1. At first I never thought that incorporating music in the lesson would make a big difference in my classroom. I did not have much knowledge and skills on music in the Foundation phase. But now I think I have a vision of what is going to be like when i go to schools based on what I learnt so far in this module. Music plays a vital role in the classroom and it increases learner's participation. It makes the lesson fun and exciting. Learners are eager to learn.

2.

• I learnt that i still need more knowledge to be able to include music effectively in my lessons. I do not understand music the way I thought I do. I need assistance.
• The theory and practical experiences.
• Yes. I found the individual reflections meaningful because they helped me assess my understanding about music education. The reflections made me aware of my weaknesses in this module.
• I would change my attitude towards music education and how to incorporate it into my lessons because I realised that music will make me a fun teacher and it will also help my learners in many ways.

3.

• The things I found interesting in this module module:

The learning content, working with other people, getting to know know them, making musical instruments, sharing my ideas and engaging with the content.

• Music education and integrating it into the lesson. I still struggle to understand what is needed for me to do in assignments.
• Nothing. Everything I learnt in this module is valuable for teaching and learning in the future and to make me a successful teacher.

 

1. When planning a music lesson, you are encouraged to include as many opportunities for active engagement with music as possible by including various types of music activities, elements of play and offering opportunities for collaborative learning and discovering.

• There should always be music at the beginning and end of a lesson.
• Never play music(YouTube or recordings) without a specific aim. Any music that is listened to in the class must contribute towards reaching the lesson aims.
• Always guide learners in music listening.
• Include a variety of teaching, learning and assessment activities in your lesson
• A variety of activities in your lesson will contribute toward accommodating the various learning styles, abilities and interest of learners.
• Keep a basic ''Introduction-Teaching and learning phase-Conclusion'' structure in mind as this could assist you in planning teaching and learning activities that progress from lower to higher-order cognitive levels.

2. Through arts integration and play, learners are encouraged to be actively engaged in the teaching and learning process by allowing them to have fun while engaging in authentic, meaningful teaching and learning activities learning within social environments and to demonstrate their understanding practically through the arts. Arts integration provides teachers with the opportunity to engage in teaching and learning activities which are fun, fosters collaboration and connection and imaginative abilities. When foundation phase teachers utilise the arts throughout their teaching, they provide learners with multiple modes for demonstrating their understanding of non-arts outcomes while accommodating various learning styles and needs. Play teaches children certain behaviours, morals and values which are considered healthy and useful in and to the society. Play supports cognitive growths and development, physical development as well as social and emotional development.

3. Yes. Arts integration promotes teaching and learning strategies which address outcomes in various subjects simultaneously while encouraging learners to demonstrate their understanding of concepts and skills through the arts. Music education offers unique opportunities for addressing inclusive goals in education. Through music, we can address these unique needs of our learners by engaging with music, using various types of movements, singing in various languages, playing different games, including various patterns during rhythmic and body percussion activities to enable all learners to experience success. By utilising music activities as much as possible in the foundation phase and by applying various art integration activities and strategies, teachers are able to foster not only social and creative thinking skills but increase learners' motivation for learning while also learning more about themselves.

Arts integration has been proven to contribute towards higher motivation levels among learners and supports academic achievement and socialisation among learners. Schools that encourage teachers to apply arts integration strategies in their teaching have shown improved results with regards to learners' mathematics performance as well as decreased disciplinary challenges. Arts integration provides teachers with the opportunity to engage in teaching and learning activities which are fun, fosters collaboration and connection and promotes learners' innate curiosity, creativity and imaginative abilities. When foundation phase teachers utilise the arts throughout their teaching, they provide learners with multiple modes for demonstrating their understanding of non-arts outcomes while accommodating various learning styles and needs. Arts integration can lead to transformative experiences for both teachers and learners while fostering creative and imaginative capacities of the teachers and the learners alike.

What did you find interesting? Please explain why.

The benefits of an integrative approach. An integrative approach to teaching, for example, connects visualization with reading comprehension, contextualizes maths, or brings an experiential  context to the science or social studies classroom. Using the arts can assist students in understanding and applying skills to standardized exams.

What did you find challenging? Please explain why. 

Theoretical framework for arts integration in the Foundation Phase. The aspects of music integration in the foundation phase are a bit tricky because some of them are almost the same, so it won't be easy to differentiate between them.

Play is prominent in various African cultures and the general African context, where we often find elements of play when people engage with music and dance.

Three types of play in children's culture:

1. Tradition: In tradition play, rules are important. This form of play is fixed. Many children's games are traditional as they rules which need to be followed and seldom broken.

2. Open: Open play is a form of improvisation. Although open play includes rules, these rules may be changed according to the needs of children while playing. The construction of the entire setting is important. ''let's pretend to be/do...''

3. Original: Original play is creative and based on curiosity. Original play is mostly an individual game where the individual amuses themselves with objects, actions and sounds.

