Music Needs to be Heard

Created with Google Classroom which will be providing students in 4-6th Grade with a place to

experience music education on their own time online.

Savana Lourenco, Clarissa Williams, Nicole Convers, and Sandra Jimenez

California State University, Fresno

Statement of purpose:

A problem being faced today is the need for music education. The global pandemic has

resulted in the loss of music education for students. Students are unable to attend school

physically and are missing out on extracurriculars such as music education. This is important

because music education has many positive benefits on student success. Some of the significant

benefits of music education are the development of areas in the brain, allows for self-expression,

and creative reasoning (Phillips, n.d.). Our solution to incorporating music into schools during

this pandemic is to create a platform using Google Classroom. This platform will allow for

students to have access to music education that they are currently not receiving. Our Google

Classroom will provide the opportunity for students to interact and share their individual music

experiences with one another. Our goal with the creation of this platform is to see students

succeed academically and also be given the opportunity to express themselves creatively through

music, similar to the ways in which they had prior to the global pandemic.

Literature Review:

Incorporating music into the classroom in some shape, way, or form is crucial for

students to be successful not only academically, but emotionally and mentally as well (Brown,

2013; Phillips, n.d.). Now that school has gone completely virtually it has not only been hard for

students to deal with this transition, but for teachers as well. Most teachers have never taught a
class fully online before and believe that they did not receive adequate training to prepare them

for this transition; in-person to completely virtual instruction (Marshall et al., 2020). Students

have been forced to only focus on core subjects and lack the creative outlet that they require to

be successful in the virtual classroom ​(Marshall et al., 2020)​. In the article titled, ​How Teachers

Experienced the COVID-19 Transition to Remote Instruction​, it stated, “​Teachers of music, art,

and physical education faced special challenges. In some cases, they were asked not to assign

any homework, so as “to let students focus on their ‘core’ classes” (english, math, science, and

social studies)” (Marshall et al., 2020). Based on this information, it is evident that students do

not receive incorporation of music into their daily curriculum nor as an extracurricular class.

However, this issue of not incorporating music into the virtual classroom in any sort of way is

the issue that can be solved with the incorporation of our project.

Music is a fundamental aspect that students need to engage in. When students engage in

musical activities of any sort they are more likely to develop skills that will benefit them in a

variety of ways ​(Brown, 2013; Phillips, n.d.)​. Phillips’ (n.d.) article, ​Twelve Benefits of Music

Education,​ provided a list of all the benefits that musical education has on students. Some of the

benefits mentioned included early music education exposure helps brain development in areas

involved in language and reasoning, shows a causal link between music and spatial intelligence,

and also ​allows students to learn and think creatively, and to solve problems by imagining

various solutions (​Phillips, n.d.​). Moreover, in the article, ​The Benefits of Music Education,​ it

stated, “Music learning supports all learning. Not that Mozart makes you smarter, but it is a very

integrating, stimulating pastime or activity” (​Brown, 2013​). Essentially, music helps students

become academically successful and, given that they are now undergoing remote-learning at

home, they are now deprived of these important benefits. Providing students with a musical
outlet is essential in making them become prosperous in the academic setting ​(Brown, 2013;

Phillips, n.d.)​.

As previously stated, the project we are developing will help aid students in receiving a

virtual music education and will also provide a creative outlet by engaging in various musical

activities. We will further discuss and describe our plan on how we will provide this experience

in the next section titled, “Project Description.”

Project Description:

This project is aimed towards public school students in California that are between the

grade levels of fourth through sixth grade. When it comes to working with these students, we as

teachers need to be mindful about their different skill levels, needs and backgrounds. We will

likely encounter students that are socioeconomically disadvantaged, students that are emerging

bilinguals, and students that have either a cognitive, mental or physical disability. Furthermore,

as the pandemic continues to unfold students could experience distress and panic, and may need

additional emotional support as they transition from their traditional in-person classroom to the

virtual classrooms. Most importantly when it comes to teaching music, teachers need to

acknowledge the different backgrounds students have in music and how they vary from novice to

proficient.

Due to the pandemic we are confined to our homes and, as teachers, we have to solely

rely upon technology to connect with and educate our students. This being said, we will be using

our Google Classroom-Music Needs to Be Heard as the main platform. This Google Classroom

will contain a variety of different resources and activities that students can access on their own

time. It will have videos, lessons, and links that will provide students with online music

instruction. Our project will also be utilizing Zoom and Flipgrid where students will be able to
connect with their peers. The Google Classroom platform will be accessible to students and

parents of all grade levels and is user-friendly. Google Classroom is essential because it will

allow for us to safely stay connected with students in order to provide them with resources and

activities all under one platform. Our goal is to see students succeed academically and feel

motivated during the unique and unprecedented times we are facing with COVID-19. Moreover,

our project will promote student success and creativity through various musical activities, despite

the given circumstances of this pandemic.

Questions/Concerns:

Despite that the intentions of this project are positive, there are still some questions and

concerns that arise. How will we ensure students engage in musical activities that will benefit

them? How will we ensure that the teacher(s) will encourage their students to use our platform?

