Observation Reports

A requirement of this class was to observe at a local high school or elementary school once a week.  The education department assigned each student a coordinating teacher at the end of September, and we would watch them teach for an hour every week. I was lucky enough to observe in both high school and elementary school.  I also had the opportunity to teach a sight - reading lesson in the high school.  Each week we wrote a reflection on a different aspect of literacy.  Below are twelve of my reports and current insights on teaching.  

Reflection 1:

2.  The bulletin board that lines the back wall shows the class: a pyramid of notes and along side it the actual word of the note spelled out, a expansion of dynamics with crescendo and decrescendo settings, which box  - in the dynamic markings, and a pyramid of rests laid out exactly like the pyramid of notes.  The entire bulletin board has a colorful border with music notes and different pages of sheet music.  At the front of the room, half the chalk board holds the agenda for each class, and the other half has lyrics to the different songs the class will be singing.  The posters lining the top of the chalk board contain pictures of instruments.  The books in the book shelf are stacked so each book lies horizontally and students can read the titles before they pull it out.  They are also color coded, which identifies the different books for each of the classes.  Once the students are seated, the teacher points towards the door and reminds each student of the rules that are posted above the frame. 

 3.  The classroom has a stage, built like risers, with ten chairs on each step.  This is so each person in the class can see the teacher, and it also helps set the performance mind.  When students transfer their performance to the live stage, it will not be a huge transition, which is a big help since different environments tend to affect the learning and attention habits of many students.  The table near the desk has some of the higher range Orff instruments around it.  This set – up is great because when students learn to play, they can learn by watching each other, listen easier, and the teacher can instruct and help individual students without having to move around and in between other students.  This presents the problem with the large Orff instruments that are on the floor.  They are so close together that the teacher is having a hard time getting around each of the students, or even reaching the student that needs help.  It could be easier to push the piano towards the door more, and spread out these instruments even more.  I also found that since the students do not have anything to look at/ or follow, they were less attentive and started to play whatever they wanted instead of the song. 

Activities:

The first class I observed was the Low IQ special education class.  The teacher's actions reminded me a lot about teaching.  She was constantly repeating instructions to the students.  For example, she would select a few students to go to the instruments, and she said please line up at the instruments on the far side of the table, and do not touch anything.  Then, the next group of student would go and she would say the same thing.  When the entire class was over there she said we all need to make sure we are not touching the instruments.  It was just a constant repetitive cycle.  When I asked her about it at the end, she said that especially in the beginning stages of the year, a teacher has to be very adamant and repetitive on the rules.  Otherwise, students will just start doing what they want.  Then, she also made sure she mentioned to me that you have to tell them each step to do.  For instance, I could go up to the table and she could instruct me to play a scale on the instrument, but a student would have to be told to pick up the mallets and play them at proper position, and work on from that point with instruction.

 Lesson:

Rules

Line – Up (to create a seating chart)

Sirens by scale to warm – up the vocal chords

I Can’t sit down – learned beginning lyrics and some tempo with body movement.

            Also learned the Orff accompaniment to it.

Country Big Band Dance song

            Learned tempo through a dance (step left, step right, back, swing and through).  Just learned it very slow next time will be with the song.

Reflection 2: Describe the beginning 5-15 minutes of a lesson.  How does the teacher access or build upon prior knowledge?  How are the students prepared to learn new material?  (Advanced organizer of the lesson? Questions? Examples, Visual Cues, simulation…strategies from microteaching?)

 The beginning of class the students file in quietly and take a seat.  The teacher welcomes the class. She introduces herself to the new students, and shows the class her name on the board in case they forgot.  She prepares the class for the first activity, going over the rules.  She asks the class does anyone remember my first rule from last year.  The young boy in the front raises his hand and said remember to be respectful to everyone in the room so we all can learn.  She said yes that is correct; there are other rules too.  One of the hardest rules is that you remember not to talk.  Your class is only here for one hour so we have to be quiet and get as much done as possible.  The teacher continues through the rules, asking questions and referring to the rule poster above the door.  In this activity students were prepared by recalling the rules from last year, and then adding new rules to it.  The colorful poster above the door was used as a learning tool and allowed both visual and auditory learners to learn.

The teacher now introduces the next activity, LINE UP, to the class.  She introduces the game to the children by telling them they need to follow the first rule of the class room and be absolutely silent as part of the game.  She shows them how to communicate the month they were born in by showing the number of the month with their hands.  One row at a time, the students were allowed to walk to the front of the room and line themselves up.  During this activity, a girl in the first row got up, walked to the front of the room, and became completely disengaged.  She was wondering around, walking on her ankles, wiping her fingers over the chalk board, and her eyes wandered everywhere.  After everyone was lined up she was not in the correct spot.  When she was questioned on where she should be she admitted she did not know her birthday.  Throughout the activity the teacher would encourage the students to keep be quiet by telling them they were doing a great job and to keep up the great work. 

