Professional Literature

Menard, E. (2013, December). Creative Thinking in Music: Developing a Model for

Meaningful Learning in Middle School General Music. Music Educator Journal, 100(2), 6167.
Many music programs in our school aiming mostly on the development of ensemble
and individual performances, because these are the most important elements as musicians
play different repertoires of music. However, in this article Creative Thinking in Music:
Developing a Model for Meaningful Learning in Middle School General Music, Elizabeth
Menard emphasizes that creative thought in our music classrooms can be a challenge to
implement in the curriculum, and defines creative musical thinking.
According to this article, teachersas music educatorsalways have to explore new
things that students never learn by themselves. When students learn with different kinds of
activities, students can be able to understand the terms and techniques more effectively. In
addition, the article mentions creative thinking in music, which includes composing,
performing music of others, listening repeatedly, and listening once and then improvising.
With the strategies mentioned in this article, I can further apply these creative
thinking activities and ideas on my unit plan by teaching the techniques, terms, and practice
performance in class. Furthermore, this opportunities for creativity will motivate students
more to explore what they learn and experience something interesting that they had never
done.

Roesler, R. A. (2014, March). Musically Meaningful: The Interpersonal Goals of

Performance. Music Educator Journal, 100(3), 39-43.
The article Musically Meaningful: The Interpersonal Goals of Performance focuses
on the element of performance and states that the goals that we seek affect the nature of our
experiences in multiple ways. Moreover, Roesler claims, Whenever you perform for an
audience, find something you like about the piece that you want to share, and pick someone
out there and send it out to them. Therefore, as students rehearse and perform in front of the
audience, students interpersonal goals can enhance enjoyment, increase expression, and
connect knowledge in meaningful ways by promoting the transfer of knowledge to other
musical situations.
The article emphasizes that for the authentic music goals of performance, students
central goal must be in music making. However, students are also motivated to avoid failure,
to win competitions, and to earn good grade in performance. It is not bad for students to have
those goals, but teachers have the responsibility to guide student to have goals focused on the
enjoyment of music and diverse experiences.
For the musically meaningful goals, the article indicates that the most meaningful
performance goal is on communication in performance. The examples of musically
meaningful goals on communication that is shared with the listener include to evoke a
reaction from listeners, create a feeling in listeners, give something to listeners, and convey
the composers message to listener.
As I was reading this in teachers perspective, I realized that teachers should lead
students so that they can enjoy music. As musicians, performing in front of other audience is
difficult because many unexpected things may happen during performance, such as out of
tune, miss fingering, etc. However, as the articles states, they all are part of the performance,
and I believe that this way when students perform, they will definitely earn something.