Throughout 2014, a team of music education students including undergraduates Tyler Cano and Nicole Sanchez and doctoral students Isaac Bickmore and Jesse Rathgeber facilitated a songwriting project with students at Mountain Sky Junior High in partnership with ASU Gammage. In connection with the musical Once, Mountain Sky students created seven original songs that addressed the theme of Songs of the Heart.
Mountain Sky students performed their original songs for the public by the entrance of Gammage prior to the performance of Once. Our team helped scaffold Mountain Sky students’ learning and engagement throughout the process and celebrated their development as musicians and songwriters.
ASU students involved in the project applied and developed their skills at facilitating creative music making and fostering artistic inquiry. The team shared their experience and perspectives on the potential of such partnerships and the power of reflection in teacher practice at the 2015 Mountain Lake Colloquium for Teacher of General Music in the presentation Reflecting In Action: Preservice Teacher and Graduate Student Reflections on a Middle School Songwriting Project.
This project would not have been possible without the support of ASU Gammage, teachers and administration of Mountain Sky Junior High, and ASU music education department.
