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Teaching Students with Disabilities discussion forum for Secondary (Middle and High School) Music teachers

Assessment of Learning Messages in this topic - RSS

Bill Molineaux
Bill Molineaux
Posts: 3


7/31/2016
Bill Molineaux
Bill Molineaux
Posts: 3
I had a student who, due to carpal tunnel and other wrist issues, couldn't play for quite a while. I gave the student various alternate assignments to make up for the performance work the student couldn't perform. These included theory assignments related to our music, as well as small research items based on the music we were performing. I also had a theory student who was on hospital home-bound in my theory class. She was allowed to do the work and assessments at her own pace. The only issue was the ear training exams and sight-singing. I would record the ear training tests and provide the hospital home-bound teacher with and answer key. For sight-singing, the student's mom was able to bring her in once a quarter to complete the assignments.
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Seth Gardner
Seth Gardner
Posts: 3


8/3/2016
Seth Gardner
Seth Gardner
Posts: 3
Question 1: I had a student who was visually impaired and we needed to enlarge the size of the font in order for the student to fully participate in class and take assessments.

Question 2: For those students with word recognition, repeated reading is a natural fit for the choral classroom. As a class, we recite the words repeatedly while practicing, allowing the student to gain fluency. For those students who have Amuse, repetition of important information, in the case melodic intervals, is important to help them achieve mastery.
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Suzi Lambert
Suzi Lambert
Posts: 3


8/9/2016
Suzi Lambert
Suzi Lambert
Posts: 3
On-going assessment is critical to the success of my Music Theory II students. I incorporate a variety of formative assessments to encourage students to follow the rules and effective practices of four-part (SATB) writing. While an independent assessment, is the most effective tool for analyzing the student success rate, collaboration in pairs and small groups can promote a positive learning experience, promote evaluative skills. It is critical collaborative opportunities be planned with attention to personalities, balanced skill-set and supportive environment.
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Brian Barnhouse
Brian Barnhouse
Posts: 3


8/23/2016
Brian Barnhouse
Brian Barnhouse
Posts: 3
Option 2: Think of a music student with a disability you have now (or have had in the past). Identify their disability. Review the Alternative Assessment Checklist and select two or more options that could potentially benefit this student in assessing his or her music learning. Share your response in the threaded discussion.

I had a student with a hearing disability (use of hearing aid but still mostly deaf).
Option 1: personal head phones that he could use to listen to the music at the "loudness" he wanted. This was for him to learn the new music so he could hear what it sounds like. Practice at home and then come in to play with other students
Option 2: For staying in key, using a tuner instead of by ear.
Option 3: sitting/standing next to drums for staying on beat.
Option 4: for marching band, having the drum majors use bright lights instead of whistle commands
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Brian Barnhouse
Brian Barnhouse
Posts: 3


8/30/2016
Brian Barnhouse
Brian Barnhouse
Posts: 3
Not really a permanent disability but I student that could not hit the high notes of military bugling for independent practice because he recently was put on braces and his mouth was in pain when trying to play at high octaves. To adapt, I had him play an octave lower but then sing the actual military bugling notes at the right rhythm.
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Cassandra McGlenn
Cassandra McGlenn
Posts: 3


10/8/2016
Option 1: Provide/Describe one or more examples of adapted or alternative assessments you have successfully used in the music classroom for students with disabilities. Be sure to identify the student's disability. Share your response in the threaded discussion.

I have a student with an orthopedic impairment who needed to have surgery on his hand a few times during the year. Whenever this happened, he was unable to strum his guitar since he was unable to use his right hand. For an alternative assessment for pass-offs, he would just show me the fingerings and say the note names in time.
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Christina Johnson
Christina Johnson
Posts: 3


10/12/2016
Option 1: Provide/Describe one or more examples of adapted or alternative assessments you have successfully used in the music classroom for students with disabilities. Be sure to identify the student's disability. Share your response in the threaded discussion.


