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Luis Rivera Posts: 3
5/7/2019
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This year I did not have any students with disabilities as our unit at my school is quite small and I received none this year. However, last year I had a student who was wheel-chair bound, and I then discovered she had Muscular Distrophy in certain parts of her body, sppecifically her hands. In my classroom there is a lot of clapping to rythms and walking to rythms, therefore I had to think of ways to adapt the lesson to be fully incclusive to this student.
Thankfully we were able to build our choir environment immediately to be loving and inclusive, so this task was much easier than I thought. The students were always jumping to help this student with any learning we were doing as I did assign her a choir partner. Her choir partner would help tap rythms on her shoulder for her to feel a sense of beat. I would also show the music on the board to make sure she did not feel "out of place" because she could not hold her music properly like everyone else. This way everyone could see the music and be in a welcoming environment where they all could learn the same thing.
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Cody Tempest Posts: 3
5/10/2019
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I had a student that was visually impaired with low vision after best correction. Other than visual impairment, the student had no other disabilities. This affected their music learning because it was actually a struggle for the student to read the music off the paper with the lines and notes so close together with low vision. I was able to successfully accommodate this student by photocopying the music and zooming in to make it large enough in size so she could see it. It was REALLY zoomed in, but it worked great and the student was able to participate just fine.
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Michael Hill Posts: 3
5/15/2019
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I have had a few students Intellectual Disabilities this school year. I had to change my teaching style to meet their needs. We worked one on one many times and had other students in class check their progress as we worked through music for concerts. It helped me grow as an educator but it did provide some challenges meeting the demands placed on the band program from the FBA and community. It was great seeing the students pull together to make sure every student felt included.
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Don Zentz Posts: 3
5/15/2019
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I have had many students with disabilities over the years requiring accommodations. The most significant was in my very first year of teaching. I had a remarkable young man in the band program with extreme intelligence and a passion for music. He did not have use of his legs or arms - accident. He was a junior percussionist. He had learned how to play bells with the mallet in his mouth and bobbing his head. It was the most incredible thing I had ever seen - not to mention his level of determination. He wanted to march, not be in the pit. And so I worked with his Dad and we came up with a way to mount the bells elevated up on his wheelchair with a specially made bracket-type contraption. I wrote him into the drill so that he was on the field, albeit with limited movement - but he was on the field "marching". I could not believe the number of kids that offered to give up their spot to be his "pusher" (as they called it) on the field. I had to rewrite a part for him to keep the musical content within as narrow a range as possible. This was all a very heart-warming, incredible experience to see happen in performance!
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Don Zentz
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Erin Cushing Posts: 3
5/16/2019
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I had a student with spina bifida a few years ago who was a singer and percussionist. It was challenging at times because not all band percussion instruments are set-up for someone in a wheelchair (things like marimbas and xylophones that are on a fixed frame). We worked around this by using stairs creatively in the classroom - using them to lower the instrument to a level that was comfortable for her to play and be successful on the instrument. This meant having the percussion section arranged in a slightly different way, but my students usually took leadership over finding ways to make the whole section successful, rather than making her feel left out. I loved how accommodating they were and how proactive she was in telling me what did and didn't work so we could always be improving.
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Christy Jeck Posts: 3
5/17/2019
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Think of a music student with a disability you have now, or have had in the past. Identify their disability. Describe the way in which their disability affected their music learning. Describe at least one or more ways you successfully accommodated or modified instruction for this student. Share your response in the threaded discussion.
This year I had a boy with an intellectual disability. He did not understand the concept that reading the notes on the page in his book, was how to determine what he would play on his instrument. I accommodated for him, by allowing him to play by ear. I also had to move his seat because he was being too easily distracted by others and could not focus on what he needed to listen for. He plays percussion, so I had to move his xylophone next to the flutes so he could hear the melody and play the same as they played. It worked well and he really did pretty great after that!
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Todd Peterson Posts: 3
5/21/2019
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Think of a music student with a disability you have now, or have had in the past. Identify their disability. Describe the way in which their disability affected their music learning. Describe at least one or more ways you successfully accommodated or modified instruction for this student. Share your response in the threaded discussion.
Last year I had a student with Autism who also had perfect pitch. I would have her evaluate us on how well we were staying in tune. She would also do best standing on the end of her section in the front versus being crowded in the middle or in the back. She was always focused in my class but would find she wasn't in others. The students loved making sure she was included and loved her honest evaluations of the tuning of our songs.
