MECA Course Syllabus VanderCook College of Music, 3140 S ...

MECA Course Syllabus
6543 Creating A Teaching Toolkit for the Choral Classroom, Summer 2013
Randy Stenson
St. Mary’s International School
6-19 Seta 1-Chome
Setagaya-ku, Tokyo 158-8668
Japan
81-3-3709-3411
stensonran@smis.ac.jp
Judith Harrington
Tacoma Youth Chorus
4009 Bridgeport Way West
University Place, WA 98466
253.588.1391
info@tacomayouthchorus.org
Do you want to learn more about changing voices, uncertain pitch, and incorporating
sight-reading into the choral rehearsal? Are you seeking to improve your conducting skills
and discover new literature? Would new warm-ups, rehearsal ideas, recruitment
considerations, or mixer activities be helpful for your program? Designed for all levels of
music education from elementary through high school, this course focuses on providing
practical solutions and effective results for choral and general music instructors in their
classrooms.
This course is designed for all levels of choral and general music education from
elementary through the middle and high school. It will clearly integrate music literacy,
vocal pedagogy, learning through expressive movement and performance, individual age
based learning styles of boys and girls, brain research that supports music education,
creating concise conducting gesture and technique, choral literature, promote healthy
singing, and building successful choral curriculum within the framework of your existing
program.
This Syllabus is subject to change upon notification to the students in a regular class
session.
Course Calendar
Each workshop day will consist of materials, resources, discussion, individual and group
activities, selected from three unit divisions and their subcategories. All of which will be
applicable to the notebook and choral literature packet. They are:
Unit 1: Choral Techniques
• Creating expressiveness in choral performance
• Understanding powerful teaching and performance opportunities through shared
movement and gesture
• Conducting gesture that supports teaching, promotes clarity, improves tone and
encourages ownership
• Developing warm-ups and vocal exercises for the ‘mini’ voice lesson
Unit 2: Designing Choral Curriculum
• Planning: nuts and bolts for building successful choral programs
• Music literacy: beginning and continued development within rehearsals
• Uncertain voice solutions
VanderCook College of Music, 3140 S. Federal St., Chicago, IL 60616
312.788.1133
meca@vandercook.edu

MECA Course Syllabus
• Aspects unique to male and female voices
• Games/energizers for teaching and community building
• Choral competence: vocal technique, artistic skills, evaluation, growth
Unit 3: Brain Research For The Choral Classroom
• Cultivating motivation/interest
• Retention: learning that ‘sticks’
• Classroom management skills
• Gender considerations
Course Learning Objectives
Students should learn and be able to demonstrate:
• Ability to view your teaching experience with added respect and
understanding.
• Ability to enhance learning, musicality, and music education within the choral
art for your students.
• Participate fully in an experiential learning environment.
• Build a notebook of resources (Teaching Took Kit for the Choral Classroom)
from the daily class work. This notebook, therefore, becomes the resource
available for teaching, planning, and expanding in your classrooms and
rehearsals.
• Create shared teaching activities and projects, alone and in groups.
• Create sample lessons that are applicable to your choral curriculum.
MECA courses and ISBE Standards
MECA courses, by their very nature and design, address the ISBE Music Content and
Professional Teaching Standards throughout the course content. Music technology
courses also incorporate the ISBE Technology Standards.
VanderCook Candidate Outcomes Addressed
The outcomes that the College strives to develop in its teacher candidates were derived
from the institution’s Conceptual Framework and are expressed in its core dispositions.
This course addresses the following Candidate Outcomes:
1. A high level of musicianship
2. Academic ability and diligence leading to a lifetime of learning
3. Skill in the process of teaching
4. Self-discipline and persistence
5. Interpersonal and intrapersonal skills
6. Good citizenship and personal integrity
7. Building pragmatic links with educational programs in diverse communities
8. Professionalism in action word, and appearance
VanderCook College of Music, 3140 S. Federal St., Chicago, IL 60616
312.788.1133
meca@vandercook.edu

