well. I also believe music can really uplift someone's spirits and improve overall quality of life. Good luck with everything!
Hi Michelle! This is Rob Pedron. I have never taken any child development class so it was cool reading about the concepts learned in your concentration. I like the concept of scaffolding. I feel that children are sometimes more comfortable with others closer to their age. If they have a peer teaching them, they will not feel as intimidated learning the music. When you talked about social learning theory, I liked how your mentor used it in the classroom. The children behaving badly are not singled out but still taught that there are consequences for their actions. Music theory was interesting to me as well. I see how this theory can help children learn music faster and easier. The children tend to appreciate it more and get to learn new ways of learning the music.
I completely agree with everything you are doing with the kids and music. I started band in 5th grade and found that while it gave me more work to do, it taught me how to better manage my time to get everything done. I ended my career in band after my senior year of high school, but everything I learned in band (including the friendships that were made) will last a lifetime.
I also think its really cool that you are going to be teaching the kids music theory. It'll be tough and you may not see anything come of it this semester, but its a skill that will benefit them greatly. I believe that since I can read and understand music, I let myself get "deeper" into the songs - especially instrumental pieces. I love it...
Keep up the awesome work!
-Chris Todaro
Hi Michelle, my name is Hannah Verdin- I've got music as one of my concentration areas and am familiar with the "Mozart Effect" concept of children performing better academically because of music. I think it's great the kids are learning about music and music theory. Even if the kids don't benefit academically from the music, if they stick with playing an instrument, they'll have an automatic community they can be a part of at school- or even outside of school. I think that's one of the best things about extra-curricular groups.
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