Infusing Wordles For Cross-Curricular Projects In The Music Classroom

21st Century Learning Skills

From Wikipedia: The adage “A picture is worth a thousand words” refers to the idea that a complex idea can be conveyed with just a single still image. It also aptly characterizes one of the main goals of visualization, namely making it possible to absorb large amounts of data quickly.

One of the most facilitative and effective Web 2.0 vehicles for music educators to fuel collaborative, connective, cross-curricular, creativity and critical thinking driven, 21^st Century Learning 21st Century Learning (on Prezi) opportunities in the music classroom is an uncomplicated and simply accessed word cloud application called .

So, what’s a Wordle?

A Wordle is a Cloud app where you can create a word cloud (similar to a tag cloud) from any source text that you copy and paste into an import window, paste the URL from a blog, blog feed, or any web page that has an RSS feed, or paste the URL from a social bookmarking web service (like Delicious).  Wordle word clouds give greater visual prominence to the words that appear most frequently in your text and you can edit your Wordle with different languages (yes, ELL teachers) fonts, layouts, and color schemes. The word cloud images that you create with Wordle can be embedded into your school blog site or web page, you can print them out to use with your document camera, and/or  you can save them to the Wordle gallery to share with friends (via bookmark).

Okay, so how do I create a Wordle?

It’s super easy to create a Wordle:

1. Open the text source that you want to make a word cloud with.
2. Go to: http://www.wordle.net
3. Click on the Create tab in the top menu.
4. Copy and paste the text from the text source into the create window, then click on Go.  Note: Wordle will delete punctuation marks, italic text, bullets, etc. from your text.
5. Click on the Font tab to select which font you want to use in your Wordle.
6. Click on the Language button to format the text in your Wordle. Among the options here are removing common words, removing numbers, presenting words upper and lower case, and getting a word count.
   
7. Click on the Layout tab to select the layout of your Wordle. There are several options here, but I like to use round edges and half and half horizontal/vertical. You can also opt for the words to appear in Alphabetical Order if you prefer.
8. Click on the Color tab to edit your color scheme of your Wordle. There are several pre-created options here, but you can edit a custom color palette with up to five colors if you prefer. You’ll need to enter the standard html color codes (ex. #000000-black and #FFFFFF-white, etc.). You can access a great HTML Color Code Chart (VisiBone) here:http://html-color-codes.com
9. Click on the Open in Window button to view your Wordle bigger.
10. Think twice before clicking on the Randomize button to scatter the words in your Wordle unless you really want to do this.
11. Click on the Save to public gallery button to give your Wordle a title, put your name on it, and/or include a comment about it for the gallery post. When you click on the OK button your Wordle will post to the public gallery and an embed code will appear in a window below it for you to copy and paste. Important: Be sure to add a bookmark for your Wordle in your browser and/or at your favorite social bookmarking web service (like Delicious). I also like to also copy and paste both the web address from my browser address bar and the embed code into a text document for “just in case” storage and I also always capture a screen shot of my Wordles and save them as jpegs.
    
12. Click on Print to simply print out your Wordle to use a hard copy with your document camera.

There are other great word cloud apps out there. Here are a few of the most popular ones:

• Tagxedo
• ABCYa
• Word It Out

So, how would I use a Wordle in the music classroom to align with our Instructional Framework and  Tier 1 Core Instruction Model (Brain Based and Differentiated)?

Infusing Wordles For Cross-Curricular Projects In The Music Classroom

By infusing music lessons, projects, and activities with Wordles derived from literary works in various language arts genres, such as poems, prose, limericks, nonsense words, haikus, stories, legends, folk tales, fairy tales, nursery rhymes, proverbs, narratives, song texts and lyrics, student authored writings and compositions, various forms of information and reference text, vocabulary words, and standards, anchor, KWL, rubric component and data charts, and learning scaffolds, music educators can unleash the power of the written and spoken word to:

Prepare Students To Learn

• Introduce learning settings, map learning landscapes, and frontload and launch learning contexts to build background for learning, prompt students’ writings.
• Initiate essential questions to activate prior knowledge and instigate students to make learning connections from their own experiences and filters, determine student knowledge base and transition to interface windows of further learning.

Clarify Purpose

• Impel student engagement and interaction, focus students’ attention on new information to be covered, and frame the lesson to make information meaningful and relevant by telling “compelling stories”.
• Integrate standards visuals, KWL charts, anchor charts, rubric component charts, and learning scaffolds.

