MUSIC
A Curriculum Framework for Seventh-day Adventist Secondary Schools
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The South Pacific Division Curriculum Unit has enlisted the help of a number of teachers in preparing this document. We would like to thank all who have contributed time, ideas, materials and support in many tangible and intangible ways. In particular, the following people have helped most directly in the writing and editing of this document:
FIRST EDITION 1990
Fred Cracknell Avondale Adventist High School
David Tompson Nunawading Adventist College
Paul Woodward Lilydale Adventist Academy
SECOND EDITION 1999
Ariel Balague Sydney Adventist College
Sylvia Cody Brisbane Adventist College
Carolyn Nicholson Tweed Valley Adventist College
Niven Vojkovic Central Coast Adventist High School
It is our wish that teachers will use this document to improve their teaching and so better attain the key objectives of Seventh-day Adventist education.
Dr Barry Hill,
Director Secondary Curriculum Unit
South Pacific Division
Seventh-day Adventist Church
Department of Education
148 Fox Valley Road February 2000
WAHROONGA NSW 2076 Second Edition
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements. . . . . . . 2
What is a Framework? . . . . . . 4
Using the Framework . . . . . . . 5
SECTION
1 PHILOSOPHY . . . . . . 6
A Philosophy of Music . . . . . . . 7
Values-Oriented Objectives . . . . . . . 8
SECTION
2 HOW TO PLAN . . .. . . . 9
Steps in Planning a Unit . . . . . . . 10
The Planning Example . . . . . . . 11
Jazz Topic . . . . . . . . . 12
SECTION
3 PLANNING ELEMENTS . . . . . 15
Guidelines for Selecting Music to Teach . . . . . 16
Suggestions for Emphasizing the Valuing Process in Teaching Music . 18
Values . . . . . . . . . . 21
Issues . . . . . . . . . . 24
Assessment Values and Attitudes . . . . . . 26
SECTION
4 APPENDICES . . .. . . . 28
The Integration of Values with Topics . . . . . 29
Skill Groups . . . . . . . . . 32
Year 9 Assessment from B.A.C. . . . . . . 34
Performance
Checklist. . . . . . . . 36
WHAT IS A FRAMEWORK?
A Framework
In the Adventist secondary school context, a ‘framework’ is a statement of values and principles that guide curriculum development. These principles are derived from Adventist educational philosophy which states important ideas about what Seventh-day Adventists consider to be real, true and good.
A framework is also a practical document intended to help teachers sequence and integrate the various elements of the planning process as they create a summary of a unit or topic.
The framework is not a syllabus.
The framework is not designed to do the job of a textbook. Although it contains lists of outcomes, values, issues and teaching ideas, the main emphasis is on relating values and faith to teaching topics and units.
Objectives of the Framework
1. One objective of the framework is to show how valuing, thinking and other learning skills can be taught form a Christian viewpoint. The Adventist philosophy of art influences this process.
2. A second objective is to provide some examples of how this can be done. The framework is therefore organised as a resource bank of ideas for subject planning. It provides ideas, issues, values and value teaching activities of art, so it is intended to be a useful planning guide rather than an exhaustive list of "musts".
The framework has three target audiences:
1. All music teachers in Adventist secondary schools.
2. Principals and administrators in the Adventist educational system.
3. Government authorities who want to see that there is a distinctive Adventist curriculum emphasis.
USING THE FRAMEWORK
LAYOUT
The
framework is comprised of four sections — philosophy, the planning process,
sample unit plans and appendices. The
nature and purposes of each section are set out below.
It
is suggested that you read this page describing these four sections now before
attempting to use the document for the first time.
SECTION 1 — PHILOSOPHY
Section
1 is the philosophical section. This section contains a philosophy of music, a
rationale for teaching music, and a set of outcomes which have a Christian
bias.
This
section is meant to remind teachers of the Christian perspective they should
incorporate in their teaching. They may consult this section when looking at
longer-term curriculum planning, and when thinking about unit objectives. They
may also be adapted to form part of their program of work.
SECTION 2 — THE PLANNING
PROCESS
Section
2 is the "how to" section of the framework. It explains a process
teachers can follow when planning a topic or unit of work while thinking from a
Christian perspective. It is followed
by a sample summary compiled by working through the steps. Because it suggests an actual process for
integrating ideas, values and learning processes, this section is the heart of
the document.
SECTION 3 — PLANNING ELEMENTS
Section
3 contains lists of ideas, values, issues and teaching strategies that teachers
may consult when working their way through Section 2 of the framework. It is a kind of mini directory of ideas to
resource the steps followed in Section 2.
SECTION 4 — APPENDICES
Section
4 contains ideas for teaching which lie outside the domain of values and faith,
but which could be useful as reminders of good teaching and learning practice.
SECTION 1
Philosophy
INDEX
A Philosophy
of Music . . . . . 7
Values-Oriented
Objectives . . . . 8
PHILOSOPHY
Seventh-day Adventists believe that God intends music to be one means of fostering spiritual development. Musical understanding and expression help comprise the worship and faith that draw us to Him. Through the experience of carefully crafted music we may pursue a relationship with Him, and be helped to enter His eternal kingdom.
Music is an academic discipline that requires memory work, intellectual understanding and creative interpretation. The intellectual and creative are important elements working together in our educational development because they have the potential to bring balance to our learning experiences. This balance occurs because our listening and performance of music require emotional and moral sensitivity, intellectual effort, and spiritual experience.
Music is also valuable because its interpretation demands creativity. When we interpret and compose music, we need to portray feelings and moods, experiences, purposes, forms, styles and meaning, and synthesize these musical elements creatively.
