Groovin´with Munch!

Had a very successful lesson with Jam2Jam where I put in a digital photo of the artist Munch´s "The Scream" (one of my favourite paintings) as a background to the software. The task was to strengthen the paintings message by music which is something every student need to know about to have a possibility to pass the lowest grade level in music according to the Swedish curriculum, “To use music, text and other expressions of creativity and improvisation in order to shape thoughts and ideas” (Lpo94).

One example by Paulina, Dafina and Clara:

Find more videos like this on JamNation

Jam2Jam works very good with this kind of music education that is often forgotten in many schools. With this tool you can work and discuss different ways of using music to pictures. There is a possibility to work with video clips as well but i have´nt tried that in a whole class yet.

After this good experience the art teacher, Fredrik, and I planned for some work around music and pictures/movies that hopefully will start soon.

/Per

Swedish MEM

This is a translated version of the Meaningful Engagement Matrix (MEM) that I used as a tool for my students to reflect on their work with Jam2Jam.

Click on the picture for a larger picture. You will find an english translation at the end of this blog post.

I wouldn´t say that it is simplyfied but it is made more accessable för the students so we took away the third lower culturual row.

Here is the original MEM made by Andrew R Brown and Steve C Dillon:

This is the second version, the first one was to hard to understand and the students didn't see the use of it. This one they understood and it feels like it is a good tool for evaluate engagement in secondary shools.

It also, most of the times, confirmed the engagement of students that I thought I saw as a teacher during the lesson and the students expressed understanding of the MEM.

My first class using the MEM was about the difference between density and volume. I preformed the same lesson plan on two groups of nine graders, one group was working with Jam2Jam as a tool of showing me their understanding of the difference and the other group worked with acoustic guitars and hand drums.

So far I have only been looking at their engagement and not the result, and the engagement was definetely higher in the group workng with Jam2Jam. Talking about the difference with the students was much easier for me when I worked with the Jam2Jam software than acoustic instruments and my gut feelings converations with the students from both groups tells me that the Jam2Jam group learned faster and got a broader understanding.

Unfortunately I don't have a recording of the jam.

Next time I will do some Jam2Jam teaching with art and music.

/Per

MEM for secondary school students:

First row:

During this lesson, have you been... ...listening with attention ...felt it has been important and musically meaningful ...felt a desire to explore/do research ...been taken away by the music/lost sense of time

second row: Socially/cooperation

third row: Personal