EDUC 302/303

Naomi Hansen
Curriculum Planning Professional Literature
Howell, A. C. (2009). Curricular Pillars in the Elementary General Music Classroom. Music
Educators Journal, 95, 37-41.
Allan Howell, an associate professor of music education at Edinboro University of
Pennsylvania, wrote an article titled Curricular Pillars in the Elementary General Music
Classroom. Howell gears this article towards Elementary General Music teachers in hopes that
he might be able to assist teachers in teaching content that their students will remember for years.
He begins the article by telling a story about a veteran elementary general music teacher named
Karen. One day, Karen was teaching her third grade class about program music and tried to
relate it to something they had learned in the first grade: Peter and the Wolf. Unfortunately, only
one of the students remembered learning about Peter and the Wolf and he only remembered
because he owned the recording and sometimes listened to it at home. Howell explains this idea
of using pillars to teach students. What he means by this is that teachers need to teach in such a
way that they reinforce content over intervening weeks, months, and years. Howell states,
Learning needs to be reinforced frequently at first and then reinforced intermittently as students
store information in long-term memory and apply it to new learning situations (39). In other
words repetition helps students to retain essential skills and information.
Although this journal isnt as specific to the content of my unit plan as I had hoped, I
struggled to find a journal that was about Peter and the Wolf and therefore chose this one
because it is still extremely beneficial to my unit. Howells article is a good reminder to all
teachers that repetition is an important part of teaching and should not be forgotten when
creating lesson plans. Of course in teaching my unit I wont be able to reinforce the content over
months and years, but I will be able to create my unit so that I engrain the content into the
students minds over a few weeks. I will do this in creating different activities each class period
in which the students will hear the music and story of Peter and the Wolf. For example, the first
lesson will be the students actually hearing the story with the themes and instruments for the first
time, the second lesson will then be reviewing the instruments and themes by having the students
play a matching game, the third and fourth lessons will be the students exploring the story more

by auditioning for characters and then acting them out, and the final lesson will be the students
watching a ballet of the story. Therefore, the students will be encountering the story many
different times, but each time the students encounter the story they will be doing a different
activity. Through my unit I will be frequently reinforcing the content and then it will be the
teachers job to continue to reinforce it in the months and years to come.
Reese, J. (2007, September). The Four Cs of Successful Classroom Management. Music
Educators Journal, 94, 24-29.
The second article I looked at was also from the Music Educators Journal. This article,
The Four Cs of Successful Classroom Management, by Jill Reese, was specifically written for
music educators, but I believe it could apply to all teachers. In the article Reese quotes Douglas
Nimmo: Is it our job as educators to establish classroom control or are we to endeavor to
create a healthy classroom learning environment? (24). How to create a healthy classroom
learning environment is exactly what Reese tackles in this article. Reese gives us four Cs to help
us with management: commendation, communication, consistency, and content. Commendation,
or giving praise or approval is a great way to keep the classroom positive. Reese suggests
making one-on-one connections with students, using students names, and drawing attention to
those students who are doing exactly what you are looking for. Reese is a big fan of the ripple
affect: if there is a student misbehaving compliment one of the students who isnt and nine out of
ten times the other students will look around for that student and do just as they are doing.
Communication is the second of the four Cs. With communication it is helpful to communicate
your expectations, use eye contact, and be in close proximity with students who are struggling to
focus. Communicating with your class in such a way that they are aware that what is going on is
really important; we should never assume that students know how to do something or know what
you want from them. Thirdly, keeping consistency in your classroom will help you students to
focus. Reese says the best way to keep consistency is to have rules and/or procedures in place, to
rehearse those procedures, and to stick to them. He gives three steps that are required when
teaching procedures: explain, model, and demonstrate the behavior, practice the procedure, and
reinforce and reteach the behavior until it becomes second nature. The final C is content, which
is perhaps the most important one of all. Reese states, The more teaching and music making we
include in each lesson the fewer disruptions we will have and the more we will accomplish with

our students. Students come to class to learn music, so teachers need to teach music instead of
always trying to discipline students.
Reeses article shares some great teaching strategies for my lesson plan and for many
teachers. There are a few students in my class who can be overly chatty and disruptive at times
and I think these strategies will be extremely helpful. I think for me communication will be key
in my teaching; I will have to be clear with my expectations before I begin the class and then
keep my expectations consistent throughout my lessons. There is one thing that I would add to
communication and that is to be engaging while I am teaching my lessons. There is nothing
lousier then having a teacher who looks as though they are bored to death while they are
teaching. Therefore, I think that communicating your lesson, not only through your activities and
what you say, but also through your gestures and your face can make the difference between
students paying attention and students goofing off. Overall, Reeses points about classroom
management are great teaching strategies for all teachers.