Objective Three:
|
|
Objective Three: |
|
Demonstrate understanding of the role of motivation and ownership in the literacy process.
"The more students have a voice in important decisions about how and what they learn, the more involved and motivated they feel."
Fires on the Bathroom
page 106
Secondary literacy pedagogy has given me many opportunities to observe the difference between students with a choice and students without a choice. Below, I have included different activities throughout the semester that I feel highlight this objective.
Book Talk Objective
The focus of this project is motivation. Read any book that you want for your own purposes. You will have approximately 5-7 minutes to share your book with the class and motivate us to want to read it. A one page summary is due the day of the talk.
Book Talk Lesson Plan
Materials: Flute
I. Play passage from Beethoven (1-2 min.)
a. be sure to LEAD the audience through the journey!
b. precise musicianship required to create the emotion the composer is aiming for
c. EXPLAIN – this is what you would hear in the halls – practicing lots of
different stuff going on at the same time.
II. Explain dress is how Petra( the oboe player wore for both rehearsal and practice)
III. Create the plot. (3min) Mr. Barrow an exiled professional musician begins studying with Master Ziegler. A guy who is not only haunted by his time spent in the Nazi concentration camp, but also is so arrogant that he considers himself equal to Brahms nevertheless and almighty ruler close to god, which the book later refers to Brahms as. Light switch I want you to all close your eyes and Put yourself in Barrow’s shoes for a moment, imagine walking off an airplane into the foreign country of Germany. You walk to the performance hall and following the code of honor set in your pamphlet, you walk in the dark to the back stage door. You walk in, pass security guards, and continue your way to the stage. As you are warming up your conducting technique for your audition in the dark, the stage wing lights come on and a voice yells, STOP! What is this frivolous garbage you come to me with?! fearful of movement You know no better and immediately question yourself on whether you should answer or wait, standing still, for further instruction. (Silences 5seconds)OPEN EYES! Did you all feel an uneasy feeling of being wrong and not knowing what to do? Wait for a reaction Yeah, Welcome to Mr. Barrow’s everyday life as we know it in Germany. He would meet once a week privately with Maestro Ziegler, and study him and practice his one conducting everyday at the orchestra rehearsals. He had a relationship with the oboe player and began to be distracted from his 24hour music study. So his teacher seeing this demoted the oboe player to second chair and told Barrow it was his fault. Later, when the opportunity to conduct a concert came, Zeigler gave it to another younger student, and told Barrow he’s unprepared and has no ambition, if he would spend less time worrying about girls he would have been ready for this concert. Within a month another chance to conduct arrives and the people wishing his for his performance contact Ziegler and he turns the recommendation down, and instead suggests that he will conduct the concert himself. Barrow learns that Ziegler gave a bad recommendation. What do you all think he did to challenge this decision made? Does he get the chance to prove himself and conduct in the concert? Few know, however soon after reading this book you will all find out!
Book Talk Summary
The Student Conductor by Robert Ford
After spending eight years teaching children to play the violin, Cooper Barrow, a thirty year old man, decides to return to his professional music life as a conductor. He was advised by his Julliard teacher, Shanahan, to continue his study in Germany with Herr Maestro Ziegler. Ziegler is a man still troubled by his days spent in a Nazi concentration camp, and also “thinks he is Brahms” (104). He is one of those teachers that knows what is going to happen during a lesson, and how people are going to react before it happens. He is a constant mind boggler, always challenging the student, and putting him/her on the spot at the last moment. After a few days of studying, Barrow is introduced to the orchestra that he will be conducting. He immediately notices the beauty of the oboe player, Petra, and within a few weeks the love affair begins. Ziegler notices, and forms a “tough love” sort of jealousy between Barrow and Petra. In order to keep their lives in isolation from each other, he demotes Petra to second chair and gives a younger student the chance to conduct a concert that Barrow was ready to conduct. All the while claiming, “the principal oboist plays always flat” (58) and that Barrow has “no ambition” and is “unprepared” (268). Will Barrow and Petra have what it takes to be together through thick and thin? When and how will Barrow get his chance to conduct a symphonic concert? Will Petra leave the orchestra after being knocked down to second chair? Come and explore the everyday life of a professional musician in the making.
