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TEXTBOOK AND SOFTWARE REVIEW
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McGraw-Hill
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Silver-Burdett
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Music Content and objectives
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Where in the world,
Traveling on,
Just imagine,
Connections,
Music with a message,
A world of change,
Celebrations,
Music library.
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Let the music begin,
Exploring music,
Learning the language of music,
Building our musical skills,
Discovering new musical,
horizons,
Making music our own,
Singing America,
Our world of music,
Fun and games,
Our beautiful planet,
Tuneful tales,
Holidays to share,
Expression, Rhythm, Form,
Melody, Timbre, Texture/Harmony |
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Variety of song material,
games, and activities |
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Tons of songs varying in form
and style,
Lots of percussion and plenty of
movement activities. |
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Tons of songs varying in form
and style, Lots of little games and activities to go along with the songs, Such as percussion, dancing, movement and so on. |
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Musical experiences/active
music making - do the authors give suggestions? |
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Bottom of pages, Movements,
Playing instruments, Pronunciations, Alternate teaching strategies… very good. |
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Again suggestions on dances and
movement. On side of pages in teachers book the author is very specific with movement activities. |
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The overall design of the text
- is there a logical sequence and approach to the lessons? |
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Starts with easier thing and builds
up. Gives good introduction to lessons and reviews things nicely at the end of chapters. |
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The design is very good. The
book starts off with very simple songs and musical concepts and it slowly builds on them as the book progresses and the sections are organized and pieced together very well. |
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Lesson plan design and follow
- up ideas. Are there Lesson extensions? Interdisciplinary ideas? |
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Lesson plan is great gives a
lesson planner kind of overview and then breaks it down and adds extra stuff for you to do. I found no sub plans. Relates things to other subjects nicely. |
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This is wonderful. Gives a
"lesson at a glance" and then breaks it down step by step for you. With other things relating to it. I can't seen to find anything that is titles sub plans though. |
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Consideration for the student:
learning styles, developmental ideas, etc. |
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"Alternate teaching strategies."
Gives different suggestions. Very good |
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"Meeting individual needs"
encouragement for all students to participate. |
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Multicultural material
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Tons of multicultural songs
throughout the text. |
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Definitely covers this well. "Our
world of music" |
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National Standards/New York
standards. |
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Doesn't list them like the Silver-
Burdett. But kind of touches on them under objectives just not as clearly labeled. |
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National Standards pointed out
in every lesson. |
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Supplementary materials:
Technology etc. |
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Lots of musical examples. Songs
to Read. Plenty of Orff stuff. Recorder material and Music ace demo disk. |
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Technology media link is at the
bottom of lesson pages. There is a resource book with tons of activities. |
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Visual appeal, attractiveness
of the book for the learner |
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Very attractive, nice colors
pictures. Something a child could truly enjoy. |
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I think this is one of the best
parts of the book. Very colorful pictures, Big words and music. Illustrations that fit the music. |
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Recordings - How they
sound? What do they include? |
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The recordings are Great. Kids
voices with wonderful instrumental accompaniment. Orchestral instruments…this is great. |
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Children's voices. Various
instruments. Sound very professional. Spirituals adult and children voices. Pronunciations given by adult mirrored by kids. Movement music recorded slowly at first to learn steps. |
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TEXTBOOK REVIEW
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SOFTWARE REVIEW
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The Midisaurus software is directed toward grades K-2 but if the children haven't been introduced to music
properly I would say this would be ok to use up to 4th grade maybe. I don't think that there is a textbook that
goes a long with this software at least not any that I have found in the little research I did. This covers a great
deal of skills like, awareness of hands and fingers in relation to a keyboard, Keys, Note and rest values,
Dynamics, accents, time signatures, Steps in skips in melodic phrases, accidentals, music composition, note
reading, orchestral instruments, the grand staff, simple chord progressions and even good mouse skills on a
computer. This deals with experiencal learning. "What I do I'll understand" this is definitely a "doing" on the
kid's part. The things about this program that would appeal to a child in the elementary schools are the colorful
screens and familiar things. Animal's firemen, the circus and so on are used in the interactive learning. Young
kids like Firemen and farm animals and to interact with them. They have to do things right like get a fireman to
go up or down a ladder if a phrase is going up or down. Kids love this.
The only thing I found that might not appeal to a elementary child would be saving progressing and maneuvering
around the program but I don't really think that would be a problem now a days. I think it is all fairly simple stuff
and kids are very capable, it's just a case of exposure. The program is great in teaching the basic fundamentals
of music such as all those listed earlier. It starts very basic and touches on everything a little and then puts them
together in a way that is not overwhelming. This is great for a child. I don't think that this particular software
really lacks all that much it does its job well as far as I can tell.
Midisaurus conveys a good deal of the National standards like Singing alone and with others a varied repertoire
of music, the software has a karaoke feature in it. Performing on instruments alone and with others a varied
repertoire of music, it deals with the keyboard constantly. Composing and arranging music within specified
guidelines, It asks the child to compose a little. Listening to analyzing and describing music. The whole thing has
music that the kids have to listen and manipulate which is a form of analysis. Understanding music in relation to
music and culture, the different settings with the sounds that apply kind of do this. The Software also meets
some of the NY standards such as Creating, Performing and participating in the arts, obviously the children are
creating and participating if they are composing music. Knowing and using arts materials and resources, this is a
resource.
In all I think that Midisaurus is a great program I don't know what else to say. It uses great sounds and visuals
throughout the whole thing. It is something that is very progressive in that it is encouraging as opposed to
discouraging for a child to use and builds a great deal of simple skills.
Music Ace I and II is appropriate for grades 3 and up. Like Midisaurus I don't believe that there is a textbook
that series that it would go with but it follows the same guidelines as most any would. The software helps with
The basic elements of the key signature, the notes of the treble and bass clef, the different types of notes, the
major scales, whole and half steps, pitch discrimination and note position on the keyboard. This would be similar
to Orff in the watch and do process fairly similar to the other program. The things in this that would greatly
appeal to a child would be the bouncing notes and the smiley faces over the notes it is just visually pleasant for
anyone to work with. The fact that it is directed toward learning an instrument might not be appealing but it is
made fun and enjoyable so that there really is no negative that I can find in this program either.
This program is another that is great at taking things a little at a time to keep the child learning and happy about
how they are doing in terms of learning the piano.
This Program again meets a bunch of the Standards the same NY standards as the last one and All the same of
the national plus the evaluating music and performance standard by having an interactive reflection part. I Think
program was also wonderful. There is a great deal of similarities in the two programs. They are almost the same
thing just moved up to meet the age level that they were intended for, absolutely wonderful.
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