AMS Master Teacher Talk, Nashville (November 2008)
Mary Natvig, Bowling Green State University

PowerPoint File

N. B. What follows are my very informal notes that I spoke from at the Master Teacher Session at AMS, 2008. It is not a formal paper, though I've tried to flesh it out here and there so it will be comprehensible to those who were not there. There is also a power point that goes along with it, mostly to reinforce points and offer visual stimulation (i.e., something to look at besides me!). If you have any questions, please feel free to email me at mnatvig@bgsu.edu.

Begin by taking 4MAT learning styles short evaluation [to engage the audience in the process, active, participatory learning]

Evaluate results:

Most of us are type 4's (those who like to learn by traditional means, such as lectures and reading ) but most of our students are not. [actually, it didn't happen that way, the learning styles were quite varied, but I think many folks didn't have time to complete the form. This took longer than I thought and in hindsight was probably a bad idea to begins with it. I've used it in workshops where it works much better.]

See Power Point, slides 2-4 for an overview of different learning styles. (We went over this at the talk in Nashville)

And there are many different learning style systems and methods of evaluation, but when you boil them all down to their essentials, they all have a lot in common.

So, the question we'll try to explore today is how to help large groups of students, sitting in a big lecture hall, to learn.

We tend to teach like we learn. Which may not work for every student.

The first four questions I ask are (Power Point slide 7):

• who are my students
• how do they learn
• what do I want them to learn
• How do I help them learn

I think these questions are helpful in planning a class, because it focuses the course on what the students will learn rather than on what I will teach.

One of my failures in the beginning of my teaching career was that intense focus on content—

After all my course work, comps, and dissertation, I'd just memorized all of this stuff—thought teaching was my duty to pass it on—in condensed form—to a class of passive note takers.

In other words that the class was essentially about giving out a lot of information, hopefully in an entertaining and lively manner--but the result was that students like me, the type IV's, got good grades and seemed to take something with them from the class—though I could never be sure how much they promptly forgot.

And the rest of the students muddled along, mildly entertained at times, but really not learning much.

These were the students, I learned later, who had bonfire parties to burn their music history notes when they graduated. Great fun, but an indication of supreme failure on the part of us teaching those courses. Not only had these students not learned content, but they had not learned how the content might shape or be useful in their lives as practicing musicians and music educators.

So, who are my students: (important for the audience to know, too, because some of what I talk about won't pertain to a different student population).

ON POWER POINT

• BGSU profile
• BG city population ca. 30,000
• Est. 1910 as a teacher's school
• Almost 20,000 students on main campus/ 3000 are grads
• 80% white
• 40% live on campus
• Most are first generation college students
• 88% Ohio residents, most of them are from small towns within 50 miles of campus
• average ACT 22
• in-state tuition, ca. 7800.00
• 69% get financial aid
• ------
• 337 music undergrads
• 107 masters
• 12 doctoral
• 70% undergraduates are music education
• highest GPAs in the university
• highest average ACT's

On handout you will see some readings that have influenced me, in answering:

What do I want students to learn, and How do I help them learn.

From Ken Bains: Power Point, slide 10

(overriding guide to planning a class):

--"What big questions will my course help students to answer, or what skills, abilities, or qualities will it help them develop, and how will I encourage my students' interest in these questions and abilities."

He goes on to say that the best college teachers,

• Help student see the larger questions of the course. "Who gives a damn" Show them why to care. What it will do for them.
• Adjust to make the class relate to what is current in their lives. (p. 39). This is not exactly the same idea as "relevancy."—as in trying to make 13th century motet relevant to a hockey playing business major, rather I take it to mean that it's most effective to build on something the student knows. Begin with the known, move to the unknown...more on that later.

So, with Bain's words in mind, this is how I answer the question: what do I want my students to learn...

For my non-music major introductory course (101: Exploring Music; 100-150 in each lecture, with small group TA-led sections),

• I want the students to understand how music works in their lives—how it forms them as individuals, as members of social groups,
• how it has worked in history,
• in other cultures, and
• how music communicates meaning in all of these contexts.

