Christian Educators Journal October 2024 Vol. 64 No. 1
Music Storytelling at Rehoboth Christian School Let Music Be Music Teaching John Lennon in a Christian School Using Music to Build Early Literacy Skills The Middle C of Teaching Music Singing with Jesus Creating Beauty through Music Music in the Elementary Classroom
Contents
3 Editorial 4 Storytelling Concerts
at Rehoboth Christian School DAN MEESTER
8 Let Music Be Music: An Educator’s Journey CHRIS STEENHOF
13 “We’re More Popular Than Jesus”:
Teaching John Lennon’s Body of Work in a Christian School ANTHONY BIGORNIA
18 Sound Foundations: Using Music to Build Early Literacy Skills SAMANTHA CAESAR
24 The Middle C of Teaching Music REBECCA VISSER
29 Singing with Jesus: Embracing an
Ancient Musical Form of Psalm-Singing in the Classroom KEN MICHELL
33 Restoring God’s World by
Creating Beauty through Music DARRYL DEBOER, CARI LOCKEN, AND EMMELINE MAHON
39 Integrating Music into the
Elementary Classroom Culture SUSAN DYKSHOORN
Christian Educators Journal
October 2024
1
Christian Educators Journal Vol. 64 No. 1, October 2024 cejonline.com Editor Abby Zwart cejeditor@gmail.com The Christian Educators Journal (CEJ) encourages letters to the editor in response to articles presented in the CEJ. Letters must be accompanied by the author’s name and email address. The CEJ reserves the right to edit letters for length and clarity. Where a letter addresses issues raised by the author of an article, the CEJ reserves the right to invite the article author to respond to the letter. Subscriptions Klaas Wolterstorff 2474 Westboro Dr NE Grand Rapids, MI 49506 business@cejonline.com Subscription Price (US dollars) US: $25.00 (one year, print) Canada: $30.00 (one year, print) Digital: $25.00 (one year) Beginning September 2021, all subscriptions outside the US and Canada are digital only. Please visit www.cejonline for subscription information. US Postal Information Nonprofit Organization Postage paid in Grand Rapids, MI Permit No. 657 Return postage guaranteed to: Christian Educators Journal 2474 Westboro Dr NE Grand Rapids, MI 49506 Address Correction Requested Canadian Postal Information Registered under Publications Mail Agreement: No. 40022165 at Norwich, ON Return postage guaranteed to: Christian Educators Journal PO Box 39 Norwich, ON N0J 1P0 Indexed in Christian Periodicals Index Copyrighted 2000 CEJ. All rights reserved. Christian Educators Journal (130630) is published quarterly by Christian Educators Journal Association. Scripture All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com
Statement of Purpose The Christian Educators Journal Association publishes the Journal as a channel of communication for all educators committed to the idea of Christian day school at the elementary, secondary, and college levels. The views expressed are those of the writers and not necessarily those of the association. Reprint Policy We allow free reprinting or photocopying of individual articles that have appeared in our journal, as long as the copied articles are used within the context of schooling and the source is acknowledged. Editor Abby Zwart Copyeditor Bethany Murphy Design Editor Klaas Wolterstorff Business Manager Klaas Wolterstorff Web Shepherd Heather Altena Board of Trustees Dr. Henry Algera Heather Birch Justin Cook Sara Leo Albert Kok (Chair) Gayle Monsma Ed Noot Jim Rooks Sean Schat Christine Scholma (Secretary) Tricia Stobbe Edith van der Boom Heather VanDyke Christine Webb Supporting Institutions Calvin University Edvance Christian Schools Association The King’s University Redeemer University Trinity Christian College Tyndale University Subscribing Organizations Christian Educators Association Christian Educators of British Columbia Prairie Centre for Christian Education Printed back issues (if available) can be purchased for $7.50 per copy (cost of shipping to be added to total). Some back issues may be available in digital format.
