Music and the Young Mind a global perspective!

by Maureen Harris &

Sue Lewin Presented at the World Forum Foundation Conference

Ireland 2009

Goal of Early Childhood Education

• Cultivate the child’s own natural desire to learn.

• Provide skills for the future

Learning through the

Arts

•  The child learns to trust •  Feeling safe and secure he can then

begin to explore all the wonders of his own self and world.

•  Prepared environment

Learning Styles

•  Children retain 24% of what they hear •  40% of what they see •  70% of what they learn through multisensory

experiences •  It makes sense to implement as many

strategies as possible to reach a student.

Benefits of Music

Engagement

•  Engagement means that children are wholly involved, physically, emotionally, intellectually, and socially.

•  Upitis, R., & Smithrim, K. (2003).

Science Class – taught through music

Energy Transfer

Atoms

•  “Later in the lesson the children shuffle along the floor, representing electrons moving along power lines. Then they pretend to be atoms joining together and breaking apart, and chant a rap about the pros and cons of various energy sources – all of this to musical accompaniment some their own.” (Hoffman 2003)

The basic message is- •  Benefits conveyed by

music education: - •  Success in society •  Success in school •  Success in developing

intelligence •  Success in life

MENC, Spring 2002

How Does it Work?

Music & the Young Mind Instruction

•  Leading approaches •  Musical concepts •  Solid foundation

Early Childhood Music Curriculum

A Step-by-Step Approach

BASIC CONCEPTS

•  Simplest and easiest to the most complex and difficult.

•  “The secret of good teaching is to regard the child’s intelligence as a fertile field in which seeds may be sown, to grow under the heat of flaming imagination.” M. Montessori

The Song- M.H. Richards

•  The child is his own instrument.

•  Each child can respond with his whole being.

•  Nothing is needed to get him started but the child himself, a group of his peers, and you to lead him and show him the way.

•  (‘Bombalalon’)

Song

•  Repertoire of songs •  Teacher models singer’s posture •  Demonstrate breathing techniques •  Starting note, tone quality and pitch

Curwen Hand Signs

•  Hand signs are a way of giving a physical placement for a vocal pitch. The low "do" begins at your midsection. Each pitch is then above the previous one. Thus, you have the hand signs going up when the pitch goes up. The upper "do" is at eye level.

•  Down loaded from the World Wide Web January 12, 2006 http://www.classicsforkids.com

•  (‘I can tap my knees’)

Beat First the teacher

sings a song familiar to the children and pats the beat on her lap while the children imitate her with large motions

(‘Row your Boat’, and ‘I Hear the Millwheel’)

Tempo

•  With movement the children can demonstrate an understanding of the concept of tempo by changing direction each time the tempo changes.

•  (Mexican Hat Dance -Clap,stop & take a rest)

Rhythm

•  Clap ‘the way the words sound’ •  (Happy Birthday to You) •  (I Hear the Millwheel)

Dynamics •  Vary the dynamics

quite distinctly changing from very loud (ff) to very soft (pp)

•  Demonstrate the volume differences with movement

•  Orchestral CDs

Timbre •  The quality that

makes voices easily recognizable is timbre.

•  (‘Button & the Key’)

•  Inner hearing •  (‘Open Shut Them’ &

‘Scotland’s Burning’)

Musical Phrase/Form •  A sentence in language

(It’s a Small World)

•  Make an arc-shaped motion with their right arm, from left to right.

•  Identify different forms by pointing to matching shapes

•  Mapping – (Row Your Boat)

The Prepared Environment the Music Centre

•  Live performances and good quality reproductions of carefully chosen music

•  Prokofiev’s ‘Peter and the Wolf’

Music from around the World •  Introduce music from

other cultures, through song.

•  Music is the universal form of communication

•  Parents or ethnic community groups near the school maybe helpful in this regard.

Where to Begin

Resource Guides ‘Music & the Young

Mind’ Textbooks - activities/extensions

•  Resource Guides become collections of ‘best practices’ to be shared by all participants.

Curriculum Timeframe

•  School year – Sept through June

•  Toddler, Pre-school, Elementary

Progress Guidelines

•  Musical Skills and Concepts -teacher record keeping

•  1. Introduction to a concept

•  2. Processing and understanding

•  3. ‘knowing’

SEPTEMBER-DECEMBER •  Music specialist

conducts a hands-on-teacher workshop, with clear instructions for teacher follow-up.

•  Develop repertoire of songs.

•  Introduce basic concepts

JANUARY-MARCH

•  New material is presented:

•  Basic concepts •  Music appreciation •  Instruments of the

orchestra •  Live performances •  Mapping

TAPRIL-JUNE –  Musical instruments

& notation symbols

–  Solfege and dictation

–  Music symbols and classified cards

–  Timeline of composers

Quotes •  “The essential thing is to arouse such an interest

that it engages the child’s whole personality’. M. Montessori

•  “I never teach my pupils, I only attempt to provide the conditions in which they can learn.” Albert Einstein

Bridges •  Skills for the future –

•  Creative thinking •  Problem-solving •  Risk-taking •  Teamwork and communication •  Precisely the skills the arts teach

21st Century Education

•  We embraces the challenges of the 21st with an opportunity and responsibility to change.

.

» It is time to embrace an early childhood music-enriched curriculum and break through barriers of learning.

The need for change

•  As times and ideas change we are compelled to provide rich opportunities for learning for all young people (Landsberg, 1997, Eisler, 2000).

•  Such rich opportunities must include the arts.

•  Current school restructuring program called Roots & Wings through John Hopkins University

Revolutionize elementary education in an attempt to create the schools of the 21st century.

The goal is to engage students in activities that enable them to apply everything they learn so that they can learn the usefulness and interconnectedness of all knowledge

An arts-rich curriculum can provide a vehicle for self-expression, self-understanding, self-confidence, creative problem solving and motivation (Knill, 1995; Pitman, 1998).

MISSION

“to develop the whole child” through leadership in music education.

Now is time to develop a new model for early childhood education that will demonstrate the value of a music-based comprehensive approach and serve as a practical blueprint for all the early childhood classrooms globally.

Thank you! Maureen Harris-www.montessorimozarts.com Sue Lewin - slewin@vtown.com.au