Philosophical Perspectives
Reflecting on the Issues Related to Music
and the Other Arts
in the Education of Children
Preparation: Review one of the Selected Books. You may read the entire book if you wish. If your choice is to massive to digest in two weeks, look it over and make a plan to get the most out of it in five hours or less. A good place to start is the table of contents.
Choose sections of the book that cover issues that are especially relevant to your own teaching situation and to those of your classmates. Introductions on the first day of class will give you information about your classmates' situations.
Your primary responsibility is to represent the views of the author, even if you do not agree with them. You may also express your dissenting opinion as an addition to your presentation.
Prepare two pages to be distributed to class members that include the following:
1. Bibliographic citation for the book.
2. Several important quotes or points from the book.
3. Several questions that you plan to discuss with room for discussion notes.
4. Leave adequate blank space for note taking.
Presentation / Discussion: Session (25-30 minutes):
1. Present an overview of several important questions or considerations prompted by your selected book.
2. Ask questions and provide prompts to inspire class discussion. Have a list of responses you expect to help you as you guide the discussion.
3. Be prepared to give further information and to rephrase your questions in case your first question doesn't inspire the responses you expect or that you find appropriate.
Evaluation:
The evaluation of your presentation / discussion will be as follows:
____ (5) Substantive presentation of the author's perspectives
____ (3) Questions or directed guidance to provoke an enlightened discussion of the authors perspective.
____ (1) Your personal reflections
____ (1) Further questions or directed guidance to engage the rest of the class in reflective thinking about the issues at hand.____ 10 points total
Revised on 6/18/07