Tri-annual Publication of Carl Orff Canada

Music for Children - Musique pour enfants

OVolume 39, Number 3, Spring 2013

stinatoOrff and the Special Learner /

Orff et l’enfant ayant des besoins particuliers

Un élève qui a un TED

Everyone Deserves to Make Meaningful Music!

Enseigner la musique aux enfants présentant certaines difficultés et certaines différences, ça s’apprend!

The Joy and Magic of Baby Orff

Chemin Aveugle

Musical Experiences in a Visually Biased World

We Are All Special! Educating the Exceptional and the Rest of Us Too

Meditation on Method

An Interview With Doug Goodkin

Le petit bulbe de tulipe

Meeri Pong

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Vol. 39, No. 3, Spring 2013 1

If undeliverable please return to: Ruth Nichols, 7 Regent Street, Amherst, NS B4H 3S6

OstinatoVolume 39, Number 3, Spring 2013

OSTINATOis the journal of Music for Children – Carl Orff Canada – Musique pour enfants. It is published three times yearly.

Closing dates for submission are:June 15st for the Fall IssueNovember 15th for the Winter IssueMarch 15th for the Spring Issue

Submissions should be sent to:Catherine WestEmail: west.catherine@sympatico.ca

Articles and letters to the editor express the viewpoints of the authors, and do not imply endorsement by Music for Children – Carl Orff Canada – Musique pour enfants.

Origins of songs and poems in this publication have been traced whenever possible, and copyright clearance obtained when necessary. If despite this, any copyright that has been infringed upon unwittingly, we apologize, and ask that we be informed in order that the necessary permissionmay be obtained.

OSTINATOest la revue de Music for Children – Carl Orff Canada – Musique pour enfants.

Elle paraît trois fois par année et les dates limites pour soumettre les textes sont :le 15 juin pour le numéro de l’automne, le 15 novembre pour le numéro de l’hiver,le 15 mars pour le numéro du printemps.

Tous les textes en français doivent être envoyés en format Word.doc or Word.rtf à Lucie Allyson à : lucie.allyson@internet.uqam.ca et en copie conforme à Catherine West à : west.catherine@sympatico.ca

Les opinions exprimées par les auteurs desarticles et les lettres envoyées à la rédaction ne reflètent pas nécessairement celles de Music for Children – Carl Orff Canada – Musique pour enfants et n’engagent que leur propre responsabilité.Si par mégarde certains droits d’auteur n’ont pasété respectés, nous vous prions de nous excuseret de nous en avertir pour que nous puissions régulariser la situation rapidement.

Publication agreement #40012987

www.orffcanada.ca

From the Editor / Mot de la rédactrice 2

National Executive Section / Section du conseil exécutif national President’s Message / Mot de la présidente Beryl Peters 3 Carl Orff Canada President Wins Prestigious Award 6

Articles À la rencontre d’un élève qui a un TED (autisme) en classe de musique Nathalie Jacques 7 Because Everyone Deserves to Make Meaningful Music! Courtney Richard 11 Enseigner la musique aux enfants présentant certaines difficultés et certaines différences, ça s’apprend! Julie Savard 17 The Joy and Magic of Baby Orff Marcelline Moody 19 Chemin aveugle Pascale Bujold 22 Musical Experiences in a Visually Biased World John L. Vitale 23 We Are All Special! Educating the Exceptional and the Rest of Us Too Catherine West 29 Meditation on Method Arnold Walter 32 A Tribute to Ruth Wiwchar 33 An Interview With Doug Goodkin Tea Ylikosk 34

Book Reviews / Critiques de recueils et DVDs pédagogiques What Are Some Good Resources for the Movement Teacher? Hania Krajewski 39

Orff Schulwerk Courses / Formations Orff 42

Chapter Workshops / Ateliers de perfectionnement 45

National Executive Section / Section du conseil exécutif national Business Section 48

Take Note 49 Eastern and Western Chapter Presidents Unite in Winnipeg 50 Doreen Hall Award 2012 50

National Conference 51

Curriculum Corner / Boîte à idées Le petit bulbe de tulipe 55

Meeri Pong 56

2 Ostinato

Catherine West

From the Editor / Mot de la rédactrice

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bs The focus of this issue of Ostinato is Educa-tion for All or Special Education. I prefer the former term; educa-tion is not “special” for anyone – it is a right, and it is our re-

sponsibility to deliver that right. Education is only “special” in the sense that every one of us is special, and every one of us requires an Individual Education Plan.

When I was in grade nine I could not learn mathematics from the teacher; his mouth opened and shut, his hand flew about the chalkboard, but nothing made sense. Luck-ily the girl sitting in the desk ahead of me on the girls’ side of the room (yes, this was 1963, and the teacher divided us by gender so he could ignore the girls…) understood the mysterious presentations and was able to surreptitiously translate for me. I scored well into the 90’s in grade nine math on every report card, thanks to my friend’s coaching, in spite of an incomprehensible teacher and even more incomprehensible “New Math” text book by Professor Coleman! In a sense, I received, unofficially, what we would now refer to as “accommodations” in my programme. So, in thinking about “Special Education,” I hope we can keep away from the idea of us and them – although the stu-dents who bear the label usually do have quite distinctive needs, they are different only in degree, not different in kind from the rest of us.

I have many special memories of break-through moments with students who also had such particular needs – I’m sure most of you have the same. One story will illustrate: a boy I will call J. was very delayed in all his school subjects. In fact it was not until grade 2 that he learned to speak intelligibly for the first time. J. responded to music but showed little skill in performing it, and very limited understanding of musical concepts. When he got to grade 7 his class spent the year on Afro-centric music. The students played guitar as part of their music programme but J. preferred to play xylophone; he had a partner to work with or one-to-one coaching with me so that he could do what we were doing successfully. The class decided to perform Doug Goodkin’s arrangement of “The Cookie Jar” for their senior concert

piece and we worked on it for weeks, with every student deciding just what part they wanted to play, and what instrument. With all the extra practice J. suddenly discovered that he could play the very syncopated soprano xylophone riff perfectly, so that became his part. On concert night he turned up for his concert for the first time ever, including kindergarten, and he nailed that riff. I will never forget that moment of sheer happi-ness in his face, reflected in mine of course.

Remembering events like this, and many more from across my teaching career, has given me a conviction that we need to teach with the belief that everyone can learn everything. Maybe Krystin is not ready to absorb tikatikas today, but she can use titis for now, experience tikatikas through body percussion, and get ready for a day in a couple of months when she is ready. Perhaps pitch notation makes no sense to Marcus, but a little more time playing with melodic contours made of string may open the key to that door down the road.

Moments of triumph are, however, a long time coming, and we do face real challenges in addressing some extraordinary needs. Teachers across Canada find that students with identified challenges such as ADHD, dyslexia, speech or developmental delay, auditory processing problems, autism, behavioural disorders, vision or hearing impairment and many other “isms” are in-creasingly being integrated into our regular music classes, often with little support.

As Orff teachers, we are lucky to have a huge range of teaching strategies and media, and a repertoire which accommodates the students’ needs, rather than the reverse. Nevertheless students with challenges do challenge us, and we all have days when nothing seems to work. The knowledge we share with each other is a powerful way to address our particular needs. The focus for this issue of Ostinato has been chosen because of our conviction that sharing the knowledge we have amongst each other can help all of us to address even extraordinary situations. I hope you find here something to make you think and something you are inspired to try in your own practice.

Traduit par Denise Lapointe

Le sujet de cette édition d’ostinato est l’éducation pour tous ou l’éducation spé-cialisée. Je préfère le premier sous-titre, l’éducation n’est pas spéciale pour tous, elle est juste et c’est notre responsabilité de s’assurer qu’elle reste juste. L’éducation n’est spéciale que dans le sens où chacun de nous est spécial et chacun de nous requiert un plan d’éducation individualisé.

Lorsque j’étais en 9e année, je ne pouvais pas apprendre les mathématiques de mon professeur, sa bouche s’ouvrait et se fermait, sa main s’activait sur le tableau sans que je n’y comprenne rien. Heureusement, une fille assise en avant de moi du côté des filles dans la classe (eh oui, en 1963, l’enseignant séparait les filles des garçons… pour ignorer les filles?) a rapidement compris les explications et m’en a fait la traduc-tion. Grâce à ma copine, mes résultats en mathématiques étaient dans les 90 % sur chaque bulletin, bien que je n’aie jamais rien compris à mon enseignant ni aux nouvelles mathématiques proclamées par le profes-seur nommé Professor Coleman! Dans un sens, j’ai reçu un accommodement dans mon programme. Donc, en me référant à l’éducation spécialisée, j’espère qu’on peut se tenir loin d’une expression du nous et les autres, quoique les élèves « spéciaux » ont des besoins distincts et ne diffèrent pas du reste du monde.

De nombreux souvenirs me viennent en tête concernant un moment où un élève qui a des besoins particuliers a compris un concept, tout comme vous avez dû vivre de tels moments avec vos élèves. Je me souviens du cas d’un élève que j’appellerai J. qui vivait des retards académiques dans chaque matière. Ce n’est qu’en 2e année qu’il a appris à parler. J. répondait à la musique, mais n’avait pas d’aptitudes lors de l’interprétation et il avait une idée très limitée des concepts musicaux. En 7e année, sa classe a travaillé le thème de la musique africaine. Les élèves ont appris à jouer de la guitare, mais J. préférait jouer du xylophone, il avait un ami qui l’aidait pour assurer sa réussite. La classe a choisi d’interpréter la pièce de Doug Goodkin « The Cookie Jar » pour le concert, nous avons travaillé cette pièce pendant plusieurs semaines, chaque élève choisissait son instrument et sa partie à jouer. Avec des répétitions supplémen-

Vol. 39, No. 3, Spring 2013 3

You can find up-to-date information about Orff workshops and Levels courses across Canada on www.orffcanada.ca.

Did You Know?

President’s Message / Mot de la présidenteBeryl Peters

Recently, a good friend shared a wonderful book with me called, I Saw a Peacock with a Fiery Tail illustrated by Ramsingh Urveti. She saw the book featured

in the free “brainpickings” newsletter, a “weekly interestingness digest” that I also subscribe to. The newsletter comes by email and is an ad-free “cross-disciplinary LEGO treasure chest, full of pieces…that enrich your mental pool of resources and em-power combinatorial ideas that are stronger, smarter, richer, deeper and more impactful” says their website (www.brainpickings.org). This treasure trove of creative ideas has certainly inspired me, and the fascinating I Saw a Peacock book is just one remarkable example of the literature, music, art, and innovative ideas from “brainpickings” that can consume my late night reading hours.

When I explored this creative interpretation of a folk poem from 17th century England, I was amazed by the multiple and shifting lay-ers of meaning revealed at every turn of the page. Read one way, the verse is whimsical and fantastical; read another, a whole new sense-making occurs. One reader can look at the same verse and image and perceive dramatically different meanings to that of another reader looking at and reading the exact same pages.

This shift in meaning-making and the mul-tiple ways of perceiving Urveti’s peacock resonated with literature I have been read-ing recently in preparation for the Special and Inclusive Education focus of our latest issue of Ostinato. For decades in special and inclusive education, we have read the inclusive educational story to mean that some learners are different to others and that educators need to differentiate instruc-tion to meet the needs of those individuals marked as “other” learners, while at the same time meeting the learning needs of the larger community of learners (Florian & Black-Hawkins, 2011). But like Urveti’s illustrations, current research and practice offer ways to look at the inclusive educa-tional story from a different perspective. Instead of perceiving inclusive teaching practices to be those that provide “for all by differentiating for some” (Florian & Black-

taires, J. a découvert qu’il pouvait jouer la partie syncopée du xylophone parfaitement, cette responsabilité lui est donc revenue. Le soir du concert, son premier concert, J. a joué sa partition de façon majestueuse. Je n’oublierai jamais son regard, sa joie et fierté, reflétée dans mon visage également.

Le souvenir de tels événements me donne la conviction que nous devons enseigner avec la croyance que tout le monde peut ap-prendre tout. Peut-être que Krystin n’est pas prête à comprendre le tikatika aujourd’hui, mais elle peut utiliser la formule du titi pour le moment tout en vivant le tikatika par la percussion corporelle et se préparer à la jouer dans au moment où elle sera prête. La notation musicale ne fait aucun sens pour Marcus, mais avec un peu plus de temps à jouer avec les contours mélodiques, on est sûr qu’il arrivera à trouver la clé de la lecture de notes.

Ces moments de succès sont à long terme et nous faisons face à de réels défis avec les enfants en difficulté d’apprentissage. Les enseignants à travers le Canada se rendent à l’évidence que ces élèves intègrent de plus en plus la classe régulière avec peu ou pas d’aide, peu importe s’ils souffrent de difficultés telles : TED, dyslexie, troubles de langage, problèmes d’audition centrale, autisme, troubles de comportement de vi-sion ou de surdité et autres problèmes liés à l’apprentissage.

L’enseignement de musique selon l’approche Orff a la chance d’avoir dans des ressources, astuces, stratégies et un répertoire qui peut accommoder les besoins de ces élèves plutôt que le contraire. Les connaissances que nous partageons entre nous sont un moyen fabuleux pour combler ces besoins particuliers. Le thème de cette édition a été choisi parce que nous avons la conviction que le partage de connaissances que nous avons peut contribuer à aider dans un cas d’enseignement extraordinaire. J’espère que vous trouverez ici une réponse ou une inspiration ou un sujet qui vous fera réfléchir sur votre pratique éducative.

Shifting Perspectives about Special and Inclusive Education

Hawkins, 2011, p. 826), we can perceive inclusion to be:“The development of a rich learning com-munity characterized by learning oppor-tunities that are sufficiently made available for everyone, so that all learners are able to participate in classroom life” (Florian & Black-Hawkins, 2011, p. 814).

When I view inclusion through an Orff lens, I realize again why this approach to music education has remained relevant and authentic for all learners since its incep-tion in the 1920s. A quality Orff approach absolutely can provide a very rich learn-ing community characterized by learning opportunities available to all learners! Re-search repeatedly concludes that music and arts experiences provide important learning pathways for all diverse learners (Peters, 2011); however, research also indicates that inservice and preservice music educators’ attitudes about inclusion vary and are af-fected by many different factors (Cassidy & Colwell, 2012; Salvador, 2010).

These attitudes include understandings about inclusion based on deficit perspec-tives that ironically can create exclusionary learning environments (Macartney, 2012). When inclusion is viewed as a response to groups of learners’ or individual student’s learning difficulties rather than viewed as supporting the richness of social diversity, the goals of inclusion are compromised (Runswick-Cole, 2011). Perhaps to shift our thinking, we need to consider “belonging” rather than “inclusion” of “other” learners (Macartney, 2012). But what do we really mean by the words “inclusion” or “special education?”

From a personal stance, I always felt uncomfortable as part of a PhD cohort in “Inclusive Special Education” and preferred instead to define my research and degree from the perspective of my music, Orff, and multiliteracy focuses. I too, felt that the word “special” was interpreted as “other” or “different” as compared to the norm, despite the fact that my research was all about ex-ploring ways that music provided learning pathways and equitable opportunities in music and reading for all learners. In my research, I asked how educators could view learning diversity as a resource rather than

4 Ostinato

Traduit par Denise Lapointe

L’évolution dans les classes d’adaptationIl y a quelque temps, une amie m’a prêté un livre merveilleux intitulé I Saw a Peacock with a Fiery Tail illustrated écrit par Ram-singh Urveti. Elle avait vu ce livre dans une infolettre à caractère de digestion d’intérêt hebdomadaire à laquelle je suis aussi abon-née. Cette lettre nous parvient par courriel, n’a pas de publicité et elle ressemble à « coffre à trésor interdisciplinaire de LEGO, rempli de petites pièces… pour enrichir les ressources cognitives et contribue à tisser des liens qui sont de plus en plus forts, in-telligents, riches, et qui ont plus d’impact » selon les dires de ce site internet. Ce trésor d’idées créatives m’a certainement inspirée et la lecture du livre mentionnée ci-haut est un exemple remarquable de la littérature, musique, art, idées novatrices du pique-cerveau (brainpicking) qui peut facilement nous amener au petit matin.

Lorsque j’ai fait l’exploration d’un poème folklorique anglais du XVIIe siècle, j’ai été surprise par les différents niveaux de com-préhension révélés sur chaque nouvelle page. Pour un, la lecture d’un verset est bizarre et fantastique, et pour un autre, il est interprété d’une façon différente. Un lecteur peut regarder un verset et une image et comprendre différentes interprétations d’un autre lecteur qui lit le même texte.

Ce changement dans l’interprétation du sens et les multiples façons de comprendre le paon d’Urveti fait appel aux œuvres que j’ai lues récemment pour préparer mon texte sur les classes d’adaptation.

Depuis des dizaines d’années, on nous dit que chaque individu apprend d’une façon différente et qu’il faut implanter la différenciation dans nos classes. Ceci dans le but de répondre aux besoins des enfants particuliers sans oublier ceux des autres élèves qui font partie d’une masse d’apprenants (Florian & Black-Hawkins, 2011). Mais, tout comme les illustrations d’Urveti, les recherches et pratiques nous offrent différentes façons de regarder l’éducation inclusive sous un autre angle. Au lieu de penser les pratiques inclusives

pedagogy can help deconstruct these kinds of educational discourses and challenge practices of inclusion that devalue certain students and can be described as “exclu-sionary inclusion” (Liasidou, 2012, p.171).

Using a critical pedagogy lens, inclusion can be simply defined as equal educational opportunities for all students. From a critical pedagogy perspective, “Special” education would also need to be reconceptualised. Wedell (2008) argues for systemic change where all students are “valued as individ-uals so that the difference between them can be acknowledged without prejudice” (p. 127). This was Carl Orff’s approach, too. Jane Frazee (1987) in her seminal text elaborates an Orff philosophy that respects individual student differences and sup-ports instructional design using the range and variety of Orff media to engage and provide meaningful and equitable learning opportunities for a rich diversity of learners.

However, placing students with disabilities or learning challenges in our Orff-based classrooms and using an Orff-based ap-proach does not necessarily ensure that we are creating equal educational opportunities for all learners. Research suggests that “what is called inclusion often leaves ordinary teaching unchanged and only involves moving special educational practices into the ordinary classroom” (Nilholm & Alm, 2010, p. 240). Inclusion is not about where a student is located, but about how the teacher is ensuring that each student experiences feelings of belonging; equal membership in the community of learners; equitable power in that community; the valuing of all students and all diverse and multiple ways of perceiving and knowing. Inclusion is not about a particular method, approach, or content; inclusion is about ensuring rich, complex learning opportunities for all students in the pursuit of social justice and personal empowerment (Kincheloe, 2004).

We need to ask ourselves if we are view-ing differences in our classrooms as an asset or if we are viewing differences as a problem (Nilholm & Alm, 2010). We need to ask whose values, whose politics are dominant in our classrooms. How can we “extend what is ordinarily available in the community of the classroom as a way of reducing the need to mark some learners as different” (Florian & Black-Hawkins, 2011, p. 826)? Thomas (2013) believes that the time is right for new discourses and for re-conceptualizing inclusive education without

as a deficit or flaw. I asked how educators could “create learning environments with meaningful and appropriately challenging collective experiences to meet the needs of all learners that make up the richness of any twenty-first century classroom in Canada” (Peters, 2011, p. 11).

The authoritative literature also points to struggles with defining the terms “special education” and “inclusion.” There is much confusion about what these terms mean (Florian & Black-Hawkins, 2011; Runs-wick-Cole, 2011) and much controversy and varying practice regarding policies about inclusion (Wedell, 2008). In addi-tion, polarization exists between those who advocate for the rights of all children to be included in “mainstream” classrooms and those who believe that particular learning needs are best met in learning environments intentionally designed to meet those specific needs and by educators with specialized training. Both perspectives are passionately and powerfully argued in the literature (Ravet, 2011).

Salvador asks “Who isn’t a special learner?” (2010, p. 27). While the question may have a specious ring, Salvador raises an import-ant issue about attitudes towards special education and inclusion. Do our efforts as music educators to “differentiate learning” by labelling certain students as “special learners” actually exclude those same students from “the culture, curriculum and community” (Florian & Black-Hawkins, 2011, p. 826) of learners? Are we really making spaces for and including all learners in our music classrooms?

To help answer these questions, I turn to reconceptualist scholars writing from the stance of critical pedagogy. Texts such as “Critical Pedagogy” by Joe Kincheloe (2004) are now part of my staple diet of educational reading. Kincheloe believes that “critical pedagogy is grounded on a social and educational vision of justice and equality” (p. 6). Critical pedagogy is concerned with the ways that education affects marginalized student groups and searches for those voices that are excluded by the practices of the dominant culture (Kincheloe, 2004).

From such a perspective, deficit approaches to special and inclusive education serve to marginalize students as they set up notions of “ideal” and “non-ideal” students, thus accenting social and educational disadvan-tage (Liasidou, 2012). Insights from critical

the constructs and clichés of the past. I hope the articles in this edition of Ostinato will provide possibilities and potentials for our readers in the pursuit of a critical pedagogy of inclusive education.

Vol. 39, No. 3, Spring 2013 5

pour tous en faisant de la « différentiation pour certains » (Florian & Black-Hawkins, 2011, p. 826), nous pouvons comprendre l’éducation inclusive comme étant :« Le développement d’une communauté riche en apprentissages caractérisé par les opportunités d’apprentissage qui sont suf-fisantes et accessibles pour tous, afin que chaque apprenant puisse participer dans une vie scolaire » (Florian & Black-Hawkins, 2011, p. 814).

Si je regarde l’inclusion avec des lunettes Orff, je réalise pourquoi cette approche de l’éducation musicale est restée authentique et pertinente pour tous les apprenants depuis ses débuts en 1920. Une approche Orff de qualité peut effectivement donner une op-portunité riche en apprentissages pour tout le monde! Les recherches confirment à répéti-tion que la musique et les arts produisent des chemins d’apprentissage importants pour tous les types d’apprenants (Peters, 2011); cependant, les recherches indiquent que les attitudes des éducateurs musicaux face à l’inclusion varient et sont affectés par plusieurs facteurs (Cassidy & Colwell, 2012; Salvador, 2012).

Ces attitudes incluent la compréhension de l’inclusion basée sur des idées déficitaires qui, ironiquement, peuvent créer l’exclusion dans les milieux d’apprentissage (Macart-ney, 2012). Lorsque l’inclusion est vue com-me une réponse à un groupe d’apprenants, ou aux difficultés d’un élève individuel plutôt que comme support à la richesse et la diversité sociale, les buts de l’inclusion seront compromis (Runswick-Cole, 2011). Peut-être pour que s’effectue le changement de nos pensées, devrions-nous considérer l’appartenance plutôt que l’inclusion des « autres » apprenants (Macartney, 2012). Mais que veulent dire exactement les mots « inclusion » et « éducation spéciale »?

D’un point de vue personnel, je me suis toujours sentie inconfortable dans la cohorte de mon doctorat en éducation inclusive et j’ai préféré définir ma recherche et diplôme dans la perspective de la musique, d’Orff, et autres accents multi littéraires. Moi aussi, je sentais que le mot « spécial » était interprété comme « autre » ou « différent », si on les compare à la norme, malgré le fait que le sujet de ma recherche était l’exploration des moyens que la musique procure pour former de nouveaux chemins d’apprentissage et des opportunités équitables dans la musique et la lecture pour tous les apprenants. Dans ma recherche, je me demandais comment les

éducateurs pouvaient voir la diversité des apprentissages comme une ressource plutôt qu’un déficit ou un défaut. Je me demandais comment les éducateurs pouvaient « créer un environnement d’apprentissage qui procure des expériences riches en défis col-lectifs pour rencontrer les besoins de tous les apprenants qui composent la richesse de toutes les classes du XXIe siècle au Canada » (Peters, 2011, p.11).

La littérature qui fait foi d’autorité est aussi aux prises avec les définitions des mots « éducation spéciale » et « inclusion ». Il y a beaucoup de confusion sur leurs signifi-cations (Florian & Black-Hawkins, 2011; Runswick-Cole, 2011) et autant de contro-verse et de pratiques différentes au regard des politiques d’inclusion (Wedell, 2008). De plus, il existe une polarisation entre ceux qui prêchent pour que tous les enfants soient dans les classes régulières et ceux qui croi-ent que les besoins particuliers des enfants sont mieux servis dans une classe adaptée et dont l’enseignant est spécialisé. Les deux perspectives sont discutées avec ardeur et passion dans la littérature (Ravet, 2011).

Salvador nous demande : « Qui n’est pas un apprenant spécial ? » (2012, p. 27). La question peut avoir une saveur spéciale, mais Salvador pose un point important au sujet des attitudes envers l’éducation spé-cialisée et l’inclusion. Est-ce que nos efforts comme éducateurs musicaux à différencier l’éducation en mettant une étiquette sur certains élèves comme étant des « élèves spéciaux » peuvent exclure ces mêmes élèves de la « culture, du curriculum et de la communauté » (Florian & Black-Hawkins, 2011, p. 826) des apprenants? Faisons-nous réellement de la place pour inclure tous les élèves dans nos classes de musique?

Pour nous aider à répondre à ces questions, je me tourne vers les écrits de chercheurs conceptualistes d’un point de vue de péda-gogie critique. Des textes comme « Critical Pedagogy » par Joe Kincheloe (2004) font maintenant partie de mon régime de lecture éducationnelle. Kincheloe croit que la « pédagogie critique est basée sur une vision sociale et éducationnelle de la justice et de l’égalité » (p. 6). La pédagogie critique est concernée par les moyens dont l’éducation affecte les groupes d’élèves marginaux et recherche les voix qui sont exclues des pratiques de la culture dom-inante (Kincheloe, 2004).