Last year, I had a student who was visually impaired and I had to copy the band book and all of the music much larger in order for her to see them clearly. This helped her perform and complete playing tests more accurately.


I also had an autistic student go through the band program the last three years. He was always over anxious and nervous about playing tests. I have a playing test hotline set up through google voice. This alleviates the pressure of having to perform in front of others off of students and if they weren't confident about how they performed they have a full week to complete the assignment. I tell the students that I take the best "call in" that they can give me even after several attempts.
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Diana Rollo
Diana Rollo
Posts: 3


10/26/2016
Diana Rollo
Diana Rollo
Posts: 3
For my beginning class, I have students that come to me at all levels of musical ability and achievement. I have made necessary adjustments for students with disability when it comes to the length of the test.....i.e. fewer questions but still testing the same written skills. I also make adjustments on time for those that require extended time on tests.
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Dominick Eggen
Dominick Eggen
Posts: 5


11/13/2016
Dominick Eggen
Dominick Eggen
Posts: 5
In preparing materials for our All-County Band auditions, I was notified of a student musician with a visual impairment. His sight-reading sheet music was increased in size to 140% to accommodate his ability to read it, and he was given extra time to review it before being asked to perform.
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Michelle Hastings
Michelle Hastings
Posts: 3


11/17/2016
I had a student that was legally blind so rather than have him play his tests on the computer which would require him to read the music on the computer. I would have him play it for me after he had learned it by ear. I would still use a metronome and grade accordingly as if it was on the computer.
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Diara Morris
Diara Morris
Posts: 3


11/22/2016
Diara Morris
Diara Morris
Posts: 3
I had a student with a brain injury that resulted in speech problems, affecting her ability to talk, sing and match pitch. During sight-reading assessments, I allowed her to view the melody to be sung, and played two versions of it (one was incorrect). She told me which one was incorrect, pinpointed the mistakes, and then sung the melody along with me. I sang the melody very softly.
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Carolyn Durbin
Carolyn Durbin
Posts: 5


1/1/2017
Carolyn Durbin
Carolyn Durbin
Posts: 5
Students who attend ESOL classes can use that time to work on lessons utilizing the expertise of their ESOL teachers. They can also ask for translation or clarification when they reach an online quiz, test or exam... Allowing students the flexibility to work in a setting that is more comfortable for them and giving them the chance to have access to teachers that can work with them in their native language means they are not constantly struggling with new information in a foreign language or being tested in a language where they are not yet proficient. Many of the students I have who are English as a second language learners were used to being very successful in their academic subjects and the language barrier makes it more difficult for them to maintain high standards which can be frustrating to them. I have also them to write in their own language and then translated their work to grade it... Another step might be to give feedback and then translate that to their native language...at least until they become more proficient in English.
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Carolyn Durbin
Carolyn Durbin
Posts: 5


1/1/2017
Carolyn Durbin
Carolyn Durbin
Posts: 5
I like your approach for this student. He was probably not the only one with anxiety at performing alone... Letting him and others perform in trios and then assessing them privately afterwards allowed them to participate fully and got your assessments done... smile
Lee Commander wrote:
Most recently I had a student who came in and mentioned to me that he had some social anxieties and playing in front of his colleagues was a trigger. In order to better accommodate the students I had made an arrangement with the student before hand. I would have the class play their scales in trios and then no one would know if he did not play with them. Then, he would come see me after school or during lunch and he would play the scale test for me in order to better test his understanding of the concepts.
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Shawn Pendry
Shawn Pendry
Posts: 3


