This week's reading assignment prompted me to examine the various roles of listening maps in my classroom. In order to better understand the both the rationale and effectiveness of the various types of listening maps, this blog post will attempt to catalog and evaluate the types of listening maps I regularly integrate into my lessons. Technology often plays an important role in the level of engagement my students experience when using a listening map. Therefore, even when discussing a listening map that is not currently in a technologically integrated form, possibilities for replicating the learning task using technology will be explored.
Published (Textbook Adoption) Maps
These are sprinkled all throughout our current textbook adoption as mentioned by Brauer (2014) and are now accessible through their web-based textbook. Many of the animated listening maps are updated versions of maps that existed in an unanimated form in the older version of the textbook series. If students are able to access the maps on their personal devices, then they can manipulate the maps, making the new versions infinitely more meaningful to students simply because they are interactive. However, after an entire year of doggedly trying to access maps unsuccessfully, my students gave up due to frustration. Access issues aside, even when used as a whole class, the animated maps are effective because they combine an iconic, non-notation representation of a piece with the elements of a call sheet. Often it is the form of the piece that is announced by an animation which helps guide the listener through the piece. Ultimately, the access issues were so bad, that my district has decided to go with a different vendor for this coming school year. I am certain that the new vendor will have a new list of animated listening maps that will be different which means I will lose some and gain some.
Youtube Listening Maps
There are many music teachers who have created their own listening maps using video editors and youtube. Whenever I can't find a listening map for a particular piece, I search Youtube before creating one in an effort to save time. Some are good, some are fantastic so it is worth the search. I have included my three favorites below. Kinder studies Camille Saint-Saens, so we use this listening map on Aquarium day. Second-grade studies Tchaikovsky and is also working toward aurally identifying the instrument families, so this map serves as a great visual support for what they hear. Finally, fifth grade studies Bach. They beg for this map all year long as the illustrator has done such as excellent job of capturing the complexity and beauty of the piece. As much as my students enjoy these listening maps, a video is by nature a passive experience and provides only visual cues which according to Grompko & Russel (2002) is efficacious, but not as much as an experience that involves movement. Therefore, when I use a map like this, it is never the only tool I use and I always incorporate movement or some other element to support engagement.
Teacher Created Listening Maps
Sometimes the right listening map doesn't exist. When that happens I have sometimes created my own. I created a map for Swan Lake and the 1812 Overture, both by Tchaikovsky using Powerpoint a couple of years ago in a moment of need. In terms of personal study and preparing to teach, the creation of the maps was very useful and it made me wish that I had the luxury to spend so much time studying all of the music that I taught. Creating the listening maps myself enabled me to tailor the map to fit a recording I already had and facilitated easy sharing among teachers. My students enjoyed them and were able to interact with them in a limited way by advancing the powerpoint slides at the appropriate time. However, I believe that the learning experience was improved more because by preparing the maps, I understood the music myself and was therefore able to guide the student experience in a more informed way. In order for students to learn as much as I did, it would be better for them to have an opportunity to use technology to create a map for themselves as described by Brauer (2014). Powerpoint or Keynotes is a very easy way to create a listening map and perhaps as our student to device ratio decreases I will be able to ask students to create a listening map using these or similar web-based programs. Before reading the chapter I had not thought of using mind mapping software as described by Brauer (2014), the neutrality of simple shapes and lines would assist students in visualizing the form. As an intermediate step toward this type of map creation, it might be feasible to create a map together using our projector and Apple TV.
Paper Maps and Form Books
I have studied with the Richards Institute of Education and Research for many years. One of their principle teaching tools is called a form book. These published paper maps have been created to serve as listening guides for a variety of folk songs and masterworks. The beauty of the maps is that they help students isolate musical events and eventually move toward labeling musical events that they already experience procedurally. In that respect, the form books move in reverse from the way that Brauer described declarative and procedural knowledge.
"Eventually, though, much of that declarative knowledge transforms into procedural knowledge and can be executed automatically. Declarative knowledge informs all of the musical processes— creating, performing, and responding" (Brauer, 2014, p. 115).
When using a form book with students, the students have considerable experience with the piece being studied through singing, playing song experience games or other movement activities and finally map reading. After working with such a map, students are able to discuss in detail the melodic, rhythmic and textural aspects of the piece they have studied. This type of map is especially useful because of the guided way that students are led from procedural to declarative concept labeling through experience. My students ask for this sort of map all the time because the structure fosters success and they walk away from the experience able to express their learning. If interested in trying out a form book from the Richards Institute, I would recommend the Bach Gavotte Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D, and Cotton-Eyed Joe. The process behind Education Through Music (ETM) can be found in the writings of Mary Helen Richards herself, in particular, her book, Aesthetic Foundations for Thinking-Part 3: The ETM Process. Classes are also available in several locations around the country. Understanding how to work with these maps and students is quite important as the power behind the success is not the map itself, but rather the process. While these form books are not available in a technologically integrated form, my tweet for this week was certainly the closest approximation of process that I could find in a web-based form was the site that I shared in one of my tweets for the week.
"Eventually, though, much of that declarative knowledge transforms into procedural knowledge and can be executed automatically. Declarative knowledge informs all of the musical processes— creating, performing, and responding" (Brauer, 2014, p. 115).
