Christina Virgilio 1

Background Introductory choir for females Allows everyone to learn the same fundamentals Separation by gender to help guys and advance girls Freshmen have experience learning by rote “quick fix” Cannot just learn songs, must learn transferrable skills 2

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Music Literacy “Although students may not study music for a career in music, they still should be given the tools they need to continue pursuing music as a part of their lives” (Kuehne, 2010, p. 13). If students can read music notation, they are able to focus on the musical components of the literature, instead of just the notes and rhythms Music is what is not the notes Challenging for vocalists (pitch matching) Get better at sight-singing by doing it 4

Current Practice Sight-singing part of daily rehearsal routine after vocal warm-ups use a method book, modify as needed large-group instruction and individual assessment 5

Assessment Group’s success is not always an accurate indicator of individual achievement Assessment: individual, frequent, organized Students and teacher can recognize progress or challenges throughout learning process Teacher can offer feedback and strategies to help 6

Differentiated instruction Assessments and teaching strategies should provide appropriate challenges “fit the students rather than requiring that students adapt to fit the curriculum” Theory of Multiple Intelligences- give options so students can acquire and process information based on the way they understand Students acknowledge preferred learning mode 7

Purpose of Study The purpose of this study is to compare freshmen female high school choir students’ sight-singing achievement when using and not using self-selected practice techniques. More study is needed to determine the effects of student choice in learning sight-singing. 8

Research Questions Is there a significant difference in sight-singing achievement between singers who use self-selected practice techniques and singers who do not use self-selected practice techniques? What is the measurable difference in sight-singing achievement from the pre-test and post-test scores when practice techniques are used and not used? What are the students’ perceptions of their selected practice techniques? Is there a relationship between specific practice techniques and students’ achievement level? Is there a relationship between students’ previous musical experience and the technique that they selected? 9

Definitions & Limitations Musical achievement - the measure of rhythm and pitch accuracy scores as recorded by Smartmusic Groups will consist of female freshmen singers from one high school. Results may not accurately represent male singers, other grade levels, or other demographics. 10

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Plan and Materials Floyd and Bradley (2006): Surveyed 24 Kentucky HS choir directors whose choirs received a “distinguished” rating in sight-singing at state festival 80% of the directors taught sight-singing for the entire school year and 83% taught it at the beginning of the rehearsal as part of their daily routine Students need to sight-sing on a regular basis in order to improve (Demorest, 1998) 50% of the high school teachers used a combination of self-composed exercises along with a method book 12

System May’s (1993) study found that moveable-do was used by 82% of the responding teachers Demorest and May (1995) sought to determine if the sight-singing system influenced students’ scores Students using the moveable-do system scored significantly higher students that used moveable-do received more consistent training (K-12) than the students using fixed- do 13

Group-Instruction Henry and Demorest (1994) sought to determine whether group success indicated individual achievement High-achieving choirs received an individual average of 66% in pitch and rhythm accuracy Group achievement was not a highly accurate gauge of individual achievement in sight-singing 14

Individual Assessment Demorest (1998): analyzed the student achievement of students with a regular program of individual testing and students with only group instruction Treatment group was individually tested once a week along with regular group instruction Significantly greater gain for the treatment group on the major melody, but not the minor melody The minor melody may have shown weaker results because the teachers mainly focused on the major melodies. 15

Hand Signs McClung (2008) wanted to determine if HS choir students achieved higher sight-singing scores with the use of hand signs No significant differences in the scores when students used or did not use hand signs Students’ preferences: general rise-and-fall gesture (57%), specific hand sign gesture (23%), or no hand signs (18%) Further research could determine relationships between students' learning mode preferences and sight-singing skills. 16

Preparation Time Henry and Killian (2005): sought to determine if there was a significant difference in sight-singing scores when participants had thirty seconds to practice prior to their performance Most successful strategies used during preparation included tonicizing the key, using hand signs, keeping the beat, and isolating problem areas 17

External Influences Prior experience and training are advantages in developing literacy skills, but it is often true that "training attracts the talented" (Demorest 1998, pg. 9) Killian and Henry (2005): high-achieving students typically had more music and sight-singing experience 18

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Participants Batavia High School: 84.2% White, 9.2% Hispanic, 2.4% Black, 2.0% Asian 10% low-income at BHS (49% in district) 10.6% IEP Control Group: 45 freshmen female students in Women’s Chorale (Fall 2013) Treatment Group: freshmen female students in Women’s Chorale (Fall 2014) Most participants were in middle school choir 20

Research Instrument Smartmusic- interactive learning program Marks correct/incorrect pitches and rhythms Laptop and microphone Sing at First Sight 4 weeks of introduction before pre-test 21

Pre-Test and Post-Test 8 measures, 66 bpm key of F major with 4/4 time signature step-wise and starts/ends on do 60 seconds to review the exercise and then the computer will tonicize the key (do-mi-sol-mi-do-sol,- do), give the starting pitch, and click off four beats before the downbeat Evaluation of pitch and rhythm accuracy (out of 100%) Score will be submitted with an audio file and a screenshot 22

Course Assessments 13 weeks of regular assessments and in-class instruction Post-test is the same as pre-test 3 practice methods for treatment group: tapping the beat using hand signs vocally tonicizing the key 23

Survey for Treatment Group years of previous choir experience (in-school) years of previous choir experience (outside of school) years of piano experience years of instrumental experience Select preferred practice method and write a short- answer response why they chose that particular method if they think it helped with their sight-singing 24

Statistic Tests Analyzing pre-test and post-test scores and responses to the survey questions Descriptive statistics (M, SD) one-way ANOVA independent sample analysis 2 pre-test scores 2 post-test scores one-way ANOVA correlated sample analysis: relationship between the pre-test and the post-test scores within each group ANCOVA test if pre-test scores are unequal to adjust the post-test means based on the pre-test means 25

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