Symbolic Association Teaching Reflection

Video:

https://youtu.be/ILeQnh9vchM

Reflection:

I appear fairly well prepared. There are times when I have to refer to the notation to know the lyrics or the pitches, however, towards the end of the activity I am able to maintain eye contact with my students. The preparatory sequence was a little difficult because this song begins on mi, but after several repetitions I am able to start on mi easily. I can improve my preparation by running through my teaching sequence physically, not just in my head, pretending inanimate objects are my students. My visual is also simple but well prepared.

I maintain the tonality and sing the patterns correctly. However and I am struggling with patterns that begin with mi. Therefore I should practice tonic patterns that begin on mi, not just on do and sol. My cueing is very clear, however I must consistently ensure that there is a space before students students sing so that there is time to audiate.

My directions are clear and I am able to explain things in few words. My teaching sequence is also appropriate, straight forward, and flows well. One thing I can improve in my teaching sequence is to tell the students right away is that when there are two sharps do is also called D. I must also ensure that the song is already familiar before I add the symbolic association element.

Field Work Assignment 7

Lesson plan

Objective:

S will experience a minor song at the aural/oral stage

Materials:

“The Weather Person” (JRI p. 184)

A toy microphone or prop to serve as a fake microphone

Sequence:

S sit on the floor in a circle

T sings the minor sequence of tones on a neutral syllable

T sings the tune and holds the microphone to her mouth when the weather person is singing in the tune

T informs the S that there are many types of weather. T instructs S to pretend to be clouds.

T sings the tune, holding up the microphone to herself during the weather person section and singing that the weather is cloudy while S pretend to be clouds.

T gives other suggestions of weather and corresponding movement and repeats the tune. S listen and do the movement.

T asks S for other suggestions on types of weather. S do a corresponding motion and listen while T sings.

T asks the S if they know the song well enough to sing along. If S say no T, will have S repeat the tune line by line.

S sing along when they are comfortable with the tune. During the weather person section the T holds up the microphone to herself and only the T sings.

T asks for a volunteer S to be the weather person. T points the microphone to them when it their turn to sing and the entire class sings the rest of the tune. Repeat this step so several S have the opportunity to be the weather person.

Teaching Reflection

Video: https://youtu.be/HqHZ1fGHr7Q

The S were well behaved and participated very eagerly. They were very excited to do the movement and when I forgot to have the class do different weather motions, they reminded to do movement. I adapted well to the suggestions and needs of the S, doing line by line teaching when the S could not sing the tune quite yet, and singing with the S when they wanted to be the weather person but were not quite comfortable singing a solo. I also had clear directions and expectations for the S throughout most of the activity.

I think my pacing was a bit too fast. If I were to do this activity again I would spend even more time having the S listen and do movement (even adding locomotor movement) before having them sing so it really gets in their audiation. Another problem is that I used the microphone from the beginning for consistency, but this made it so S had not sung the weather person section before I asked them to sing it solo. Given another chance, I would have the S sing the entire tune and add the microphone later (maybe even another week) so they could be more successful singing solo.

Instrumental Arrangement Teaching Reflection

Teaching video:

https://youtu.be/LiywW1kPe5w

Reflection:

I appear prepared. I flow well between each part of the lesson and rarely have to pause to remember what to do next in the lesson. I know my song well so I do not fumble over pitches or lyrics. I am also creative in connecting movement with the lyrics of the song. This preparation allows me to teach with enthusiasm and confidence.

Overall I have good musicianship. I am able to accurately sing the raised seventh of Dorian tonality and I am able to maintain the original keyality and tonality. I am also able to provide a good vocal model for the students. My sense of rhythm is also good, however my tempo changes a bit between each repetition of the activity. It is not too noticeable, but I could be even more consistent by audiating the microbeat before beginning or cueing each repetition. A few of my cues are confusing or absent so I need to work on adding clarity to my cues. I also mix up some labels, so some practice with solfege before teaching again would be beneficial.

