Make a difference in a public high school? A personal experience in music classes

This paper reports a classroom/action research project using personal ethnography. Teaching strategies were identified which were found to be effective in making a difference in students' music learning in a public high school in a socially and economically deprived area where students were described by the school administration as 'feral'. Descriptions of students, parents, and their socio-economic environment were those supplied by the school administration to this researcher in the form of professional contexts within which she was expected to work. Students showed positive changes in their musical achievement and attitudes towards music. Teaching strategies effective for making the difference were: 1) Teach music with sounds, not with paper-pencil worksheets; 2) Students need something in which to accumulate their work in music classes; 3) Use 'Australian Idol' as a singing game to teach singing in tune; 4) Students, often with low self esteem, should be encouraged to recognise and value their own musical potential; 5) Copying music is an effective way to introduce music notations to notation-phobic high school students. Problem-solving abilities and creative thinking were seen to be important to the processes of teaching and learning.