Context – making the link for pupils

It is important to recognise that this process of planning for contextual learning is not simply to fulfil a planning requirement: it should have a direct consequence on the type and sequence of activities undertaken in the classroom. For instance, if the contextual learning about blues has been identified as ‘the feelings of depression, aspiration and affirmation that spring from an oppressed, poor people’, what activities can pupils undertake so that they recognise the power of this context and its impact on the music? For example, pupils could debate the role of modern-day illegal immigrants in the USA, and identify how contemporary music there reflects similar issues. They might also identify other sorts of contexts that create and convey heavy, depressed emotions (funerals, certain scenes in films), and describe the way that this context is reflected in the music.

These sorts of activities help to establish for pupils the connection between their own lives and the original contexts of the music being studied. A key purpose is to enable pupils to empathise with the aesthetic function of the music being studied, and to develop their own, personal understanding of the context. At the same time, the process makes the link for the pupil between the generic social and cultural context of the music and its impact upon the technical features that a particular sort of music needs to employ in order to reflect that context. Making the links in this way therefore answers the question: ‘How can you make the study of this music relevant to a pupil in this school in 21st-century England?’

Task 10: Making the contextual link (10 minutes)

Given the contextual learning already identified, identify an activity that you could use to ensure that the music’s context is relevant and clear to and for all pupils. What parallels are there between the music’s context and the everyday life of pupils or others? How can pupils be helped to empathise with the musicians who make this music? Is the link best made through a musical activity or a non-musical activity? If it is a non-musical activity, how can the link be made back to the musical learning that is to follow? Make a note of the activity or activities that you have thought of: you will need to return to them later.