Please select one article from the following list. (Copy/paste the link - if they aren't clickable=]) In your response, please include the title and author and your reflection of the article.
Inseparable” by Grace Rubenstein – Edutopia.org
http://www.edutopia.org/blog/humanities-twenty-first-century-bill-smoot “Humanities in the Twenty-First Century” by Bill Smoot – Edutopia.org
http://www.kentuckyteacher.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/Integrating-Social-Studies-Arts.pdf “Integrating Social Studies and the Arts: Why, When & How by Judy Sizemore – KentuckyTeacher.org
http://artsedge.kennedy-center.org/educators/how-to/arts-integration-beta/arts-integration-in-practice-beta/social-studies-beta.aspx “What are Some Arts Integration Connections to History and Social Studies?” – KennedyCenter.org
http://www.soundpiper.com/mln/historical.htm “Historical and Cultural Context” by Carla Piper – Soundpiper.com
http://www.edsource.org/today/2013/you-reach-more-kids-when-you-use-the-arts-to-teach/31943 By John Schwartz “You Reach More Kids When You Use the Arts to Teach” – EdSource Today.org
Replies
http://www.soundpiper.com/mln/historical.htm “Historical and Cultural Context” by Carla Piper – Soundpiper.com
This was an excellent article with great resources cited at the end of the article. I especially appreciated the information about understanding US history while understanding the effects of immigration and having a heterogeneous society. The US has opened its doors to more immigrants than any other nation in the world. This has led to some conflict between more established immigrants and new immigrants throughout the history of the US, including periods of peace and conflict between the indigenous peoples and new settlers. One way to understand the influence of new immigrants is to have an appreciation of the art, music, and literature of those immigrants on society. How can you have that understanding without educating students about the arts? What is more powerful than an image, a song, a poem, a painting, or a dance? They touch our intellect as well as promote an emotional response. They lead to questions about our values, the values of our nation, our religious/moral beliefs, and the beliefs of other nations. As a student, some of the most powerful history lessons have come from studying an image and discussing the significance of that particular piece and the time period in which it was created. Those stories, including the music and the art are what bring history alive. I wanted to include this standard from the article, because it is so very accurate.
Recognize that literature and art shape and reflect the inner life of a people.
Music as an Elixir for your Brain
By Robert H. Woody, Ph.D.
Published March 20, 2013 Psychology Today
This article speaks to the necessity for caution when making or accepting sweeping claims that music makes you smarter. Dr. Woody speaks to the problem with studies that make conclusions based on faulty cause and effect. He feels music should be enjoyed for itself and not because a study found it would increase brain power. One of the examples he gives is the “Mozart effect” taken from a study done by (Rauscher, Shaw, & Ky, 1993) In this study they found that students who listened to Mozart performed better in spatial reasoning. He points out the conclusions are were questionable at best and the results could not be repeated. Yet this study had some pretty sweeping political effects on the public who took it as fact.
It was an interesting article and one I agree with. Music can lift you up. It can certainly effect your mood, but to see it as an brain elixir of sorts makes a quantum leap. There are many wonderful things about music, but to claim it makes a person smarter in and of itself is unsupported.
I love music. I love listening and dancing to music. Some people seem to be born with a talent or a great ear for music. I do believe learning an instrument can help a child in many ways in terms of discipline and focus, but so can many other fields. There is so much about the brain we don’t know.
I agree with Dr. Woody that music should be enjoyed and learned for itself and that is absolutely enough.
