Singing the Body Electric: How ePortfolios Empower College Musicians to Develop Creative Voices

Singing the Body Electric How ePortfolios Empower College Musicians to Develop Creative Voices

Introductions… Academic Discipline Music? Performing arts? Visual arts? Humanities? ePortfolio Usage Presentation portfolio? Assessment portfolio? Learning/Teaching portfolio? Hybrid of the above?

Introductions… Plans for Use? Within Music Department? Other areas? Type of ePortfolio? Motivation for adoption?

ePortfolios in Higher Education Music Programs University-wide ePortfolio system (Presentation) Music Education (Presentation and Learning) Example Presentation Portfolio Very few unit-based portfolio systems Mostly Presentation Portfolios. Ex.: University of Rhode Island Department of Music Search of EPAC resources for “music” turns up virtually nothing (Electronic Portfolio Action and Communication <http://epac.pbworks.com>)

University of Delaware Department of MusicePortfolio system: Unit-based Ordered by Programmatic Learning Goals [PLGs] Used by all majors (performance, education, management) Sakai-OSP Teaching, Learning, and Assessment [TLA]

ePortfolios at the University of Delaware

Three Learning Outcome Sets for Assessment General Education Requirements

UD General Education Requirements Attain effective skills in a) oral and b) written communication, c) quantitative reasoning, and the d) use of information technology Learn to think critically to solve problems. Be able to work and learn both independently and collaboratively. Engage questions of ethics and recognize responsibilities to self, community, and society at large. Understand the diverse ways of thinking that underlie the search for knowledge in the arts, humanities, sciences and social sciences. Develop the intellectual curiosity, confidence, and engagement that will lead to lifelong learning. Develop the ability to integrate academic knowledge with experiences that extend beyond the boundaries of the classroom. Expand understanding and appreciation of human creativity and diverse forms of aesthetic and intellectual expression. Understand the foundations of United States society including the significance of its cultural diversity. Develop an international perspective in order to live and work effectively in an increasingly global society.

Three Learning Outcome Sets for Assessment General Education Requirements Programmatic Learning Goals

Dept. of Music Programmatic Learning Goals Express musical ideas through performing, composing, or improvising. Communicate about music both orally and in written forms in an articulate and musically literate manner. Demonstrate an appropriate level of sight reading both melodically and rhythmically.

Three Learning Outcome Sets for Assessment General Education Requirements Programmatic Learning Goals Course Learning Goals

Coordination of Three Goal Sets

Why Sakai OSP? Close control over content Connected with courses Reflection form guidance Possibilities for evaluation and feedback Quantitative assessment of student growth Integration of programmatic and institutional assessment Shared platform, yet customizable to the needs of each particular unit

Why a TLA Portfolio? Reflective engagement Ex. Ear-training reflections

Ear-training Reflective Blogs List the specific practice sessions when you’ve worked on class material and with whom you have worked. (e.g. 2/12: 4-5pm with John and Kate, etc…) List the specific practice sessions when you’ve worked by yourself. (e.g. 2/16: 7-8pm alone with MacGamut or webpage X, etc.) What specific topics/exercises did you work on for sight-singing? What specific topics/exercises did you work on for ear-training? Comment upon the time you’ve spent practicing? (How did your practice sessions go? Do you feel you are improving on the material? What topics/exercises are giving you trouble? etc.) Based on the above, discuss any changes you want to incorporate into practice next week? (What are your strengths and weaknesses and which skills need the most improvement? How will you organize your limited practice time to improve your skills? Are there new approaches or exercises you want to try? etc.) What in-class activities do you feel would best help you improve? We won’t be able to accommodate every request, but will look for general trends in comprehension.

Why a TLA Portfolio? Reflective engagement Ex. Ear-training reflections Presentation portfolios lacking in student depth and faculty support Difficult to change types of ePortfolios Assessment portfolios missing a chance to explore benefits for learning/teaching TLA portfolio closely connected with courses, thus encourages faculty engagement

UD Music ePortfolio Matrix – Sakai Interface

How do ePortfolios Empower Students to Develop Creative Voices?

