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		Make Oscar Night Educational Reprinted from February 2006 Issue -by REBECCA PACKARD For older music students, thoughtfully following the Oscars offers a great opportunity to learn more about music in ways that meet many of the Music Educators National Conference (MENC)’s national standards. One of the MENC’s standards is “understanding relationships between music, the other arts, and disciplines outside the arts.” Film is an accessible and familiar art form that clearly incorporates the art of music. Students can learn about the film-music relationship through a variety of sources. One is the Academy Awards’ official site, http://www.oscars.org/teachersguide/index.html. Six of their activities relate to sound and music. The three musical activities meet MENC standards (6, 7, 8 and 9) by incorporating historical and cultural factors in making soundtracks, describing how music enhances a film story, suggesting ways to listen to and analyze music, and encouraging students to describe and evaluate music. Some of the listening exercises can be easily modified to incorporate notation, and they discuss good models of “composing and arranging music within specified guidelines” (incorporating standards 4 and 5). News stories on music Oscar nominees can also be a good source for learning about these same musical elements. In a New York Times article on John Williams (January 15), author John Burlingame covered the film composer’s success in terms that address most of the standards above. On their website, National Public Radio has detailed commentary about the nominees for best music that incorporates examples of music from the soundtracks. As the 78th Annual Academy Awards ceremony draws closer, more material for analysis will become available, and students can discuss what they think is good musical commentary, discuss how much they agree with various music critics, and articulate their own opinions about who they think should win. Information regarding music education standards is from National Standards for Arts Education. Copyright © 1994 by Music Educators National Conference (MENC). Used by permission. The complete National Arts Standards and additional materials relating to the Standards are available from MENC—The National Association for Music Education, 1806 Robert Fulton Drive, Reston, VA 20191 and www.menc.org.