Mme Jennifer's Music Class
Our indoor music activities
(check out "Music Outside" for when music and the arts go outdoors)
(check out "Music Outside" for when music and the arts go outdoors)
Every year, students in Grade 5 attend the Adventures in Music Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra Concert. It is not simply an outing without pedagogical purpose. Indeed, funding from the school division or school would likely not be able to be acquired for an event with no educational reasoning. Short answer:
One of the most exciting reasons is that 25+ members of each of the Grade 5 classes will be performing on stage with the symphony, and it will be wonderful to have all their classmates and teachers cheering them on from the audience. It is truly incredible that the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra has hundreds of students perform with them every year, as well as tens of thousands of students who get to see these concerts that are designed specifically for students. At its core is having an experience as a school community and celebrating their learning that takes place leading up to, and in attending the concert. Before the concert takes place, students learn about some pieces in the concert and their educational connections in music class. Most certainly, the answer is that it meets several curricular outcomes that students are expected to learn during the Grade 5 school year. The outcomes are not just from music, but also from social studies, from the Global Competencies, indigenous learning from the land and more. Land based learning, and the UN Sustainable Development Goals are a part of the Louis Riel School Division’s Multi Year Strategic Plan, so it is very important that Grade 5 students are involved with this learning, and learning this through music does this in a deep and meaningful way, as will be explained below. These areas are of huge importance to École St. Germain, with our connection to Learning for a Sustainable Future as a Sustainable Future School. Social Studies The Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra concert for 2024 has the environment as its theme. “This adventure through time begins at the Centennial Concert Hall in April, 2024, where students will quickly find themselves whisked through musical time, exploring orchestral music by many of the great symphonic composers through time and from across the globe. Students will learn through music how we can be good stewards and take better care of this planet we call home.” In the Manitoba Social Studies Curriculum, Environmental Citizenship is a core value. “Citizenship is the core concept that provides the learning focus for social studies at all grades. To identify the knowledge, values, and skills that students will need as active democratic citizens, social studies must take into account the society in which students live and anticipate the challenges they will face in the future…. Citizenship education is fundamental to living in a democratic society. The concept of citizenship takes on meaning in specific contexts and is determined by time and place.” About Environmental Citizenship, the Social Studies Curriculum specifically says: “Underlying both national and global realities, and the responsibilities they impose on citizens, is the increasing fragility of our natural environment. Quality of life depends upon the sustainability of our environment. This places a particularly important responsibility on citizens, who must ultimately balance the demands of economic growth and high living standards against respect for the environment and the needs of future generations.” Another element that is important in Social Studies is “Active Learning”: “Active learning is encouraged through resource-based and experiential learning. These include on-the-land experiences, field studies, guided tours, and participation in diverse cultural activities. Social studies teaching offers the ideal opportunity to integrate literature and the arts, and to use information and communication technologies.” Specifically, with Grade 5 Social Studies, students learn about indigenous peoples and knowledge: “Value oral tradition as an important source of knowledge about First Peoples.” “Locate on a map of North America the traditional territories of First Peoples.” “Describe practices and beliefs that reflected First Peoples’ connections with the land and the natural environment.” Indigenous Learning from/on the Land: As an example, with this symphony concert and its preparations, students have learned teachings from Cree star expert Wilfred Buck from Opaskwayak Cree Nation about indigenous constellations and stories, and related them to Cree composer, Andrew Balfour’s piece celebrating the North Star, Kiwetin Acahkos. This meets the UN Sustainable Development Goal of Learning on Land. As another example, they will also learn about local songwriter Daniel Lavoie’s perspective of the importance of water and food security in our province, and the world, through his piece ‘C’est la Terre’. Water is life. Scientists who study the changes happening to our planet are realizing that their message needs to be shared with those outside of the scientific community, which will require diverse types of media and text. It also requires being shared in a way that accesses emotions, which music does. Composer and scientist Emily Thoroski has just