Who is the Body that Sings? How does this clip frame the bodies that sing? Who are these bodies? What does the larger trajectory of this clip in regard to the body that sings? How might the effect of this clip be different had the movement been from greater to fewer numbers of people singing? Do you perceive any hierarchies, and how are they treated over the course of this excerpt? Are there bodies that are marked or unmarked? Privileged or unprivileged? What are the skill sets being demonstrated, and how do these relate to the bodies who sing?

Decentered Model of Musical Identity

Decentered Educational Model – Better Yet…

How does one “play the sunset?”

Developing a Musical Identity:Two Examples of Integrative/Reflective Learning “Music Circles”

“Music Circles” INSTRUCTIONS: Consider personal musical experiences that have impacted your life by filling in these categories and the impact they have had on your life by filling in the spaces below each category listed below. Then, on an unlined sheet of paper, create a music circle diagram. Label each circle with the category title. Inside the circle, write a short description of the music that fits within each category. Then, draw connecting lines between those circles that intersect in some way. Some circles may be related, or connected; others may stand alone. Once you have finished your music circle, upload it (either as a Word Doc or scanned PDF) to your ePortfolio using the prompt at the bottom of this form. Early memories—songs you remember being sung to you Songs you recall singing in school Musical works you have performed Songs you can sing, or pieces you can play in their entirety from memory Recordings you would not want to live without Your least favorite music examples Music you have heard or performed in the past 24 hours Music you have taught, or love to teach, to others Music that puzzles, intrigues, or challenges you Music that others might be surprised to know you like Additional categories

Example “Music Circles” Artifact

Developing a Musical Identity:Two Examples of Integrative/Reflective Learning “Music Circles” Improvising a Prelude

What is the role of the ePortfolio in (Higher-Ed) (Music) (Programs)? To make the whole educational experience as integrative as its parts. In other words, to make music education musical.

UD Music ePortfolio Matrix – Performance/Academic Areas

Three Types of Reflection (after Van Manen, 1991) Anticipatory Reflection – planning, goals, decision making, anticipation of results Active (or Interactive) Reflection – occurs during an activity and may control how it unfolds Recollective Reflection – studies and synthesizes past experiences, giving them deeper meaning

Reflection Form:Sophomore Fall – PLG1C - Improvisation 1. Upload the following two documents: 1) an mp3 recording of a complete piece or musical idea that represents your best improvising of the semester and 2) a PDF of the harmonic framework over which you improvised.2. What makes this recording representative of your best work in the area of improvisation? What features do you find particularly interesting or remarkable? Are there any moments that sound weak or less well conceived? As you discuss your improvisation, please point out particular passages by noting the minutes and seconds (for example, 2'35").3. Improvisation involves the spontaneous production of music within a set of pre-defined parameters governing harmonic structure, harmonic rhythm, rhythmic and melodic figuration, formal design, register, timbre, and dynamics. Describe the parameters you chose to focus on for this improvisation, and then discuss some of the ways that your improvisation explores these parameters. Did the parameters within which you improvised ultimately serve to inhibit your creativity, or rather did they focus it? Please explain.4. Having already worked on improvisation in MUSC165 and 196, how has your approach to this activity changed in the work you have done this semester? While the assignments are different, discuss any elements that have become harder or easier, and comment upon your development as an improviser in classical styles. 5. Improvisation has been described as a kind of composition that occurs in the moment of performance. Having delved into both of these activities in new musical styles, compare and contrast your experience improvising with that of composing this semester. What activity do you find more satisfying, and why? 6. Did you have another piece of music in mind whose style you were imitating in your improvisation? If so, name this piece and discuss the particular features that you imitated.

