COMPONENTS OF PLANNING A CONCERT - MEN AND WOMEN'S ENSEMBLES OF FORDSON HIGH SCHOOL
"Students First" is the motto of Fordson High School, where I spent the Fall of 2019 Student Teaching. Aside from placing a significance on the individual, our building-wide professional development goal was to incorporate "project-based learning" into all disciplines. In the music (choral) classroom, this seemed difficult at first but approachable when my Mentor Teacher (Matthew Laura) and I look at the concert as a “project".
For the Halloween concert, the Chamber Choir (SATB advanced) were in charge of basically everything - designing tickets, promotion, decoration, tech, and so on. Mr. Laura and I did two things; picked the repertoire and taught it. This worked well as the members of Chamber Choir were upper classmen, most of whom had been in choir since Freshman year and had already done this before.
For the Winter concert however, we challenged the Men and Women's ensembles to undertake the task the Chamber had for Halloween. This started with a guided discussion, "What do we need to do to make a concert run successfully”? Essentially we wanted students to identify all the aspects of the Halloween concert that required planning and apply that information to planning for the winter concert.
This was interesting to see how students perceived the inner workings of the concert while also empowering them to decide what was important. This was further expounded upon when we asked "how could we divide this into teams/committees who would oversee these responsibilities?"
The committees created by the two classes were then populated by student volunteers, and some class time each week was given to planning the aspects of the concert. Things like deciding ticket price, hiring a photographer, stage plotting, and budgeting for decorations were split up into those committees and given ample time to prepare.
I felt this was an excellent way to reach a diverse set of learners. For starters, the volunteering aspect allowed students to place themselves into the roles in which they felt they had the highest efficacy. This, in turn gave a higher level of motivation which produced a greater result. The personal goals they had to set, with a tangible product (the concert) gives a concrete expectation for the committee members. Additionally, this allows for communal learning wherein the students must work within peer groups towards a common goal. I believe the empowering, peer centered, and project based assignment lends itself to working for a vast number of diverse learners and lends credence to developing 21st century skills.
Committed to Diversity
Teaching in an urban setting requires a unique set of skills. My experience Student Teaching at Fordson High School in Dearborn allowed a first-person view into the lives and machinations of the classroom within a Title I school.
Something I learned very quickly is that the students often feel their voices are ignored; indeed, aside from the identity crises one faces during adolescence these students felt undermined in a system that cared less for them than they would have liked. Aside from solid pedagogy, it became apparent that one must learn the personalities of one’s classroom and build report if they are to be effective.
In teaching within a diverse culture, it then becomes incredibly important to honor the individual; not only by being understanding of their learning styles, but of the ethnic culture of your students and the culture of the community in which they live. Thus, a important lesson become apparent that one must honor the individual for all their strengths of personality and learning style. To the left I have created a gallery showcasing some of the connections I have made with many of these wonderful students to honor their spirit and personality.
"Red" and "Green" words at Fordson High School. The words we use affect the people around us and ourselves!