As many readers know – ABC world news tonight broadcasted a story on the use of American Idol in the music Classroom recently that included me and many of my 5th-7th grade general music students. In this post I want to provide some background information on why I chose to use the show in my classroom, how I use it, why I participated in the news story and my reflections on the entire experience. I also just found out about this recent development at ABC which may give one another way of looking at the story.
Before being asked to be part of the story I had responsed to a survey on the use of American Idol in the music classroom by the National Association for Music Education. Please read my reply to the questions.
After I answered the questions in the survey I read an article about American Idol and music education in the Christian Science Monitor. I did not feel the article gave an accurate representation of the majority of music educators feel about the show. I also did not feel that the thesis of the article was accurate but I have no emperical evidence of this. The article did not represent any of the ways I use the show in my classroom or perspectives on the show itself.
Previously in this blog I outlined some of the ways I have used the show as a teaching tool in the classroom.
After the story was broadcasted, I posted a brief description of some of what was shown.
After coming across an interesting blog post and the comments made by other people that critiqued the use of the show in the music classroom, I realized that there are probably many people with the same reaction. The clip being a little over two minues long does give a very accurate picture of how I use this show in my classroom, the philosophical, pedagogical and curricular foundations that I based my decision on to use the show as a teaching tool or the actual results of using the show in the classroom. I had absolutely no control of how the approximately 2 hours of footage plus 30 minute interview taken at my school were edited and presented on ABC. While my original response to the survey and outline give a better sense of what actually happens in my classroom and what I believe in, here are just a few more points:
– The use of aspects popular culture in the classroom is a deliberate choice I make for a variety of reasons. I think it is very important for the material we use in the classroom to be relevant to the lives of our students and I think we should provide our students with many ways of interacting with their world. The approaches I use when dealing with popular culture draw upon aspects of a critical media literacy and critical media pedagogy. They are aspects of cultural studies and critical pedagogy. There are many resources on these topics on the web if you are interested. Having my students read and discuss a New York Times Article about the music industry perspective on the show and then explore who owns what in the media industry are elements of these pedagogies.
– The number of teachers mentioned in the broadcast that use the show in the classroom is somewhat misleading in the way it was presented. A quote from the transcript is “In a recent survey done by the National Association for Music Education, 80 percent of music teachers said they are using the nation’s number-one TV show to teach.
Well that clears it up! The ABC story horrifyingly made it appear that American Idol has something to do with music, the art, when in fact it has to do with music, the business. Children do need to learn the difference.
Great job!
Well done. Listening is such an important part of music education. As a string teacher it is a strong component in my lessons. More often than not students don’t know what to listen for or for that matter why they need to. With all the examples available for teachers to use, I would have not looked at this T.V. show as one of them.
Using this show was well thought out. Like any teaching tool used by teachers today, one must stop and think through how effective it will be. It appears to be working. Not only are your students commenting on the performers, but on the judges as well. They also appear to getting a sense of the “reality”
It’s reassuring to know that “American Idol” is being used in the music classroom as a teaching tool. Like you, we use the critique process on Idol as examples of what to do and what not to do when evaluating student performances and compositions in peer settings. Used in this setting, students are supportive of their classmates creating an environment that is conducive to learning and exploring the many ways in which music can be created and performed.
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I too have used the Idol in my MS general music classes and in my choir. I am hesitant to speak of it very much because of some of the responses that you got on the News (?) article.
It is appalling how every time that I am involved in some way to know the facts about a news story that it is always so grossly misrepresented. Somewhat like the critiques on Idol.
I am happy to say that all of my choir and most of my GM classes knew that it had nothing to do with music as an art and what is correct. It is only about how to sell and promote a very well conceived money making marketing scheme.
We do critical listening as a part of the MS curriculum and some of the students don’t have a clue, but I was surprised at how many were confused by what they heard on Idol and what we talk about in class. If any gave the type of responses that idol used, they would receive a comment saying “Inappropriate comment. Does not give accurate reasons for the evaluation. Explain why you liked or disliked in musical terms, be specific.”
When I listen to Idol comments, it brings me back to American Bandstand: “It had a good beat, I give it an 8.” except that that is more descriptive than some of the idol comments. The most irritating thing about their comments is that occasionally they slip up and give an accurate comment or two so you know that Simon and Randy know better, but they just lie about it to try to promote what they think will sell better. It has nothing to do with the truth of the singing.
Sorry to go off, but the deception is not good for music education. Truth is what we need. I applaud you for seeing the possibilities here and seized the opportunity to help enlighten your students to the truth.
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