My teaching process is also good overall. My rote song teaching process prepared my students well for the instrumental portion of the activity. When playing at the instruments, my sequencing allows for increased complexity with each repetition without being overwhelming. One thing I can work on is being even more clear with my expectations. When going over macro and micro beat I need to tell the students that I want them to continue to say rhythm syllables while they move and I sing. When I am going over resting tone and having students audiate I need to tell them that I want them to keep flowing like leaves. My expectations were more clear during the instrumental portion of the lesson because I told students when to play with fingers, when to play with mallets, and when to have mallets on the floor and listen.

Field Work Assignment 6

My CT evaluates student progress often throughout each class. For example, the students were learning the melody of a short tune on mallet instruments today. The CT taught the melody line by line and would evaluate the progress of the class by observing body language and listening to the class as a whole to determine if students had sufficiently learned the current phrase and were ready for the next phrase. The CT also asked questions to gauge and their understanding.

The CT measures student progress through singing grades. She often begins class with some solfege patterns which the students echo and show hands signs. After introducing a new solfege syllable (like re), the CT will sing a short pattern with the new syllable which each individual student then repeats. Each individual is graded on a scale of 1 to 4 as follows.

4 points: The student sings the pattern with correct hand signs and pitches.

3 points: There is some confusion in pitch or hand signs, but the student eventually fixes the error. Or a student sings the correct intervals but starts on the wrong pitch.

2 points: The student gets some correct hand signs and pitches.

1 points: The student uses their speaking voice or the pitches and hand signs are totally off.

The CT teacher would use a similar rubric to measure other skills such as playing mallet instruments. The CT takes a singing or playing quiz nearly every class. When introducing a new skill the CT will sometimes grade on participation and effort one week, and do a formal assessment with the above rubric another week so the students have a chance to practice the skill.

Field Work Assignment 5

The 5th grade class I observed today was an extension of previous classes. The students had been singing combinations of mi, sol, and la in previous classes and today the syllables re and do and accompanying hand signs were added. The class also continued to use mallet instruments. The class had not met for two weeks due to fall break, so much of the class was spent reviewing. New things the CT did address were the connection between solfege and notes on the mallet instruments, borduns, and playing the beginning of the melody on the instruments.

The class was well behaved but did get distracted at times. The CT always addressed behavior issues right away so they would not have a chance to progress. She would often ask questions such as “Did I ask you to play right now?” to help the students realize the desirable behavior. The CT also prevented behavior issues when possible such as asking students to put mallets down when instructions were being given.

One behavior issue I saw is that a student did not take the bars off the mallet instruments correctly. The CT had the student put the bar back and remove it properly. Another issue I saw is that students were playing on the last macro beat of the song when the CT asked them to play on the first macro beat after the song. She was firm with her expectations and did not move on with the lesson until the students focused and played how she had asked. The CT is generally clear with her behavior expectations and will not continue class until students demonstrate the desired behavior.

When I asked my CT about classroom management she discussed positive and negative incentives. Each class starts the day with 5 stars and lose stars with bad behavior and maintain or earn back stars with good behavior. If the students can maintain 5 stars through good behavior for 5 classes in a row they earn a fun day where they get to choose the musical activities to do for class. If the class ends with 2 stars or fewer, each student must copy the class rules. Students earn privileges and choices through good behavior and lose privileges such as the ability to play instruments with bad behavior. There is no school-wide system to address behavior, but administration may become involved if needed.

Field Assignment 4

I observed a 5th grade general music class. The class began with a singing test where each student sang a short pattern on the solfege sol, la, sol, mi. Each student sang the same pattern for the singing test. The students did a similar activity last week and many more students are accurately singing the correct pitches on their own. The CT starts each class with singing activities so I think one of her teaching goals is to help students develop a confident singing voice with good pitch accuracy.

The majority of the class was spent with a mallet instrument activity. The class started their mallet instrument unit last week so they reviewed the singing part, played air mallets, reviewed instrument names, and played on the instruments on the macrobeat following each repetition of the song. The CT set up an instrument rotation so that the students could explore new instruments with each repetition of the song. The coordination also became more difficult as the activity progressed. At first the students could play whichever notes they chose, but eventually the students were told to play C with the left mallet and and G with the right mallet.