 Warm – ups were the next activity.  The teacher has seated the students, and she asks for the students that were in the class last year to please stand up.  Then, she tells the students she would like them to show their peers the correct singing posture.  This again, is preparing the students to learn something, and using their peers as an example, which I find to be a great teaching technique.  Often times, students will think they can not do something until they see their peers do it and most times they will do anything it takes to accomplish that task. Sirens were the next step to warm – up the vocal chords.  The teacher asks the class if they remember the siren game from last year.  She reminds them how to play by demonstrating first, and then allowing the students to try it.  Once everyone tried it, she added pitches for the students to start on.  The teacher would demonstrate and the students would respond.  She then took this exercise one step further and made the students learn a new warm – up using most of the same technique they did for sirens.  They sang “My momma made me wash my M & M’s.”  Using the same call and response and the same key signatures.   

It was now time for song, and the students were ready to go.  The teacher introduces the song by getting all the students’ eyes on her.  Then, she told them to repeat the lyrics after her.  She sang the first line, and the students sang it back.  They did this twice for each of the two lines.  Then, she added the piano to it, and the students began to feel the tempo.  After the assessed that the students could feel the beat she allowed them to go to the instruments.  She told them to find the two “D” bars and put their fingers on them.  She then instructed them how to do the touch – back exercise to the tempo of the song.  Once they did that correctly, they were allowed to try it with instruments.  She noticed the students on the floor were not as attentive as the students at the table.  As a result, the students on the floor did touch – back, while the students on the table played the song with the mallets. 

 It was now the end of class; the children lined up quietly and left the room.  I noticed throughout the session that the teacher would keep students attention by looking at them, constantly asking questions, calling the students by name, and constantly repeating the rules and telling the students step by step what to do.  Within the first five minutes of class, three students were in time – out because they would not pay attention.  I found this to be a little strict, but in the first weeks of school a teacher must be strict and firm to the rules or the classroom won’t have any order.  I found the teacher to prepare the students for a learning experience in each activity the best that should could considering this was first time this group was in her class.  Going back to last year may have been a little stretch, but she only asked one question before she would present the entire topic to the students. 

Reflection 3:  Observe students learning new material.  Watch a student who appears highly engaged and motivated to learn.  Describe as specifically as possible what “engagement” looks like.  (body language, comments, posture…etc.)

 The third grade learned many new activities today with the teacher.  I choose two exercises and followed the same girl the entire time.  Today, I will refer to the girl as Kelly.  The exercises I am going to discuss are “An Apple” and “Sit Down.”

 The teacher begins the class with the song “An Apple.”  She asks the students to show her their best singing posture, and look at her when they are ready.  Kelly stands up, pulls the imaginary puppet string and seats herself on the edge of her chair.  Her face is glowing with excitement and a smile ear to ear.  Once the rest of the class is situated, the teacher reads the lyrics allowed and asks the students to listen.  As I watch Kelly, her eyes follow the teacher's hand as the move from word to word.  Although she is not making a sound; her lips are moving and she is mouthing the lyrics.  The teacher then asks the students if they know what the repeat sign meant.  Kelly, shot her hand into the air faster than I could blink an eye.  She answered the question and continued to focus in a normal highly engaged student.  Next, the students are allowed to echo the lyrics after the teacher.  I noticed Kelly, was saying the words with the correct singing voice, perfect posture, and bobbing her head.  I was very intrigued, because without hearing the song she adapted the tempo to her body very quickly.  When the activity was done she sat in her chair beaming with energy.  I could tell she wanted to talk or share something so bad, but she knew she had to follow the rules and she sat in her seat without talking.   

 The next activity was “Sit Down.”  The children learned the song last week, and this week they were learning the tempo and applying it through use of the Orff instruments. They had to use a technique called Touch – Back.  The students would pretend they were holding mallets and on touch they would touch their knees and on back they would bring their hands back to their shoulders, holding the mallets in bike riding position.  Kelly never took her eyes off the teacher.  While she was touching her knees, she moved her entire upper body.  It was really cool because when they started to do the technique with the actual recording, Kelly started doing the activity twice as fast, and she could not figure out why she was different from the other students.  Instead of looking around the room or stopping, she watched the teacher and got back to where she needed to be. 

 The last half of class was review.  The students sang the “M&M” song and did the dance.  Even though the third grade class was different from last time, the class was still very rambunctious.  I admire the teacher and wonder how she remembers to tell the students every single move to make for each activity.  She tells them how to walk around the table, and who to follow in the line.  She is also constantly applying the rules.  When a student talks out of turn she looks at them and says, “Excuse me, I am not supposed to hear any talking.” On the whole, only two students were really disengaged throughout class.  I choose Kelly because she was especially enthusiastic.  It was a great day to be a teacher at Frost Elementary. 

