Interdisciplinary
Our courses and programs are interdisciplinary. We address standards of learning in five key areas: 1) Computer/Information Technology; 2) English; 3) Health/Physical Education; 4) Fine Arts/Media Arts; and 5) Social Studies.
Integrating Learning
Writing is the one form of communication that is integral to the information, news industry and media entertainment. Reading, writing, understanding, and reasoning remain necessary skills to function and thrive in this digital age.
STANDARDS ADDRESSED
ENGLISH [LANGUAGE ARTS]
Read text closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it.
Cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text.
Determine central ideas or themes of a text to analyze their development; summarize the key supporting details and ideas.
Interpret words and phrases as they are used in any text, including determining technical, connotative, and figurative meanings,,and analyze how specific word choices shape meaning or tone.
Analyze the structure of song lyrics, including how specific sentences, paragraphs, and larger portions of the text relate to each other and the whole.
Assess how point of view or purpose shapes the content and style of the song lyrics.
Evaluate author’s ’point of view, reasoning, and use of evidence and rhetoric.
information literacy
MS Office Basics
(Internet) Research Basics
Course titles
Music and Media Literacy™
Beats, Ballads, Jokes, & Poems™
Songwriting and Music Publishing™
enrichment Program options
MusicsEnergy: Life Literacy Program (ME: LLP) is an evidence-based approach to teaching, learning, and enrichment that uses the broad appeal of Popular Youth Music and Media (PYMM) as content and context to build competencies. It is comprised of three signature programs described below.
MusicsEnergy: Messages in Music(tm)
MusicsEnergy: Messages in Music ™[ME: MIM]
ME: MIM helps young people achieve higher levels of competence in five key areas of human development. The five areas are:cognitive, behavioral, emotional, moral, and social competence.Specific skills in these five areas are targeted, observed and compared from pre-to post intervention:
Sample Learning Objectives:
Improve cognitive skills: [i.e., critical analysis and logic, decision making, reading comprehension, critical listening, and critical viewing,];
Improve emotional skills [i.e., identifying and labeling feelings, assessing the intensity of feelings, and learning techniques to control impulses];
Improve and; social and behavioral skills [i.e., asking questions, taking notes, learning the expectations and benefits of classroom participation]; and
Improve moral reasoning skills [i.e., identifying moral dilemmas and demonstrate increasing proficiency in prosocial decision making.
MusicsEnergy: Songwriting with Young People(tm)
ME: Songwriting with Young People™ [SYP]
ME: SYP introduces students to fundamentals of songwriting, music composition, production and recording technology. Instruction is from a socio-cultural perspective and encourages entrepreneurship, over the course of two levels [i.e., L1 and L2]. Emphasis is teaching central tenants of social entrepreneurship through creative, personal, and social responsibility.
Students participate in seven units of instruction. When fully funded, Units 6 and 7 result in the co-writing and co-producing a commercially-released and viable professional recording or original songs.
Sample Learning Objectives
Be conversant in discussing the role music plays (and its potential) in human development, during adolescence.
Be conversant in describing the power and potential of words, sounds, and images to inspire health, hope, and healing at the individual, group, and societal levels.
Be conversant in conveying the power and potential of original music to change, shape, or shift attitudes, beliefs, choices, and perceptions about self, others, and the world around us.