Please help me turn Discovering Music into a solid History credit!

[travelgirlut]

My daughter is an aspiring music major and is excited about doing Discovering Music this upcoming 10th grade year.  On the website it says it's a full history credit, but looking through the content has me doubting.  I'd love to add some non-fiction history reads to flesh it out.  The course covers classical music, major historical events, and cultural and philosophical movements of the period 1600-1914.  Do you have any history must-reads for this time period?  I'd love to hear about them!!  I've included the chapter titles below for reference, though I will admit they aren't the most descriptive.  Thanks for your help!!

Module 1    Using Music History to Unlock Western Culture

Module 2    Music Entwined with Great Events of Western History

Module 3    Technology, Terminology, and Cultural Perspective

Module 4    Fanfare and Power: The Court of Louis XIV

Module 5    Sweeping Away the Renaissance into the Baroque

Module 6    Liturgical Calendar, Street Parties, and the New Church Music

Module 7    A Lively Journey Through the Life of Johann Sebastian Bach

Module 8    Enlightenment, Classicism, and the Astonishing Mozart

Module 9    Into the Abyss: The Century Struggles with Unfettered Imagination

Module 10    Beethoven as Hero and Revolutionary

Module 11    Salons, Poetry, and the Power of Song

Module 12    A Tale of Four Virtuosi and the Birth of the Tone Poem

Module 13    Nationalism and the Explosion of Romantic Opera

Module 14    The Absolutely New World of Wagner

Module 15    Imperial Russia - A Cultural Odyssey

Module 16    Load Up the Wagons: The Story of American Music

Module 17    Turning the Page on Western Tradition with the Explosion of War

[cbollin]

It's been a long time since I used Discovering Music. (7 years or so?) My oldest used it in grade 10 as credit in fine arts/humanities.  We were doing mfw's world history and literature (high school year 2) at the time. Maybe some of their materials would work for you to mix/match history and music?  With that said, as a credit in humanities or fine arts, I really think it was enough for year credit. I looked at my records and I gave it a semester, but it looks like we didn't do everything in the student book, or listen to audio cds (probably downloads now, right?) Also, we only used it in second semester of that school year (to match up time history in mfw stuff) so I said a semester. But looking at it on my desk right now, I vote year credit and just take 2 weeks per module and do the extra assignments in the book, which we did not do.  just one opinion.

[travelgirlut]

21 hours ago, cbollin said:

It's been a long time since I used Discovering Music. (7 years or so?) My oldest used it in grade 10 as credit in fine arts/humanities.  We were doing mfw's world history and literature (high school year 2) at the time. Maybe some of their materials would work for you to mix/match history and music?  With that said, as a credit in humanities or fine arts, I really think it was enough for year credit. I looked at my records and I gave it a semester, but it looks like we didn't do everything in the student book, or listen to audio cds (probably downloads now, right?) Also, we only used it in second semester of that school year (to match up time history in mfw stuff) so I said a semester. But looking at it on my desk right now, I vote year credit and just take 2 weeks per module and do the extra assignments in the book, which we did not do.  just one opinion.

Thank you for the info.  So are you saying that just by doing all of the included content that you would count it as a history credit?  I have no problem giving it a music history credit, but that counts as fine arts and not history and I'm aiming for a history credit.  I may just get a history textbook and have her read the pertinent parts.  We'll see.

[Lori D.]

Just me, but I would have a hard time counting this as a History course. It looks like a solid Fine Arts: Music Appreciation, or possibly a Music: Western Music History & Appreciation course.

I just went to the link you provided and looked at the syllabus -- at multiple points in the syllabus there are "listening exercises" -- which is definitely a Music Appreciation activity, not a History-based activity. I also looked at one of the video lesson excerpts, and she does include historical information as backdrop to the music, so there is a little bit of History included in the course -- more along the lines of an integrated Humanities.

Again, just me, but if needing a *History* credit,I would think it vital to add an overview History text as a secondary spine along with this music-based course to create a solid History + Humanities course. Perhaps something like the longer Spielvogel Western Civilization vol. 2 1500-present, or just the relevant parts of  Patterns of Interaction: World History -- pages 525-860 (~ 330 pages) cover the time frame of 1600-1914 (WW1), which is roughly the time frame of the Discovering Music course. That second option would not be too onerous -- less than 10 pages per week if spreading it out over a 36-week school year.

All that said -- the video excerpt looks very interesting and engaging, and I totally think it would be worth it to find a resource to flesh out the History side of this program to make it a History credit. OR... just count it as a Fine Arts, as is! (:D BEST of luck, whatever you decide. Warmest regards, Lori D.

ETA -- PS
If wanting to add a high school history textbook but for a student with a lower reading level or dyslexia, the AGS Power Basics books are designed to cover the topics in a typical high school course, but in lower grade level vocabulary and simpler sentences.

Edited July 1, 2019 by Lori D.

[kbutton]

Did you see the teacher's guide sample in case that helps? https://www.professorcarol.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Teachers-Manual-Sample.pdf

 

[cbollin]

13 hours ago, travelgirlut said:

Thank you for the info.  So are you saying that just by doing all of the included content that you would count it as a history credit?  I have no problem giving it a music history credit, but that counts as fine arts and not history and I'm aiming for a history credit.  I may just get a history textbook and have her read the pertinent parts.  We'll see.