finished her fascinating thesis (I, Mme Jennifer Engbrecht, just recently read it, as she will be working with several classes in our school) on the importance of music to share the need to help the environment. Music and the arts accomplish rich learning and meaningful connections to important issues such as caring for our planet. Music: Turning to the Manitoba Music Curriculum for more information on the importance of learning about our world through music, it tells us: “Arts education, including music education, is important for preserving and nurturing human culture and heritage and necessary for human health and social well-being. Human health and social well-being and a sustainable environment and economy are essential and integrated components of an equitable quality of life and a sustainable future for all Canadians. Education for a Sustainable Future highlights community and culture, the economic viability of arts and cultural enterprises, and the preservation of heritage and culture as crucial sustainability issues and concepts.” About integration of the various curricula mentioned above for the purpose of learning about the environment, land based learning through music, the Manitoba Music Curriculum says: “Curriculum integration reinforces meaningful connections within and across disciplines. The arts enrich and are enriched by each other and other subject areas by affording new and deeper insights and a greater range of possibilities for communicating experience and meaning. When true integration occurs, no individual subject area is used solely to support learning in other subjects. Educators are encouraged to integrate arts learnings with other subject areas where meaningful and appropriate, while maintaining focus on learner achievement of the arts learnings.” Curriculum integration has been the hallmark of my teaching career. I have used music to deepen understanding of various areas of science, social studies, math curricula and more so that students learn about the interconnectedness of various themes. The project below had them working with a composer, and integrated science, ELA, social studies and Education for Sustainable Development... From the Manitoba Music Curriculum: “Music enriches a vibrant culture and is integral to human life. It has the power to illuminate, deepen, broaden, and enhance human experience. Music and musicians have an impact on daily experience, help define and express individual and collective identities, and shape, reflect, and comment upon societal and cultural values. Music is a multimodal, cross-cultural literacy and expressive art form. The ways of knowing through music include cognitive, physical, affective, intuitive, and spiritual modes. Music embodies and expresses ideas, feelings, and meaning. It communicates within and across cultural, societal, historical, and even prehistorical contexts. Throughout history, music has played a significant role in human life, cultivating, recording, and passing on culture, and affecting and influencing society. Music is vital to human life; no culture in the world exists without music. Music contributes to personal, social, economic, cultural, and civic aspects of people’s lives in cultures around the world… Music is a vital part of every learner’s education and contributes to deep and enduring learner engagement that leads to learning success. Music education develops unique, powerful, and multiple ways of perceiving, interpreting, knowing, representing, and communicating understandings about one’s self and the world. Through music experiences, learners have opportunities to think creatively, explore ideas and feelings, and develop emerging personal, cultural, and social identities.” All the music learnings below are involved with the preparation learning for attending the symphony concert, and the symphony concert itself: Music is also very important for the Global Competencies: “Manitoba defines global competencies as complex ways of knowing, being, doing, and becoming that are multi-faceted, interdependent, transdisciplinary, and developed over time. The learner accesses their ways of knowing, being, doing, and becoming to engage effectively and with purpose within a context. They provide learners with the ability to meet “shifting and ongoing demands of life, work and learning; to be active and responsive in their communities; to understand diverse perspectives; and to act on issues of global significance.” (CMEC) Global competencies are interdependent, interconnected, expandable, and extendable. They guide the implementation of curricula, providing a common focus and language across disciplines and programs and giving a rich, holistic purpose for learning and teaching.” Every one of the competencies mentioned above are deeply activated in the music classroom, culminating with attending the symphony concert as a final representation of all that they have learned.
After the concert, students will write a reflection about what they learned from the concert itself, as the concert will have provided even more learning than what took place in the music room. If they were not present they will interview another student to learn what it was like. The power of a live performance with hundreds of musicians is one to be experienced and remembered.
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Jennifer EngbrechtMusic Teacher in Manitoba, Canada. |