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All of the students at Harmony Leland Elementary School in Mableton, Georgia, study the violin. Here they work with music teacher Barrett Jackson.
Two music specialists from arts-based schools demonstrate different approaches to serving diverse student populations:
Who’s Who
(In order of appearance)
Harmony Leland Elementary School
Beginning in 1998, Harmony Leland engaged in intensive self-study and researched best practices. As a result of this exploration, the elementary school focused on implementing school improvement goals to turn around declining student achievement. A major transformation at Harmony Leland led to significant initiatives addressing academics, character education, and parent and community involvement. The fine arts, in particular, are used to reach students at Harmony Leland. The school became a Leonard Bernstein Center for Artful Learning and began a violin program that includes every child in the school.
Harmony Leland’s mission is to provide all students with rigorous and relevant academic and fine arts educational experiences, which promote excellence and a life-long love of learning. The school actively fosters appreciation and acceptance of diversity.
Harmony Leland’s school population has varied ethnicity and socioeconomic diversity. The school seeks ways to bridge school and community, based on the belief that facilitation among school, parents, and community is key to school success. Partnerships and collaborations among students, parents, community members, businesses, and teachers help further the school’s goals.
Harmony Leland provides a variety of opportunities during and after school for students to develop knowledge, skills, and experiences. Examples include Drop Everything and Read; Breakthrough to Literacy; and honors programs such as honors chorus, honors art, and honors violin.
Information provided by Harmony Leland Elementary School. Current as of February 2002.
Smith Renaissance School of the Arts
Smith Renaissance School of the Arts is a magnet school focusing in the arts. The arts education program design was implemented at the start of the 1997–98 school year. Smith employs arts staff members who work with classroom teachers in a team approach. Lessons are consistent with state mandates and are tied to national standards.
Smith’s mission is to develop each student’s abilities, nurturing both higher academic achievement and personal development, through exposure to the arts. The school’s goals are to improve academic performance, increase parent-community involvement, and infuse the arts into all aspects of the curriculum to improve achievement. The curriculum is designed around the performing and visual arts. Students explore programs in each of the arts through third grade. Fourth- and fifth-grade students can develop their areas of choice while continuing their education in other areas.
Because Smith is a magnet school, students who have been accepted come from within and outside of the normal school boundaries.
Smith is accredited by the National Association for the Education of Young Children. The school has partnerships with many organizations that provide support, such as the Denver School of the Arts, the Colorado Children’s Chorale, Ready to Succeed, the Shaka Foundation, and the Colorado Youth Symphony.
Information provided by Smith Renaissance School of the Arts. Current as of February 2002.
Teaching Goals
Renaissance Life
“Teaching Music” is a good resource for classroom teachers and for music specialist teachers. Classroom teachers can gain a deep understanding of how and why children study music. Specialist teachers can see other specialists at work, using contrasting approaches to teaching music.
Other audiences for this program might include:
This program explores two contrasting approaches to teaching music. Both schools consider their programs successful in meeting their objectives:
As you watch, consider which of the featured teaching approaches would more effectively help you meet learning objectives in your classroom:
At Smith Renaissance School of the Arts, classroom teachers and arts specialists collaborate to develop schoolwide themes. Consider how such a themed curriculum unit would work at your school:
WATCH THE PROGRAM
Barrett Jackson
String specialist, Harmony Leland Elementary School, Mableton, Georgia
Barrett Jackson student taught in a middle school orchestra setting, then taught violin, viola, guitar, and piano in a small private school for two years. She began teaching violin at Harmony Leland Elementary School in 1999. She has degrees in music education and music therapy.
Q. What guidance would you suggest for other teachers confronted with a profusion of standards for a particular specialty?
A. As a first-year teacher in a public school driven by standards, I felt overwhelmed by the number of standards. What I have realized is that I was simply not familiar with them and was meeting more of the standards than I originally realized. Through continual review of the standards and my lessons, I was able to incorporate more standards into each lesson and identify ones I didn’t realize I had been meeting.