Vue selon cet angle, l’approche déficitaire de l’éducation spéciale et inclusive sert à

marginaliser les élèves à mesure qu’elle installe des notions d’un élève « idéal » ou « non idéal », tout en accentuant les désavan-tages sociaux et éducationnels (Liasidou, 2012). Un aperçu de la pédagogie critique peut aider la déconstruction de ces types des discours éducationnels et procure un défi de pratiques d’inclusion qui dévalue certains élèves et peut être décrit comme l’inclusion « de l’exclusion » (Liasidou, 2012, p. 171).

Si on met une lunette de pédagogie critique, l’inclusion peut être définie comme une op-portunité éducationnelle égale pour tous les élèves. D’un point de vue de la pédagogie critique, l’éducation spécialisée doit être reconceptualisée. Wedell (2008) défend un changement systémique où tous les élèves sont « admis comme des individus pour que la différence entre eux puisse être recon-nue sans préjudice » (p. 127). Ceci était aussi l’approche de Carl Orff. Jane Frazee (1978) dans son texte fondamental sur la philosophie selon Orff, élabore le respect des différences individuelles des élèves et supporte un modèle d’instruction qui utilise la variété et l’amplitude du médium Orff pour engager et donner des opportunités équitables et significatives pour une riche diversité d’apprenants.

Toutefois, le placement de ces élèves qui ont des handicaps ou des difficultés d’apprentissage dans nos classes Orff en utilisant une approche selon Orff n’assure pas nécessairement que nous créons un en-vironnement éducatif d’opportunités égales pour tous les apprenants. La recherche suggère que ce qu’on appelle « l’inclusion, laisse place souvent à un enseignement ré-gulier inchangé et concerne l’implantation de certaines pratiques d’éducation spécial-isée dans la classe régulière » (Nilholm & Alm, 2010, p. 240). L’inclusion ne fait pas référence à l’endroit où est situé l’élève, mais plutôt sur la façon dont l’enseignant s’assure que chaque élève vive un sentiment d’appartenance, une place égale parmi la communauté des apprenants, un pouvoir équitable dans sa communauté, la valeur de chaque élève et des diverses façons de percevoir et connaître. L’inclusion ne fait pas référence aux méthodes particulières, aux approches ou contenus, l’inclusion exige des opportunités d’apprentissage riches et complexes pour tous les élèves dans leur quête de justice sociale et personnelle (Kincheloe, 2004).

6 Ostinato

On doit se demander si nous voyons ces dif-férences dans nos classes comme un atout ou si nous les voyons comme un problème (Nilholm & Alm, 2010). On doit questionner pour qui s’adresse l’importance des valeurs et politiques dans nos classes. Comment pouvons-nous « étendre ce qui est accessible de façon ordinaire dans la communauté de notre classe comme un moyen de réduire le besoin de marquer certains élèves comme étant différents » (Florian & Black-Hawkins, 2011, p. 826)? Thomas (2013) croit que le temps est opportun pour un nouveau discours et de nouveaux concepts de l’éducation inclusive sans les doctrines et clichés des temps passés. J’espère que les articles de cette édition d’Ostinato donneront des pos-sibilités et potentiels pour nos lecteurs dans leur quête pour une pédagogie critique de l’éducation inclusive.

RéférencesCassidy, J. W., & Colwell, C. M. (2012). Univer-sity students’ perceptions of an inclusive music production. Journal of Music Teacher Education, 21(2), 28-40.

Florian, L., & Black-Hawkins, K. (2011). Ex-ploring inclusive pedagogy. British Educational Research Journal, 37(5), 813-828.

Frazee, J., with Kreuter, K. (1987). Discovering Orff: A curriculum for music teachers. Schott & Co. Ltd.

Kincheloe, J. L. (2004). Critical pedagogy: Primer. Peter Lang Pub Incorporated.

Liasidou, A. (2012). Inclusive education and critical pedagogy at the intersections of disability, race, gender and class. Journal for Critical Educa-tion Policy Studies, 10(1), 168-184.

Macartney, B. C. (2012). Teaching through an eth-ics of belonging, care and obligation as a critical approach to transforming education. International Journal of Inclusive Education, 16(2), 171-183.

Nilholm, C., & Alm, B. (2010). An inclusive classroom? A case study of inclusiveness, teacher strategies, and children’s experiences. European Journal of Special Needs Education, 25(3), 239-252.

Peters, B. (2011). A formative study of rhythm and pattern: semiotic potential of multimodal experiences for early years readers. (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/1993/4855

Ravet, J. (2011). Inclusive/exclusive? Contra-dictory perspectives on autism and inclusion: the case for an integrative position. International Journal of Inclusive Education, 15(6), 667-682.

Runswick‐Cole, K. (2011). Time to end the bias towards inclusive education? British Journal of Special Education, 38(3), 112-119.

Salvador, K. (2010). Who isn’t a special learner? A survey of how music teacher education programs prepare future educators to work with exceptional populations. Journal of Music Teacher Education, 20(1), 27-38.

Thomas, G, (2013). A review of thinking and research about inclusive education policy, with suggestions for a new kind of inclusive thinking. British Educational Research Journal iFirst Arti-cle, 1-18. doi: 10.1080/01411926.2011.652070

Urveti, R. (Illus.). (2012). I saw a peacock with a fiery tail. Chennai, India: Tara Books.

Wedell, K. (2008). Confusion about inclusion: patching up or system change?. British Journal of Special Education, 35(3), 127-135.

Beryl Peters was winner of the 2012 Arts Researchers and Teachers Society Doctoral Graduate Research Award. This award is offered for a dissertation in the area of arts research and teaching and is open to gradu-ates of Canadian Universities or Canadians who have studied abroad. She received the award at the Canadian Society for the Study of Education Conference May, 2012 in Wat-erloo, Ontario.

Beryl’s thesis was A Formative Study of Rhythm and Pattern: Semiotic Potential of Multimodal Experiences for Early Years, Readers University of Manitoba, working with supervisor Dr. Kelvin Seifert.

Edited Reviewer Comments:This is a hugely ambitious, well-designed study which examines multimodal, multidisciplinary meaning-making through atten-tion to rhythm as an aid to reading skills. Peters’ work is eloquently expressed and carefully documented, with interesting summar-ies. The use of jazz components as a springboard for discussion was fittingly rich! ABSTRACT: The geographies of rhythm are

Carl Orff Canada President Wins Prestigious Award

1 www.cssearts.com/2012-winners.html (May 5, 2013)

Beryl holding her prize, art painted by Jennifer Pazienza

found in nature, place, and body, and “shape human experience in timespace” (Edensor, 2010, p. 1). The question addressed in this study is what potential the semiotic resource and geography of rhythm has to engage early-years children in print and non-print literacy learning. The study investigates the problem of finding alternate multimodal pathways for learning in both reading and music for all early-years children, particularly those who may struggle with traditional pedagogical approaches to reading. The guiding theoretical framework is drawn from a “chorus of agents provocateurs” (Zwicky, 1992, p. ix) including literature and research from the domains of reading, music, the arts, music education, semiotics, multiliteracies, multimodal semiotics, crea-tivity and flow studies, play, embodied learning, neuroscience, and complexity thinking. 1

Ostinato readers enjoyed an article based on Beryl’s thesis in the Spring 2012 issue: “Lessons and Learnings from Carl Orff: Viewing Diversity as a Resource.”

Congratulations to Beryl from everyone in the COC!

Vol. 39, No. 3, Spring 2013 7

À la rencontre d’un élève qui a un TED1 (autisme) en classe de musique

Quand un être humain vient au monde, aucun manuel d’instruction ne l’accompagne. Dès son arrivée, sa quête d’identité commence. À un mo-ment ou à un autre, le contact avec les gens de son entourage, aidé par sa capacité d’imitation, fait son oeuvre : l’enfant, comme tous les autres, s’identifie aux siens et se construit.

Pour nous, parents ou pédagogues, tout cela est bien rassurant. Faute de mode d’emploi, nous comptons sur cette trajectoire développementale commune à tous pour suivre l’enfant dans son développement. Nous avons, en quelque sorte, un modèle, une référence commune, à commencer par l’être humain que nous sommes.

En pédagogie musicale, cette forme de « stabilité » nous permet de concevoir des programmes, d’utiliser des approches et une progres-sion pédagogique qui correspondent à cette évolution connue des pédagogues. Mais qu’en est-il lorsque nous perdons nos points de repère? Lorsque l’être humain devant nous semble, à première vue, fondamentalement différent de ce que nous sommes?

Heureusement, pour les enfants qui ont un TED comme pour nous, nous avons comme point de départ la recherche pour nous guider dans notre démarche. Si nous ne savons pas encore aujourd’hui quelle est la cause de l’autisme, nous savons que les personnes qui en sont atteintes ont toutes, à des degrés différents, des traits en commun. Je fais référence ici à la trilogie autistique : déficit de la communication verbale ou non verbale, déficit au niveau des relations sociales et des capacités d’interactions et enfin, des manifestations comportementales telles que des intérêts restreints, des stéréotypies et un désir d’immuabilité.

La personne autiste a cette difficulté d’être parmi les autres, d’être consciente de son « soi-vivant-une-expérience » 2 dans l’ici et maintenant. Elle a du mal à comprendre nos conventions qui, très souvent, ne font aucun sens pour elle. Comme si elle avait du mal à décoder et comprendre la vie et son environnement. Selon Baron-Cohen, la personne autiste, à des intensités variables et différentes selon les atteintes, manifeste en quelque sorte une « cécité mentale » 3. Or, la comparaison ici est tentante : ne manifestons-nous pas également une forme de « cécité mentale » lorsque nous sommes en présence d’un enfant ayant un TED (autisme) à qui nous devons enseigner la musique ? Autrement dit, voyons-nous clair dans sa manière d’être et de faire afin de choisir une approche pédagogique qui lui convient ?

J’ai tenté une expérience dans le cadre d’un de mes cours de deux-ième cycle au DESS en intervention éducative auprès des élèves TED à l’UQAM. Il nous était demandé de créer une activité de

sensibilisation pour cette clientèle dans notre milieu scolaire. Or, mon choix s’est arrêté spontanément sur les étudiants de mon groupe universitaire, tous des titulaires de classe en adaptation scolaire au préscolaire, au primaire ou au secondaire pour la clientèle TED (je suis la seule spécialiste en musique dans ce groupe). J’ai voulu par-tager avec eux une découverte que j’avais faite quelques semaines auparavant qui a eu un impact majeur sur ma manière d’enseigner à ces enfants. Pour ce faire, l’idée du jeu de rôle me semblait ap-propriée. Je les ai donc jumelés deux par deux : l’un d’eux jouait le rôle de l’enseignant en musique et l’autre, celui de l’élève TED. Les réactions n’ont pas tardé : « Mais... nous ne sommes pas des enseignants en musique !!! Comment allons-nous faire ? » Je les ai rassurés en leur expliquant que la matière enseignée n’avait pas d’importance ici. Qu’il valait même mieux qu’ils baignent dans une situation nouvelle, loin de toute influence d’approches pédagogiques connues qui, en temps normal, les guident et les rassurent dans leur pratique quotidienne auprès de ces élèves. Après cette courte période de discussion, l’activité a commencé. Chaque membre de l’équipe recevait une enveloppe différente selon leur rôle respectif. Le contenu des enveloppes, qui devait être gardé secret entre les participants, est présenté ci-dessous :

L’enseignant de musiqueMise en situationVous travaillez aujourd’hui en classe spéciale avec un groupe d’élèves qui ont un TED de bas niveau, c’est-à-dire qu’en plus des symptômes de base (la trilogie autistique), les enfants manifestent plusieurs limites intellectuelles. Le groupe est formé de 5 élèves. Un TES les accompagne. Vous faites travailler les enfants en ateliers individuels au sein de votre classe de musique. Pendant ce temps, vous voyez chaque élève un à un et vous avez comme objectif de leur apprendre à jouer « Au clair de la lune » au xylophone. Pendant que vous voyez chaque enfant dans votre espace d’enseignement, le TES s’occupe de gérer les 4 autres élèves qui sont dans les autres ateliers. Vous disposez de 10 min/élève.

Votre tâcheVous voici en face de Charlotte, 6 ans, TED de bas niveau. Vous ne la connaissez pas encore. Vous ne savez rien de ses forces ni de ses difficultés musicales, académiques et comportementales puisque son enseignant n’a pas eu le temps de vous transmettre les informations à son sujet. Aujourd’hui, et pour les autres cours qui suivront, vous avez planifié lui apprendre les 6 premières notes de la chanson « Au clair de la lune » au xylophone pour qu’elle puisse éventuellement les reproduire seule. L’enveloppe contient tout le matériel pédagogique nécessaire pour cette première leçon. Vous disposez de quelques minutes pour vous préparer suivies de 10 minutes de rencontre avec Charlotte.

Matériel pédagogique de l’enseignant en musique contenu dans l’enveloppe : • Paroles de la chanson « Au clair de la lune »• Images de la chanson « Au clair de la lune »• Des papiers buvards• Du papier collant• De la gommette• Des ciseaux

Nathalie Jacques

1 TED pour trouble envahissant du développement. Cet acronyme changera sous peu pour TSA ou trouble du spectre de l’autisme. L’autisme fait partie de la famille des TED.2 Jordan, R., Powell, S., (1997), « Les enfants autistes, les comprendre, les intégrer à l’école », Paris : Masson ; chapitre 6, p. 1093 www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/en-fan_0013-7545_1999_num_52_3_3153

8 Ostinato

Grille d’observation de l’enseignant (élaborée par Nathalie Jacques)Répondre aux questions suivantes : Pendant l’atelier de xylophone avec Charlotte, vous avez remarqué que...

Oui Non Peut-être Je ne sais pas

1. Charlotte comprend les consignes

2. Charlotte fait des phrases complètes

3. Charlotte s’exprime avec quelques mots seument

4. Charlotte reconnaît les lettres

5. Charlotte reconnaît les chiffres

6. Charlotte reconnaît les couleurs

7. Charlotte sait lire la musique

8. Charlotte éprouve des problèmes à tenir son maillet

9. Charlotte semble plus à l’aise de jouer avec sa main gauche

10. Charlotte reste bien assise sur sa chaise

11. Je sais quand et pourquoi Charlotte fait du flapping avec ses mains

12. Charlotte est capable de fredonner « Au clair de la lune »

13. Charlotte chante «Au clair de la lune» avec toutes les paroles

14. Charlotte chante «Au clair de la lune» en insérant quelques paroles

15. Charlotte n’a pas de rythme

1 banderole de pastilles de couleurs

1 banderole avec le nom des notes

Do Ré Mi Fa Sol La Si Do

1 banderole avec les chiffres de 1 à 8

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

1 banderole avec les notes de musique dans la portée

Caractéristiques :

Ses difficultés :• Elle parle peu, elle dit quelques mots seulement (aucune

phrase complète) mais elle comprend les consignes• Elle ne reconnaît pas les lettres ni les chiffres• Elle a des problèmes de motricité fine (elle ne parvient

pas à tenir une baguette de xylophone)• Lorsqu’elle est assise sur une chaise, elle est agitée, elle

secoue ses mains dans les airs («flapping») et elle cherche s’asseoir par terre en indien. Cette position la calme.

Ses forces :• Elle aime beaucoup la chanson «Au clair de la lune».

Elle la frappe dans ses mains lorsqu’elle l’entend. • Elle est capable de fredonner l’air au complet en y

ajoutant quelques mots ici et là.• Elle sait lire la musique • Elle connaît bien ses couleurs• Elle a un très bon sens du rythme

Les participants disposaient d’une dizaine de minutes pour lire les consignes et se préparer à jouer leur rôle. Ils se sont ensuite placés avec leur partenaire pour vivre l’expérience pendant une autre dizaine de minutes. À la fin de l’activité, j’ai demandé à ceux qui jouaient le rôle de l’élève avec un TED de se retirer. Par surprise, j’ai distribué et fait remplir le questionnaire suivant aux enseignants qui jouaient le rôle du professeur de musique :

• 1 feuille de papier vierge • 1 crayon à la mine

L’élève qui a un TED (personnage fictif)Nom : Charlotte, 6 ans, TED de bas niveau, c’est-à-dire qu’en plus des symptômes de base (la trilogie autistique), Charlotte manifeste plusieurs limites intellectuelles.

Vol. 39, No. 3, Spring 2013 9

Résultats de l’activité : tous les participants qui jouaient le rôle de l’enseignant en musique, sans exception, ont adapté minutieuse-ment leur xylophone à l’aide du matériel mis à leur disposition avant l’arrivée de leur élève. L’intention de départ était bonne et astucieuse : adapter l’instrument de musique pour faciliter l’apprentissage de la chanson, chacun appréhendant à sa façon les difficultés à venir et les stratégies pour les contrer, cela en fonction de ses connaissances et des expériences acquises avec le temps auprès des autistes. Or, aucun enseignant ne connaissait les forces et les difficultés académiques, musicales et comportementales de Charlotte avant qu’ait lieu cette première rencontre. Lorsque le jeu de rôle a débuté, les choses ont commencé à se compliquer. Tel que prévu, les participants de toutes les dyades qui jouaient le rôle de Charlotte refusaient de s’asseoir sur leur chaise, faisaient du «flapping», échappaient leur maillet de xylophone, s’exprimaient difficilement verbalement, etc. Les fous rires n’ont pas tardé à se faire entendre dans la salle, mais le malaise était palpable, chaque personne qui jouait l’enseignant de musique ne sachant trop quoi faire avec son élève. Tout ce qu’ils avaient prévu dans leur démarche pédagogique fonctionnait peu ou pas du tout. Quand ils ont appris que Charlotte savait lire la musique, tous se sont mis à rire et à réfléchir à voix haute: «C’est vrai, ces enfants sont surprenants parfois! On a même pas pensé vérifier, à l’aide du matériel qui était mis à notre disposition, les capacités de Charlotte...!» Quant au questionnaire surprise, plusieurs ont avoué ne pas avoir porté attention à plus de la moitié des critères pendant le jeu de rôle tant ils étaient absorbés par la démarche pédagogique qu’ils avaient choisie pour enseigner à leur élève.

C’est à la suite de cette expérience que je leur ai fait part d’une réflexion toute simple qui a changé ma vie en matière de pédago-gie musicale auprès de ces enfants: observer d’abord, adapter ou modifier nos approches pédagogiques ensuite, s’il y a lieu. Parce qu’il y a autant de façons de faire en éducation musicale qu’il y a d’élèves qui ont un TED. Et il en est de même pour toutes les matières enseignées à l’école. Tout comme nous, les élèves ayant un TED ne viennent pas au monde avec un manuel d’instruction. Mais une chose est sûre: tout comme nous également, ces élèves ont appris et ils apprennent tous les jours. Seulement, leurs lunettes sont différentes des nôtres. C’est à nous, pédagogues, d’aller à leur rencontre pour tenter de voir la vie à travers leurs yeux. Et pour chacun de ces élèves, nous pourrons adapter notre approche afin de la rendre accessible et significative pour l’enfant. Afin d’illustrer ces propos, je reprendrai l’exemple de Charlotte et de sa courte leçon au xylophone pour partager avec vous ce que je ferais aujourd’hui dans cette situation.

Observer d’abordJ’utiliserais notre première rencontre pour recueillir des informa-tions. Bien sûr, cette cueillette de données peut se faire de différentes façons, en fonction du contexte de votre classe et de ce que vous cherchez à obtenir comme renseignement. Pour ma part, voici les étapes que je suivrais:

1. Observer d’abord quelques instants Charlotte, assise à mes côtés. Le xylophone est caché sous un drap afin de ne pas influencer son comportement. Comment se comporte-t-elle? Semble-t-elle accepter ma présence? Me porte-t-elle intérêt? Peut-elle communiquer? Peut-elle interagir avec moi? S’exprime-t-elle verbalement? Manifeste-t-elle des comporte-ments étranges? etc. Concernant les connaissances de Charlotte

(lettres, chiffres, couleurs, notes de musique, etc), je prendrais le temps de les vérifier tout simplement en utilisant du matériel pédagogique semblable à celui contenu dans l’enveloppe. Je lui demanderais de me donner, par exemple, le chiffre 3, le carré bleu, le carré rouge, la note «ré», la note de musique «la», etc. Je chanterais «Au clair de la lune» en observant si elle connait la chanson, si elle chante avec moi. Si Charlotte le fait, je peux porter attention à la qualité de sa voix: la justesse et la souplesse de sa voix chantée, la présence de modulations vocales ou non, etc. Puis, je vérifierais si elle comprend bien les paroles de la chanson «Au clair de la lune» en l’encourageant à me montrer les images au fur et à mesure que je la chante. Au préalable, je placerais les images dans le désordre.

2. Observer Charlotte improviser seule au xylophone, sans aucune contrainte, afin d’obtenir son portrait musical à l’instrument:

Aspect technique du jeu instrumental:

• Joue-t-elle à deux mains, un maillet dans chaque main? Y a-t-il alternance des mains dans son jeu? Tient-elle ses maillets avec rigidité, avec souplesse ou mollement? Est-elle latéralisée? A-t-elle du mal à tenir le ou les maillets? Etc.

La mélodie:

• Semble-t-il y avoir présence de recherche mélodique ou le jeu semble plutôt exécuté de façon aléatoire?

• S’il y a présence d’une mélodie, est-elle organisée? Y a-t-il de petites cellules mélodiques qui se répètent?

• Y a-t-il de la variété dans son jeu mélodique ou joue-t-elle continuellement les mêmes notes?

• Utilise-t-elle l’instrument de façon mélodique ou plutôt comme une percussion? Etc.

Le rythme:

• Son jeu spontané au xylophone est-il organisé ryth-miquement? (par exemple, présence de petites cellules rythmiques qui se répètent) Etc.

Les nuances:

• Son jeu musical est-il nuancé? Joue-t-elle avec les pianissimo et les fortissimo par exemple? Fait-elle des crescendo, des decrescendo? Utilise-t-elle différentes intensités? Etc.

Le tempo:

• Y a-t-il de la variété dans la vitesse d’exécution de son improvisation?

3. M’introduire dans le jeu musical de Charlotte:• Accepte-t-elle que je joue sur son xylophone avec elle?• Comprend-elle le concept du tour de rôle?• Reprend-elle spontanément quelques idées musicales

que j’exécute? (imitation)

10 Ostinato

Adapter ensuiteDurant mes observations, je ne perds pas de vue mon objectif pre-mier qui est de lui enseigner les 6 premières notes de la chanson «Au clair de la lune». Mine de rien, nous en avons déjà commencé l’apprentissage en la chantant ensemble. Seulement, le reste de ma démarche va différer de celle que j’aurais choisie spontanément si je n’étais pas passée par cette cueillette d’informations. Pour com-mencer, j’adapterais les maillets du xylophone en grossissant les manches pour lui permettre de bien les tenir puisque j’aurais remarqué que Charlotte les échappe continuellement. Ensuite, je me serais assise par terre avec Charlotte puisque cela semble beaucoup plus confortable pour elle et qu’elle se calme dans cette position. Enfin, je choisirais, dès le départ, d’introduire la partition musicale pour lui enseigner les notes et la mélodie au xylophone puisque j’aurais découvert, à mon grand étonnement (!), que Charlotte sait lire la musique! L’exemple est peut-être un peu exagéré, j’en conviens, mais il sert à illustrer le fait qu’avec ses enfants, rien n’est impossible.

ConclusionPrendre ce temps d’observation avec l’enfant qui a un TED, c’est lui donner la chance de partir de ce qu’il sait, de ce qu’il aime et de ce qu’il est capable de faire dans l’ici et maintenant, toujours dans le but de l’amener plus loin dans ses apprentissages et de faire en sorte qu’ils soient significatifs pour lui. Cela permet également de choisir et d’adapter notre approche pédagogique en fonction de sa trajectoire développementale qui diffère de l’enfant dit «neurotyp-ique» ou «normal». Aussi, nous devons toujours garder en tête que cette trajectoire peut évoluer très rapidement, du jour au lendemain. Par conséquent, nous ferons en sorte que nos interventions péda-gogiques se modifient en même temps que son évolution, selon nos observations et en fonction de la relation qui s’installe entre lui et nous au fil des semaines. Surtout, il faut éviter les jugements sans fondements et toujours aller à la rencontre de l’élève qui est autiste en gardant les yeux, les oreilles, le coeur et l’esprit bien ouverts.

Nathalie Jacquesnjacques2@videotron.caEnseignante en musique à la CSAAnimatrice d’ateliers de pédagogie musicale pour la clientèle EHDAAActuellement étudiante au DESS en intervention éducative auprès des TED à l’UQAM

Un merci tout spécial à Delphine Odier-Guedj et à Jean Horvais, professeurs au département d’éducation et formation spécialisées de l’UQAM, pour leur contribution à la révision de cet article.

Vol. 39, No. 3, Spring 2013 11

Because Everyone Deserves to Make Meaningful Music!Courtney Richard

In the years that I have spent as an elementary music specialist, I have come to realize that there is nothing that surmounts the look of pure joy that comes across children’s faces as they connect with the music they are creating. We do not become music educators because we feel that teaching a whole school of students is more exciting than teaching just one class, or because we want to bask in the applause at the end of a big performance, or because we want to receive accolades from parents or administration. We become music educators because we have a passion for music, a passion that we share with our students. There is a desire for our students to develop not only an understanding of musical concepts and the skills that are needed to create music, but more importantly a desire for our students to develop a connection to music that only grows with time. And shouldn’t all students be given this same opportun-ity? Shouldn’t our students with exceptionalities be involved in creating meaningful music as we encourage our so-called “normal” or “able-bodied” students to do? Of course the answer is yes, but the problem lies in understanding where to begin. This article has been written with students who have physical, developmental, communicative, visual, and auditory challenges in mind.

Understanding the History It has only been in the last 50 to 60 years that we have seen signifi-cant changes in how our educational systems approach teaching students with exceptionalities. Edmunds and Edmunds note that “The passage of wide-sweeping laws to change special education practices started in the late 1960s, had its heyday in the 1970s, and it carries on today as educational perceptions about best practices continually evolve” (2008, p. 15).

