One of the books from the Silver Burdett-Ginn Company is called “The Music Connection”. One in specific is “The Music Connection” for grade 2. The teacher’s edition of the book is divided into 3 main sections. The first section is labeled concepts and starts with a chart that divides the section into 24 units, each having a different musical concept being taught. The first unit starts with the concept of understanding a steady beat. Under that concept, unit 1, lesson 2 teaches students how to identify strong and weak beats within a piece of music. To do this, the book gives specific instructions to the teacher that they should pat or clap the beat while playing the music so that the students can hear and feel where the strong beats are and where the weak beats are. Another example of a musical concept taught within the book is in unit 12, which is called Step, Leap, and Repeat in a Melody. In unit 12, lesson 1, the focus is directed into recognizing steps, leaps, and repeated notes within music. The book does a great job in helping the teacher with teaching this concept because inside the student’s textbook the music is printed and each different type of note movement is highlighted in different colors to make the differences stand out to the students.
According to the planner in the beginning of the concepts section, some common musical skills used throughout the book are as basic as singing all the way to reading pitches and performing on different instruments. An example of a musical skill that is required of the teacher to use the book is in unit 9, lesson 2. It is about teaching the students how to accompany a song with an Autoharp. To be able to teach this lesson, the book assumes that the teacher already has the musical skills to play the Autoharp and play the correct accompaniment before teaching this musical skill to the class. Another example of musical skills within the book is in unit 13, lesson 2. The focus of the lesson is on performing dynamics. This is an important musical skill needing to be taught to young students. The book suggests teaching dynamics in the form of body movements and how children react to different volumes in music. How do we move when the music is light and delicate and how do we move when the music is heavy and strong?
Each of the National Standards are represented within the book through different lessons and activities. In unit 24, lesson 1, the very end the lesson instructs the teacher to have the students not only sing the song “Falling Rain”, but it says to have the students sing the song without the recording, which completes the requirements for standard number 1. National Standard number 2 is, “Performing on instruments, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music.” In unit 10, lesson 1, part of the lesson is to have the students break into two groups, one group playing one pattern of the music on bells and the other group playing a different pattern. As mentioned earlier, the book is divided into 3 sections, and the last section labeled, Reading. This section has two units devoted solely on teaching the students how to read and notation music, which is required in standard number 5. At the end of every lesson there is a section devoted to assessing the students on how well they grasped the concept taught in the lesson. For example, in unit 17, lesson 2, the focus of the lesson is to identify and perform a repeated melodic pattern in a song. In the assessment section of the lesson, it has 3 questions that the teacher can ask him or herself to assess the students. “Are the children aware of the pattern? Are the children singing the patterns in tune? Are the children singing the patterns in order?” This lesson also has a section where the music lesson is related to other disciplines like art and science. The song is about a tree growing from a lovely root. In relating the song to art, it suggests having the students draw what they hear in the song (root, tree, branch, nest, bird, feathers, pillow). For the relationship to science, it suggests having the students grow a sweet potato so they can see the plant sprout roots, stems, and leaves.
Following National Standard number 8 and 9, in the planning section of the 3 sections of the book, there is a column devoted to curriculum connections. One of the curriculums that is connected to unit 11, lesson 1, is social studies because the book mentions that in African music the solo-and-chorus form is still very popular, but it is usually called call-and-response because the leader presents and idea and then others respond to the idea. In unit 5, lesson 1, the focus is learning to count to ten in Spanish through song. This lesson not only brings a foreign language into the classroom, but it also has counting. The book suggests using flashcards to help teach the Spanish words with the appropriate numbers. The same lesson also tells the teacher that a mariachi band plays the song heard in the lesson, which is a popular band in Mexico. This is a way to relate the lesson to a culture different than the students are use to.
