Week 1... so why not start with a reasonably big question?

I'm afraid I'm running a little behind with this, but better late than never, sorry everyone!  I will be catching up with the other topics ASAP.  So, week 1 of #MFlearn19 arrived and we had our first questions!  In my first proper blog post of the course I'm going to tackle this one:

Is it necessary or important to give students the opportunity to choose to learn music that they like and identify with?

As with any course such as this one, we are encouraged to consider something that you perhaps usually do not even think about on a daily basis, even though we perhaps think that we do!

I think I give my students a fair amount of choice... particularly as they get older (there are lots more choices in Year 9 than in Year 7) - by the end of Year 9, they even get to choose their own project.  This final choice (which is preceded by a "Musical Futures" discreet unit which obviously involves student choice of instrument and music) allows them to choose from lots of options - research, using Sonic Pi or Logic Pro to create/mix music, repeating the MF unit, improving instrumental skills etc., within the different projects they can choose their own piece or style of music.  
Why do I do this?  

• This unit takes place after the final assessment point for Year 9 so I am free to move away from the constraints of our school-derived assessment system - so why not take advantage of this?

• I want to ensure that students are engaged - lots have started to switch off before this point having already taken their options, and out of 300, around 260 won't have picked either GCSE Music or NCFE Music Tech so this group is of vital importance at this point and should not be ignored.  New and more "out there" topics are exciting and get their attention.

• I want this larger group of non KS4 musicians to finish their formal learning in the subject on a high note - with a positive view of music to take forward, maybe even a tiny bit inspired by learning something they didn't think they would.

• It allows me to recognise their age and increased maturity (although the latter of these does vary!).

So this is definitely choice... but actually if I look across the three year KS3 programme we have, the opportunities they are getting to actually choose the music they study is pretty limited.  It's me, as HoD, that has determined that they should learn about Blues, Jazz, Rock n Roll, Minimalism, Film Music, World Music and various other genres which no doubt sit on many curriculums in the UK.

Is this wrong?

No... I don't think it is.  Part of my responsibility when designing the curriculum which is compulsory for all students at my school, is to ensure that they receive a broad curriculum.  In fact, one of my department's formal curriculum aims is:

Students should perform, listen to, review and evaluate music across a range of historical periods, genres, styles and traditions including the works of the great composers, popular/folk musicians as well as a wide variety of other composers, musicians and performers.

Well, let's consider the other extreme - If I leave all the choices to students then there would be some potential pitfalls which may include:

So 100% teacher choice?

• Students may choose the same/similar types of music all the time.

• Students can't choose something which they don't know about.

• Students may pre-judge a type of music that they know exists based on it's origins, ill-informed perceptions of the music or anything else they do know about it (or think they know) even if they've never actually listened to it. This will therefore affect their choices.

• Student choices may be influenced by peer pressure.

But what are the benefits of student choice?

• Higher levels of student engagement because of their ownership of the topic.

• Choices made that the teacher may not have picked - after all, we too may not always choose types of music for the right reasons (e.g. choices are based on available resources, personal preference, subject knowledge and confidence).

• We can make use of the flipped classroom model.

In conclusion...

As with may things in life I think the answer lies in moderation and balance of course. As teachers, we need to ensure students are introduced to a wide variety of music and to enable learning to happen in a number of different ways. Within this, there is definitely space for student led choices and student led learning

Possible actions
I'm going to look at my current curriculum and see whether there is a way to incorporate choice earlier on in KS3 and how best to do this.