Editorial
N
ostalgia. A mood boost. Cultural identity. Expression of faith. Indicator of age. Hint at personality. Connection to friends and family. Workout motivation. What if I told you there was one secret ingredient that could provide all these services and more? Impossible, right? You’d pay the big bucks if you could have it, right? What if I told you this thing can actually be found in your pocket right now? Okay, okay—I’ll cut the corny salesperson schtick. The secret ingredient is music, and it’s the topic of this month’s issue. Whether you’ve been singing in the church choir since grade school or you can’t carry a tune in a bucket, it’s likely that music plays an important role in your life. We pick songs for big things like getting married or buried, professing our faith, or dedicating a child. We pick songs for smaller things like road trips, kitchen dance parties, or post-breakup wallow fests. We also pick songs for our schools. A peppy pop beat can add energy to a sleepy class. A 1930s playlist can transport history scholars to a different era. Playing five seconds of a Taylor Swift song will elicit immediate cheers from half your students and eye rolls from the rest. Lyrics can be studied as poetry. A powerful worship song while the lights are dimmed can create an atmosphere where students are open to new ideas about God. And of course, some of us are tasked with teaching students how to create their own music. In this issue, you’ll find stories about and strategies for incorporating music into your practice as a Christian teacher. How can we use music performances to further God’s kingdom? Can music really help us learn to read? What role can Scripture’s music—the Psalms—play in our twenty-first century classrooms? So queue up your favorite playlist and dive into this issue full of strategies, personal reflections, and some really good songs. I’ll start you off with a selection of five songs I often use in my high school creative writing class. I play a song at the beginning of each period, projecting the lyrics on the board and asking students to free write for the length of the song. What lyrics stick out? What instruments do they hear? Where would they choose to play this song? How does the song make them feel? What if the song is about God? Abby’s Creative Writing Playlist 1. “Call Me Al” by Paul Simon 2. “Godspeed” by Frank Ocean 3. “Dreams” by The Cranberries
4. “Rise” by Eddie Vedder 5. “Cool About It” by boygenius — Abby Zwart
Christian Educators Journal
October 2024
3
Storytelling Concerts at Rehoboth Christian School DAN MEESTER
W
Just as God is the Creator, we too are creators—of poetry, art, architecture, dance, and music.
hen Karl Paulnack addressed the parents of the incoming freshman class at Boston Conservatory in 2003, he shared some profound thoughts about the power and purpose of music: “Music is one of the ways we make sense of our lives, one of the ways in which we express feelings when we have no words, a way for us to understand things with our hearts when we can’t with our minds” (2). While this may be true of many of the arts in general, music does find a way into our souls with uncanny speed and accuracy—even if we don’t consider ourselves “musical.” At Rehoboth Christian School, we believe the reason for that connection is the image of God that we bear as people. His characteristics and qualities are woven into the fabric of what it means for us to be human, and just as God is the Creator, we too are creators—of poetry, art, architecture, dance, and music. Therefore, when we see the joy on the faces of performers or feel meaning stirring in our souls, it’s because in those very moments, we are living out exactly who we were made to be. And that’s glorious. Spend any amount of time on Dinétah (the Navajo Nation) or Halona: Idiwan’a (the Zuni Pueblo), and you’ll soon learn the power and ubiquitous presence of music in the lives of the indigenous peoples of the American Southwest. These are the students that Rehoboth serves, so it makes sense for music to feature prominently in their educational experiences. Of course, that includes learning about half notes and eighth notes, about treble clefs and bass clefs, about musical dynamics and proper breathing techniques—but from an even larger perspective, it’s about teaching students what it means to be fully human in the way that Paulnack describes.
Choir and Curriculum
Bob Ippel realized that concerts contained opportunities for something more participatory and experiential for the audiences.