Reflection Form:Freshmen Fall – PLG1A – Lessons and Performance 1. What musical experiences motivated you to choose music as a major and as a future profession? What expectations about being a musician do you bring to your lessons? 2. If you have a clear picture of the professional musician you would like to be in 10 to 20 years, please describe this musician. If not, can you articulate a range of professional roles you are interested in exploring? 3. What do you see as the importance of being a good musician and performer in regard to these future professional possibilities? 4. What are your shorter-term goals as a performing musician? What do you hope to accomplish over the next four years, and what specific skills and repertoire do you hope to have learned? 5. What are your greatest strengths and weaknesses on your primary instrument/voice? 6. Discuss with your teacher how to use various practice aids such as a practice log, personal practice journal, progress chart, metronome, and recording technologies to increase the quality, productivity, and effectiveness of your practice time. Describe what practice aids you will try this semester/year and what difference do you think these aids will make to your practice routine. 7. Decide with your teacher on two or three aspects of your playing that you want to focus on in preparation for your first and second juries. What aspects did you and your teacher choose, and what repertoire and/or practice methods were you assigned to address these aspects? Discuss with your teacher a personal practice routine and describe this routine. 8. Study the rating categories found on the jury evaluation sheet for your instrument/area and discuss with your teacher the standards that will be applied to your next jury. How were these standards chosen? To what extent will the jury scores be relative to the quality of the performance itself, the improvement displayed, and the difficulty of the repertoire performed? Record and discuss these standards here.

Reflection Form Instructions:Freshmen Spring – PLG1A – Juries and Reviews Two reasons music programs hold juries are 1) to provide/discuss standards with which students may critically evaluate their own performances and 2) to provide an assessment of students' performing abilities according to these standards. This process is ultimately a means to an important end: creating self-sufficient musicians who know how to accurately, critically, and realistically evaluate their own progress. The artifacts and reflections required to complete the cells in this row are designed to support and encourage your growth as a performer and to open up discussion between you and your private teacher regarding the meaning of the jury process. To complete this cell, open the reflection form for your particular instrument/area. On this form, score and comment on your own jury performance using the standards discussed with your teacher at the beginning of the year and recorded in your ePortfolio. For the rating numbers, please use the scale associated with your jury form. This part of the form should be completed as soon after your jury as possible. Later, when you receive your jury scores from the faculty panel, upload this document and reflect on these scores by answering the questions below.

Reflection Form:Freshmen Spring – PLG1A – Juries and Reviews 1-x [These questions will differ between instruments/voice. The basic formula will be: "Personal Jury Score and Comments - (Category)] 2. How did you think your jury went overall? Were there any aspects of your jury that went much better (or worse) than you anticipated? What factors seemed to contribute to the overall quality of your jury? 3. Upload an audio or video recording of your jury (if available) and a document containing the scores given to you by the faculty panel. 4. Compare the scores and comments you gave your own jury with those given to you by the faculty. Discuss the areas in which your standards seem to exceed, match, or fall below those of the faculty who heard your jury. What scores seemed the most surprising, either high or low? In what areas were faculty scores most consistent? In what areas were faculty scores the least consistent, and by what margin? 5. Briefly discuss the comments you received from faculty members. What comments were most helpful, and how do you plan on responding to them in your practice routine? What comments did you find least helpful, and why? If you have questions about any of the scores or comments, note them here and discuss them with your teacher. 6. Compare this semester's jury scores and comments to those of previous semesters. [If this is your first jury, you can ignore this item.] Comment briefly on the areas of your playing whose scores showed improvement. What factors (new practice routine, technical change, etc.) do you think have contributed to improvement in these areas? Similarly, comment on areas that seem not to be improving (or declining), and discuss some possible changes to your approach that might help you reverse this trend. Discuss these changes with your private teacher.

Reflection Form:Freshmen Spring – PLG1A – Lessons and Performances 1. Describe one or two of your most successful performances this year. What elements made each performance a success? How did each performance represent progress toward one or more of your personal learning goals? 2. Comment on the aspects of your practice routine/method that enabled you to achieve the successful performance you describe. What aspects of your practice routine do you plan to continue during your sophomore year? What aspects, if any, of your practice routine might you change to increase your productivity? 3. If you employed any practice aids this year that you had not used before you began studying at UD, describe how these aids effected the quality and productiveness of your practice routine. 4. How did your improvement of technical facility over the course of the year impact your artistic expression as a performer? 5. Becoming a mature performer depends on the integration of various skills and knowledge bases. Evaluate how well your performances integrated solid technique and expressive playing with knowledge you have learned in classes such as harmony and ear-training. How has your approach to and ease of learning a piece been effected by your academic courses? 6. If possible (or if required by your studio teacher), upload one or more edited 2-3 min. clips of performances in a lesson, GSR, or other recital that are representative of your best performing this year. Why did you choose these clips, and what makes them representative of your best performing? Be sure to list the music being performed, the venue, and the date of the performance.

