8/1/2016
Topic:
Students with Disabilities
Erin Rosel
|
I have many exceptional students with a wide range of disablilties, but today I will comment on a 2nd grade student with cerebral palsy. She is a cheerful student, and very much enjoys music class. She has a paraprofessional with her, but we have also set up student buddies, which she prefers. One way that her disability has affected her music learning is when we learn movement/dances. She has a motorized wheel chair that she is capable of operating herself, and she has limited movement in her arms and legs, although she can move them. Modifications that I make for her is to move her chair in the direction(s) the dance is moving, but have her do the arm movements and any foot or leg movements that she can, that simulate the movements that the rest of the class is doing. For example, if we are marching, she "marches" her feet in her chair; if we have partners, she holds the hand of her parnter with her hand that is not operating her chair. For movement/dances, this works very well and the student feels successful and enjoys herself. |
8/1/2016
Topic:
Students with Disabilities
Erin Rosel
|
Emily Goode wrote:
I have a large population of students with autism at my school, and one in particular stands out. She is mostly nonverbal but loves to make and respond to music. She just finished her second grade year in a self contained classroom. That classroom came to me by themselves, so I modified the curriculum to fit their needs. I sang hello to each student by name, and she smiled so wide every time she heard her name sung. By the end of the year she even started giving me great eye contact as I sang to her! We started with the same warm up song every day, and moved onto the lesson. Lessons in this class went slower than in mainstream classes, but they still learned the same content. If students were successful with the lesson, they were able to choose an instrument to free-play for the last few minutes. My friend with autism also has echolalia and would repeat many of my words, but by the end of the year she was able to finish the phrases of familiar songs as I sang and played guitar.
It is so encouraging when we are patient and persistant, and we finally see the small break throughs! One of my kindergarteners with autism started the school year completely non-verbal, and showed no interest in making any kind of vocalizations, and by the end of the year was able to echo sing back to me his name, and a few basic vocalizations. It was a small success, but a very exciting one at that! |
10/26/2016
Topic:
Tools and Strategies
Erin Rosel
|
Two strategies I am interested in implemening are Discovery Learning and Self-Evaluation and Reflection.
DISCOVERY LEARNING - Many of my young students are curious about the instruments. I could easily set up centers with different instruments and I could have the students describe how the instruments looks, feels, what materials its made out of, and they could guess what it may sound like and how to play it and finally play the instrument. Then, they could decide which songs they already know that would sound good (in their opinion) performed using that instrument. Finally, groups could compare the instruments they just discovered, listing ways they are similar and different, and list their favorites and why they are their favorite(s).
SELF EVALUATION AND REFLECTION - This is easily implemented with everything from doing a small movement activity to performing a large Orff arrangement. I could have students share with a partner two things that they thought they did well, and two things they thought could improve the activity or performance. Then students can share their thoughts/ideas with the class/ensemble and strategize how to implement the improvements, and finally apply the improvements to the activity/practice. |