Recommendations

Key Recommendations

Yes to a music program!

Jubilee House should implement a small instrumental music program with a model that recognizes and does its best to accommodate the changing needs of their clientele. They can do this by continuously surveying the musical interests of their community and expanding their target age range beyond 4th and 5th grade. 

Cultivate a Network of Support & Focus on expertise

Jubilee House should connect with other community organizations that offer music programs in order to learn best practices and gain a network of support, and focus on teaching their musical area of expertise. 

Creating a connection with your student: start small and slow, practice flexibility, and teach culturally relevant music.

Establish and maintain connections with music learners by cultivating an environment where students feel safe sharing their interests, both musical and beyond, and feel secure in their relationship with their teacher. 

Music as a tool for English Literacy

Jubilee House should utilize music lessons as a tool for English language literacy for its clients.

Recommendations 

• Jubilee House should implement a small instrumental music program with a model that recognizes and does its best to accommodate the changing needs of their clientele. 

1. 1. As Susan Mazer from Charter Oak Cultural Center noted in her interview, their program is successful because it focuses on what its clientele want in an arts program. 
   2. Due to the nature of Jubilee House as a transitory space for immigrants in Hartford and the Hartford area, their community is constantly changing. A music program for Jubilee House should, similarly, not be stagnant – the idea has even changed course in the short time that our team has been conducting research.  We strongly suggest that Jubilee House focuses on trying to meet the wants and needs of their unique community as it will change and evolve over time.
   3. As a starting point, Jubilee House can use the survey data that we gathered to create an initial plan for a music program that fits the wants and needs of those currently interested, but should adapt it as their community changes over time. 
      1. A string program is not necessarily the right choice, though not necessarily the wrong choice either. 
         1. There is a relatively strong interest in a potential music program from those who responded and a slightly weaker interest in a potential string music program. This would seemingly indicate that this program may receive more interest if they focus on other instruments or de-center strings.
         2. If Jubilee House believes strongly in creating a strings program, we recommend they investigate further into the musical interests of their clientele and the interests in a program solely centered around strings. Our team proposes this recommendation due to our survey’s small sample size and the ever changing nature of Jubilee House. 
         3. In our surveys we reached many people that did not have kids and/or did not have children living with them at the moment. These respondents largely expressed interest in a music program. We recommend that Jubilee House expand the target demographic for a music program beyond 4th and 5th grade students because there is a clear interest in a music education program for adults who participate in programming at Jubilee House. 

• Cultivate a network of support, teach what you know and consult experts if venturing beyond your area of expertise.

1. 1. In order to create a multicultural music program that best serves the needs and interests of its clients, it is important for Jubilee House to connect with other organizations for guidance. This can include any of the organizations from our Expert Interviews, as well as other educators or organizations that JH wants to connect with.
   2. In our interview with INTEMPO, they suggested starting with music that Jubilee House is most familiar with and comfortable teaching. This will provide a stable groundwork for a music program. If music educators are not confident in the skills or music they are teaching students may feel discouraged and uninterested. If or when Jubilee House expands beyond their music educators’ area of expertise, we recommend consulting knowledgeable and experienced individuals of the cultures and music they want to incorporate into their curriculum. This ensures that educators are teaching music that is culturally accurate, relevant, and meaningful to their students.

• Creating a connection with your student: start small and slow, practice flexibility, and teach culturally relevant music.

1. 1. When interviewing the community organizations Neighborhood Strings and Intempo, we gathered that an important first step in teaching music to immigrants and students with marginalized backgrounds is establishing a connection with them. If students are new music learners, if they are unfamiliar with specific instruments, or have experienced trauma, jumping right into a skill such as reading music or even touching a bow to a string can be overwhelming and could inflict harm. If students are not yet proficient in speaking, reading, and/or writing English, it is all the more important to begin slow and small. This is the case for Jubilee House.
   2. In addition, slowly introducing students to instruments, sounds, and music in small increments coupled with being flexible can foster a connection between teachers and students. Debbie Greenebaum, Associate Director of Neighborhood Strings and teacher at the New Citizens program, described this practice as an important piece of her work. For instance, she recalled teaching a student that feared music. Debbie approached this situation by “going with the flow.” This looked like taking a step back from the current musical instruction and allowing her student to take the lead in how she wanted to practice. 
   3. We recommend that when constructing a music program, Jubilee House uses methods of teaching that honor the needs of their students by starting slow and small. In particular, one mode of instruction Jubilee House can incorporate is the Suzuki method. Charter Oak and the Montessori Magnet School both reported that the Suzuki method, mainly focused on learning by ear and rhythm, has proven to be accessible when teaching new English learners. 
      1. Furthermore they emphasized using physical demonstrations in addition to verbal instruction
   4. We found that an integral part of connecting as teacher and student, as well as addressing the barrier of accessibility to music education, is teaching culturally relevant music.  
      1. Both INTEMPO and Neighborhood Strings emphasize this in their programs.
      2. This is supported by our literature synthesis, which found that expressing interest in a student’s cultural identity or musical interests welcomes them into a community space, which allows for a sense of belonging. It proved that understanding their identity/background/interests provides teachers with an understanding of how they can best teach their student(s), and that teaching different genres of music can make strings “less scary” for people in communities that strings and music education at large are typically less accessible to.

• Music should be utilized as a language learning strategy.

1. When we interviewed INTEMPO we found that weaving together music and teaching English literacy can enhance both educational experiences.
2. This could help students at Jubilee House learn English, in a more fun and exciting way, as well as encourage interest in a potential music program at Jubilee House, something that our community partner, Michele, was notably interested in as a part of this program. 
3. Over 75% of those surveyed use English literacy classes at Jubilee House, this said their primary audience is those who are English Language Learners so integrating English literacy into a music program would be greatly beneficial to those at Jubilee House. 
4. Music could be integrated into some of their existing English classes, setting the foundation with interested students to be able to continue in a music program.
   1. Examples of integrating music into the English learning curriculum could include singing songs as an instruction method. While students learn these songs with key English concepts and vocabulary, they can also learn musical skills, with the opportunity to add instruments into the songs.