In 1975, Public Law (PL) 94-142 was passed in the United States. It was the first piece of legislation “that specifically mandated a free and appropriate public education for all students with special needs” (Hammel & Hourigan, 2011, p. 26). It seems that it was this law that initiated the movement of students with exceptional-ities into inclusive environments (Adamek, 2001, p. 23), with the requirement “that all students with special needs be educated in the least restrictive environment” (Edmunds & Edmunds, 2008, p. 16). Then, in 1990, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) was passed and served to update “the previous laws to help ensure that special-needs students were receiving an equal education in an inclusive setting whenever possible” (Mazur, 2004, p. 6). This was also the first piece of legislation that applied person-first language (Edmunds & Edmunds, 2008), which is something that all educators are encouraged to apply in their classrooms so as “to affirm that the student is more than the disability” (Adamek & Darrow, 2010, p. 10).

Though both PL 94-142 and IDEA were pieces of legislation passed in the United States, “the practice of educating students with exceptionalities in Canada is so similar to the practices in the United States that not many individuals, even educators, would be able to tell the difference” (Edmunds & Edmunds, 2008, p.18). Therefore, whether integrated into regular classrooms or enrolled in self-contained classrooms, educators across Canada need to be prepared to teach students with exceptionalities who are and will continue to be entering their classrooms. As Hutchinson (2010) states:

In Canada, early in the twenty-first century, being a classroom teacher means you are certain to have exceptional children or adolescents in your classes…This is because, as a country, we have made a commitment to the inclusion and participation of persons with disabilities in Canadian society. (p. xix)

For music educators, however, there is an added challenge when it comes to the inclusion of students with exceptionalities in the music classroom. With so many students and a limit to the time that we have to spend with each class, how can we ensure that we are meeting the needs of each student who walks through the door of the music room?

Role of the Music EducatorThere are three key aspects to understanding one’s role as a music educator when teaching students with exceptionalities:

1. Music educators need, above all, to have an understanding of the students with exceptionalities who are entering their classrooms. What are their strengths and limitations? What are their likes and dislikes? Understanding the student will help the music educator to choose whether and what adaptations need to be put in place, how she/he can create opportunities for success, and the ways in which she/he can connect with the students to motivate them in their musical journey.

2. Music educators need to be aware that in order to reach the students with exceptionalities in their classrooms, they may need to make changes to how they teach, what they teach, and the space that they teach in (Winzer, 2008).

3. Music educators need to accept and embrace students with exceptionalities in their classrooms and believe that there is value in providing them with a music education. Such an attitude must be unwavering for “it is our responsibility to promote a positive social environment for all our students, regardless of the challenges they face” (Hammel & Hourigan, 2011, p. 104).

Communicating and ConnectingAdamek (2001) advises that “The first step in working effectively with students who have special needs is to find out as much infor-mation as one can about individual students” (p. 24). This can seem a daunting task for music educators who teach so many different students. However, developing an initial understanding of the students with exceptionalities we teach can prevent future frustra-tions. There are four key areas that music educators can consider to support this process:

1. Individual Education Plans (IEPs). Rose (2005) suggests that “Because music teachers serve so many students, it is unrealistic for them to be fully connected to the typical av-enues of communication about children with special needs” (p. 35) and the music educator should turn to the student’s IEP to acquire needed information. Accessing the IEP will enable a music educator to cultivate a deeper understanding of the student, making her/him better equipped to meet the needs of and create meaningful music experiences for the student. Rose (2005) advises that sending a message to each classroom

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teacher requesting a list of which students are on IEPs is a good place to begin.

2. Special education or classroom teachers. Most of a student’s instructional time is spent with her/his classroom teacher, whether that is a regular classroom teacher or a special education teacher. Therefore, these teachers can provide music educators with valuable information about a student with exceptionalities that may not be gained in the limited time that they have to spend with these students. McCord and Watts suggest that for a music educator to create collaborative opportunities and to become involved in the IEP process, she/he must be proactive (2010, p. 84) and that support from administration is needed (2006, p. 28).

3. Paraprofessionals (also known as Educational Assistants). Paraprofessionals do not always accompany students with ex-ceptionalities to music, but when they do, they can be a great asset to the music educator. Not only can these individuals “support the music educator’s teaching and actively engage the student in music learning” (McCord & Watts, 2006, p. 30), but they can also pass information and suggestions back and forth between the music room and the classroom (McCord & Watts, 2006). However, in order for a paraprofessional to best support students in the music classroom, communication between the paraprofessional and the music educator is key (Darrow, 2010). Consider supplying lesson plans to paraprofes-sionals ahead of time , outlining the activities that will be done in class and ways in which the paraprofessional can assist the student(s) with exceptionalities or all students in general. Most paraprofessionals want to help, but may not know how they can assist students with the unique activities that unfold in a music classroom, particularly if they feel that they have little experience in the area of music to begin with.

4. Parents. Despite the fact that music educators may teach hundreds of students and communication with parents may be difficult, in order to maintain the support of families, it is important that the music educator maintain a positive relation-ship with parents of students with exceptionalities, taking time to share successes in the music classroom (Fitzgerald, 2006; Hammel & Hourigan, 2011).

Students with Exceptionalities and the Orff ApproachWhen I began my teaching career, I had no doubt that I wanted my students to experience musical learning through the Orff approach; I was drawn to the student-centered and creative aspects of this approach. However, it was not until I was well into completing my Master of Education degree and actively researching music educa-tion for students with exceptionalities that I realized how beneficial this approach is for differentiating learning to reach all students.

The creativity, flexibility, and use of multimodalities encouraged within the Orff approach enable music educators to adapt activities for all age and ability levels while still maintaining the value and integrity of each activity. Bevans (1969) elaborates upon this idea, stating that the value of the Orff approach “is that its flexibility affords opportunity for maximum musical participation and encour-ages creative contributions by students at whatever proficiency and interest levels they bring to the music class” (p. 42). Furthermore, because the Orff approach involves the use of a number of media, rather than solely using the voice, nonverbal children can become equal participants as they find alternative means of expressing

themselves (McRae, 1982, p. 33). Due to this flexibility created within an Orff program, it is possibly one of few times throughout the school day where students with exceptionalities are viewed as equal participants (McRae, 1982). It may take extra time and con-sideration on the part of the Orff teacher to plan for the strengths of all students to ensure that everyone is successful in creating meaningful music, but the rewards gained as a result of this are well worth the extra work.

Tips for Meeting All Needs in the Music ClassroomMy first year of teaching was largely spent trying to create interest-ing and motivating musical experiences for my students, while at the same time, trying to keep my own head above water. On top of this, I was also assigned to teaching Music to two classes of students with exceptionalities, a considerable challenge considering that I had little background knowledge, training, or understanding of how to reach these students. I had been told by my administration that the previous music teacher had been successful with action songs and singing games with these students, so that is what I did. However, in spite of my efforts, I could not help but wonder what more I could offer these students. Had I been successful in engaging them in musical activities? Absolutely. Had I been successful in engaging them in meaningful musical activities? Not so much.

As I have gained more knowledge, skills, and experience in teach-ing students with exceptionalities in my music classroom, I have changed, adapted, and added key elements to how I teach in order to provide optimal musical learning opportunities for all of my students. I began to realize that with the right adaptations and sup-ports, my students with exceptionalities would be able to achieve more than I ever thought possible. Such adaptations can be split into two different categories:

• Accommodations, which are “provisions made in how a stu-dent accesses and demonstrates learning” (Wass, 2004, p. 78).

• Modifications, which “are substantial changes in what a student is expected to learn and demonstrate” (Wass, 2004, p.78).

Examples of frequent adaptations that I use within my classroom to support my students with exceptionalities include:

1. Providing pictorial and/or word outlines of the activities that will be conducted in class at the beginning of the lesson. For students who have learning disabilities, this provides “a general framework for material that they are to learn, helping them relate it to what they already know and thus forming more efficient neural networks” (de l’Etoile, 2005, p. 39). Note that many of our special educators use programs like Boardmaker to create picture communication symbols for their students; these pictorial symbols can also be carried forward into cueing different activities in the music classroom.

2. Use of visuals to help direct activities and provide nonverbal students with the chance to make choices in music. Examples include: beat and rhythm visuals, numerals for providing numeric choices when applicable, tempo cards for choosing tempos, Boardmaker pictures of different body parts to direct movement or beat-keeping activities, rhythm cards, melody cards, etc.

3. SMARTBoard documents that help with directing classroom activities. Examples include: an instrument spinner for choos-

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ing non-pitched percussion instruments to use in class, a timer, dice, etc.

4. Use of music manipulatives to experience concepts kinesthet-ically and show tactile understanding of concepts when paper and pencil might not be an option.

5. Use of auditory cues and sign language to signal transitions between activities.

6. Adaptors for instruments to allow for students with physical disabilities to play.

Adapting How and What is Taught, the Classroom Environment, and Teacher Actions to Facilitate Learning• Participation. Allow students to participate at different levels and degrees of involvement.

• Input. Adapt how instruction is given to the students.

• Output. Adapt the ways that students are able to respond to what they are learning.

• Difficulty. Adapt the difficulty level, or ways of completing a task, within the classroom.

• Time. Adapt the time needed to finish activities or the time given when working on learning something new.

• Size. Adapt the quantity of things to be completed or addressed by the learner.

• Alternate Goals. Modify expectations for students when there are no changes to the material.

• Substitute Curriculum. Use materials that meet the needs of the student.

• Physical Space. Arrange the classroom in a way that addresses all students’ needs.

• Adaptive Instruments. Choose instruments that students are able to play, or adapt instruments so that they can be played.

• Level of Support. Provide students with outside support as needed.

• Provide multi-modal lessons that address all types of learning styles.

• Stay strong in your belief that students with exceptionalities can achieve. Do not doubt their ability to suc-ceed.

• Use activities that are suitable to the age of the students.

• Be willing to change or vary plans/lessons as needed.

• Create bonds with students and get to know them as much as possible.

• Create routines and structure within the classroom.

• Stay positive.

• Collaborate with others within the school to ensure that you are meeting students’ needs.

• Give feedback and reinforcement to students on a regular basis.

• Be supportive, patient, kind, and light-hearted when teaching.

7. Repetition and structure. Following the same structure of activ-ities in every class is helpful to my students with exceptionalities who do well with routine (Birkenshaw-Fleming, 1993). Each week, we focus on one theme and all the songs and activities of the week are related to our weekly theme. Our lesson starts with a hello song, followed by a poem, action song, instrument activity, musical activity, movement activity, and ends with a goodbye song. Each month I also choose a small selection of concepts and skills that I believe can be mastered by the students; in each lesson I include within my plans objectives that will help us in achieving these goals.

Some general adaptations to consider are:

Adapting InstrumentsOne of the most influential changes to my program which assisted me with tapping into the musical abilities of my students with exceptionalities was creating physical adaptations for playing the instruments.

The very nature of the barred instruments, with the possibility for bars to be taken off (Bevans, 1969) and instruments to be set up in pentatonic scales, makes them ideal for students with exception-alities. Whether it is a set pattern or improvisation on the instru-ments, whether it is a single note that is played or all five tones of the pentatonic scale, music can be created without feeling that

Note: Summarized from Adamek & Darrow, 2010, p. 67-76

there is something lacking or incomplete (Bevans, 1969, p. 43). However, for some students, playing the barred instruments is not an option until adaptations have been made to the mallets in order to facilitate playing. Consider the following (S. Paziuk, personal communication, October 18, 2011):

“Sticks can…be wrapped with tape or foam rubber to facilitate handling” (Hammel, 2004, p. 35). This is shown with mallets in Figures 1 and 2. The adaptations in these photos were made using pipe insulation and elastic cut to the appropriate size. It is also possible to purchase adaptive mallets—these may have shorter handles and augmented grip pieces or handles in the

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shape of a T (McCord, 2009). Mallets with a T-handle are com-mercially available and can be found at www.westmusic.com (click Orff, then Orff Mallets & Sticks, then Adaptive).

Figure 1. Mallet adaptation using using pipe insulation.

Figure 2. Playing a glockenspiel with mallets adapted using pipe insulation.

Sewing pockets along knitted cuffs allows for a mallet to be inserted into the cuff and then played with any body part. The cuff can be worn on the wrist (Figure 3), arm, ankle, or foot (Figure 4) in order to be played. It is advisable to use dark coloured cuffs, as they are less likely to shown stains and discoloration with multiple uses.

Figure 3. Cuff for mallet worn on the wrist.

Figure 4. Cuff for mallet worn on the foot.

For students who have multiple physical impairments, bells can be sewn onto articles of clothing that correspond to body parts that the student can easily move. In doing this, students who have minimal motor control are still able to participate with their peers (Birkenshaw-Fleming, 1993).

Music stands can change the angle in which an instrument is played or can be used to suspend instruments from. The act of suspending instruments from music stands or other items is useful both to students in wheelchairs (Birkenshaw-Fleming, 1993) and also to students who have limited mobility or lack of grip in one of their hands. The tambourine in Figure 5 has been suspended from the music stand using a simple hook. Hooks can be purchased in vari-ous sizes. Some hooks have adhesive backings, while others are made with curves on both ends to enable the hook to both hang off of and hang onto something at the same time. Consider also simple adaptations, such as hanging a triangle from a music stand using an elastic band so that the triangle can still vibrate and create a ringing sound when struck.

Figure 5. Tambourine suspended from music stand using a hook.

Adhesive-backed Velcro (Hammel, 2004), clamps, Plasticine, rubber matting, or simple masking tape can be used to attach in-struments to a desk, table, or wheelchair tray to keep them from moving and shifting when playing (Birkenshaw-Fleming, 1993; McCord, 2008). Hammel (2004) also recommends the use of Vel-cro pieces to assist students with holding onto mallets or smaller instruments. To achieve this, one piece of Velcro would be attached

Vol. 39, No. 3, Spring 2013 15

to the instrument itself, while the corresponding piece of Velcro could be sewn onto a piece of elastic (Figures 6 and 7), a cuff (Figures 8 and 9), or onto the center of a palm glove (Chadwick & Clark, 1980, p. 58) for assisted hand-held use (Figures 10 and 11).

Figure 6. Velcro sewn to elastic ring.

Figure 7. Securing grip on rattle using Velcro elastic ring worn around the hand.

Figure 8. Velcro cuff worn on the wrist.

Figure 9. Securing grip on sandpaper block using Velcro cuff worn on the wrist.

Figure 10. Glove with Velcro sewn in the centre.

Figure 11. Securing grip on wood block using glove with Velcro sewn in the centre.

Consider purchasing adapted recorders for students with physical impairments. “Some companies produce recorders that can be played with one hand or by players with fewer than ten fingers” (Abramo, 2012, p.41). Visit www.aulosusa.com and click on Other Products or www.dolmetsch.com/goldseriesrecorders.htm to find out more.

Communication with occupational therapists who work with students with exceptionalities can also provide helpful ideas for ways to adapt instruments or other things in the music classroom to meet students’ needs.

References Abramo, J. (2012). Disability in the classroom: Current trends and im-pacts on music education. Music Educators Journal, 99(1), 39-45. doi: 10.1177/0027432112448824

Adamek, M.S., & Darrow, A. (2010). Music in special education (2nd ed.). Silver Spring, MD: The American Music Therapy Association, Inc.

Adamek, M.S. (2001). Meeting special needs in music class. Music Educa-tors Journal, 87(4), 23-26. Retrieved from JSTOR database. www.jstor.org/stable/3399720Bevans, J. (1969). The exceptional child and ORFF. Music Educators Journal, 55(7), 40-43+125-127. Retrieved from JSTOR database. www.jstor.org/stable/3392455Birkenshaw-Fleming, L. (1993). Music for all: Teaching music to people with special needs. Toronto, ON: Gordon V. Thompson Music.

Chadwick, D.M., & Clark, C.A. (1980). Adapting music instruments for the physically handicapped. Music Educators Journal, 67(3), 56-59. Retrieved from JSTOR database. www.jstor.org/stable/3400621Darrow, A. (2010). Working with paraprofessionals in the music classroom. General Music Today, 23(2), 35-37. doi: 10.1177/1048371309352345

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de l’Etoile, S.K. (2005). Teaching music to special learners: Children with disruptive behavior disorders. Music Educators Journal, 91(5), 37-43. doi: 10.2307/3400141

Edmunds, A. & Edmunds, G. (2008). Special education in Canada (1st ed.). USA: McGraw-Hill Ryerson Limited.

Fitzgerald, M. (2006). I send my best Matthew to school every day. Music Educators Journal, 92(4), 40-45. Retrieved from JSTOR database. www.jstor.org/stable/3401111Hagedorn, V.S. (2004). Including special learners: Providing meaning-ful participation in music class. General Music Today, 17(3), 44-50. doi: 10.1177/10483713040170030109

Hammel, A.M., & Hourigan, R.M. (2011). Teaching music to students with special needs: A label-free approach. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, Inc.

Hammel, A.M. (2004). Inclusion strategies that work. Music Educators Journal, 90(5), 33-37. Retrieved from JSTOR database. www.jstor.org/stable/3400021Hutchinson, N.L. (2010). Inclusion of exceptional learners in Canadian schools: A practical handbook for teachers (3rd ed.). Toronto, ON: Pearson Education Canada.

Mazur, K. (2004). An introduction to inclusion in the music classroom. General Music Today, 18(1), 6-11. doi: 10.1177/10483713040180010103

McCord, K.A., & Watts, E.H. (2010). Music educators’ involvement in the Individual Education Program process and their knowledge of assistive technology. UPDATE: Applications of Research in Music Education, 28(2), 79-85. doi: 10.1177/8755123310361683

McCord, K. (2009). Improvisatory musical experiences in the lives of children with severe disabilities. In J.L. Kerchner & C.R. Abril (Eds.), Musical Experience in Our Lives: Things we learn and meanings we make (pp.127-143). Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Education.

McCord, K. (2008). Orff Schulwerk and children with physical disabilities. Presented at the AOSA Conference, Charlotte, NC.

McCord, K., & Watts, E.H. (2006). Collaboration and access for our children: Music educators and special educators together. Music Educators Journal, 92(4), 26-33. Retrieved from JSTOR database. www.jstor.org/stable/3401109McRae, S. (1982). The Orff connection…Reaching the special child. Music Educators Journal, 68(8), 32-34. Retrieved from JSTOR database. www.jstor.org/stable/3395960Rose, L. (2005). A proactive strategy for working with children who have special needs. General Music Today, 19(1), 35. doi: 10.1177/10483713050190010110

Wass, J. (2004). Standards and the special learner. In E. Pontiff (Ed.), Spotlight on Making Music with Special Learners (pp.78-79). Reston, VA: MENC, the National Association for Music Education.

Winzer, M. (2008). Children with exceptionalities in Canadian classrooms (8th ed.). Toronto, ON: Pearson Education Canada.

Need to Know More?To get more information on adapting instruments for students with exceptionalities, consider:

• Chadwick, D.M., & Clark, C.A. (1980). Adapting mu-sic instruments for the physically handicapped. Music Educators Journal, 67(3), 56-59. Retrieved from JSTOR database. www.jstor.org/stable/3400621

• Darrow, A. (2012). Adaptive instruments for students with physical disabilities. General Music Today, 25(2), 44-46. Doi: 10.1177/1048371311423287

• www.livingmysong.org.uk/choosinginstruments.htm

To get more information on teaching music to students with exceptionalities, consider:

• Adamek, M.S., & Darrow, A. (2010). Music in special education (2nd ed.). Silver Spring, MD: The American Music Therapy Association, Inc.

• Atterbury, B.W. (1990). Mainstreaming exceptional learners in music. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

• Birkenshaw-Fleming, L. (1993). Music for all: Teaching music to people with special needs. Toronto, ON: Gordon V. Thompson Music.

• Darrow, A. (2008). Adaptations in the classroom: Ac-commodations and modifications, part II. General Music Today, 21(2), 32-34. doi: 10.1177/1048371308317089

• Darrow, A. (2007). Adaptations in the classroom: Accom-modations and modifications, part I. General Music Today, 20(3), 32-34. doi: 10.1177/10483713070200030108

• Hammel, A.M., & Hourigan, R.M. (2011). Teaching music to students with special needs: A label-free approach. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, Inc.

• McDowell, C. (2010). An adaption tool kit for teaching music. TEACHING Exceptional Children Plus, 6(3). Retrieved from EBSCOhost.

Courtney Richard is an elementary music specialist with Elk Island Public Schools in Sherwood Park, Alberta. She completed Orff Level II and her Masters degree at the University of Alberta, is a Member-At-Large for the Alberta Orff Chapter, and will be teaching movement for Orff Level I and II at the U of A in July 2013. Her passion for teaching music to students with exceptionalities led her to complete extensive research in this area as part of her Master of Education degree.

Vol. 39, No. 3, Spring 2013 17

Enseigner la musique aux enfants présentant certaines difficultés et certaines différences, ça s’apprend!Par Julie Savard

Depuis que j’enseigne à l’école primaire, j’ai toujours eu une ou deux classes qu’on appelle « difficiles ». Selon moi, ce terme est mal choisi. Donc, malgré une longue expérience auprès des classes spéciales, je suis souvent confrontée à des situations nouvelles qui m’obligent à remettre en question ma gestion de classe et mes stratégies pédagogiques. Vous me direz, c’est comme ça aussi dans les classes régulières! Tout à fait! Le premier conseil à donner à un enseignant ou une enseignante en musique qui débute avec une classe d’adaptation scolaire serait, selon moi, de ne pas hésiter à demander du soutien dans son milieu scolaire. Si vous constatez un problème sérieux avec un groupe, n’attendez pas que la situation dégénère avant de demander de l’aide. Voyons maintenant quelques petits trucs, pistes de réflexion et activités, issus de mon expérience personnelle.

J’ai surtout travaillé avec les classes de langage et les classes DGA (difficultés graves d’apprentissage). Tout d’abord, il est important d’aller chercher des informations auprès du titulaire de classe ou de la psychoéducatrice de l’école, concernant les enfants qui com-posent votre groupe. Par exemple, dans une classe de langage au 1er cycle, on peut retrouver des enfants ayant un trouble du langage écrit ou parlé, mais aussi, des enfants en difficultés d’apprentis-sage, en trouble de comportement (TC), et des enfants présentant différents types d’autisme. Le problème ici, c’est que ces enfants étant seulement au 1er cycle, les diagnostics sont souvent en cours de processus et pendant cette attente, on place les enfants dans ces classes qu’on appelle « classes de langage ». Dans les classes DGA, on retrouvera, par exemple, des enfants en difficulté d’apprentis-sage, en troubles de comportement (TC) et des enfants présentant le syndrome d’Asperger (type d’autisme). Une petite recherche en ce sens, faite en début d’année, vous aidera à adapter rapidement votre enseignement à cette clientèle différente.

Au 1er cycle, j’utilise beaucoup les routines (chants d’accueil, chants de bienvenue), le travail en cercle et l’improvisation. L’improvisation peut se faire avec un tambourin qui circule dans le cercle. Lorsque le tambourin arrive entre les mains d’un enfant, je lui dis simplement qu’il va jouer de la musique avec moi, puisque je l’accompagne à la guitare. Dans ce type d’improvisation, la notion d’erreur n’existe pas. Il faut mettre l’enfant à l’aise le plus possible et l’encourager à communiquer avec moi, à l’aide de son instrument de musique. Il est toujours intéressant d’exploiter un ostinato rythmique simple en accompagnement. Cette activité s’inspire de ce que l’on peut appeler : l’expression musicale spontanée (Provost, 1997). Pendant ce temps, les autres enfants sont, dans 90 % des cas je vous dirais, très à l’écoute de l’interaction qui se crée entre l’enseignant (e) et l’enfant qui improvise. On peut aussi varier en faisant improviser deux enfants à la fois. Les possibilités sont multiples. Toutefois, les consignes doivent être très claires quant à la manipulation des petites percussions. Cette approche s’inspire beaucoup de la musi-cothérapie. Donc, si vous avez l’occasion de vous perfectionner un peu en ce sens, n’hésitez pas! Vous y découvrirez une foule de ressources intéressantes!

En général, le ratio dans ces classes se situe entre 8 et 15 élèves. Évidemment, il arrive aussi que ces groupes soient très agréables!

Selon la dynamique que vous y observez, vous pourrez peut-être uti-liser l’instrumentarium Orff. Ayez des consignes claires et précises : pour ma part, je passe par l’étape des percussions corporelles, puis des doigts sur les lames, avant de distribuer les maillets aux élèves.

Étant donné que ces groupes d’élèves sont souvent restreints en nombre, plusieurs types d’activités s’offrent à vous. Au 2e et au 3e cycle, j’aime beaucoup exploiter la création musicale. Le petit poème sonorisé, en équipe de trois ou quatre, reste un incontour-nable! Ces enfants aiment beaucoup manipuler les instruments de musique dans un contexte de liberté et ils découvrent parfois des choses auxquelles nous-mêmes nous n’aurions pas pensé. Là encore, les consignes doivent être très claires et précises quant à la manipulation des instruments. Chaque enseignant a sa manière de faire. Une collègue m’avait confié qu’en situation de création musicale, le niveau sonore de la classe étant souvent trop fort, elle faisait un jeu d’alternance entre les équipes, exemple : deux équipes pratiquaient leur création avec les instruments pendant que deux autres équipes pratiquaient la diction de leur poème. Pour ma part, j’aime beaucoup ajouter le dessin. C’est-à-dire, que je demande aux élèves de faire le dessin de leur poème, d’exprimer ce que ça évoque pour eux en images. Cela me donne la chance de tempérer le niveau sonore de ma classe et de stimuler certains élèves qui sont parfois davantage intériorisés, et qui ont de la difficulté à prendre leur place dans l’équipe. Cette dimension visuelle de la création leur apporte une sécurité et favorise leur intégration au sein de l’équipe, surtout s’ils ont un « petit talent » en dessin, et ça arrive souvent…

Ici, une large place est accordée à la créativité. Il semblerait que ce contexte de créativité contribue à déclencher des émotions positives et ainsi, favoriser un processus de motivation intrinsèque chez les élèves (Jensen, 2001, p.70). J’ai souvent remarqué que dans les classes spéciales à l’école primaire, les enfants réagissaient toujours très bien quand je leur présentais des activités de création musicale. Or, Jensen présente cinq stratégies pour susciter la motivation intrinsèque : 1) Élimination de la menace ; 2) Création d’un climat plus positif ; 3) Augmentation des rétroactions ; 4) Enclenchement d’émotions positives ; 5) Fixation d’objectifs (2001, p.71). En ce qui concerne le déclenchement d’émotions positives, il accorde aussi une large part au théâtre, à la musique, aux arts ou à toutes autres formes d’activités ludiques. Même si la création musicale s’adresse aussi aux classes régulières, il est étonnant de constater la spontanéité et la simplicité avec laquelle les élèves en difficulté d’adaptation souvent se l’approprient.