Reflection Form:Sophomore Fall – PLG1A – Lessons and Performance 1. Take a moment to review your answers to questions #1-3 in the FF_PLG1A_Lessons/Performances cell that you answered a year ago at this time. These questions each addressed your long-range goals as a musician and the expectations and values you brought to your private studies. After taking private lessons for a year, would you answer any of these questions differently, and if so, how? How have your goals and/or values as a musician changed? 2. What are your shorter-term goals as a performing musician? What do you hope to accomplish over the next three years, and what specific skills and repertoire do you hope to have learned? Do you think that you are making sufficient and timely progress toward these goals? Revisit the short-term goals that you articulated in response to question #4 in the FF_PLG1A_Lessons/Performances cell. Have your refined or changed your goals over the last year, and if so, how? 3. At the end of the sophomore year, every music major completes a process known as the sophomore review, one component of which is a performance hearing in which faculty members consider students' overall progress as performers. In preparation for this important milestone in your studies, what areas of your playing do you think need the most improvement? In what areas do you think you are progressing well? Discuss these strengths and weaknesses with your teacher and describe the repertoire and routine you plan to adopt to continue improving in these areas. 4. After discussing the repertoire you plan to perform this year with your teacher, choose at least one piece to analyze using skills and techniques learned in freshmen and sophomore harmony. As you study the piece, mark (on the score) harmonic structure, nonharmonic tones, cadence types and locations, motivic usage and development, and phrase types/functions. When you practice, work to project the musical structures that you have indicated on the score, and record yourself to hear if what you intend to project is audible. For now, please list the piece you chose and describe how you think this analytical exercise might impact your practicing and performance of the piece. (You will be asked to comment on this exercise in another cell of your ePortfolio.) 5. Discuss with your teacher how to use various practice aids such as a practice log, personal practice journal, progress chart, metronome, and recording technologies to increase the quality, productivity, and effectiveness of your practice time. Describe what practice aids you will try this semester/year and what difference do you think these aids will make to your practice routine. 6. Study the rating categories found on the jury evaluation sheet for your instrument/area and discuss with your teacher the standards that will be applied to your next jury. How were these standards chosen? To what extent will the jury scores be relative to the quality of the performance itself, the improvement displayed, and the difficulty of the repertoire performed? Record and discuss these standards here.

Reflection Form:Sophomore Spring – PLG1A – Lessons and Performances 1. Describe one or two of your most successful performances this semester. What elements made each performance a success? How did each performance represent progress toward one or more of your personal learning goals? 2. Comment on the aspects of your practice routine/method that enabled you to achieve the successful performance you describe. What aspects of your practice routine do you plan to continue during your sophomore year? What aspects, if any, of your practice routine might you change to increase your productivity? 3. If you employed any practice aids this year that you had not used before you began studying at UD, describe how these aids effected the quality and productiveness of your practice routine. 4. How did your improvement of technical facility over the course of the year impact your artistic expression as a performer? 5. Becoming a mature performer depends on the integration of various skills and knowledge bases. Evaluate how well your performances integrated solid technique and expressive playing with knowledge you have learned in classes such as harmony and ear-training. How has your approach to and ease of learning a piece been effected by your academic courses? 6. If possible (or if required by your studio teacher), upload one or more edited 2-3 min. clips of performances in a lesson, GSR, or other recital that are representative of your best performing this year. Why did you choose these clips, and what makes them representative of your best performing? Be sure to list the music being performed, the venue, and the date of the performance.

