Engaging Musical Practices: A Sourcebook for Middle School General Music

by Suzanne L. Burton (Editor)

Overview

Inspire and involve your adolescent students in active music-making with this second edition of Engaging Musical Practices: A Sourcebook for Middle School General Music. A practical and accessible resource, fourteen chapters lay out pedagogically sound practices for preservice and inservice music teachers. Beginning with adolescent development, authors outline clear, pedagogical steps for the creation of an inclusive curriculum that is age-appropriate age-relevant, and standards-based. You will find timely chapters on singing and playing instruments such as guitar, keyboard, ukulele, drumming and percussion. Other chapters address ways to make music with technology, strategies for students with exceptionalities, and the construction of instruments. Further, there are chapters on songwriting, interdisciplinary creative projects, co-creating musicals, infusing general music into the choral classroom, and standards-based assessment. The book is full of musical examples, sample rubrics, and resource lists. This second edition of Engaging Musical Practices: A Sourcebook for Middle School General Music is a necessity for any practitioner who teaches music to adolescent students or as a text for secondary general music methods courses.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781475851267
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	12/02/2021
Edition description:	Second Edition
Pages:	280
Product dimensions:	6.03(w) x 8.71(h) x 0.76(d)

About the Author

Suzanne L. Burton is Associate Dean for the Arts and Professor of Music Education at the University of Delaware. Her scholarly interests include music teacher preparation and professional learning, music acquisition, music literacy, and technology in early childhood music.

Table of Contents

Preface

Suzanne L. Burton

Acknowledgements

Chapter 1: Celebrating Early Adolescence

Krystal Rickard McCoy

Chapter 2: Exceptionalities in Adolescence

Kimberly A. McCord

Chapter 3: Adolescents and Singing

Joshua Palkki

Chapter 4: Guitar for the Middle School Classroom

Scott Burstein and Martina Vasil

Chapter 5: Early Keyboard Experiences to Inspire Musicianship

Suzanne L. Burton

Chapter 6: Drumming and Percussion

Gareth Dylan Smith and Brian Bersh

Chapter 7: Toca el ukulele: Songs in Spanish and the Ukulele

Robin Giebelhausen

Chapter 8. Ideas for Instrumental Music Making

Patricia Shehan Campbell and Lee Higgins

Chapter 9: Music Technology in the Middle School General Music Classroom

James Frankel

Chapter 10: Informal, Intuitive, Interdisciplinary, & Interactive: Middle School General Music with a Twist

Gena R. Greher

Chapter 11: Songwriting and the Importance of Classroom Community

Mark C. Adams

Chapter 12: Co-Creating Musicals with Middle School Students

Heather Wadler

Chapter 13: Bridging Practices: Infusing General Music into the Choral Classroom

Aimee Pearsall

Chapter 14: Did Students Learn What I Think I Taught Them? Assessment of Musical, Standards-based Learning in Middle School General Music

Alden H. Snell II

About the Editor

About the Authors

What People are Saying About This

Matthew D. Thibeault

Secondary general music has recently gained a new vitality, leaving behind yesterday's filmstrips and cardboard keyboards in favor of flexible student-oriented offerings with rich educational possibilities. Reflecting this development, Engaging Musical Practices provides teachers with inspiration and new ideas from leading thinkers in the field, making this volume a valuable contribution to any library.

Ann Marie Stanley

These fourteen authors offer an inspiring collection of creative, diverse and musical approaches to teaching secondary general music. Their ideas are practical, classroom-tested, and actually enjoyable to read.

Jody L. Kerchner

Suzanne Burton brings together 14 authors who address issues relevant to middle-school music teaching, learning, and learners. Authors present information about and suggestions for performance ensembles at the middle-school level and (perhaps most importantly) alternative music learning opportunities for those students who are not in performance ensembles. Each chapter includes hands-on, practical classroom suggestions for middle-school music educators as well as those who might not have had training in adolescent musical development. Burton and the contributing authors present viable means for bridging the gap between school music and ‘real’ music by offering best practices for working with teens in engaging, creative, and musical ways.

John Kratus

Engaging Musical Practices offers valuable guidance to both the experienced educator and the pre-service educator for a variety of active music teaching strategies applicable to the 21st-century middle school music classroom. Chapters on such topics as guitar, drumming, world music, and composition provide exciting avenues for music exploration for today’s middle school students. The book most definitely takes the 'general' out of 'general music.'

Editorial Reviews

Suzanne Burton has recruited outstanding, experienced middle school general music pedagogues to offer practical and inspirational advice. Each and every chapter could form the basis of a new creative take on the (sometimes neglected) middle school general music curriculum. Readers will garner expert wisdom on middle school music topics as varied as songwriting, ukulele, the use of technology, and standards-based assessment.

Ann Marie Stanley

Suzanne Burton has assembled a collection of innovative experts who provide classroom-tested strategies that are responsive to and that affirm middle school students’ musical identities, abilities, and interests. If you are looking for a resource for creating inclusive classroom environments to meet the needs of all students, this is it! You’ll find research-based pedagogy to help you maximize each student’s individual potential and to support them as they continue their journey for personally meaningful music making in a variety of contexts and across the lifespan.

Jill Reese

Burton has amassed an impressive list of authors, all of whom strike a beautiful balance between theory and practice while exploring rich, diverse opportunities available to music educators in the general music classroom. This text is necessary reading for anyone who wishes to inspire a sense of independence, collaboration, and lifelong appreciation of music in and outside of the classroom.

Nicholas Ryan McBride

Suzanne Burton brings together 14 authors who address issues relevant to middle-school music teaching, learning, and learners. Authors present information about and suggestions for performance ensembles at the middle-school level and (perhaps most importantly) alternative music learning opportunities for those students who are not in performance ensembles. Each chapter includes hands-on, practical classroom suggestions for middle-school music educators as well as those who might not have had training in adolescent musical development. Burton and the contributing authors present viable means for bridging the gap between school music and ‘real’ music by offering best practices for working with teens in engaging, creative, and musical ways.

Jody L. Kerchner

I would recommend this book to new middle school teachers who are not sure where to begin with their curriculum planning, experienced middle school teachers who may want to introduce a new component to their curricula, or those looking for a potential textbook for a middle school general music methods course.

Music Educators Journal

Engaging Musical Practices offers valuable guidance to both the experienced educator and the pre-service educator for a variety of active music teaching strategies applicable to the 21st-century middle school music classroom. Chapters on such topics as guitar, drumming, world music, and composition provide exciting avenues for music exploration for today’s middle school students. The book most definitely takes the 'general' out of 'general music.'

John Kratus

Secondary general music has recently gained a new vitality, leaving behind yesterday's filmstrips and cardboard keyboards in favor of flexible student-oriented offerings with rich educational possibilities. Reflecting this development, Engaging Musical Practices provides teachers with inspiration and new ideas from leading thinkers in the field, making this volume a valuable contribution to any library.

Matthew D. Thibeault

Burton has amassed an impressive list of authors, all of whom strike a beautiful balance between theory and practice while exploring rich, diverse opportunities available to music educators in the general music classroom. This text is necessary reading for anyone who wishes to inspire a sense of independence, collaboration, and lifelong appreciation of music in and outside of the classroom.

Nicholas McBride