À la différence de l’approche magistrale avec ces élèves, le travail en équipe permet une nouvelle perspective pédagogique. Il permet aussi à l’enseignant(e) de faire des interventions particulières avec certains élèves et de mieux gérer certains conflits qui arrivent iné-vitablement dans ces classes, et cela, même en situation d’ensei-gnement magistral.

Enfin, ce qu’il est important de retenir, c’est que les enfants, dans une classe d’adaptation scolaire, ont besoin de vivre des réussites. Donc, simplifiez les tâches, clarifiez les consignes régulièrement et exploitez les routines dans votre classe de musique. Interrogez-vous

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constamment au sujet de vos stratégies pédagogiques. Observez les enfants. Soyez fermes, mais demeurez toujours calmes avec eux. Cultivez votre relation avec ces enfants, ils se sentiront en confiance.

Références bibliographiques et autres lecturesDespins J.-P., 1996. Musique et comportement humain : MUS 3800, Montréal : Coop UQÀM, 148-171.

Jensen, E., 1998. Le cerveau et l’apprentissage : Mieux comprendre le fonctionnement du cerveau pour mieux enseigner, (adaptation française par G. Sirois, 2001), Montréal : Chenelière/McGraw-Hill, 70-72.

Perrenoud, P., 1997. Pédagogie différenciée : Des intentions à l’action, 3e édition, Collection Pédagogies Recherche, Issy – les – Moulineaux : ESF, 64-65.

Provost, B., 1997. Prends la clef – Pour une pédagogie de l’expression musicale spontanée, Montréal : Collection « Jusqu’où va l’oreille ? ».

Julie Savard est une enseignante en musique à École Saint-Simon-Apôtre, commission scolaire de Montréal.

For rates, specs and timelines please contact our IndustryRepresentative,Tammy Stinson, testinson@rogers.com

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Vol. 39, No. 3, Spring 2013 19

Thoughts from the Edge: The Joy and Magic of Baby OrffMarcelline Moody

IntroductionThis issue focuses on teaching for diverse needs and special education. Babies are certainly “special”, so I’m writing about my experiences with children from birth through toddlerhood.

Ten years ago, when my first grandchild was born, my daughter said, “OK, Mum, when are you starting Baby Music?” Thus began a new phase in my music-teaching career and one I have continued since I “retired”. I now teach children from birth to nine years in an Orff program at the Victoria Conservatory of Music. I have learned so much about relationships and growth, and continue to have the joy and wonder of seeing how exposure to a good Orff baby program makes a huge difference in the lives of children.

While I am no scientist or psychologist, I have watched a striking development of focus, problem solving, and listening and coordina-tion skills, to name but a few of the benefits manifested in the be-haviour and reactions of my tiny “students”. Children between the ages of one to two years, boys particularly, who have started the year with erratic behaviour and little focus, have begun to cooperate and concentrate, and participate constructively. This is not to say that their behaviour is “policed”! Unless unfocussed behaviour is really disruptive, toddlers are allowed to wander and experiment. However, the activities are numerous and varied, and with parents in the room, the lessons generally go as planned.

Parents and care-givers can use song, movement and touch to en-hance intimacy and bonding with their children. This will promote musical, linguistic, emotional and kinaesthetic development among children in their formative first months, while helping to build more intimate, creative relationships.

Parents are present for the lessons up to age four. Obviously, babies who are not walking are held in arms, or on knees. Walkers’ bodies are manipulated for movement, or movement is modelled for them.

Eye contact is very important when interacting with children, as is physical touch.

Repetition is essential for learning and for the comfort that comes from familiarity and success. It is interesting to watch how children “compute” differently from adults and from other children. Some-times we can be well into another activity and a child will begin performing the actions from the previous one. The “hurried child” syndrome does not belong in an Orff program.

Music fosters the awareness and development of language. There is also a correlation between music and mathematics in the experi-ence of the beat and its subdivisions, and in awareness and experi-ence of phrasing, which is also about balance and symmetry. The youngest children do not have to exhibit beat competence – it is an important skill, but is often not developed until the age of three or older. However, I am currently observing several of my one to two year olds keeping a steady and accurate beat, both in clapping and tapping with a stick or similar instrument.

Concepts covered in my Baby Orff programUsing the Orff media of singing, moving, speaking, body percussion and simple instruments in an atmosphere of joy and fun, the main concepts that I involve in all my lessons are:

• Stop-start • Keeping the beat • Meter, including mixed meter • Phrase lengths • High-low • Fast-Slow • Loud-soft • Ending on the tonic (Home note)• Self awareness, development of self-esteem and socializing• Cooperation• Awareness of instruments and their different sounds • Awareness, discovery, and musical and kinaesthetic use of

body parts• Moving to sounds of recorded music of different genres.• Awareness and discovery of the world around: animals, trans-

portation, etc.

There are many finger plays, games and songs available that illustrate these concepts. Here is a selection:

High-LowThe following “Up and Down” song can be performed just with the body, or with aids such as scarves. The most successful aid I have used with children who are walking is a multi-coloured parachute (available through some music catalogues). We use the words

20 Ostinato

“jiggling through the town” and “floating through the town” and “hiding in the town”. We “hide” under the parachute and I add this chant to get us out:

Tapping very gently, tapping on the floor, Can you jump out when I count to four? 1 – 2 – 3 – four

Beat and MeterExperience of beat is possible through any metered activity. To experience meter move through the room, baby in arms, accenting the first beat of the measure of whatever music is being played – preferably on the piano. Use mixed meter as well as regular meters. I also have parents walk for a number of beats and then stop and tap, either on the baby, (gently!), or on something in the room, for the

same number of beats, e.g., walk for 7 and beat for 7. Accompany on the piano, or a drum.

Start/Stop This concept is experienced by moving to music, or to just a drum beat, and stopping when the sound stops.

Using instruments, the children love the following song and it is so rewarding to see one to two year olds stop at the end. Other instru-ments can be used, or the tubes that are mentioned later.

Phrasing“Roll the Ball” provides a visual component while reinforcing balanced phrase lengths. The leader sits and rolls (later, tosses) a fair-sized ball to each child. It is rolled back to the leader on the second phrase. The aim is to have the child feel the phrase length

and the moment the return of the ball is required, and possibly the amount of energy required to roll or toss it back in time. Of course, if the baby’s phrasing is not accurate, it doesn’t matter!

© MKMoody 2010

The world around us – animalsStuffed animals are wonderful to use in the toddler music class when they have become somewhat anthropomorphized. (Babies don’t have that stretch of imagination yet to use stuffies as a con-ceptual teaching aid.)

Here is a chant that is very useful at different times of the year and for use with different themes:

Deep inside my little box, underneath the lid, Waaay down deep, something special is hid.(Lift lid) Why, it’s a (dog), trying to get out! Here he comes, he wants to (run) about. What does the dog say? Woof, woof woof (rest) What does the dog say? Woof, woof woof (rest)

(Slowly) Can you be a (dog) today? Play music for children to move like whatever came out of the box, e.g., a ghost at hallowe’en, a butterfly in spring….

The following song will explore the sounds of different animals, but it also works wonderfully for introducing or reinforcing the “soh-mi” interval, which can be introduced through body signs with children as young as four years. Later it also works for find-ing those notes on a barred instrument (or recorder) – the children laugh at the thought of the notes or the instruments “getting up in the morning”.

Vol. 39, No. 3, Spring 2013 21

The world around us – Self-awareness and SocialisingName games are very important for children to develop a sense of self, and for communication with others. After a greeting song we sing a name game about what the child is wearing.

(“Instr.” – instruments)

When identification of colours has become part of the consciousness, we sing and dance a colour song:

© MKMoody 2010

Instrumental UseInstruments are irresistible for the children. I do not use the barred instruments with toddlers and pre-toddlers (unless they are the ones built especially for that age) and use them very sparingly up to about age five to six.

For some time I used paper-towel tubes for babies to beat together, on the floor, on body parts, etc., with a large number of backups to replace those that were chewed, but I have found that those plastic tubes that produce an eerie sound when whirled around make perfect tubes when cut into lengths of about eight inches. The babies love them, they can be disinfected if chewed, and are perfect for tapping together, on the floor, on body parts, and on a large gathering drum.

I find at least one gathering drum an indispensible instrument.

Listening to orchestral musicListening activities with little children are important and can be magical to watch.

Choose a piece of music with a light, floating, quality e.g., “Venus” from The Planets, by Gustav Holst; or “Gymnopedie” by Erik Satie;

or “The Swan” from Carnival of the Animals by C. Saint-Saens. Show the quality visually by blowing bubbles, floating feathers, drifting scarves – the emphasis is to be on the floating, light quality of the music, movement and props – everything done slowly, and in silence, or at least quietly. Gently move baby through the air to the music. (We are bombarded by so much heavy-sounding music these days that it is important to give children the experience of a calmer, more serene sound.)

ConclusionAn Orff program for babies and preschoolers works wonders in a child’s development. The difference in coordination and in move-ment and instrumental skills between children who have been in my program from the beginning of the year and children who join the program late is remarkable. The program is also very rewarding for the teacher and the parent. The moment when a child claps her hands for the first time, or taps a body part at the appropriate moment in a song, or joins in with the singing, especially if she sings the final home note left unsung by the teacher, is pure magic.

22 Ostinato

Par Pascal Bujold

Je suis un enseignant de musique à statut précaire. Cela veut dire qu’à la fin de l’année scolaire, je me retrouve au chômage pour l’été et que je ne sais qu’au début de l’année scolaire suivante où je vais enseigner et ce que je vais enseigner. Lorsque je suis chanceux, j’enseigne la musique. Ce statut, avec la nécessité de travailler, m’amène à prendre des chemins que je n’aurais su pré-voir d’avance. À plusieurs reprises, j’ai enseigné des matières en même temps que je les apprenais. Cela est très intéressant, même si c’est ardu. Or, cette année, je me suis retrouvé à enseigner la musique à l’école Jacques-Ouellette, à Longueuil. Il s’agit de la seule école francophone entièrement dédiée aux élèves avec une déficience visuelle.

Je n’avais toujours pas de contrat au début de l’année et on m’a appelé pour faire deux jours de suppléance; on n’avait pas d’enseignant de musique pour l’année. Ce fut le coup de foudre. J’ai découvert des élèves handicapés, certes, lourdement même, mais qui semblaient avoir la même compréhension de la musique que moi. C’est un phénomène que j’ai d’ailleurs encore du mal à expliquer, malgré que je le comprenne très bien. Il s’agit de quelque chose de phy-sique avec les sons et le rythme. Je me suis donc tout de suite senti à l’aise et j’ai évidemment accepté le contrat.

Une fois cette première surprise passée, je me suis vite heurté au problème de la planification. Il y a entre trois et huit élèves par groupe, ce qui aide beaucoup, mais les contraintes demeurent nombreuses. Il y a une grande proportion d’élèves qui ont d’autres handicaps associés, physiques et/ou intellectuels. Indépendamment de ces handicaps, certains ont des talents exceptionnels en musique, alors que d’autres ne sont capables de pratiquement rien faire. Et ce n’est évidemment pas en fonction du cours de musique qu’ils ont été regroupés. Dans chaque groupe, les élèves talentueux en côtoient d’autres pour qui la musique est pratiquement impossible. Certains élèves n’ont pratiquement pas de motricité fine ou globale, ou très peu de concentration, ou encore une déficience intellectuelle. D’autres sont en perte de vision et ont beaucoup de difficulté à s’adapter. Bref, les problèmes sont variés et nombreux. Je peux difficilement donner un même instrument à tous les élèves, ni avoir les mêmes exigences pour tous les élèves d’un même groupe.

La différenciation semble indiquée, mais elle n’est pas suffisante. Certains sont systématiquement incapables de faire la majorité des choses que je devrais normalement leur demander dans un cours de musique. Il m’est alors nécessaire de remonter plus loin dans la logique du cours pour retourner à la nature même de la musique. Qu’est-ce que la musique, et à quoi sert-elle? Certes, le programme de formation exige que nous fassions de la création, de l’interpréta-tion et de l’appréciation, mais je dois renoncer à plusieurs éléments de ce programme lorsqu’ils sont physiquement impossibles pour un élève. Autrement, cela serait du « harcèlement pédagogique », une expression que j’ai entendue d’une orthopédagogue et qui me semble très éloquente.

Cela me pousse donc à être créatif et à bousculer mes convictions et mes connaissances. Et j’ai vite découvert que, pour les élèves, tout cela n’est pas un problème. L’idée tout à fait « musicale » que certains enfants sont talentueux et que d’autres ne sont pas faits pour la musique est complètement étrangère à leur manière de voir

les choses. On dirait qu’ils ne sont même pas conscients de ces dif-férences de « niveaux », ou qu’ils les ignorent. Ils participent tous, chacun à leur manière. Ils sont simplement ensemble. Et ainsi, ce sont eux qui m’indiquent la marche à suivre, qui m’aident à trouver quoi faire avec le cours de musique. Ils me font découvrir pleine-ment ce qu’est le droit d’exister. Ils me font prendre conscience que la différence se trouve surtout dans les questions que l’on se pose sur les gens. Si on ne se pose plus ces questions, et que l’on est pleinement ouvert à les découvrir, la différence disparaît et on arrive à les voir vraiment. Enfin, ils me font surtout redécouvrir la véritable nature de la musique : la musique sert à être ensemble.

Encore une fois, cette année, je ne connais pas le chemin que je prendrai à la prochaine rentrée scolaire et ces enfants handicapés visuels m’ont appris à mieux suivre ce chemin aveugle.

Pascal Bujold est une enseignant à l’école Jacques-Ouellette, commission scolaire Marie-Victorin.

Chemin aveugle

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Celebrating Over120 Years

Vol. 39, No. 3, Spring 2013 23

John L. Vitale

Reprinted by kind permission of John Vitale and the Canadian Music Educators Association. This article first appeared in The Canadian Music Educator Vol. 52, No. 4 (Summer 2011).

Abstract: This article investigates the visual bias in our world, including examples of visual bias, where it came from, and how it impacts auditory learning and musical experiences. Moreover, an examination of how musical experiences ironically and para-doxically perpetuate the visual bias in our world is also provided. This article also articulates that music education suffers as a result of the visual bias in our world since music is by its very nature, primarily auditory. Lastly, this article argues that music educators should provide more opportunities for experiential forms of learn-ing that foster auditory perception through play, exploration, and discovery, and less focus on established music notation, which is inherently visual.

IntroductionThe presidential state of the union address on September 20, 2001, by George W. Bush was a significantly important speech at the time given the recent terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center towers nine days before. Immediately following Bush’s speech, I found myself tuned in to Larry King Live on CNN television (Walker, 2001). One of his guests that particular evening was Michael Hing-son, a blind man who escaped from one of the World Trade Centers by walking down seventy-eight flights of stairs with his guide dog. Even though it has been over nine years since this broadcast, I clearly remember Larry King asking his blind guest: “Did you see President Bush’s speech earlier tonight?” Larry King’s oversight was not only extremely embarrassing, it was also a watershed moment for me—one that validated how language reinforces visual bias.

In fact, this visual bias has been the basis for many personal and professional discussions over the years with colleagues, students, family, and friends, which ultimately served as the impetus to write this article. Since music is by its very nature, primarily auditory, it has been my experience as both a parent and music educator that visual bias has affected the way we learn music, and has also inhibited our ability to discover and explore our auditory world. Although formal Western music education has a long and institutionalized past, music education (particularly in elementary and secondary schools across Canada) should provide more op-portunities for experiential forms of learning that foster auditory perception through play, exploration, and discovery, and less focus on established music notation, which is inherently visual.

Contextual and Philosophical FrameworkThere are many scholars that corroborate the notion that the world around us is dominated by visual stimuli. Musical scholar Wayne Bowman (1998), for example, has stated: “Western thought has constructed the world and reality in visual terms . . . Sound con-stitutes a backdrop, an occasional punctuation for a world that is first and foremost given to the eye” (pp. 334-335). Larry King’s remarks, therefore, would not have been as much of a blunder if his guest was not blind. That is, society has accepted the notion that sight has become our primary sensory instrument, as Bowman has adeptly noted. After all, a phrase like “I see what you are saying” is relatively commonplace during face-to-face communication and

even in a telephone conversation where there is no visual element. In the example of the Larry King blunder, one need look no further than the television set, as the vast majority of people who heard President Bush’s speech on the evening of September 20, 2001, heard it on television—a highly visual medium that perpetuates visual bias (Noam, 2009). This is supported by the research of Liff and Posey (2004), for example, who argue that the reliance on “visual cues” is paramount to the “proper and rapid transmission and receipt of messages” (p. 19). Related to this are the ideas of Schultz (2005), Watson (1998), and Eadie (2009) who argue that news reports on television are visually biased, often emphasizing stories that have a great deal of visual appeal. In sum, the television and, more recently, the Internet have become significant sources of knowledge and understanding of the world. O’Loughlin (2006) states: “the world is now presented to us most convincingly through the lens of the camera, by means of television footage, or via im-ages on the Internet” (p. 22). This excessive attention to the eye was investigated and proven by Colavita (1974). In this study, Colavita provided a random series of auditory, visual, and audio-visual stimuli to participants. These participants were instructed to make one response whenever they observed a visual target and another response whenever they heard an auditory target. What he discovered was that most participants failed to respond to auditory targets when they were simultaneously presented with audiovisual targets (known as bimodal stimuli). This phenomenon transpired even though these same participants had no problems in responding to auditory and visual stimuli when they were presented individ-ually. In other words, sight blocked out sound, and the propensity to respond to sight over sound is known as “The Colavita Effect.”

History of Visual BiasHas the visual bias in our society always been there? The answer is simply no. Many Native American and African cultures, for example, maintain centuries of knowledge through rich and explicit histor-ical oral traditions (not literary), such as the Kuba in the republic of Congo in central Africa (Vansina, 1978). Moreover, some oral traditions in customary African cultures even use music to assist them in some capacity. Davis (2003) has stated:

In traditional African societies, griots were as much oral historians as musicians . . . [griots] sang the praises of their social leaders, committed to memory epic genealogies which became the oral history of their culture, sang and played in groups to set rhythms for farmers and others at their work. (pp. 111-112)

Even Western societies were once rich in oral traditions before visual bias was acquired. Bouvier (2003), for example, has stated: “It is today a well recognized fact that the Homeric poems, the Iliad and the Odyssey, derive from an oral tradition” (p. 59). In fact, a copy of Homer’s Odyssey sits on my bookshelf, and I have taken for granted that the story of Odysseus and his long journey home following the fall of Troy started out as oral tradition in ancient Greece. The salient question is, however: What has spawned and cultivated the domination of the visual world in ancient Greece—the cradle of Western civilization? The answer to this question can be found with a new sect of medical practitioners in ancient Greece who preferred to rely on the observation of phenomena as perceived in experience. This new sect was known as the Empiric School, who

Musical Experiences in a Visually Biased World

24 Ostinato

rejected the accepted norms of the dogmatic medical practitioners at the time, which was more multisensual (Sini, 2004). Hence, there was a clear paradigm shift towards vision as the dominant sensory perception in ancient Greece, which probably spawned the expres-sion “seeing is believing.” The view is also supported by Martin (1994): “Because of their favoring vision, a number of its appar-ent inclinations influenced Greek thinking” (p. 24). This Empiric school spawned the term “empirical” which would become a major component in scientific thinking during the age of enlightenment and also instrumental in establishing the philosophy of pragmatism.

In addition to empirical thinking, advanced literary systems also helped to create the visual bias in Western society. Logan (2004) who coined the phrase “the alphabet effect” argues that the development of literary systems (eventually mass marketed with the invention of the printing press by Gutenberg in the 15th century), allowed vision to become the dominant sense amongst humans in the West: “The alphabet by separating the sound, meaning, and appearance of a word separated the eye from the rest of the senses, especially the ear. Preliterate man is multisensual whereas alphabetic man is highly visual” (p. 123).

Further evidence of visual bias being an acquired trait in the West can be found in the economic systems of post industrialized societies in the West. Adorno and Eisler (1947) contend that visual bias in sophisticated free enterprise markets is ultimately the product of how society constructs reality through material goods, which hearing is unable to do. Basic principles of bartering, trading, buying, and selling are inherently visual. Hence, the expression: “show me the money.” In sum, visual bias is not innate in humans, but rather an acquired trait of Western civilization (Jonas, 1982) via empirical thinking, advanced literary systems, and sophisticated economies.

Music as a Vehicle to Perpetuate Visual BiasI find Logan’s (2004) “alphabet effect” extremely ironic since music (the melody to Twinkle Twinkle Little Star) is the primary vehicle used to teach formative years children the alphabet in the English-speaking world. In fact, the Boston-based music publisher Charles Bradlee copyrighted the “Alphabet Song” as far back as 1835 (Paquette & Rieg, 2008). In fact, Parquette and Rieg argue that “enhancing literacy instruction through music is vital in to-day’s diverse early childhood classrooms” (p. 227). A quick visit to YouTube.com generated numerous alphabet songs (not the melody to Twinkle Twinkle Little Star) in a variety of languages, such as Spanish, Italian, Russian, and Turkish to name a few.

Similar to the phenomenon of the Alphabet Song, music within media applications (film, television programming, video games, and computer/online applications) also helps us with context and understanding. In film, music is used to help the audience under-stand and cultivate the visual stimulus on a much deeper level. Consciously, music is employed to generally amplify and heighten a film sequence. Subconsciously, however, music is primarily used to allow the viewer to process the visual stimulus into a meaningful and realistic text. Lipscomb and Kendall (1994) have so adeptly stated:

Film composers have made a fine art of manipulating audience perception and emphasizing important events in the dramatic ac-tion without causing a conscious attentional shift. In fact, when watching a film, it is quite possible that perception of the musical component will remain at a sub-conscious level. (p. 90)

Subsequently, it is no wonder that a significant part of a film’s budget is set aside for music, as the chance for success without music is slim. Or, as Handzo (1985) stated, “Film without music is deadly” (pp.1-2). This relationship was known long ago, as an ancient shaman did not cure by medicinal herbs and tonics alone, but also with the aid of a rattle or the beat of a drum. That is, people instinctively knew that “sound, when it is combined with pictures, imposes a psychological state on the receiver which helps him [her] deeper believe or better understand what is happening around him [her]” (Wastor, 2010, p. 1). Music plays a virtually identical role in television programming, video games, and computer/online applications. This concept is connected to Attali’s (1985) global perspective that society is generally fashioned by sounds (music) and their arrangements. Music, therefore, ironically plays a role in promoting the visual bias in our society.

Visual Bias within Musical LiteracyEven within Western music, the emergence of sophisticated liter-ary forms of musical notation has affected an individual’s ability to listen to, respond to, explore, and expand the auditory world. I see examples of this with my own children, particularly my eldest child who studies piano at RCM level six. At eleven years of age, he is now starting to learn his favourite songs on his iPod through listening and old-fashion lifting—no music reading or notation. When I asked him about his experience, he indicated that he enjoyed it very much, because he did not have his teacher over his shoul-der correcting his posture and telling him what fingers to use. He clearly sensed independence and freedom to explore his auditory world that he never received in his formal music education. Even as a secondary school music teacher for twelve years, I have come across numerous piano-playing students who were more concerned with the rules and regulations of performing than actually making and emoting music. Moreover, many of these students could only play a song with the sheet music in front of them. They were more emulators—a conduit of the composition—rather than free agents capable of exploring the auditory world around them. Moreover, I learned how to perform on several instruments years before I had achieved a respectable level of musical literacy in the classical tradition. Through self-teaching, I became proficient at exploring the auditory world. Learning to read and perform from standard notation, however, actually suppressed my own ability to explore my auditory world. Being told what to play, how to play it, and having no voice in the process was not particularly interesting. It felt as if the raw emotion, passion, and creativity had been taken out of my musical experiences. Music is more interesting, artistic, and much more of an emotive experience for me when I play by ear. This phenomenon is also supported by the work of Wigginton (2010), who argues that vocal music educators need to understand that traditional methods of vocal training are antiquated and not in tune with the vocal aspirations of many modern-day vocal students who want to sing for the sake of singing and emoting music and not have to worry about proper technique and procedure:

Somewhere outside the classical paradigm of perfect posture, pure vowels, and forward placement exists a vast universe of music-making singers. These artists pour their souls into each note, their voices shaking you, moving you to your very core. These singers have never heard of the zygomatic arch or the ligament vocalis; they have never even considered raising their soft palates. . . Many of them have never had a voice lesson in their lives-and see no reason to. (p. 1)

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Even the term “musical literacy” perpetuates visual bias, suggesting that a musically literate person is an individual who can read music. This excludes millions of individuals who can competently create and perform music without the ability to read music, with The Bea-tles being the most prominent example in Western music. In fact, The Beatles were arguably the best songwriters of the 20th century and one of the most influential entities in all of pop culture. John Lennon stated: “None of us were technical musicians. None of us could read music. None of us can write it” (Roberts, 2002, p. 22).