1/4/2017
Shawn Pendry
Shawn Pendry
Posts: 3
I had a student in my music composition class who was learning with orthopedic impairment (severely limited use of both arms). She has a paraprofessional that generally wrote down information for her or helped her with a voice-memo style laptop. When it came to music compositions, she had great ideas, but was unable to use a piano or to write on manuscript and her para was not a musician. For the first two quarters, I allowed her to notate each composition in segments with a separate due date to allow for a process that we created where she would create voice recordings and her para or mother would send to me via email so I could drop my interpretation of her words into finale. The next class, I would have a print out of what I thought she meant and she would make a recording with corrections. Sometimes she would say things like "the cello needs an arpeggiated F chord in 8th notes" and sometimes she would just sing in solfege a melody that she wanted over a certain section. It was tedious, but allowed her to show mastery and to be able to create. By half way through the year, her para had learned enough to do part of the translating for me so I only had to tweak the finale file.
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Stephen M. Smith
Stephen M. Smith
Posts: 3


1/9/2017
Describe an example of adapted assessment you have successfully used in the fine arts classroom for students with disabilities.

I have a battery of EXIT Slips that cover the topics of Listening, and the performance pedagogies of keyboard, guitar, and percussion. As our bellringer we have an option to re-do yesterday’s EXIT slip as a “You Do” in GRRI. When we depart, for our reflection center as an option in which we together do a new EXIT slip to create a “We do” or the student individually does a “You Do” as the case needs.
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Joshua Nelson
Joshua Nelson
Posts: 3


1/13/2017
Joshua Nelson
Joshua Nelson
Posts: 3
I have a guitar class in which many of the students progress at different speeds. Also, I have a few students who joined the class late in the semester and are therefore at a different place in the curriculum than the other students. I assess all of the students in this class on a weekly basis, and I allow both the students with disabilities as well as other students who progress at different speeds to work through the curriculum at their own pace. Just yesterday, I was very proud of one of my students with an SLD because she successfully performed a very difficult exercise in our book without writing the notes down. This student had previously not been able to even perform music on one string in first position, but because I allowed her to progress at her own pace, and I offered scaffolding and assistance to her as needed, she is now starting to progress very quickly, and she is no longer frustrated because she isn't being pressured to learn more quickly than she is able to learn.
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Jennifer Breman
Jennifer Breman
Posts: 3


1/22/2017
Jennifer Breman
Jennifer Breman
Posts: 3
Some accommodations that I have seen used with students have been flexible setting and scheduling for the testing. Giving students longer time to complete testing helps students that have an specific learning disability. Often times they work in small groups or individual groups so that they don't have to play in front of others this can help them not have the anxiety of performing in front of others to deal with. Having the directions repeated and clarified can also help students with disabilities to make sure that they are understanding the tasks that they are supposed to be doing for evaluations.
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Tracy Thielen
Tracy Thielen
Posts: 3


1/24/2017
Tracy Thielen
Tracy Thielen
Posts: 3
I teach Suzuki violin. With my student on the autism spectrum, she has trouble memorizing a whole entire piece so we work to have her find the notes gradually and then I have her write them down so she has them for reference when she gets home to practice. She is still learning by ear but with the dded step of writing the fingerings, she is better able to practice at home without the frustration of trying to re learn the notes once she gets home. Every week, she comes to her lesson having already memorized her piece. I also tell her exactly how many times to practice each song or new phrase and she uses a practice chart to keep track.
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Brian Hellhake
Brian Hellhake
Posts: 3


1/27/2017
Brian Hellhake
Brian Hellhake
Posts: 3
I am thinking of how I use Smartmusic for the students playing test. As playing tests are assigned, I can modify the parameters of the the test. For the students with a slowing learning pace, I can assign smaller parts with a slower tempo. I can increase the challenge by speeding up the tempo and in combination with the length of the assignment and the selected difficulty of the music, I can adapt the assessments to any student's needs.
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Sarah Miller Williams
Sarah Miller Williams
Posts: 4


1/28/2017
I find response cards and exit cards to be very useful for the students who struggle memorizing discreet musical information such as notes on a scale or music-specific vocabulary such as crescendo and decrescendo. I am able to informally assess by way of response cards and slow down and reteach in the moment. The exit cards allow me to tailor my instruction for the next day by seeing immediately what students need to review.
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