7/29/2023
Topic:
Students with Disabilities
Roberto Vidal
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Throughout my career, I have had many students with a range of disabilities. In this past school year, one of my students had an undiagnosed partial hearing impairment of the left ear. This affected her intonation and blend primarily. We discovered this as she was placed in the dead center of my middle school chorus and could not discern the vocal line to the left of her, only her right. This discovery started her current IEP plan for hearing impairment. In the process, we accommodated the location of this student within the ensemble in order to facilitate her listening, tone-matching, and overall singing skills. We ended up placing this student on the right edge of our risers with a chorus peer mentor who provided an exemplary vocal model of her vocal line in her hearing-able right ear. This student had great success in my MS chorus and is now continuing to sing at the high school level. |
7/29/2023
Topic:
Tools and Strategies
Roberto Vidal
|
Option 2:
One technological strategy that I have implemented in my chorus classroom is using my SmartBoard in conjunction with Sight Reading Factory to magnify, present, and re-model my previously outdated sight reading printouts. In my lesson planning, I currently use Sight Reading Factory in order to generate 16 measure sight reading examples for my choirs. I usually print these examples landscape for all of my students daily and it goes in the chorus binder. Throughout the last few years, I have begun to use the Sight Reading Factory directly off of my SmartBoard. I keep the tabs open for each class period and print those examples directly from my board. In this way, the students have their own up-close personal print-out and/or the magnified version on the board in the front of the room.This strategy has shown great success in my ensembles with my students with visual impairments as well as those with motor impairments that prevents them from seeing up-close and/or holding up the sight reading example. The metronome feature, moving red guideline, and tonic pitch establishment features on SRF also provides great accommodations for all students in the ensemble.
edited by Roberto Vidal on 7/29/2023 |
7/29/2023
Topic:
Assessment of Learning
Roberto Vidal
|
Option 1:
At the end of every nine weeks, I do a vocal performance assessment of all of my singers individually in my choirs. However, I have adapted the mode of assessment for their individual performances in order to accommodate those students with social anxieties. I allow students currently to be able to perform in front of the class or submit an online video through Google Classroom of them performing the required excerpt, that is then visible to the class. This has proven great success in my choirs and I have noticed a trend that the less pressure performers have in regards to their peers, they tend to open up and strive for an in-person assessment. The digital flexibility allows for all learners to feel supported and that their best work will always be represented. |