Visual Bias and General Musical ExperiencesIn my experience, visual bias still dominates daily life and educa-tion in the West, particularly for elementary-aged children who are exposed to a variety of visual stimuli during primary grades. In fact, most children in grade one can identify colors, and are also given ample opportunity to express such colors (e.g., painting, cutting, and pasting, etc.) several times a day. Moreover, Richford (2010) states that most kids learn to identify colours between three to five years of age, well before the start of grade one. This behaviour is in tune with Martin’s (2009) argument that the majority of elementary age learners are visual and only twelve percent are auditory learners (p. 281). The large number of visual learners is not surprising as much of Western curriculum in public education institutions are based on the scientific and empirical notion of lived experience through acute observation dating back to ancient Greek times, as previously mentioned. This is also supported through my own personal experiences, as the vast majority of curriculum that I have been exposed to as a student, educator, and parent does not foster intuition, instinct, and multiple sensory perception, but rather a curriculum that is bias towards vision.

What would a grade one classroom, however, look and sound like if teachers cultivated auditory cognition as they do visual cognition? Would students be encouraged to bang on the piano or drums? This would surely help them understand the difference between notes, pitch, and timbre in addition to promoting free exploration and associations between music and emotion. That is, improvisatory music-making can be a means to understanding technical aspects of music and a means to freely explore and emote, which, ultimately, helps to build character and shape community. This is one of the fundamental components of the Improvisation, Community, and Social Practice (CASP; 2011) organization at the University of Guelph, which “investigates the ways in which improvised music plays a role in shaping notions of community and ‘new forms’ of social organization.” After all, we encourage primary students to paint whatever they feel, regardless of what the end product looks like, because it allows children to emote and help find their place in the world. In my experience, I have seen many of these end products taped or magnetized to the refrigerator for proud display in the homes of primary-aged children. Even my three-year-old daughter consistently comes home with a myriad of paintings and arts and crafts from the preschool she attends three days a week. Ultimately, we encourage the artistic efforts of our children and, subsequently, reward them by putting their works of art on display. Yet, if musical equivalents were brought home by our children (i.e., a 20-second recording of a child banging a piano or a drum set), they would not be played very many times. Even in a live setting, how many parents let their three -year-old tickle the ivories or bang on the drums for experimentation beyond a few minutes? In my experience, most parents would want their three-year-old coloring or drawing, which is a much more agreeable and amenable experi-

ence for parents. When comparing visual and musical creations from an average elementary student, it has been my experience that the process of creating visual art is not nearly as distracting as the creative process of performing music, simply based on the fact that we cannot block our hearing. Schafer (1986) stated:

The ear, unlike some other sense organs, is exposed and vulnerable. The eye can be closed at will; the ear is always open. The eye can be focused and pointed at will; the ear picks up all sound right back to the acoustic horizon in all directions. (p. 46)

Bowman (1998) has similar views: “Noise is sound that imposes, interferes, intrudes, forcing us (since one cannot turn away from sound) to experience the uninvited and unwanted” (p. 287). It is no wonder that our television converters have a mute button for the sound, but not for the image.

I have taught many students over the years that were denied op-portunities to practice their instrument at home because of parents and older siblings who refused to be subjected to the auditory experience. I can even remember one student who was forced to practice his trumpet in the garage because of his mother’s inability to tolerate the sound anywhere inside the home. This acute sensi-tivity of our ears is also kinesthetically linked to our entire body as adeptly noted by famous Romantic Composer Hector Berlioz (as cited in Savan, 1999). Savan, for example, described Hector Berlioz’s reaction to a piece of music as: “increased blood circula-tion, violent pulse rate, muscle contractions, trembling, numbness of the feet and hands and partial paralysis of the nerves controlling hearing and vision” (pp.138-139). Perhaps this is the reason why movement and dance to music is an essential component of life in cultures that still maintain oral tradition. In sum, the human ear in its “exposed and vulnerable” state (Schafer, 1986) has helped perpetuate the visual bias in the Western world.

What would the world be like if auditory perception was deeply cultivated in our education system? Would average children be-tween three to five years of age eventually be able to distinguish pitch (both relative and perfect pitch) as they do colours? Al-though it would take decades and perhaps even centuries for such phenomenon to manifest itself, I do believe it could someday be possible if our current education system placed more emphasis on auditory learning. I have first-hand experience with my own two children who studied music for four years in a group setting at the Yamaha School of Music in Toronto between the ages of three and six. Although neither of them have perfect pitch, they could both aurally identify I-IV-V chords in the keys of C major and G major. In sum, the need for musical experimentation equivalent to artistic experimentation in the visual arts needs to be implemented in music education at the elementary level. This will not only cultivate aural knowledge and skills, it will also allow students to discover the world of sound and music and set a positive platform that welcomes and warrants future musical study. Wiggins (2001) summarized this notion: “As students begin musical study for the first time, it is important that the experiences they encounter both establish a basis for further study and invite and intrigue them to be motivated to pursue further study” (p. 114).

Music Education and Visual BiasChildren (from a very early age) become formally and informally indoctrinated into the visual bias of our world. Despite the fact that music helps young children develop a propensity for visual

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learning (such as singing the alphabet song), musical processing in this capacity remains an ancillary benefit, as the raison d’être is visually motivated (learning the alphabet as a building block for reading). I argue, therefore, that the visual dominance of our society is one of many barriers that music education faces right from the onset of elementary school. Even in latter years of learning, music continues to play marginal and ancillary roles in middle school and secondary school education (Jorgensen 2003; Pio, 2007), and I believe that visual bias is one of the reasons that help to perpetuate this phenomenon. There is also evidence, however, to support the claim that visual arts also play marginal and ancillary roles in public education (Danaher, Moriarty, & Danaher, 2009; Sikes, 1987), and there is certainly no visual bias in visual arts (Hickman, 2010). I contend, however, that visual arts do not play a marginal role in public education. If we examine art (particularly at the elementary level) as an entire entity across the curriculum and within an entire school outside of the curriculum, it is evident that students engage in a plethora of visual art experiences that highly outnumber musical equivalents. As a classroom teacher for almost a decade and a half, and a parent of two school-aged children, I have witnessed this phenomenon first hand many times. My two boys, for example are constantly drawing and engaging in visual art activities for a myriad of subjects outside of Art. They are constantly creating title pages for every unit they begin in virtually every subject—they even draw title pages in music class. The art does not end here, however, as they are constantly creating graphic work in Language Arts (i.e., drawing characters and settings) and Social Studies (i.e., drawing landscapes, places, colouring maps, and creating dioramas), for instance. Clement, Piotrowski, and Roberts (1998) have stated:

“Traditionally, art has always had a high profile in cross-curricular work . . . because making images has been seen by teachers as a useful way for children to illustrate what has been learnt in other subjects” (p. 87). Although there are opportunities for musical experiences across the curriculum as well, they are significantly fewer in number. In the overall curriculum, therefore, visual arts take precedence over music in a child’s education. Further evidence of this precedence is the role that visual art plays with early literacy skills, particularly through the use of picture books in early reading teaching and learning settings (Loop, 2009). Moreover, Loop also posits that connecting theme-based literature to artistic activities helps with student literacy:

Although book reading is important as a stand-alone instructional tool for early childhood educators, linking special or themed books to art activities can increase the benefits of literacy-based lessons. Integrating book reading with a similarly themed art project can help the young child to further understand the narrative, increase representational thought, and improve the fine motor skills that are necessary for printing and later writing. (p. 1)

Outside of the curriculum, the propensity for students to engage in visual arts experiences still outweighs musical ones. Students have numerous opportunities to engage in visual art activities to help with school decorations for special events, open houses, and parent/teacher interviews, for example. I can distinctly remember my second child in third grade who said they spent the whole week leading up to parent-teacher interviews drawing and colouring pic-tures to hang up in the classroom because the teacher wanted the room to look good for parents. Hurwitz and Day (2007) have stated:

Children’s art on display has its decorative purpose. The classroom is usually a barren place when the teacher enters it before the beginning of the school year. Likewise, the halls of many schools are dull, institutional places until suitable decorations have been arranged. The artwork of children humanizes the character of the school. (p. 376)

All of these extraneous opportunities to engage in visual art are not part of the visual art curriculum, but they are still valuable minutes within the school day for children to engage in visual arts experi-ences—valuable minutes that musical experiences do not equally share, thus causing music to lag behind right out of the gate in ele-mentary school. I also posit, however, that music education does not have to lag behind. It can be argued that the elementary curriculum should foster more auditory learning since the majority of students are not auditory learners. If we principally cater to the dominant learning style (visual) in an attempt to bolster student success, then we are ignoring the opportunity to teach students alternate learning styles (auditory) that should be part of a comprehensive and broad educational experience.

The Orff Approach, which is used by teachers to encourage their students to enjoy making music as individuals as well as in groups, is one approach that tries to break through the visual bias in our world. In this approach, children are encouraged to learn music the same way that they learn language. Children in the Orff approach are, thus, encouraged to listen to music, sing, chant rhymes, clap, dance, and play percussion instruments. According to the American Orff-Schulwerk Association (2011), these instincts are directed into learning music by hearing and making music first, then reading and writing it later, similar to the way we all learned our language. Other early childhood forms of music education offer a somewhat similar approach, such as the Kodály Method, The Dalcroze Method, and the Suzuki Method. Although there are differences between all of these methods, they ultimately expose young children to musical experiences through hearing music, performing music, and mov-ing to music well before standard musical notation is introduced.

The major issue, however, with these early learning music education programs (i.e., Orff, Kodály, Dalcroze, and Suzuki) is one of social justice. Many of these programs are offered in private music educa-tion institutions outside of the regular school day, requiring extra time and money that some parents cannot afford. Hence, many early learners do not get an opportunity to participate in these programs. Moreover, music curriculum in many elementary teacher-training programs across Canada does not provide sufficient training for teacher candidates simply based on lack of instructional time in an overall Bachelor of Education program. I find this particularly true for general primary/junior teacher preparation programs. The institution that I work for only provides 24 hours of music instruc-tion for primary/junior and junior/intermediate teaching candidates. Since the majority of these teaching candidates are not music majors, their future students are not getting highly qualified music teachers, which I can personally attest to as a former student, music teacher, and parent. This leaves teachers across the country to rely on music curriculum guidelines set by provincial authorities. Although such guidelines may have some aspects of Orff and Kodály education, for example, many teachers are not qualified to teach such principles.

There are teacher-training institutions in Canada that place emphasis on these early music education programs. For example, Orff train-ing can be found at the University of Toronto and the University

Vol. 39, No. 3, Spring 2013 27

of British Columbia and Kodály training can be found at Laurier University and Western University. These institutions have gradu-ated thousands of graduates over the years who have gone on to successful careers in music education and have helped children explore their auditory world and challenge the visual bias in Western education. The problem, however, is that this musical experimenta-tion tends to discontinue as students reach middle school age. It is at this time that Orff instruments get replaced with orchestral instruments, and traditional and formal music curriculum imbued with note reading and transmission/rote learning takes over. This shift away from self-discovery and peer-directed learning is also perpetuated by the demands of public performances, competitions, and music festivals. In sum, there is a concerted movement from process-oriented learning (where students have a voice and a say in their own learning) to product-oriented learning (where students are being told what to play and how to play it).

Practical Applications that Challenge Visual Bias in the Music ClassroomAs music educators, it is important that we tap into the essential power of music, which is by its very nature, primarily auditory. Music education at all levels should provide more opportunities for experiential forms of learning that foster auditory perception through play, exploration, and discovery, and less focus on established music notation, which is inherently visual. This can be done by incorporat-ing more self-teaching and peer-directed learning environments in the music classroom (Green, 2001; Rodriguez, 2004; Soderman & Folkestad, 2004). At the elementary level, particularly in the primary grades, I have experience as both a teacher and a researcher with instrumental music stations. Teachers can set up various music stations around the classroom, with each station having different instruments for students to experiment with, such as percussion instruments (e.g., maracas, wood blocks, bells, whistles, djembes, triangles), small keyboards, and ukuleles, for example. Teachers can have activity cards at each station, which would help guide the students based on the objectives of the lesson. Lessons can range from a number of topics, such as experimentation with dynamics, pitch, timbre, and musical creation, for instance, all of which are part of basic music curriculum guidelines across the country. More-over, such musical experimentation can be done without focusing on traditional musical notation, but rather through hearing, feel, emotion, and passion. This type of pedagogy is rooted in the basic principles of cooperative learning, where the music teacher should be a facilitator of learning, not a director of learning, as is typical of many traditional music classrooms (Ebersohn & Eloff, 2004; Williams, 2008). Although cooperative learning as a pedagogic tool was not designed to address visual bias in the curriculum, there are many aspects of cooperative learning that music educators can utilize as a means to challenge visual bias. Moreover, much of the Orff and Kodály curriculum is also suitable for musical experimentation, discovery, and play at the elementary level. In addition, many of the large cities in Canada also offer a plethora of opportunities to engage in music education in non-Western ways through a highly multicultural student population. Hess (2009), for example, investigated a Ghanaian dance and drum ensemble in a Toronto area elementary school and found that students actually preferred being taught aurally (in the Ghanaian oral tradition) instead of through notation. Moreover, there are over 70 schools in the Greater Toronto area with a steel band program (Woodall, 2011), which is reflective of the large number of students from a

Caribbean background. Mark Mosca, the arranger for the Silhou-ettes Steel Orchestra, who took first place in last year’s Pan Alive competition (Toronto premiere steel band competition), says that: “Most pan players don’t read music. I teach them what to play” (as cited in Woodall, 2011 p. 1). These multicultural approaches to music education not only help to challenge the visual bias in our society, they are also a great way to celebrate and appreciate diversity in our classrooms.

At the secondary school level, music students have far more musical ability with a much more rapid learning curve. I have had many successful secondary instrumental music classes where musical notation (sheet music) was never used. I found that students particu-larly enjoyed the warm-up at the beginning of instrumental music classes more than the class itself. Through deliberate facilitation, I fostered and cultivated this warm-up, which became known as “jam time” by my students. Evidence of this was the natural flow of student islands (i.e., groups of two, three, four, and more) that became so organized that it looked like a planned co-operative learning workshop. Students of like-minded musical tastes joined together and experimented with different instruments, playing popular songs, and even creating their own songs. These musical experiences were also shared with the larger community during the holiday and spring music concerts twice a year. This music making was done without the use of musical notation—just old-fashioned emotion, passion, and the desire to create/perform music.

One of the challenges with musical experimentation is that children authentically and sincerely experiment with music and learning in their own private spaces, where they feel safe and comfortable, and are not afraid to take risks. Littleton (1998) states: “Often children’s play with music takes place outside the presence of adults and in-side the child’s world of make-believe” (p. 8). In my public school experience as a student, teacher, and parent, children get very few opportunities to musically experiment in a meaningful and amen-able environment, even though the curriculum guidelines might be amenable to such experimentation. This perspective is supported by Gordon (2003) who states that “most young children are not given adequate opportunity to acquire listening and performing vocabular-ies in music” (p. 8). The reason for such a dearth of opportunities to musically experiment is the very institution of schooling and the presence of form and structure, even when instructors promote self-teaching, peer-directed learning, and cooperative learning. It takes a very confident and seasoned educator to create a safe classroom environment where students experience trust, are respected, and are cared for. Without this cordial learning environment, creativity can be suppressed, as Robinson (2001) and Holt (1995) have argued. When such creative opportunities are provided, such as discovering new and colourful sounds, children can cultivate and expand their musical minds (Glover, 2000).

ConclusionI challenge all music teachers to cultivate and foster a classroom environment where students are encouraged to play with music, discover music (Bruner, 1961), and take risks. At the end of the day, music education is an exceptional tool for our students to learn and foster creativity, and also an excellent tool to challenge the visual bias in our society. In sum, educators need to tap into the power of learning music through nontraditional ways and embrace the fact that music is first and foremost an auditory phenomenon.

28 Ostinato

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Vol. 39, No. 3, Spring 2013 29

Catherine West

In reviewing available articles for inclusion in this issue of Ostinato I came across a number of useful, thoughtful and practical articles, and I hope you are enjoying the selection provided. Missing from most, however, was the concept of collaboration with the student. Additionally, most articles do not acknowledge the full range of exceptional students included in our classes. I hope to address here these issues, not as any kind of expert, but as a fellow teacher. So here are a few ideas from my own experiences which have proved helpful in my practice.

Education is not an activity we can force upon our students – it must be a joint enterprise. Like all of us, those with learning exceptional-ities need to be meta-cognitive about how they learn best, and good teaching involves respecting their choices. If the classroom ethos is one where all students are constantly being encouraged to make choices about their own learning, the differently abled are just doing what all the students are doing. In a classroom where it is expected that all students will collaborate to help each other learn, once again the exceptional student is not exceptional in any way.

The music teacher must still be quietly planning for, facilitating and encouraging helpful alternatives, but these alternatives are usually available to everyone. If the accommodations are truly just that, it should not matter how many students make use of them (although there are practical limits to the numbers in some cases). We also have in our classes many students for whom the program is actually being modified, whether or not this has been formally mandated. Luckily the Orff approach is meant to reach students at their own level of readiness, and the exceptional student usually does not stand out in a room already full of students who bring different levels of ability and experience to every skill and understanding.

We do see students with a quite extraordinary range of needs. Years ago I taught at a school for students with major physical challen-ges, many of whom were in braces or wheelchairs – students were divided into classes where the students were able to talk and those where they were not. In these settings students usually have special needs assistants who can work hand over hand or wheel students as required, thus expanding the possible range of activities hugely. Usually, however, I have taught exceptional students integrated into regular classes, whether or not they spend part or all of their day in a special setting. The SNA has become a thing of the past in most cases – currently in my school of 650 students we have one.

My situation is the one most frequently experienced by teachers across the nation. Below I am providing a list of possible strat-egies which may be helpful to different learners in this integrated situation. I would stress that these are options the students select for themselves in many cases. I would also stress that many of the strategies suggested for support of exceptional students are just plain good teaching, for example: providing picture symbols instead of or along with notation, posting the steps to take when completing a task, keeping instructions precise, concise and simple, establishing predictable routines, using a buddy system.

With everyone, use process teaching, and encourage all students to stop and practise at whatever stage they need to before adding the

next thing, even if most of the class is adding another wrinkle. For example in a complicated body percussion pattern some students might be doing the ‘stamp, stamp, on the first two beats plus 6 beats of rest, while others are doing ‘stamp, stamp’ snap/clap, pat and 4 beats of rest, while still others are doing 8 beats of complex pattern. The same approach can be applied to most orchestrations on the pitched instruments. In recorder take a ‘nail that note’ approach and encourage students to decide which note or notes they will play (for example, all the Bs, or all the Bs and As). If this is normal procedure then the special students are just doing what everyone else is doing – making good choices around their own learning needs.

Some additional ideas are added below. The designations are taken from “Categories and Definitions of Exceptionalities” in Special Education: A Guide for Educators, 2001, the Ontario Ministry of Education’s official guide (available at www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/general/elemsec/speced/guide/specedhandbooke.pdf). Different jurisdictions may classify somewhat differently but these are broadly accepted descriptions which are useful as a scaffold for this discus-sion. (Please see next page.)

In closing this very short survey I would like to leave you with two anecdotes. One comes from a junior LD/Behavioural class I taught (such a grouping would be unheard of now). These 8 students, one girl and seven boys, were physically larger than me and had very short fuses. Singing was not their best thing! I introduced Doug Goodkin’s version of “Johnny Oops” (from A Rhyme in Time) and they took to it. For three months we used the rhyme every class, with each one of them suggesting a variation each time. We used loud and soft, high and low, angry and sweet, different names, started on different fingers, going in different directions, had two groups start on different fingers, had everyone choose their own finger to start on, doing in canon – it took at least ten sessions to start running out of ideas. Their creativity, focus and skill were magnificent.

A second anecdote comes from my days at the school for students with major physical disabilities, in a class where all the students were strapped into massive wheel chairs and were non-verbal. That was a long half-hour for a music teacher who had never faced this particular challenge before, until I tried a koosh ball. We sang “Pop Goes the Weasel” and each child sent that ball wherever they could at approximately the right time, to gales of unheard laughter from the whole class. Their lack of ability to control their movement was part of the delight of the game – none of us ever knew in what direc-tion the ball would fly. Once again, this became an often-repeated favourite, and I had a key to what potential was there.

I hope this little article will increase your comfort level in working with special students, and all students. I also hope that you will have the confidence to ask your students, whoever they are, to be responsible for identifying and asking for what they need as learners, and to support each other’s learning in every way possible. Keep a sense of humour, and if all else fails, try the koosh ball!

We Are All Special! Educating the Exceptional and the Rest of Us Too

30 Ostinato

Exceptionality Strategies

BEHAVIOUR • Meet privately to plan for success.• Offer sympathy after disasters, analyze together, make a plan.• Always assume the student wants to do well.• Factors which student might choose: a good person to sit with who can act as a learning buddy, a good location to

sit, a signal for needing to leave the room for a quick break, careful selection of members for group work, playing xylophone instead of recorder.

• If the behaviour concern is anxiety, depression or compulsion having information from the teacher, parents and student is critical – these students go day by day – don’t think longterm but do maximize and celebrate (quietly!) whatever they are able to accomplish on any given day – expect frequent absences.

• If disruptive behaviour is the concern only ask the student to leave the class when the interruptions are too dis-tracting to other students or have become threatening. Students in classes with students like this are usually very used to the behaviour and can ignore a good deal of it, probably better than you can! Have a place arranged for the student to go (perhaps a nearby class rather than the office) and always hold a supportive meeting with the student afterwards to plan for more success in the next class. Try to send the student out for a walk/drink break before the breakdown happens.

• As with all students reinforce successes, however small, with recognition in a quiet or public way as appropriate: “Thank-you for coming into class so quickly and sitting down right away. You really helped us to get started in a good way.”

• Find out or observe the student in the regular classroom: what behaviour is expected and achieved in this setting? Use this as guidance.

• Teach all students how to support each other’s learning without singling out the special student: get them to suggest things like not responding to outbursts, helping each other to figure things out or find materials, modeling appropri-ate behaviour themselves etc.

• Whenever possible use special students as mentors for other students, to deliver the attendance, to distribute materi-als or to count the hands, and (highly recommended) to provide support to a younger class. They need to feel like leaders.

• Occasionally, especially with younger classes, it may be appropriate to address the class directly about an individual student’s needs: “Justin needs you to look at me right now and not pay attention to him. Thank-you for being his good friends.”

COMMUNICATION1. Autism (Autism

Spectrum Disorder)

• Students with severe autism are usually not integrated into regular classes but many students with Asperger’s syn-drome are integrated. Occasionally you may have an SNA present but many of these students do not have SNAs in our current system. They often have gifted abilities in certain restricted areas, but great difficulties with social skills and communication.

• There are few generalizations to make about these students – getting to know the one in front of you is vital, so do consult the IEP, parents, teachers and the student him- or herself about needs.

• Many are sound sensitive, especially to ringing sounds like glockenspiel. Minimize exposure through proximity, in-strument selection and sound barriers. During group work it may get very noisy – offer this student a quieter setting in the hall, behind a bookcase or desk, etc.

• Assume that the student is paying attention without expecting eye contact. Specifically ask the class for eye focus (“I’m waiting until all the eyes are up here”) when you are doing something visual which must be seen to be under-stood.

• Get educated about ASD.

2. Deaf and hard-of-hearing

• Students with major challenges are usually in special schools in the Ontario system. Music teachers are much more likely to see students with hearing aids with somewhat compromised hearing in integrated settings. Even more com-monly found are students with auditory processing difficulties – you probably won’t know about these unless you ask the classroom teachers so be sure to raise any learning concerns with them.

• General advice: sit closer to the teacher, avoid speaking over noise, ask the class or this student to restate instruc-tions (check for understanding), work in small groups (however in a music class group work usually increases the noise level so follow advice above for physical placement).

• As always find a private way to check with the student about what they are experiencing and need. They need to learn how to identify and ask for what helps them.

• Hearing aids amplify in unexpected ways, and are not always good at filtering out sounds that are not wanted. Find out what is to be expected of the device your student wears and consider modifying physical placement and instru-ment choice accordingly.

3. Language impair-ment &

4. Speech impairment

• Use the same strategies with this student as you do with ESL students – many visuals, proximity, reinforcement of key vocabulary, consise/precise instructions backed up with posting numbered lists for task completion.

• Assume that most of what you say is so much noise to this student – always provide other supports. The Orff media are extremely useful.

• The student may verbalize randomly as a baby or toddler does – he or she can be at a much earlier phase of language acquisition.

• Students with language impairment may not understand articulation, rhythm and stress in language – kinesthetic experience of rhythmic poetry may be very helpful.

• Get information about needs from the IEP, teachers, parents and the student.

Vol. 39, No. 3, Spring 2013 31

Catherine West is the Editor of Ostinato and teaches grade 2-8 music for the Toronto District School Board. She is also the Coordinator of Orff Teacher Training at the Royal Conservatory and the Coordinator of Music AQ Courses for the U of Toronto.

5. Learning Disability • LD is characterized as not having another obvious disability (such as developmental delay), a significant discrep-ancy between assessed intellectual ability and achievement, and can occur in conjunction with another issue such as brain injury, dyslexia etc. I am repeating myself here:

• Use all the Orff media.• Provide picture symbols instead of or along with notation.• Post the steps to take when completing a task.• Keep instructions precise, concise and simple.• Establish predictable routines.• Use a buddy system.• Substitution of xylophone for recorder (if the student chooses).• Get information about needs from the IEP, teachers, parents and the student.

INTELLECTUAL1. Gifted

• Students identified as gifted may not be gifted across the full range of abilities (depending on how giftedness is defined in your jurisdiction). In my board students identified as gifted are integrated into regular classes with in IEP unless there needs cannot be met in that setting. In that case they may be placed in a special gifted class.