 One topic we were discussing in class the other day was how do you work around a wrong answer and still make the student feel included.  The teacher demonstrated that to me today.  She asked the students what a certain sign meant.  A student answered saying it was the power switch on the radio.  She responded by saying, “It certainly looks like that, but when we think about music composition what does this sign mean?”  Then, the student was brought into thinking about music physically and when the correct answer was supplied, the student under

Reflection 4:  Observe students learning new material.  Watch a student who appears disengaged from the lesson.  Describe what this student is doing (body language, comments, posture, etc.)

 Today I observed the teacher at Jackson Public High School.  I arrived at the end of an hour, and students were conversing with each other quietly.  The teacher and I talked a bit about the band I was going to observe.  He told me the band consisted of all ninth grade students and the majority of the students are remedial students.  The bell rang and as soon as the last class filed out the new class came barreling in the classroom.  The students went to their respective lockers, assembled their instrument, grabbed their music, took their assigned seat, and began warming – up individually. 

When the second bell rang, the teacher took his trumpet and stood alongside the podium to grasp the students’ attention and beginning warming – up as a band.  He began by playing a long tone and the students all joined.  Then, he worked a call and response with them based on the circle of fifths.  At this point, I was astounded.  The teacher did not tell the students what note to play, or how to begin, they just followed.  Since I never learned this way, I would have and was completely lost as to what note they started on and what they were doing, until I saw a student pull out his sheet.  During the various exercises, the teacher walked around the room and adjusted posture and playing position for individual students.  Once he addressed those in need of help, he introduced the Lucy and Linus melody.

 I choose to watch a disengaged student during this exercise.  I observed a trumpet player, that we will call Dan.  The teacher introduced the new melody by having the students listen, and  he asked if anyone heard the melody before.  About ninety percent of the class responded by rising their hands or verbally commenting, but Dan just looked at the wall to his left.  The teacher instructed the students to begin on a certain note, follow what they heard, and play the melody with him.  All the students had their instruments in position and correct posture, except Dan.  Dan was still slumped down in his chair.  His legs were straight out and crossed at the end, and his instrument was dangling from his hand by the side of the chair.  Finally, the teacher counted the group off and on beat four Dan put his instrument to playing position.  Due to the lack of preparation, Dan came in late and out of tune.  When the band finished the song he brought his instrument down and began to look at the floor this time.  The teacher taught the band how to continue the melody continuously and go all the way around the circle of fifths.  While he was speaking, Dan’s eyes were darting everywhere.  He set his trumpet on the floor and began to walk around the room.  After a few paces he came back, sat down and played a few notes out of turn. When the band finished the circle of fifths, he turned toward the kid on his right and blasted a note.  He began to talk to the kid on his left.  During the entire activity, the teacher would look at Dan, and even stopped once to wait for him to get to playing position.  If he was looking for attention he sure got it.  However, this did not seem to change anything.  He continued the obnoxious behavior the rest of the hour. 

 Sight – reading was next on the agenda.  I was very surprised at the amount of time that was put into transitioning to this activity.  The teacher told the students how to work the warm – up and then said please get out your music for sight – reading.  As easy as this seemed to be, the students began to talk at endless levels.  The teacher left the podium to obtain music for a flute student. Suddenly, the horns and low brass did not have the piece he requested either.   Instead of moving to a different piece for the day, The teacher went into the music library, found the piece, and then proceeded to the copy machine to copy the music for the students.  I have never seen such unorganized behavior from the teacher and I was quite shocked.  Ten minutes later, the teacher arrived with the parts and the band began to read the piece.  By this time, the students’ minds were checked out.  I could tell from the first note they played.  They had no focus or concept at what they were and should be doing.  I felt bad for them because the piece they were reading is a great piece and would have been very educational for them.  The bell rang when the band was half way through the piece.  The teacher stopped the music and dismissed the students. 

Reflection 5:  Observe a class period and write down all the questions that a teacher asks.

Questions:

            Could you all please pick up the magazines on your chair and pass them to the

left?

            Will you all please show me your singing posture?

            Who made the horrible singing voice and sang that bad word at the end?

            [Names three students], could you please grab a drum?

            Who knows what day it is?

            What do you like to eat on Monday? On Tuesday?, on Wednesday?, on

Thursday?, on Friday?

            Who is playing with the mallets at the table?

 Agenda Reflection

When the class came in, the teacher still did not return from lunch.  The original teacher just left them, thinking that I was the substitute today.  I was a little frantic because I know how troublesome this class tends to be. I told them to remain quiet, go to their seat, and we will wait quietly for the teacher.  All within a matter of seconds, I had a little boy come up to me and tell me that he does not know where he sits.  Students ran towards the front of the room to grab a book.  As well as, a couple kids screaming, “Do we need books,” and four students raising their hands, begging to play the bass mallets. Finally, the teacher entered the room.  We found a seat for the new student, and reinstated the rules of the classroom.  The teacher sat down at the piano, waited for silence and then started “sirens,” a vocal warm – up.  Shortly after a few interruptions and a few students in time – out, the teacher began the PB & J song.