The skills and abilities I'd like them to develop are:

• how to listen to music critically,
• how both lyrics and music form meaning and
• how those meanings changes or stay the same according to history and culture.

To that end, we learn the basic elements of music and throughout the course apply these to the question of "what is this piece saying and how and why is it saying it."

For the music major music history courses, I hone these basic goals to the historical period covered or focus of the course (chamber lit, performance practice, etc.), and the skill level to that of a music major.

Bains's last question, "How will I encourage my students' interest in these questions and abilities" is where I place the purpose of the class lecture.

So, in my mind, a lecture is no longer a place to disseminate large amounts of information, regurgitated from the book, but to engage students in the content, to spark an interest, motivate, make connections and model modes of inquiry and encourage active learning.

So, what works and what doesn't.

(Bains) --First day of class: outline the promises of the course, what questions it will answer, how it will help them to develop, an "invitation" to the course NOT a list of police-like requirements. [Bains, pp. 36-37].

This was a change for me. I was accustomed to going over the syllabus and really making sure that the students knew the requirements and the policies of the course.

Still do that, but first emphasize how the course will fit into their lives, how it will contribute to their overall education and give them a sample of what we will be learning. Sets the tone--seems to have a positive effect.

On a daily basis how does this happen:

POWER POINT, SLIDE 12

This shows the type of thing that I would have projected at the beginning of a MUCT 101 class lecture. It would be on the screen while students are filing in, plus music from the chapter playing. (results: they get their notebooks out and ready earlier than if just music playing—the failure was when I used to nag them to take out their notesbooks, now I don't have to mention it, they are already writing.)

Also, this slide makes sure the topic is clear, and connects to the book (the same goals and questions open each chapter of the book) so that they know that the reading assignments are important.

I then invite the students into the topic by connecting to something current or within their sphere of experience:

For instance, for this lecture I asked them (via e-mail the day before) to bring in samples of war music from YouTube, we played a few in class, and I asked them to think about the meaning , purpose and audience for the pieces.

What was it in the sound of the music, the video the lyrics? That formed meaning.

Other lectures, used ""Something There" from Beauty and the Beast (which they had all seen as kids and even the guys got into it) to talk about how musical sounds can portray different feelings of love; from there we went to a chanson by Busnoys, "Gretchen am Spinnrade", "Un bel di," from Madame Butterfly, with other examples to be covered in small group.

Music and film started with a clip from ET, first w/o music, then with music

Music and spirituality with three performances of "Amazing Grace" (Aretha Franklin, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, and shape note singers from Tennessee),

Music and politics began with several renditions of the "Star Spangled Banner" (Jimi Hendrix at Woodstock, the Marine Band, Mariah Carey, Celine Dion, Marvin Gaye and its performance at an Olympics medal ceremony).

In each case the students were very familiar with the music, so we built on that knowledge and went into questions of 1) social function, 2) what the music (and the various performances) actually sounded like (using the basic musical terminology we had learned at the beginning of the semester, and adding new terms as needed) and then with that base, we could take the same concepts and journey to the politics of Beethoven's ninth, or 19th century nationalism, the religious vs. secular issues in Schoenberg's Kol Nidre, manifistations of spirituality in 16th century Turkish piece used in Sufi ceremonies, Yoruba drumming, , Tibet monks, the Pope Marcellus Mass, and a myriad of other works, depending on the day's topic.

This seems to engage the students and since we start with something they know, which sparks an interest, it gives them something to hang the new knowledge on—thereby helping them to make connections. It also models how to make comparisons between social or historical context and how the music sounds and is structured. It gives a purpose to why we are learning this material and what to do with it. From the student feedback so far, this seems to be working.

I did promise a few failures, and believe me, there have been many... But some particular howlers have been when I tried to engage the students and peek their interest in music by showing short movie clips at the beginning of class—movies that made reference to certain pieces or musical topics---

• Opera scenes in Philadelphia, Farinelli, Pretty Woman
• Comedies such as the Marx Brothers scenes that dealt with music
• Mr. Holland's Opus (you can tell this was a few years ago)
• And others. Every class began with a few minutes and I would then try to relate the clip to the class topic.