Reflection
In comparison to the other readings required for the class. I loved this assignment. I finally received the chance to read a book of my choosing! I was very excited about this opportunity. When I was told to give a presentation on the book. I was so excited. I was able to incorporate some flute playing, which I think caught my audiences attention, and talk about the life of a professional musician. I was very pleased with the way everything developed in my lesson. On the other hand, when I had to read the different novels for this class, I felt myself coping an attitude towards the reading. I felt like I had to read this book. I have to hurry and get through it. I noticed I did not enjoy the book nearly as much as I would have it I were given the choice to read it, and I also did not participate as much as I could have in the discussion. Looking back on the entire situation, I loved the book and I learned so much about the way "special needs" children think. I found the way Christopher reacted to his father after discovering he killed Wellington very astonishing. How could a person change their mind about someone so quickly? The real question is if I felt so strongly about this book, why did I not take a more responsive role in the discussion. I truly believe it is because I was not given a choice to read the book. I was not real excited about discussing it in class either.
|
|
Remedial Lesson with Ms. Goheen
I created a lesson for this class that involved me teaching a literature class a little bit about how to read and compose music. As you will see from the lesson plan below, the students learned specific rhythms, and were then allowed to compose music following the rhythmic values used in the first two measures of the piece. Once the students completed six measures of music on their own, I helped them put the entire song together to sing aloud, sounding like a full choral arrangement. At first I told the students, they were going to sing the entire song. Their reaction was not too promising. Then, I told them we would break it down group by group and measure by measure, until the entire class was singing. It was interesting to watch the students develop confidence over the short period. Once they understood that they were singing it correctly, they sang louder. When all three groups were in and they performed it perfect, they wanted to do it again and add more measures. This is something that would not have been possible if I would not have let them build the measures one their own. The students were motivated and taking ownership to the task at hand. They wanted to prove to themselves they could accomplish any challenge I gave to them.
Lesson Plan
Topic: Introduction to Rhythm and Counterpoint
Content Standard Benchmark:
P. 5.: Read instrumental or vocal score of at least four staffs
P. 6.: Sight read, accurately and expressively, music with a moderate level of
Difficulty
Learning Goals:
Students will learn the pyramid of notes
Students will learn to read music from a score they created
Students will learn the concept of tempo
Students will learn the broad concept of counterpoint
Comprehension Strategy:
Graphic Organizer – pyramid of notes
Chunking/Layering
Materials:
Chalk board and chalk
Hand – outs for students
Half page with a blank pyramid of notes
Half page filled with staff paper
Approximately 12 participants
Introduction: (approx. 2 min.)
I will begin by introducing myself to the class and letting them know I am a music education major and I would like to teach them a little bit about music today. I will ask for a raise of hands to the following questions:
Who here listens to music?
Who here has ever played music – meaning singing or an instrument?
Then I will tell them that not only are they going to learn how to read music today, they are going to learn how to compose music.
Activities:
1. Give students the hand - out and learn the pyramid of notes/rhythm. (see below) (5min)
2. Explain 4/4 time, and the bars of music that are already marked out for them and as a group make two measures of music. (5 min)
a. Do on board and have the students fill in the first two bars of music on handout.
3. Split students into four groups of three (could we prearrange this?) and instruct them to compose six more measures of music using a variation of the first two measures we did as a group.
a. Only the rhythms we used in the first two bars can be used throughout their entire piece. They can rearrange the rhythms in any particular way but no two consecutive measures are allowed to be the same. (10 min)
4. Allow one student from each group to write their composition on the board.
a. This will be in score form with group one on the top and group four on the bottom.
5. The entire class will perform each composition together.
Closure: (approx. 10 min)
6. Through a process of layering the class will perform each piece altogether.
a. The first group will start and do it until it’s steady. Then the second group will come in and play along with them, then the third and fourth group.
b. The students will sing, clap, slap knees, and stomp feet. This will allow the students to read a score and perform. (the students will be given a symbol on their hand - out that will identify their form of playing throughout the piece.)
Anticipated Concerns:
1. I am worried that this lesson will take longer than I have planned.
2. I am concerned that when I allow the class to compose some measures of music on their own that they will use material other than what we used in the first two measures and the concept of counterpoint will not be achieved.
c. We will reconvene and do each line as a class.
3. The performance options I have provided in order for each group to play their piece altogether, may not work since they will not be able to hear the sound the entire length of the rhythms.
a. In this case, I will have a different vowel sound for each group to sing.
4. The class may miss behave, or not be productive
5. The class may not understand anything I’m trying to teach and the lesson will not work.
Reflection:
I began the lesson with a question. Judging by the response from the students, I have to say I captured their attention instantaneously. I asked them if they ever listened to music, and then if they ever played or sang music. They all responded affirmative. One boy said he played in the band in junior high. I felt if I shared the instrument I played, that this young boy would be able to connect with me and he would share his instrument. When I asked him what he played he looked up at me, smiled, and very proudly said he played the trombone. I believe that the short conversation how the trombone was so cool because you could slide and make “Wah – wah – wah” sounds, allowed that student to respect me and I had his undivided attention for the rest of class. Next, I taught the class the pyramid of notes. I explained the first note (whole note) and sang it to them. When I asked them to sing it back to me, they looked at me with the most astounded look. It was the “you’ve got to be kidding me, we did this in elementary school” look. Luckily, one of the boys in the class did not care what he sounded like, and he sang it loud and proud. Once this happened, the rest of the class joined him in singing as we learned the rest of the notes on the pyramid. I thought the students grasped the idea well. So we moved on to composing.
