Graphic Design in the Music Classroom
Graphic Design? In a Music room? Shouldn’t you be singing or something?
Graphic design is an awesome element to add to any classroom situation, but how could it become valuable for music teachers?
Graphic design allows you to create your own icons for things, and even better, allows students to help you create icons and images for things. This can be beneficial for students who do not speak English as their first language, or students who cannot read yet, when they are navigating your classroom and trying to locate materials. If you have students go to pick up instruments, they could read basket labels to find what they need.
In one of my schools, my art partner and I have decided we will be trying to implement digital badges with our students. We will be setting goals for students where they can earn different badges for reaching that goal. An example in the music classroom would be when students become a “Steady Beat Champion”, when they are able to:
Maintain a steady beat while listening to a song
Maintain a steady beat while singing a song
Maintain a steady beat with the rest of the class (no music)
Maintain a steady beat while performing a rhythm with the class
Maintain a steady beat while performing a rhythm by themselves
After reaching all 5 goals for the steady beat, a student would be able to earn a digital badge as a Steady Beat Champion! The example I created is at the bottom of this blog post!
Another way to incorporate graphic design into a music classroom would be during the design and planning stages of a “Band/Musical Artist” project. Graphic design software can be used to design album art for a student’s art project.
Finally, a third way to incorporate graphic design into a music classroom could be as a final, cumulative project. Students could design an image or a large graphic to display information from a research project or information learned throughout a unit or semester. This could be a really fun way for students to show off what they’ve learned or to feature their favorite activities from throughout the school year or the unit by displaying them all into one large graphic with a group or as an individual.