Today’s educational best practices see many schools featuring student work in some public display or evening event that invites a wider audience to experience what children have learned, but for band and choir directors, this has been baked into their teaching all along. Young musicians perform multiple concerts each year for eager parents, grandparents, siblings, and the larger school community; in those times, the work of the teacher and students is on full display. When he first came to Rehoboth thirty years ago, Bob Ippel realized that concerts contained opportunities for something more participatory and experiential for the audiences. “It just made so much sense to connect to the thematic units we were studying in the middle school,” says Ippel, who was teaching English at the time. “Whether it was 4
October 2024
Christian Educators Journal
Where Do We Go from Here? Although its demographics make Rehoboth unique as far as Christian schools go, the opportunity to connect musical performances with course content or use concerts to tell the story of school and student identity is not unique. Well over one hundred schools now use Teaching for Transformation as an approach to integrating faith and learning. That system comes chock full of Deep Hopes and Storylines for individual teachers and their classrooms. Whole schools are challenged to create ten “throughlines” that weave their way through the curriculum at every turn. Each of those elements is brimming with connection points to exciting stories that will bring the gospel to life and challenge students and educators to pour themselves into their work with passion. You have a story about why you are a teacher, and your school has a narrative about why it does its work. What would be the swelling background score playing as you told those stories? What music connects and pierces the heart, begging to be experienced alongside the knowledge, values, and actions you seek to see your community embody? Tackling these questions can breathe new life into the way your school engages music. Toward the end of that speech to those Boston Conservatory freshman parents, Karl Paulnack captured the importance of musical education. If we were a medical school, and you were here as a med student practicing appendectomies, you’d take your work very seriously because you would imagine that some night at 2 a.m., someone is going to waltz into your emergency room, and you’re going to have to save their life. Well, my friends, someday at 8 p.m., someone is going to walk into your concert hall and bring you a mind that is confused, a heart that is overwhelmed, a soul that is weary. Whether they go out whole again will depend partly on how well you do your craft. (4)
Let us all dedicate ourselves to telling the stories that will serve our souls!
Work Cited Paulnack, Karl. “Welcome Address Given to Freshman Parents at Boston Conservatory.” Boston College, August 28, 2003, www.bc.edu/content/ dam/files/centers/boisi/pdf/s091/Welcome_address_to_freshman_at_ Boston_Conservatory.pdf. Dan Meester is the executive director of Rehoboth Christian School in Gallup, New Mexico. His thirty years in Christian education have included teaching high school English and Bible, college counseling, and serving as an administrator in a variety of settings.
Christian Educators Journal
October 2024
7
You have a story about why you are a teacher, and your school has a narrative about why it does its work. What would be the swelling background score playing as you told those stories?
Let Music Be Music: An Educator’s Journey CHRIS STEENHOF
A Teacher’s Example
Through Mr. Weedmark’s careful instruction and obvious appreciation of music of all kinds, we were given a love of music and an understanding of its power and influence that has profoundly informed my life.
My love of music began rather unexpectedly in grade eight when I met Mr. Weedmark. I entered his classroom with much trepidation after a disastrous experience in grade seven, mainly due to an overly intimidating teacher who had caused me to shrink into a self-conscious shell. I noticed right away that this teacher was different. From the very first day of class, Mr. Weedmark introduced us to the power of music and story, informing us that we would be engaging in a year-long study of La Traviata, an opera by Verdi, concluding with watching a professional performance at the Royal Alexander Theatre in Toronto. At first we were not impressed, but through Mr. Weedmark’s careful instruction and obvious appreciation of music of all kinds, we were given a love of music and an understanding of its power and influence that has profoundly informed my life, including my perspective and practices as a Christian educator, first as a teacher and then as a principal. While I came from an extremely musical family, Mr. Weedmark awakened in me a connection to music I had yet to experience in any meaningful way and has served as a source of inspiration for my lifelong journey exploring the world of music.
Let Music Be Music
Music integration has been shown to enhance positive school experiences for students at all levels, improve school culture, and positively impact student mental health.
