Reflective practice and a summary!

So, last night, we had our first band concert: the big annual Christmas program. The 6th Grade Band, 7-8th Grade Band, and High School Band all performed. Overall, things went smoothly. The kids dressed appropriately, the music held together (in spite of losing rehearsals to Monday's snow day), and I even got to accompany the choir on electric bass (a real hoot for me, to be sure!). Today, I passed out Post-Concert Surveys to all three of my bands to gauge their feelings about the concert, the music performed, etc. I really believe in reflective practice. I think it's important for me to hear how the students feel about their performance, the music we play, and my teaching. I did not really expect too much from these surveys, but they provided a very telling portrait of my program that I felt a need to share.

I do not proclaim to be a statistician, and I am not writing a masters thesis or anything, but I do have a fledgling interest in research. Any comments on formatting, variables, etc. are welcome! If you'd like to check out the detailed percentages/survey questions, check out this document: Christmas Concert Survey Statistics. To see the survey I gave to students, look here: HS Survey MS Survey.

So, to spare you the nitty gritty details, I'd like to highlight a few interesting "findings." In all three groups, the majority of groups indicated that the music was too easy. Only four students in sixth grade through high school (98 students) agreed or strongly agreed with the music being too difficult. Twelve students in the program marked this item a "3," indicating appropriate literature. Eighty-two students in the program agreed or strongly agreed that the music was too easy.

I agree that the sixth grade band could use a push. The 7-8th grade band's program as a whole was a bit beyond them, though. I was most frustrated with quality of their performance, and they still insist that the music is too easy. I agree that some of the music the high school performed was not the most technical, but after a season of struggling with a difficult marching band book, I wanted to program something that would be successful in a month and a half of rehearsals. They resented performing "easy" music (at what I would deem to be a modest level).

My sixth graders demonstrated the most mastery of their program, followed by high school, and the seventh and eighth grade showed the least mastery. Interestingly, the sixth graders loved their music in spite of its "easiness." They performed two pieces that I arranged (We Three Kings and 12 Days of Christmas) and Carols in Concert, arr. Kinyon. You may remember my interest in arranging from this post. I hope to upload a video of their performance soon on the blog. They were successful! None of my sixth grade students reported strongly disliking the music. And 22 out of 32 sixth graders strongly agreed that they liked our program. That's awesome! Love that band, we have a blast.

My seventh graders could have been better with a few more rehearsals. I programmed two medleys (Christmas Angels, arr. Edmonsen and 20 Carols in Two Minutes, arr. Williams) plus a very "band" arrangement of Greensleeves (Variant on an Old English Carol., arr. Robert W. Smith). They really needed one simple "slam dunk" piece, and we didn't have one. So, this may have been a programming error on my part. In spite of their performance being less than 100% successful, only four students disliked or strongly disliked the music. Nineteen students neither liked nor disliked the repertoire, and twenty students liked it. Four students even strongly liked the music. In comparing these students to the sixth graders, there appears to be a lot more apathy to the literature, a disconnect. However, I was pleased with this generally positive result. Something about seventh and eighth graders makes me feel like they hate my guts all the time. Must be the start of hormones or something. But I had some nice comments. One student even wrote that Christmas Angels was her favorite piece because "It sounds wonderful to me." What a lovely comment!

The high schoolers are such a downer. Our band has twenty-one students and spotty instrumentation. None of the students "strongly liked" the music. Four students liked it. Eight students were indifferent. Three students disliked the music, and four students strongly disliked it. I thought I had programmed great music: Fanfare for Christmas (Curnow), A Christmas Canon (arr. Green), and Charlie Brown Christmas (arr. Strommen). Open with a fanfare, slow piece in the middle, and a fun medley as our closer .Wham bam, thank you ma'am! Nope, apparently not. They performed the music at a decent level, especially considering that our band completely lacks trombone, euphonium, and tuba. However, it was not stellar. *Cue inner monologue* If this music is so "easy," why doesn't it SOUND better?? Why don't you practice the parts that still sound like butt?? *end monologue* Aaaand from totally loving the music in 6th grade to being positive-meh in 7-8th grade to just not caring... about anything. Is there any quality literature these kids will like? Will they like the music better if it's "harder?" Do they feel like I'm teaching down to them by choosing what I would deem appropriate literature? I think it's pretty important that the kids not hate the music. In a PBIS world of extrinsic motivators everywhere, wouldn't it be nice if liking the music could get kids to put a horn on their faces?

To conclude, I hope to integrate some listening activities into my band classes to provide an aural model and perhaps help them realize that no music is "easy." I really hope that I can find ways to challenge and pique the interest of my high school group. The picture just does not seem pretty right now. On the bright side, I have a lot of hope for my younger students, and I know that we can be excited and face some more challenging music as the year goes on. I would love to hear comments about your experiences with student motivation, literature selection, or anything else!