Written Response 9

There are many traditions deeply rooted in music education classrooms. At times these traditions exist because they are effective means of teaching, while at other times traditions continue simply because that’s the way it’s always done. The director of Williamson High School examined the effectiveness of the tradition of chair placements (Forte, 2014). She decided to end this tradition at her school because the resulting competition often divided the band. By ending this tradition she was instead able to foster unity within the ensemble and each student was inspired to work hard no matter their assigned part.

As music educators it is important to examine classroom traditions. Those that will enhance the classroom experience should be kept while those that do not should be dropped from the classroom. It is also important to note that the effectiveness of traditions will depend on both the teacher and the students in a particular classroom. Therefore, it would be useful to re-examine traditions regularly and incorporate or exclude these traditions accordingly. But, educators should never blindly incorporate traditions because that it simply how it’s always done.

Written Response 8

As a high school senior I sang in one of New Mexico’s All-State choruses. One of my fellow choir members was blind. The director adapted to her needs by having a fellow choir member tap this student whenever there was a cut-off. This was the first time I had seen this sort of inclusion and it was inspiring to see this student make music.

No child should be excluded from participating in music ensembles. Adaptation may be necessary to include students with disabilities and this can be difficult at times for educators. But we need not reinvent the wheel as we try to figure out how to best include these students. In “Collaboration and Access for Our Children: Music Educators and Special Educators Together,” McCord and Watts list many resources to help educators. They suggest that educators be involved in IEP teams or work with paraprofessionals and administration to figure out how to best help these students. Furthermore, the article lists many books and articles which address this topic. Educators can turn to these individuals and texts to gain a better understanding of how to aid these students. These students matter and educators must do their part to include these students and give them the best education possible.

Written Response 7

The sixth chapter of Ayers’, To Teach: the Journey in Comics, discusses the evaluation of learning in the classroom. One problem of standardized testing is that these tests “are plagued with intractable problems, they’re inherently biased, distorting the performance of people who are culturally or linguistically different, regardless of ability, intelligence, or achievement” (p. 86). Some children are naturally good at guessing the correct answer or their past experiences allow them to answer questions correctly, while others may struggle with the language or structure of the test. This sort of test does not allow for variance in learning styles and does not accurately represent the learning of a student.

How can learning be more accurately measured? Ayers suggests evaluating learning in a variety of ways: through performance, projects, and portfolios (p. 91). Variety is important because it evaluates several learning styles and allows more students to succeed. The second thing to note, is that these methods track the progress of the individual rather than comparing students to the rest of the class. This is important because learning is an individual process and not a group effort. If we as educators want our students to succeed, we need to stop teaching the group and teach the individuals. Evaluation must also be done on an individual rather than a group basis.