Maths and Numeracy
Classroom music teachers already employ
significant
numbers of songs and music activities in support of numeracy and
mathematical concepts and skill acquisitions. A few are suggested
here. This list could be developed with ease.
Counting
A number of early childhood focus on support for
counting. One obvious example is the song 'One Two Three Four
Five, Once I Caught A Fish Alive. Then there are songs where numbers
diminish verse by verse. These have always been a popular social item
because of the challenges they provide both to memory and numeracy in
recalling previous verses. Typical are the camp fire songs, 'Ten Green
Bottles', Rolls Over' and early childhood's 'Alison's Camel' which, in
its first verse has ten humps and reduces to nothing in the closing
verse because 'Alison's camel is a horse of course! This song
also provides opportunities for modelling simple addition to a total of
ten as children first imitate the teacher showing sets of sums by
displaying fingers on both hands in a variety of configurations for
each new number, eg. four and four adds up to eight. Earlier I
alluded to cumulative songs where a word or phrase is added at each new
verse. So, as well as the support it might provide for literacy,
this also lends itself to 'addition' concepts in numeracy.
The way in which musicians organise beats or
pulses into
regular and sometimes less regular patterns is called 'metre'.
Metre in music provides an opportunity to look at the way rhythm is
'measured' and relates music very powerfully to maths. Music in
two beat metre often takes the form of fast dances, in three metre it
is commonly waltz or similar music. Arguably four beat metre is the
most frequently employed in west-centric popular music and possibly
reflects the analytical and organised nature of the way the culture
functions. Look at the example of Orff proponent Carol Richards' 'Six
Cheese Sandwiches'
'Six cheese Sandwiches,
Nine Days Old,
Thanks
for the lunch mum, Top class mould.'
Less frequent in west-centric music but common in
eastern European and Middle Eastern music is the use of five and seven
beat music. So, when American musician Dave Brubeck began to
experiment with five, seven and other 'unusual' time metres in Jazz in
the 1960's his music was only radical to those still stolidly
entrenched in West-centrically oriented music settings. Spoken
aloud, Jane Frazee's 'Funfive' demonstrates a chanted five-metre rhythm
pattern.
'John,
Jenny and Sandra formed a rock band
But John, Jenny and Sandra couldn't play a note',
Geometric Shapes and Figures
It is significant too that I note those pieces of
music
that move in a cyclical or circular manner, rather than the more
typically linear of much west-centric music. This could open a
complex discussion of intercultural perceptions of time but suffice it
to note that on a time continuum west-centric culture is considerably
more linear in its perceptions of the motion of time than many other
cultures. Hence circular or cyclical music often reflects a less
than western cultural leaning. Examples of cyclical music are rounds
and canons such as Frere Jacques or Three Blind Mice and the gamelan
music of Western Indonesia.
If we include music which accompanies dance and,
of
course the dances themselves, then line dances and square dances
provide a wonderful visual opportunity to appreciate how geometric
shapes are formed. The well known children's line dance 'The Paw
Paw Patch' begins with children in lines but, as each line moves
through particular sequences students loop back and forward in sections
of ovals and circles. I also teach middle primary a square dance
'Captain Jinks' which begins with four pairs of students forming a
square to face each other, a pair to each 'side' and with hand-held
circles and promenades demonstrating the transition of a square to a
circle by the removal of its corners. There are also plenty of circle
dances to add to this geometric repertoire including hora such as the
Israeli 'Hava Nagila' or the Greek 'Zorba's Dance'. At a more
simple early childhood level there is the French 'Rabbit Dance' and the
game song 'Cut the Cake'.
It is probable that we have all employed chants
to
learn, teach and, most critically, to remember tables applying some
physiological realities about short and long-term memory to education
through rhythm.
Science
Physicist and cosmologist Edward Harrison says it
all!
'My ideas of education are different from current
ideas.
I think one should foster the creative urge by pushing kids into the
arts, not into the sciences; and later on, if they want to, they can
move into the sciences. But if you're going to go right into the
sciences from the beginning, you've got such a long way to go before
you can start being creative that the creative impulse can die.'
(Harrison, E., (1999)
Music for all
An equitable music program is one that caters for
the
needs of all students. While ability is an important
consideration, gender, cultural and social origins of students must
also be considered in planning. Will every student feel,
consciously or unconsciously that the program recognises who they are
and what they aspire to be?
Of course it is essential that a school music program embraces
provisions for the extension of already able and gifted young musicians
but it must, at the same time enhance the musical experiences and
learnings of all other students. This should include students who
are in any way intellectually or physically impaired. Of course
if programs are designed which give attention to students as
individuals then all of this ought to go without saying. The
effective comprehensive school music program recognises the importance
and potential of music in the lives of all students.
