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CRHS Making Music Accessible To Students Of All Abilities
At Monday night's Winter Band Concert at Coon Rapids High School, an Albanian Dance number was featured with some new musicians from the school's special education students, called from United Sound.
What started as an after-school program between the music department and the special education department just a few years ago, under the direction of the director of bands, Ryan Palmer, has become a daytime class.
"The power that I've seen with United Sound that has been really wonderful is how much it centers student voice and how much it empowers students both mentors and the new musicians," Palmer said.
Mentor students volunteer to work with new Musicians in small groups known as pods.
"Every new musician that comes to us has between two to three mentor students that they're assigned," Palmer added.
Palmer's team uses a rigorous curriculum provided by the national non-profit group, United Sound, which aims to remove barriers and make music accessible to students of all abilities.
"I'm really glad to share the experience with other students."
Senior Ben Wendling has been a peer mentor for four years. He along with the United Sound club co-president, Coral Weber, got to introduce United Sound to the audience.
"You can really tell that music does impact their lives in a positive way," Weber said.
Weber, a senior, plays cello in the school orchestra but became a peer mentor four years ago to work with the new musicians in United Sound.
"I have so much fun doing it,” Weber said. “Just seeing the pure joy on their faces, especially on concert days, really makes the time and effort that you put into it worth it."
Coon Rapids High School is the only school in Minnesota which uses the United Sound curriculum to empower special education students and give them the opportunity to make music with their peer mentors. The focus for United Sound is not so much on the music - but it is on the relationships that resonate.
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SOURCE: CTN
