Standard 4: The PK-12 teacher has skills in listening to, analyzing, describing, and performing music.

As a musician, a great deal of growth can be gained through experience as an audience member.
Musicians watch, listen, and evaluate what they like and dislike about a performance or piece. The
musician must interact with music as a consumer, critic, and performer to truly internalize the medium
deeply enough to make effective musical decisions and contribute their own approach to it. The added
benefit of this musical exercise is increased self-awareness and an understanding of personal learning
styles.

As a music educator, I utilize these skills as I plan music and learning experiences for the year to line up
with the skills I desire to teach my students. I evaluate the music to explore content-appropriateness,
discover concepts that can be taught through pieces, and map out the sequence necessary to prepare
my students in advance for the pieces. I use the skills of listening, analyzing, describing, and performing
music to plan the effective communication of what is desired artistically from the students in
performance of a selection. My skills of analysis help me to guide students through exploring the
composer's intent and interpreting the musical layout (in a manner similar to how an English teacher
would guide their students through the interpretation of poetry).

Listening to, analyzing, describing, and performing music are all fundamental elements of my classroom.
They are implemented throughout the process of learning new repertoire to help students develop a
holistic understanding of the music and connect with the music personally. I believe it can be very useful
to take a whole-part-whole approach and introduce a piece with an exceptional recording of it to have
the students explore what they appreciated and did not appreciate about the piece and performance,
and develop personal ties to the music right off the bat. Throughout this process, the teacher can
encourage students to use the musical vocabulary they have learned in class and to think about the
music itself as well as the performance and its portrayal of the work. As they share with one another and
the class, the students will develop in their understanding of the piece, having interacted with it as an
audience. In some environments, I may opt to teach the song first and then embark on this listening and
analysis journey to help students reconsider previous connections made to the music.

In preparation for a lesson on Siyahamba (arr. Henry Leck) for a high school mixed ensemble, I spent
time analyzing the pieces, so that I could provide different approaches to learning the music in order to
differentiate for different learning styles. In the analysis, I made sure I had a firm artistic approach to the
music (which involved exploration of varied expressions of the traditional song) so that I could describe
style, model effectively, and ask questions that would lead students into a deeper understanding of the
pieces. As a result of this, I was able to make informed musical decisions in regard to how we would
approach the piece. Developing a classroom ideal for the music involved bringing students into this
vision. In this particular lesson, we watched various performances and engaged in discussion over how
we could more authentically represent the music in performance in light of the culture and setting of the
piece.

As an educator, I believe it is important for me to be skilled and growing in the field of interpreting and
performing music so that I can be an effective support for my students. The depth with which I explore a
piece of music influences the depth of understanding I am able to draw out of my students. Through an
emphasis on analysis and musical immersion in my classroom, I have a broadened opportunity to
facilitate engagement with the music for my students.