intasc 4
STANDARD 4: Content Knowledge
The teacher understands the central concepts, tools of inquiry, and structures of the discipline(s) he or she teaches and creates learning experiences that make these aspects of the discipline accessible and meaningful for learners to assure mastery of content.
Standard 4 focuses on the teacher being highly skilled in their content area. A great music teacher has a broad understanding of music making and music teaching. He or she is a competent musicianship and feels comfortable modeling concepts to their students. The teacher presents their concepts in multiple ways to reach the various types of learners in their classroom. Standard 4 promotes the use of questions. Teaching in the form of questions is a good way to make students think critically, informally evaluate their progress, and promote engagement. Questions can also help to related the current lesson to previous ones. Music teachers should be reviewing previously learned concepts and added on to prior knowledge. The music teacher's goal is to develop their students comprehensive musicianship as well as their music literacy. The teacher does not just focus on teaching skills, but comes at the music from as many angles as possible. In this way, not only are the greatest number of students reached, but the deepest level of musicianship can be achieved.
Throughout my time at Ball State, I have had many opportunities to develop my abilities in standard 4. I still have much to learn in this standard, but I have improved in my personal musicianship as well as teaching ability. An important part of all the lessons I have taught involved the use of questioning. I have planned questions as well as spontaneous questions. The questions get students to think critically as well as move the pace of the lesson forward. In methods courses, I learned about the importance scaffolding and sequencing in lessons. I also learned about and taught comprehensive musicianship lessons. These experiences allow me to engage students at a deeper level and provide them with a more meaningful musical experience. It is important to relate to students own experience and provide them with new ways to think about music. If students are engaged then they are more likely to learn.
In my final year of student at Ball State, I will continue to develop my abilities in standard 4 by completing field teaching in my practicum course as well as the student teaching experience. The semester of student teaching will of course provide me with the most realistic teaching experience to date. As a Ball State student, I will continue to develop my individual musicianship by participating in ensembles and private instrument study. As I enter the professional world, it will be important to stay active in music making, as well as seeking out opportunities for personal growth in teaching. There are many music education conferences throughout the state and the country which will allow me to gain knew ideas and expertise in using the standard. I will also keep an open dialogue with my present and future colleagues about our own teaching and use of the standard.
Below is an example of a Comprehensive Musicianship Lesson
MUSE 375
This course has developed my skills in standard 4 greatly. There were many reading and discussions we had dealing with being effective in our content area. Specifically, development of knowledge of repertoire, score study, assessment, and classroom management, will allow me to be effective in the classroom. We talked a lot about being prepared for class and making your student have no doubts that you are the best musician in the room. Confidence and preparation is key in the area. You can never be over prepared for rehearsal.
MUSE 355
String Methods presented perhaps the greatest learning curve thus far in my studies. Given that fact that am not not a string player and had only one semester of string techniques class, learning to teach strings is not without its challenges. Rightly so, a major portion of the class was continuing our skills from string techniques. After all, if one does not understand string concepts, then it would be impossible to teach them. I feel as though this course, especially imediately following string techniques, developed my skills as a string players and teaching to an amazing degree. Before the semester began, I never thought I would be any good at teaching strings, but my the time teaching came along, it was not that much more difficult than teaching a band class. One project that taught be a lot about strings was the Annotated Scores Project. We were to annotated three string scores with bowings, fingerings, and chord progression. Thinking through the fingerings and bowings was extremely useful. By the end of the project I also developed by ability to read alto clef.
