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​Music Education
Annotated Bibliography #2
Cathy Benedict
Jordan McDonald
 
Dawe, L. (2016). Fumbling Towards Vulnerability: Moving Out of the Familiar for Music Education’s Sake, Canadian Music Educator, (57)2, pp.22-24
 
            In this reading I was particularly interested in the idea of embracing vulnerability.  As humans I think we often try to find whatever is most comfortable and try our best to maintain that feeling for as long as possible.  I myself find that whenever I’m faced with unfamiliar or uncomfortable experiences I try my best to avoid them.  This has always been a crutch I’ve tried to move past as a student. This has been a personal problem for me when trying to learn a new piano song for example.  I’ll focus heavily on material I’ve already gone over and am familiar with, avoiding and procrastinating going over material I’m unfamiliar with.  Moving a step further we can see how this affects teachers.  It is hard to break from traditional ways of teaching and the formal structures so many of us are taught.  However, just as it is detrimental for us as students, it is quite harmful as teachers.  As a teacher you are responsible for so many students each of who responds to different learning strategies.  If you only teach one way because it is familiar and comfortable, you loose the potential to engage and help as many students as possible learn the course material.  Some people learn best by visual methods, some by aural, verbal etc.  Finding a way of teaching that incorporates as many of these as possible requires experimentation and experience in teaching a variety of ways.  We need that vulnerability of the unfamiliar to better ourselves through learning as well as through teaching.

​Music Education
Annotated Bibliography #3
Cathy Benedict
Jordan McDonald
 
Drew Serres (2013). http://organizingchange.org/think-everythings-normal-then-its-time-to-reconsider-and-promote-a-new-narrative-of-disability/ 
 
            The topic for this article was of particular interest to me since I’ve thought about the idea of normalcy a lot and have friends and family society might put in the “other” category.  I have seen this idea of cultural normalcy in media countless times and it has been a concern for me long before reading this article.  Hollywood seems set comfortably in it’s clichés and constantly presents protagonists as “normal”.  These characters almost always adhere to an idealized body type and rarely belong to any marginalized group.  I think we still underestimate just how important representation is for people who belong to marginalized groups.  Particularly for children, just seeing someone similar to them given positive representation means so much to their development and to their comfort in society.  The amount of queer representation in media for children for example is almost nonexistent.  Because of this people of marginalized groups have different experiences growing up, and that should be taken into consideration when teaching them.  I’ve talked to queer people and people with varying mental disabilities and the one constant thing I’ve seen is that they’re people.  Having their disability or “otherness” define them only limits them and pushes them away, whether you’re trying to have a casual conversation, or I imagine, trying to teach them.  Like I mentioned before however, neglecting the different experiences they might have compared to someone not belonging to a marginalized group is also a mistake.  On top of this you need to consider certain issues they might have attributed to their disability or background when interacting with them (this could be from conversing or teaching).  This doesn’t mean excusing all behavior and attributing it to their disability, nor limiting them by saying they are unable to accomplish something because of their disability.  You may need to consider your wording/general use of language when conversing with them.  Keep in mind what their disability is or what groups they belong to and just treat them like a human being.  My brother was diagnosed with ADHD and time and again that has meant very little at least in terms of our interactions.  In order to move forward; to better interact and engage with people with disabilities and “other” backgrounds we need to get over the stigmas these things have in our society.

​Music Education
Annotated Bibliography #4
Cathy Benedict
Jordan McDonald
 
Hourigan, R. M. (2009). The invisible student: Understanding social identity construction within performing ensembles. Music Educators Journal, 34-38.
 
This was of particular interest for me because I can identify certain traits in myself, as well as school experiences that are similar to the “ghost children”.  While this hasn’t been consistent throughout middle school and high school, there were certainly times when I was disengaged from both the class and my peers.  I made the conscious decision not to participate in class (not to raise my hand to answer any questions, not to go to the teacher to get clarification, and not to talk amongst my peers).  To me this is a very interesting issue with a lot of different angles to attack.  For instance I had a friend in my English class who would never respond to questions even though he often knew the answer.  He would sometimes whisper the answer out loud waiting for someone else to respond, or the teacher’s inevitable answer.  I think the most prominent reason for this is not because he was disengaged from the subject material (although I know it wasn’t his particular area of interest).  He wasn’t a particularly unsocial person either, having plenty of friends and people to talk to.  I think the main reason was because he was concerned first and foremost with grades and the curriculum.  He showed up and largely paid attention in class and focused his effort on graded work.  He seemed apathetic toward any other possible engagement in the course and I think this philosophy is not entirely uncommon to find in students.  I have felt the same way and could probably think of plenty of examples where I was most concerned with what was evaluated, and dismissed everything else.  I hear a lot of students, when they get an assignment, test or essay back from the teacher immediately start discussed what mark they got.  “Oh I got a 85! What did you get?”  Whatever knowledge they crammed into their heads for the test would be dismissed and completely forgotten by as early as the next day.  The only time a lot of students would discuss course material would be before an evaluation in order to achieve as high a mark as they could get.  It is my understanding that high school curriculum is mark-oriented and does nothing to engage students in learning and retaining knowledge or enjoy the act of learning in a high school setting.  This increases the odds of learners to be “ghost” students and contributes to an apathetic environment in the classroom.   

​Music Education
Annotated Bibliography #5
Cathy Benedict
Jordan McDonald
 
Thibeault, Matthew. (2012). The Power of Limits and the Pleasure of Games: An Easy and Fun Piano Duo Improvisation. General Music Today, 50-53.
 