• (As a result the gifted classes that I experienced were extremely interesting mixtures of many boys, Aspergers, and socially inept students. These already socially awkward students were brought together from many schools, giving them the added challenge of trying to make new friends in a strange school. Typically these classes were not skilled in music performance and often had poor skills in group work. I had a frustrating and fascinating time teaching them!)

• Do provide lots of choice, including ways to elaborate tasks.• Teach all students how to support each other’s learning without singling out the special student: get them to suggest

things like not responding to outbursts, helping each other to figure things out or find materials, modeling appropri-ate behaviour themselves etc.

• Use these students as leaders, but not all the time.• Teach them (and the class) very directly about how to participate in group work successfully.• Get information about needs from the IEP, teachers, parents and the student. These students are often very wise

about their own learning needs.

2. Mild Intellectual Disability (MID)

• As for LD

3. Developmental Dis-ability (DD)

• Usually these students are in self-contained classes. If you are lucky enough to teach such a class, you will be greatly rewarded by the experience.

• Teach with age-appropriate materials, but strategies appropriate for much younger children: lots of variety, much movement, much repetition, use of hand-held percussion, many opportunities for their individual ideas (How shall we keep the beat? How should we move around the room? Which instrument should we use for the giant? What would rhyme with the word ‘cat’?)

PHYSICAL1. Physical disability

• This category covers a huge range of issues. Consult the IEP, parents, teachers and the student for advice. For example, I had one student who wore leg braces – she explained to me that she got tired standing but did not want to sit down when other children were still standing (e.g., in choir). I sat the whole choir down much more often once I was aware of that.

• There is a whole literature of advice about assistive modifications that can be made to furniture, instruments and equipment to support these students. Ask the student and observe what works for them. See Courtney Richards’ article elsewhere in this issue for ideas and a reading list.

• Steel pan mallets are stubby and fat, and have rubber heads – there is quite a range of sizes available. These are easier to hold than Orff mallets.

• Severely affected students may not have much voluntary movement range, but maximize what they do have so that some activities do not have to be hand over hand. Use wind chimes, hanging tambourines, strapped on mallets, etc.

• Don’t ever be too delicate to ask the student what they want and need at any given moment. In my experience they are usually very definite.

• Students in wheel chairs need to dance and play hiding games as much as everyone else – get those SNAs busy, or use other student volunteers to facilitate.

• As with all students, put them in a leadership role in any way possible.

2. Blind and low vision • Find out what assistive technology is used by this student and provide access to that in the music class. You may need to provide enlarged visuals.

• Check for understanding.• Avoid speaking over noise.• Consult the student, IEP, teachers and parents about needs and strategies.

MULTIPLEEXCEPTIONALITIES

• In my experience most students with IEPs have multiple issues. There is no substitution for good communication, good preparation, offering and respecting the students’ choices.

Exceptionality Strategies

32 Ostinato

Arnold Walter

Reprinted from Ostinato, summer 1983, Bulletin # 24. The article is a reprint from a 1968 University of Toronto publica-tion, “Carl Orff – Music for Children” (No.1).

“Method” is a Greek word: it means “a way (Hodos) of doing anything,” doing it according to a regular plan. There is no reason why teaching procedures should not be called methods, as indeed they are. It is nevertheless true that the word is rarely restricted to its original and abstract meaning; it signifies a great deal more. A method (as the term is widely understood), is a book that can be taken off the shelf and used without further ado, without undue exertion on the part of the teacher. The material to be covered is presented in logical order; page follows page in the manner of frames in teaching machines. Progress is a matter of mechanical progression from one chapter to the next. Simplification is the watchword; a plain and easy introduction, whatever the subject, lightens the task of the teacher. The learning process is an entirely conscious one; the student is urged to use his intelligence, to persevere in efforts which have little to do with his inborn capacities.

Yet where there are subjects which tolerate no simplification, where an entirely conscious approach gives very meagre results. Language is a case in point. We all have natural or spontaneous capacities for acquiring speech. They are active in children, latent in adults, but they do exist in every human being. Children assimilate their own as well as foreign languages with ease. Adolescents and adults are rarely so fortunate; to learn a foreign language is difficult for them, often impossible, - for very simple reasons: they are asked to follow a “method”, to rely on their intelligence, to memorize rules, to read and write before they can speak, to use their eyes before their ears, …which leads them to an attempt to construct sentences out of single words and prefixes and suffixes, according to gram-matical schemata, - to proceed analytically. It is obvious that the usual methods (there are hundreds of them on the market) are not only useless but actually harmful; they interfere with the natural, unconscious process of assimilation. It follows that most of our language teaching, particularly in high schools, is ineffective and damaging. Yet we persist in it, partly because we have not learned yet to trust our latent capacities; partly also because the study of grammar is so much easier on the teacher than the acquisition of fluency in a language which he knows how to read and write but not to speak.

Music is often likened to language. The somewhat platitudinous comparison has little value; music lacks the propositional elements so prominent in speech. There is, however, a marked similarity between learning languages and studying music. Here again we discover spontaneous capacities (active in children, latent in adults) and the need for unconscious assimilation that takes precedence over all conscious efforts, - be they reading, writing, analysis or theory in any shape or form. Here again we find a multitude of methods interfering with natural processes, – methods that are supposed to be helpful to the teacher but often enough are harmful to his pupils.

We have, as yet, no clear picture of the origin and development of language. How emotionally charged utterances (chants, for all we know) were turned into names which paved the way for propos-itional language, – that problem has remained unresolved. Nor do

we fully understand how it is possible for a child learning to speak to accomplish a task that no adult can ever perform in the same way or as well. We must assume that unconscious forces are at work, that the total absence of conscious interference (so strongly felt in adult life) quickens the learning process; that the child has an innate hereditary capacity to recapitulate the development of language in an amazingly short time.

When it comes to music, children react in precisely the same way. The biogenetic law is at work here too: the individual recapitulates the development of the species. There exists, then a natural way of assimilating music. However ignorant we are of its origin, we do know that it was closely associated with speech and intimately related to movement; that it was based on improvisation; that rhythm was its most powerful element, to be slowly and gradually tamed by melody; that harmony came into the picture late. It is highly significant that the instinctive behaviour of small children follows the historical pattern; they will move to music, combine it with emotionally charged speech; they will endlessly improvise and turn every utensil they can lay hands on into some percussion instrument. Melody shapes (mostly pentatonic) will appear later; while harmony has to wait until it is taught.

If there is a natural way of assimilating music, why should educators remain ignorant of it? Already thirty years ago Ernst Ferand (“Die Improvisation in der Musik”) asked that a definite sequence be observed in a child’s musical education: he mentions movement and music, speech in relation to music, use of primitive (i.e., extremely simple) instruments, growing awareness of basic elements such as rhythm, melody and form. At that time (1938), Orff’s “Schulwerk” had long been in existence but addressed itself to the young dancers of the Guentherschule in Munich, which disappeared in Hitler times. It was only after the War that Orff proceeded to teach children in basically the same way in which he taught those dancers. In the new Schulwerk (now called “Music for Children”) the accent is once more on movement, speech, improvisation, on rhythm and pentatonic melody, on ostinatos and a slow and cautious approach to harmony.

If all this is psychologically sound and according to nature, more basic, more fundamental and therefore more effective than any other way of teaching children, how is it that the world went along without it before Carl Orff appeared on the scene? The question admits of several answers. One is that only too many youngsters were taught badly and were lost to music; another that the uncon-scious assimilation discussed earlier had previously been achieved by music-making in the family, whose lamentable decline and disappearance is a matter of record. There is no doubt that highly gifted children (always a minority of those we undertake to teach) needed little help to traverse the path phylogenetic ally prescribed; it is the other, the average children we have chiefly in mind.

Orff’s approach is certainly a method in the Greek sense of the word: it is “a way of doing things”, – a new and challenging way. But if we use the term as it is currently understood, then the Schulwerk is not a method book at all. Everything put down there is meant exempli gratia, with the injunction to go and do likewise. And that is a difficult assignment. An Orff teacher must not only be able to

Thirty Years Ago in Ostinato… Meditation on Method

Vol. 39, No. 3, Spring 2013 33

sing, to move and to dance, to play recorder, to handle xylophones or gambas and a variety of drums; before anything else he must be able to improvise. A feeling for language is necessary and intimate knowledge of children’s songs, folksongs and poetry. (It would, of course, be best if the teacher recreated in his own vernacular what Orff has done in his by drawing on the rich resources of Central European lore.) These elements, moreover, must be integrated to form an amalgam corresponding to what the Greeks called musike, an intermingling of poetry and dance and music, which fired the imagination of men like Gluck and Wagner.

Nothing is left that could be done mechanically, nothing that is pre-digested, ready to be applied. The teacher is on his own. “Cre-ative” is a sadly ill-used term, but that’s precisely what he has to be, – creative.

His most difficult task is to remain consistent. He might be tempted to neglect movement, to concentrate on playing to the detriment of singing, to sue printed pieces rather than to improvise. He might underestimate the value of pentatonic training, ending up by playing 19th century minutes on glockenspiels or xylophones; - might even proceed to reading and writing, putting the eyes once more before the ears. Such picking and choosing, adding and subtracting, would

On Saturday February 9, 2013 the University of Manitoba paid tribute to Ruth Wiwchar for her outstanding contribution to the University of Manitoba’s Orff Certification Program. Ruth was one of the instructors in the very first course offered at the University of Manitoba in 1980. The other instructors that first year were Carolyn Ritchey, Ursula Rempel, Sarah Jane Burton and Doreen Hall. Since that year Ruth played an integral part of the program up until her last class that she taught in the summer of 2010.

Over the years Ruth taught different compon-ents of the course including level III Basic Orff and levels I, II and III choral. She also served as director of the program from 1996-1998. During her 30 years with the University of Manitoba’s Orff program Ruth touched the lives and hearts of at least two thousand teachers who in turn shared Ruth’s passion for music with thousands and thousands of school children.

To RuthThank you for your passion.Thank you for your joy.Thank you for your inspiration.Thank you for your dedication.Thank you for your energy.Thank you for your musicianship.

Tribute to Ruth Wiwchar

Having Fun at Wiwchar’s Whistle Stop Ruth Wiwchar teaches at the first Manitoba Orff Chapter Children Day in May 1988All Aboard the Orff Train

only prove that he has not understood what Orff is driving at; he might just as well start with middle C at the piano and leave it at that.

The Schulwerk does not teach all about music. On the contrary, it leaves a great deal out to lay a firm foundation for studies yet to come, be they vocal, instrumental or theoretical. But what it does teach hangs together, is interrelated and integrated. It all derives from the conviction that there is a natural way of bringing music and children together. If that premise is false, the Schulwerk has obviously little value. If the premise is true, then it is of the utmost importance to keep the pedagogical framework intact.

The Schulwerk is not easy to teach; it cannot be taught mechanically. It involves more than the conscious intellect; it activates a child’s spontaneous capacities. It is not a method among other methods; it is not a primer building on a language already learned; it assists in the growth and unfolding of that language itself.

Arnold Maria Walter was a musicologist, educator, composer and writer. He was Director of Music at University of Toronto in the 1950s and -60s. He became aware of Orff’s work and was responsible for sending Doreen Hall to Europe to learn about the Schulwerk, which led to its introduction to North America.

Thank you for your artistry.Thank you for your high expectations.Thank you for your love of teaching music.Thank you for your love of children.Thank you for sharing.Thank you for being such a shining light.

Thank you Ruth.

34 Ostinato

An Interview with Doug GoodkinIn June of 2012, Doug Goodkin was a guest teacher at the Finnish Orff JaSeSoi Level Trainings. During his time there, he was interviewed by Tea Ylikoski, a student from Metropolia University who was doing research on the subject of rhythm and Orff Schulwerk. Tea and Doug kindly agreed to share that interview with Ostinato readers.

T: Well, Doug, let’s start with this. What is rhythm?D: Carl Orff said: “It is difficult to teach rhythm. One can only release it. Rhythm is no abstract concept, it is life itself.” Meaning that we already are rhythmic beings. It is the rhythms in our body that literally keep us alive—the rhythmic pumping of the heart, the rhythmic rising and falling of the breath, the rhythm of our brain waves. If any of those rhythms stop, we’re dead.

As Orff so eloquently said, rhythm is life itself, not only in our bodies, but in the rhythm of the day and night with the sun, the month with the moon, the year with the earth’s orbit, all the rhythms that mark time. And then there’s the rhythms inside all of matter, which both ancient wisdom and modern physics tells us is vibration. All things are vibrating in their own rhythm. You know how sometimes when you hit an instrument in one part of the room, it makes another instrument (like a snare drum) vibrate somewhere else? That’s a deep statement about the polyrhythmic world we inhabit, where one rhythmic vibration can awaken or affect another rhythmic vibra-tion. It doesn’t only happen with snare drums, but between people.

Perhaps the physics of falling in love is when simply seeing another person strums a string in your heart and you pick that particular rhythm out from all the others around you. Or rather, it picks you.

Do you see how deep and far-reaching rhythm is? And we go to music classes and come out thinking rhythm is counting 1-2-3-4! Orff was so brilliant to insist that rhythmic training means releasing that which we already are. Seen in that broad light, counting beats has very little to do with it.

T: So you don’t think that there are any situations where there is not rhythm? That rhythm is in everything that we do?

D: I can’t think of one. You know I really can’t. All day long we have these micro and macro rhythms. How we brush our teeth or brush our hair, chop the fruit, the long tradition of physical work rhythms—milking cows, sowing seeds, hammering nails, sawing wood, pounding grain, most of which has been reduced to button pushing, at great cost to our body’s sense of rhythm. Then there’s the cycles of the body—hungry, then full, sleepy, then awake and so on. Each bodily system with its own rhythmic cycle. And the structures of our daily life, our 9 to 5 cycle, our five day work week and weekends, our working year and summer vacation and so on. Whether in the human world we build or the natural world we inhabit, everything proceeds in cycles and patterns—it’s all rhythm.

There is a lovely poem by Gary Snyder that says: As the crickets soft hum is to us so are we to the trees as are they to the rocks and the hills.

So the cricket has a very fast vibration and takes a very short time and ours is slower, right? But the relationship between the cricket and us is like between us and the tree. You know, compared to the tree, ours is very fast and the tree is very slow, but compared to the mountain and the rocks and the hills, the tree is very fast and they are very slow.

T: Or like earth and the universe.D: Exactly. So they’re all different rhythms, all different expressions of the life force, each with its own rhythm. Some are fast and some are slow, but they all share this same kind of quality. It’s a great image of a universe filled with augmented and diminished rhythms and a very poetic way to think about it.

T: Yeah, beautiful…Well what do you think about rhythmics?D: I don’t know what that word means so… you mean as in teach-ing rhythm?

T: Yeah, like we have rhythmic lessons in Finland. Some people think that rhythm is the most basic thing in all music teaching. You think that too?

Whether in the human world we build or the natural world we inhabit,everything proceeds in cyclesand patterns—it’s all rhythm.

Vol. 39, No. 3, Spring 2013 35

D: Well yes. When we hear music, rhythm is what hits first, what we respond to. Before the mind is analyzing or the heart is feeling, the toe is tapping, the head starts nodding, the hip starts swaying. The body is responding to the rhythm.

To bring all this back to earth and the details of the music classroom, I would say that there are basically three elements, three aspects of Rhythm, to begin with. The first is beat or pulse. Within all of these rhythms we’ve named, there almost always (some exceptions) is an underlying unified pattern of beat that is steady and regular. Although it can speed up and slow down, ultimately to be perceived as a beat it has to steady out. So of course the heartbeat is like that. You know, it’s mostly regular but if you’re sleeping, it’s slower, if you’re running or excited, it gets faster. But it doesn’t go like this (clapping) right? it gets faster and then it steadies out until you still feel that it’s like a beat. It’s always seeking this moment of regularity and pattern. And once again you can see this in the hospital with the ekg, but if it is irregular then you have a big problem. It’s like if the ground under you is shaky. So it’s essential in life and music that the beat that lies below it all is steady, regular, dependable, solid. Though also elastic, not like a cold drum machine. There is a range of nuance in the beat that gives its full life energy.

Then comes the meter, that is, the grouping of the beats. Different cultures have different ways to think about grouping beats, but all they share in common that sense of a large pattern beyond the simple unit of the beat. In much Western music, we say 4/4 time, 3/4 time and so on, but other places have a more complex feel for grouping. Throughout much of sub-Saharan Africa, you find the feeling of three and two existing within the same time interval. In Bulgaria, you find short and long groupings added together (as in 2-2-2-2-3-2-2) and in India or Bali, time cycles may last a long time with intricate cross-metric variations within them. But despite these differences, I think all the musical cultures share this idea that the beat is a small pattern and the next larger pattern is the way the beats are grouped. And also the idea that there’s more weight in dif-ferent parts of the pattern that gives a particular meter its character. From time immemorial, musicians have also been dancers who feel in their body the weights of the pattern and that’s essential. When musicians stopped dancing the Galliard, Allemande, waltz, mazurka, Charleston or Lindy Hop, they lost their connection to that sense of weight in the music, the sense of phrase. They just started counting and that was the beginning of the end of musicality. So a radical thinker like Emile Jacques-Dalcroze had to get the Conservatory students away from their instruments and moving their phrases, singing their phrases with the breath rhythm and so on.

Then there is the third aspect of rhythm, which I just call rhythm, with a small r. Rhythm with a capital R is the whole thing, but rhythm is the pattern of duration, values and phrases. With the kids, I just say “It’s the way that words go.” Right? So if you speak a simple poem, the beat is underneath it, the meter is grouping it and the rhythm is the short and long sounds over the beat inside the meter, the different duration values of the words and their syllabic rhythm—“Jelly on a plate, jelly on a plate, wibble-wobble wibble wobble, jelly on a plate.”

So when considering how to release kids’ rhythms and help them understand it all in a systematic way, you need to analyze those three elements of rhythm. That all starts with experiencing rhythms in all the things we do—the clap plays, the speech pieces, the songs, the folk dances, the instrumental work. From the experience, we name the elements and sometimes write them and sometimes read them and generally practice them in all the different combinations, the infinite number of combinations that rhythm can be. And then within these activities, we have different styles of music with their different qualities to the rhythm, like swing rhythm and syncopation and offbeats in jazz, and we have tempo and accent and ostinato and melodic rhythm and harmonic rhythm and on and on.

But let’s say those three—beat, meter, rhythm— are the fundamental things that we are trying to teach the children. So then the question is “What’s the best way to train children? Should they just be count-ing beats, should they be learning meter counting 1-2-3-4 1-2-3-4, should they do rhythm like quarter quarter eighth eighth eighth eighth? And of course, there is no one answer, but everything I have done in this course is showing my answer and it’s quite different from the usual reading rhythms and counting strategies.

With the beat, you have to soak the children in the bath of beats and give them a way to perceive the beat and to show that they under-stand it and can express it. In a movement activity accompanied by me playing the drum or piano, the kids are moving around and there is a sense that they are moving in relationship with the beat. Or should be! I work with three-year olds and I see that some of them don’t. There can be a very strong beat and they are just walk-ing their own tempo until they finally figure it out that there has to be a match between the two. They have to release their inner beat to match the outer one.

T: Do you think that there´s nonrhythmicality?D: Well…let me get back to that in a moment. It’s a very important question.

But the other strategies for the beat are singing the songs and then just expressing the beat. You might be dancing the beat or tapping the beat on your knees, playing the drum or playing two notes on the xylophone, trying to express it in a way that’s matching the music. All the beat passing games are really nice strategies to learn the beat because if you can’t do the beat, you’re out of the game. Big motivation for some kids! And then jump rope is a very good way to feel the beat in your body, as is anything that has a repetitive rhythmic motion.

But back to your question. Why do some three-year-olds come to music class with an intuitive understanding of the beat and others don’t? Some people say that: “Oh! Genetically some people are not born so musical” but for me, it is 95% the kinds of experiences you have, first as a baby, later as a child and finally as an adult. It starts with what your parents are doing, what kind of musical home they’re making for you.

Before the mind is analyzing or the heart is feeling, the toe is tapping, the head starts nodding, the hip starts swaying.

... all the musical cultures share this idea that the beat is a small pattern

and the next larger pattern is the waythe beats are grouped

36 Ostinato

So, for example, I’ve seen for myself that very young children say in Ghana can do very sophisticated rhythmic things. And they’re really in their body and they’re playing complicated games keeping the beat so well and drumming and dancing and doing all these things with such rhythmicity, style and energy. And then some people say that “Oh! That’s because they have dark skin.” But if you analyze what those children are doing when they’re brought up, you see that they are tied to the mothers back or to the front almost all day long and she’s often working in a rhythmic way, pounding grain with a mortar or she’s dancing or singing while working. And so the baby tied to the back is experiencing all this in a visceral way, through all their senses and with an emotional association of safety and bonding with the mother. Imagine that the baby is on the back and the mother is doing this rhythmic motion and his face is going to her back like this while she’s singing. How could that child not understand the beat?! She’s getting it right through her bones and in relationship with the song.

But if children are brought up somewhere where they’re not sleep-ing with the parents, they’re alone in the crib and just looking up at something going around over its head, they’re getting from one place to another always in a stroller, they’re missing their first opportunities to wire their musical brain. Or even if they are on the mothers back, the mother is not working or she is sitting and typing on the computer and she is not singing, she’s not dancing. Well, then the child has no chance to feel that rhythm in the body. If the mother, grandmother or father is not bouncing the child on the knee— this is the way it happens all over the world, all the little nursery rhymes where they are bouncing you on the knee—if that is not happening over and over and over again then they might come to music and not understand what the beat feels like because the brain hasn’t been able to make that connection in the beginning of the experience.

So that’s why those kids in Ghana are brought up in a culture where they’re connected physically to the mother that is dancing is singing is working rhythmically. But you don’t have to go to Africa, you can find it anywhere where the parent sings, dances, holds, bounces the baby. And rhythm soothes the baby and that is again how funda-mental the rhythm is to life. The baby feels the rhythm on the knee that is a soothing thing for them and they’re happy, you can see that.

And this is connected with the speech and the song and this is another place where we find rhythm is language. When I’m talking like this it doesn’t seem that there is a beat, there is not one in an obvious sense… you know not if I was talk-ing-like-this with-a-rhythm-like-this, but there is a sense of rhythm in terms of phrasing and in terms of the rhythm of the words in themselves, something the Orff approach pays a lot of attention to. The way we teach rhythm is through speech patterns. So in the volume of Music for Children that Orff made you see all these little examples of just names and or pear tree pear tree apple tree apple tree and then try to clap what you say, say what you clap, move what you play, play what you move. It is coming to rhythm through language, not through counting.

What we know is that language is much closer to us than math. Mathematics is a very abstract thing, a lot of it processed in the left hemisphere of the brain and the last to develop. But the language is very close— the baby is saying ma-ma before he’s saying 2+2=4 . So it is a very good strategy to get to learn rhythm through language. And the language includes the beat and suggests a metrical pattern as well. And cultures that have a very highly developed rhythm sense, like India, for example, they have developed a system to learn everything through language first. The tongue plays before the hand. I studied a drum in South India and they let me play the drum early on because I was there a short time, but usually the children for two years are playing the wooden drum that makes a not very good sound but just learning everything through the voice like (ta-ta-ki-na..) They’re learning this pattern what their hands are playing and voice is saying and that’s the notation in a way, that’s how they learn and remember everything. In West Africa, they don’t have a developed system in terms of syllables but they do use a lot in proverbs, like Carl Orff used nursery rhymes. And Bali has its own way of doing it. In cultures where they don’t have a systematic way of teaching it, they might just say duplicate the sound of the instrument in the voice (ka-ka ko-go ka-ka-ko-go-go) and then you get it in your voice and the voice and the hand is very close together compared to 1-2 and 3-4. So this has proven to me to be a very effective way to teach rhythm.

T: What about these three things you said about teaching rhythm?D: Yeah, passing games and clap plays and folk dance for beat, language for rhythm and then there’s the meter. As mentioned before, meter movement. The best way to teach meter is to move in measured steps, because movement shows you where the weight is in the meter. Again, Dalcroze is very good approach to learn about meter because they’ve thought this through. The down beat, the heavy beat, is called crusis and so there is a release of energy and then the energy is going forward, that’s called the metacrusis, and then it reaches the end of the cycle and then the uplifting thing called the anacrusis. Like me with this mosquito—I’m raising my hand (the anacrusis) to slap it (the crusis). So if you’re moving this in a waltz kind of way you can feel how your body goes 1-2 and up you go bum and you release your weight there. If you’re doing a six-eight time, you can march or gallop or skip, so these are the strategies for me to teach meter. And of course, the conductor has to feel the weight. The boring conductors just treat every beat equally, but with the more sophisticated ones, the down beat has this energy, the upbeat has this different energy and you really feel that every beat has its own style and dynamics. And also the three-four time in the minuet is different from the mazurka is different from the jazz waltz and there’s variations within the variations. But it’s a physical the thing. If you’re just counting, you are not going to get all the dimension of it.

T: Okay what about this. Do you think rhythm has always dynam-ics or melody in it?D: Oh absolutely! In many drumming traditions when you learn something on the drum you’re learning a song you know there maybe

Why do some three-year-olds cometo music class with an intuitive

understanding of the beat and others don’t?

babies and children who miss out on a musical environment can

still make progress as adults.It just requires more effort..

Vol. 39, No. 3, Spring 2013 37

a song that goes over but the patterns on the drum are kind of a song so it’s not as much as you’re playing (dum dum tak tak..) but it’s how you’re expressing that on the drum with the dum sound with the tak sound with the slap sound and that creates a little melody. For example (singing dums and taks) it is the same rhythm but it is different (singing the same rhythm but with different notes). So they really do think rhythms as melodies rather than just some abstract combinations of quarters and eighths or whatever.

