Changing 21 Century Music Education: Should Special Education Students be Integrated into the music

classroom?

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CP Final Paper
Changing 21 Century Music Education: Should Special Education Students be Integrated into the music
classroom?
Sarah McMahon











Changing 21 Century Music Education: Should Special Education Students be Integrated into the music
classroom?

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Abstract
Within this article I (Sarah McMahon) explore the changing system of 21-century music education. I give
my idea of change for this system by stating that disabled students should be integrated in the music
classroom. I look at the various ways to incorporate students and how music benefits students with
disabilities both mental and physical. At the end I try to tackle the full question why should classrooms
be integrated? I try to solve this question by looking at three different criteria to judge the situation on,
first the benefit to the disabled students, second the benefit to the other students around the disabled
students, and third the benefit to the teacher.
















Changing 21 Century Music Education: Should Special Education Students be Integrated into the music
classroom?

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In the typical music classroom today there are few to no students with disabilities. Though some
schools are starting to integrate classrooms more there is still a strange lack of integrated music
classrooms. As music teachers we should be able to work with disabled students, not only for their
benefit, but for our benefit as well. In the classroom we should be able to teach both students with
mental disabilities as well as physical disabilities
When you have students in the classroom with mental or physical disabilities you will usually get
an IEP that comes along with the student. An IEP or an individualized education program is made up of a
few things within them. Usually an IEP has the diagnosis of the student, PLOP, long term goals, services,
accommodations, and academic expectations. The IEP will start with the students diagnosis, weather
the student is physically or mentally impaired and how severely, then PLOP is looked at. PLOP is a
pneumonic for present level of performance, this section of the IEP talks about the students behavior,
their language skills, motor functions of the student, and cognitive functioning of the student. After
PLOP the IEP will give long term goals of the student, this section will give the teacher an idea of what
objectives they should be reaching for to challenge the student
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. Finally the IEP will talk about the
accommodations and services that they student may need. These accommodations can be anything for
extra time on tests to specific environment changes that the students need to function well within the
classroom. This system of looking at students is very helpful to a teacher because it can keep the teacher
informed about their students and what they may need.



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Individualized Education Programs (IEPs). (n.d.). Retrieved from http://kidshealth.org/parent/growth/learning/iep.html


Changing 21 Century Music Education: Should Special Education Students be Integrated into the music
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Along with the IEPs teachers should learn how to work with the disabled students within their
classroom. This means that a teacher should try to adapt their lessons to the students within their class.
Some strategies teachers should use with in their classroom when working with disabled students are,
designing lessons that have alternative takes on activities so that every student can learn by doing, not
just students who are not impaired, working on a buddy system so that students who are mentally or
physically impaired can partner with students who arent so they can have assisted learning, and using
certain tools (like Velcro) to aid disabled students in making music with their peers. These strategies and
ways of thinking will help every teacher integrate students with disabilities into their music classroom
better
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.
Another way to assist students with disabilities within an integrated classroom is through new
technology in the music classroom. Music is proven to help students with disabilities to observe,
rehearse, weigh, and judge when engaging with an activity
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. All of these functions are important meta-
cognitive tools that students with disabilities need to learn. To aid this learning process teachers should
use new technologies to both make music making easier to participate in as well as make music easier to
understand for students with disabilities. Teachers can use programs like GarageBand and JamStudio to
help students create their own music with instruments that students with disabilities may not be able to
physically play but they can mix and loop instruments to make a whole song. Teachers in general music
classrooms can use sites like the Dallas Symphony Orchestra Kids Site
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that has games for students to
play that make music learning easier to understand. These sites can help students with disabilities
understand more without having to drill concepts; this can also challenge students with disabilities that

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Route, S. (2012). All Students Deserve Music: Developing a Modified Music Curriculum
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Route, S. (2012). All Students Deserve Music: Developing a Modified Music Curriculum

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DSO Kids. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.dsokids.com/