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mela striker Posts: 2
5/22/2019
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I had a student this past year who has developmental delays and some intellectual disability. She is in my concert choir and participates wonderfully and enthusiastically! She matches pitch okay, however, she has extremely immature, spread vowel resonance. No matter how much I tried to get her to blend, I couldn't make much progress with her. I spoke with support staff, because I suspect it is related to an actual speech impairment of some type--as it related to resonance and vowel formation. None of the support staff were able to give me more background info--the student's speaking voice was affected as well--she had a very young, bright child-like voice. However, she was not receiving any kind of speech therapy, as it wasn't delayed or affected other than the higher pitched childish quality of the speaking/singing resonance.
Despite my efforts, I wasn't able to achieve a more mature, full resonance with a blended vowel with the student. I haven't had much experience with this type of disability... I was glad she was able to participate--she had no trouble learning/memorizing the music, very competent with solfege and learning rhythms. I didn't have to alter my tier 1 instruction. I did use sectional time to work with her vowels and to try to blend the section, and I use some hand motions of how vowels should look INSIDE the mouth. The student was ALWAYS compliant and attempt everything I asked her to do. I also had her come in during our intervention time to work with her individually--but I didn't notice much in the way of progress as the sound would revert--It seemed to have something to do with her soft palate structure or ability to manipulate it.
edited by mela striker on 5/22/2019
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Rosemary Collins Posts: 3
5/28/2019
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I have had a unique experience with a choral student who has speech and language impairment. I taught her all through middle school, and then transferred to a high school where I am teaching her again. Having such a long experience with one student has given me a great opportunity to witness her growth over the last 6 years. She still struggles with vocal quality and diction, but she works tirelessly on improving because she loves to sing. I have spent a good bit of time working with her individually on singing and diction for her solo singing assessments. This has definitely been the most effective method of helping her to progress.
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robert thomas Posts: 1
5/29/2019
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Some of the tools that I use to accommodate instruction for students with disabilities are mnemonic. Working with students this past year who had some speech and comprehension delays benefited through teacher model speech then student recite when I would give instructions, introduce new concepts. Another tool that I like to use are the graphic organizers. When using this tool students were able to visualize and compare the various parts of specific topic and compare it to the whole.
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Amanda Lyon Posts: 3
6/3/2019
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I have had many students that have disabilities that affect their learning but the most severe case I have had is a student who has a combination of ASD and resulting EBD behaviors that follow. He has some speech issues, but mostly has no filter. His ability to process his thoughts before they leave his mouth is very low and frequently results in him blurting his cranky feelings about not understanding, not caring, being angry about what's happening around him, etc. It sometimes results in Oppositional Defiance as well, regardless of how he is progressing with his work. He struggles physically with the instruments we play in class, and when he does not get something correct the first time, his frustration comes out AT me and other students (who consequently also have EBD behaviors and will respond accordingly). His physical issues include slow adaptation of new fine motor movements as well, which usually mean I have to place his fingers on the instruments for him. He responds to this well, but does not remember the placement for a very long time, sometimes it can take weeks before a one-finger chord on guitar or ukulele will finally settle.
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Shannon Greene Posts: 4
6/3/2019
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I began my music position at a public elementary school and a year later, they created 2 ASD classes (a primary unit and a secondary unit). I feel like my experience with autism was trial and error in the beginning since I had never had any training prior to these classes coming to the music room. Some children were severe and some were mild and over time I grew to love these students. One thing I did that worked well, I implemented visual cards (that I made) to put on the board titled 'What's Next" (approx 5x7). I found the kids needed to see what was then, what is now and what is next. As long as I have the visual cards (magnetized to the board) organizing their class time, they are much more manageable and responsive to my lessons if they can see what is next. For example, one card says "Movement Time" and another says "Instrument Time" and they have pictures on them as well. Other cards include "Story Time" and Puppet Time", Listening Time, Singing Time, Game Time, Hello Songs and Goodbye Songs. I organize their day a little different each time. If the cards are not on the board, they ask for them and want to take them down (or move them aside) as soon as they complete the task until all that is left is Goodbye Songs, and I'm very happy with that.
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Kerry Waldo Posts: 3
6/4/2019
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One student that comes to mind for me is a student that was completely blind in one eye and had only partial vision in her other eye. As if that were not enough, she was diagnosed with an intellectual disability that also struggled with fine motor skills. I teach middle school band and she originally wanted to play the flute, but I suggested a brass instrument since there are less keys involved. She ended up playing the euphonium as it was easier for her to hold and she could manipulate the 3 valves. I enlarged the music so she could see out of her one eye. In addition, I simplified all of her music so that she played only on the downbeats and also sent recordings of what the other students played as well as her modified part so she could listen and practice at home.