The middle section of the 3 sections in the book is called Themes. Each unit in this section is based on a certain theme, and one of the units is based on the theme of other lands and people. This section gives direction to multicultural education within the classroom. In unit 6, lesson 4, the cultural connection is to Argentina. There is a paragraph for the teacher to read to the class about Argentina that describes Argentina as a large country that is in the southeastern part of South America. The way the book relates Argentina into the lesson is not by just reading a little paragraph about it though. The song in the lesson is called “On a Farm”, and all the animals’ names in the song are in Spanish, which is the language spoken in Argentina. Even though there is a whole section dedicated to other lands and people in the themes section, that is not the only place where there are opportunities for diversity and multicultural learning the classroom. In unit 9, lesson 1, the student copy of the textbook tells the student that people in China perform a dance with ribbons. The opposite page has a picture of 3 Chinese women performing a ribbon dance, and in the teacher’s addition of the textbook, there are two paragraphs about China and the Chinese ribbon dances to read to the students to help educate them about Chinese culture.
While looking through the teacher’s edition of the textbook, there are no sections within the book that provide information to help aid the teacher with students with special needs or gifted students. Each lesson using commands like “tell children” or “ask children”. These are broad terms that group everybody into one group; there are no sections in the book or in the lesson that single out students with special needs or students that are gifted. This is a short fall of the book because it provides no assistance in teaching a lesson to those who may not be capable of learning the lesson in the same way as everyone else. This leaves it up to the teacher to find ways around that problem and to be creative with their solutions. The goal for any teacher is to make sure those students with special needs do not fall behind the others in the classroom, and to keep the gifted students engaged in the lesson even if it is a little too easy for them. In a few of the lessons in the book, for example, unit 6, lesson 5, there is an opportunity for a few students to play instruments while the others sing the song. This maybe a way to give special attention to students with special or it could also be a way to keep the gifted students engaged in the lesson so they do not drift off and stop paying attention because they are bored.
In each of the course planner in the concept section of the book, there is a column labeled Orff. Orff is the main teaching method used within the book, Kodaly is not mentioned in the book. But a hand full of lessons are specifically related to the Orff method of teaching. An example of one of these lessons is in unit 8, lesson 2, the focus is on beats grouped in 3. There is a small box with Orff inside of it at the bottom of the page. Beside of the box, the book advises the teacher to use movement activities to help internalize ¾ meter before teaching the song. It gives the example of clicking 3 beats and emphasizing the first beat then having the students walk on each beat and clap on the first beat only. Another Orff example in the book is in unit 15, lesson 1. The activity helps reinforce the concept of ABA form. First, teach the rhythm of the song (“Get on Board”) to the students until they have it clean. Next, teach the song by rote, first the A section and then the B section. After the students know the song, write on the board different choices of form (ABA, AB, ABC, ABACA) and have the student pick what the form of the song “Get on Board” is.
The book offers both informal and formal assessments for teachers to pick from. As mentioned earlier while talking about the National Standards, at the end of every lesson there is an informal assessment area for the teacher. Another example of this is in unit 7, lesson 1 in the theme section of the book. The objective of the lesson is to have the students be able to identify phrases and respond by moving to them. The activity for the lesson is to play the song “Ev’rybody’s Welcome” and have the students do a different dance to each phrase in the music. At the end, the assessment is as simple as “did the children move appropriately to show phrases?” The formal assessments are located at the end of every unit. At the end of unit 23 in the concept section of the book, the formal assessment is a worksheet that has 2 columns on it. The columns are labeled with two different songs that were studied in the unit, “My Father’s House” (gospel) and “Good Mornin’ Blues” (blues). There is a list of vocabulary words in the middle of the page and the students are asked to put the correct vocabulary words with the right type of song. This is something that can be taken for a grade to help show if the students understand what is being taught in a lesson and show areas where they maybe struggling.
