What can happen when learners choose the musical materials and activities? What possibilities arise when learners are involved in planning? What do students learn from helping teachers plan what goes on in class? What do experiences/concerts look and feel like to learners, teachers, and parents when learner are involved in every step of the process? What roles exist for learners and teacher in these types of classrooms? In this session, we address these questions through presenting examples for actual classrooms and discussing pedagogy and pragmatics to foster student-centered and student-led classrooms.
In the session, Abbie VanKlompenberg will discuss what happened in her experiences in both a 6-8th grade choir as well as in K-5 general music classrooms and the challenges/rewards that she and her students experienced. Jesse Rathgeber discuss his work with elementary school students, in both general music and choral settings, to explore the pedagogy and pragmatics of fostering student-centered and student-led classrooms. Attendees and presenters will collaborate to consider multiple possibilities for helping learners create a place for themselves in the music classroom, and for making the music classroom a home for learners and teacher, alike.

Click here for the handout and supplemental materials

Rathgeber, J., Wilson, S., & Cartwright, A. (2017, May). General music across the lifespan: Considering diverse spaces of music learning. Collaborative presented at the Mountain Lake Colloquium of Teachers of General Music Method, Pembroke, VA.

DESCRIPTION: We attempt to consider music learning generally. We explore the music experiences of persons not served by K-12 music education in order to reconceptualize general music teacher education practices.

Illinois Music Educators Association Summer Learning Series 2014

Click here for the interactive handout/companion website
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Description: Do you struggle with composing in your classroom and don’t seem to know where to start? Do you love composing and need some new ideas? If either is true, this session is for you. In this session, you will be introduced to numerous compositional frameworks and projects to get your students (and yourself) engaging and playing with sound in new and deeply meaningful ways. From tech-based tools to composing with children’s literature, from mapping and soundscapes to musical storytelling, in this session, you will explore the joys (and struggles) of composing with your students while also discussing topics like conflict management and assessment. You will walk away with some ready-made projects to try, some pieces that you’ve composed, and plenty of your own creative compositional idea

Illinois Music Educators Association Summer Learning Series 2014

We Did That! – Rathgeber handout
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Description: Packaged musicals are cute, but is there more to putting on a musical than being cute? What if you could engage your student (even the very young ones) in creating their own shows, asking them to make all the creative discussions, and opening up the world of musical possibilities to them all while preparing for a concert? In this session, you will explore, experience, and discuss how to put on a student-created performance/concert. You will discover some ways to lead your students in creating their own concert, including dealing with repertoire selection, “casting” and selecting parts, developing instrumental parts and choreography, and the logistics of working with a bit of uncertainty. You will walk away with lots of ideas, resources, and a sketch of a possible student-created performance that you could start with your students as soon as school resumes.

Arizona Music Educators Association Conference

AMEA2014- Book-Based Composition handout
AMEA2014- Book-Based Composition keynote
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The overlaps of music composition and literacy instruction provide rich ways for music educators to help their students think in and play with sound through musical narrative.

Downloadable Files (Lesson Shells):
– Read the Pictures- Soundscape Composition
– Read the Words- Poem-Based Composition
– Retell the Story- Character Theme and Variations
– Retell the Story- Plot Form

Illinois Music Educators Association Conference, Peoria, IL

Handout: ILMEC2014-TheMindfulEar

Musical listening is an intimate interaction with sound in which students take in sonic events, process them through mind-body interactions, and draw meaning out of what they hear. Music is pervasive in our society and students regularly “listen” to music on their own media players. However, one may ask if they are actually listening. Add to this, many music teachers can be at a loss for ways to engage their students in meaningful and active listening experiences.

In this session, music educators will be exposed to different ways to craft creative and captivating listening experiences that allow their students to develop their listening skills. Educators will be introduced to an approach to listening instruction that posits multiple means of engagement: movement, journaling activities, listening guides/puzzle pieces, creative mapping, and group discussion. Concepts like repertoire selection, guided listening, independent listening, and listening as a mode of assessment for musical understanding will be addressed. The session will feature interactive research and anecdotally supported listening activities designed to help music educators foster sophisticated, creative, and critical listening skills that will not only enhance their leisurely listening, but also help them become more nuanced performers, improvisers, composers, and musical consumers.

Downloadable Files:
Rubrics: 

• Class Moving Rubric
• Single or Small Group Moving Rubric
• Discussion Rubric; 
• Journaling Rubric
  
  

Listening Logs/Journaling: 

• Drawing Journal
• Plot Mountain Journal
• 1st Grade LL 
• 2nd Grade LL
• 3rd Grade LL
• 4th Grade LL
• 5th Grade LL

Listening Guides: 

• Der Erlkonig Analysis Guide; 
  
• Der Erlkonig Listening Guide(Kids)

Puzzles: 

• ​Yellow Sub icons; 
  
• “Each of Us is a Flower” Puzzle

Listening Maps:

• Check out D. Blair’s website
  
• ​read J. Kerchner’s book “Music Across the Senses”