The Orff Echo is the national, peer-reviewed quarterly journal and philosophical voice of the American Orff-Schulwerk Association. Our mission is to demonstrate the value of Orff Schulwerk and promote its widespread use; to support the professional development of our members; and to inspire and advocate for the creative potential of all learners. Non-members may contact the editor for information.
Interested in writing for The Orff Echo? Check out how to get involved in the process:
Extensions to articles published in The Orff Echo can be found in the AOSA Resource Library.
List of Orff Echo Articles
Pieces: A Year in Poems and Quilts
Children’s Book Review: This picture book is a collection of seasonal poems illustrated by photographs of handmade quilts. Rich in language and suggestive of movement and sound, each poem evokes one of the five senses.
Making The Connection: Orff Schulwerk, 21st Century Learning Skills, and the Common Core
Tips on connecting and understanding the power of the Schulwerk to support and teach important 21st century skills, and the Common Core.
Critical Thinking in the 21st Century: Orff Schulwerk as an Impetus for Reform
A specifc case is explained how music teachers can analyze areas of Common Core skills and how the Schulwerk supports them.
Feeding the Hippopotamus: Music Lesson as Common-Core Strategy
Ideas on how the Schulwerk music classroom supports literacy goals defined by Common Core.
Practical Strategies: Aligning Orff Schulwerk and Common Core State Standards
A list of structures and language that music teachers can use to educate others about the important role of the Schulwerk in teaching 21st century skills. A detailed lesson is provided.
A Complementary Combination: Responsive Classroom and Orff Schulwerk
Two approaches in music education, Responsive Classroom and Orff Schulwerk, are contrasted providing a fresh way of looking at play, process, and exploration in the music classroom.
The Straight Line Wonder
Children’s Book Review: A picture book that begs the reader to jump, twirl, point, creep, and spring on nearly every page. The book also provides a lesson about being different and the importance of accepting others who are different.
Answering the Big Question: Curriculum Development Using Arts Integration
Definitions, implementation and solutions to common problems are provided for Curriculum Development using Arts Integration.
Teaching A Multicultural Experience: Music, Culture, and Pedagogy
Explains how to connect the Orff tradition of world music to a specific and parallel pedagogy for teaching it.
The Culturally Connected Music Classroom: A Multidirectional Approach
Suggestions for making the music curriculum more relevant to a multicultural experience for your students while highlighting World Music Pedagogy interlinked with the Orff process.
Bake You A Pie
Children’s Book Review: This picture book is an engaging set of verses about baking all kinds of pies with each verse representing a different style of music.
Introducing Indian Music and Dance Through Orff Schulwerk
Lessons on Indian music-based series using rhythms and pitches to teach that culture’s music through the Orff process.
Birds
Children’s Book Review: This imaginative picture book delves into the colors, shapes, and sizes of our feathered friends and extends easily into singing, playing instruments, movement, and drama.
Amango: Movement in the Context of a Ghanaian Singing Game
Examples of Ghana children’s singing games, improvisation, and movement taught with the Orff process.
Integrating Orff Schulwerk and 21st Century Learning
An exploration of both Orff Schulwerk and 21st Century learning in a multicultural context.
Reading with Rhythm
Investigates how learning musical rhythm helps young children in kindergarten through third grade learn and maintain their reading skills.