Article about Artistic Habits of Mind

Should you find yourself with some free moments this winter break, take a look at this article.  Though now a couple of years old, it is still a great read.  Co-written by Ellen Winner (who also wrote Gifted Children: Myths and Realities), it explains some of the patterns of thinking that are unique to arts education. 

In the article, the authors explain why the so-called "Mozart Effect" (the idea that listening to or performing music makes one smarter in other areas, like math) is not a strong idea.  Research studies of this idea are weak, and the concept is not one which resounds with most arts educators as a valuable point of view for inclusion of arts education in the school day.  Relying on the arts' ability to help improve other areas shortchanges all of the other artistic life skills that are unique to arts education. 

In this article, those artistic life skills are discussed as observing, envisioning, innovating through exploration, and reflective self-evaluation. 

The article is one of my favorites--definitely worth the three minutes of reading!

Still Photos of Kindergarten Music Class

Kindergarteners have had a busy first term in Sage music--they've learned some solfege, how to use their singing voice, their basic rhythmic patterns, and a bunch of circle and partner dances.

Most of the still photos in this movie compilation were taken while students were dancing.  The video is about two minutes in length.  Check back soon for another video posting of all Prime classes showing off their folk dancing steps!

Middle School Students and Sage Faculty Sing Together at Winter Assembly

This morning at Winter Assembly, Doogie, Ian M., Alex M., Sophia L., Kiely, Miryam and Monica A. were joined by Mrs. Trogolo, Senorita Ryan, Mr. Miller and Mr. Fitz-Roy in singing two pieces in four-part harmony.

I'm still new at figuring out the best ways to share audio files though the blog, but the link below will take you to a link to an mp3 download of "Auld Lang Syne."

online backup storage

And this link should take you to a download of the link of the performance of "Grant Me True Courage," the piece students sang for their District Audition a couple of weeks ago.

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Students worked hard, practicing at home and giving up spare moments at recess and dismissal to be prepared. Joining faculty and students together for singing was a fun experience for all involved, and I'm really pleased with the musical results!

Please note: clicking on the links above should take you to a website, where you can click "Download this File," where the file is being stored. In my experiments, this has worked, but if you have trouble, please let me know. Also be aware that this is an external site in no way affiliated with Sage.

This Year's Musical Announced!

At last Friday morning meeting, Ms. Bazinet and Miss Hogan announced this year's musical:

Students in grades 5-8 are welcome to audition in March for this year's musical, Broadway Junior's "The Pirates of Penzance."

For a brief summary of the plot, click on this outside link.

7th and 8th Grade Students Accepted to Music Festival

This past Saturday, nine Sage 7th and 8th graders traveled to Marshfield where they did something a little intimidating: they went all by themselves into an audition room to sing or to play their instrument and be judged by the stranger sitting in the room.

All auditioning students prepared well and worked hard to get ready, and all nine students were accepted to represent Sage at the Massachusetts Music Educators Southeastern District Music Festival in March, where they'll rehearse and perform with accepted students from other schools in this part of Massachusetts.

Congratulations to Harris, cello; Arooshe, violin; Doogie, tenor; Ian, bass; Alex M., tenor; Kiely, alto; Sophia L., soprano; Avery, violin; and Eric H., clarinet!

Junior and MS students explore "DigiArt"

The art room has been filled with computers lately! The Juniors are learning how to use an online image editing program called Aviary Phoenix. They've become quite proficient at drawing, using the selection tools and are starting to work with layers. MS students are using the same program to modify their watercolor paintings in meaningful (and often humorous!) ways. Here are a few of their creations, with full galleries coming soon...

"Sound" by Nathan Piecyk

"Stars" by Nate Smyth

"Ocean Forest" by Nick Plotkin

"Screwed Up Landscape" by Aaron Handleman

Middle School Instrument Unit is Nearing Time for Culminating Projects

Since the middle of October, music-making activities for middle schoolers have been framed through the lens of different instruments, how they are made, and how we can create and classify "instruments" from every day things.

We've used the Hornbostel-Sachs method of classifying our glass bottle flutes, pizza box guitars, and plastic Boomwhackers. This method classifies instruments by the method of sound production. For each type of instrument we've looked at, we've composed, arranged, or performed a piece of music.

Students have had some inspiration along the way.
This is a clip of a man we've dubbed as "bottle guy":



Miss Hogan's favorite clip of inspiration is of the Viennese Vegetable Orchestra:


Later to come:
Some clips of our instrument making endeavors, including the upcoming final projects, where students will create an instrument that does not already exist out of every day materials. I'm very much looking forward to seeing the kettle drums made from gumballs, and the PVC trombones, and everything else Sage students dream up!
Stay tuned.