Creating music for others involves effective communication. The activities of performing and discussing music draw on the ability to communicate a range of ideas and feelings to others, and to God.
Music is important to emotional development. Through understanding music, skill development and performance, we are exposed to a range of emotions, and we learn emotional sensitivity. As we learn how to refine and direct emotions, we find the sense of awe, inner harmony and calm that are part of personal balance.
At times music appears to bypass reason and communicate directly with the feelings. It is therefore important that music education develop awareness of this possibility, with its power to influence the emotions and actions of students.
Overall, music helps us develop abilities such as creativity, communication, and emotional expression. Music education forms an indispensable part of our aesthetic development. It is a gift from God, designed to give us balance, to uplift us, and to lead us to Him.
OBJECTIVES
The principal aims of Adventist music education are to
enable students:
1. To learn music through participation in musical activities.
2. To be actively involved in the continuous life-long process of
learning about music.
3. To develop insights into how music functions, and to apply these
insights in listening, performance and composition.
4. To understand the elements of music — melody, rhythm, style,
expression, tone, colour, harmony and form.
5. To develop an understanding of musical style as it relates to
culture, period, composer, and music traditions.
6. To be actively involved in making music by practicing, composing,
performing, understanding and listening to music.
7. To respond to music with aural awareness and sensitivity through
as wide an involvement in music activities as possible.
8. To find interest in, and enjoyment of music.
9. To understand the spiritual, emotional, moral and social
implications of music.
10. To construct a hierarchy of Christian values which will enable them
to judge musical value.
11. To discern quality and value, to make wise value judgments, to
discriminate, and to select appropriate music.
12. To seek opportunities to use their music skills in ministering to
others.
SECTION 2
The Planning Process
INDEX
Steps in
Planning a Unit . . . . . 10
The Planning
Example . . . . . 11
Jazz Topic . . . . . . 12
STEPS
IN PLANNING A UNIT
1. Consult the music syllabus, including the yearly planner for the school, if there is one.Ask questions such as: What do I cover? How much time will I have? How will I subdivide my year into units? What important values and issues could be included? What is the detail? Where does this fit? List ideas (areas of study) of what you want to teach. Put these in order.
2. Gather information about the topic. Consult text books for ideas. Sort the information by referring to syllabus or planner.
3. Devise assessment tasks, both cumulative and summative.
4. List the most important outcomes (ideas, skills, values, knowledge etc). Some teachers will refer to outcomes which spread throughout a year and are cumulative.
5. Devise interesting teaching strategies/activities to assist learning. Some of these come from professional development and school visitation. Videos, internet and TV programs such as “Video Hits” are useful resources.
6. Look for resources to support the strategies. Book any equipment needed.
7. Fill in a planning grid, breaking the information into lessons.
8. Refine the teaching notes you have been making, or create notes.
9. Go back and evaluate during and after the teaching.
10. Throughout the whole process, remember the importance of teaching values and the valuing process.
Remember that the process is not a rigid step-by-step sequence. There is much coming and going between the points.
STEPS
IN PLANNING A UNIT — AN EXAMPLE
African American Music
1. Consult the music syllabus and choose:
· The jazz elective
· African American music
· Twelve bar blues specifically
Ask questions such as: What do I cover? How much time will I have? What important values and issues could be included? What is the detail? Where does this fit? After seeing the key areas to be covered, add seventh chords.
2. Gather information about the topic. Consult text books and other resources like song collections for ideas. Sort the information by referring to the syllabus.
3. Devise assessment tasks, both cumulative and summative. Cumulative tasks could be composition, performance, listening and musicology. Summative tasks could be performance and composition.
4. List the most important outcomes. Examples are: recognise, play and compose with first, fourth and fifth chords, gain experience in improvising, and be able to successfully manipulate musical elements to produce a twelve bar blues structured composition.
5. Devise interesting teaching strategies to assist learning. In this topic ensure that students frequently do something practical. Plan to build on these practical tasks in successive lessons.
6. Look for resources to support the strategies. Resources here may include a history of black slavery as the context of the blues, working songs and songs such as I’ve Been Everywhere Man, a biography of a popular artist like Loius Armstrong, and performing media required.
7. Fill in a planning grid, breaking the information into lessons. See the grid on the following pages of this framework.
8. Refine the teaching notes you have been making. Inset new songs that you have found since starting to plan, and that could be suitable examples of the twelve bar blues form.
9. Go back and evaluate during and after the teaching.
10. Throughout the whole process, remember the importance of teaching values and the valuing process. Examples of values that could be emphasised in this topic are tolerance, sensitivity, teamwork, discipline, responsibility and mastery.
Jazz
Topic: African American Music
Focus 12 Bar Blues
Year 9 – 12 lessons of 45 minutes
Key areas covered: Chords I IV V, History of Black slavery,
working songs Q & A melodic call and response, Improvisation Pentatonic and
Blues Scale, Performing Media, Popular Artists
Unit Outcomes
1. Recognise
and play chords 1, 4, 5
2. Compose
with chords 1, 4, 5
3. Have
experience in improvising
4. Be able
to successfully manipulate musical elements
5. Produce a
12 bar blues structural composition
6. Have an
emerging knowledge of the historical context of 12 bar blues, including environmental
influences and influential performers.
7. Have an
understanding of the Christian roots of the blues
8. Develop
an empathy for the African-American oppression
Resources
Step it Down – Bessie Jones and Bessie Lomax, Listen to the Music Book 1 – Ian Dorrett,
Dancing in the Street (Video)
Musicians: Ray Charles,
Mills Davis, Duke Ellington, Beebee King, John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters