Submitted by Martha Stanley, NBCT, Tallahassee, Florida
Idea posted October 21, 2003
Earlier this year on the MusicK8.com Mailing List, we had a thread about writing grants and, as usual, I went on and on about how to be successful. I followed my own advice, and tonight I got the news!!
I will be getting a large screen TV (36", I hope) with a large, sturdy cart-stand and an AverKey Gold 300 scan converter to connect it to my computer. I'll be getting site licenses for Music Ace 1 and 2, MusicTime, Band In A Box and a single copy of Inspiration for the teacher's computer. I wrote in extra for cabling, memory upgrades for the recycled computers I have, folders, paper, and little electrical parts that I KNOW will be needed. $2500, thank you very much. Okay, enough about that. I really want to share WHY I think I got it.
I tied my musical goals to the school, district, and state goals that had to do with writing. I mean, we keep talking about including literacy in our programs... why not do it on my own terms and get someone else to fund it?!?
I found a "Five-W" poem idea in the ERIC database. You use the five W's to describe something, each description being written on its own line. Kinda like a cinquain or a diamante poem. The five W's are (no surprises here) Who, What, Where, When, and Why.
Using certain visual or aural prompts, kids will create poems describing each W. THEN they will use the doodle pad in Music Ace, MusicTime, or Band In A Box to figure out a way to realize the poem. I plan to concentrate on artwork that has musicians featured. I have a CD from the Chicago Museum of Art and the Internet has LOADS of viewable art, The Three Musicians by Picasso is an obvious example.
With the BIG SCREEN TV (yeeeee-haw!!) the kids will be able to see the artwork easily. Using the AverKey, I'll be able to zoom and point and other cool things on the TV. All this will also be totally wonderful for all those PowerPoint presentation applications that I keep making. I have begun a series on keyboards. Well, I have two and at least one more partially done. So far I've been pleased with the kids' responses.
During other times, they will be using Music Ace 1 and 2 to work on their music skills AND I can keep track of their musical progress easily using the program itself. Joy, oh joy! They'll also be using the keyboard lab which will be reinforced by the Music Ace programs.
This sounds doable to me. The trick was to put it all down in language that works. Just for an example, here is the section on the objectives of the project.
II. THE PROJECT OBJECTIVES:Students will
a. use music technology to learn and reinforce skills in reading and writing music notation;
b. integrate language skills in reading and writing through working with the software, creating poetry, and writing critical evaluations of their work and by keeping a portfolio of their works;
c. use higher level thinking skills of analysis, synthesis, and evaluation while creating poetry and music;
d. compose their own settings of their own poetry based on famous works of art;
e. use helpful group behaviors as they work in the various learning centers.