Much has been written about music having a positive impact on both individual students and school culture. Research demonstrates that incorporating music into a school’s program has a significant impact on brain development, the ability to memorize, and the stimulation of creativity and imagination, among many other benefits (Ahmed). Music integration has been shown to enhance positive school experiences for students at all levels, improve school culture, and positively impact student mental health (Eerola and Eerola 98). However, reducing the rationale for studying music or integrating music into classrooms to simply utilitarian criteria does not do justice to the larger theological understanding of the role music plays as an integral part of God’s creation. In Christian schools, curricular and pedagogical choices should be guided by the centrality of God’s sovereignty over his creation and thus should inform our approach to music education. We sing folk songs, play various instruments, explore digital music, and listen to the harmonies and rhythms of Hamilton because music helps us fully experience God and his creation—all other benefits are secondary. 8
October 2024
Christian Educators Journal
• Jealous Guy (1971) • Imagine (1971) • Just Gimme Some Truth (1971) • Happy Xmas (War Is Over) (1972) • (Just Like) Starting Over (1988)
Works Cited Cleave, Maureen. “How Does a Beatle Live?” The London Standard, 4 Mar. 1966. johnlennon. “HAPPY XMAS (WAR IS OVER) (Ultimate Mix, 2020) John & Yoko Plastic Ono Band + Harlem Community Choir.” YouTube, 10 Aug. 2010, www.youtube.com/watch?v=yN4Uu0OlmTg. Lennon, John. The John Lennon Collection. Parlophone, 1982. Lennon, John. “John Lennon: The Last Interview.” Interview by Jonathan Cott. Rolling Stone, 23 Dec. 2010, www.rollingstone.com/feature/ john-lennon-the-last-interview-179443/. Lennon, John. “Playboy Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono.” Interview by David Sheff. Playboy Press, Sept. 1981. Magical Mystery Tour. Directed by The Beatles, performances by The Beatles, BBC1, 1967. Norman, Philipp. John Lennon: The Life. Harper Collins, 2009. Anthony is a teacher and the student life coordinator at White Rock Christian Academy in Surrey, BC, who currently teaches IB DP Language & Literature 11 and 12. Writing for the CEJ keeps him sharp as a teacher working in Christian education. When he is not teaching, he can be found playing lead electric guitar for church or spinning party tunes as a DJ for the occasional event. IG: @aye.bigs.
Christian Educators Journal
October 2024
17
Sound Foundations: Using Music to Build Early Literacy Skills SAMANTHA CAESAR
P
Phonemic awareness is an auditory skill and involves the ability to identify and manipulate individual sounds in spoken words.
Music can be an effective tool for teaching phono logical and phonemic awareness due to its inherent rhythms, melodies, and rhymes.
honological awareness, identified by the Early Literacy Panel (2008) as a predictor of later reading success, refers to a child’s ability to recognize and manipulate the different units of oral language. Children who develop phonological awareness during their early years are on the right path to becoming proficient readers. Being phonologically aware means that children understand the various components of spoken language, such as words, syllables, onsets, and rimes, and can playfully manipulate these components. This skill is crucial for building a strong foundation for early literacy development. Phonological awareness is an umbrella term that includes all units of spoken language. Included under this umbrella is phonemic awareness. Phonemic awareness is an auditory skill and involves the ability to identify and manipulate individual sounds in spoken words. Children must understand that a phoneme is the smallest unit of sound. The English language has approximately forty-four phonemes. Some words have one phoneme, while others have more than one. For example, the word we has two phonemes (/w/ /e/); sheep has three phonemes (/sh/ /ē/ /p/), and stop has four phonemes (/s/ /t/ /ŏ/ /p/). As part of phonemic awareness instruction, children are asked to work with phonemes in various capacities. This can include identifying phonemes, blending them to form words, segmenting words into phonemes, and deleting, adding, or substituting phonemes to make new words. Asking children to change the /m/ sound in the word mat to a /c/ sound is an example of substituting phonemes to make the new word cat. Instruction in phonological awareness can begin as early as pre- kindergarten and should continue through second grade. Students who are experiencing reading difficulties in later grades may benefit from instruction in this domain. For pre-K and kindergarten, instruction should primarily focus on developing phonological