No. that isn't what I was trying to say.   I did not use it as "history" or "social studies" for core credit.  I used something else (mfw) for "world history". And also used Discovering Music the second semester of that same year to meet a "fine arts" check box for our cover school.  I also suggested that you could look at the books on the mfw world history and literature site and see if you like any of those to do a history course that would help you out if you needed a "core type of history course to list". Lots of textbooks and encyclopedia stuff. timelines, etc. that might be something you want for traditional history approach.

My personal opinion is that DM is way more than "music appreciation" but not "core history credit where you learn about wars and traditional school things like that".  I was just saying I do think it's a year's worth of learning at high school level for grade 10 even if it is only 17 modules. The video lectures have quite a lot in them and if I remember correctly, Professor Carol talks at the speed like she's in college lecture and goes fast.    With all of that said,  I know the publisher/author says "history" is an option.  I do think that as a non core (US or World) kind of history it can count as that third course in "other social studies" that is commonly placed in transcripts.  If one can use sociology, or psychology, or geography, or a specialized studies in history (rise and fall of soviet union, 20th century studies, ancient history, economics, government, etc) as the third "social studies" or "history category" on transcript, then, yes, this course could meet that kind of requirement in my opinion.  Even so, I'd still lean in the fine arts side of it from personal use, but in theory, I did want to mention that. and please take a look at the link above with more info about the course in the teacher manual. 

ps: I guess I am saying that I'm a little different in that I don't think all history credit has to be "war and dynasty" centered in order to be "history". I'd just use DM as a third social studies course instead of required world history kind of class if I leaned toward calling it history/social studies instead of fine arts.

Edited July 1, 2019 by cbollin
add the PS

[travelgirlut]

Thank you all for your input!  I'm going to go ahead and get a history text to go along with the program just to make sure we're covering our bases.

[katilac]

One text you might consider is The Humanistic Tradition, because each volume and then each chapter has good introductions and summaries. It's easy to pick and choose what you are going to cover. Because it is meant to fit art, music, and literature along with history already, it might work well with Discovering Music. Actually, if you really wanted to fit everything together, you could correlate your literature choices as well (using the HT excerpts and recommended reading as a jumping-off point) and wind up with credits for English, history, and fine arts that dovetail together very nicely. 

If you go this route, buy the used older editions, they're fine. 

Another choice would be to add some biographies; just choose people from the historical figures listed in the teacher's guide. 

[cbollin]

on the "add some biographies" route that was suggested:  just info here on that. There are times in the assignments where student does independent research on various historical figures.  As far as I can tell, no specific library list is given for books.  Students are given suggestions questions to find the answers to.  Some of the historical figures are political; some are composers.  So, I think you'll know when and who to add without a lot of extra teacher prep work on that.  side note: some of the research and learn topics are about history of organizations and buildings too.  Flipping back through the print edition of the teaching guide from long ago has reminded me why we did the half credit version (just watch videos and learn things).  There's a lot of stuff in that guide to do. but yeah, 2 weeks per module if you do all of that seems about right for 50 minutes per class day for average speed worker.  anyway, mostly just to say, the guide does include suggestions for biography research so you won't have to spend super amounts of teacher prep time for that addition.

ETA: to clarify on my credit/half credit: I don't always use "120 clock hours" as the determining factor.  I know that's typical for Carneige unit but it is not only way to determine it.  I know in main classes my oldest needed way less time to do the same materials that my middle did and yet same text and lesson plans. so if a college professor writes plans and says 1 year of high school, I'm going with that b/c it is probably the amount of stuff she covered in semester college intro course.  and my oldest could listen as fast as Carol Reynolds can talk. But my middle child cannot.  so each child will vary if they  need to watch video 2 times or not. or watch one segment over 2 days.

Edited July 3, 2019 by cbollin
adding my style of credit vs half

[Penelope]

We did the online version a couple of years ago as a fine arts credit. I knew it was supposed to be a full credit so I was disappointed when I felt it needed to be supplemented. I don’t know if the site didn’t have all the other material up then that I am seeing on these links, or if I just wasn’t directed to it, but I see there were some things I missed that would have made it fuller. What I did see at the time were the videos, listening, short quizzes, and short lists of projects for each module (some were good, some seemed like busy work to me, but they aren’t really if you consider it was written for grades 7-12, I think. I didn’t really want to add a lot of research and writing to a fine arts elective). I thought the suggestion to watch each lecture twice through is a bit much. My student wasn’t excited about that, and I wouldn’t want to, either— and I love Carol Reynolds style and presentation (I still have a subscription in my future to go through a couple more of her courses on my own). Sometimes it was necessary to do that, but not every time. 

So we did all the videos and quizzes, nearly all of the suggested listening, not just the required, and some projects. It was more than a semester’s work, but fell short of 120 hours for a credit. I ended up justifying it as a fine arts course by adding some Professor Greenberg lectures from the Teaching Company, and counting additional hours of listening, concerts, discussion and exploration of related things that we had done on our own during high school. I agree that you would want a spine and probably primary documents and biographies to make it a history course. 

Edited July 3, 2019 by Penelope