The format and organization of this book is very convenient for the teacher. The book is divided into 3 different sections, each being labeled, concepts, themes, and reading. The first section is devoted to musical concepts and skills. There is a chart that is divided into the different units and each unit is designed to teach a new musical concept. An example of that is on page 3A of the book where the first page of the chart is on. The middle section, themes, divides the units up by themes. Some examples of the different themes are unit 2, which has 4 lessons devoted to teach students about making friends. Another unit is all about different types of transportation. The last section, reading, is devoted to teaching rhythmic and melodic concepts. There is only 2 units in the last section, which are labeled Focus on So, La, Mi, and Do and Motives and Phrases. The organization of this book is very convenient and flexible for the teacher. Now only is everything very organized by the charts and tables at the beginning of each section. And the flexibility of the book is endless because it allows the teacher interchange lessons from each section of the book.
The music selection is of this book is very out dated. The copyright of the book is dated 1995 and the music selection of this book reflects that date. Some of these songs are songs I sang while I was in elementary school. In the concept section, unit 3, lesson 1, the song used in the lesson is “Let’s Go Fly a Kite”. This song was used while I was younger and I know that kids know that it is an older song. But the upside to these songs being outdated is that the students should be familiar with the majority of them and therefore it should be easier for the teacher to teach the songs to the students. But the songs provide a wide variety of songs despite the out datedness of the songs. If we take the example before of “Let’s Go Fly a Kite” and compare it to a song that is a few pages before called “Springtime Has Come” (“Haru Nga Kita”). It is a song that Japanese children sing when spring comes to Japan. There are both English and Japanese words offered to teach the students. This is much different compared to “Let’s Go Fly a Kite”.
There are plenty of resources that accompany the teacher’s edition of the book. Within the teacher book itself, there are transparences that go along with different lessons. The lessons indicate whether there are transparences that go along with the lesson. There are also worksheets provided that help the teacher assess the students’ learning of the content in each section. Outside of the teacher’s edition of the book, there is a student textbook. Each lesson inside the teacher’s book has a picture of what the student would see in his or her own textbook. There is a resource book that has a lot of the Orff lessons inside of it for the teacher. But it does not only have the Orff lessons within it, it has other worksheets and exercises inside. The last part of the resources is the compact discs collection that comes with the book. It has all of the songs that are inside the book, along with examples that go along with lessons. The recordings that are of songs within the lesson that will be taught to students are fun and interesting for students. The recording for “Old Dan Tucker” has a fun country twang to it that keeps the students involved. The recordings that are not of songs that are taught within the lessons in the book, but are supplements to lessons, are great to help support the ideas and concepts taught within the lessons. In the concepts section, unit 1, lesson 4, the objective of the lesson is to teach the students how to keep a steady beat and that rhythm includes sounds of different lengths. There is a recording of the “March” from The Nutcracker by Tchaikovsky to go along with the lesson. This is a very high quality recording that exposes the students to a new kind of music outside of the elementary general music selections in the book.
This book is very appropriate for the age of 2nd grade. The words within the student textbook are simple and inside short sentences that are to the point. The text is big and the colors go along with the background behind the texts. They pop out of the page and are very easy to read for children. The concepts that are taught within the book are also very appropriate for 2nd graders. The beginning of the book starts by reinforcing keeping a steady beat and then moves on into different rhythms. Then it goes into the contour of melodies, style of music, and form. All of these cover the basics and build upon them. Along with the appropriateness of the content, the activities are very appropriate for 2nd graders as well. In the concept section, unit 10, lesson 3, there is an activity inside the student textbook that adds instruments to the song in the lesson. The text of the supplement material is very simple just like the text of the student textbooks. The directions that go along with the resources are usually only one or two short sentences. They are not very colorful or attractive, but they are very easy for young children to read.
There are two key technology items that go along with the book. The first was mentioned earlier with the compact disc collection. These compact discs, as mentioned earlier, have both recordings of the songs taught within the lesson and recordings of supplement songs that enhance the lessons. The other piece of technology that goes with the book is the online textbook. This is a connivance to the teacher. The teacher does not have to carry home their teacher’s edition textbook from school and can use the online edition of the textbook to plan lesson plans and activities outside of the school building.