Engaging Musical Practices

Inspire and involve your adolescent students in active music-making with this second edition of Engaging Musical Practices: A Sourcebook for Middle School General Music. A practical and accessible resource, fourteen chapters lay out pedagogically sound practices for preservice and inservice music teachers. Beginning with adolescent development, authors outline clear, pedagogical steps for the creation of an inclusive curriculum that is age-appropriate age-relevant, and standards-based. You will find timely chapters on singing and playing instruments such as guitar, keyboard, ukulele, drumming and percussion. Other chapters address ways to make music with technology, strategies for students with exceptionalities, and the construction of instruments. Further, there are chapters on songwriting, interdisciplinary creative projects, co-creating musicals, infusing general music into the choral classroom, and standards-based assessment. The book is full of musical examples, sample rubrics, and resource lists. This second edition of Engaging Musical Practices: A Sourcebook for Middle School General Music is a necessity for any practitioner who teaches music to adolescent students or as a text for secondary general music methods courses.

Burton has amassed an impressive list of authors, all of whom strike a beautiful balance between theory and practice while exploring rich, diverse opportunities available to music educators in the general music classroom. This text is necessary reading for anyone who wishes to inspire a sense of independence, collaboration, and lifelong appreciation of music in and outside of the classroom.--Nicholas Ryan McBride, PhD, Assistant Professor of Music Education, The College of New Jersey, Suzanne Burton has assembled a collection of innovative experts who provide classroom-tested strategies that are responsive to and that affirm middle school students' musical identities, abilities, and interests. If you are looking for a resource for creating inclusive classroom environments to meet the needs of all students, this is it! You'll find research-based pedagogy to help you maximize each student's individual potential and to support them as they continue their journey for personally meaningful music making in a variety of contexts and across the lifespan.--Jill Reese, PhD, Associate Professor, SUNY Fredonia, Suzanne Burton has recruited outstanding, experienced middle school general music pedagogues to offer practical and inspirational advice. Each and every chapter could form the basis of a new creative take on the (sometimes neglected) middle school general music curriculum. Readers will garner expert wisdom on middle school music topics as varied as songwriting, ukulele, the use of technology, and standards-based assessment.--Ann Marie Stanley, PhD, Aloysia L. Barineau Associate Professor and Head of Music Education, Louisiana State University

Suzanne L. Burton is Associate Dean for the Arts and Professor of Music Education at the University of Delaware. Her scholarly interests include music teacher preparation and professional learning, music acquisition, music literacy, and technology in early childhood music.