Franklin Music

2011 2012 Highlights

Eleven Franklin music ensembles performed at the MICCA Festival and all received medals. The Combined Middle School Orchestra and the Repertory Orchestra both received gold medals! 13 Franklin High School and 26 middle school students were accepted into the Central District Junior and Senior Music Festivals 3 Franklin High School students were accepted into the All State Music Festival The Franklin Tri-M Music Honor Society, which is in its third year inducted thirty-five new students this fall The Franklin High School Jazz Band received a silver medal at the MAJE district jazz festival

2011-2012 Musical Performances

FHS Pep band performed at Panther Pride Night and all of the FHS home football games as well as at the Thanksgiving Day game Over forty elementary, middle and high school musical concerts FHS Vocal group, the Sophisticated Seven performed at the Veterans Day breakfast in November and they will also perform at the Senior Center for the Memorial Day ceremony Over one hundred middle and high school students performed in the Music Departments annual Concert Hour recitals at Dean College on February 7th & 9th Middle School musical, The Wiz and the high school musical Grease had a full house for both the Friday and Saturday night performances All Town Band Concert May 3rd

Additional Musical Experiences

JFK, Parmenter & Oak Street students will go to Providence to perform in an interactive concert with the Rhode Island Philharmonic April 28th 29th 100 Franklin High students will travel to NYC for the weekend . All students will either go to the Metropolitan Opera to see La Traviata or to the musical Mary Poppins May 12th 50 middle school choral students will travel to NYC to see the Lion King June 1st 55 middle school string students will be going to hear the Boston Pops at Symphony Hall

2011-2012 Franklin Arts Academy

Mike Peacock is teaching the music component in the FAA. He is responsible for the music integration into the core academics The ELA/SS classes are studying the 1920s & 1930s. Students are writing short stories that they will develop into a radio show of this time period Science/Math focus will be on wavelengths and the integrated project will allow students to continue their analysis of the acoustics in the FHS lecture hall

Sound Recording & Sound in the Hall Radio Station

Grants from the FEF, the Harper Family Foundation and Franklin Music Boosters enabled us to purchase recording equipment so that we were able to offer a Sound Recording II class at FHS and next year we are going to offer Sound Recording III As a result of increased student interest in this area Mike Peacock began a student run radio station, Sound in the Hall Radio Sound in the Halls sports talk show, Sports Blast is broadcast by INDIE 104 iradiola in Los Angeles. This year the students have a new Indie Outbreak show. These shows can be heard through a link through Sound in the Hall.com or through iradiola.com

Music Department Professional Development

1st Day Denise Guilbault, Chairman of the Rhode Island College Music Department Specialist in the Gordon Learning Theory 2nd Day School site visits each teacher was able to visit another district to observe a specialist in their own area. Brought back ideas to share with our department LSDO Workshop & All State Music Conference Half Days Elementary staff revising 4th & 5th grade curriculum to include a choral unit Secondary school staff worked on developing a music department smart goals

Changes & Additions 2011 2012

4th & 5th grade chorus across the district Kennedy, Oak Street and Parmenter students are traveling to Providence to perform in an interactive concert with the Rhode Island Philharmonic. Students will be playing recorders along with the Rhode Island Philharmonic All Town Band concert for all band students in grades six through twelve

Franklin Music Boosters

Group of middle and high school parents who meet once a month Fundraisers include the annual AD Book, Panera, Five Guys, Unos, Yankee Candle These fundraisers support:
scholarships for graduating seniors private lesson scholarships guest artists and clinicians instruments purchases commissioned work projects

Electronic newsletter

Packets & Articles

2011 2012 Music Department Calendar and Music Booster Ad Book Students who were accepted into the district and all state music festivals Programs from our Department Concert Hour recitals at Dean College and Jazz Cafe Articles: Stem to Steam Music Improves Brain Function Arts Involvement Narrows Student Achievement Gap

New Research Studying Music and the Brain

Earlier studies indicate students with music training out perform non-musical peers on spatial temporal reasoning, auditory discrimination and finger dexterity Newer research is showing that young musicians also are outperforming their peers on verbal ability and visual pattern completion Musical training appears to modify the brains auditory cortex improving brain function One two years of training leads to enhanced levels of memory and attention Findings suggest music intervention that strengthens the basic auditory music perception skills of dyslexic children may also help to remediate some of their language deficits

Next Steps
New Electives for Franklin High School Sound Recording III Contemporary Issues in Music & Art Piano Class Guitar Class Exciting possibilities for the music classrooms and recording studio in the new high school!!! Questions