I found it so unique that she could introduce the new activity by just standing in the first position of the song.  She stood for about three seconds and the students followed.  As I followed the students around the room, all the students were doing the activity.  The new student, the one we had to find a chair for earlier, did not know the words or the motions.  He participated to the best of his abilities on the first run through, and the second time he understood enough to watch the others, imitate them, and not be too far behind with the music.  It was really interesting to see the way he adapted to the new activities and learning environment throughout the entire class. The teacher did not stop to show or quickly recap the activities for his benefit, yet he was smart enough to jump in and follow pretty easily.   Once the song was sung a few times, The teacher added instruments.  She played and sang the first three verses on the different instruments and gave them to students who were well behaved.  Then, the students sang and played at the appropriate times.  After each verse, she would sing the next verse and demonstrate with the instrument before she handed it off to the student.  She did this until every verse had an instrument and most students had an instrument.  To my amazement, the class sang the song three times with all the instruments played at the correct time. 

The next activity was “Today Is…”  She introduced the song asking the students what today was and followed with the question, “What do you like to eat?”  After the student would answer they would sing, “Today is Monday, I eat turkey sandwiches, all you children come get lunch.”  The song would go on and on for all the days of the week.  At first the students were really into it and having a grand ole time with it, but by the time Thursday, Friday, and the weekend came they just did not seem to care anymore.  There interest was gone and only half the students were singing.  I think they became so distracted because the song is very long for the simplicity of the music and the students became bored with the song.  Upon finishing the song, the teacher asked who liked to eat potatoes.  Then, she asked if the students could eat them everyday.  It was the perfect lead in to the potato song.

The teacher played the piano and sang the song.  The students sat silently during the entire demonstration.  When asked to join in, they sang marvelously.  It was the best activity they had all day.  The teacher only had time to introduce the song and she had to dismiss the class.  

I found some very interesting traits running with this class today.  It seemed like they focused, listened, and participated the best when the piano was played with the activities.  The teacher was constantly reminding them to be quiet and asking why she heard talking.  I wonder if she introduced and practiced the idea that all music starts from silence if the students would be quiet and excited to learn.  It is just a thought, but I know it had an everlasting effect on me when I was first taught it. 

Reflection 6:  Observe a lesson and notice how student comprehension is assessed informally (as well as formally, if appropriate).   

The class came in, took out their instruments, warmed-up on their own, and waited for the teacher's announcements.  The first exercise was the circle of fifths with various rhythms, and Amazing Grace transposed in all the keys.  The teacher started assessing the students immediately.  After the first round through with the different rhythms, a few students were missing accidentals.  He stopped the warm – up and gave the students thirty seconds to work out their mistakes.  Then, they started the warm-up from the top again.  During the Amazing Grace exercise, the student’s had to play it memorized.  To make sure that each student could play the exercise, he had each section do it individually before the entire band performed. At first, I did not think this would be a valuable assessment because how could you really hear and know that each student was playing?  While the sections were playing, I noticed the students who did not know the exercise. So I could see how it was a good assessment.  Actually, this method could be quite valuable because some students get too nerved when they have to play individually, and this technique really relaxes some of those students so they can play. 

The band was now ready for sight – reading.  They read a piece by J.S. Bach.  It was interesting to see the teacher teach sight – reading.  The only methods I have observed to sight –reading included singing and fingering (slingering), a brief overview of the piece from the director, and a moment for questions.  The teacher allowed each section to receive their music.  Afterwards, he told the students who Bach was and the methods he used when he composed.  This all lead to how the piece was going to sound from each of the different sections.  After a short five minute lecture on that, the teacher had the band read the piece.  The band read it quite well for no instruction and not being able to hear it from singing it before they played it.  I was really quite impressed.  Again, after the piece was completed the teacher used another form of assessment.  He asked the low brass and woodwinds, what their key signature was and what notes they were playing wrong.  This is a rather informal assessment like all the assessments have been this period, but it was nice to see that the teacher knew enough to point it out.  When they read it a second time the notes were fixed.  All the teacher had to say was what the key signature is.  It proved the students understood what was happening and were competent enough to fix the problem. 

 After the second run through of the piece, the class was dismissed.  The teacher and I talked about next hour and some of his expectations he has of me student teaching next year and how we can start some of those through my observations.  I questioned him on any formal assessments he does and he gave me two advancement exams that he gives to the students.  I have these exams attached.  The first one is for the first year band and the second one is for symphony band.  He gives a half length quiz half way through the marking period and a full length quiz at the end.  He refers to them as advancement exams because the results show where the band is, and where they will advance too.  The exams cover everything from expression and tempo terms to basic music theory.  At the end of the semester, they will use their music theory and label intervals appropriately by listening to them played from a piano.

Contrary to my prediction, it was easier than I thought to see assessment happening in the band classroom.  When I first thought of it, I thought that the only real way you could assess a student’s comprehension was having them play one on one for you.  Now I have more tools to my toolbox.  I learned about three new ways to assess on the spot. 

Reflection 7: Observe a lesson and describe the pedagogical strategies that the teacher uses to build comprehension of students. 