Based on the mallet instrument activity I think that the CT has a goal that the students will learn to play with good technic. The song itself reminds the students of good technic with the lyrics “Mallets in the air, fingers wrapped around, strings are on our elbows, wrists go up and down.” Another goal is that the students will know the names of the instruments and be able to differentiate them based on size and material. The CT reviews and quizzes students on the names of the various mallet instruments each week. Another goal is to have the students explore the different instruments. She made this possible by setting up a rotation so that students are at a new instrument with each repetition of the song.

The class ended with the usual questions such as “What did I learn?” and “How can I do better?” The frequency of this activity tells me that the CT has a goal that the students will reflect on music and learning.

I asked the CT about her goals for the class. With regard to the singing activity she said that singing is important to her because it will help students to play instruments more effectively. She also teaches solfege in singing to help students develop a theoretical understanding of music.

The CT also told me about her goals for the mallet activities. By the end of the unit she wants her students to be able to play with good technique, play at various levels of complexity, play on the macrobeat, play the melody of the song, and improvise. She also said that it is important to teach the names of the various mallet instruments because they are commonly confused.

Field Work Assignment 3

I observed a 2nd grade general music class. The class began with a review of the solfege syllables and hand signs for sol, la, and mi. The students echoed the CT and also sang pitches without the CT by following the hand signs. The students are getting much more accurate and confident when singing without the CT. Next the CT had the students read a PowerPoint about the Legend of William Tell, had the students listen to the finale from the William Tell Overture while copying the movements of the CT, and the class discussed form within the finale in connection with the movements the class had done during their listening. The students were very eager to answer questions and take turns reading the PowerPoint. Lastly, the class ended by answering questions such as “What would I like to learn more about?”

The class was more distracted than usual this week. The CT had to ask students multiple times to look at her, sit up straight, stop talking, etc. Part of this may be due to the fact that the CT talked for much of the class about history and form so the students got bored. It may have been more effective to break up the lecture-heavy aspects of the lesson and discuss history one week and form another week to keep the attention of the students. Another issue was that the CT had to take time to set up the projector for the PowerPoint. This took a few minutes and may have lost the attention of the students. One thing the CT did well was to do different movements for each section of the finale which helped the students to understand form. The students remembered the movements well and did not need much guidance from the CT as the song was repeated.The movements were also fun to the class so the students were eager to participate.

The CT teacher did call out names in front of the class to correct behavior issues such as lazy posture, playing with name tags, and students not paying attention. However, the CT mostly used gestures and eye contact to correct behavior or addressed the class as a whole rather than singling out a specific student. The CT also has a system where the class begins with 5 stars and if they make it through 5 classes in a row without losing stars they can earn a game day. The class was getting distracted enough that the CT took away a star, but they did earn it back. The CT also assigns seats and changes these seats every week to prevent students from getting distracted by being next to their best friends. Overall the students became distracted at times, but were willing and eager to participate in the class activities.

Whole Song Rote Teaching Reflection

Link: https://youtu.be/253IsU84440

Overall, I appear very prepared. I know my song well and am able to confidently sing the correct pitches and lyrics, stay in tune, and move to the macro and micro beats. My instructions are also short and clear, my movement activities are relevant and creative, and I move through the sequence smoothly and with quick pacing. My movements are getting less rigid and I adapt well when the class is not able to sing the tune on their own right away.

My sequencing was accurate but I could have spent more time on resting tone to balance the amount of time spent on rhythm. This might have helped the students feel more prepared to sing on their own. I could have sung through several repetitions of the tune, varying the places where I stopped to have the students sing resting tone. I could also try to stop in the middle of phrases or words to challenge the students (and myself) as they sing resting tone.

My activities were appropriate for the verbal association stage of learning. At one point I accidentally called the macro-beat the micro-beat, but otherwise my use of syllables was fluent and accurate. In addition to syllables I did use, I could have also talked about how the song was in duple meter and major tonality.