Reflection FormCapstone – PLG2 – Communication 1. Upload a [Word or PDF?] document of an extended research paper. In most cases, this paper will either be produced in MUSC312, MUSC313, or it will be your senior thesis. 2. This artifact is meant to represent your capstone achievement as a writer within the Department of Music. What elements of this paper distinguish it as some of your best work in the area of communication? 3. Explain why you chose to write on the topic covered in this paper. How does this topic relates to other personal areas of interest within music scholarship? How has researching this topic informed your work as a music performer and/or educator? If working on this paper seemed superfluous or irrelevant to your other activities, please explain why. Can you think of ways you might have approached your topic that would have been more ancillary to your development as a music professional? 4. How did working on your paper inform your sense of the kind of work that music scholars accomplish? What are the types of questions that your work engaged, and how do you see these questions being relevant to the larger project of music scholarship? 5. What types of writing do you anticipate doing as a music professional, and how has writing this paper prepared you for these activities? 6. The process of writing is, above all, a learning process; we learn more about a topic as we develop our ideas about it through written communication. What were some of the things you learned about your topic that arose through the writing process itself? Did writing about this topic allow you to explore and entertain a variety of perspectives, thus expanding your own perspective as a musician? 7. What aspects of working on this paper did you find easiest, and what aspects were the most difficult or frustrating? 8. Describe your writing process. To what extent is your final draft similar to your first draft? What parts of your paper changed significantly through the revision process? 9. What will be the life of this paper now that you have submitted it to your ePortfolio? Do you plan on researching the topic further? Do you have plans to present a lecture-recital on this topic? Do you plan on submitting this paper with applications to graduate school or posting it to a presentation portfolio?

Sight-Reading Program Philosophy

Reflection Form – PLG3 – Sight-Reading 1. List the pieces that you sight-read this semester. If after completing your entire proposed list of pieces you returned to the beginning, put an asterisk next to any pieces that you repeated. 2. Upload an edited 5-10 minute mp3 audio recording that is representative of your best sight-reading this semester. This clip should contain excerpts from no more than three pieces. If multiple pieces are used, they should reflect a variety of styles, tempi, figuration, etc. 3. After listing the composer(s), piece(s), and movement(s) on the audio recording, describe why you chose each excerpt, and what makes it representative of your best sight-reading. 4. Name one or two pieces that you found most difficult to sight-read and explain what you found to be difficult. 5. Name one or two pieces that you found fairly easy to sight-read and explain why these pieces seemed more accessible. 6. What effect did the sight-read music's technical accessibility have on your ability to play consistently and expressively, despite the presence of missed notes? 7. One of the important benefits of sight-reading is the opportunity you have to discover and learn new music from the inside out by getting the pieces into your bodies and minds. Compare the experience you had of learning music in this way to the experience of learning music by listening to recordings. What advantages or disadvantages does learning a piece by sight-reading it seem to have? 8. Name the one or two pieces that you discovered through sight-reading that you enjoyed the most and briefly describe what you found attractive about the music. Were there any pieces that you thoroughly disliked? 9. In the following text boxes, please comment briefly upon your general improvement over the course of the semester in each of the "Cognitive and Technical Sight-reading Skill Areas" listed below. (Please refer back to the sight-reading instruction pack provided you by your ear-training professor for a break down of each of these skill areas.) Please describe any successes and difficulties that you had in each area. Most importantly, try to comment on the degree to which the skills became habitual, that is, an ingrained, automatic part of the way you read music.Skill area #1: Mental Preparation 10. Skill area #2: Overall Consistency 11. Skill area #3: Data Processing 12. Skill area #4: Primary Focus - Engagement of the Inner Ear 13. Skill area #5: Secondary Focus - Engagement of the Body 14. Skill area #6: Style and Expression

Matrix Scaffold + Horizontal/Vertical reflections ____________________________ Deep and Intriguing Learning Story!

