Nate Presutti is helping meet a need for music educators in the community by creating choir lessons at a low cost for use by high school music teachers. Presutti, a Slippery Rock University senior music education major from Clinton (West Allegheny HS), is recording six public domain choral pieces with local musicians and pairing the pieces with lesson plans as part of a summer research project.
What is the goal of this project?
Using public domain choral music, Presutti is creating a toolkit of choral music with social emotional learning (SEL) guidelines for middle and high school music educators. SEL is a learning strategy with five goals for students: integrating self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills and responsible decision-making.
“The goal is giving teachers ideas of what they can do in terms of social emotional learning,” Presutti said. “With the learning strategy, students are making lifelong connections and building life skills for inside and outside of the classroom.”
The final product will include spiral bound and electronic formats of the instructional material, and due to the use of public domain and avoiding copyright infringements, the tools will be accessible for all educators and their classrooms.
“Just digging deeper into the topic is important to me because students really need this,” Presutti said. “I think it shows music is more than just notes on a page.”
The six professionally recorded choral pieces will allow educators to access quality SEL materials to integrate into their classrooms and help engage students without cost barriers.
Presutti is working on the project under the advisement of Kathy Melago, SRU professor of music.
“Slippery Rock University understands the importance and value of SEL and we are aware of the financial constraints that teachers face,” Melago said. “Budgets are always a challenge for teachers and using music in the public domain, teachers can make all the copies they want and not worry about monetary constraints.”
How do SRU students benefit from conducting research?
The research project is allowing Presutti to gain real-world experience coordinating, recording, engraving and directing choral music. Additionally, it gives him the opportunity to work through time management skills needed to meet deadlines and long-term goals in project production. Additionally, Presutti will work with SRU and Pittsburgh area musicians to record the pieces, gaining valuable professional connections and experiences.
“Until now, I never had experience with choral music in the public domain,” Presutti said. “As a student, this has given me a wide array of music to select, and if I am teaching at a school without a large budget, I know how to find pieces free and available to the public.”
SCORE Grants at SRU
Presutti and Melago’s project is funded by SRU’s Summer Collaborative Research Experience Grant. SCORE grants provide opportunities over the summer for undergraduate students to explore the world of academic research in collaboration with faculty members in their respective areas of study.
More information about SCORE grants and music department programs are available on the University website.