Field Work Assignment 2

Today I observed a 5th grade elementary music class. The warm up activity was to sing a major scale using solfege. The group then did some individual singing. The CT sang sol la sol mi and each student sang this pattern Individually to the best of their ability. The rest of the class was spent on mallet instruments. The CT discussed how tone is produced through vibration, she named each mallet instrument, and the students were able to play the mallet instruments. The CT took off the Bs and Fs so that a pentatonic scale was left and dissonance would be avoided.

The CT had a slow pacing. The class time was spent doing only two activities (tonal and mallets) but there were enough sub parts to these activities to prevent too much attention loss from the students. For example, the mallet activity involved singing and playing one macrobeat with “air mallets” at the end of the song, she described the instruments in detail, she allowed the students to explore the instruments, and she had them sing their song and use the actual instruments. Since this was the first time using mallet instruments so the detailed instructions were necessary, but in the future shorter activities would be ideal to keep the attention of the students.

The CT sequences activities through several weeks. Her tonal activities build on each other from week to week. Her instrument activities also build in complexity from week to week. She will have the students sing one week, then sing and add hand motions similar to playing the instrument, then sing and play the instruments. Then the instrumental part might become more involved.

The CT verbalizes instructions the majority of the time. Sometimes she will verbalize and model good and bad technic, but she rarely instructs through just modeling. This method slows her pacing and sometimes loses the attention of the students.

The CT mostly uses questions as a classroom management technic. When she sees an undesirable behavior she often says “Do we [insert undesirable behavior]?” The students respond “no” and know to stop that behavior. She also uses questions to keep students engaged such as asking about the materials the instruments are made of. The CT determines most of the content but the students also have some choices in the classroom such as which mallet instrument to play (xylophone, glockenspiel, or bass bar). The CT will make decisions herself at times to increase efficiency or promote safety, but she does allow for student choices in the classroom.

Field Work Assignment 1

I observed a 2nd grade music class. The CT had the students sit in squads. She taped lines on the carpet and placed name tags where she wanted each student to sit. She mixes the seating arrangement every day so the students find their seats by finding their name tag.

Class began with some tonal patterns. The CT sang different combinations of sol, la, and mi and gave the hand signs for each syllable. At first the students echoed the teacher, but later the CT gave only hand signs and the students had to sing the pattern. When the students were successful, the CT gave hand signs for a new pattern, but if the students needed help she sang the pattern and had them repeat. The students had trouble going from mi to la and sol to la because these were new patterns, but generally going from mi to sol was fine. I believe this activity was generalization at the symbolic association level because students sang syllables based on the hand signs that were shown.

The majority of the class was spent on playing rhythm sticks while singing a rote song. The rote song had been learned in a previous class. First the class reviewed the rote song itself, then clapping motions. Then the students did clapping motions with a partner. Once the clapping motions were mostly accurate the CT passed out rhythm sticks. The students transferred their movements from clapping to using rhythm sticks instead. This song had been worked on for several weeks, adding a greater degree of movement and difficulty each class. The sequence in this class was also from easy to difficult and if problems arose the CT removed a layer of difficulty to solidify musical ideas. This activity was done at the aural/ oral stage because no labels were given.

The teacher ended class by asking the students three questions: What did you learn today? What would you like to learn more about? What can you do better next time? The teacher ends each class with these questions for 2nd grade and older. With younger students she would end with a goodbye song.

The students became distracted easily. The CT reminded students to sit up and face her throughout the class. She also recognized good behavior. While passing out rhythm sticks, she did so only to the students who were focused and practicing their partner clapping motions. When lining up to leave, she dismissed the rows that were most well behaved first. The CT also stopped undesirable behavior early. If students were messing around with rhythm sticks, she took them away. If the students were singing as a class but some students were getting ahead, she stopped the song and reminded them to listen to each other and sing at the same tempo. If she gave instructions, rhythm sticks were to be placed on the floor so they would not become a distraction.

Throughout the class the CT balanced routine with creativity and review with new material. She was able to spend a lot of time teaching but also had to deal with classroom management. There was also a good mix of partner activities and class activities.