The idea of limits or restrictions providing more freedom for students is an interesting one.  I think it can be important to have limitations or restrictions in order to have formal structure students can understand and adhere to. Making the designated product a clear objective allows students to work on the process and focus on creativity in creating as opposed to worrying about what the finished product will be.  It allows students to spend their time creating music as opposed to theorizing about it. Students don’t have to worry about endlessly refining their work and just enjoy the music they create.  Social interaction in improvisation allows students to work off of each other and learn from each other.  Students get to hear their peer’s musical ideas and learn different ways of understanding music (in this case the major scale). They then have to learn how to adapt to what the other is playing and to complement them musically. It’s not just a challenge for the individual though, as both need to work together in order to create a unified work.  Looking at this exercise as a game can be important for students as it gets them to see this as an enjoyable pastime. Too often is music is presented to us as a chore or comes across as endless work to create one product.  Simply seeing the creation of music from a different perspective (at least in some instances) allows us to enjoy both listening and creating music.  The role of the teaching then is to guide the process and to try to get students to engage in it.  Afterward, explaining some of the musicality that is a part of the exercise and different ways of implementing them.  It is important first however that students get to improvise and create music for themselves and their partners before the teacher steps in to direct where he/she wants to take the exercise.  

​Music Education
Annotated Bibliography #6
Cathy Benedict
Jordan McDonald
 
Tobias, E. S. (2013). Toward Convergence Adapting Music Education to Contemporary Society and Participatory Culture. Music Educators Journal, 99(4), 29-36. 
 
This article outlines just how important the evolution of technology has been for our experience of music.  It’s almost more of a lesson in expanding on media, which becomes a part of past-time enjoyment and conversation.  Right now the Internet meme is a large source of circulating trends that students can manipulate in a musical way.  Technology allows students to actively participate in creating and engaging with media.  There is a convergence with old and new mediums.  Adding music accompaniment to a film or book is an example. Or providing music covers for pre-existing songs. Students then are able to respond to and utilize familiar works in new ways with agency and an active role in music making.  They respond reflectively and are allowed to share and explore their own interpretations of music and other forms of media.  By connecting topics and subjects the students are already interested in, students are more likely to think critically and be engaged in a school setting.  For me I was always more interested in a subject when I could relate it to something I was already familiar with.  While critical analysis for Shakespeare didn’t always interest me because I wasn’t usually interested in the material, the same kinds of processes did interest me in film and shows I was interested in.  While students might be uninterested in the structure of classical music, or performing, they may be interested in how popular music is structured and jam sessions.  There is certainly musical value in both styles.  Why not support the interests students have in music and allow them to focus on analysis and practice what interests them?    

​Music Education
Annotated Bibliography #7
Cathy Benedict
Jordan McDonald
 
Williams, D. A. (2014). Another Perspective The iPad Is a REAL Musical Instrument. Music Educators Journal, 101(1), 93-98. 
 
 
The iPad should be treated like any other classical instrument because it acts like and can do what any other instrument can. It is important to distinguish that any other instruments largely for the program that the Touch group created can largely replace the iPad.  Though the program would need to be modified it can accommodate the other classical instruments that the iPad replaces in Touch. It is for the small ensemble and could be adapted to groups of 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, etc people. Any more than 8 and the nature of working with each other and the nature of the ensemble format would be lost. Similar to Music Futures, the iPad ensemble focuses on aural learning and group participation. Traditional learning musical structures (instrumental band, and choir) appeal to only a small group of students. Groups like the iPad ensemble open up student music opportunities for a much bigger audience of students interested in music. The ensemble utilizes technology that is relevant and used by the students in our current time. While only small selections of students have experience on a classical instrument (violin, trombone, etc.) many have experience using iPads or similar technology.  The iPad ensemble also gives students more musical autonomy in their music classrooms.  This format allows students to make musical decisions about what music they decide to work with as well as what kind of alterations and decisions they make to it while practicing and for performance as well.  In the traditional band or choir students have little and sometimes no input as to the musical decisions made.  The conductor is the one to decide how the music is performed as well as, a lot of the time, what music is performed. 

​Music Education
Annotated Bibliography #8
Cathy Benedict
Jordan McDonald
Brinkman, D. J. (2010). Teaching creatively and teaching for creativity. Arts Education Policy Review, 111(2), 48-50. doi:10.1080/10632910903455785 

        The idea of teaching creatively and teaching for creativity has been brought up in classes before.  Here we have a clear in depth look toward what that means.  When a teacher teaches creatively they teach in a way that challenges pre-existing ways of teaching and looks to engage students in new ways that stray from conventional forms of teaching.  This is creativity for the teacher and focuses on the teacher learning and teaching creatively.  Teaching for creativity is about teaching in a way that prompts or enables the student to be creative.  These aren't mutually exclusive.  A teacher can teach creatively in a way that doesn't enable students to demonstrate or engage in creativity.  Likewise a teacher can teach in traditional ways that aren't necessarily creative while the student demonstrates creativity under those parameters.  And of course a student can demonstrate creativity under a teacher teaching in a creative way.  What is important is a focus on creativity.  Teaching in a creative way benefits students that may learn differently, which traditional methods may not support.  Teaching for creativity helps students focus on truly understanding and applying concepts.  They also engage in subject matter in a different way than is standard that some students would prefer and respond well to.