“She’s a…Machine!”: Areas of Resistance to ePortfolios

Resisting the ePortfolio Machine The Machine disrupts the “flow” of performance (Csíkszentmihályi 1996) The Machine “impinges on my academic freedom” The Machine will need constant oiling The Machine creates an artificial learning environment and imposes an artificial authority The Machine is “just another thing” we have to worry about The Machine is here today, and gone tomorrow The Machine is…a machine.

How might we respond? ePortfolios create the possibility of “flow” at a new temporal level, previously unimagined and, in many respects, unachieved. ePortfolios create academic freedom by making accessible new “pedagogies of learning.” What doesn’t need oiling? Assess, Assess, Assess! ePortfolios create authority by inviting students to be the author of their own intelligence and identity

Directions for Growth Must emanate from a dynamic knowledge of who we are and who we want to be—as individuals and as community. Group artifacts, group reflection Reflection on unsuccessful experiences Evaluation forms and rubrics Balancing process portfolio with a presentation portfolio that tells the story (Barrett 2010).

Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass (1855): 1 I sing the body electric, The armies of those I love engirth me and I engirth them, They will not let me off till I go with them, respond to them, And discorrupt them, and charge them full with the charge of the soul.

Student responses On Presentation vs. TLA Portfolio: “I think that having a learning portfolio is the best way to go. The way this is set up, it forces students to actively reflect on what they are learning.” “Making a presentation portfolio should be easy as long as students have the necessary technological skills because so much information is already organized and on ‘paper’.”

Student responses On Learning: “I know that my thoughts on the questions/prompts have changed quite a bit since the beginning of freshman year, I would have liked to have that in writing--I can only imagine others would feel the same way!” “It is great that students will have to download their own recordings and keep a record of repertoire and compositions they have performed/created. This will obviously be beneficial later, and help show us at graduation how far we have come. I know I am personally terrified to listen to my own performances, so I think the idea of recording oneself will be at first intimidating, but will ultimately help with self-assessment and improvement.”

Student responses On Reflections: “I enjoyed the fact that there were questions about our path to becoming music students as well as aspirations. I think keeping in mind our goals from time to time is one of the best forms of motivation and helps create a sense of purpose and meaning in our learning.”

Concluding Thoughts… With creativity in decline, we should argue more persuasively and persistently that school districts rethink any decision to pull music and the arts from their curriculums. At the same time, I think the ePortfolio community will benefit from having music practitioners more actively involved in the use of and research on ePortfolios as productive sites for teaching, learning, and assessment. ePortfolio thinking is musical thinking. Start by asking “who is the body that sings?” Individual understands self and place, and is always dynamically moving to participate in community. Our ePortfolio experiences as faculty and students will be greatly enriched if they are community-based and community-building. By modeling integrative and artistic learning habits, music programs represent a rich place to explore and push the possibilities of ePortfolios – a place to sing the body electric.

Contact Information: Dr. Daniel B. Stevens Assistant Professor of Music Theory Assessment Liaison, Department of Music University of Delaware (302) 831-8890 stevens@udel.edu

References: Barrett, Helen. “Balancing the Two Faces of ePortfolios.” Educação, Formação & Tecnologias(May 2010). Accessed at <http://electronicportfolios.com/portfolios.html> on July 17, 2010. Csíkszentmihályi, Mihály. Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention. New York: Harper Perennial, 1996. Farrell, Thomas S. C. Reflective Practice in Action: 80 Reflection Breaks for Busy Teachers. Thousand Oaks: Corwin Press, 2004. Korsyn, Kevin. Decentering Music: A Critique of Contemporary Musical Research. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003. Panettieri, Joseph C. “Can ePortfolios connect? These five smart steps can help you navigate perilous ePortfolio territory.” bNet. May 2004. <http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0LSH/is_5_7/ai_n6038166/?tag=content;col1> Accessed July 5, 2010 Readings, Bill. The University in Ruins. Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 1997. Van Manen, M. “Reflectivity and the Pedagogical Moment: The Normativity of Pedagogical Thinking and Acting.” Journal of Curriculum Studies 23 (1991): 507–536.

Singing the Body Electric: How ePortfolios Empower College Musicians to Develop Creative Voices

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