T: But do you think that rhythm is like more important than mel-ody, dynamics?D: Well, it’s not that it would be more important, but it comes first. Because melody has rhythm in it. So melody is rhythm plus. But if the rhythm foundation is not there then the melody won´t work. And same thing with the meter, you need to feel all those accents in the melody within the meter and the phrasing so it’s not like rhythm would be more important, like you have to choose rhythm or melody. Either first or coming side by side with the melody. And it’s one of those things that people notice on kids that been trained in Orff, how comfortable they are with a rhythmic ensemble. Opposite to the kids that come to a piano lesson to read notes— they don’t necessarily feel the rhythm in the same way. So Orff is extremely friendly towards rhythmic training and gives children but a very strong rhythmic foundation.

T: What about these children that are not raised in Africa? And are like pushed around in a stroller?D: Yeah, I would say that if they still have the luck of a grandparent bouncing them on a knee and telling them nursery rhymes that’s fine so that’ll work quite well. And remember, human beings are remarkably resilient. It’s best to get the rhythmic foundation as babies, but babies and children who miss out on a musical environ-ment can still make progress as adults. It just requires more effort. And that’s our job as music teachers. We can’t control what kind of homes our students come from, but we can help remediate prob-lems and further good foundations with all the various strategies I’ve already mentioned.

T: So everybody is rhythmical in some way?D: Yes, but it will take some a longer way if they don’t get what they need in early childhood. I can speak very clearly from experience that if a kid stays in my school the whole time— I see them for eleven years, you know, they start at three and end in the eighth grade—they will graduate still feeling musical. There was one 8th grade girl that I felt still had trouble with the beat at the end, but I was a younger teacher back then. Hahaha! And I would probably know now how to do some things better. But these kids are extremely comfortable because they know how things fit together rhythmically. And that changes according to style. They are now very familiar with clapping off-beat and what kind of music it goes with. They also understand what music works better with a clave rhythm (tik tik tik * tik tik ), which suggests clapping on the beat and so on.

I had a second grade class recently and I did this song with them and tried to have everyone clap this clave rhythm, you know a little bit

sophisticated for 7-year olds, and every single second grader could clap that rhythm. But then the question is whether they could clap it and sing the song at the same time. I told them it’s going to be a challenge and they were laughing and saying “Wow! This is hard!” It is always hard for adults too! But there were two kids that could do it. And I’m looking at them and saying “Great!”

This is another big thing that I tell all my teachers, that when you teach rhythms, always teach them in a relationship with a text or melody. So they are not just doing it all by themselves, but they have to relate it to another layer. I didn’t do this exercise here this time, but I will probably do it in the jazz course. Where we do this song and there’s six different rhythms that go under it. And so every rhythm is a new thing and t he song says the same thing, but they have to figure out how to fit that rhythm to the song. And there is one that is very hard, that even I have trouble with, but then everyone starts laughing and thinking there’s no way we can put these two things together. And eventually, with practice, they can. But it’s really good to have those two layers together than to practice just rhythm.

T: You would say that rhythm is important to you?D: I was one of these kids that was not brought up musically. I took organ and piano lessons between 6-years old and 13-years old and listened to my parents’ classical music record collection, but I missed so many of these key experiences. In one of my books I tell the story of how when I was seventeen in a backseat of a car and some Led Zeppelin was on and my friend was drumming it and I said “Wow!” So I tried it, but just couldn’t do it. I didn’t have a strong rhythmic sense though I could play Bach through reading. Firstly, Bach isn’t that rhythmically challenging and secondly, I never had any rhythmic body experience and I never danced. So I had some pretty big musical faults even though I could play Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D minor. So it was very late to begin rhythmic train-ing. You know as an eighteen-year-old.

But you know the things that really helped were, number one, running into the Orff approach, doing all these games, all these clapping games and folk dance and movement. Then I began to study different music-cultures around the world—South Indian, gamelan, samba, West African, etc. And the third breakthrough came from body percussion. When I started to do it with Keith Terry, it really brought it up to a next level, learning to integrate the rhythm through your whole body instead of just counting or clapping. I used to play piano to accompany my sister’s dance classes and she often complained that I sped up the tempo. You know, I probably still have some of those problems, but those three things really finally integrated rhythm in myself.

Orff himself often referred to the ancient Greek idea of Musiké as the meeting point

of music, dance, drama, poetryand it’s clear that in folk traditions

worldwide, musicians dance and dancers play and sing and indeed, often there’s no

such word as musician/dancerseparating them.

Exciting beginning, connected middle, satisfying end—the most simple definition

of music that I know and one that also describes a good class.

38 Ostinato

drama, poetry and it’s clear that in folk traditions worldwide, musi-cians dance and dancers play and sing and indeed, often there’s no such word as musician/dancer separating them.

And you don’t have to go to an African village to witness that. If you were an actor in America in the 1930’s, you had to sing, play, dance and act. There’s a funny story of Fred Astaire, that when he came to the studio for a screen test, someone wrote: “Can’t sing. Can’t act. Can dance a little bit.”

So Orff gathered these ideas and his colleague Gunild Keetman put them into action with children. Together they created a musical style that was, and is, unlike anything else I’ve heard. It transports me to some unnamed mythical world and I don’t know where it is, but it has a real sense of authenticity.

So to me, the Orff Schulwerk is a gathering of universal and timeless principles, an antidote to the things that we are missing in contem-porary culture. We are often out of touch with our bodies, with our imagination, with each other. We can jog or go to the gym, but don’t use our whole body as an instrument of expression. We can e-mail, text or Tweet our friends, but we are left feeling isolated and discon-nected with each other. We are consumers of the imagination, but we are not encouraged to be our own dreamers.

The Orff workshops are an antidote to that. I see it here. Often teachers after a busy school year just want to go to the beach and sunbathe, but these people come here and are talking, singing, dancing and laughing together and that is happiness. And they are making things with each other, not just by themselves or on paper. It’s a group thing, it’s a social thing. As well as having important moments of solitude. And they are exercising and doing all those things that brain research says is good for you. And they are repeating things and learning things in multiple dimensions. They’re using their brain, they’re using their hearts, they’re using their senses. So that is what Orff means to me— it’s a model of living better. And people need this.

But to me, it is always a wish that more people would experience something like this. It’s not something you should have to guess about because it has been proven to work for kids and adults. And there are so many things like bungy-jumping or hot yoga, but this is so healing and so few people get to do it and I’m grateful that I get to do with those people.

T: What is your goal as a Orff teacher?D: The simplest goal is to train kids to be the kind of musicians that I want to play with. That I like to hang out and jam with. Because if they come to me in eighth grade and I don’t like the musician they are, it’s my fault. So I don’t care about making these kinds of musicians that can win competitions. I just want them to leave eighth grade with the same kind of curiosity and excitement and love for music and dance that they came in with as three-year olds. But of course, now developed and expanded through real skills and knowledge.

And to take that one step further. I want them to be the kind of people I enjoy being around. My colleagues and I took 17 Middle School kids to perform in the Orff Symposium in Salzburg and that’s exactly what we discovered. Not only did we love to play all kinds of music with them in all kinds of situations, but we just liked being together. Imagine! A 60-year old man hanging out in a Youth Hostel with 12, 13, 14 year olds and loving it! That’s testimony enough to the power and beauty of this work.

Sometimes I wonder if the later body percussion came easier because I had played the organ and had to learn how to coordinate the two hands and the feet. I do think that it helped as well. So I had some little foundation at least. So it wasn’t all terrible, but it was really late to begin that more complete rhythmic training. You know, I tell the kids I teach in fourth grade that they are rhythmically so much more advanced than I was when I was eighteen and it’s true. And the eighth graders— forget it! they’re way ahead of me.

T: I just said to my friend yesterday that I would so hope to be a three-year-old in your class.D: Yeah, well I would hope to be that to. And that was a big part of my training, to be the teacher that I never had. And try to give the kids something that I never got.

T: Well what do you think? Is there rhythm in teaching?D: As I often say in my workshops, every music-class should have a cycle as if it is a piece of music. It needs an exciting beginning that invites people in then, it has to have a connected middle, a development. When the class comes to an end, it should have the same satisfaction of the finally closing chords in a song. Exciting beginning, connected middle, satisfying end—the most simple def-inition of music that I know and one that also describes a good class.

It’s a thing that I see in other people’s teaching, that sometimes there is no natural flow to it. How can I train them to understand that? I don’t really know how to teach it, but just to pay attention to how I do it and how it feels when you’re in the midst of a good musical flow. It’s an intuitive sense of pacing. While we’re learning something, have we done it enough so that it really sinks in or is it starting to feel boring? And there are big name Orff teachers I have met who are teaching just game after game without any sense of connection between them. I think we can go deeper than that. There was once this situation where I was sitting in a classroom and teachers where teaching, but nothing was happening. And then Sofia comes with her violin students and they hadn’t played ever together with her, but in five minutes they had already played six pieces. So whatever you do as a teacher, you are music and you are radiating your own kind of rhythm, own sense of melody, own sense of dynamics. On some level, it doesn’t matter what you do because you are the music in the class and then the people come to that.

T: Well what is Orff to you?D: There’s a small question! First of all it’s a structure, it’s a gather-ing of many ideas from many times and places. Orff himself said that he didn’t invent something new, but just gathered some ideas that had been around. But he put them into a western setting and context. Of course, he can’t take credit for the idea that we should play, sing and dance. Thousands of cultures around the world could say “Duh!” But these things where torn apart in the West and he tried to bring them back together. Orff himself often referred to the ancient Greek idea of Musiké as the meeting point of music, dance,

I don’t care about making these kinds of musicians that can win competitions. I just want them to leave eighth grade with the

same kind of curiosity and excitement and love for music and dance that they came in

with as three-year olds.

Vol. 39, No. 3, Spring 2013 39

What Are Some Good Resources for the Movement Teacher?Book Reviews / Critiques de recueils et DVDs pédagogiques

Reviewed by Hania Krajewski

This is a question that I am continually asked. Musicality is a function of the kinaesthetic sense. This is what makes the Orff and Dalcroze approaches to music education so powerful and effective. Too often Orff teachers may rush to bring in the percus-sion instruments before children are truly ready in their bodies in terms of feeling the beat, the rhythm, metre, phrasing, dynamics, tempo changes, the mood of a mode, musical form and so on. In order to develop this musicality we need clear guidance and a source of strategies.

Movement in an Orff programme is a four pronged approach:

Eurhythmics as developed by Emile Jaques Dalcroze: involves movement exercises that work with muscular responses to sound (totally in line with the Orff philosophy) with a focus on time concepts.

Creative movement using the framework developed by Laban: in order to encourage improvisation and work with ‘energy’ at a deeper level in ‘personal’ and ‘general’ space.

Creative movement is probably the area teachers may be a little reluctant to try. Yet, this is a very important venue for reinforcing an authentic aesthetic connection between all styles of music and the nervous system of the student.

Folk dances and social games to introduce participants to our oral traditions/cultures, building community as well as deepening kinaesthetically a variety of time concepts.

Body percussion activities to enhance working with beat, rhythm and metre and reinforcing concentration (a much needed skill in today’s society) and coordination.

Body percussion activities are found in all Orff books and already incorporated by Orff teachers in their lessons so I will not need to provide any resources in this area.

Resources are needed in all of these areas. I can recommend three sources in particular that will set up any Orff teacher for life, well worth the investment. Each of these books has a particular focus and each one is important towards planning a well-rounded holistic music programme.

Dalcroze Eurhythmics In Today’s Music ClassroomMead, Virginia HogeSchott Music Corporation, New York USA, 1994ISBN 0 930448 51 0 $42.95

A very useful and clear book for any teacher wanting to develop all concepts of Time through movement based on Dalcroze pedagogy and totally compatible with Orff pedagogy as both are movement based.

This is an amazing holistic active listening approach to music education, which was developed by Emile Jaques Dalcroze back in the late 1890s in Geneva, Switzerland (prior to Carl Orff who did his work throughout the first half of the 20th century).

Participants work with the physical sensation of moving through space in time with energy while feeling the expressive qualities of sound/music. A musician, for example internalizes a kinaesthetic memory of the relationship between a quarter and half note, rests in music, an anacrusis, duple versus triple beat rhythms, changing metre, or phrasing etc. Participants have to actively respond to movement challenges presented. Eurhythmic activities help students deal with challenging Time concepts like 6/8 versus 3/4 metre.

Here are just two sample activities (of hundreds) taken from this book:

1. “When I say GO, walk eight steps away keeping a steady beat from the opening circle of the group as if you are going away on an errand. Be back on your spot on the eighth step to continue walking in the circle clockwise”. Pg. 26

2. Playing a musical example provided on pg. 88 have pupils move to the beat on quarter and eighth notes but freeze on half notes and/or also show the half note with a silent clap. Or reverse by only moving on the half notes and freeze on the other rhythmic values. Pg. 87

Props such as balls, scarves, elastics can also be used to extend these exercises for added depth. As well as rhythmic training there are numerous physical exercises for solfège ear training with pitch and time together. Students can hear and sing tonal patterns or listen for melody direction, responding to changes in harmonic chords etc. The third focus is building proficiency in piano improvisation. A clear development of this is provided in Appendix A at the back of the book.

There are clearly described experiences broken down for Primary grades, Junior grades and then Upper grades that are very helpful in working with the various age groups. Eurhythmics provides an effective process for getting behind the rhythmic and melodic nuances of any style of music towards developing true musician-ship. I highly recommend attending a Dalcroze workshop if one is available in your area.

Lesson Plans for Creative Dance Connecting With Literature, Arts, and Music Carline Sally Human Kinetics, Windsor, Ontario, 2011ISBN-10: 1-4504-0198-2 $34.95

This is a wonderful book that helps teachers work with movement concepts in a creative framework. This is a new resource that I highly recommend. Of all the movement books dealing with creative dance this one is the best by far and not too expensive considering the wealth of content. It is a very easy book to follow and use for even the beginning teacher.

The Introductory chapter provides a clear analysis and explanation of movement concepts based on Laban Dance which is also the basis of Orff pedagogy. This chapter has an overview of how to look at movement in terms of:

What the body does (locomotion and stationary movement)How the body moves (weight/time/space/flow)

40 Ostinato

How to develop spatial awareness (personal and general space/pathways/levels/shapes)How to explore relationships (with others or other things in the environment)

Additionally, just about every two pages there is a helpful and practical TIP in terms of how to organise a class or approach an activity. Movement can scare some teachers and these TIPS will help them to be successful with children.

The book is divided into three sections:

Part I

Warm-up activities for all the different age groups from 4 to 12 that introduce children to the concepts analysed in the Introductory Chapter. These activities also include a list of the music sources to work with and at the end of the book a summary as to where to locate the music. Very helpful!

The progression is also very well done.

Joyce Boorman wrote three activity movement books back in the 1970’s that covered all of these ages. Sally Carline’s book has all of this in ONE book plus much more. Sally mentions that Boor-man’s books were her original inspiration when she began teaching several decades ago.

Part II

This section deals with the exploration of sequences of movement words with language.

Chapter 3: Action words (stationary and locomotor)Chapter 4: Action words responding to short rhymes How to apply movement to language interpretivelyChapter 5: Action Words and PoetryChapter 6: Action Words woven into the rhythmic language (working with time)

Sally’s examples open up a whole world showing how to bring language and its nuances to life through movement.

Part III

This final section of the book contains 28 fully developed thematic movement pieces that the children would now be more able to do after having experienced the movement concepts in the first two sections. The dances are grouped in terms of appropriateness of the different age groups from 4 to 12. These creative dances are con-nected to a range of styles in recorded music (classical, pop, jazz, folk etc.). This part is similar to the Fun With Composers lessons by Deborah Ziolkoski minus the rhythmic words simulating the melodies. The movement patterns are graphed instead.

I have worked with a few of Sally’s dances with students and they are truly beautiful. The children are encouraged to improvise within a very clear structure at an authentic level of involvement (not rote or mechanical). Truly fabulous!

Some examples:The participants can become The Queen’s Guards to Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite or Rice Crispies to Pop Goes The Weasel. Older children can be Skeletons and Ghouls to Danse Macabre by Saint-Saens or become Miners to a Rita McNeil song. This book provides

an in-depth way for participants to internalise musical concepts through movement with a full range of music styles.

120 Singing Games and Dances for Elementary SchoolsChoksy Lois and Brunet DavidPrentice-Hall, 1987 (227 pages) $122.50

This excellent collection of 120 singing games and dances are organized in a very helpful way. The games and dances are listed from simple to complex taking into consideration the age of children involved and the skill level being taught. There is also interesting historical background provided. The activities are easy to follow, even for the beginning teacher and will be useful for the full age range of children in the elementary school.

Many of the dances and games are found in other books but the format and the convenience of having all of this information in one book is well worth it.

This is an expensive book. I bought mine twenty years ago for around $60 then and still refer to it all of the time. It is worth the investment.

One Additional Resource:

[CDs] Music For Creative Dance, Contrast & ContinuumVolumes I, II, III & IVChappelle, EricCreative Dance Ideas by Anne Gilbert Green for Every SelectionRavenna Ventures, Inc, Seattle, Washington, USA, 1993, 1994, 1998 & 2000RVCD 9301, RVCD 9401, RVCD9801, & RCVD 9901$19.95 per CD

These CDs are handy to have to simply have music readily access-ible to use in class right away. Each CD has about 16 recordings. Right in the jacket that is part of the CD, each recording gives a simple summary of which movement concepts to work with. Activities can be used with 4 to 13-year-olds easily. This may be challenging for the beginning Orff teacher but Sally Carline’s book, Lessons for Creative Dance can be very helpful here to clarify the movement concepts.

Two Examples from Volume I:

Recording One: All in One (Two contrasting melodies)

• Alternate moving lightly and strongly, smoothly and sharply; with free flow and bound, changing levels, direction or focus

• Partners copy each other’s movements, changing leaders when the music changes, dance with upper body half on one part and lower on the other

Recording Twelve: Stone Soup (Smooth and sharp motifs played simultaneously)

• Half the dancers move to the smooth sound, half move to the sharp sounds. Reverse roles when the instruments reverse. Try this with a partner, moving around each other. Exchange props if using them

• Dance through general space to the smooth sounds and dance in self space to the sharp sounds, reverse

Vol. 39, No. 3, Spring 2013 41

Each CD volume has a different focus.

Volume I: Exploring space and an introduction to movement concepts Volume II: Working with locomotion in greater depth Volume III: Musical form and World Music Volume IV: advanced content – Extended musical form and advanced folk and creative dances

This is an effective way of having children really listen and think about how they are moving in relation to the music. My only res-ervation about these CDs is that about half of the recordings have a synthetic /‘muzak’ quality of sound to them which I do not like. If money is a factor one could buy the first CD only, and then look for your own recordings or explore those recommended in Sally Carline’s book.

Children love to move so do not keep your Orff classes static. Give your students the opportunity of joyful movement, the basis of any true Orff music class.

Thanks to Bruce Grant for his help in the preparation of this article. All books are available through St John’s Music or other suppliers (bruce.grant@stjohnsmusic.com).

Hania Krajewski has been the Movement instructor in the Royal Conservatory Orff Levels courses for many years. She was a music and drama specialist and consultant before her retirement from the Toronto Catholic District School Board.

42 Ostinato

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in a

pro

gram

at t

he U

nive

rsity

of

Alb

erta

). St

uden

ts n

ot e

nrol

led

in a

U o

f A

Prog

ram

mus

t app

ly fo

r Ope

n St

udie

s sta

tus.

Onc

e ac

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to O

pen

Stud

ies,

stud

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ay th

en re

gist

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el I

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evel

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Reg

istra

tion

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une

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is h

ighl

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BC

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Dis

trict

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rff A

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aditi

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fric

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Vol. 39, No. 3, Spring 2013 43

Orf

f Sch

ulw

erk

Teac

her T

rain

ing

Cou

rses

/Cou

rs d

e fo

rmat

ion

Orf

f In

stitu

tion

Cou

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In

stru

ctor

s D

ates

C

onta

ct

Endo

rsem

ent

Cos

t/Oth

er

MA

NIT

OB

A-W

INN

IPEG

Uni

vers

ity o

f M

anito

ba

Leve

ls I

and

II Je

wel

Cas

selm

an:

Rec

orde

r I a

nd II

B

rend

a H

arve

y: B

asic

O

rff I

I Li

z K

ristja

nson

: C

hora

l I a

nd II

Er

ica

Lind

gren

: M

ovem

ent I

Jo

an L

inkl

ater

: Bas

ic

Orf

f I

Dia

nne

Sjob

erg:

M

ovem

ent I

I

July

3 –

16,

20

13

Joan

Lin

klat

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_lin

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er@

uman

itoba

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rsed

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Car

l O

rff C

anad

a

Uni

vers

ity c

redi

t and

non

-cre

dit o

ptio

ns

avai

labl

e In

form

atio

n su

bjec

t to

chan

ge.

www.

uman

itoba

.ca/

facu

lties

/mus

ic/s

umm

er/s

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er.h

tml

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VA S

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NS

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f Cha

pter

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l I

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es Ja

ckso

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arg

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tie, K

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ust 1

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rlotte

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Intro

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f : A

dditi

onal

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ualif

icat

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in

Prim

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Juni

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Voc

al M

usic

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t O

ne w

ith O

rff

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ly 3

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daily

, M

onda

y to

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iday

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ough

a

partn

ersh

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ith Y

ork

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vers

ity, t

he In

tro

to O

rff i

s cr

edite

d as

P/J

Voc

al M

usic

Par

t 1

and

the

Leve

l I O

rff i

s cr

edite

d as

P/J

V

ocal

Mus

ic P

art I

I

44 Ostinato

Orf

f Sch

ulw

erk

Teac

her T

rain

ing

Cou

rses

/Cou

rs d

e fo

rmat

ion

Orf

f In

stitu

tion

Cou

rses

In

stru

ctor

s D

ates

C

onta

ct

Endo

rsem

ent

Cos

t/Oth

er

ON

TAR

IO –

TO

RON

TO

Roya

l Con

serv

ator

y of

Mus

ic

Intro

, and

Lev

els

I, II,

III

Han

ia K

raje

wsk

i, K

im

Ken

dric

k, C

athe

rine

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t, Jo

y Re

eve,

Ver

a Fl

aig,

Lin

da S

ong,

A

lison

Roy

July

2 –

13,

20

13

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est (

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se D

irect

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l Con

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273

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wal

of

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rsem

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endi

ng

$895

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ject

to c

hang

e)

Regi

ster o

nlin

e: w

ww.rc

mus

ic.c

a O

ntar

io te

ache

rs, p

leas

e no

te: T

hrou

gh a

pa

rtner

ship

with

OIS

E th

e In

tro to

Orff

, Le

vels

I an

d II

are

cred

ited

as P

/J V

ocal

M

usic

Par

ts 1

, 2 a

nd 3

. For

det

ails

cont

act

the

Cour

se D

irect

or.

Intr

o an

d Le

vel I

ple

ase

regi

ster b

y ea

rly

Apr

il to

avo

id d

isapp

oint

men

t.

Roya

l Con

serv

ator

y of

Mus

ic

Met

amor

phos

is:

Out

of t

he B

ox!

Mar

celli

ne M

oody

W

orks

hop:

A

ugus

t 19,

201

3 Co

urse

: Aug

ust

19-2

3, 2

013

Cath

erin

e W

est (

Cour

se D

irect

or)

Roya

l Con

serv

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273

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To

ront

o O

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(416

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cath

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App

licat

ion

will

be

mad

e to

hav

e th

e co

urse

re

cogn

ized

as a

Pos

t Le

vel I

II co

mpo

nent

Cost

: TB

A

The

first

sess

ion

on A

ug 1

9 (9

am

to 1

pm

) w

ill b

e a

wor

ksho

p op

en to

all.

The

rest

of

the

wee

k is

a co

urse

for e

xper

ienc

ed O

rff

teac

hers

(Cou

rse

prer

equi

site:

Lev

el II

Orf

f fro

m a

reco

gniz

ed p

rovi

der)

Roya

l Con

serv

ator

y of

Mus

ic

Intro

duct

ion

to

Orff

H

ania

Kra

jew

ski,

Kim

K

endr

ick,

Bet

h K

nox

Sept

–Dec

201

3 5

to 8

pm

, Mon

&

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(6

hrs/w

k fo

r 10

wk)

Cath

erin

e W

est (

Cour

se D

irect

or)

Roya

l Con

serv

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Mus

ic

273

Bloo

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To

ront

o O

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cath

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rcm

usic

.ca

Rene

wal

of

Endo

rsem

ent p

endi

ng

Cost

: $89

5 (s

ubje

ct to

cha

nge)

Re

giste

r onl

ine

from

July

201

3:

www.

rcm

usic

.ca

Ont

ario

teac

hers

, ple

ase

note

: Thr

ough

a

partn

ersh

ip w

ith O

ISE

the

Intro

to O

rff is

cr

edite

d as

P/J

Voc

al M

usic

Par

t 1. F

or

deta

ils c

onta

ct th

e Co

urse

Dire

ctor

.

Roya

l Con

serv

ator

y of

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ic

Orff

Lev

el I

Han

ia K

raje

wsk

i, K

im

Ken

dric

k, C

athe

rine

Wes

t (su

bjec

t to

chan

ge

Mar

ch –

May

20

14

5 to

8 p

m, M

on

& W

ed (6

hr

s/wk

for 1

0 w

k)

Cath

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Cour

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irect

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l Con

serv

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273

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wal

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endi

ng

Cost

: $89

5 (s

ubje

ct to

cha

nge)

Re

giste

r onl

ine

from

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201

3:

www.

rcm

usic

.ca

Ont

ario

teac

hers

, ple

ase

note

: Thr

ough

a

partn

ersh

ip w

ith O

ISE

Orff

leve

l one

is

cred

ited

as P

/J V

ocal

Mus

ic P

art 2

. For

de

tails

con

tact

the

Cour

se D

irect

or.

QU

ÉBEC

-MO

NTR

EAL

Uni

vers

ité d

u Q

uébe

c à

Mon

tréal

M

US

4806

- D

idac

tique

de

la

mus

ique

au

prim

aire

selo

n O

rff

Chan

tal D

uboi

s Se

ssio

n de

se

ptem

bre

à dé

cem

bre,

les

lund

is de

9h0

0 à

12h0

0

Chan

tal D

uboi

s du

bois

chan

tal@

vide

otro

n.ca

Re

nouv

elle

men

t de

l'app

roba

tion

en a

ttent

e.

