Sunday, October 20, 2013
Technology and Pedagogy
The lesson plan for my spread sheet really caught my interest because in the music education world even in the world today there are very little musical lesson the involve any sort of African American history. The lesson plan is about the Underground Railroad and the songs the runaway slaves would sing during their journey. This lesson plan is also a cross curricular so it this creates helps music teachers fill the reading and writing portion of their assessment in order to satisfy the needs of the administration. Not to mention that is using two on the most influential pieces of educational technology the TV and the CD/Cassette player. There were a few gaps within this lesson plan for example there is does not mention anything specific music making in the objective and the "what will students do" portion of the lesson plan. However I would assume that a music teacher would do something as simple as having students sings and play the melody of some of the songs just to get a feel of how the music sounded in person. But that was the main gap. In defense of the lesson's gaps, the standards I used are not from the performance section of the music standards so I can't harp of the lack of music making in the lesson plan. The TV and cassette player are so essential in achieving the goals listed within the standards. Simply because in order to fully understand what the slaves went through one must see documented evidence of such happens along with reading. In terms of the songs one must hear the music to fully experience the music understanding they are trying to achieve as well as have a personal connecting to the learning materials. What would better support eh goals and standards would be to watch a video of an authentic performance of these songs with a written music score in hand. Link to Spreadsheet
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I like how you pointed out that we don't really talk about the African American history behind many of the songs. For example, I remember singing pieces in choir that were considered African American spirituals, etc. but we never talked about where that piece came from or what it really was about. Many of these songs came out of the era of slavery yet a lot of times we just sing them without talking about their history.
ReplyDeleteMiles, I am a huge fan of yours ever since you were in my "Public Purposes of Education" course. As such, I am not surprised at the creativity and socially-just selection of your lesson plan and your rationale for selecting it. Nicely done. With that said, you must spell and grammar check your blogpost, as it diminishes the credibility of your post significantly. (As a professional teacher, you are held to the highest standards of writing). Your spreadsheet also represents a solid effort at mapping out the lesson plan, based on the specific requirements of this particular assignment. I am going to push you a bit further and challenge you to pay close attention to the verbs in the "Strategies" column of your spreadsheet. Make sure that you can name where learning occurs and if the student and/or teacher is facilitating it. Terms like "repetition," "practice," "group discussion," "think-pair-share," are examples of methodological terms that you should be able to use boldly and frequently, regardless of the technology or setting.
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