sensitivity (Brady, 2020). Phonological sensitivity includes the ability to recognize and manipulate larger units of spoken language. This lays a strong foundation for phonemic awareness. An ideal time to begin phonemic awareness instruction is the middle of Kindergarten (Brady). According to the National Reading Panel, phonemic awareness instruction should not exceed twenty hours over the course of the school year, with each lesson or session lasting no more than thirty minutes. Music can be an effective tool for teaching phonological and phonemic awareness due to its inherent rhythms, melodies, and rhymes. Songs with repetitive patterns and rhyming words help children recognize and predict structures of oral language. This helps young children as they begin to 18
October 2024
Christian Educators Journal
attachment in learning and developing. During recent professional development days, Hannah Beach (Neufeld Institute) reminded us that children and youth cannot learn unless they feel safe and comfortable with a leader. They learn best when they feel their teacher likes them, and adults need to “connect before we direct.” She emphasised that we must lead with direction and assertiveness and be willing and able to pivot at a moment’s notice. Therefore, in an effort to build relationships and connect with students, I try to plan highly choreographed music classes while always being ready to improvise. Through some of the following examples, I try to let students know they are loved, they are known, and each one is a child of God. Perhaps one of my questions or a knowing smile or graciously letting them out of “music jail” at the end of a game will help them to know and trust me as they get to experience the deep love and grace God has for them. (Students end up in jail when they get “out” during a music game and they go to the music carpet which has five lines like jail bars of the treble clef staff.) Students know the routines and rules in the music room. They also know it is a safe place to be creative and share their ideas. I strive to be one of the people in their village who cares about them, wants to know them, appreciates their gifts, and gives them age-appropriate boundaries so they can learn and grow. Music lends itself so beautifully to this as we sing together, make mistakes together, try new ideas, improvise on the Orff instruments, take turns listening and performing, and play games. The activities I select, as well as the ways I lead and respond to students, show a lot about who I am and what it is like to be a valued member of our music classroom. Following are some of the activities I use to build connections.
I try to let students know they are loved, they are known, and each one is a child of God.
Gathering Activities (Music Mascots) Routine is important for elementary students. At the beginning of every music class, students stay in their line up order and stand around the music carpets. I look into their eyes as they enter so each person feels seen, and then they have a turn (individually or as a group) to be heard. Connections. Beat Bear comes out only for kindergarten students. He doesn’t see very well, but he hears everything! His favourite activity is the Beat Bear game, which is how we start every class for the first term. Throughout the term, each student shows different ways to keep the beat and leads the activity. Beat Bear also whispers compliments in my ear during class and students are excited to see what he has to say to them. Melody is the grade 1 bumblebee. She can sing but doesn’t sting. When a student uses a singing voice to ask her a question, it is amazing what she can do: she can fly out the window, she can tickle your hand, and she can even write her name in handwriting on the chalkboard! If you ask Melody a question with a talking voice, however, she doesn’t respond. It is absolutely amazing how many reluctant singers emerge in grade 1 because they want to see what Melody can do. Her favorite song in term 1 is “Hickety-tickety bumblebee, can you sing your name for me?” BoBo loves it when students in grade 2 copy him. The inspiration for BoBo comes from Denise Gagne at MusicPlay.ca. BoBo has a big mouth that opens when he sings. He moves up and down to the contour of the melody. Christian Educators Journal
October 2024
25
It is absolutely amazing how many reluctant singers emerge in grade 1 because they want to see what Melody can do.
Melody, Beat Bear, and BoBo in the music room
He shows up with a warm scarf or an umbrella, depending on the weather. With grade 2 and 3 students, he sings four or eight beat questions and the students sing their answers. BoBo has had some cousins join him in the music room, and he has more accessories than he could ever wear since students love to bring gifts to add to his collection.