I decided to do this reflection during an elementary observation because the high school is not using particular comprehension strategies to learn.  However, when I went to the teacher's class, I noticed that she too does not use any real learning strategy techniques.  The strategies she uses includes graphic organizer and sequencing.   

The students filed in the classroom and took their seats quietly.  The teacher thanked them for their quiet entrance and began class.  She first introduced them to reading dynamics for a song they already learned.  She had the students read the song by following her pointer.  Then, she went to the back bulletin board where the crescendo and decrescendo of sound is posted.  She asked the students if they new what the groups of letters inside the crescendo resembled.  Some of the students responded, but not many.  She gave the students the music terms of crescendo, decrescendo, piano, and forte, and all the dynamics in between.  Afterwards, she had the students say the dynamics with her, to allow them to comprehend the levels of loudness.  Then, they applied the dynamics to the song. 

In the next exercise, the students learned the first step (the grapevine) to a dance.  They learned this by watching the teacher do it and say it.  Finally, they all stood up in their specific lines and copied the teacher both saying and doing.  The teacher went to the piano and played the first verse as the students danced.  The technique she used for this activity was sequencing because she stacked one thing on top of the next until a full lesson was achieved. 

These activities were the only activities the teacher was able to teach today because the students were, as usual, very rambunctious.  She actually had 5 students in time out and sent one to the office.  She raised her voice to the class numerous times.  One student came right out and told her to shut the hell up. I was amazed that a student would talk like that to a teacher.  When the class left, I expressed some of my concerns teaching them during student teaching.  She believes they will have calmed down a lot by then, but she also said that they will all try and test me.  I know I will have to nail the first one that misbehaves on me so the students will know I demand respect, and will not tolerate bad conduct. 

Reflection 8:  After observing several class periods describe what type of writing or composing students are required to do in this class?  If you do not see any student writing during your observations – explain why or if you think it could be incorporated – if not explain why.

 The high school band is not required to write when I observe.  During warm – ups, the teacher will write each new tune using the numerical system of music on the board.  The students are expected to memorize these tunes.  As a result, many of them do not write anything down.  Those that aim for precision every time write the exercises down and practice them regularly to perform well during the playing exams.  As I looked at some of the compositions the students copied from the board, I was interested in seeing all the different ways the students wrote them down.  Mind you, there is not a correct way to put the exercise on the piece of paper, but there were so many unique theories of thinking that I was shocked.  Some students wrote numerically with the correct rhythms on staff paper.  Other just wrote the rhythms, because they knew the notes on the circle of fifths.  Another version I saw was just the numbers, or just the rhythms.  I related it to how musicians write in their music.  When we write in our music, it is to remind us to play at a certain dynamic, listen for intonation, or not to forget a musical technique the composer demands us to play.  I used to look at everyone’s music when it was turned in after a concert, and some people would circle the notes and write “tune,” others would draw pictures or arrows to remind themselves, some would write stars and brackets around notes of importance.  Still, every page was different. 

On Wednesday’s the music students attend music lectures.  This is the opportunity that the students usually have to write.  Last Wednesday, the students learned a bit about music history and received a time line of music history. (Please see attached.)   Afterwards, they heard listening examples from the different areas they talked about and they had to fill in a chart writing what piece they heard, the composer, and the date/era the piece was from.  The band students also have quizzes on these lectures the week after the lecture was presented.  This is the other writing opportunity for the class.  They have a variety of questions from fill in the blank, short answer, and essay. 

CLASS:

The band began warming – up on the circle of fifths as usual.  Then, they learned a new exercise to the solfege song from “The Sound of Music.”  The students copied the teacher’s sequences off the board.  As they were doing that, the teacher played the exercise around the circle of fifths on his trumpet.  Then, altogether they began on a certain key and played the first key.  The teacher did a great job of breaking down the sequence after they played it once.  He told them to look at the final four notes they played and asked them what scale it was from.  The students realized they were using the chromatic scale, which they had to perform a competency exam on last week.  Once they realized this, they played the piece again and the majority of the band played the piece perfectly.  It was so cool to see how the students played with just one more piece of information handed to them.  I did know such a small tidbit of information could be so helpful.  The band continued playing the exercise around the entire circle.  The teacher asked the students to pull out their time line.  While they were doing that he asked the students where they heard this song before.  They responded from “The Sound of Music.”  He noticed the students had their timeline out and when the students told him the title of the sound he instructed them to look for the word solfege on their sheets.  One student read the passage aloud.  The teacher related it back to the movie, saying everything Guido taught us about solfege of music was simplified to the world through this song.  The band played the song in one last key and moved on to sight - reading. 

