6/20/2016
Topic:
Students with Disabilities
Janet Thomas
|
A blind student was enrolled in a high school music theory class that I taught several years ago. She was in the 9th grade and had recently lost her sight due to complications from diabetes. She had been playing piano and reading music for two or three years before losing her sight, so she was able to visualize the keyboard and music staff. A Braille typewriter was available but she preferred to take notes herself. Her mother would help her review the notes later. I seated her in the front center of the room with a buddy. Her buddy would help by whispering to clarify any instructions or discussion points, and help by keeping her notebook and handouts organized. This young lady was quite engaged in the class and would raise her hand frequently to ask a question or make a contribution. If she raised her hand for help during instruction for I would acknowledge her raised hand by lightly tapping on her desk to say “I see you”. We developed this system so that she wouldn’t wonder if I noticed that her hand was up. This student’s aural skills were excellent so “ear training” did not require much modification. Communicating with her about note names and the staff notation required some creativity. The student’s mother suggested making a raised grand staff by gluing strips of yarn to cardboard that would fit in her notebook. As I was teaching the class, the student would place her fingers or round shapes on the staff board in the correct place. The staff was large enough for me to see from a distance so I could easily assess her understanding. Another modification was allowing her to describe the notes in relation to each other on a keyboard, as if she were playing a piano. After a few weeks we became quite comfortable and efficient with this arrangement. It worked so well that I am not sure an observer in the room would have noticed that one of the students in the class was visually impaired! |
6/20/2016
Topic:
Tools and Strategies
Janet Thomas
|
There are many children at my school with SLD (Specific Learning Disabilities). These children have difficulty staying on task and focused, especially when learning to read music. These are the same challenges that they have learning to read text in their language arts classes. I use my document camera often, and project our learning material on a whiteboard that I can write on for clarification. For listening I have an iPad and a computer (iTunes) connected to a stereo system (yes, this is technology too!). I work hard to find multi-media materials that the students find engaging. An iPad is used for some activities. I frequently ask one of the SLD students to be my technology helper, especially if I am working with an iPad. This keeps the student on task. My favorite program is Smart Music, downloadable at www.smartmusic.com . I have used this for years in my private studio. For classroom use there are a two books available in Smart Music that I have found to be effective in my elementary music class: They are Recorder Express by Artie Almeida and Patterns of Sound Book 1 by Joyce Eilers and Emily Crocker. I also own classroom sets of these books. The Smart Music program (app) is projected on the board while it also plays the accompaniments for the exercises. In Smart Music the pointer moves from left to right showing the students which notes they should be playing or singing. This is great for students who have trouble keeping their place on the page. It helps for the students to see the print notation in a book on the music stand as well as on the board. Smart Music records each “performance”. When the song or exercise is over the students can listen to what they just played. This is a wonderful motivation to students as they usually find that they didn’t sing or play as well as they thought, then they want to try again and make it better! |
6/20/2016
Topic:
Assessment of Learning
Janet Thomas
|
OPTION 1 Examples of adapted or alternative assessments for speech impaired students
An adapted or alternative assessment that works well for speech impaired students is response cards or pictures. For example, when teaching young children to identify loud and soft, I have used pictures or a lion and a mouse. For loud, the students point to a big picture of a lion or hold up a lion response card. For soft they would indicate a mouse. A similar example with response cards can be used when teaching students to identify the individual instruments of an instrument family. For example, make a set of brass instrument cards for each student (trumpet, French horn, trombone, tuba) and have the student hold up the correct card for a listening example from the brass family.
Many teachers are now using “Plickers” cards in their classrooms (see website www.plickers.com to sign up). These may be used by teachers and students to check for understanding on any subject and are easy to set up and use. I personally have not yet used them but have seen them in use in other classrooms and also at several professional development meetings that I have attended. The students (and adults) love these because the Plickers seem like a game. I plan to get my own “Plickers” account set up during the summer and put it into use next year.
These are all great assessments with immediate feedback and work well for all students, students with disabilities, especially those with speech impairment.
edited by Janet Thomas on 6/20/2016 |