Music Literacy at the Secondary Level: Studying Direct Instruction Intervention With High School Instrumentalists

• In Event: 51.081 - Sheraton Roundtable Session Nine - Grand Centre
  In Roundtable Session: 51.081-6 - Music Teacher Development Across the Career Span

Abstract

Creating well-rounded students involves establishing multiple modes of literacy. In this study, we duplicate and expand Lowe and Belcher’s 2012 work to better understand the impact of direct instruction intervention to enhance high school instrumentalists’ music literacy. This investigation draws data gathered from three instrumental music ensembles (N = 69) from one urban high school in the Northeastern United States. Following daily intervention, it was found that tonal and rhythmic music literacy improved, students reported positive perceptions especially with the intervention, and that interviews confirmed theses quantitative and qualitative findings. Future avenues of research are offered including expanding the intervention to other grade levels, and tracking student retention across multiple years.

Authors

• Robert Hughes, Naugatuck High School

• Mary E Yakimowski, Samford University