Uni

vers

ité d

u Q

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c à

Mon

tréal

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US

4806

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idac

tique

de

la

mus

ique

au

prim

aire

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tal D

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se

ptem

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à dé

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tal D

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chan

tal@

vide

otro

n.ca

Re

nouv

elle

men

t de

l'app

roba

tion

en a

ttent

e.

Vol. 39, No. 3, Spring 2013 45

Cha

pter

Wor

ksho

ps /

Ate

liers

de

perf

ectio

nnem

ent

Dat

es

Title

C

linic

ian(

s)

Loca

tion/

Tim

e C

onta

ct

ALB

ERTA

-CA

LGA

RY

Sept

embe

r 21,

201

3 Im

itatio

n to

Impr

ovis

atio

n - I

t’s A

ll in

the

Proc

ess

Jo E

lla H

ug

TBA

8:

30 a

.m. –

1:3

0 p.

m.

Ond

rea

Man

n vi

cepr

esid

ent@

calg

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Janu

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18, 2

014

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Chor

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Em

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Ada

m J

. Con

TB

A

8:30

a.m

. – 1

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p.m

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Day

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Apr

il 20

, 201

3 C

hild

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Exec

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9:

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shaw

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Sept

embe

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Proc

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lla H

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Apr

il 13

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Apr

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Apr

il 11

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ay a

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Fitz

mau

rice

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bw

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ymts.

net

46 Ostinato

Cha

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Apr

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Apr

il 6,

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48 Ostinato

Annual ReportsMembers are entitled to receive either hard copies or e-copies of the most recent annual President’s, Treasurer’s, and Membership Secretary’s reports (presented at the April 2012 AGM). They are available on the Members Only page of www.orffcanada.ca.

Rapports annuelLes membres de COC ont droit de recevoir une copie papier ou copie électronique des plus récents rapports annuels de la présidente, de la trésorière et de la secrétaire aux adhésions (présentés à l’assemblée générale d’avril 2012). Ils sont disponible à la rubrique Members Only de www.orffcanada.ca.

Gunild Keetman ScholarshipThe Gunild Keetman Scholarship is awarded annually to a Canadian student or teacher who wishes to take an Orff Level II or III course. Full details about Gunild Keetman and the scholarship application form are available at www.orffcanada.ca on the Scholarships link. The deadline for applications is April 15, 2014.

La bourse Gunild KeetmanLa bourse Gunhild Keetman est décernée annuellement à un(e) étudiant(e) canadien(ne) qui souhaite suivre la formation Orff de niveau II ou III. Les renseignements au sujet de la bourse Gunild Keetman de même que le formulaire d’inscription sont disponibles sur le site Internet de Carl Orff Canada : www.orffcanada.ca, sous le lien « Bourse ». La date limite d’inscription est le 15 avril 2014.

Donations to the Gunild Keetman Scholarship FundMembers and chapters are encouraged to make donations to the Gunild Keetman Scholarship fund. Please use the donations form at www.orffcanada.ca, on the Scholarships link. Official receipts for income-tax purposes will be issued for all donations.

Dons à la fondation de la bourse Gunild KeetmanLes membres et les chapitres sont encouragés à faire des dons à la fondation de la bourse Gunild Keetman. S’il vous plaît, veuillez utiliser le formulaire de dons à la fondation disponible sur le site www.orffcanada.ca sous le lien Scholarships. Des reçus officiels d’impôt seront émis pour chaque don.

Course GuidelinesCurrent guidelines for Introductory, Levels I, II, and III courses and Post Level III Guidelines can be found at www.orffcanada.ca in Section M of the Policy and Procedures manual in the Members Only section. Course Guidelines for the Course for the Non-Specialist Teachers are in development.

Lignes directrices des cours OrffLes lignes directrices pour les formations Orff de niveau Intro-duction, Niveau 1 et Niveau 2 et pour le niveau Post-niveau 3 se trouvent sur le site www.orffcanada.ca à la section “M” du manuel des Politiques et Procédures sous le lien Members Only. Les lignes directrices de la formation pour les enseignants non-spécialistes sont en préparation.

Post Level III CertificateMembers who have successfully completed their Orff Level III, and have taken three endorsed Post Level III courses may apply for their Post Level III certificate.The application form can be found

National Executive Business Section /Section du conseil exécutif national

in Section N of the Policy and Procedures manual in the Members Only section at www.orffcanada. For enquiries, contact the Second Vice-President.

Certificat post-niveau IIILes membres qui ont complété avec succès le niveau III et qui ont suivi trois cours approuvés de post-niveau III peuvent demander un certificat « post-niveau III ». Le formulaire d’application est disponible à la section « N » du manuel des Politiques et Procé-dures sous le lien Members only de www.orffcanada.ca. Pour toute information, veuillez joindre la seconde vice-présidente.

Mentorship Program for Levels Course TeachersExperienced Orff specialists who are interested in becoming Lev-els course instructors are invited to apply for Carl Orff Canada’s Mentorship Program. The guidelines and application can be found in Sections M and N of the Policy and Procedures manual in the Members Only section at www.orffcanada. For further information please contact the First Vice-President.

Programme de mentorat pour les enseignants des formations OrffLes spécialistes Orff expérimentés qui sont intéressés à devenir des professeurs des différents niveau de formation sont invités à s’inscrire au programme de mentorat de Carl Orff Canada. Les lignes directrices du programme et le formulaire sont accessibles disponible aux sections « M et N » du manuel des Politiques et Procédures sous le lien Members Only de www.orffcanada.ca. Pour toute information supplémentaire, veuillez joindre la première vice-présidente.

Become a Member!Members receive this journal three times a year, contact with a lo-cal chapter, and reduced admission to workshops and conferences. Go to www.orffcanada.ca and click on Join Carl Orff Canada. To receive a copy of the Membership application form by post, contact the Membership Secretary.

Devenez membre !Les membres reçoivent trois fois par année la revue Ostinato ; ils sont affiliés à un chapitre local qui leur donne accès à tarifs réduits lors des ateliers de formation ainsi qu’aux congrès nationaux. Pour de plus informations, veuillez consulter le site www.orffcanada.ca sous la rubrique Join Carl Orff Canada. (Pour recevoir une copie du formulaire d’adhésion par la poste, veuillez joindre la secrétaire au membership.

Celebration and Memorial DonationsRemember your friends and relatives in a unique and special way. Make a tax deductible donation to Music for Children – Carl Orff Canada – Musique pour enfants. Donations can be made to any of the following funds: the General Operation Fund, The Gunild Keetman Scholarship Fund, or the Orff Mosaic Children’s Travel Fund. Donation forms can be found in Section M of the Policy and Procedures manual in the Members Only section at www.orffcanada.ca.

Dons commémoratifs Pour souligner d’une façon unique et spéciale le souvenir d’amis ou de parents, vous pouvez faire un don déductible d’impôt à Music

Vol. 39, No. 3, Spring 2013 49

for Children – Carl Orff Canada – Musique pour enfants. Ces dons peuvent être faits à n’importe lequel de ces fonds : the General Operation Fund, The Gunild Keetman Scholarship Fund, ou au Orff Mosaic Children’s Travel Fund. Des formulaires sont disponibles à la section « M» du manuel des Politiques et Procédures sous le lien Members only de www.orffcanada.ca.

Application for Financial Assistance: Children’s Performing Groups Grants are available to help defray the travel costs of taking a children’s Orff performance to the national conference. The next application deadline is Feb. 1, 2014; forms can be found in Section N of the Policy and Procedures manual in the Members Only sec-tion at www.orffcanada.ca. Grants may also be available for groups travelling to other conferences. For more information contact the National Treasurer.

Demande d’aide financière pour les groupes d’enfantsIl est possible d’obtenir une aide financière pour aider à payer les frais de voyage des groupes d’enfants participant à notre congrès national. La prochaine date limite pour les demandes est le 1er février 2014. Il est aussi possible d’obtenir une aide pour les enfants qui

participent à d’autres congrès. Des formulaires sont disponibles à la section « N» du manuel des Politiques et Procédures sous le lien Members Only de www.orffcanada.ca. Pour toute information supplémentaire, veuillez joindre la trésorière nationale.

Carolyn MacMillan Research GrantCarl Orff Canada awards one research grant of $1,000 to support research into Orff Schulwerk. The next application deadline is June 15, 2013. Details and application forms can be can be found in Section N of the Policy and Procedures manual in the Members Only section at www.orffcanada.ca. For more information contact the Past President.

Bourse Carolyn MacMillan pour soutenir la rechercheCarl Orff Canada offre une bourse de 1000 $ pour soutenir la recherche reliée au Orff Schulwerk. La prochaine date butoire est le 15 juin 2013. Des détails supplémentaires et le formulaire d’application sont disponibles à la section « N » du manuel des Politiques et Procédures sous le lien Members Only de www.orff-canada.ca. Pour toute information supplémentaire, veuillez vous renseigner auprès de la présidente sortante.

Thank-you for Scholarship DonationsAll chapters in Carl Orff Canada have once again provided generous donations to the Gunild Keetman Scholarship fund. Amounts ranged from $100 to $500. These donations allow the COC to award scholarships to a number of well-qualified ap-plicants who will be taking Level II and III courses this summer. Thank-you to everyone for this continuing support.

Merci pour vos généreux dons de bourseTous les chapitres de Carl Orff Canada ont généreusement donné des dons pour la bourse Gunild Keetman. Les montants varient de 100 $ à 500 $. Ces dons serviront à octroyer des bourses à plusieurs personnes qui désirent faire les formations de niveau II et III pendant l’été. Merci à tous pour votre support.

Take Note / Notez bien...The Fall 2013 issue will be our first-ever online issue! We look forward to a timely and colourful round-up of summer course reports and contributions from our members, which will be emailed directly to your Inbox. Now is a great time to gather your reflections on the school year that is just ending and send them in a short or long article to us to share with your music colleagues across the country. We are happy to include thought-ful articles on any topic related to teaching music.Firm deadline for all submissions: June 15, 2013

L’Ostinato de l’automne 2013 sera la première édition électro-nique! Nous avons hâte de vous présenter cette édition tout en couleur. Vous y trouverez des résumés des formations estivales et des articles écrits par nos membres et ceci sera envoyé directement dans votre boîte de messagerie électronique. C’est maintenant le temps de réfléchir sur l’année scolaire qui se termine, d’exprimer vos idées et de nous les faire parvenir dans un article, court ou long, afin de les partager avec vos collègues musiciens de tout le pays. Nous sommes heureux de publier des articles inspirés sur quelque sujet que ce soit relativement à l’enseignement de la musique. Date limite pour la remise des articles : le 15 juin 2013

Looking Ahead in OstinatoOur Winter and Spring issues will continue to be hard-copy journals. The Winter 2014 issue will celebrate 40 Years of Carl Orff Canada with a retrospective look at our history and accomplishments. Each chapter is preparing a submission for this issue, but we are also looking for your personal reminiscences and photos. Please think now about what you can contribute to this meaningful issue.

Les éditions de l’hiver et du printemps seront en version papier. L’édition de la revue Ostinato de l’hiver 2014 portera sur les célébrations des 40 ans de Carl Orff Canada par une rétrospec-tive de notre historique et réalisations. Pour cette revue, chaque chapitre doit présenter un texte, des photos et des anecdotes. C’est le temps de penser à la façon dont vous voulez contribuer à cet événement important.

50 Ostinato

March 1-3 was a busy weekend for many Orff chapter presidents/executives. The opportunity to meet face to face enabled in depth discussion on COC successes and challenges from coast to coast. By sharing ideas and concerns the participants gained greater understanding of various issues and strengths of each chapter. I believe everyone attending felt we gained insight, inspiration, and a vision for the future of COC as we head into our 40th anniversary year.

Our National President, Beryl Peters, and the Manitoba Chapter President Sean Fitz-maurice deserve much credit and a huge thanks for their efforts in planning, billeting, and organizing the event. It proved to be an immensely informative and productive weekend.

The 2012 recipient of the Doreen Hall scholarship at the University of Toronto, which was established with help from Carl Orff Canada in 1986, is Nadia Kim. This year the winner received $1634.15. The scholarship is awarded to an outstanding undergraduate student preparing for a ca-reer in music education, particularly with children. Preference is given to a student with interest in Orff-Schulwerk training.

Nadia writes:

Ever since I was a child I always wanted to become a teacher like my mother.

Growing up, I watched how my mother taught kindergarten and music in the school system as well as at home. I was initially inspired by my mother to teach music as my future career. With supportive parents, I went into Music Education to fulfill my dreams. I was constantly encouraged to continue playing the piano since I was 7 years old. I performed at ORMTA and at my piano teacher’s recitals. I finished my RCM Grade 10 piano last sum-mer with First Class Honours. I graduated from York Mills CI with Ontario Scholars and an Honours French Immersion Certificate of Proficiency.

Being a member of the Bach Children’s Chorus since I was 7 years old and partici-pating in this incredible organization for 10 years greatly enhanced my musical abilities and appreciation. I was involved in singing, sight reading music and actively listening. As a member of an ensemble, teamwork and cooperation were essential.

Eastern and Western Chapter Presidents Unite in Winnipeg!

Chapter Presidents Meeting March 2 & 3, 2013Pictured after a relaxing meal at the Beachcomber Restaurant in Winnipeg:Back Row L – R : Karin Johnson (BC /Yukon Pres), Sean Fitzmaurice (MB Pres), Stephanie Gogal (SK Rep), Batya Levy (ON Rep), Holger Mauthe (Calgary Pres), Evelyn Pike (Ottawa Pres), Steph-anie Poulain (MB-VP), Kim Friesen-Wiens (AB Pres)Sitting L-R: Charlotte Myers (NS Pres.), Cathy Bayley (Past Pres COC), Beryl Peters (President COC), Liz Kristjanson (2nd VP – COC), Elizabeth Nevels (Lethbridge Pres)

Nadia Kim, Recipient of the Doreen Hall Award 2012Because of these experiences and ongoing support throughout my life, I am at the University of Toronto studying Music Education. Looking back at my first year, I realize that I became much more knowledgeable in music theory and his-tory. I also became aware of the different ways people learn and how that applies to teaching music. My perspective on music and on music education widened this past year. I am excited and eager to experience and learn what second year of music has in store for me. Throughout my university years, I hope to gain much knowledge and practice to become the best music teacher I can be.

I am honoured to be the 2012 recipient of the Doreen Hall Scholarship. Thank-you very much for all your support.

Sincerely,

Nadia Kim

Vol. 39, No. 3, Spring 2013 51

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Children’s performing Group Prestations d’enfants

Halifax 2014

Chers collègues,

Nous avons très hâte de savoir qui parmi vous viendra faire une prestation d’enfants au congrès Orff de Halifax en 2014.

Les présentations d’enfants qui parlent, chantent, dansent et jouent sont parmi les événements majeurs du congrès. Ce congrès réunit des enseignants en musique qui viennent de partout pour échanger leur savoir-faire. Aussi, nous voulons leur donner la chance de constater jusqu’à quel point le classes d’enfants « Orff » savent partager leur bonheur à faire de la musique et combien leur forma-tion musicale est riche et prometteuse.

Ce genre de projet est extraordinaire pour faire sortir l’enthousiasme des jeunes et le meilleur d’eux-mêmes. En plus de savoir qu’ils occupent une place important au congrès, ils ont là une occasion fabuleuse d’accroître leur confiance en eux.

Vous êtes donc cordialement invités à vous joindre au congrès avec un groupe d’enfants et profiter de l’occasion pour faire autant que vous pouvez pour partager votre musique avec la grande com-munauté Orff.

Prenez le temps d’y penser et écrivez-nous que vous participerez à Ensemble 2014, le congrès de Carl Orff Canada du 10 au 13 avril 2014. Nous vous attendons avec grand plaisir!

Venez nous voir sur : http://orffcanadaconference2014.com/

L’enseignant ou le spécialiste doit compléter un formulaire d’inscription et fournir un DVD de 8 à 15 minutes d’une presta-tion récente. Le DVD doit être identifié par le nom, l’adresse électronique, le numéro de téléphone de l’enseignant. Le DVD ne sera pas retourné.

Les inscriptions seront soumises au comité responsable des groupes d’enfants de Ensemble 2014.

Les formulaires d’inscription sont disponibles sur le site du congrès et devront nous parvenir avant le 30 juin 2013.

Les groupes retenus seront avisés vers le 31 juillet 2013 et pour-ront obtenir un formulaire de demande d’aide financière auprès de la secrétaire nationale de Carl Orff Canada, Laurel Nikolai e-mail: laureln@ualberta.ca

Pour en savoir plus, veuillez s’il-vous-plait vous renseigner au-près de Katrina Pecknold, coprésidente du comité des prestations d’enfants kpecknold@hrsb.ca.

Children’s performing Group Prestations d’enfants

Halifax 2014

Dear Colleagues,

We are eager to know who will be presenting a group of children during our next National conference in Halifax.

The presentation of speaking, singing, dancing, playing children is one of the most welcome and valuable events of the conference. As music teachers gathering for hints and tips on music education, we want to acknowledge that Orff children can share their joy of music making, and that their actual musicianship is solid and promising.

This kind of project is a good trigger to get the best of your chil-dren, and besides the joy of being an important part of the event, it certainly brings a true accomplishment feeling among them.

Therefore, you are cordially invited to join the conference with one of your children’s groups and take the opportunity to accomplish as much as you can together to enjoy sharing your music with the great Orff community.

Please, take a time to consider coming to Halifax with a per-forming group of children at Ensemble 2014, the Carl Orff Canada national Conference from April 10-13, 2014. Write us! We are waiting for you with great pleasure!

Please visit our web site: http://orffcanadaconference2014.com/

Directors must submit a completed application form as well as an 8 -15 minute DVD of a recent performance, labelled with name, email and phone number of director. DVD’s will not be returned.

Applications are to be submitted to the Ensemble 2014 Children’s Performance Group Committee who will review and consider all applications.

Applications are available on the Conference website and are to be submitted by June 30, 2013

Successful applicants will be advised by July 31, 2013 and may obtain an “Application for Financial Assistance” from the National Secretary, Laurel Nikolai e-mail: laureln@ualberta.ca

For more information, contact Katrina Pecknold, Co-Chair Chil-dren’s Performing Groups at kpecknold@hrsb.ca.

Vol. 39, No. 3, Spring 2013 53

54 Ostinato

Vol. 39, No. 3, Spring 2013 55

Le petit bulbe de tulipe* Maternelle et 1re année Créer, jouer, danser Julie Mongeon-Ferré - Raconter l’histoire du petit bulbe de tulipe :

1. Dans mon jardin, il y a un petit bulbe de tulipe qui est endormi sous la glace et la neige. 2. Un jour, le vent est venu du ciel et a soufflé sur le jardin. 3. Le vent s’approche de la tulipe endormie et dit : « Réveille-toi petite tulipe, c’est le printemps! » Mais

le bulbe de tulipe dit dans une voix lente et endormie : « Je suis trop fatigué » et retourne se coucher. Le vent rebrousse chemin et retourne chez lui dans le ciel.

4. Le jour suivant, la pluie descend du ciel et il pleut sur le jardin… (répéter 3. avec la pluie) 5. Le lendemain, le soleil étend ses rayons jusqu’aux pieds du petit bulbe, il brille et réchauffe le jardin…

(répéter 3. avec le soleil) 6. Mais comment réveiller ce petit bulbe de tulipe qui est toujours endormi? 7. Un beau matin de printemps, le vent, la pluie et le soleil se sont unis pour aller réveiller le petit bulbe

de tulipe et lui ont dit : « Réveille-toi petite tulipe, c’est le printemps! ». Ils ont fait tellement de bruit que la petite tulipe ne pouvait plus rester endormie.

8. Maintenant dans mon jardin, il y a une belle tulipe!

petit bulbe de tulipe vent pluie soleil

- Créer la musique et sonoriser le vent, la pluie, le soleil, le petit bulbe qui reste endormi sous la neige et le petit bulbe qui se réveille et grandit. Suggestions d’instruments:

Petit bulbe de tulipe qui reste endormi : métallophone ou carillons (pentatonique, mélodies ou clusters) Petit bulbe de tulipe qui grandit : métallophone ou carillons (pentatonique, sons ascendants) Vent : tambourins frottés, métallophones (glissandi), voix, tubes, blocs sablés, ou autres. Pluie : carillons, bâtons de pluie, ou autres. Soleil : cymbalettes, carillon suspendu, cymbales, triangles, ou autres.

- Créer le mouvement du vent, de la pluie, du soleil, du petit bulbe qui reste endormi sous la neige et du petit bulbe qui se réveille et grandit. Utiliser des accessoires (foulards, cerceaux, rubans ou autres) - Inviter les élèves à choisir un rôle dans l’histoire: petit bulbe de tulipe, musicien ou danseur. - Ajouter un chant, une comptine sur le thème des fleurs, du printemps. Créer, danser, jouer, chanter, raconter… présenter et s’amuser!

Inspiré du livre de Donna Wood : « Move, Sing, Listen, Play » (Livre numérique Google)

Curriculum Corner / Boîte à idées

Julie Mongeon-Ferré est conseillère pédagogique en éducation artistique au Bureau de l’éducation française, Winnipeg, Manitoba.

56 Ostinato

Curriculum Corner / Boîte à idées

TRAINING FOR THEBEST BY THE BEST.

Professional Development Summer 2013

Enrich your teaching with inspiring new courses:• Orff Teacher Training Introduction, Level I, II, and III• Orff Teacher Training SPECIAL Workshop and Masterclass

with Marcelline Moody• Artist Educator Professional Training• Early Childhood Music Education Training• Registration for Fall 2013 and Spring 2014 Orff Teacher

Training courses begins in June

Register online at conservatoryschool@rcmusic.caor call 416.408.2825

rcmusic.caCheck in with our website regularly for ongoingopportunities for you and your students

LIMITED AVAILABILITYREGISTER NOW!

RCSPRT_OrffAd_Mar15-2013 13-03-11 11:24 AM Page 10

If undeliverable pleasereturn to:Ruth Nichols7 Regent Street, Amherst, NS B4H 3S6 nicholr3@staff.ednet.ns.ca

Music for Children – Carl Orff Canada – Musique pour enfants

Founder and Patron/Fondatrice et patronne d’honneurDoreen Hall

Honorary Patrons/Patrons éméritesBramwell Tovey

Sr. Marcelle CorneilleJos Wuytack

Board of Directors/Conseil d’administration national 2012– 2014

Past-President/Présidente sortant de chargeCathy Bayley, 5475 Grove Ave., Delta B.C. V4K 2A6

T (604) 946-5132, cathybayley@telus.net

President/PrésidenteBeryl Peters, 500 Laidlaw Blvd., Winnipeg MB R3P 0K9

T (204) 474-1384, F (204) 945-6747, Beryl.Peters@gov.mb.ca

First Vice-President/Première vice-présidenteMarlene Hinz, 3551 Apple Grove, Regina, SK S4V 2R3

T (306) 789-8344, rmhinz@accesscomm.ca

Second Vice-President/Deuxième vice-présidenteLiz Kristjanson, 54 Glenbrook Cres., Winnipeg MB R3T 4W4

T (204) 275-1601, lkristjanson@pembinatrails.ca

Treasurer/TrésorièreEileen Stannard, 44 Second Ave, Box 23, Ardrossan AB T8E 2A1

T (780) 922-3175, estann@shaw.ca

Membership Secretary/Secrétaire des adhésionsRuth Nichols, 7 Regent Street, Amherst, NS B4H 3S6

T (902) 667-0455, nicholr3@staff.ednet.ns.ca

WebsiteJoanne Linden, 1647-126 Street, Edmonton AB T6W 1R8

T (780) 461-5446, geoffjo@shaw.ca

Secretary/SecrétaireLaurel Nikolai, 11143-65 Avenue, Edmonton AB T6H 1W4

T: (780) 637-6808, laureln@ualberta.ca

Editor/Rédactrice en chefCatherine West, 95 Ellsworth Ave., Toronto, ON M6G 2K4

(T) 647-970-7080, weekends (613) 449-8924, west.catherine@sympatico.ca

Archivist/ArchivisteAnne Tipler, 4099 Wheelwright Cres. , Mississauga ON L5L 2X3

T (905) 820-7120, anne.tipler@sympatico.ca

Francophone Member at Large/Correspondente francophone Denise Lapointe, 219 Forest,Pincourt, QC J7V 8E7

T (514) 453-8020, denise.lapointe@cstrois-lacs.qc.ca, dendan@bell.net

i) to encourage the development throughout Canada of a holistic music education program for children based upon the pedagogical philosophy and approach of Carl Orff;

ii) to encourage, promote and fulfill Carl Orff Canada's objectives in all regions of Canada through a national organization and through regional chapters;

iii) to produce and distribute a national journal addressing issues relating to the Orff philosophy of music education;

iv) to organize and administer conferences and workshops focusing on quality music education for children; and

v) to cooperate with other music education organizations in order to further the objectives of the Corporation.

Carl Orff Canada Aims and ObjectivesMusic for Children - Carl Orff Canada - Musique pour enfants is a Corporation which operates with the following objectives:

Tri-annual Publication of Carl Orff Canada

Music for Children - Musique pour enfants

OVolume 39, Number 2, Winter 2013

stinatoOrff and Brain Research /

Orff et la recherche sur le cerveau Issues on Music and the Brain /Le cas du cerveau

Neuromyths or Neuroscience?

La perception musicale: une affaire de cerveau

Six Foolish Fishermen

Connections Between OS & the Musical Brain

OS & le développement des habiletés en lecture

Music and your Brain

Music and Language

The Music Garden Project

In Memoriam: Frau Liselotte Orff

The Music Monday Song

Rabidibidou