Musical Pathways

Grades 9-12
Journee Smith
Course Description:
This course is focused on learning about the different paths that students can take
towards fostering a meaningful relationship with music in the community. A few activities
involved will be venturing into local community bands, songwriting, interviewing local artists,
participating in creating a music event and much more. This class is meant to develop more
connections within culture by using the many different pathways that music provides as a
medium.

Rationale/Need for this Course:

This course is for students who are interested in exploring the many different types of
musical pathways that are available to them in society. A few examples of the variety of music
that is available to people in society today are through the radio (like NPR), filmography
(soundtracks), spotify/itunes/soundcloud, live music (community bands), music therapy, social
justice and music, songwriting/producing, music management in the industry, etc. It is viable
within music education for students to be aware of all of the options they have to have an impact
in society using music as their medium. Contemporary music coexists within culture and this has
an effect on people who live in that culture. Because a majority of contemporary music is
celebrated in a participatory manner, this course will be taught using a lot of participatory
culture. The course, Musical Pathways, is important for students to have because it teaches
how contemporary culture affects society and provides students with a variety of options to
pursue music.
Musical Pathways provides students a well-rounded music education by teaching more
than western classical music, but also music that exists within contemporary society.
Contemporary music has an effect on people emotionally, socially and culturally. This is
essential because “for many people existing simultaneously in a local, regional and a global
cultural post-industrial context, music permeates and shapes everyday experiences” (Bloustien,
Peters, Luckman, 2016). An example of how music is used to affect the emotions of people is
through advertising. Rock music has associations with freedom, rebellion, youthful exuberance,
etc. In order to evoke these emotions in products, such as Coca Cola or jeans, advertisements
has used rock music to their advantage (Bloustien, Peters, Luckman, 2016). This is one of the
many examples that music is used to impact the listeners. For students to possess this
knowledge will help them to have keener ears towards the music that they choose to identify
with and the music that they choose to bring to their society.
Contemporary music has been the minority in school music education, although it is a
huge contributor to society. Students need to have this awareness that they have other options
to pursue music other than western classical music. Having a variety of choices for students
helps to nurture a lifelong love of music making. “Being creative...is an imperative for developing
skills ready for the creative industries” (Minors, Burnard, Wiffen, Shihabi, Walt, 2017). It is
essential to stay updated for students so that their music education is “preparing musicians to
enter varied types of careers, alongside examples that advocate for equality, diversity and
inclusion” (Minors, Burnard, Wiffen, Shihabi, Walt, 2017). This updatedness will help students to
contribute to society in a meaningfulness and impactful way.
 Participatory culture is the medium that will be used for students to learn the diverse
accessibilities to music. Participatory culture is “a public desire to participate within, rather than
simply consume media” (Tobias, 2016). In order for a student to be fully immersed within the
culture of the music they are studying or the medium through which they are studying the music,
they must be able to not only observe, but participate. This will enhance their experience with
the music as they are completely involved in the music, not observing from the outside. This will
boost their efforts in being able to connect with the music and develop a lasting impact. They
will have the opportunity to develop their own personal evidence of the impact that different
musical pathways has had on them. This is further proved by the statement, “Educators must
work together to ensure that every American young person has access to the skills and
experiences needed to become a full participant” (Jenkins, Clinton, Purushotma, Robinson,
Weigel).
Because students are living within contemporary music, it is more important now than
ever that the different pathways are being taught in music education. As a growing society,
music education must also be able to grow with students. This does not mean forgetting about
the past, but it means adding on to the present. The course Musical Pathways will help to
infiltrate not only a lifelong love of music making but also help students to learn how to impact
their own society in a meaningful way.

Expected impact on students:

The students will be able to see and discuss the role of music in society. They will be
able to investigate their music and do research on it. The students will be able to evaluate and
critique music by explaining the context of a musical work and its influences. They will also know
the influences of media and music as well as how the interconnect with each other. They will
know how to listen to a piece of music and analyze the meaning and depth behind it by asking
questions as to why the artist made certain musical choices. They will also have the opportunity
to explore all of the musical pathways that are available to them. This impact will help give the
students all of the options they need in order to infiltrate a lifelong love and continuation of
music in the community and society.

