Gaston College Music Educator Authors Educator Materials as a 2019-2020 UNC World View Global Music Fellows Program Fellow
Judith Porter, instructor of music at Gaston College, is one of 12 exceptional educators selected from applicants across North Carolina to participate in a unique professional development and curriculum fellowship program offered by UNC World View in partnership with Carolina Performing Arts. The program received financial support from the Carolina Asia Center. The UNC World View Global Music Fellows Program provided an interdisciplinary professional learning experience designed to enhance Fellows’ global competency skills and expand their pedagogical toolkits for integrating music into classroom instruction. The UNC World View Global Music Fellows Program culminated in the creation of teaching materials designed to integrate global music into K-12 and community college classrooms. The teaching materials accompany the original album, Wu Fei and Abigail Washburn, released by Smithsonian Folkways in April of 2020.
Representing schools, districts and community colleges from North Carolina’s mountains to the sea, the UNC World View Global Music Fellows engaged in an intensive study of global music and strategies for integrating music across the curriculum through this yearlong interdisciplinary, collaborative learning experience. Program components included:
- An introductory workshop on the campus of UNC-Chapel Hill in July 2019. This workshop featured a lecture and demonstration of the guzheng by UNC Asian Studies Professor Dr. Li-ling Hsiao and a talk on contextualizing the work of Abigail Washburn and Wu Fei with Dr. Amanda Graham of Carolina Performing Arts.
- Ongoing, facilitated collaboration within the Fellows cohort, including peer review of Fellows-produced materials.
- Ongoing independent work, research and writing, as well as consultation with UNC World View.
- A mini workshop in January 2020 featuring a presentation by Professor Tiber Falzett, UNC Visiting Lecturer of Scottish Gaelic Studies. Falzett’s talk, “The Chanter’s Song and the Drones’ Buzz: Bagpiping, Music and Language from the Local to the Transnational”, was followed by a Carolina Performing Arts performance of Invisible(s) with Christina Pato and Mazz Swift. Christina Pato also joined the Fellows during the workshop for a discussion and impromptu performance on the bagpipe.
- A classroom “pilot” of the lesson materials.
The 2019-2020 UNC World View Global Music Fellows Program culminated in the publication of the teaching materials that are now available on World View’s website. These materials are designed to support educators in teaching and learning about the album, Wu Fei and Abigail Washburn and, more broadly, the Chinese and Appalachian folk music traditions connected to the guzheng and the banjo. The educator materials include background information, lesson plans, learning activities and educator resources.
Judith’s culminating projects are entitled “Do You Hear What I Hear?”, “It’s Your ‘Thang’: Creating Your Own Musical Instrument” and “Kodachrome: Capturing Life through Music and Visuals.” Judith’s materials feature the songs “Four Seasons Medley: Four Seasons/Dark Ocean Waltz” and “Ping Tan Dance” from the album Wu Fei and Abigail Washburn. These materials were written for use in the community college music classroom. You can find Judith’s materials here. Applications for UNC World View’s 2020-2021 Fellowship Program focused on Exploring Indigenous Cultures will open in the fall of 2020.
About UNC World View:
World View, a public service program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, equips K-12 and community college educators with global knowledge, best practices and resources to prepare students to engage in our interconnected and diverse world. To learn more about UNC World View, visit https://worldview.unc.edu/.
For more information about the UNC World View Fellows Program, contact: Holly Loranger, Assistant Director, hloranger@unc.edu or Charlé LaMonica, Director, lamonica@email.unc.edu
