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Middle Years Music Education - Kodály Australia
Middle Years Music Education - Kodály Australia
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Middle Years are a time of exponential growth and change—physically, socially, intellectually and emotionally. It is
an important stage where the forming of positive relationships, high self-esteem, self-efficacy and identity is crucial
and significant. These factors have profound effects on educational experiences for adolescent learners and
conversely their educational experience have profound impacts on student well being and growth. Privacy - Terms
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The following information has been extracted and summarised from a Middle Years Workshop presented in South
Australia by Maree Hennessy. Notes taken at the workshop by Yvonne Tysoe.
A lesson needs to have a range of activities based on a variety of songs towards a number of goals. The pace of the
lesson is crucial in holding students interest. Consequently lessons are made up of small ‘bites’ based around
different repertoire to advance music concepts and skills in small incremental steps. Teaching this way allows
repertoire and concepts to be revisited more often. This is particularly important where music lessons are held
only once a week.
Resist the temptation to get carried away with successful learning in one area and introduce new concepts too
soon. The aim is to build capacity and security over time across all aspects of music.
Activities in a music lesson might include a learning experience to advance knowledge of the following:
Melody
Rhythm
Metre
Style
Part-work / Harmony
Form / Structure
Writing
Creating
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Repertoire
Repertoire
When choosing repertoire look to include:
Songs with intellectual rigor
Songs which appeal to students’ growing sense of identity and push against authority
Songs which appeal to their sense of justice
Songs in a Minor key and those with interesting rhythms have great appeal to this age group
Songs which lend themselves to movement and exercise
Songs which can be connected meaningfully to previous learning and an overall topic
Making Connections: Make learning meaningful by making connections. These may include explaining historical
or cultural backgrounds . They may be connected to something they already know by style, genre, melodically or
rhythmically.
Metacognition: Talking about the difficulties in learning develops the resilience to keep trying. They accept the
need to practice and develop the capacity to accept new challenges.
Scaffolding: scaffolding tasks at different levels of achievement (similar to computer games) allows everyone to
achieve something. Scaffolding caters for individual differences and is a useful tool for assessment. Used in
homework it allows students to set their own challenges.
Catering for different learning styles: Include a wide variety of activities within a lesson. These may include
movement, singing, listening, reading, writing, creating, thinking. Students may be working as an individual, a class
or group work (which particularly appeals to middle school learners)
Reflection: May occur at any stage during a lesson and can be used as a tool to keep students attention. It can be
oral or in written form. Reflection may be also used as an opportunity for students to ask questions and clarify
learning.
NOTE: The following activities would be gradually introduced over a series of lessons
Teaching the song (year 9): Maree began by teaching the song. Without any preamble, she pointed to herself to
sing and then pointed to the class to echo her, starting one phrase at a time, then extending it to two phrases and
then finally the whole song.
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Aural Analysis: Maree sang the song pausing on the main tones to help the class find the ‘anchors’ in the music.
(la mi so la’ ). Maree discussed the song’s use of the minor scale: Natural Minor (Aeolian Mode)
Part Work: Use this rhythm as an ostinato to clap as you sing the song:
Ostinato 1:
Ostinato 2:
Metacognition (Thinking about learning): Discuss why this the singing was less when we clapped the second
rhythm in two parts. The reason was that it required more concentration and the most people wouldn’t be able to
do it without practice. Talking about difficulties in learning builds resilience and encourages students to keep trying
rather than give up because they couldn’t do it first time. Ask students to help order tasks in degrees of difficulty.
Scaffolding: Maree suggests setting homework in levels of achievement. This enables students to build capacity
and security in their learning over time. For example
Level 1: With a partner sing the song while clapping ostinato 1
Level 2: With a partner sing the song while clapping ostinato 2
Level 3: With a partner, sing the song with one person clapping ostinato 1 and the other ostinato 2
Level 4: Sing the song by yourself. RH taps ostinato 1 and LH claps ostinato 2
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NOTE: The following activities would be gradually introduced over a series of lessons
Sing the song while clapping the beat, clapping the rhythm
As you sing the song, create a 4-beat rhythmic pattern to clap as an ostinato
Individuals perform their rhythm while everyone sings. This provides an opportunity for differentiating
between students e.g.
Students write their rhythm. This could be using the sets of cards or with stick notation
Students choose instruments to play using un-tuned instruments
Revise the la pentatonic scale.
Students with tuned instruments improvise a melody to fit their rhythm within the la pentatonic scale.
Students change instruments.
Students write their improvised melody on the staff
Students transpose their melody to la = E
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Kodály Australia acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country and pay our respect to elders past,
present and emerging. Reconciliation
Copyright Kodály Music Education Institute of Australia 2024. All rights reserved.
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