Final Curriculum Project

Appealing to Multiple Intelligences : 

Appealing to Multiple Intelligences in the Piano Curriculum Richard Woo

My Goals as the Teacher : 

My Goals as the Teacher To discover what excites the student about music To enable the student to develop his or her musical interests To expand the student’s current views of music the “critical” objective (Abrahams 2009) To learn from the student critical pedagogy

General Scope of Curriculum:Basics : 

General Scope of Curriculum:Basics Fundamental elements of music Rhythm (the flow of music) Direction (going up or down) Expression

General Scope of Curriculum: Basics : 

General Scope of Curriculum: Basics Applying these fundamental elements to the piano Keyboard topography (high and low sounds, pattern of black and white keys) Achieving different expressive touches on the piano

General Scope of Curriculum:Basics : 

General Scope of Curriculum:Basics Notation Personal: Students express fundamental musical elements on paper Off-staff: Students connect their own notation ideas to published off-staff notation On-staff: Students utilize their existing knowledge of notation in order to learn staff notation

General Scope of Curriculum: Beyond the Basics : 

General Scope of Curriculum: Beyond the Basics Personal expression (composing, arranging, and improvising) Tone clusters 5-finger melodies Question and answer Rhythmic and melodic alterations Creating accompaniments Transposing

General Scope of Curriculum: Beyond the Basics : 

General Scope of Curriculum: Beyond the Basics Interpreting notation Staff notation Chord symbols (popular and jazz repertoire)

General Scope of Curriculum: Beyond the Basics : 

General Scope of Curriculum: Beyond the Basics Interdisciplinary contexts Music history Music theory Music appreciation

Sequence of Curriculum : 

Sequence of Curriculum The sequence will depend entirely on the student’s individual interests and needs Not every beginning piano student will need to start with the “fundamental musical elements” Not every student will pursue the same course of study “beyond the basics”

Sequence of Curriculum : 

Sequence of Curriculum A sample sequence for a young beginning student may be as follows:

Sequence of Curriculum : 

Sequence of Curriculum 1. Fundamental elements of music (rhythm, direction, and expression) Suggested Materials: (The Music Tree: Time to Begin, Music Pathways 1A, Alfred’s Lesson Book 1A, rhythm flashcards)

Sequence of Curriculum : 

Sequence of Curriculum 2. Five-finger melodies and intervals of a second, third, fourth, and fifth Suggested Materials: (Alfred’s Lesson Book 1A, Faber PreTime Series, FJH’s Sight Reading and Rhythm Every Day 1A, Gillock’s Accent on Solos Level 1)

Sequence of Curriculum : 

Sequence of Curriculum 3. Beyond 5-finger positions; accidentals, eighth notes, reinforce legato and staccato touches Suggested Materials: (Faber Piano Adventures Levels 2A and 2B, Alfred’s Lesson Book 1B)

Sequence of Curriculum : 

Sequence of Curriculum 4. Chord patterns and key signatures Suggested Materials: (Francis Clark’s Supplementary Solos Levels 1 and 2, Robert Pace’s Creative Music Book 1)

Sequence of Curriculum : 

Sequence of Curriculum 5. “Beginning” classical literature Suggested Materials: easy Bach or Mozart Minuets, and beginning children’s pieces by Schumann, Bartok, and Kabalevsky

Sequence of Curriculum : 

Sequence of Curriculum It may take the student an average of 4 years to reach the level of “beginning” classical literature, depending on such factors as the student’s age, experience, personal interests and needs, level of motivation, and practice circumstances.

Sequence of Curriculum : 

Sequence of Curriculum Each student will respond differently to a particular “method” book, style of repertoire, “off-book” activities (i.e. rote learning, composing, improvising, and arranging), and teaching style.

Sequence of Curriculum : 

Sequence of Curriculum Benchmarks that are easily identified can include the acquisition of new skills or the progression to a new book.

Sequence of Curriculum : 

Sequence of Curriculum Benchmarks become more meaningful for the student when he or she attains an enhanced perspective on music. This is the “critical” objective. (Abrahams 2009) This type of benchmark is not as easily identified.

Focusing Questions : 

Focusing Questions Rather than outlining pre-specified objectives for the student to meet, I often ask two focusing questions to provoke thought: Does the music flow? Is the music expressive?

Multiple Intelligences : 

Multiple Intelligences Howard Gardner (1983) identifies seven different intelligences: 1. Linguistic 2. Musical 3. Logical-Mathematical 4. Spatial 5. Bodily-Kinesthetic 6-7. Personal Intelligences (Intrapersonal and Interpersonal)

Multiple Intelligences : 

Multiple Intelligences Schools and standardized tests tend to favor only a few of the intelligences. The SATs, GREs, and IQ tests measure linguistic, logical-mathematical, and spatial intelligences. They tend to ignore bodily-kinesthetic, musical, and the personal intelligences.

Multiple Intelligences : 

Multiple Intelligences Gardner (1991, 81) and Elliot Eisner (2005, 106) propose that any curriculum that exercises only certain intelligences will neglect students who possess other intelligences.

Multiple Intelligences : 

Multiple Intelligences The private piano lesson can be tailored to favor the student’s stronger intelligences. The interdisciplinary nature of studying music will provide the opportunity for the student to exercise all forms of intelligences, even the ones that he or she does not feel as comfortable with.

Symbols : 

Symbols Closely related to the plurality in intelligences is the plurality of symbol systems and meanings (Eisner 1992, 80).

Symbols : 

Symbols Symbol systems can include language (prose and poetry), pictures, and mathematical signs. In music, symbols can include musical staff notation, theory and chord notation, lyrics, solfege syllables, musical sounds, and other off-staff musical ideas.

Symbols : 

Symbols Symbols are important because: 1. they stabilize an otherwise fleeting idea 2. one can then reflect on and edit the idea 3. making the private idea public allows communication 4. the very act of using symbols stimulates creative thinking 5. they reveal forms of meaning that would otherwise remain hidden. (Eisner 1992, 80)

Symbols : 

Symbols As with multiple intelligences, any curriculum that favors certain symbols will neglect other forms of representation that may better reveal a meaning.

Symbols : 

Symbols Piano study often entails primarily the decoding of staff notation, which naturally favors the logical-mathematical intelligence. This type of curriculum neglects other symbol systems (such as chord symbols, musical sounds, and off-staff musical ideas) as well as other intelligences (such as bodily-kinesthetic or linguistic).

Slide 31: 

Let me present to you once again my teaching goals:

My Goals as the Teacher : 

My Goals as the Teacher To discover what excites the student about music To enable the student to develop his or her musical interests To expand the student’s current views of music the “critical” objective (Abrahams 2009) To learn from the student critical pedagogy

Slide 33: 

In order to reach these goals, I must appeal to the student’s particular intelligences and symbol systems.

Sources : 

Sources 1. Abrahams, F. 2009. Writing Objectives. Blackboard Academic Suite. http://www.blackboard.rider.edu (accessed October 8, 2009). 2. Eisner, E. W. 1992. Curriculum Ideologies. In Handbook of Research on Curriculum, ed. Philip W. Jackson, 302-326. New York: Macmillan. 3. —— . 2005. Reimagining schools: The selected works of Elliot W. Eisner. New York: Routledge. 4. Gardner, H. 1983. Frames of mind: The theory of multiple intelligences. New York: Basic Books. 5. —— . 1991. The unschooled mind: How children think and how schools should teach. New York: Basic Books.