The purpose of this narrative action research study was to tell Marcus's story as an ensemble director learning how to teach composition in his middle school orchestra program. Marcus collaborated with Sam, a university professor, and designed a study to examine his teaching in his 49-member advanced orchestra class. As time passed, the focus of…

Composition is a natural human activity that can both support other music instruction and help students develop creativity that is applicable to their extramusical endeavors. It also constitutes a major strand within national and state music standards. However, it is not consistently taught in ensemble classrooms, which are often students' only…

The recent increase in popular music education in K-12 school music programs is in part due to the expansion of modern band programming throughout the United States. Modern band is a term used to describe school music ensembles that include popular music instruments and focus on performing music that is meaningful to the students while…