When using a form book with students, the students have considerable experience with the piece being studied through singing, playing song experience games or other movement activities and finally map reading. After working with such a map, students are able to discuss in detail the melodic, rhythmic and textural aspects of the piece they have studied. This type of map is especially useful because of the guided way that students are led from procedural to declarative concept labeling through experience. My students ask for this sort of map all the time because the structure fosters success and they walk away from the experience able to express their learning. If interested in trying out a form book from the Richards Institute, I would recommend the Bach Gavotte Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D, and Cotton-Eyed Joe. The process behind Education Through Music (ETM) can be found in the writings of Mary Helen Richards herself, in particular, her book, Aesthetic Foundations for Thinking-Part 3: The ETM Process. Classes are also available in several locations around the country. Understanding how to work with these maps and students is quite important as the power behind the success is not the map itself, but rather the process. While these form books are not available in a technologically integrated form, my tweet for this week was certainly the closest approximation of process that I could find in a web-based form was the site that I shared in one of my tweets for the week.
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| https://apps.musedlab.org/puzzlecards/play.html |
Student Created Maps
As part of my ongoing work with the Richards Institute, I have adopted the practice of mapping music with my students. Sometimes students create a map of a song we have sung or a piece we have heard. In each case, the process of mapping has been preceded by singing or listening, playing, and moving to the song being mapped. This process which relies heavily on the proprioception of the child is supported in the work of Gromko & Poorman, (1998). They found that children who are still developing reading skills benefit from movement while listening.
When studying creative thinking and musical listening involved in map making, Dunn (1997) concluded that although unique, "each figure based map was to be the result of active, cognitive interactions with the music"(p. 54). The maps created and used by his test subjects are very similar the products created by students using the ETM process as developed by Mary Helen Richards and she is cited in his study.
In my class, younger students may only map songs they can sing and have experienced through play over time, such as "Sally Go Round the Sun", or "The Farmer in the Dell". Older students also map songs they know but also branch out and learn to create self-symbolized maps for masterworks.
Typically, students of all ages use newsprint and chisel point markers for this process. The process is so "skin and bones" that I wonder if there would be a benefit to adding technology? If so, it would have to be through the use of a drawing program on an IPad in order to maintain the link between the body and the creation of the map. Even without changing the creation process, technology can certainly assist in capturing the process through video and pictures.
Every resource we use with students must be carefully weighed and evaluated for effectiveness in order to ensure that every instructional experience is truly the best we can offer students. Sometimes, technology is the way to best meet student needs, while other times it is not. In terms of helping students listen to music in a more meaningful way, based on this reflective process, I believe that only the most careful technology integration is appropriate within the most engaged music listening and I now have a better understanding of where some of my teaching practices need to change in order to improve the way I use technology within music listening.
When studying creative thinking and musical listening involved in map making, Dunn (1997) concluded that although unique, "each figure based map was to be the result of active, cognitive interactions with the music"(p. 54). The maps created and used by his test subjects are very similar the products created by students using the ETM process as developed by Mary Helen Richards and she is cited in his study.
In my class, younger students may only map songs they can sing and have experienced through play over time, such as "Sally Go Round the Sun", or "The Farmer in the Dell". Older students also map songs they know but also branch out and learn to create self-symbolized maps for masterworks.
Typically, students of all ages use newsprint and chisel point markers for this process. The process is so "skin and bones" that I wonder if there would be a benefit to adding technology? If so, it would have to be through the use of a drawing program on an IPad in order to maintain the link between the body and the creation of the map. Even without changing the creation process, technology can certainly assist in capturing the process through video and pictures.
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Figural Map for Mozart’s Serenade No. 3 in G, Second Movement, Measures 1-15, Dunn, 1997)
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Every resource we use with students must be carefully weighed and evaluated for effectiveness in order to ensure that every instructional experience is truly the best we can offer students. Sometimes, technology is the way to best meet student needs, while other times it is not. In terms of helping students listen to music in a more meaningful way, based on this reflective process, I believe that only the most careful technology integration is appropriate within the most engaged music listening and I now have a better understanding of where some of my teaching practices need to change in order to improve the way I use technology within music listening.
Bauer, W. I. (2014). A conceptual framework for technology - Assisted music learning. In Music learning today: Digital pedagogy for creating, performing, and responding to music (pp. 113- 115). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Dunn, R. E. (1997). Creative Thinking and Music Listening. Research Studies in Music Education, 8(1), 42-55. doi:10.1177/1321103X9700800105
Gromko, J. E., & Poorman, A. S. (1998). Does perceptual-motor performance enhance perception of patterned art music?. Musicae Scientiae, 2(2), 157-170.
Gromko, J., & Russell, C. (2002). Relationships among Young Children's Aural Perception, Listening Condition, and Accurate Reading of Graphic Listening Maps. Journal of Research in Music Education, 50(4), 333-342. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/3345359
MusEdLab Puzzle Cards. (n.d.). Retrieved August 12, 2016, from https://apps.musedlab.org/puzzlecards/play.html
Pianomonkey90. (2011, December 30). Carnival of the Animals: Listening Map for "The Aquarium" Retrieved August 12, 2016, from https://youtu.be/wzL8seKE-FA?list=PLpslL3jOj7IVqvxrBm9nrCfruMDPjOK64
Raonna Studios. (2010, December 27). Tchaikovsky's "March" from The Nutcracker Suite - Listening Map. Retrieved August 12, 2016, from https://youtu.be/NS_NtnCKPKY
RICHARDS, M. H. (1980). Aesthetic Foundations for Thinking-Part 3: The ETM Process. Richards Institute.
Smalin. (2015, December 2). Bach, Toccata and Fugue in D minor, 10-year anniversary edition. Retrieved August 12, 2016, from https://youtu.be/bOWi8tOf5FA
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