How do music games support holistic development?

Physical development: Music activities, especially moving to music (dancing) and playing instruments promotes physical development. When learners have opportunities to play instruments, they develop both gross and fine motor skills as well as hand-eye coordination and midline crossing.

Cognitive development: Through engagement in music activities foundation learners also have opportunities for cognitive development. Engaging in music activities where learners have to improvise, create their own body percussion patterns or make  their own instrument, learners learn to solve problems and think creatively.

Social development: When learners make music with their peers, they have opportunities to engage in social interaction. Music activities such as ensemble playing, singing in groups, moving together and playing together, foundation phase learners can foster relationships and possibly form new friendship.

Personal development: When Foundation phase learners experience music activities, they have the opportunity to develop personally. Learners experience success in music education when they are able to successfully participate in music activities with peers, make their own instructions, take part in singing or dancing activities and create and perform their own body percussion patterns.

Emotional development: When learners experience music with various moods, they learn to identify various emotions. Through engagement in music activities with others, they also learn to be sensitive to the emotions of others which consequently could lead to improved empathy and emotional intelligence.

Importance of games in culturally diverse classrooms

• For the game to be successful and enjoyable everyone in the class has to work together. A sense of belonging and cohesion are enforced.
• Games facilitate a creative spirit, imagination, and the ability to relate to self and to others.
• Musical play gives the child the opportunity to undergo an imaginative transformation. They can be anyone they want to be. 

What possibly made some learners uncomfortable during these activities? One learner was not happy with the use of a Zulu song which he did not understand.

Can you think of ways to address these issues in future? What will you change? I will change the song choice, I will not force learners to do what  they do not feel comfortable doing and use a variety of teaching strategies.

How can we accommodate diverse learner profiles in our classrooms? What must we beware of?

• During classroom interactions and instruction, teachers must keep the special cultural needs of their diverse student population in mind
• Get to know your students and build relationships with them
• Maintain consistent communication
• Acknowledge and respect every student 
• Practice cultural sensitivity

Music elements are the building blocks in music. Through combining the elements ,we can create music. Tone refers to a specific music element that gives music its characteristic sound and through which we differentiate between music and noise. 

The basic elements of music are:

Duration of tone refers to the length and time of a sound. Some sounds can be long or sustained while others ae short or quick. Concepts such as beat, accent, note values, meter, rhythm, and tempo involve duration.

Pitch of tone means high or low. A MELODY is made up of high and low tones which are arranged in a linear succession. When children sing songs, it is immensely helpful if you can show the contour( the direction of  the pitch) with your hands.

Intensity of tone refers to the dynamics, in other words, how loud or soft a tone is.

Quality of tone (timbre). Every instrument has a unique sound which is characteristic of that instrument. This is called the tone quality. If you close your eyes and someone plays the piano, you immediately know it is a piano  because of its unique tone quality.

Texture refers to the thickness or thinness of sound, when you listen to your favourite song there are a lot of instruments playing at the same time, we then say the texture is thick. When you sing to yourself in your room, it is only your voice that is heard, so the texture is thin.

Types of music activities 

• Singing
•  Moving to music
•  Instrument playing
• Music listening
• Musical games
• Music and dramatization
• Composition
• Conducting
• Body percussion
• Reading music notation (iconic/Western/solfege)
• Improvisation

How do music concepts and related experiences relate to Life Skills, Mathematics and Language education?

Music education enhances attentiveness, multitasking and promotes both numeracy and literacy skills while playing on music instruments supports learners' visual-spatial development. When learners sing songs in various languages as well as their home language, they expand their vocabulary by learning new words in their mother tongue or learning a new language as well as learning about phonics. By introducing music literacy through the use of graphic and iconic notation, we afford foundation phase learners with opportunities to develop reading and literacy skills in a way that gradually introduces abstract thinking skills.

 

Holistic development is based on the idea that children can be taught in more natural and engaging way. In order for children to succeed and reach their full potential, all aspects of their development must be, given attention. Holistic development means physical developmental, cognitive development, social development, personal development and emotional development. A holistic approach motivates children to learn about a subject. It instils curiosity and allows children to learn naturally and creatively. A holistic education offers an exciting alternative.

Erikson's developmental theory for the stages of psychosocial development specially draws focus to the influence of social interaction and relationships learning.

Music is vocal or instrumental sounds ( or both) combined in such a way as to produce beauty of form, harmony, and expression of emotion. It is important that learners experience music activities, not only with the aim of developing musicianship skills, but to promote their holistic development.

Piaget's cognitive development theory emphasises the notion that children learn by interacting with the world and that they build new knowledge based an existing skills and knowledge (prior knowledge). Pre- operational stage and concrete operational stage.

Vygotsky's developmental theory draws attention to the socio-cultural factors that influence cognitive development and therefore emphasises the importance of social interaction and language development.