Involving students
Effective lessons are those which constantly
challenge
students to find their own solutions to problems. Making music a
hands-on experience supports this. In student-centred lessons the
teacher's contribution ought to be one of encouraging questioning and
communication.
Here I add cautionary note. Be aware that some
children
will come from homes whose culture or religious persuasion may not
accommodate some of the activities you undertake. Songs with even
a remotely religious association may not be acceptable to, for example,
children from Jehovah's Witness backgrounds. Recently I was again
reminded how culturally diverse late twentieth century society is when
a child told me he could not clap because it was not sanctioned in
Islam.
Gender issues
On the surface mainstream Western culture may
seem to
enshrine a belief that music making is yet another area where male
needs take priority over the needs of the opposite sex. I say
this as a male with some apologies to my brothers! If you
do not have a procedure for the fair distribution of instruments the
boys may take first choice of instruments. Invariably, for
example, unless you have already instituted a policy of affirmative
action, if you have a drum-kit in the room you may well find a boy
seated in front of it. Try some affirmative action. Encourage
fair sharing. Talk about all-girl music groups - I won't name any
because it will date my text! But, remembering that the aim of
the exercise is not to put either the girls' or the boys' noses out of
joint, be firm, but be kind. Resentment is not something we need
in such a feelings-related subject.
In fact the whole issue of gender in music
education is
so complex and foci of concern shift so frequently that I will risk
making only cursory reference to it but ask that teachers give it some
thought. For example there was a time within the last decade in
the Northern Territory when concerns were registered on behalf of
education for girls. One state primary school decided that perhaps the
only way its girls would get a fair educational deal was to establish
girls-only classes. It was noted at the time that while girls appeared
to do well in the arts in school, once they left males dominated as the
bosses in the arts industry and women tended to be the workers. I'm
uncertain how far, if at all, this status has shifted but I am aware,
as I write, of real concerns for the engagement of boys with the arts
in schools.
I suggest that schools and teachers view each
situation
on its own merits. There may be many variables present to affect
what happens in any one setting. Perhaps a school has a staff
where male role models are not well represented. Perhaps the
culture of the local community is one where male parents are in short
supply. In one of the schools with which I have a working relationship
the boys resisted making music with the girls in their classes.
Consequently the school had excellent girls' choirs and music groups
but little activity happening for its boys.
The school's principal asked if there might
be
merit and some worthy outcomes if boys were offered the choice of
participating in music making activities as a separate single group,
without girls present. Subsequently a regular one hour weekly
time-slot was confirmed where I would visit the school and share time
with the principal working in an informal loosely structured program of
music teaching and learning with the identified boys.
Of course it was advantageous that I was a male
and able
to provide the kind of positive role model which is ideal for this
particular setting. However the principal's popularity and strengths as
a female senior educator with an excellent rapport across the student
body was also a significant affirming factor.
Of course every boy involved was an individual and there was a danger
that identifying particular concerns for individuals might be construed
as stereotyping all. The range and level of individual concerns
varied from boys who offered significant behavioural challenges through
to boys who were occasionally mildly disruptive or off-task, boys whose
behaviour was generally satisfactory, to capable, sometimes gifted and
able male students. Wilson (2000) identifies the following
barriers to classroom learning for boys in an English school setting:
- The desire to be outdoors
- The desire to be active
- Apparently weaker powers of
concentration in boys
(against girls)
- Inability to stay on task
- Lack of effort in some areas
of work
- Lack of interest in
presenting work neatly
- Disenchantment with girlie
things, including reading.
It may be of interest that the outcomes listed
below
were identified by the writers before I had viewed the preceding set of
barriers to classroom learning. These outcomes ought to be evident in
the maintenance of the current project as an ongoing and evolving
program. These should include the development in the boys of
- Increased collaboration and
cohesiveness within group
activities, encouraging teamwork and cooperation in other areas of the
school, both curricular and social;
- Increased self-esteem through
an awareness that their
input is valued by their peers, other students, staff and ultimately
the community;
- Increasing appreciation of
the rewards of tasks well
completed and presented
- Affirmed rewarded
self-management of behaviour
- Increased musicality in
attributes such as vocal
timbre, rhythm maintenance, expressiveness, confidence in performance,
self discipline in rehearsal
- Recognition that effort in
music making and rehearsal
leads to public acclaim and status
- Recognition of and
preparedness to abide by the need
for operating rules where the function of a group as a cohesive unit is
essential
While the focus of this project was exclusively
with
issues for boys in a music education context, some of these outcomes
match strategies listed in a more general classroom setting by Wilson.
This is particularly evident in
- Teachers stressed the need to present work as
a
challenge
- Building up boys' confidence in learning,
all-round
faith in themselves, room to ask for help at key stages
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