The aim in any classroom should be to have students actively involved in learning. This is not an easy task because the needs and learning styles are so different for every student in the class.

A good teacher will ensure that all students participate in class and will use a variety of strategies to ensure this occurs. This may involve the use of music. I have, unfortunately seen teachers use music as a pacifier (students listening to music using headphones), claiming that the students are engaged in their learning because they are quiet and doing their work. There is a whole lot of research that indicates that, in fact, students will have difficulty learning this way, however that is another debate.

It is crucial to “know” your students; know how they learn, know about them; know their strengths, their weaknesses, know their needs and know their interests. Tapping into the interests of students is a great way to get to know students and to help them understand their own world as well as the world of others. Music can work well in doing this. Content and product, however, should not be the major focus. Sound pedagogical practices need to be applied no matter what the vehicle for learning. Shirley Clarke’s work based around learning intentions and success criteria is a sound basis for making the learning transparent for students and takes the focus off content and product onto learning. Hattie and Timperley (2007) describe three questions that should guide learning for students:

• Where am I going? (Learning Intention)
• How am I going? (Success Criteria)
• Where to next? (Feedback)

Learning intentions takes the focus away from what the student is doing to what the student is learning and success criteria assists students in knowing whether they have been successful or not and helps them plan for the future.

Taking this research into account I created some differentiated workshops for Year 7-8 English students to improve their “listening” skills. Students were placed into groups of 8-10 based on their learning need. I developed the following learning intentions and success criteria.

Learning intention:

I will understand:

• the importance of listening skills
• there are different levels of listening.
• how language is used for different audiences and purposes.

Success criteria

 I will be able to:

• make a judgment
• identify and explain issues
• respond by asking questions and/or taking notes
• remember key ideas
• hear and identify key words
• pay attention
• prepare myself for listening

Music was the vehicle for this learning. I specifically selected the first songs and these were by Archie Roach, an Aboriginal Australian singer and song writer because his music related to other texts being studied in the school and covered one of the curriculum priority areas. The learning intentions and success criteria were discussed prior to any activity. The activities, depending on the group ranged from “preparing to listen”, to counting specific words in the song, to discussing key ideas, to students responding by asking questions about the song and ideas contained in it, to taking notes, exploring issues and making judgments about those issues. Once students had been successful in “hearing and identifying” key ideas we moved onto student-selected music where listening and discussion centered round the ideas and issues.

These activities were successful in a number of ways. Students were engaged and they were active but more importantly they all knew that they were learning and they knew what they had to do in the future to be successful. The added benefit for myself was that I got to know my students even better.

Useful links:

http://www.shirleyclarke-education.org

https://visible-learning.org/john-hattie/