The students organized two measures of music as a class. I split the class into three groups of three, instructed them on how to compose, and let them go to work. The first group was right on task, and did the activity no problem. I was really excited; I thought I had the perfect lesson and that everything was going to go right. Until I encountered the next group, the boys were just sitting there discussing what they did at breakfast. When I checked-in they made a valid attempt to learn. After doing a couple more measures with them, they understood the assignment and were able to finish on their own. I received a teaching “high” as I left that group, but the last group I found had no clue on what they were doing. The group had rhythms and notes all over the paper. One student was trying hard to work his way through it, but his group members were constantly questioning him. I began to work with them, and learned that although they did the activity of the pyramid, they did not understand how to apply it to composing the rhythms in the staff lines.
I started to question myself on how I taught that part of the lesson. What was it that they did not understand? It is clear and simple; all the other students could do it. I tried a new approach. We took the ideas of the first student and said this half note is on beat one. I had them look at their pyramid and tell me how many beats a half note received. They answered correctly, and I asked them since four beats are in the measure how many more beats do you have left? One of the students responded two. Happy this method was working, I asked them to look at their pyramid, and tell me what notes we could use to fill in the next two beats, and they responded correctly again. Finally, the measure was complete. They did the next measure on their own and had it correct, so I left them to work. It was really neat because once they understood the concept you could see the “light bulb” click and they were excited to go on and compose more. Once all three groups completed their composition they wrote it on the board.
I explained the concept of a score to the students. They thought it was interesting. I asked them if they would like to hear what their composition sounded like and they responded very enthusiastically. Measure by measure we put half the composition together. When the lesson was done, the students were quite pleased with all the hard work they did. I asked them whether or not they ever considered themselves a musician and they responded no, but I reassured them that any one that can develop a score like theirs’ was definitely considered a musician.
Teaching this lesson was a big step for me. I taught classes before, but never in opposing subject areas. During the execution of the lesson, I thought that maybe I expected a bit too much out of the students. If I were in my own classroom, I think that once I realized the students did not understand how to apply the pyramid to composing I would have stopped the activity and created music on the board, as a group. I would have had them tell me what they wanted and then sing it through a couple of times so they could understand every aspect. I would revise the final project to be individual compositions. I thought that they would understand the fundamentals a little quicker, being high school students. I was surprised with myself at how quickly I was able to think on the spot to get the students to understand the lesson through a different vision. I was very surprised that just by breaking it down and showing them every step to think that they were able to understand. It was pretty cool. Some techniques I want to fix for the future would be to come in prepared with two different styles to teach instead of having to think on the spot. I feel I need to learn a class more before I just create a lesson for them. If I would have known the class better I would have been able to use my time more effectively and I think that I could have got all the students to understand.
Overall Conclusion and Understanding of this objective
The most important technique I learned throughout my education career at Albion College is giving students a CHOICE. Allowing students to choose what they want to learn will result in students becoming actively engaged and involved in the process of learning in the classroom. However, a teacher must be careful in how many decisions the students receive. As a future band director, I made a goal with myself to choose a program consisting of a march, slow tune, and challenging modern piece for each concert. However, I will give the students a choice to pick from one of three marches upon sight - reading them. Their marching band show will also allow a choice. I will select three shows within their reach, and upon listening, they vote to select the show. I have had numerous opportunities to observe many high school marching bands. Every band that I watch, I always ask the director how they selected the show. Some directors tell me they picked the show themselves, and others say the students choose the show. Interestingly enough, the bands where the students choose the show had the best attitude and learning style of all the bands. These students took pride in their marching and musical technique. Not to mention, they were excited to be at band and gave two hundred percent at every rehearsal. In the bands where the director choose the music, I heard a variety of negative comments. A lot of students would complain about the music; saying, "I hate this. The music is so boring." Other students said such things like, "Band is retarded. I can't believe I have to go outside in the freezing cold and play this easy music." "I hate marching band. We never get to play anything fun." Not to mention, their marching, nine times out of ten, was nothing any director would even want to brag about. I believe giving students a choice is the best education movement a teacher can make. As long as the teacher does not give choices that they are not comfortable teaching.
"The important thing is not so much that every child should be taught, as that every child should be given the wish to learn."
~ John Lubbock ~
|
|
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