Present New Learning

• Invigorate rigor and relevance in instruction by providing visualization for the visual/linguistic learners (statistics say 65% of the population) in the classroom.
• Intensify and clarify explicit instruction through visualization, chunking information, and providing visually focused think time.

Model

• Transport and transfer modifications for learning styles (visual and linguistic learners) and accommodations for Special Needs and ESL learners during teacher modeling, mini-lessons, think alouds, read alouds, and re-teaching (formatting, language, font, color coding, layout).

Check for Understanding

• Navigate differentiated instruction (content, process, product) learning activities by entry levels, interests, and learning profiles (multiple intelligences, cultural differences, modalities, etc.) (especially useful for facilitating questioning, flexible grouping, and enrichment).
• Interpret critical words in stories, songs, and students’ own creative, narrative and persuasive writings, locate power words, and sort and categorize music and other content area vocabulary word sets, organize inferences, and implant music concept words.

Practice

• Propel critical thinking into synthesis by offering a format for manipulating newly learned information in rehearsal (rote and elaborative), guided practice, and review.
• Connect learning across the curriculum to various content areas and accelerate information literacy.
• Integrate the written and spoken word as the framework for music and movement activities (Orff methodology).
• Inspire creativity, re-creation, and composition in music and other content areas (with Wordles serving as prompts or student end products).
• Cultivate connectivity, collaborative learning, and innovation.

Assess

• Drive formative and summative assessments.
• Steer summary,  journaling, reflective analysis, closure, and follow-up activities.

The Dream Keeper Project:

The Dream Keeper Wordle

In an ongoing project entitled, The Dream Keeper (in conjunction with Dr. Martin Luther King Day on January 17), the Haley Elementary School Fifth Grade students will interact with the following Wordle word cloud created from the words of three jazz poems by Langston Hughes, The Dream Keeper, Dreams, and Dream Dust from the book, The Dream Keeper and Other Poems (http://www.amazon.com/Dream-Keeper-Other-Poems/dp/0679883479/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1297853542&sr=8-1 Hughes, Langston. The Dream Keeper and Other Poems. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1994. Print).

The Dream Keeper Project Description:

1. Students perform and record (with a digital recorder) improvised and canonic readings of the Langston Hughes jazz poems (preceded by improvised chantings of the words in The Dream Keeper Wordle to enter into the context of improvisation) accompanied by improvised Dream Keeper motives on pitched percussion Orff instruments (metallophones and glockenspiels). They sing 3 Dream Ostinatos, accompanied by an improvised Dream Keeper jazz accompaniments using Orff instruments and unpitched percussion (teacher created Orff arrangement), then, perform the combined creative elements in rondo form.
2. They create Dream Cloud visuals (by writing on Dream Clouds on their class’s The Dream Keeper Project SMART Notebook file page) about their own dreams and aspirations (by answering leading questions derived from the words in The Dream Keeper Wordle and cultural arts information web sites about Langston Hughes) then, write reflections (narrative writings) about their Dream Clouds (using a Dream Cloud prompt template) in comments posted to the Haley Musicbloggers Weblog (sorry to protect student privacy, general access is not allowed as per school system AUP) (as “Music Buddies” in the Haley Music Technology Lab).
3. They create Dreamers dance improvisations to portray both the words from the poems in The Dream Keeper Wordle and their own Dream Cloud visuals.
4. They create their own notated jazz Dream Keeper compositions (using a teacher created template).
5. They creatively communicate a performance which includes all of the creative elements of the project both during an all-school assembly and in a videoconference collaborating with students from a partner school.
6. The students storyboard and videotape the presentation using Flip cams, edit the video in iMovie, and post the edited video of the presentation to SchoolTube.
7. The students critique their performance of The Dream Keeper Project by posting comments (using the The Dream Keeper Project Critique template) in comments posted to the Haley Musicbloggers Weblog.
8. The students collaborate in varying creative roles in the completion of the project: Readers (poetry), Singers (ostinatos), Writers (Dream Clouds on SMART Board and Haley Musicbloggers Weblog), Researchers (Langston Hughes), Players (The Dream Keeper Orff arrangement and jazz improvisation), Dancers (Dreamers dance improvisations), Artists (Scratch Dream Clouds), Composers (notated Dream Keeper improvisations), Conductor, Technicians (SMART Board and SMART Notebook files, digital recorder, music technology workstations, Tandberg Machine), Videographers (Flip cams), and Critics (The Dream Keeper Project Critique template).
9. During the course of the project the students will review the criteria included in the Music Project Collaboration Rubric and utilize the Music Project Collaboration Checklist as they collaborate as “Music Buddies” in varying roles in the completion of the project.

