Composing Our Future

Composing Our Future is the ideal book for music teacher-educators seeking to learn more about composition education. While much has been written on the value of composition, both pre-service and practicing teachers still report a degree of trepidation when asked to engage in composition or in leading students to compose. In order to prepare pre-service teachers and meet the needs of practitioners already in the field, music teacher educators need resources to guide the development of undergraduate and graduate curriculum, specific courses, professional development workshops, and environments where composition education can begin, grow and flourish.
This volume offers insight to current practices written by authors engaged in this work. Each chapter provides information, solid theory, and examples of successful practices that teacher educators can draw upon in the creation and implementation of engaging and invigorating practices in music education. This information includes:
· A charge to teacher educators to embrace composition as a critical component in teacher preparation
· An examination of the philosophical issues surrounding composition's inclusion in, and exclusion from, music teacher education
· An overview of what is known about child composers and the work they create and how to help teachers draw vital information from that body of literature
· An examination of the relationship between creativity and composition
· Examples of successful practices ranging from working with individual special learners to teaching in a variety of school-based teaching contexts
· Models of university and school-based partnerships to facilitate pre-service teachers' transition from collegiate study to school-based work with children
· An exploration into new tools, partnerships and opportunities available through technology
· A vision for creating and sustaining meaningful composition programs both in colleges and in PK-12 schools

Michele Kashub is Professor of Music Education at the University of Southern Maine. She is a frequent workshop presenter on the topic of music composition in the classroom and she has published in such journals as Research Studies in Music Education, Choral Journal, Music Educators Journal, and Quarterly Journal of Music Teaching and Learning. Janice Smith is Associate Professor of Music Education at Queens College, City University of New York. Like Kaschub, she is a frequent workshop presenter and also auther of articles which have appeared in several music education journals. Together they are authors of Minds on Music: Composition for Creative and Critical Thinking (2009).

- Contents
- Introduction
- Chapter 1. Embracing Composition in Music Teacher Education, Michele Kaschub and Janice Smith
- Section I. Foundations and Futures
- Chapter 2. Music Composition Intelligence and Creative Thinking in Music, Peter Webster
- Chapter 3. How Teachers Can Learn from Composition Research, Maud Hickey
- Chapter 4. The Compositional Turn in Music Education: From Closed Forms to Open Texts, Randall Everett Allsup
- Section II. Model Practices in Teaching Composition
- Chapter 5. Preparing to Engage Children in Musical Creating, Sandra Stauffer
- Chapter 6. Scaffolding Student Composers, Jackie Wiggins with Mike Medvinsky
- Chapter 7. Teaching Gifted Learners in Composition, Daniel Deutsch
- Chapter 8. Facilitating Composition in Instrumental Settings, Alexander J. Koops
- Chapter 9. Guiding Composition in Choral Settings, Katherine Strand
- Chapter 10. Composition and Students with Special Needs, Alice M. Hammel
- Section III: Composition and Technology
- Chapter 11. Capitalizing on Emerging Technologies in Composition Education, Rick Dammers
- Chapter 12. The Vermont Midi Project - Fostering Mentorships in Multiple Environments, Sandi McLeod
- Chapter 13. Digital Natives and Composition in the Middle School Band: From Imagination to Music, Bruce Carter
- Section IV. Composition in Undergraduate Courses
- Chapter 14. Composition in International Settings: Broadening Pre-service Perceptions, Patricia Riley
- Chapter 15. Pre-Service Teachers in Urban Settings: Composing Connections, Janice Smith
- Chapter 16. Preparing Teachers to Facilitate Songwriting, John Kratus
- Section V. Strategic Administrative Practices for Including Composition in Music Education
- Chapter 17. "All In" for Composition Education: Opportunities and Challenges for Pre-Service Music Teacher Curricula, John Richmond
- Chapter 18. Creating School-University Partnerships to Enhance Composition Teaching and Learning, Gena Greher
- Chapter 19. Advancing Composition in Music Education Through Strategic Professional Development, Michele Kaschub
- Section VI .Moving Forward
- Chapter 20. Enacting the Vision: Creating and Sustaining Meaningful Composition, Betty Anne Younker
- Author bios
- Index