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Ethan Stofer Posts: 3
3/26/2020
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I have a class with multiple students who are hard of hearing. Several of these students have hearing aids, which also come equipped with the ability to be connected to a speaker worn by the teacher. In this case, one part of the solution came to my class, and only required me to wear the device. However, I teach in a classroom with another teacher. As only one teacher can wear the device, we must be conscious of who is wearing it, and how the other teacher will continue to reach the students who are hard of hearing.
The solution we came up with was that one teacher would wear the device, and the other teacher would wear a headset with a speaker attached. Any instruction given to these students required one of these amplification solutions, as well as regular check-ins to ensure there were no difficulties in receiving instruction.
The only other way accommodation that was required was to allow the students to move to be closer to the source of sound as they deemed necessary.
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Jerry Myers Posts: 5
3/28/2020
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I have a student who is autisic. We played a game in his class that involved throwing velcro covered balls at a target that contained music symbols. The students had to identify the symbol their ball landed on. I needed to give my autistic more chances to throw the balls and he needed to move closer to the target in order to be successful.
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Emily Szymanski Posts: 3
3/31/2020
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I teach a student that has cerebral palsy. He uses a walker and has less defined motor skills. His class has slightly modified lessons when necessary. They may learn a slightly less complex song on the xylophone or have different instructions for movement to songs. I try very hard to think of all changes before the class ever walks in my door because I don't want him or anyone else to know or feel like we are doing things differently because he has to do them a little differently. Aside from movement (dancing) which is rarely graded, his biggest challenge is moving his arms quickly, on a xylophone, for instance, or a triangle or drum. I make sure to choose slower tempos so he can keep up. Because of these unknown modifications, he is one of my top students and does't have unsuccessful experiences or negative interactions with other students in music class.
edited by Emily Szymanski on 3/31/2020
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Aaron Trkovsky Posts: 3
4/2/2020
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We have several self contained ESE classes at our school. They come to music twice a week. We use the same lessons with these kids as the general ed. classes, but we regularly take longer to complete the lessons as the kids need more repetition with the various activities we do. We use visual stimuli as a regular teaching strategy to help focus and engage these students in what is being taught. One of my favorite activities is using rhythm flashcards for the students to compose their own short rhythm patterns, but supporting with verbal syllables. This activity has been beneficial in giving these students self-confidence and ownership of their musical learning. We extend this activity with having the whole class performing the patterns with rhythm sticks. With these classes we do plenty of modeling both instrumental performance, and movement activities.
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Hannah Moore Posts: 3
4/3/2020
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I teach a student who is deaf in one of his ears. I make sure that his placement is close to the front of the class. Also, I need to speak clearly to him when giving instructions, as well make sure I am using visual cues when communicating.
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Sara DiPardo Posts: 7
4/4/2020
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I had a student with Osteomalacia. It's pretty rare, there's a lot of stiffness, curved bones and weakness in muscles. My student was wheelchair bound. She was not able to walk. She had NO other developmental issues. When she was in primary grades it took me being a bit more inventive with song games. We would still do them but her aid would hold her up or I would. I would also let her play something for a steady beat for us if she was just too weak that day. When she was in the upper grades with recorder I just let her use whatever hand/fingers she could. She got through all of the recorder karate belts too. I did offer her a bell set instead or hand bell but she refused. She wanted to do everything the same as her peers as much as possible.
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Sara DiPardo Posts: 7
4/4/2020
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In the past I had a student with a hearing impairment. He wore hearing aids and had a microphone for the teacher to pin to their shirt to help increase the volume as well. I always wore it and if he forgot it I would use a wireless headset and speaker. I also wrote out as much as I could on the board, spoke as clearly as possible and had students or myself do a trial/practice of what we were doing first as well so everyone not just my hearing impaired student could benefit.
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Evelyn Aguirre Posts: 3
4/6/2020
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In the past I had a student that was severe ASD with a small case of E/BD. He would go in the back of my room and pretend to be fighting "bad guys". Wouldn't bother anyone but it was a major distraction. Well, his behavior affected his learning in class because that's all he wanted to do "fight bad guys". We worked something out that if he could tell me what we had learned he would be able to go back there and fight his fight.
