Ravinia’s Music Discovery Program is off to a great start in Chicago Public Schools. Students are having a blast learning more about music concepts, taking part in musical activities, and more this year.
Elementary school educators like Seward Academy’s Dora Gonzalez, who has been a teacher for 26 years, are grateful for the impact the program has on their students. “Programs like these are so important to have in schools for many reasons. Schools, nowadays, only focus on academics and seem to forget that the arts are also important for a child’s cognitive and social-emotional development. These programs evoke interest in music, in musical instruments, in different artists and musical genres. They evoke learning about different cultures and different dances as well,” Gonzalez said.
Every classroom is different in how they introduce music through the program, but ultimately the program enhances students’ musical (and academic) skills by providing teaching artists for multi-week, interactive music residencies in classrooms. Music Discovery also provides professional resources to the classroom teachers, who have the opportunity to attend music education workshops throughout the school year.
Gonzalez regularly incorporates ideas that she has learned from the professional development sessions she attends through Music Discovery. One technique she learned introduces clapping beats to help students recall important information. “When I want my students to remember a main idea from a story or a specific rule, I have my students clap a beat to that idea or rule. We learn many things from the workshops, and I use bits and pieces whenever or wherever I can during the year to aid the students’ academic growth and musical exposure,” Gonzalez shared.
Pasteur Elementary School teacher Carmen Guzman similarly enthuses about how, after teaching artists have worked with her class to arrange songs—even using the students’ thoughts and ideas—they practice those songs as much as possible throughout the school day. “I give the students ‘brain breaks,’ and we sing one of our songs to relax their brains. Our days in the program are never the same; we incorporate the program throughout the year in many different ways,” Guzman said.
Students are always looking forward to teaching artists visiting their classrooms, and they have been for as long as the program has been in their schools. Gonzalez’s school, Seward Academy, has been in partnership with Music Discovery for more than 10 years, while Guzman’s Pasteur Elementary School has more than 15 years’ experience. The teaching artists are essential to the program and set expectations for the students right away; they model strong routines and cues. Music Discovery provides tools that allow students to express their feelings—and many times to just take a break and get all the jitters out.
Many teachers notice that after teaching artists’ visits, students are more focused, energetic, and more willing to participate in the classroom. Students who were hesitant to get involved in group activities became more social as well. “Programs like this allow students to express themselves and discover hidden talents, and have helped others open up and build social skills,” Guzman said. “Our students also have many different learning styles, and the program provides teachers the opportunity to become familiar with each individual: their likes, dislikes, and passions.”
At the end of the school year, after months of learning music concepts, activities, and songs, students participate in a program-wide showcase at Ravinia Festival. The Music Discovery Program culminates in an all-student performance at each school as well as several schools together making a visit to Ravinia, where they perform during a six-day celebration called Ravinia Days.
“The students at Pasteur have always enjoyed putting on the show for parents. Every year my shyest student was the loudest in the show. It has helped build their self-esteem. Even our staff have expressed their creative talents decorating the stage for the show,” Guzman said.
Gonzalez shared the same sentiment, and went further to say that last year’s school performance was the most special to witness. Seward Academy students were left astonished—they could not believe that so many musicians and teaching artists were going to play the background music for them as they sang. “Some of my students told me that they felt special. Others said that they felt like they were actually ‘famous.’ That was the best feeling I had, knowing that my students were experiencing that sense of joy.”
About Music Discovery Program
To restore music education in schools that currently have little to no curriculum of their own, Ravinia offers the resources of several different initiatives like the Music Discovery Program. This program enhances students’ musical skills by providing teaching artists for multi-week, interactive music residencies in kindergarten through 3rd-grade classrooms. Student learning is supported by ongoing professional development for teachers and artists. At the end of each residency, all of the joy and excitement of the musical exploration comes to life as students give performances at their school and at Ravinia. The residency-based program, one at the core of Ravinia’s Reach Teach Play music education initiatives, currently serves more than 20 schools and reaches over 3,000 students a year.