Central Washington University College of Arts & Humanities, Music Department CHORAL TEACHING METHODS, MUS 323 Fall 2006 M-W-F 10-10:50am, 3 credits Professors: Dr. Gary Weidenaar (Office 209, Phone 963-1616, [email protected]) Office Hours: 11-12:00 MW or by appointment Course Description: This course is intended for music education students to become familiar with the running of a successful choral program in public schools. The following areas will be included: Why Teach, What does it Take, Philosophy, Advocacy, Recruiting, Concert Planning, Lesson Planning, Standards, Choral Rehearsal Planning, Rehearsal Techniques, Repertoire Choice, Styles & Performance Practices, Warmups, Using the Brain in Rehearsal, Sight Singing, Adjudicating, Choir Tours, Working with Adolescent Voices, Choral Program curricular design, and Job Search. Required Materials: Phillips, Kenneth. Directing the Choral Music Program. Oxford Univ. Press. 2004. New York. The School Music Program: A New Vision: The K-12 National Standards, Pre-K Standards, and What They Mean to Music Educators. MENC, 1994: Reston, Va. (you need to order it yourself from the MENC website) Attendance: This is a required pre-professional music education course; therefore, attendance is mandatory. Exceptions are medical emergency (doctor’s note), or death in family. You may miss two classes without penalty; each further absence will result in a deduction of 5 points from your attendance points and will be reflected in your pre-professional assessment (PPA). Institutionals are not counted. Late arrivals will also be reflected in your pre-professional assessment – and a late arrival takes 2 points off your attendance points. Classes will begin promptly at 10 AM. General: on all presentation days, a VHS video is required. You will lose your presentation slot and grade for the assignment without it. If for some reason an emergency comes up and you cannot fulfill your assigned presentation time, you are required to find someone(s) to take your place, and you are to notify me before class time. Readings are an integral part of your class preparation – they are to be completed by the day assigned. I reserve the right to send you to complete your reading if it’s clear that you haven’t done so. Grading: A “C” is not a punishment, but rather the average grade in a class such as this. A “B” can be obtained with some effort. An “A” is truly considered an exceptional grade. There are 200 points possible (see assignment page for distribution). Late work is assessed as following: Each school day it is late, one point is deducted from the initial final assigned grade. If an assignment would have received a “9” and was due Friday, it would be lowered to a “7” if turned in on Tuesday. EVERY LATE ASSIGNMENT MUST HAVE THE TIME AND DATE TURNED IN ON IT OR IT WILL NOT BE GRADED 180-200 =A 160-179=B 140-159=C 120-139=D 0-119=F MUS.MUS323.syll.doc Page 1 of 3 1/9/2007Date: Topic: Assignment Due Date (1) 9/20/06 – W - Faculty Introduction - Class nuts and bolts (syllabus) Read Ch. 1 F 9/22 (2) 9/22/06 – F Why Teach, What does it take? Read Ch.2 M 9/25 (3) 9/25/06 – M Go Over Philosophy write a philosophy page W 9/27 (4) 9/27/06 – W - Share Philosophies, - Advocacy overview Read Ch. 3 F 9/29 (5) 9/29/06 – F 2 Groups advocate for Dr. W Read Ch. 4 M 10/2 (6) 10/2/06 – M - Auditioning - Ideal Choral Program Overview Create your ideal choral curriculum W 10/3 (7) 10/4/06 – W - Share Choral Program setups - Nat’l & State Standards Read Ch. 5 F 10/5 (8) 10/6/06 – F Lesson plans (daily, weekly, concert, semester, year, multi-year) Create one daily lesson plan M 10/9 (9) 10/9/06 – M Share Plans Read Ch. 6 W 10/11 (10) 10/11/06 – W - Resources - Budget Read Ch. 9 F 10/13 (11) 10/13/06 – F Choosing Repertoire 1 good and 1 not good piece with why M 10/16 (12) 10/16/06 – M Share pieces, choosing repertoire Read Ch. 10 W 10/18 (13) 10/18/06 – W - Choir Placement - Rehearsal Format Read Ch. 8 & Ch. 17 F 10/20 (14) 10/20/06 – F Rehearsal Techniques (before & after) Prepare 5 minute rehearsal M 10/23 (15 ) 10/23/06 – M - Five 5-minute rehearsals - Warm up overview Read Ch. 15 Prepare a warmup W 10/25 (16) 10/25/06 – W 2 Warmups Talk about Brain Research Using the Brain Handout (GW) F 10/27 (17) 10/27/06 – F - 1 warmup - Brain Warmups (GW) Read Ch. 16 Review 2 sight singing books M 10/30 (18) 10/30/06 – M - 2 Wups, - Sight Singing Ch. 18–1st 3 styles (pgs. 315-321) + handouts (GW) W 11/1 (19) 11/1/06 – W - 1 Sight singing lesson - Style examples Ch 18–last 3 styles (pgs. 322-329) + handouts (GW) F 11/3 (20) 11/3/06 – F - 1 sight singing lesson - Style examples Adjudicating (GW) M 11/6 (21) 11/6/06 – M - 1 sight singing exercise - Adjudication Read Ch. 11 (pgs. 183-189) & Ch, 19 W 11/8 (22) 11/8/06 – W CHORAL FESTIVAL – NO CLASS Fill out 4 Adjudication forms at festival. M 11/13 (NA) 11/10/06 – F VETERAN’S DAY – NO SCHOOL (23) 11/13/06 – M. Choral Festival De-Brief Create a 20-25 min. concert program W 11/15 (24) 11/15/06 – W. Share Concert Programs Read Ch. 8 F 11/17 (25) 11/17/06 – F Classroom Management Read Ch. 7 M 11/20 (26) 11/20/06 – M. Elem. Guests to audition and work with Read Ch. 12 M 11/27 (27) 11/22 & 24 VACATION (28) 11/27/06 – M. Broadway Musicals/show/vocal jazz Read Ch. 21 W 11/29 (29) 11/29/06 – W. Student teaching, getting a job (30) 12/1/06 – F. Job interviews, review Notebook due EXAM TIME W Dec. 6 conferences & PPA’s, 4-5 pm. Dinner for class 5-6:30 pm (on me) To be covered if time – Accompanists MUS.MUS323.syll.doc Page 2 of 3 1/9/2007Assignment Pts Description Philosophy Write a philosophy – minimum 2 paragraphs and no more than one single spaced typed page. 10 12 point font, 1 inch margins Ideal Choral Curriculum You are to design your ideal choral curriculum given the following parameters: Scenario 1) A school of 1500 students, 9th-12th grades. There are about 150 in the choral program, 6 periods in the day (meeting 5 times a week for 50 minutes each time). You have an assistant and an accompanist. Scenario 2) A school of 1000 students, 9th-12th grades. There are about 100 in the program, 6 periods in the day (meeting 5 times a week for 50 minutes each