Project Based Learning – part 2

Summary: A continuation of last year’s “Improving the Ensemble” session, strategies for designing relevant and interesting projects in the music classroom, directed towards specific learning goals, will be identified. The hands-on experience that project based learning brings, rooted in the music culture of your classroom, develops an opportunity for the deeper understanding of musical concepts and opportunities for music creation moving forward. #BYOD (Bring your own device) …if you can!

Project Based Learning Overview

students build knowledge by doing, investigating, collaborating and reflecting
Emergence in contemporary education linked to “21st Century classroom”
Historical Perspective
- Confucius, Aristotle, and Socrates – learn thru questioning & inquiry
- John Dewey – students are not passive recipients of knowledge
- Maria Montessori – experience is more vital to learning
- Jean Piaget – how we know: a “constructivist” approach
In the ensemble classroom, we are building:
- Kinesthetic experiences (doing)
- Conceptual understandings (thinking)
- Social collaboration

PRESENTATION SLIDES : Project Based Learning – pt2

Musicking – Why does it matter?

Musicologist, Christopher Small
What is it?
- “To music is to take part, in any capacity, in a musical performance, whether by performing, by listening, by rehearsing or practicing, by providing material for performance (what is called composing), or by dancing.”
- Music is something we actively DO (and is not limited to performing & composing)
Small, C. (1998). Musicking: The meanings of performing and listening. Middletown, Conn: Wesleyan University Press.

Samples:

Main Cast “Gene Project” (Make the music you want.)