Becoming a Choral Music Teacher: A Field Experience Workbook

Becoming a Choral Music Teacher is a practical yet innovative textbook for Choral Methods and Materials. It is intended to prepare Music Education majors and Choral Conducting majors to be effective middle school and high school choral music teachers by:
• giving students the opportunity to explore course content immediately through engaging workbook assignments;
• fully integrating the choral field experience, taking each chapter’s content into a secondary choral classroom for hands-on learning and reflection;
• starting with middle school before moving to high school choral teaching in order to understand the logical evolution of the adolescent voice and person;
• immersing each student in extended field experiences;
• allowing the student to spend more time observing and teaching the book’s principles than reading lengthy and detailed textbook theories;
• impressing upon the choral methods student the importance of strong score preparation, piano and conducting skills;
• presenting research findings on effective ways to teach choral music.
In addition, Becoming a Choral Music Teacher covers the essentials of vocal development, auditions, literature, rehearsal planning, classroom
management, specialized ensembles, and practical matters. It also includes numerous “brainteaser” assignments in every chapter. Patrice Madura Ward-Steinman is a Professor of Music (Education) at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, where she teaches choral and research methods. She has presented workshops on vocal jazz improvisation and creative thinking at conferences nationally and internationally. Publications include Getting Started with Vo c al Improvisation, and articles in Teaching Music in the Urban Classroom, Journal of Research in Music Education, Bulletin of the Council for Research
in Music Education, International Journal of Music Education, and Journal of Historical Research in Music Education.