diary livejournal fossils
SomuchBS
Literacy can be difficult to make visible in a subject such as music. I will do my best to include it at every opportunity that I can. However, I believe that music is a language in its own right, and that making sure my students are musically literate should be my goal.
Including English literacy in a music class can be difficult to accomplish. Most of the time is spent on rehearsal and warm-ups, if not concert preparation. Still, a teacher might ask for concert reports for required events, which they can grade for errors instead of just attendance. Also, my own choir director offered voluntary research projects on several of the composers and lyricists of songs that we worked on, requiring research time in both the library and on the Web, as well as a short, written document to be read in front of the class. While these are quite possible, and applicable to the class, I believe that the real literacy lies in music itself.
Music is a language on its own. As such, time must be spent in a music class on making sure that kids are actually reading music to the level that the class demands, and, in some classes, even writing music. My choir teacher would accomplish this by ad hoc ‘chord quizzes’, informal pop quizzes held on one or two chords in the piece we were working on. While these were not graded, it did give him an idea of how well the class was doing when it came to musical literacy. I believe that this goes to show how a student reads the language of music in the same way a spelling quiz shows how well a student grasps their spoken and written language. E. E. Cummings wrote, “all which isn’t singing is merely talking,” I believe that this is particularly applicable in a music class, where time not spent on music is time spent ‘merely talking,’ something which is not the focus of the class.
In short, I think that, while English literacy may play some part in a music class, I firmly believe that music should be the primary literary focus. With so many similarities to a spoken or written language, the same basic building blocks should be considered when dealing with music as when dealing with English. In addition, I think that the cracks and hiding places should be focused on even more, as it’s easy for a student to hide in such a large group. Musical literacy must not be ignored