 Today’s sight – reading was “Palestrina Suite.”  The teacher began the lesson asking if the students remembered what era Palestrina was from.  Upon their response he continued, asking what was the difference between chants and hymns.  After a different student answered, they listened to the first few bars of the piece and discussed why most of the music was wrote with perfect fourth and fifth intervals and not minor seconds and sevenths.  After this short presentation, the band sight read the piece.  After finishing the first movement he went back a few measures and had them play it.  Then, they played it again and the teacher told them to watch his conducting.  He conducted the song in three time in two time.  He told the students the reason this different conducting worked is because back in the time the piece was composed.  The composer would use the technique called a “Hemiola.”  He told the band it was when music had both a three pattern and a two pattern being played at the same time.  They read the next two movements and the percussion began putting their instruments away. 

Since the percussion needs extra time to tear down, the teacher reviewed the solfege song with them.  They played around the circle of fifths one more time.  I thought this type of reinforcement was ingenious.  Running through the section one last time allowed the students to remember exactly what they were supposed to practice, and the problematic moments they have to review in the piece.  

Reflection 9:  After observing several class periods, describe what types of reading students are required to do in this class.

 The students in the teacher’s class read for about half the hour they are in music.  They have various tasks they need to accomplish.  The only way this is possible is through reading.  Within the first five minutes of each class, the students read the lyrics to a new song or review the lyrics from an older song by reading from the easel.  This activity usually allows the students to get their brain thinking music.  After they read a simple page with lyrics, they usually read another song containing musical notation and dynamics.  Let me take you through today’s exercises. 

  The class walks in quietly and waits for the teacher to begin.  Salt and Pepper is the first activity.  The students are asked to read the new song together, following the teacher's pointer.  The class finished reading.  The teacher went to the top of the lyrics and began saying the lyrics following the musical directions.  The class mimicked her actions, but they were not reading the rests.  The next time they came upon the rest the teacher stopped them and asked them what the symbol meant.  They all responded correctly.  The teacher told them very sternly that they needed to start applying their knowledge.  She went back to the top of the song and the students began the song following all the musical notations.  Once they read through the song two more times, the teacher moved on to the next activity.

Even though the class learned one new song today, the teacher introduced Stone Soup. She played the piano and sang the song while the students read the words on the easel.  After the song was done, she asked the students to sing each line from the easel.  I thought this was very ingenious; this technique allowed her to assess whether or not the students were reading and learning the lyrics.  During this exercise, the teacher had to stop the class twice and remind them of the rules.  After the second warning, she moved on to the next activity. 

The class moved out of their chairs to the open stage space.  To refresh their memories, they were asked to watch the teacher say and do the dance.  Then, she went to the piano and began playing Tators.  The students did the grapevine dance step through the song.  Once the song was complete, she could tell they were getting a little rowdy.  She addressed the problem by saying, “Without talking, please walk back to your seat.”  To make the stage to seat transition smooth, she played the song on the piano. Immediately after everyone sat down, she assumed the bike riding mallet position and the students snapped to the same position.  I was amazed at how she was so on top of things and how it kept the students right on focus.  There was no time to think about what was going to happen next, they just did it.  After a two minute review of the ostinato pattern without mallets, the students were instructed to move to the instruments.  Then, half a class at a time, they played the song.  The students have been doing this song on the instruments since the beginning of the year.  At this point, I noticed that a lot of them were not excited and lost some focus.  Half the class was playing whatever they wanted on the instruments; some students put their mallets up but their eyes and mind wandered all around the room, and the few students that were left played correctly.  The teacher could sense this feeling too.  After they each played the song through, she had them move back to their seats and think about reading music.  This thought was a perfect transition into the staff game. 

While I observed this activity, I decided that the students were reading.  The game was like Simon Says, but instead of saying, “Simon Says,” she would call out a note pitch and the students would have to stand on the correct line of the staff.   Since there was not a lot of room on the staff, each row had one turn.  It was interesting to see, which students tried to learn and which students just followed everyone else.  Two out of three students that I thought were really engaged and into the class were clueless on the first note.  The teacher decided that in order to force the students to learn, that she would could to three after she said the note, and the students would have to be there by then.  If they were not there, then they were out.  The last person on the correct ledger line won a piece of candy.  This activity took up ten minutes itself, and the class ended.   

I was very surprised with the way the class behaved today.  The teacher only had one student in time out and the class made it through every activity.  I did notice that some of the “trouble – makers” in the class were gone, but I wonder if the mid terms and referrals helped.  It was a very drastic change from the last week I was in class.  I am very pleased, and even made sure that I told some of the students how well they did today. 

Reflection 10: Choose your own aspect of literacy and write about it.

 I had many ideas to focus on for a reflection when I walked to class to observe today.  When I got into class, everything seemed to change and I ended up interviewing the percussion section.

 Q:  Did you learn to read music with the wind players or during a private percussion sectional?  What did you like/dislike about this?

A:  A couple members of the section told me when they began band they learned to read with the band.  When the band learned new notes, they had to find two octaves of the pitch on the mallet instrument of their choosing.  Once they were comfortable and confident reading music from the mallet instruments, they were slowly divided from the wind ensemble.  At this time, the percussion students learned new musical notation for the drums and auxiliary instruments.  Their opinion about being taken away from ensemble varied.  Some of the students thought it was the only way to learn the new notation and technique without boring the rest of the ensemble.  Others were perturbed that they were given special treatment.  They felt that they had to work harder than most students involved in the ensemble. 