You can access the The Dream Keeper Project Wordle by clicking the thumbnail below:

You can access the  The Dream Keeper project plan and other resources on the Infusing Mus Across The Curriculum page at the  .

You can access additional resources at the Infusing Wordles For Cross-Curricular Projects In The Music Classroom section (scroll down) at the Infusing Web 2.0 and Cloud Apps page at the .

Infusing Wordles For Cross-Curricular Projects In The Music Classroom Slideshare Presentation:

Infusing Wordles For Cross-Curricular Projects In The Music Classroom Handout

Infusing Wordles For Cross-Curricular Projects In The Music Classroom (Google Doc)

 

Practical Tips For Planning And Facilitating A Music Technology Lab

Upon receiving a few information requests regarding planning and facilitating a music technology lab, I thought I’d re-post here some practical tips that I recently posted at the Music Professional Learning Network: http://musicpln.org/pln-posts/landing:

1. First, you will need to thoroughly think through and itemize the cost of electricity, computers, Internet drops or wireless, tables/chairs/workstation furniture, piano keyboards, interfaces, etc. for your lab, as these things are very expensive.
2. You will need to thoroughly think through and document the lab traffic patterns and procedures for students.
3. Make sure to check out your school system’s AUP (Acceptable Use Policy) and share it with students in an appropriate format.
4. Post your classroom Music Technology Center Guidelines on the wall by your lab. It will take some work at first, but insist that students follow these guidelines (saves a lot of noise and headache later).
5. Your school system probably probably has a wall filter that blocks all of the common sites that are inappropriate for students, which you will both, be thankful for, and also have to work around as a music teacher. However, be sure to monitor students while they are working in the lab to keep them on the tasks and web sites you’ve assigned.
6. Check with your school tech to see if there are any extra network folders that can be made available for students to use just for the computers in your music room, then, post the logins on labels (the easy peel off kind!) your computer desktops. Trying to keep track of all of your student network folder logins (because little kids forget them or their classroom teachers don’t assign them one) when you have 600 students just isn’t manageable. Depending on your computer logins (especially if your computers are cloned) your desktops will “refresh” every time they are logged out/in, so files WON’T be saved on the desktop or in student folders on the desktop! This is great for refreshing the desktop and dock on Macs in general ed tech labs, but doesn’t accommodate music teachers’ schedules and working style very well (class after class, “pick up where you left off” working).
7. In addition to digital assignment/template, etc. folders on your computer desktops, keep workstation folders (the hard copy kind) on the piano keyboard trays. Print a cover with each workstation’s number (maybe cute earphone note graphic, etc. (see web site below) on the front, insert tab dividers for grade levels, and put information, assignments, and signs in it (I put an “I Need Help!” and “Ouch” sign in mine for students to hold up when in trouble). I also keep an Alfred keyboard chart on each piano tray for students to reference right at the keyboard (they’ll really use this). I also put a red arrow that fits on middle C on the piano keyboards for the little kids.
8. Use earphone splitters (available at general ed tech supply vendors) so that 2 students can work as “Music Buddies” at a workstation. I feel that students learn more from one another than I could ever hope to teach them. However, pair the students carefully. If elementary, YOU determine partners, but occasionally let students choose partners on a “free buddies” day.
9. Always model how to use the software you’re using as it applies to the lesson, project, or activity you’re having students do prior to having them go to computers. Create templates for them to use to guide them through projects.
10. Create a school weblog sit for the students to post comments, journal about music lessons, projects, and activities at all times (you post templates to guide them). Great tool for assessment and for differentiating instruction. You will need to moderate student’s posts daily to avoid any legal problems.
11. If the computers in your lab are cloned: Ah, yes . . . the clone thing . . . cloning can be troublesome, so expect some troubleshooting here. Will your school system techs be cloning your machines? If so, you will need to have a written list of the apps and updates you want on the clone image, as well as your login information and the web addresses for all of those apps. Your tech will create a clone image for your machines, which is really tedious and time consuming to do, especially if your computers are on different platforms and/or operating systems (they have to create a clone image for each operating system. Make sure to be present when the tech is creating your clone image (they like to do this back in their offices where they have their cloning computers, hard drives, etc., thinking that all teachers use the same apps, etc., and general ed techs don’t always intercept the “variances” for installing, setting preferences, etc. for music software, so be careful about this). You will need to give your software CD’s, etc. to the tech for a while, but once you’ve done this, and they have your software registration numbers, etc. in their install logs, you probably won’t need to do this again, except for new software. Be prepared to to set up your MIDI, notation app settings, CAI apps settings, etc., on your “clone machine” which will be one of your computers that the tech will load the clone image on first from an external hard drive, then, let you do the setups, then, when you both think it’s perfect, load on your other machines. Make sure that your MIDI set up and all of your apps work like you want them to before your tech clones all of your machines-it is really easy to make mistakes at this step and your tech probably won’t want to re-do the clone image! Also, don’t forget to have your tech put permanent bookmarks of your favorite sites in the bookmarks bar of the browser you use. NOTE (if novice at the cloning thing): You won’t be able to install any apps on a cloned machine without an admin login, which school system techs aren’t usually able to share with you. You will have to call out your tech if and when you want to have new software installed.
12. Updates: My school system techs push updates remotely via the network overnight weekly. If yours does this also, your computers will take a little longer to boot the following morning, as they will then install the updates. They probably won’t push updates for any what I’m going to call “exception” software like your music software unless you access it from your school system’s main server (again, general ed apps usually rule on the server because more people use them). If you’re not on a school network you will need to check for and install updates yourself. By the way, it really pays to be patient and good to your tech, it’s the machine that isn’t working for you, not your tech.
13. Consider a networked lab, where the teacher has a lab controller (for piano keyboards) and/or a control computer (as you would use with Smarttech’s Smart Sync software).
14. Don’t forget to plan ahead from day one to secure grant funds for updating hardware and software for your lab and make sure that your school system provides tech support for the hardware and software you install in your lab.