Q. Would you describe how you teach music vocabulary words to your students?
A. Music vocabulary in the violin class is taught through immersion. Students are taught the correct names of parts of the instrument and other music vocabulary through constant use and exposure. They are given many opportunities to use the words during each lesson.
Q. How do you assess students who are at different proficiency levels?
A. The violin program is not performance-based. Students are assessed on conduct and participation. Their level of proficiency does not factor into their grades. Concepts and topics are rotated on a quarterly basis, so both a student new to the program and one who has three years of experience can achieve the same success.
Q. How are students selected for honors violin class?
A. Students are selected for the honors violin class by audition each spring. Every student is allowed to audition and given a score based on eight aspects of violin performance. The top 20 to 25 students then are invited to join the group. Returning members also must audition each year.
Q. What makes the honors class different from regular violin class? What kinds of performances do the honors students give?
A. The honors class is performance-based, unlike a regular violin class, and the standards are rigorous. Honors violin students have participated in school theatrical productions and performed for other schools, community-based events, and private functions, including the African-American Women on Tour, Boys and Girls Club regional meeting, and the Atlanta chapter of the Grammys Holiday event. The students recently recorded and released their first compact disc.
Q. How does the music program contribute to the mission of the school?
A. The violin program is a brain-based program that contributes to meeting the school’s goal of building literacy. Literacy is incorporated in the violin class by the use of word walls, power writing, thinking maps, and “note” books.
Sandra McGary-Ervin
Principal, Harmony Leland Elementary School, Mableton, Georgia
Sandra McGary-Ervin came to Cobb County, Georgia, in 1985 to teach special education at North Cobb High School. Later, she was a learner support strategist (curriculum specialist) at that same school. She then served as assistant principal at Griffin Middle School and as supervisor of the cultural diversity department for the school district. At the time this program was taped, she was in her fourth year as principal of Harmony Leland Elementary School.
Q. Why was violin selected for all students at the school to study? Were other instruments considered?
A. The violin is a very appropriate instrument for study in elementary school due to the number of sizes in which it is produced. It offers students the opportunity to use opposing movements while playing. In addition, the violin is an instrument that requires a considerable amount of discipline. It is an instrument that defines excellence. Therefore, the violin blended well with Harmony Leland’s idea of high standards and excellence, which we have made a high priority. To my knowledge, no other instruments were considered.
Q. Was there already a string specialist at Harmony Leland prior to the violin program? Do the parents have to pay anything for their children to participate in the general violin program?
A. There was no string specialist at Harmony Leland prior to the beginning of the program. There is no cost involved for parents, except for any major repair needed as a result of damage caused at home under the parent’s supervision.
Q. What happens to students who transfer into Harmony Leland in the middle of the year? Similarly, what if a student does not want to study the violin?
A. Students who transfer into the school in the middle of the year are assigned a violin and placed with a class. Due to the nature of the course objective, newcomers can easily catch up with the rest of the group, because the violin program is not performance-based. We have never had a student refuse to attend violin classes.
Q. What honors arts classes are offered at Harmony Leland Elementary?
A. We offer eight honors classes: honors art for grades K–2, honors art for grades 3–5, honors Orff [music] for grade 3, honors violin for grades 1–2, honors violin for grades 3–5, honors handbells for grades 3–5, honors chorus for grades 3–5, and honors percussion for grades 4–5. We recently added dance to the after-school program.
Q. How do honors programs differ from “regular” classes in those subjects? How often do honors classes meet?
A. The honors classes are primarily performance-based. During the week, a student will attend each regular arts class once. For the honors classes, most classes meet every day for an extended time, allowing the students to excel in the arts, and to prepare and perform as professional musicians and artists.
Honors violin for grades 3–5, Orff for grade 3, honors percussion for grades 4–5 and honors art for grades 3–5 meet daily from 7:30 to 8 a.m. before academic instruction. Chorus, art for grades K–2, and handbells meet once a week for an hour called “Art Hour,” which is a schoolwide hour devoted to creating art.
Q. Is there a group performance for honors students?
A. We have brought students together to perform as an honors family, bringing all programs together for a performance. All students have the opportunity to view the artwork from honors art and to listen to all honors music programs. It is very exciting to view and listen to our honors students as a family of 130. All programs perform for family and friends at our Holiday Extravaganza and other performance venues throughout the year.
