Turn it Up by
Mandy Stefanakis
McGraw-Hill Australia
Text book, Score book, CD and MIDI file

Carol Richards and others empasise the importance of relevance and achievability. The introduction of the CSF has emphasised building on exemplary current practice. Mandy Stefanakis recognises the first point and acts on the second in her book 'Turn it Up'.

Many of the topics will look familiar to classroom music teachers. The resource features a student workbook, a teacher's book and CD. There are composer and performer profiles, worksheets, resource lists, long lists of activities for listening, composing and performing, learning outcome charts, assessment guides and extension activities. In short, a comprehensive music text that draws on a wide range of musical styles which is organised to suit outcomes based teaching and learning.

The best feature is that this resource trusts students. It gives them step by step guidelines for completing activities and there are different strata thoroughly presented to cater for the reality of mixed ability classes. The teacher's manual thoroughly describes objectives and requirements for the listening, performing and composing activities for each of the fifteen units.

Each unit also has an assessment section stating the CSF learning outcomes and examples of how to assess achievement in these learning outcomes. The worksheets contained in the teacher's manual may copied for student use. The score reading book contains all the print music necessary to perform the suggested pieces for each unit.