September 2009
Volume 75, Number 1

The Louisiana Department of Education, this summer, released Model Arts Lessons for educators leading instrumental and vocal music courses in kindergarten through eighth grade. These lessons integrate the National Standards and the Louisiana Arts Content Standards. The Department collaborated with the Louisiana Division of the Arts to develop these lessons, based on the Louisiana Arts Content Standards, employing committees of arts educators, classroom teachers, teaching artists, administrators, and university professors. This curriculum development prepares Louisiana music educators for the 2010-2011 school year, when all public school students in kindergarten through grade eight shall have sixty minutes of visual and sixty minutes of performing arts instruction each week, and all public high schools will provide instruction in the visual and performing arts -R.S. 17:7(26). These lessons were designed for arts education specialists and classroom teachers to create quality lessons addressing the four arts standards and all benchmarks in each grade cluster. These materials are now available at http://www.louisianaschools.net/lde/saa/1359.html. 

The Nation’s Report Card for Arts Education (NAEP) was released in June. Its goal was to measure eighth grade students’ ability to observe, describe, analyze, and evaluate music. The assessment indicated that seventy-seven percent of the students could identify the directional contour of a melodic phrase. Fifty-six percent of the students could identify a half note. Forty-three percent could identify the time signature from a recorded example. Only thirty-three percent of eighth grade students could identify the term for a fermata. The Secretary of Education indicated that more progress is needed in the area of music education.

The Louisiana Department of Education joined the Partnership for 21st Century Skills (P21).  The Partnership lists the arts as one of the essential core subjects, along with the usual common core of required subjects. The group advocates the infusion of creativity, collaboration, accountability, and responsibility to develop rigor and relevance in all the essential subjects. These concepts are well imbedded in high quality music education experiences. A successful music education program is measured not only on the quality of its public performances, but also on its ability to provide environments and experiences where students develop the habits of creativity, collaboration, accountability, and responsibility through daily practice.

Creativity is a function of intelligence. Learning is fully developed through stimulating the imagination to discover new ideas (Robinson, 2001). Students must have a safe space to try, to fail, and to persevere. Effective music education classes provide access to music writing programs and lead students to compose a melody based on a given theme. Students perform it for the class. Vocal students are required to bring in one of their poems and create a melody for it. As music educators we must think about how much students will learn as they determine which ideas work, which do not, and why.

Problem solving is one of the best ways for students to practice creativity. For example, students are challenged to compose short pieces demonstrating how the elements of music are used to achieve unity and variety or tension and release. Rhythm, melody, harmony, form and expression are taught both as music content and as a means for the students to create compositions or performances which have value beyond the classroom.  Students create in order to teach themselves. Creativity begins with imagining that reality can be different. Music education is cognitively rigorous discipline embodying the analytical, the rational, and the serious. They are all necessary to develop thought patterns that exercise creativity. 

Collaboration, like creativity, is another essential learning and innovation skill. Making music, by its very nature, is a collaborative activity. When students work together, the best performances are created. How can we find more ways to develop this strength? After students have some facility with performing the elements of music, they can be directed to compose a new piece of music with a partner.

Accountability is a Life and Career Skill promoted by P21. In band, choir, and orchestra classes, students practice in small and large ensembles. They are always listening to one another and comparing their performances. They learn to be accountable because they have experienced what it feels like to be the musician who holds the ensemble back from its best performance.  When students listen to themselves play or sing alone, they begin to hear truth. Music education is well suited to offer students ways to learn accountability. 

Responsibility in music education classes, both individually and socially, begins when they practice on their own. This is similar to the practice of required skills in other classes. However, music students also learn that what they are playing or singing has an effect on the other students as well as the audience.  The student who is the only tuba player, or oboe player, will be missed if she is not at the concert. A quality comprehensive arts education develops life and career Skills in all its students. We do this well now. However, it is often done without deliberate thought. What intentional experiences can we plan for students to practice these essential life and career skills? Let’s make this a conscious and intentional part of music education.

Welcome back to another school year. This column is intended sparked some ideas which will make music education stronger and more effective. Share these ideas with other educators and administrators. By doing so, you are taking charge of directing the contribution music makes to student learning experiences. A quality arts education is an essential part of a world-class educational system. Such a program systematically address all those social, cultural, and economic competencies vital to preparing students for full participation in the 21^st century creative economy.