SQUILT (Super Quiet UnInterrupted Listening Time) Many of my students have programmed activities and lessons outside of school. Sadly, they do not have many opportunities for free play or being bored. One of the gifts I can give them is the opportunity to take a deep breath and quietly listen to music for three to five minutes. Students may sit or lie down, eyes open or closed, keep the beat silently, or conduct. They may not talk or touch others. Students daydream or tune in to a variety of new or familiar music. Our playlist includes carefully selected pieces from 26
October 2024
Christian Educators Journal
Restoring God’s World by Creating Beauty through Music DARRYL DEBOER, CARI LOCKEN, AND EMMELINE MAHON
A
s Surrey Christian School (SCS) spans grades pre-K–12 over multiple campuses with multiple music teachers, it has been an intentional journey to orient the music program toward a shared vision. Drawing on the practices of Teaching for Transformation (www.teachingfortransformation. org), the music teachers crafted a collective Deep Hope that provides both the launching point and destination for pre-K–12 music at SCS: It is our Deep Hope that the musicians of Surrey Christian School embody wonder, creativity, craftsmanship, and humility while sharing beauty through music and restoring God’s world. The Deep Hope clarifies, grounds, and shapes all students at each stage of K–12 music learning through Orff, Modern Band, Concert Band, Marimba Ensemble, Jazz Band, Choir, and musical presentations. Further, this Deep Hope informs assessment (how do we know that our musicians are growing in craftsmanship and creativity?) pedagogy (what does it look like to design learning in which students practice humility and wonder?), and presentations/celebrations of learning (how will we participate in the restoration of God’s world by sharing beauty through music?). The aim of this article is to share learning experiences from our intermediate (grades 4 through 7) music program that embody our program’s Deep Hope—stories that provide opportunities for students to embody wonder, creativity, craftsmanship, and humility while sharing beauty through music and restoring God’s world. These are opportunities for the SCS musicians to be shaped and to shape as they explore what it means to play their part in God’s story. The grade 7 musicians
Wonder: Memories through Song
designed and created
We connected with our grand-friends at Elim Village retirement home near our school. Our Deep Hope was to bring joy and create beauty for the residents of Elim Village, learning and sharing their beautiful memories through song. Long-term learning target: We can bring joy and create beauty for the residents of Elim Village, learning and sharing their beautiful memories through song. The grade 7 musicians designed and created posters and invitations for the residents, explaining that we hoped to share their memories through song and that we would be visiting with them to learn if they had any special song requests associated with memories from their past. Christian Educators Journal
October 2024
33
posters and invitations for the residents, explaining that we hoped to share their memories through song and that we would be visiting with them to learn if they had any special song requests associated with memories from their past.
As we arrived at Elim, we were surprised by the large crowd that showed up to share their memories, and upon our return to SCS, we set to work researching the songs, listening to them, finding chord progressions and creating our own arrangements using Modern Band instruments: vocals, keyboard, guitar, ukulele, bass guitar, and drums, as well as our marimbas. Each grade 4 through 7 class was responsible for two songs, and small groups of musicians from each class volunteered to learn the extra songs. We presented the beautiful program “Memories through Song” in a live, outdoor presentation at Elim Village. It was a day-long song festival where we shared thirty-six songs as well as creating and providing lyric song books for those who wanted to sing along. It was here that we were reminded how beauty causes wonder, welcoming and inviting us to worship. As one student shared afterward: “I felt so in awe of God when I saw how touched our Elim grand-friends were when they heard their memories through song.”
Creativity: Repairing Broken Walls, Restoring Streets with Dwellings Music can address the mess of brokenness in our community and is a unique language for restoring beauty and belonging.
Isaiah 58:6–12 directed and shaped our music learning for this year-long Formational Learning Experience—specifically verse 12: “You will be called repairer of broken walls, restorer of streets with dwellings.” Our Deep Hope was that we would participate with God to be repairers and restorers of beauty where there is brokenness in our community, focusing on the big idea that music can address the mess of brokenness in our community and is a unique language for restoring beauty and belonging. Long term learning target: We can participate with God to be repairers and restorers of beauty where there is brokenness in our community. 34
October 2024
Christian Educators Journal