MECA Course Syllabus
Course Requirements and Exit Assessment
Out-of-class assignments:
Most assignments will be completed during class sessions. A few short assignments may
need to be prepared outside class for presentation during the week. They may include:
• Creating two original movement based warm-ups and presenting them to the
class, that would focus on one or more of the following aspects: tone production,
vowel clarity, rhythm, intonation, diction, harmony, mixed-meter, syncopation,
articulations.
• Using the choral literature packet, choose a challenging area (2- 4 measures) of a
specific piece and creating a pre-reading tool prior to introducing the song.
• Select one piece from the packet to direct. Discuss your vision for the piece using
gesture and movement in conveying musicality or in problem solving.
In-class Assignments and activities for Creating the Tool Kit Notebook:
• Create rhythm & melodic cards in sequential difficulty.
• Outline a movement based rehearsal plan for a class period or selected piece of
music.
• Build sequential set of movement prompts for specific choral results.
• Game share-share and lead a familiar game or fun musical support activity.
• Written review of a music and movement or a reflection on using movement tools
in your rehearsal.
Grading: Grades will be determined using the following criteria:
Building Your Tool-Box:
Two Movement Based Warmups 100
Literature pre-reading tool 100
Movement conducting section 100
Rhythm/Melodic cards 50
Movement based Rehearsal Outline 100
Movement prompts 100
Game share 50
Written Review/Reflection 100
Class attendance and active participation 300
Grading Scale
A = 1000-930
B = 920-850
C = 849-770
D = 769-680
F = 680 & below
Attendance and Conduct
Attendance at all classes for the full day is required. A student's grade will be reduced by
one letter grade for each half-day that the student misses. If a student is absent for any
portion of either the morning or afternoon session, it is viewed as a half-day absence.
All students must sign all attendance sheets for each course. An attendance sheet will
be distributed each morning shortly after class begins and each afternoon shortly before
dismissal. If a student does not sign an attendance sheet, the assumption will be made
that a half-day absence has occurred for the sheet not signed.
VanderCook College of Music, 3140 S. Federal St., Chicago, IL 60616
312.788.1133
meca@vandercook.edu

MECA Course Syllabus
Academic Honesty
Candidates are expected to maintain the highest standards of integrity in their academic
work. Failure to do so will jeopardize a candidate’s success in the program. Examples of
academic dishonesty include:
• Presenting another’s words, music, or concepts as your own by failing to
acknowledge or properly cite the source.
• Communicating or receiving answers or information to/from another in a testing
situation.
• Consulting notes or any other source of answers/information in a testing situation,
unless the instructor authorizes such access.
• Making available or accessing tests or quizzes from current or previous classes
unless explicitly authorized by the instructor.
• Bringing, by any means, answers or information into a testing situation except as
explicitly authorized by the instructor.
• Collaborating or turning in jointly produced work on any test or assignment that is
intended to reflect individual effort.
Plagiarism
Plagiarism means taking someone else’s words, ideas, data or work and presenting them
as your own. This could mean an exact duplication of someone else’s work without
proper citation of the source, or it could mean you present it with only small changes and
do not cite the source. Plagiarism can occur in art, music, literature, or technology –
really in any area of intellectual work.
All work submitted should be properly credited to the original source of the information or
idea whether the source is a book, Internet site, article, or any other medium. In written
work, quotation marks or block indentations show direct quotations and the source must
be cited. If information that is not common knowledge is paraphrased or summarized
from a source, that source (including websites) must be cited. Failure to do so in
academic assignments represents cheating and carries the appropriate penalties.
Copyright compliance is the goal of VanderCook College. Information to help with
clarification of what constitutes fair use of copyrighted material, including photocopying,
is on permanent reserve in the Ruppel Library.
No candidate should expect to receive a passing grade on any test or assignment that
reflects dishonesty or academic irregularity. Cheating in any form may result in failure of
the class and academic expulsion.
Disability Statement
If a student has a disability which might interfere with that student’s ability to function in
this course it is the responsibility of that student to notify the instructor at the beginning
of the course.
VanderCook College of Music, 3140 S. Federal St., Chicago, IL 60616
312.788.1133
meca@vandercook.edu