Recommends singing as an instructional strategy for string and other instrument classes. Maintains that singing familiarizes the student with the music and can serve as an illustrative example of musical techniques. Includes a list of tonal objectives found in repertory songs. Briefly reviews several instructional texts. (MJP)

Recommends incorporating singing activities as an instructional component of orchestra and band rehearsals. Notes that singing helps students develop aural skills, learn sight-reading, and make connections between the basic elements of music theory and the practical application of these elements. Also includes suggested activities. (MJP)

Examines singing as a tool for managing children's behaviors. Suggests that singing can be a powerful tool to soothe a baby, promote learning daily routines and cooperativeness, ease separation troubles, build trust and self-esteem, awake a love for poetry and imagery, stretch memorizing power, help develop humor, and build motor skills. Proposes…

Describes a collection of songs for communal singing compiled under the title, "Get America Singing...Again!" The book is intended to give undergraduate education majors a solid repertoire of songs for future use in public schools. Includes a list of the songs contained in the book. (DSK)

Examines the effect of individual testing in conjunction with group instruction on 306 students' sight-singing skills from beginning and advanced choirs of six high schools in Washington State. Reports that individual testing was found to be an effective means of improving individual sight-singing performance in group instructional situations.…

Considers embedded assessment within choral rehearsals, describing five assessment tools for use within the regular activities of choral ensembles. Discusses the benefits of embedded assessment. Provides ten tips for helping teachers successfully embed assessments. Includes sidebars for the five assessments and a bibliography. (CMK)

Recognizes that as the support for standards-based music education strengthens, authentic assessment that measures specific content within the standards will also gain status. Offers examples of music teachers implementing authentic assessment within their classrooms, such as rubrics and student self-assessment. Identifies sample assessment…

This article explains the difference between concepts and skills in music education. Concepts about music cannot be taught; they are acquired through meaningful experiences. These experiences are typically called musical skills and include singing, chanting, playing, moving, creating, improvising, and writing. Suggestions for organizing the school…

The purpose of the present study was to determine choral students' ability to predict and evaluate their sight-singing skills. Participants were asked to assign a rating based on how well they predicted they would sight-sing five musical examples. Following the singing of each example, participants were asked to evaluate their sight-singing…

Frank Callaway, the fourth Honorary President of ISME, was a New Zealander who contributed greatly to raising the profile of music education in both that country and Australia. His essentially democratic view of music education was moulded by his teaching experience at King Edward Technical College in Dunedin. At the University of Western…

Designed to provide information about arts opportunities for youth and adults with disabilities, this publication describes Very Special Arts (VSA) program activities in the United States that are planned for the period of October 1, 1996, through September 30, 1997. The prospectus begins with an overview of the different types of VSA programs,…

A federal program, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) employed young men during the Great Depression to help conserve natural resources by planting trees and building paths, roads, picnic areas, and parking lots in National Forests and National Parks. The men were supplied lodging at a camp, food, and one dollar a day. They could also take…

This kindergarten music curriculum provides a year-long program of a sequenced series of activities designed to develop music concepts. Topics of the units in this guide are: self-concept (beginning of the year), fall, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, winter, a circus, Valentine's Day, spring, and farms. A scope and sequence chart of concepts…

A discussion of the use of music activities in teaching English as a second language describes experiences with two different teaching environments and examines the reasons for the success of the approach. In one program, children aged 7 to 17 in an international summer camp learned English through songs and other music-related activities. The…

The three approaches of Carl Orff, Zoltan Kodaly, and Shinichi Suzuki to early childhood education can be successfully fused to provide a foundation for a total music curriculum from the nursery to secondary school. Basically, Orff suggests that rhythmic patterns should be experienced in children's natural language as they improvise melodies and…