This practicum report addresses the need to supply Head Start teachers with: (1) specific preschool music objectives; (2) a sequential preschool developmental program in music to match the child's cognitive level; (3) how to choose instructional material to encourage specific basic school readiness skills; and (4) workshops to accomplish these…

A music teacher specialist at an elementary school with a typical kindergarten music program implemented a 10-week practicum intervention designed to improve the auditory sequencing skills of kindergarten children through increased instruction in music. Test scores on screening measures indicated the need to improve the children's auditory memory…

This practicum introduces a program that increases the exposure time to music in the elementary classroom by integrating U.S. music with the teaching of U.S. history. A pretest and posttest were employed to identify increases or decreases in students' abilities to identify U.S. music and its relationship to specific lifestyles or periods of U.S.…

The goals of this practicum were to improve kindergarten music instruction by providing the classroom teacher with (1) kindergarten music instructional objectives; (2) a kindergarten skills development sequence; (3) tested sample unit study plans for an interdisciplinary approach to music instruction; and (4) an orientation class in music…

A screening instrument developed for this study measured the listening skills of 22 children in a kindergarten class. Children were found to be weak in four areas of listening: (1) auditory discrimination; (2) auditory perception; (3) following oral directions; and (4) listening comprehension. After these measures were administered, students…

This report describes a program for intensifying student motivation to increase their weekly instrumental practice time. The targeted population was second and third-year instrumental music students in grades 5-6. The students were drawn from two different elementary schools within the same district in an upper-middle class community adjacent to a…

This paper describes the development and implementation of a sequential musical program, designed to be taught by non-musical classroom teachers in kindergarten through grade six. Chapter I provides a general background of the political influences which brought about the low status of music at Melaleuca Elementary School and other elementary…

The behavior and rehearsal habits of elementary level instrumental music students were addressed by the implementation of a behavior contract and computer managed recordkeeping system. A contract was developed following the principles of the "Assertive Discipline" system. Rewards and incentives were used to reinforce positive student behavior.…

This practicum was developed to encourage the at-risk urban elementary school student to read for pleasure daily. Participants listened to their favorite rap songs, wrote lyrics for their own rap songs, and then read the lyrics as a text. The practicum was performed in a neighborhood community recreation center that serves urban students from…

This practicum investigated the effectiveness of using music activities to reinforce basic money skills with 10 students, ages 12 to 21, with mental retardation in the trainable range. The program used a combination of music and visual aids as strategies for reinforcing basic money skills and improving student on-task behaviors in the classroom.…

Addressing the problem of low music skills and lack of motivation to participate in music programs in elementary and junior high schools, a study examined a daily after-school practicum in which music skills, composition, and performance were practiced. Twenty sixth-grade students participated in 72 40-minute after-school sessions, meeting twice a…

This practicum was designed to empower a parents' organization through a unified effort. Primary goals for the parents' group were set. One objective was to defeat a small circle of politically astute students in the high school choir. In the previous year, those adversaries successfully influenced the school board on a parents' proposal for the…