Changing 21 Century Music Education: Should Special Education Students be Integrated into the music
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are father ahead of the other students in the classroom without being disruptive to the learning of the
other students in the classroom.
Teachers can also look at Critical Issues in Music Education by Custodoero and Abeles (2010) to
help them teach disabled students. Custodoero and Abeles (2010), make the connection between the
body and music within chapter 4 by talking about how children can understand music better by using
their bodies. Custodoero and Abeles (2010), state that meaning is made through connections, and
embodiment may be the most intimate connection we make to music (p. 61)
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. Though some more
heavily impaired students may have difficulty doing more advanced moment exercises educators can
use simple moments, like keeping the beat and walking to feel the phrases of each piece, can help
disabled students feel and understand music better. Chapter 6 of also looks at music learning. Within
This chapter different advantages of learning at a young age and how we learn music is explored.
Custodoero and Abeles (2010), look at the role of music through the eyes of nature vs. nurture. Looking
at music in this way encourages the reader to look at disabled students learning music in a new light as
well. Because Custodoero and Abeles (2010), state that music is a social learning process
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looking at all
of the benefits for disabled children is not difficult.
There are also many different methods of teaching that can be beneficial for motor skills as well
as social skills for disabled students. Dalcroze method includes movement and the cognitive idea of
space in time. Boyarsky (2009) talks about the fast reaction children must have when faced with audible
and visual cues paired with Dalcroze movements. Using a verbal cue, like the word Boo at random
points in a walking exercise makes students think on their toes and stay alert to the world around them
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.

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Abeles, H. F., & Custodero, L. A. (2010). Critical issues in music education: Contemporary theory and practice. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
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Abeles, H. F., & Custodero, L. A. (2010). Critical issues in music education: Contemporary theory and practice. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

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Boyarsky, T. (2009). Dalcroze Eurhythmics and the quick reaction excercises. The Orff Echo. Retrieved from
http://milwaukee.aosa.org/09conf/documents/BoyarskyWinter09.pdf
Changing 21 Century Music Education: Should Special Education Students be Integrated into the music
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This fast thinking training is crucial for students with mental disabilities. Keeping these students on their
feet helps them make cognitive connections quicker in the long run. Unlike Dalcroze method Kodaly
uses more singing based activities. Using the curwen hand signs rather than moving the entire body
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can
include students who have physical impairments. Students who have severe mental disabilities who can
still phonate will be able to learn social connection skills form Kodaly songs. Chopra and Cole (1981)
state that Kodalys method uses popular folk songs as a singing tool because students will already know
the song
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. Disabled students will be able to connect to other students within the classroom because of
the social context of the popular folk tunes.
In conclusion, I think that we should change the current classroom to integrate students with
both physical and mental disabilities better. To do this I think teachers should have more students with
disabilities in the classroom instead of sectioning them off in separate classrooms to learn on their own.
Both the educational benefits and the social benefits are greater for students in integrated classrooms.
Social connections for students with disabilities are very valuable and working with students with
disabilities helps other student understand how to help people with disabilities and creates a loving
community within the classroom. When students learn music as part of a core curriculum their language
development, IQ, and spatial-temporal skill increase (Brown)
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. This is highly beneficial for students with
physical and mental disabilities because they are working specifically on these areas day by day. Using a
medium to hone their skills that most students enjoy just makes the learning and re-learning process
quicker.


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Chopra, J., Cole, T., Ford Foundation, & Educational Media Australia (1981). Music lessons: The Kodaly method in the American classroom. United States: Ford
Foundation [production company.
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Chopra, J., Cole, T., Ford Foundation, & Educational Media Australia (1981). Music lessons: The Kodaly method in the American classroom. United States: Ford
Foundation [production company.

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Brown, L. L. (n.d.). The Benefits of Music Education . Music & Arts . Education | PBS Parents. Retrieved from http://www.pbs.org/parents/education/music-
arts/the-benefits-of-music-education/

Changing 21 Century Music Education: Should Special Education Students be Integrated into the music
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References
Abeles, H. F., & Custodero, L. A. (2010). Critical issues in music education: Contemporary
theory and practice. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Boyarsky, T. (2009). Dalcroze Eurhythmics and the quick reaction excercises. The Orff Echo.
Retrieved from http://milwaukee.aosa.org/09conf/documents/BoyarskyWinter09.pdf
Brown, L. L. (n.d.). The Benefits of Music Education . Music & Arts . Education | PBS Parents.
Retrieved from http://www.pbs.org/parents/education/music-arts/the-benefits-of-music-
education/
Chopra, J., Cole, T., Ford Foundation, & Educational Media Australia (1981). Music lessons:
The Kodaly method in the American classroom. United States: Ford Foundation
[production company.
DSO Kids. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.dsokids.com/
Individualized Education Programs (IEPs). (n.d.). Retrieved from
http://kidshealth.org/parent/growth/learning/iep.html
McGregor, E. (n.d.). What are the advantages and disadvantages of a musical education in
regard to children? Retrieved from
http://www.jinglejangleclub.com/docs/dissertation_em01.pdf
Route, S. (2012). All Students Deserve Music: Developing a Modified Music Courriculum.
What Is an IEP? | IEP & 504 Plan | At School. (n.d.). Retrieved from
http://www.ncld.org/students-disabilities/iep-504-plan/what-is-iep