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Robyn Samuelson Posts: 3
4/9/2020
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Currently, I have 4 ASD students that come to Kindergarten music on a weekly basis. They come with an assistant and sometimes a speech/language teacher. One of the students is in Kindergarten, while the others are 1st and 2nd grade kids. Because I do the same Kindergarten show each year, the older kids already know the songs and I use them as demonstrators. The Kindergarten student is also paired with a strong singer who helps keep him on task. The assistant is also a singer and has learned all of the movement, so when I accompany the kids on the piano, she comes to the front of the class and models the movements for ALL of the students. It's been a wonderful working experience. Unforunately, the Kindergarten show was scheduled for April 3rd, and because of the distance learning, we were not able to perform it. Even through distance learning, I placed the lyrics and the accompaniments online and the kids have been able to sing along at home. Even the ASD kids!! It was exciting to get notification that they are still singing!!
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Nicole Messner Posts: 3
4/15/2020
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A kindergarten student enrolled at our school halfway through the year with brittle bone disease. She was super tiny, in a tiny wheelchair, and had an aide with her for specials. Her chair was so small she could not see or reach the top of the conga drums I use often in her class. I ended up giving her a set of smaller bongos to play. But, she couldn't hold them in her lap bc she doesn't really have a big enough lap to hold them. So we played around with chairs/desks/whatever until we figured out the bongos could sit on a glockenspiel rolling cart/stand.
I had to adjust some activities such as standing and holding the parachute instead of sitting on the floor so she could access it or go underneath it. As she gets older I will need to figure out how she can participate in playing the recorder and the piano keyboard.
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Janell Magnusson Posts: 3
4/16/2020
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Several years ago, I had a student with a hearing impairment who wore hearing aids in both of his ears. The first year I had him as a student, he wore his hearing aids and I would place him toward the front of the room to aid with his hearing. I would also make sure to face him so he could watch my face while I was giving instruction, and would put up many visual aids to help him. The second year I had him as a student, he brought a device with him and each teach would wear it around their neck to amplify their voices into his hearing aids. That greatly helped his learning and allowed him to clearly hear the teacher instruction without hearing all the background noise through his hearing aids.
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Daniel Shea Posts: 4
4/16/2020
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I once had a hearing impaired student in the elementary music classroom. We were watching a video that was rather intense in its drumming and to assist this student in feeling the effect. I connected a 100 watt monitor and put it in his lap with the speaker against his belly/chest. He could feel every pulse. I think he liked it.
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Matthew Swickey Posts: 3
4/22/2020
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I had a student in third grade with Cerebral palsy in addition to visual and auditory challenges. Have her seated at the front of the class. When we began recorders she had great difficulty playing. By using a music stand with enlarged print music and an adaptive model recorder she was able to play successfully.
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Julie Weaks Posts: 2
4/23/2020
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I have a third grade student who has a congential brain injury which has affected her speech, hearing. She uses assistive technology for communication so in the art classroom we use a variety of digital visuals, preferential seating and more time to complete projects. She is very creative and loves to be ableto use digital resources to share out her ideas and projects.
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Alexandra Lopez Posts: 3
4/23/2020
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I have had a specific student with a behavioral and intellectual disability for the past 8 years at my school. She is in a Emotional Behavioral Unit and when they come to music, they have their own Rock Band. This gives all of the students in the class with various abilities a chance to participate in various ways that make them feel comfortable in their learning, as well as continue to push them to meet their standards successfully. This particular student has a lot of trouble with fine motor skills as well as timing for music. Through my experiences teaching her, I have used a lot of visual aids (pictures), and color code in our lessons as a class to help her know what and when to play. I use alternative instruments (boomwhackers, pianos with color coded keys, drums and other unpitched percussion) in our rock band to encourage her to be a part of the group. She has enjoyed being a part of the rock band and I feel it helps to improve her confidence in her learning in my class.
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Roxanne Simpson Posts: 3
5/1/2020
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I have a Kindergarten student with Down Syndrome and she comes to class with an aide. I have found that it is best to partner her with a peer to help guide her through the activities.
I have several students that are developmentally delayed. With activities such as the cup game, for instance, I always sit these students next to me in the circle so I can better assist them. I perceive that they feel more comfortable attempting the activity when they are close to me and can watch me.