I’ve posted some resources at the The Classroom Studio page in the MUSINGS WIKI . You can access the wiki using the link in the menu block at the left. Access the posted handout for the session entitled, The Classroom Studio for DETAILED information about planning, paying for, and facilitating a music technology lab.

Dr. James Frankel, Managing Director of SoundTree, the educational division of Korg USA, does a great session entitled, Planning, Preparing, and Implementing Music Tech Labs (offers it as SoundTree webinar also) and it is well worth the listen. Podcast is here: http://fams.podomatic.com

SoundTree is an excellent resource to help you plan, purchase your workstation furniture, hardware, and software, and facilitate your music tech lab (as well as great source for everything else music tech): http://www.soundtree.com Check out their latest via the RSS tag in the left sidebar.

INFUSING MUS Across The Curriculum

Infusing Mus Across The Curriculum – The Dream Keeper Project

The immersion of digital tools in the learning landscape becomes even more powerful when integrated with acoustic or performance instruction and learning in rigorous and relevant collaborative music classroom projects that span multiple content areas. It’s imperative that music educators merge the mix of digital instructional tools (MIDI , digital audio, CAI, etc.), acoustic performance venues, and communication/collaboration genres (weblogs and social media) along with “across the curriculum” instruction to address the connective, collaborative, and abundant information nature of 21st Century Learning. Below is a project example that directly and comprehensively targets language arts, social studies, and the related arts (music, art, dance) content area standards.

Project Description:

In an upcoming project entitled, The Dream Keeper (in conjunction with Dr. Martin Luther King Day on January 17), the Haley Elementary School Fifth Grade students will access, engage, and creatively interact with the following Wordle word cloud created from the words of three jazz poems by Langston Hughes, The Dream Keeper, Dreams, and Dream Dust from the book, The Dream Keeper and Other Poems (Langston Hughes, illustrated by Brian Pinkney, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, (The Estate of Langston Hughes), 1994) as they perform and record canonic readings of Langston Hughes jazz poetry (from The Dream Keeper), sing 3 Dream Ostinatos, improvise a jazz accompaniment using Orff instruments and unpitched percussion, then, perform these elements in ABACADA rondo form. They will write about their own dreams and aspirations by answering leading questions as posted comments using the Haley Musicbloggers Weblog (as partners, in the Haley Music Technology Lab). They will create Dream Cloud visuals of their writings (posted comments in the Haley Musicbloggers Weblog). They will create their own notated jazz Dream Keeper compositions (using a teacher created Finale template). They will communicate a performance, which includes all elements (including readings of their blog posts) of the project both during an all-school assembly and in a videoconference collaborating with students from a partner school. Students will storyboard and videotape the presentation using Flip video cameras, edit the video in iMovie, then, post the edited video of the presentation is posted to SchoolTube.

