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Mitchell Betancourt
Music K-6 Elementary Teaching Strategies Analysis

Compare: 1) What Kodaly, Orff, and Dalcroze all use solfege as a main element of their methods. They both can function with
elements do you see as moveable do which means that the tonic starts on Do and the minor starts on la for any exercises the two methods
similarities between the use solfege on. Kodaly, Orff and Dalcroze all also employ movement as a medium for expressing music. This
approaches? (List and derived mostly from the idea that movement is crucial to expressing music. Orff, Gordan, and Dalcroze all utilize
describe at least 6) aspects of improvisation that help student learn to make their own expressive choices. Kodaly and Gordan both
believe that music should be introduced and studied by students as early as possible, because of the rapidly
developing music aptitude they are building when they are young. Kodaly, Gordan, Dalroze, and WMP all
emphasize the value of music learned aurally/by rote prior to being learn it as notation. Similarly, Kodaly and
gordan take the approach of teaching music like you teach a language, through mimicking and imitation.

Contrast: What
elements do you see as The teaching process for Kodaly is unique in that it has a 3-step process of prepare, present, and practice. The goal
unique to each methods’s of the Kodaly is to use music which comes natural to us to foster music literacy. This method is heavily reliant on
1) Goals and elements, 2) folk songs sung in a student’s mother tongue. The teaching for Kodaly involves students being introduced to a new
Approaches to student music concept, the teacher presents information to contextualize the new information, and then the students practice
creativity, 3) Use of it.
movement, 4)
Instrumental training/use, The goal of the Orff Method is to help students gain musical experience through experimentation and improvisation
5) Music reading and with help and careful guidance by their teacher. The Orff method is also one of the only methods listed where
writing, 6) Teaching instrument use is required. Singing, Dancing, Playing, and Improvising are the natural ways that we learn to express
processes and music used music as a child, and uniquely serve as a foundation for this method.
in instruction?
The goal of the Gordan/ Music Learning Theory method is to teach student music in the same way that we learn
how to speak. A student through the Gordan method will learn how to imitate and mimic music before they are able
to create it. Through modeling, learning by rote, lots of Audiation, body movement, and sequence learning (whole-
part-whole) students will gradually learn to play music in the same fashion they learn to speak. As a result, the
Gordon method’s goal is to develop musical independence. The method also is one of the few that talks about that
really stresses that a student’s musical aptitude can be fostered up until you’re 9, and then becomes stagnant/ can no
longer develop.

The goal of the Dalcroze method is to help students develop a stronger sense of rhythm and harmony as a result of
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honing their inner ear. Through solfege, improvisations and eurythmics students learn to use their body to express
the form and changes in music. Unlike some of the other methods, student creativity is crucial during the
improvisational phase, as they will be required to explore movement as they see fit. One good example of this
that occurs only in the Dalcroze method is the Plastique Animee activity. This example of eurythmics is unique
only to the Dalcroze Method.

The goal of the World Music Pedagogy method is to teach empathy for music and cultures from across the world.
Through guided listening, improvisation, body movement, and composition students learn how to understand,
mimic, reproduce and then compose music within the parameters of another culture. The teaching process for this
method, unlike the other methods has frequent listening opportunities either in the form of attentive listening
engaged listening or enactive listening. Another equally unique aspect of World Music Pedagogy is that the
background is just as important for students to understand as the music is.

Evaluate: Is there one One approach which stands out to me the most is World Music Pedagogy. As someone coming from a
approach that stands out multicultural background, I believe it is crucial that students experience music from other cultures as much as
to you and how you like their own. I really enjoy eliciting empathy in my students for other cultures. I also thought that the examples we
to teach and learn or do covered in Intro to World Music as well as in your class were super fun. I believe that there is so much potential
you think a blend of in analyzing other cultures and redefining what music means to us in the classroom as well as in our daily lives.
approaches is valuable? Out of all the methods I believe that the Orff method works the best. It lends itself to rhythmic improvisation,
Name the approach that melodic improvisation and gives students lots of different ways for themselves to learn and participate in music
you feel works best, and expression. My future classroom would include exercises and games which were derived from the Orff method,
describe why you feel while also covering different cultures through WMP. If I ever needed to bulk up my lesson plans, I really enjoyed
this is the case; OR how the process of the plastique animee and would consider throwing in some Dalcroze based lesson material. My
could you combine overall goal would be to make sure that my students were having fun, engaging both in this music as performance
elements of the and as listeners, as well as expanding their view of what music is to people from around the world.
approaches to create a
method that would work
for you in the
classroom? Add a few
details about what your
future classroom might
"look" or "sound" like,
giving examples of
activities the students
might do. Add a closing
section that describes the
overall goal for your
students musically (what
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do you hope they might
leave your elementary
classroom knowing or
being able to do?)