This bombed—not everyone had seen the movie, they hated the Marx Brothers, and the connection to the day's lecture usually eluded them—and sometimes me.

In the music history class (for music majors), I tried to appeal to the technology generation by having them use wiki's; I required them to post their lecture notes and listening notes on a wiki and to make comments on their notes—to relate what they were reading and hearing to their lessons and other classes, and to ask questions along the way that I could answer as I read their postings. It was an attempt at engaging the students with the material and trying to get them to relate the material to other classes and their musical daily lives. Plus a way for them to interact with me in a way they couldn't in the large lecture.

I still think this could be a good idea, but it flopped marvelously for several reasons. First, the music students were not as technically savvy as I thought they were. Many had a great deal of trouble with setting up the wikis, posting notes, formatting, etc. And I realized that reading 75 wikis on a regular basis was overwhelming. Again, I think this worked for a few students who really did interact with the material, but most students just posted their notes with no reflections, many missed deadlines, and I got tired of making the same comments and suggestions on all of the wikis, plus I'm not sure that all of the students even looked at my comments.

How to make it better---use blogs, make specific assignments—have all students able to see and comment on the postings. Or divide the class into smaller segments and have each section make a blog.

Now back to the last purpose of the lecture—to engage active learning. This was hardest for me, because it sacrifices precious time in the lecture—

But it is important to place student learning over content (though I still cover plenty of content in traditional lecture format, I try to devote 10-15 minutes to some kind of active learning activity in each lecture):

Tips on how to incorporate Active Learning:

• 1-min papers (what was the most important thing you learned today; what was the most surprising thing you learned today; how might you apply what you learned today to your everyday life or future work situation; what piece of information from the book (not from the lectures) did you find most interesting, provocative, or important?
• paired discussion
• ask students to bring in instruments
• have them "perform"—rhythms, melodies, timbres
• bring in favorite piece (but have pre-set question they have to answer about it) YOUTUBE
• debates—assign sides, so they have to figure out the different points of view
• interview of each other
• vary activities or physical space
• ask students what the three most important points of the lecture so far have been, have them compare with another student.
• Write your own exam question

Tips on leading discussions, even in a large lecture:

To encourage participation:

• Allow student time to think, or better, have them write down their initial responses and then call on them
• Have them first discuss a question in pairs by themselves, then report to the class
• Respond appropriately to correct and incorrect answers. Use humor as it might be intimidating to answer a question in front of 100 people
• Ask questions w/o right or wrong answers ("how do you FEEL about this", "in your experience, what...")

Getting student to read the text:

THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT because I am sacrificing information time in the lecture, so they MUST read the book, so...

Frequent use of the phrases:

"As you read in your textbook assignment today..."

"What was your reaction to the author's discussion of..."

At beginning of class I sometimes have students write a 1-minute paper on "the most important idea (or ideas) I got from the reading for today was..."

Or Have students write down a question or comment they had on the reading

Or have quizzes

Or a combination of all three, which is what I do. This also give student who come to the lecture points...which those who blow off the lecture don't get the class points. A way to encourage attendance w/o having to take attendance.

Basic Lecture delivery tips—some redundant from above—much of this is really obvious!

Present less than you think you should cover

• Know how to work the AV—
• Memorize your notes
• Be organized; have verbal signals ("this is important", "here's the second point")—signposts, transitions
• Use PP, but sparingly, for pictures, words they might not understand, titles of pieces
• Allow time for questions here and there. Or ask them a question. "If we had a quiz on this material right now could you answer the following question...."
• Emphasize key words or concepts, say them twice, "write this down"
• VARY ACTIVITIES, don't just talk (ask the class something, play something, write something down, show a video clip, periodically have students compare notes. Or have them listen w/o taking notes for 5 minutes and then write down what you said)
• Be aware of your audience, ask them how your pace is, your volume.
• Make eye contact
• Put students in pairs to discuss things
• Have them do 1-min papers or responses
• Have them change their seating
• Go into the student space

In sum, hope this talk has alleviated some of the things that are hard to do in a lecture environment,

• Make a comfortable learning environment
• Emphasize communal learning
• Practice active learning
• Address different learning styles
• Take attendance

The end...