 Q:  When you learned auxiliary, was this hard for you?  What concepts were hard for you?

 A:  Again the group divided themselves.  Half the group said it was very hard for them.  Instead of seeing a whole note, they see a diamond on the “f” space with lines above it telling them to roll.  The students said when I looked at it my brain told me that it was a whole note, but since it was on the “f” space, they should be hearing an f.  All the while, they were reading the lines placed above the note and had to concentrate on how to play the roll evenly between both hands.  The other half said that it was perfectly explainable.  In fact, they thought it was good to be taken away from the ensemble in order to build technique, but they did not feel that they needed to spend as much time as they did on instruction of how to read the slightly different notation.   

Both groups said they had a hard time distinguishing the lengths of rolls.  They confessed to me that no note receives the same length roll and that any note can have a roll.  They said that tempo played the greatest factor.  If it was slow they had more time to fill than a fast time.  The reason why it was so hard for them is because everything they learned up to this point was black and white, right or wrong.  Now, they were learning that yes there is a right and wrong, but no it is not the same all the time.  It was a technique they had to learn over a couple of years before they were totally confident in the skill.   

The students started to show disengagement.  We broke up our meeting, and I observed the rest of the hour with the band.  They were sight – reading the Creed.  I walked around the band and read the music.  The band that was rehearsing was the 9^th and 10^th grade.  They do a great job watching the teacher and following his phrasing, but they need to listen within their section and create one sound that blends well with the ensemble. I continued taking musical notes.  I can really notice a big difference between them and the symphonic band.  They had this line that built from the tonic to a half cadence.  Right before they hit the chord to resolve the cadence, there was a break in the music and half the band took a breath.   The symphonic band would build, stagger their breathing and continue all the way through to the resolution.  The bari – sax starts the piece and plays with the timpani at the second measure.  The sax part is very thuggy sounding and the articulation is too harsh.  We need to aim for a legato tongue with a vibrant boom to the note.  The band finished the piece with the ringing of the bell to end the hour. 

Reflection 11: General reflection of class period, done with all observation reflections. 

 The fifth grade class walked in a little rambunctious today.  The teacher told them to spit out their gum, take a green book, and walk quietly to their seats.  The regular classroom teacher told the teacher the class is very talkative today and if anyone in the class was put in time out they would be in lunch detention.  Once the class was seated, the teacher took a minute to remind the students what their teacher said.  This allowed the students to know they had to change their mindset from the way they walked in, and that the teacher was going to commit to that rule.   

The first activity was warming – up.  Since the class is an older class, the teacher talked a bit about  the breathing process.  She had the students put their hands on their ribs and take a breath.  Then she asked them if they felt their ribs go out.  She told them if they did then they were breathing correctly and if they did not then they would have to take a deeper breath and focus on filling their air from the bottom of their stomach.  The class practiced taking breaths for a bit, and moved on to breathing in and hissing the air out.  The second half of the warm – up allowed the students to work in their head voice and say “oo” from the fifth down to the tonic.  After the class did this a few times as a whole, the teacher instructed specific students to stand up.  These students were the core of the class and were breathing, matching, and singing the pitches perfectly.  After they sang a few times, the teacher instructed three more kids to stand up and told them to listen and do exactly what they were doing.    After a few times, the rest of the students joined.  I asked the teacher if that was a form of assessment she used, and she said yes.  When she first started that exercise it was a class and response to each student.  Once half the class was perfect she did it in groups as not to intimidate the struggling learner. 

Eliza Congo was their next song.  This song was new material for the students to learn today.  The teacher introduced the main idea of the song by talking to the students about slavery.  She picked up her globe and said the slave trade happened in these islands here, (pointing to the West Indies).  She asked the students what these islands were called and how they knew about them.  One student said it was the Caribbean, and that people went their to vacation.  The teacher agreed with the response and told them the music they play their descended from the slaves that were brought there.  The style of the song they were going to learn is called calypso.  She asked if they knew what calypso was and no one responded.  She told them it was a style of music the slaves produced that was very happy.  She had them open their books and read the lyrics as the song played on the CD player.  After the song ended, she asked the students to look at the board and tell her the name of the notes in the staff.  Once the correct pitches were found, she had the students say the notes and do touch back on their knees, and then quickly moved to the instruments and played the song.  It was so interesting to note the progress comparison with the students that were saying the notes and playing and the students that were just playing.  They had a really difficult time playing correctly.  The students saying and playing were almost perfect all the time.  Now that the students are reading notes on a staff and thinking about it, it was time to play the staff game. 

The class challenged each other in their rows; competing for perfect run in the note challenge.  The teacher would do a practice run for each group naming all the pitches and then the students would start from the beginning with random pitches being called for the actual game.  I was so amused by the difference between the third grade and the fifth grade.  Two weeks ago, I watched the third grade play this game.  They would look at each other and then move.  The fifth grade just moved exactly where they were supposed to go.  The teacher had to judge whether or not they were correct by their closeness to the line or space.  Towards the end, if they students were not perfectly centered, they were disqualified. 

