Strings, Kansas!

John Harrison and Jacque Dillon

Course Syllabus

Fall 2006, Fridays from 3:30 to 4:20PM in Duerksen Fine Arts Center B101

General Description

Strings, Kansas! is a one-credit hour workshop in which WSU string students introduce stringed instruments to 4th and 5th graders in rural and underserved communities throughout Kansas. WSU students participating in the course will adopt these communities, engaging the 4th and 5th graders and learning about their lives. WSU students will also design, present, and interact with the rural students to foster their appreciation of music with stringed instruments. Interaction will be facilitated through distance technology, such as videoconferencing, blogging, and email.

The course is one-year, and WSU students participating in the fall semester are expected to participate in the spring semester. In the spring semester, participating WSU students will be scholarshipped into the course.

Strings, Kansas! is part of a long-term initiative from WSU's School of Music. Over a period of 10 years, our intent is to support and foster development of string programs throughout rural and under-served communities in Kansas. We are committed to:

  1. Provide instructional resources for stringed instruments to these communities.
  2. Provide assistance to WSU Music Education Major graduates in developing string programs in these communities.
  3. Provide ongoing high-level music making to these communities.
  4. Engage these communities with ongoing conversations about the importance of string programs in their schools.
  5. Provide a packaged commercial product which we may sell to other states so that they may offer string education to their rural and under-served communities using our media and resources.

Structure:

Orientation

On September 15, general music teachers from the participating underserved and rural communities will come to WSU for an all-day orientation and introduction to the Strings, Kansas curriculum. WSU students participating in the course will be expected to attend one hour of the orientation so they may meet and converse with the participating general music teachers.

4 Interactive Videoconferences

At the heart of the Strings, Kansas! project are four interactive videoconferences. Each of these videoconferences will simultaneously connect 4th and 5th graders in the ten rural and under-served communities with the WSU String orchestra. Through these videoconferences, students participating in the Strings, Kansas! course will introduce the 4th and 5th graders to both the stringed instruments and orchestral and stringed chamber music repertoire.

This will prepare the 4th and 5th graders for the second type of videoconference which will happen typically one week later. This second type of videoconference is not interactive, but is instead a live video feed of the WSU orchestra's formal evening concert. This is intended for the general public in the 10 targeted rural and under-served communities. We also expect to extend the live videoconference of the formal evening concert for general viewing throughout the world via the Internet.

Videoconference dates

All videoconferences are 45 minutes long and begin at 2:30 2:00. They will be in Miller Hall.

Note: Videoconferences have been moved 1 day back from their original dates

String Buddies

WSU students participating in Strings, Kansas! will pair up, and each pair will adopt 2 participating communities as their "string buddies." String buddies will maintain a continual informal dialog with the 4th and 5th graders of their adopted communities through blogs, email, and/or videoconferencing. This will be facilitated by Kan-ED's empowered desktop, a web portal with supporting applications.

String buddies are encouraged but not required to visit their adopted communities at the beginning of the project. Milage, per diem, and honorarium may be possible for such trips.

Learning the Recorder

Carnegie Hall has integrated their recorder curriculum into Strings, Kansas! This means that 4th and 5th graders participating in Strings, Kansas! will concurrently be learning to play the recorder as taught to them by their general music teacher in the community through guidence by the Carnegie Hall curriculum. The recorder curriculum is intended to reflect and enhance our Strings, Kansas! curriculum.

Posters

Around March 2007, participating 4th and 5th graders will each begin to research and design a poster of their favorite stringed instrument. This project will be facilitated by participating WSU string students.

Final Concert

On May 4, participating 4th and 5th graders will be bussed to WSU. They will display their posters and perform with the orchestra on their recorders. We will also have a "petting zoo" in which the 4th and 5th graders receive group lessons on stringed instruments from WSU students participating in this course.

Course Materials

As the course meets only once each week and the WSU students of the course are free to design and implement their own curriculum as teachers of 4th and 5th graders, the course is structured in a non-traditional manner. Rather than more conventional role of a WSU professors giving information to the students, the course will function as a community and the WSU professors as a facilitators. In this way, students and teachers together get to practice communicating and sharing information for the betterment of the class community. The format will be supported by:

Responsibilities

WSU Students participating in the course are expected to:

syllabus (last edited 2007-08-19 06:57:43 by JohnHarrison)