Creating a Responsive General Music Classroom

Creating a Responsive General Music Classroom

ONLINE
June 8–July 31, 2020

This course adapts the responsive classroom approach to PreK-8 general music teaching. Teachers will customize responsive classroom principles to build a sense of community, design rules with the students, establish routines in the music class, teach students to meet expectations, use effective teacher language, and design music lessons that facilitate social interaction. These principles will help general music students learn to use 21st century skills like critical thinking, problem-solving, communication, collaboration, creativity and innovation in the music room.

Teachers will adapt the responsive classroom shared practices in the music class by sharing and learning new energizers, facilitating opening greetings and closing circles, planning transitions, developing logical consequences, organizing interactive learning structures for students to engage with music curricular content, developing skills by interactive modeling, and using intentional language to enable students to be engaged in their learning. The objective of this course is to develop practices that will help teachers build a joyful and engaging musical community.

Instructor: Manju Durairaj

Manju Durairaj (MMEd ‘03) was born and raised in India. She studied in London, England, and was involved in graduate research projects on comparative pedagogical practices of Indian (carnatic) and Western Music. Durairaj is certified in Orff Schulwerk, having completed her levels training at VanderCook, George Mason University, University of St. Thomas, and at the Orff Institute in Salzburg, Austria. She currently teaches PreK-5 general music at the Latin School of Chicago. She is president of the Greater Chicago Orff Chapter, has presented at ISME, AOSA, OAKE, ILMEA, ECMMA, MKMEA and NAfME (formerly MENC), and has been published in the Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education.