Expected Community Impact:

The community plays a rather large part in shaping this course. For example, the
students will be immersing themselves within the community to see how music affects their own
society and culture. The community has already impacted the students in a certain way because
they live within it. The students will learn how to look into their own personal community and see
how it has affected them as well as how they can further affect the community.
 Project Outline:

Spreading the Music: Orchestrating a Music Festival for the Community

​ Throughout the semester, the students will learn about different musical pathways
that they can pursue. This music festival is a celebration of them choosing which
musical pathway to focus on. Whether it be music and film, music and dance, music on
the radio (such as npr, podcasts, spotify, itunes), songwriting and producing. When the
students have chosen which pathway they would like to pursue for this class, they will
focus on this specified path and hone into it for the music festival.The students will be
able to fully showcase what they have learned during the entire semester and show the
participants of the music festival what they learned. These days will be spread out in
increments of 3 days to 1 week. ​

Spreading the Music: Orchestrating a Music Festival for the Community 

Stage 1 Desired Results

Standards: Goals:
HG.7 The student will investigate the role of I can understand the role of music in society.
music in society by 1. comparing and
contrasting the development of music in I can have engaging conversations about the development of music
diverse cultures throughout history; 2.
in diverse cultures.
examining various opportunities to
experience music in the community; and 3.
describing the role of technology and social I can seek opportunities available to me in the community.
media in the development of music.
I can use technology and social media to guide me through music.
HIB.20 The student will analyze and
evaluate music by 1. describing the I can discuss a composer’s use of style, cultural influences, and
importance of composers’ use of style, historical context.
cultural influences, and historical context for
the interpretation of works of music; 2.
I can use inquiry skills and music terminology to converse about
describing and interpreting works of music,
using inquiry skills and music terminology;
works of music.
3. describing accepted criteria used for
evaluating works of music; 4. describing I can adequately assess myself and others on musical performances
performances of music, using music in order to make improvements for future performances.
terminology; and 5. describing accepted
criteria used for critiquing musical
performances of self and others

Generative (Essential) Questions:

What effects does music have on a community?

How can music have a lasting impact on society?

How does social media and music intertwine?

Stage 2 - Evidence 

The students will be provided with guided questions to think about when providing feedback for the students. This
will help them to adequately assess not only others but also themselves.
The promotion team will have the opportunity to use social media to promote the music event.
The individual research will be guided so the students are able to access every opportunity available to them in the
community.
When answering questions for views about the student’s musical artwork, they will be able to articulate their own
reasoning behind making certain musical choices.

Stage 3 – Learning Plan 

- Day 1: Making the Decision.

-
- The class has had the opportunity to explore different types of music in the media and we have
had discussions of musical choices. The students will be able to choose between music within
film, dance, radio, and songwriting and producing. Dependent on the size of class is the size of
the groups that people can be in if they choose. On this day, the students will present to me which
pathway they would like to focus on for the music festival.
- This presentation will be more like a conversation between teacher and student. The
students will brainstorm with me different ideas of what they want to do for the music festival
within one of these genres. The student can focus on one of the genres or they can also
incorporate more than one within their project.
- The students will also be put on different teams for organizing and planning the event.
-
- Day 2: Getting the Creative Juices Flowing
- The students will begin working on their own independent projects. I will be walking around the
classroom facilitating anything that the students would like/might need help with.
- Promotion Team: They will begin brainstorming how to promote the event.
- Event Planners: They will plan the time of the event and do research of the venue (most likely be
the high school).
-
- Day 3: Continue the Project
- Students will continue their research and brainstorming.
- Promotion Team: They will separate jobs within to promote on social media and around school.
They will start making posters to go on display.
- Event Planners: They will organize how the event will occur. Like any music festival, there will be
different areas within the venue that the students will have to perform in. The event planners will
 figure out which areas within the high school are good for crowds of people to see where the
event is happening.
-
- Day 4: Project Idea Sharing
- For this day, the class will have an open discussion where the students can share their ideas and
receive feedback from their peers on what was strong and what could make it stronger. This will
help them to be able to fully solidify their ideas.
- Promotion People: They will have the poster event completed.
- Event Planners: They will organize the order of the event and determine who will be in what
rooms at different times.
-
- Day 5: Continuation of the Project
- The students will solidify their project. They should be almost halfway done with molding it
into what they want.
- Promotion People: They will have all social media promotion online as well as posters on
display in the school. They will handout flyers to the class to give out to students.
- Event Planners: They will open the event up to the class and runthrough what will be
happening during the event.
-
- Day 6: Almost Finished
- The student will be about 2/3rds complete with their project.
-
- Day 7: Solidification
- The students will be finished with their project.
- Promotion People: They will meet up and make sure that people are going to the event.
- Event Planners: They will reiterate what they will be doing with the students.
-
- Day 8: Class Sharing
- On this day, the students will share with the class what they have prepared for the music
festival. The class will give feedback on what was strong and what will make it stronger. This
class is focused on getting the students prepared to share the project with students outside of the
classroom and within the community.
- Promotion People: They will repromote because the event is coming up even nearer.
- Event Planners: They will make sure that the set is being run through in order.
-
-
- Day 9: Preparation
- The students will be putting together last minute preparations for the music festival,
whether this be meeting up with their organization teams or making sure they have all of the right
equipment for the day of their performance.
-
- Day 10: Music Festival
 - The students will put on a music festival in order to express the choices that they made for
their own personal musical pathways. The students will be able to put their creations on display
and then have an open question and answer conversation with the viewers about what they
learned from this event as well as the impact that music has on a community.