 The teacher is now incorporating instruments into the class.   This week, a girl brought in her clarinet.  After the staff game, the girl put it together and the teacher asked the class if they knew to what family the instrument belonged.  She explained to them how a sound was made, and how the pitches change.  Then, the little girl played a few notes demonstrating each of these techniques.  To conclude the session, the girl performed Mary had a Little Lamb and Rocky Mountain Blues.  The class session was completed and the students learned how to conga from their chairs and did the step all the way back to their main classroom. 

Reflection 12: Sight Reading Lesson on Flourish

Standards: (P.6) Sight read, accurately and expressively, music with a moderate level of difficultly. 

Learning Goals:  The students will learn the STAR method to sight reading, and improve their current sight reading skills. 

Comprehension Strategy: I will place star vertically on the board and fill it in. Using the process of chunking, I will show the students the order to rehearse from most to least important.

Materials/Preparation:  Hand out music

                                         On board STAR

                                         Have the music face down on the stand

Introduction:  I will begin by asking the student what they do when they sight read,  I will take three or four answers.  Then I will write STAR on the board.  While saying, “Today we are going to create a sight reading system.”

Activities:

1.      STAR - This word tells you some of the things you should look for when you are preparing to sight read a piece.  Please turn your music over now. 

2.      S- is for signatures. Real quickly, look through your piece for different key signatures, and new time signatures. 

                        Notice the piece starts and ends in ¾ and there isn’t any meter changes. 

                        The measure before B = key change.  And four after C we are back to the

                        Original key.

            T – tempo changes.  Now look through the piece for time changes.

            A – accidentals.  Scan the piece for accidentals

            R – repeats.  Including D.C. al Fine, D.S. al Coda

3.  To increase our accuracy of reading, we have to do one more thing.  I call it

      SLINGERING! – meaning we will sing and finger the piece as an entire band.

4.   You have a choice of whether you want to sing the rhythms on ta, or actually count out the rhythms to the tempo I give you.  For example, horns the first bar could be sung like this, or like 1, 2, 3, 1-----------.  You also need to finger the notes as you are singing.  Are we ready?

5.  Slinger! 

Closure:  Play the piece.

Anticipated Concerns:  I am a little worried that the students will take one look at the piece and take it as a joke since the notes and rhythms are relatively simple.  Maybe I should let them know that even though the music looks simple, it is the form of the piece that makes it difficult.  Another concern is that the students will not feel comfortable singing and fingering so they will not be able to hear the rhythms before they play.  As a result, their accuracy reading the piece will decline. 

 REFLECTION:  

I arrived at the classroom early to set – up and prepare the way I saw fit.  I asked the teacher if it would be alright to set the music on the stand so we would not waste class time handing it out and he told me not to worry about it.  He allowed me to warm – up separately without the band, introduced me to the band, and selected students from each section took music from me.  I was amazed at how orderly this process worked.  It did not take up too much time, and the students were very well behaved and had great focus considering the bit of down time they had.   

Once all the students had music, I introduced the method I wanted to teach to them.  Some of them knew the system so it was a good refresher, and others learned a new lesson as well.  Unfortunately, I did not have a visual aide to use because the classroom was not set – up appropriately for me to use the board.  So I verbally taught the concept.  While I was on the podium teaching the different letters, an occasional hand from the corner kept popping around.  Finally, I addressed the question and I had a freak moment.  I did not pay attention when I was coping music, and the trombones had to read tenor clef instead of their bass clef.  Fortunately, the teacher has taught all the clefs, but the students never read the clef so they were clueless.  I had to do something to save my lesson from being a complete failure.  Quickly, I introduced the “A” which stood for accidental.  I told the students to work with their stand partner, find all the accidentals, and finger them.  Then, I went and assisted the trombones.  I taught the trombones the most basic concept, and we went through their piece and labeled a pitch in every other measure.  This was enough for them to be able to read the music pretty accurately because they could follow the shape of the line to play the rest of the notes.  I went back up to the podium, asked if there were any more questions, and moved on to the letter “R.” 

The next step was singing and fingering.  I was very pleased with how well this activity went.  I remember being in high school and a lot of students were very intimidated by singing aloud.  They were afraid that someone might hear them and make fun of them.  That was not the case today.  The brass section started the piece and I feel they set the tone for the entire band.  They sang loud and proud and never let up through the entire piece.  When the other sections came in they competed with that and sang with them.   

Home    Philosophy    Resume    Content Knowledge    Growth and Development    Learners and Learning    Planning and Instruction   

Management and Motivation    Communication    Learner Assessment    Reflection    Collaboration    Conclusion

Student Teaching Experiences    Secondary Literacy Pedagogy Final   

Academic    Professional    F.U.R.S.C.A.