Readings #6 due 10-13-11

Lehman-The Power of the National Standards
This article started out with how different teachers viewed and felt about the national standards. Some teachers feel like it is difficult to meet all the standards in the time they have with all the different ensembles that they need to teach. Other teachers felt it was difficult because some of the standards are things they have never seen before, taught before, or know how to do well themselves. Other teachers feel like the standards are good but irrelevant to their job. This is because they already had the standards implemented into their classes and did not need to change anything to meet the standards. Another important part of the article was why the national standards are important. The points they made were that the standards will: benefit students, focus efforts, clarify expectations, bring equity to expectations, move music beyond entertainment, give a basis for claiming needed resources, give a basis for insisting on qualified teachers, give a basis for assessing music learning, give music a place at the curricular table, and provide a vision.

In writing sample lesson plans in class. It would be hard to imagine how to not incorporate the national standards into any lesson. They are very broad and it is easy to incorporate a standard into teaching. Such as standard 6, listening to , analyzing, and describing music, this one would be easy to incorporate into a lesson. Say you just had a concert and it was recorded you could have your students listen to the concert. You could have a discusion on how they felt about what they hear.

I agree with the teachers who think that the standards are a good thing and easy to implement. This is probably because they way I'm learning right now, with everything being based around the standards. It just seems to me like it would be imposible to go a whole semester or even a whole year with out being able to teach 10 standards to students. Especially because they are very broad standards.


Lehman- 10 Years of National Standards
This article was all question and answer with Paul Lehman, former president of MENC, about the national standard in the past 10 years and where they are going in the future. Lehman believes that the standards have made a huge impact in music education but also have a way to go. Such as lack of staff, time and resources in the schools. Lehman also talks about advocacy and how the standards are trying to meet what politicians want to see. Along with the standards music educational associations have formed to raise advocacy of music education. Lehman adds in the end that most of todays educational issus are focused on No Child Left Behind. So this puts to much emphasis on testing instead of teaching like the standards.

I agree with Lehman when he says he would like to see more general music in the high school level. I guess being a musician and being able to read music like it is another language, it seems weird when I meet someone who does not know how to read music. Its almost like meeting someone who doesn't know how to speak english. I also think it would be nice to see more students taking general music or like a music theory or history class in high school.


Reimer- Reconceiving the Standards and the School Music Program
This article is about can be redone to make the learning experience wider and better for students. Reimer believes that we do not focus enough on all of the standards just 1 and 2. He says that it is possible to be musical without performing by being musical in your thinking.