Still Photos of Junior Music Class

My camera and iPhoto have been filling up with photos I've been snapping during class...time to clear some of them out and share them with you!

Click Here for about one minute's worth of a photo slideshow of Juniors working in class.
See an activity that looks a little peculiar?
Why are there four kids crammed in that one chair?
What are all those rhythmic notes on the floor for?
Ask your Junior to fill you in on what they're doing!

Juniors Set Shel Silverstein to Traditional Melodic Pitches

The first major composition project for this year's Juniors involved setting a Shel Silverstein poem to the solfege pitches of Sol, Mi, and La.

Why those pitches?  Well, they're arguably the ones that are most ingrained in your brain.  Traditional European folk songs, which many of us were exposed to from a young age, are often based in those three pitches.  All the tones in "Rain, Rain, Go Away?"  Those are Sol, Mi and La.  The first phrase of "A Tisket, A Tasket?"  Sol, Mi, and La.  The "na na na na na, you can't catch me" taunt from the playground? These are also Sol, Mi and La.

Having the specified tones clearly in one's brain when composing is a musical act that can be difficult to do.  That made this composition project part ear-training exercise, as well, as the melodies were originally composed with out any help from instruments.

Besides the parameters of a Sol-Mi-La melody, students were encouraged to have a Do-Sol beat or bordun in a low instrument, and then to take the form of the piece (the different sections and how they are combined) and make it their own.  Some students chose to make other sections that switched the melody and the bass, while other students made up dances to accompany the melody, and other students varied their original melody in some way and made that a new section.  Most students also included intros and outros to their pieces.

This clip is about 8 minutes long and shares a sampling of work from Juniors C and Juniors D.

Six Practical Benefits for Arts Education, according to Jerome Kagan

One of the brain research organizations that is well known to arts educators is the Dana Foundation.  They publish research articles and studies about all types of brain research, often with an emphasis in the arts. 

At one of their conferences in 2009, Harvard developmental psychologist Jerome Kagan gave his six favorite practical reasons why the arts are very necessary parts of the school day.  To read a summary of his words, please click here.

All of Kagan's reasons are ones which resonate with me and my motivations for teaching music.  Kagan's second reason, that the arts provide students with a sense of agency, is one that I believe is stressed at the Sage School.  A great deal of the work our students engage in is a demonstration of their own thought processes, from start to finish.  Watching students struggle through the experimentations of what sounds good and what doesn't, which instrument choices help emphasize their musical message and which do not, and seeing them get so very attached to their own pieces and their own thoughtful choices is part of what makes my job so fun!  It often may seem easier and more time-efficient to rush in and solve a problem for a student, or to impose my own judgment on their works.  However, the belief that artistic creation is valuable for its ability to make a student feel like a capable problem solver means that music class is a time where students to work through those experiments to discover an answer that is best for them (even though my ears very often disagree with theirs!)

Juniors D Space Dance Study

Juniors D students have been studying different ways to alter their choreography by changing the space surrounding the dance.  This could mean the physical space they are dancing in, as well as the space between each dancer or movement.  In the assignments you will see students created a 6-8 count dance phrase (about 1 minute) and then altered an aspect of the "space."  Please click on the following link to view the dances.
Juniors D Space Dances

2nd Graders Create Their Own Graphic Novels

Ms. Krikelis' and Ms. Hoffman's students have been working hard in the art room to create their own graphic novels. They studied techniques like building sequences with frames, varying scale, and creating font effects, and even had a visit from Sage's own resident graphic novel guru, Mr. Vega. Click here to view the gallery of their in-progress rough drafts, and check back soon for the final versions!

September Body Percussion Unit in Middle School Music

To start off the year, middle schoolers spent lots of time experimenting with different types of body percussion.  After discovering possibilities like the "nose stomp" and the "golf clap, " trios of students created body percussion pieces and then taught their compositions to their classmates.  

This link will take you to the video compilation which was playing at Back to School Night.  It is about 17 minutes long and shares moments of our body percussion unit.  Clips were taken from 6B, 7A, 8A, and 8B.  Enjoy!

Welcome to our blog!

Welcome to the blog of the Arts Department at the Sage School, an independent K-8 school in Foxboro, MA.  Our goals for this blog are to keep you informed of interesting happenings in our classrooms, to share the brilliant work of our students, and to post arts education information and articles of interest.

We hope that you'll add us to your RSS feeds so that you can be updated when we add new things to the blog.  We're looking forward to sharing with you!