We also have concerns regarding how we will provide students with the resources they may

need. Other questions include how will we ensure that the platform we will use will be easily

accessible for students in this particular age group? Do students in grades 4th-6th need the extra

help in developing a personal email to access our platform, Google Classroom? Lastly, what

would be a good way to measure the effectiveness of our Google Classroom and the resources

we provided for students in 4-6th grade?

About You:

Sandra Jimenez: I have had many positive past experiences from my own musical

education that reflect in my daily life. I was able to attend ballets, symphonies, and school

musicals in my elementary years. During middle school I joined the school’s marching band,

played the flute and was able to be a part of a group that was bigger than myself. The

camaraderie and time spent learning musical pieces created a love for music that has stayed with
me. The ability to be able to express my personal emotions in this time of crisis is essential to my

mental health. I believe that music in the curriculum will encourage students to become creative,

social, mindful and self aware, especially during the pandemic. With the use of music education

the students will be able to achieve this goal.

Savana Lourenco: Music education has always been a part of my life starting from

kindergarten all the way up until now. Growing up I played the clarinet and a variety of other

musical instruments. I played music in my elementary school band everyday, it was my

extracurricular activity. Being able to play music and learn about music provided me with a

creative outlet. It became something I used to help me focus and distress myself from other

situations happening around me. Ultimately, it was what I looked forward to the most in school,

knowing that I had music at the end of the day is what kept me motivated in school. I also was

able to use music throughout my school career to help me with other subjects as well. For

example, I would create songs that helped me remember different formulas in math. Even today

music is still something I rely heavily on in order to stay focused or keep my emotional health

intact. Furthermore, during these difficult times with virtual learning and COVID-19 music can

allow students to make similar connections with music like I did. If students had something that

they really enjoyed doing to look forward to at the end of the day then maybe they would try

harder and difficult circumstances like COVID-19 would be less stressful for them.

Clarissa Williams: Throughout my academic career, music, especially musical education,

has played a vital role for myself and has aided in my engagement and enjoyment of school. I

began of course learning music and engaging in musical education when I attended

Kindergarten. Many people are so willingly able to neglect how learning the ABC’s song and

vast more nursery rhymes can impact a students academic success at such a young age. Which I
am fortunately able to realize now. As I grew older, I began playing my first musical instrument

which was the clarinet. I was in the 4th grade when I began to learn how to play and learning to

do so gave me such excitement that I would want to come to school everyday to learn. I soon

stopped playing after I graduated from the 6th grade and entered middle school. In that time

frame, however, I was quick to realize the importance of playing a musical instrument and

engaging in musical activities in school. So, as I entered high school I learned how to play the

guitar and would actively ask my teachers to develop songs for subjects in school that did not

focus on music. In biology I was able to learn a song about the human bones, in algebra I was

able to learn a song about the quadratic formula, and so much more. Essentially, music was a

need for my academic success and depriving students now due to the current circumstances

should be prohibited. Students need musical education in order to not only be academically

successful but attain a higher self-esteem and develop social-emotional skills.

Nicole Convers: In elementary school I was very fortunate to be part of my school’s choir

group. I did this from fifth through sixth grade. We meet once a week for rehearsals and had four

concerts throughout the year. The concerts were then presented to our families and classmates.

During those two years I not only learned how to read basic notes and how to change pitch, but I

also built this sort of mini family within my choir group. After elementary school I was less

fortunate and the schools I went to did not offer music extracurriculars. However, thanks to my

experiences in Elementary school I grew a love for music that carried into my teenage years and

adulthood. Exploring different types of music allowed me to use music to my advantage, whether

I needed to relax, focus, or simply be in a better mood. It is important to expose and educate

students on music and give them an opportunity to find music that will help them in their

academic and personal development.

Setting

Due to the pandemic and restrictions on schools our project will be operated completely

online. Students in grades 4-6th will have access to Google Classroom with various music

resources and activities. Google Classroom will allow for students to meet virtually online with

their peers. This platform will be accessible to students at their own convenience. We will test

this website on the following age group in order to receive feedback on whether or not it was

helpful and operated accordingly given its setting. Below is the link and classroom code to our

Google Classroom, Music Needs to be Heard.

https://classroom.google.com/c/MTc5ODg0NjI2MTc4?cjc=5vegm3w
 References

Brown, L. L. (2013). The benefits of music education. Retrieved from

https://static1.squarespace.com/static/55819b54e4b063452beb22e4/t/5bce4ad
53450a

Marshall, D., Shannon, D., Love, S., Ferguson, M., Rozny, S., Pittinsky, T., Russo, A.
(2020). How teachers experienced the covid-19 transition to remote instruction.
Retrieved from
https://kappanonline.org/how-teachers-experienced-covid-19-transition-remote-
instruction-marshall-shannon-love/

Phillips, C. (n.d.). Twelve benefits of music education. Retrieved from

https://sfopera.com/contentassets/288600c5d4254f34a0709aff5bc4c445/twelve
-benefits-of-music-education.pdf