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Kerry Waldo
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christopher banks Posts: 3
6/5/2019
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I had a percussion student a couple of years ago with a stong hearing impairment. He wore hearing aids in both ears. For a time I used a lanyard microphone to assits him, but he saidd he got tired of the heavy breathing and that it picked up my heart beat and noises from brushing my shirt! So we gave up on that. I discovered he was pretty good at lip reading...which only works when he is looking at me. So, I had a hand signal that ll of the percussion understood. When they saw the hand signal, they madde sure he was looking at me and I would give direction. He loved this system!
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Brian Griffin Posts: 3
6/5/2019
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I had a violinist in my high school orchestra who was born with short pinky fingers. This isn't much of a challenge for the right hand as she balances her bow hold in a way that allows for successful articulation and distribution of weight.
However, when it comes to accessing the upper register on the fingerboard, this student struggled to reach the notes. I pulled her aside outside of rehearsal to offer her alternative fingerings that included additional shifts. I also showed her a trick, where she could bend the pitch using her third finger when the intervals were very close. She was much more successful after applying these strategies.
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Brian Griffin Posts: 3
6/6/2019
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I had a student who had difficulty matching pitch with his double bass. He was on the spectrum and had some auditory processing challenges. While I generally discourage the use of tuners that provide a visual representation of the pitch being played (strobe tuners), in this case, it worked well to put a clip-on tuner on this student's bridge while in rehearsal. Over time, his pitch accuracy improved significantly as he had established the muscle memory needed to access the notes on the fingerboard.
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Brian Griffin Posts: 3
6/6/2019
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I have a student who has a mitochondrial disease that makes it difficult for him to build muscle. As a cellist, he often struggles with holding the instrument effectively. He also has trouble maintaining concentration during long rehearsals.
In order to assess him effectively, I've had to make sure I give him his playing tests at the beginning of class instead of later when he was more fatigued. I'd also ask him if he had enough calories by that point in the day to give him the energy needed. He also was given more time, sometimes over the course of weeks, to play his tests. It worked well for this student, who was exceptionally bright and eager to learn.
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Arnett Moore Posts: 1
6/13/2019
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In one recent case, I had a student who exhibited mild autistic behaviors. Student was consistent with repetitive behaviors that were resorted any time activities seemed to be more challenging than what may have been anticipated. Social skills developed as the year progressed, but there were still moments of difficulty in relating to classmates. Although not formally diagnosed due to parental unwillingness, several trained counselors were observant enough to consider this to be the case. Once this possibility became a consideration for the student, efforts were made to modify classroom activities to accommodate for the student's preferences. Student was given more opportunities to visualize activities through written instructions and physical demonstrations. Also his musical instrument assignment was expanded to include piano/keyboard, which proved to provide a very calming atmosphere for the student to interact with others in the ensemble.
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Giselle Panagiotakis Posts: 3
6/26/2019
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I had a student this passed year that had Autism. It was on the border of "knowing" she had a disability and not even being able to tell, so the kids would make faces when she sang at first. I put her in the front of the alto section and I made sure to take more time with that section when teaching. I taught a lot of music by rote and repetition. She also had some outbursts in saying what was on her mind or how she felt about something. I made sure to redirect the class and respond to her in a way that was very normal and controlled. When it came time to match pitch and/or sight read I had my stronger singers and sight readers sit around her, encasing her in the correct pitches so that she could conform to them. She definitely had her challenges but she pulled through and she chose chorus again or next year! I think she grew a lot as a student and as a musician in that class. I look forward to seeing her progress this coming year.
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Christina Baker Posts: 3
6/28/2019
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I taught a student who had autism and struggled with social interactions with other students as well as refined motor skills in writing. However, he was very musically gifted and he excelled in singing whether in a solo setting or in a group setting. The struggles we faced were when other students didn’t follow the class instructions exactly and this caused my student to get upset and at times overwhelmed. This reaction occurred when we worked in smaller self-directed group settings, so to aide this student he was given three specific things to choose to aide him in calming down if he became overwhelmed. Some days were better than others and on bad days I allowed him to work directly with me or he was happy to also work in a solo setting. Groups also worked, but only if the other students adhered to very specific guidelines.
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