Students collaborate in varying creative roles in the completion of the project: Readers (poetry), Singers (Ostinatos), Writers (weblog), Researchers (Langston Hughes) Players (Orff instruments, improvisation, unpitched percussion), Dancers (“dreamers” dance improvisations), Artists (Scratch “Dream Clouds”), Composers (notated jazz improvisations), Conductor, Technicians (Smart Board files, music technology workstations,Tandberg Machine), Videographers. They review the criteria included in the Music Project Collaboration Rubric and utilize the Music Project Collaboration Checklist as they collaborate as “Music Buddies” in varying roles in the completion of the project.

You can access The Dream Keeper Project resources on the Infusing Mus Across The Curriculum page at the MUSINGS WIKI .

More Thoughts About Infusing Mus Across The Curriculum . . .

1. IT’S ALL ABOUT STUDENTS ”MAKING CONNECTIONS”, from their own experiences, from “across the curriculum”, from us as educators, and from one another. Projects automatically become RELEVANT when students make connections.
2. IT’S ALL ABOUT STUDENTS WRITING ABOUT (JOURNALING) ABOUT THEIR EDUCATIONAL EXPERIENCES EVEN IN MUSIC CLASS.
3. IT’S ALL ABOUT COLLABORATION. You know, 21ST CENTURY LEARNING, WEB 3.0.
4. It’s important that ”across the curriculum” projects ADDRESS VARYING LEARNING STYLES AND ENTRY LEVELS. Differentiate by assigning different roles.
5. “Across the curriculum” project activities need to GO DEEP into core curriculum content areas knowledge and skills.
6. Students need SCAFFOLDS, PROCESS GUIDES, and ANCHOR CHARTS for effective learning in ”across the curriculum” projects.
7. Organize ”across the curriculum” projects so that they SPIRAL DEEP into standards, and PLAN FOR CONSECUTIVE PROJECTS TO SPIRAL ONE INTO THE OTHER IN ADDRESSING STANDARDS.
8. INFUSE “ACROSS THE CURRICULUM” PROJECTS WITH CLASSROOM, MUSIC TECH, AND ”REAL WORLD” TECHNOLOGY TOOLS! AUTOMATIC RELEVANCY FOR STUDENTS.
9. IMMERSION IS IMPERATIVE! Immerse the students in multi-faceted “across the curriculum” projects. THINK IN CONCENTRIC CIRCLES when planning and developing ”across the curriculum projects, not in lists. Give projects SCOPE.
10. STORYBOARD AND CONCEPT MAP ALL OVER THE PLACE BEFORE YOU PUT  “ACROSS THE CURRICULUM” PROJECTS INTO MOTION WITH THE STUDENTS. THERE REALLY ISN’T ANY TIME TO WASTE!

It’s About Infusion . . .

A myriad of web resources, unique, accessible, and information abundant genres for communicating and collaborating, evolved media tools, and emergent creative technologies are continually morphing a technology immersed learning landscape for music education. Today’s technology indigenous students have extremely sophisticated media palettes and are already utilizing urbane technologies to create and communicate. This native student interface demands that music educators infuse 21st Century Learning strategies with an array of purposefully selected innovative technology tools and resources, integrated with traditional acoustical tools and methodologies, to engage students in rigorous and relevant music lessons, projects, and activities.

 

Keyboards In The Infused Music Classroom

Substantiated best practices in education indicate that educators address students, learning styles to ensure efficient and effective learning.  Utilizing electronic keyboards as part of a strategically selected array of digital instruction tools can assist music educators in instruction of the most basic to the most challenging concepts and skills encountered by students in the music classroom.

A savvy music teacher can infuse a digital music composition toolkit that includes electronic keyboards and/or controllers to differentiate student instruction in a variety of projects in music class. As students utilize keyboards and tool palettes in notation and sequencing software applications in order create music compositions, they interface a wide array of musical concepts and skills in rhythm, harmony, melody, form, texture, and tone color–the entire music recipe. As they enthusiastically engage in creating their music compositions, they covertly master music concepts and skills infused in this compelling digital environment.

The immersion of keyboards in the learning landscape becomes even more powerful when integrated with acoustic or performance instruction and learning (Orff instrument ensemble African drum circle, band and orchestra, choir, and yes, good ole acoustic piano instruction) in rigorous and relevant collaborative music classroom lessons, projects, and activities. Best practice now dictates that music educators merge the mix of digital instructional tools (MIDI , digital audio, CAI, etc.), acoustic performance venues, and communication/collaboration genres (weblogs and social media) to facilitate comprehensive music instruction.

You can access a brief discussion of some recent projects from my music classroom in an article entitled, Making the Most of Keyboards, by Chad Criswell, in the August 2010 issue of MENC’s, Teaching Music (sorry, article not available online at MENC web site).