I found it so interesting that the California state standards require teachers to use music in the classroom. I guess it's not surprising, considering the drastic budget cuts in terms of California school music programs over the last decade. California classroom teachers are also expected to wear their "music teacher hats" as well.
http://www.edsource.org/today/2013/you-reach-more-kids-when-you-use... By John Schwartz “You Reach More Kids When You Use the Arts to Teach” – EdSource Today.org
As a Band teacher, I try to incorporate historical facts and social studies into my teaching of music. It is refreshing to read how a general education teacher integrates music into their basic lesson. By including music and the arts into the lesson plan, the subject becomes more exciting for the student and it enriches the subject. For many students, the added information is what spurs their interest in the subject being taught.
http://www.edutopia.org/blog/humanities-twenty-first-century-bill-s... “Humanities in the Twenty-First Century” by Bill Smoot – Edutopia.org
I love Edutopia, so I chose this article to read. Smoot gives us reason to appreciate the classics in the 21st century. He begins with the reaction to the death of Osama Bin Laden. President Obama was somber, but some met Bin Laden's death with smugness, or worse, glee. Smoot calls upon a quote from The Odyssey as a model for the appropriate way to react to the death of a hated enemy. Smoot refers to the classics as books that offer "advice for life." The main take away for me is that the Humanities offer a way to develop habits of critical thought using a historical perspective. They offer glimpses of events and how others have deal with them over the ages. The Humanities offer us "content that transcends their time" and provide a framework for life for us even today.
http://www.edsource.org/today/2013/you-reach-more-kids-when-you-use...
You Reach More Kids When You Use the Arts to Teach by John Schwartz
The article was based on the amazing student response when Chuck Berry's song "Promised Land" was used as a resource in a second grade classroom. Students were inspired to work on reading skills to be able to read the lyrics and were led to do extensive research on some of the vocabulary. Schwartz discussed the level of engagement of even some of his weaker students. As a music teacher myself I have the impression that classroom teachers are afraid of using music except for listening during quiet times. Schwartz makes it clear that music can make learning easier and very pleasant.
http://www.edutopia.org/blog/humanities-twenty-first-century-bill-s...
Bill Smoot's article "Humanities in the 21st Century" is spot on when it comes to the value of teaching beyond just STEM. While the world today calls for excellence in science, tech, engineering and math, there is still a great need to study the classics. The study of those classics will provide the moral and ethical compass to guide us as we venture into unexplored territories of bioengineering, GMOs, information technology and the like. While I wholeheartedly agree with Smoot's opinion, I feel it's a somewhat one-sided argument. STEM (formerly the three R's) is a necessity and there has long been a drive for the humanities, but I wonder where is the advocacy for the vocational arts. Students may be required to study Plato, but how many are required to know basic auto mechanics?
The article by John Schwartz was an excellent article to read. Again, I recalled my teaching days in the bush,where we would have visiting artists in the school. They would work with each class & write & compose meaningful songs about relevant events in the students lives. Those were wonderful weeks, learning along side my students.
I also taught second grade in the bush for many years, & believe in the Arts to teach kids. As I was all the special teachers rolled into one, I did music by teaching two new songs each week that I always had on a CD. I started out with easy songs , & worked up to songs with more difficult reading words. So we studied vocabulary words, meanings etc. Next, I went into patriotic songs. It was a lot of fun & when kids are young they are not afraid to sing if given the chance.
Most young children have no clue about the Pledge of Allegiance, & what it means, some can barely get the words correct. So like John, I took the words from the pledge & discussed them one at a time, giving examples , trying to help them understand. I did not proceed to the next word till all understood what the previous word meant. I felt like it was very meaningful to us all.
This article was an excellent reminder of teaching through the arts!!!
You reach more kids when you use the Arts, by John Swartz, was a wonderful article to see how simple it was for him to use everyday music and break it down so that students can learn while singing and playing along with plastic flutes. I loved how Jorge was able to expand his knowledge and understanding of specific words while becoming a more efficient disciplined reader. I agree that implementing music and lyrics into the classroom environment can be beneficial and provide another avenue for students to learn on their own time while feeling safe at school.
I have taught dance during my physical education classes but if I had only provided the lyrics to the songs, students could break them down and sing the correct words while dancing. I feel it would truly be a sight and they would develop a deeper more meaningful vocabulary while creating movements to dances that only they can provide.