Bibliography and Research in Music

Annotated Bibliography

On the first day of class, Professor Shanton tasked us with creating an annotated

bibliography that includes 50 sources by the end of our five-week class session. After I learned

what exactly this meant, I was overwhelmed! My experience learning from Professor Shanton

strongly reinforced several aspects of good teaching. Although I was overwhelmed, she was

very encouraging and supportive throughout the entire process. She guided us through the

process in a helpful step-by-step way (Pestalozzi, Bruner, Vygotsky). Before starting our work

on our annotated bibliography projects, we read examples of abstracts and source summaries,

discovered helpful research tips, learned the proper rules and requirements for various APA

citations, and practiced writing our own summaries for a few different sources. These small

steps helped us make connections with our past experiences in research from our

undergraduate studies, and helped us build our schema so that we were prepared to create our

own annotated bibliographies (Herbart, Piaget). Professor Shanton gave us the tools that we

needed to accomplish this task.

In addition to clearly organizing the process and guiding us through the necessary steps,

Professor Shanton also provided us with a lot of specific positive feedback that encouraged us

to work hard (Skinner, Thorndike). In my leadership seminar, we discussed the qualities of

influential leaders and teachers. We came to the conclusion that the leaders who we found to be

the most influential were: encouraging, honest, hard-working, demanding, authentic, passionate,

and funny. Professor Shanton is an example of an inspirational and effective teacher. Although

this particular type of research project is not my passion, her teaching style and the rapport that

she developed with our class helped me enjoy my experience. Her example reinforces the

importance of leading by example and principle-centered leadership, and has reinforced my

goal to create strong positive relationships with my students (Aquinas, Bandura). I will use this
reminder to help me keep the reason that I teach, which is to help my students, at the center of

everything that I do. There are a lot of responsibilities that come with being a teacher beyond

those of directly teaching students. I will not let those other responsibilities distract me from

taking the time to listen and help my students when they need it (Da Feltre).

In addition to learning from the spectacular example of the attributes of an effective

teacher, the process of finding valuable sources for my annotated bibliography also helped me

learn applicable information about teaching music to students with Autism Spectrum Disorder

(ASD). For example, I learned that students with ASD sometimes experience a sensory-

overload when in a music classroom because of the extra sounds, movements, colors, and

other stimuli. I will be aware that I should be sensitive to this potential struggle, and that I should

provide as much structure and routine as possible to help my students feel more comfortable.

Differentiated instruction and advanced planning (with these needs in mind) will help me to

create lesson plans that are beneficial to all of my students, including those with ASD

(Erasmus, Comenius, Da Feltre).