Integrating+Children's+Literature+into+the+Music+Classroom

During the Fall 2012 semester at SUNY Potsdam I took a class entitled Literacy Education in the Arts Disciplines with Dr. Marta Albert. This class focused on the importance of literacy in every classroom of today’s schools—including music and arts classrooms. Throughout the course of this class we learned about various strategies and activities to use in our future classrooms. We also explored technology and how to incorporate that as well. This class proved to be one of the most practical and relevant classes I have ever taken in my undergrad career. The skills and information I learned were very helpful and essential during my student teaching experience, and are still helpful to me now as I look for future employment.

At the end of the semester my final project focused on writing the beginnings of a curriculum that featured children’s literature. Dr. Marta Albert asked me if I would like to expand this project as an independent study the following semester. I agreed, and this page of //Potsdamliteracyarts // serves to present my process and findings.

__The__ __R__ __a__ __t__ __i__ __o__ __n__ __a__ __l__ __e__ The following document is an answer-question rationale I handed in at the beginning of the Spring 2012 semester. This document provides my reasoning for this project and contains goals, sources, and timelines. 

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 16pt;">__L__ <span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 16pt;">__i__ __t__ <span style="color: #808000; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">__e__ __r__ <span style="color: #800000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16pt;">__a__ __t__ <span style="color: #000080; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 16pt;">__u__ __r__ <span style="color: #00ffff; font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; font-size: 16pt;">e __R__ <span style="color: #d35a5a; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 16pt;">__e__ __v__ <span style="color: #d7abe2; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">__i__ __e__ <span style="color: #eb4242; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">__w__ <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">In order to gather research for my project, I consulted many references. Here is a list in an annotated bibliography form of where I gathered my information.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 16pt;">**Research and Learning Fair: Spring 2012**

As I conducted my research and began to formulate the beginnings and rationale for a curriculum based on children’s literature, Dr. Albert suggested I present my work in the Spring 2012 Research and Learning Fair. For this fair I worked on an abstract, poster, and handouts. You will find these documents below.

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<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 10pt;">TITLE: Integrating Children's Literature and Emerging Technologies/New Media into Elementary Music <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 10pt;">PRIMARY AUTHORS: Amanda G Willis <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 10pt;">SUNY FACULTY: Dr. Marta Albert <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 10pt;">SUNY STUDENTS: <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 10pt;">OTHERS WITH AFFILIATION: <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 10pt;">DEPT.: Literacy & Music Education <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 10pt;">Abstract: <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 10pt;">I have observed in many music classrooms, and during these observations I have not often seen teachers use books. I wonder why this is. There are so many great children’s books about music and high-quality literature that can support the teaching of key concepts in music education. Literacy is a vital aspect in the lives of students and it is now more important than ever to stress this skill in the classroom. My research will explore the connection between music and literacy, including their parallels and how to incorporate literacy into the general music classroom. I will also expand on a Wiki site developed for “Literacy in the Arts Disciplines,” a required course for music education students. The Wiki is an evolving site that is full of creative and helpful resources to help teachers incorporate literacy into their classrooms. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 10pt;">© 2012 Amanda G Willis

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<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">My original project (started during my class with Dr. Albert) focused on basing music lessons around children’s literature. To further this project, I, with the help, guidance and collaboration of Dr. Albert, decided to continue along this vein. If you look at my handout for the research fair, you will see my original questions, rationale, and a list of books I focused on.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">I decided to create the skeleton of a curriculum focused on expression and composition. My objective was to help students understand that music can function as expression particularly in regard to feelings/surroundings, surroundings, stories, and other art forms. I felt that the way they could really take this concept and internalize it was to have the students create their own compositions using each medium of expression. I wrote actual lesson plans for Unit 2: Surroundings and Unit 3: Stories.

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