I also have an autistic student that is sensitive to loud noises, so he comes to class with noise cancelling headphones and he just has the time of his life.
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Antionette Schenck Posts: 3
5/4/2020
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I have a student who is Deaf or Hard of Hearing. For a long time he would always say he couldn't hear what I was saying. In order to help him be successful in music I would make sure I stand in close proximity to him and mouth the words so he can hear me. Also, I found that pairing him with a buddy also helped him. When there are listening activities, I make sure the music is as loud as possible. If we are singing, I repeat the words until he gets it. Eventually he was able to get a hearing aid.
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Aquila Tamaseu Posts: 7
5/6/2020
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I had a student in elementary music for several years who was somewhat Visually Impaired. He wore very thick eyeglasses and appeared to be a little slow and awkward in doing music activites. He was very shy and kept mostly to himself. He didn't want any attention drawn to him and didn't want to sit close to the board but rather sit amongst his classmates and be treated like everyone else. He loved music but didn't really sing out or volunteer to answer questions or participate in activites except when he had to. I was very surprised when he wanted to audition for our after school chorus group which is a show performing group. He not only improved his singing, but he gained self confidence, self esteem and a family that loved and cared about him.
Some accommodations that I always use so as to not single anyone out:
1. Very large posters and very large anchor charts
2. Speak loudly, detailed verbal instructions, exaggerated and enlarged movements when demonstrating, examples which may include some or all of the 5 senses and cross-curricular connections so students would be able to understand
3. Melody - consistent use of Solfege Curwen hand signs and Solfege Ladder poster
4. Instruments - before playing the instruments, I model how to hold the instruments and techniques of how to play the instruments while students mirror me. Next, using partners, one plays while the other coaches them, then switch.
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Mary Wester Posts: 3
5/6/2020
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I have a student with Down's Syndrome. She started in Kindergarten and now is in the 2nd grade. During her Kindergarten year, my class was the last one of the day. She did not have a one on one paraprofessional yet so her parents had agreed to come to all her resource classes. After one class, they started picking her up early so she rarely attended any of the resource classes. In first grade, a wonderful para was assigned to her and has been with her since. In first grade, she would come in, walk on the "line up" tape back and forth while I was teaching, sometimes sitting where she was supposed to. In the spring, we did a first grade show where all the children were on the stage on risers singing. During one of the last rehearsals, she got up in front of them and started waving her arms around imitating me! That was the first "sign" to me that she had connected to music somehow. This year, during the second grade show, she participated in the dance her class did though sometimes doing her own thing. She sang very loudly sometimes but I could tell she knew the words and the melodies. She also would come into my class with her doll and tell me I needed to be quiet because the doll was sleeping and I understood what she said. She is surrounded by classmates, teachers and staff that love and know her. Her classmates are always bending over backwards to help her along. It is exciting to see how far she has come but I am concerned what will happen as she gets older.
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Aquila Tamaseu Posts: 7
5/6/2020
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Mary Wester wrote:
I have a student with Down's Syndrome. She started in Kindergarten and now is in the 2nd grade. During her Kindergarten year, my class was the last one of the day. She did not have a one on one paraprofessional yet so her parents had agreed to come to all her resource classes. After one class, they started picking her up early so she rarely attended any of the resource classes. In first grade, a wonderful para was assigned to her and has been with her since. In first grade, she would come in, walk on the "line up" tape back and forth while I was teaching, sometimes sitting where she was supposed to. In the spring, we did a first grade show where all the children were on the stage on risers singing. During one of the last rehearsals, she got up in front of them and started waving her arms around imitating me! That was the first "sign" to me that she had connected to music somehow. This year, during the second grade show, she participated in the dance her class did though sometimes doing her own thing. She sang very loudly sometimes but I could tell she knew the words and the melodies. She also would come into my class with her doll and tell me I needed to be quiet because the doll was sleeping and I understood what she said. She is surrounded by classmates, teachers and staff that love and know her. Her classmates are always bending over backwards to help her along. It is exciting to see how far she has come but I am concerned what will happen as she gets older.
"I love how you accommodated your student including her in the activies that she was able to do and also allow her the freedom to do her own thing. I have a student like that and he is very intelligent but can't always stay on task or focused, sometimes loud, sometimes doing his own thing. However, he is listening and really understands."
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