Social Emotional Learning (SEL) in the Music Technology Contest

Social Emotional Learning (SEL) in the Music Technology Context

Colleen Ferry Gilmore J. Fisher Middle School, Ewing, NJ cferry@ewingboe.org

While we may be unsure of what school will look like for the remainder of the 2020-21 year, it is important to recognize how essential music classes have been and continue to be for our students’ social and emotional wellbeing. The purpose of this article is to illustrate the great potential that music technology enrichments specifically have to promote students’ Social Emotional Learning (SEL). While I am focusing on this specific type of music class, it is important to note that all music classes at every grade level have a positive impact on students.

Many music teachers were tasked with engaging and motivating their students through hybrid and/or remote learning. This is made challenging by numerous factors including resources at students’ homes, different learning needs, support systems at home, and the psychological side effects that quarantine and separation from school may have already had on students. Music classes are unique in that they naturally provide an outlet for creativity, a place to build close positive relationships (Edgar, 2017), as well as social and emotional growth all of which are crucial during an especially challenging school year. Through teaching music technology in alternating hybrid and remote scenarios, I have seen how beneficial music enrichments can be for students and a place to naturally incorporate SEL. It should also be noted that this type of enrichment class was highly adaptable to either scenario.

The five core competence areas of SEL are: Selfawareness, self-management, responsible decision making, social awareness and relationship skills (CASEL, 2019). Self-awareness is the ability to understand your own emotions and thoughts and how they impact how you behave. Students develop self-awareness as they create personal projects that express their personality, culture, opinions and feelings. Many students who were enrolled in my class had not had previous music experience, so this was also an opportunity for them to discover an interest in making music using digital tools. For example, students spent time exploring BandLab where they found they could easily combine loops and create music on their own. In another activity, students created personal playlists to connect songs to significant events in their life. This required identifying emotions they felt, and emotions conveyed in music and creating a playlist to express them.

Self-management includes managing emotions, planning and organization skills and setting goals. When working on one of our most involved projects, which was creating and recording a podcast, students had to plan and organize the format of their podcast and plan ahead their talking points. Students were given a suggested project timeline to assist them in time management, but during remote learning days had to practice self-discipline and self-motivation in order to work on the project.

Responsible decision making includes making mindful choices, and also refers to finding solutions to problems, making reasonable judgements, recognizing consequences, and understanding the impact one’s actions can have on others. When working in pairs and groups on projects, students came up with creative solutions and techniques to get around working together while being apart.

Finally, and possibly most important during remote and hybrid learning, are social awareness and relationship skills. Students benefit greatly from having time to socialize and build positive relationships with fellow students, and I saw more students become progressively more open and comfortable with classmates throughout the semester

as they discovered shared interests or even taste in music. Social awareness is the ability to take others’ perspectives, identify other’s strengths, and show empathy and support for each other. An early project we made using BandLab was making a song to use an alarm clock. Students had the option to share these with the class, and were quick to provide positive comments and encourage their peers to share. Going forward, more and more students were open to sharing projects and expressing themselves more extensively through projects.

The fifth core competency is relationship skills which refers to practicing teamwork, developing healthy relationships, communicating clearly, and work in contexts with diverse learners. Music classes are almost always inclusive, and have many different types of learners together which does not happen in other classes. This challenges students to understand the diversity of their class, and work with everyone in a respectful manner. When learning about composition using Noteflight, we composed a piece as a class. Students were able to give input about the melody, instrumentation and tempo and had to agree on these decisions as a class.

For the projects and activities mentioned, students will need a device with internet. The following websites and applications were used, and are free to use: BandLab for Education, Noteflight, Chrome Music Lab, Nearpod, Google Apps. Please feel free to reach out to me at cferry@ewingboe.org if you would like lesson plans for the activities referenced.

References

CASEL. “What is SEL?” (2019). Retrieved from https://casel.org/what-is-sel/

Edgar, S. (2017). Music education and social emotional learning: The heart of teaching music. Chicago, IL: GIA Publications Inc.

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