Proposed Budget 

Item Name   Use   Cost  Quantity Overall Cost

(linked to provider)  (How will this be used by students/teacher?)  (per unit) 

Jasmine S35 This will be used for the students to begin $100.50 4 $402
Acoustic songwriting.
Guitar, Natural

Gammon This will be used for the students to begin $259.95 1 $259.95
Percussion songwriting.
Full Size
Complete
Adult 5 Piece
Drum Set with
Cymbals
Stands Stool
and Sticks,
Black

Casio This will be used for the students to begin $129.99 2 $259.98
CTK-2550 songwriting.
PPK 61-Key
Premium
Keyboard
Pack with
Stand,
Headphones
& Power
Supply

Peavey Audio This is for performing the music. $369.99 2 $739.98

Performer
Pack
Goplus This will be used for the students to begin $81.88 2 163.76
Electric Bass songwriting.
Guitar Full
Size 4 String
with Strap
Guitar Bag
Amp Cord
(Blue)

This is for students to learn how to record music. $264.99 1 $264.99

Presonus
AudioBox
iTwo Studio
with HD7
Headphones,
M7 Mic, S1
Artist, Pop
Filter, and Mic
Stand

Canon EOS This is for students who are interested in film and $389.99 1 $389.99
T6 / 1300D music for recording.
with EF-S
18-55mm
18.7MP CMOS
5184 x 3456
Pixels (Black)
+ 32GB SD
Card + PRIME
SELLER
Camera
Cleaning
Cloth

Total Cost 2,480.64

Grant Funding: 
The Mockingbird Foundation. They are funded by many individuals and corporations who have
provided tax-deductible donations to support their efforts in funding music education.

http://mbird.org/funding/guidelines/
These are the requirements:

Grants are typically made only to nonprofit organizations with tax-exempt status under section
501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Service code, or who have a sponsoring agency with this
status. Organizations selected to submit a full proposal will be required to submit documentation
of their status as a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt institution or as a public school. Public schools are
tax-exempt and thus eligible for funding, although school-based grantees cannot be
independent of the school, must take place at the school, and must be supervised by the
applicable municipality. Mockingbird does not normally consider grants to individuals or to fund
research, fundraising organizations or events, programs that promote or engage in religious or
political doctrine, or organizations outside the United States. It is hoped that nonprofit
organizations who apply for support are operated and organized without discrimination in hiring
staff or providing services on the basis of race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, age, national
origin or disability.

This grant particularly works well with this course proposal because it is focused around
innovative ways and approaches to music. This course proposal is about exploring
contemporary music with students and seeing how this has impacted society and others.

Reference List

Albert, D. J. (2015). Social Media in Music Education. ​Extending Learning to Where Students
"Live",​31-38. Retrieved May 1, 2018.

Allsup, R. E., & Shieh, E. (2012). Social Justice and Music Education. ​The Call for Public
Pedagogy,​47-51. Retrieved May 1, 2018.

Allsup, R. E. (2016). ​Remixing the classroom: Toward an open philosophy of music education​.
Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press.

Bloustien, G., Peters, M., & Luckman, S. (2017). ​Sonic Synergies: Music, Technology,
Community, Identity​. New York, NY: Routledge.

Dewan, S., & Ramaprasad, J. (2014). Social Media, Traditional Media, and Music Sales
[Abstract]. ​Mis Quarterly,38​(1), 101-121. Retrieved May 2, 2018.

Grant Cos (2018) Consuming music in the digital age: technologies, roles and everyday life,
Consumption Markets & Culture, 21:1, 99-101, DOI: 10.1080/10253866.2016.1147147

Jenkins, H., Purushotma, R., Weigel, M., Clinton, K., & Robison, A. J. (2009). ​Confronting the
Challenges of Participatory Culture​. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Massachusetts Institute
of Technology.
Minors, H. J., Burnard, P., Wiffen, C., Shihabi, Z., & Walt, J. (2017). Mapping trends and
framing issues in higher music education: Changing minds/changing practices. ​London
Review of Education,15​(5), 457-473. Retrieved May 1, 2018.

Shepherd, J. (2017). ​Whose Music?​Retrieved May 1, 2018.

Tobias, E. S. (2016). Toward Convergence. ​Adapting Music Education to Contemporary Society

and Participatory Culture,​29-36. Retrieved May 1, 2018.