Q. How are students selected for honors programs?
A. Students are selected through an audition process. Criteria for classes differ. Posture, presentation, technique, pitch, and tone are examples of what a student must demonstrate.
Q. Are there additional financial and other commitments associated with being in an honors class?
A. When a student is accepted into the honors class, the parent and student sign a contract that commits the student to the program for the entire year. The parent or student is responsible for paying a $20 fee per honors class. Since there is no music or art budget, this fee covers field trips, uniform rental, uniform cleaning, music, and any necessary supplies for that class. Instruments used in class have been purchased or made by Harmony Leland Elementary School.
Sylvia Bookhardt
Music teacher, Smith Renaissance School of the Arts, Denver, Colorado
Sylvia Bookhardt began her music training as a piano student in first grade. Those studies continued through high school. She traveled with choral groups throughout the United States. Her years of graduate education included a study of the “diverse learner.” Now certified as a school administrator, she maintains musical involvement as a focus of her life. In the 2001–02 school year, Sylvia became assistant principal at Rishel Middle School in Denver, Colorado, where she is beginning an arts program.
Q. Why did you become a music teacher? What has been the most satisfying part of your experience?
A. I became a music teacher as a result of childhood exposure and experience. Music has always been my first love. It was also my first way of learning. In retrospect, I struggled as a new student. Everything was quite foreign to me in first grade. I persevered as a reader by teaching myself. I developed rhythm schemes, patterns, and devices that involved chants and other musical elements. This is how I practiced reading. It became apparent that I was the best teacher for my own learning.
I realized then that there was an educational connection with music: Use of my ears was essential! Because my vision was weak, my ears offered support. For me, music and literacy always have been combined. I became a teacher with a specific focus in those two areas, and my training was an alignment of those areas.
Q. Please describe your role as an arts coordinator at Smith Renaissance. How did this fit in with the rest of your responsibilities?
A. I ran schoolwide programs that matched the pacing of our curriculum. During my time as arts coordinator, I was determined to build tradition into school celebrations. In other words, I was able to synthesize learning by blending traditional themes into an overall program. A major challenge was involving parents, but that dwindled as mothers and fathers became more interested in becoming part of this success.
I viewed my major job responsibility as connecting academic pieces to all performances. Students took part in literacy exercises and projects that required parents to take them to the library, museum, and community resources. I became aware that we had to maintain a calendar for the entire school. The dates on the calendar were important, as total school inclusion was essential. These responsibilities fit with my teaching because they all pointed in the direction of learning enrichment.
Q. Can you give some examples of how the music program has enhanced academic achievement for students?
A. Building on the music program, opportunities in writing spurred additional research. Students used resources in the school library. Listening exercises added to group participation in project-based activities.
Students were invited to present in several district and citywide programs. They often wrote about their field trips and identified concepts in reading. A study of music history added to their involvement in the district Shakespeare Festival. Students shared new vocabulary terms in oral and written presentations. They showed a willingness to take on new responsibilities and risks. Interest escalated as students began to apply to the Denver School of the Arts.
Students leaving Smith Renaissance today have gone on to community choirs, dance studios, and other arenas for the arts. It has been noted that academic goals in math and reading are reflected in test scores.
Related Video Library Programs
Watch these programs for more information on ideas explored in “Teaching Music”:
Web Resources
Related Organizations and Resources:
Recommended by Barrett Jackson:
National Standards for Arts Education that apply to class work shown in featured schools:
Music
Achievement Standards for Grades K–4
Achievement Standards for Grades K–4
Music
Achievement Standards for Grades K–4
Achievement Standards for Grades K–4
Source: National Standards for Arts Education, published by Music Educators National Conference (MENC). Copyright © 1994 by MENC. Used by permission. The complete National Arts Standards and additional materials relating to the standards are available from MENC, The National Association for Music Education, 1806 Robert Fulton Drive, Reston, VA 20191, telephone: 800-336-3768.