My students come from all over the world. Our school has one of the most ethnically, diverse, student bodies in my district. Numbering nearly 400 students, many receive free lunch. Languages represented at my school include Spanish, Tagalog, Arabic, Hindi and Vietnamese, among others. Many students are from first generation families, some are newly arrived in the United States and speak no English.
Some of our students have experienced upheaval, trauma, and poverty in their young lives, but all have shown great enthusiasm for learning music.
I would like them to have the opportunity to experience the joy of playing quality musical instruments and listening to quality performances.
Learning an instrument facilitates students learning self-discipline, requiring focus and repetition, even when it seems tedious. An additional benefit of playing an instrument is it helps build a child's self-esteem. The joy of playing an instrument and becoming a musical being is a feeling all students can recognize, participate in, and have fun doing.
My Project
Carl Orff (composer of Carmina Burana) and Gunild Keetman developed an approach for elementary music called Orff Schulwerk. In the Orff music room, students combine music with movement, speech and drama. Barred instruments, such as xylophones and glockenspiels, are an integral part of an Orff experience.
Bass xylophones keep the Orff-estra together with a steady beat, filling the low registers with resonance.
Students love having kinesthetic learning experiences, especially if it's with an instrument. Orff students learn to play steady beat and simple to increasingly complex rhythms on barred instruments through their elementary musical journey. Working with barred instruments like the requested xylophone provides students aural, visual and tactile opportunities, making it more accessible for all learning styles
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