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Chuck Rogers Posts: 5
12/14/2021
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Administrator wrote:
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.
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Chuck Rogers Posts: 5
12/14/2021
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Administrator wrote:
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.
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Chuck Rogers Posts: 5
12/14/2021
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I had one guitar student that was in my music class for three years. He was autistic and had speech problems. In addition, he struggled with emotional problems and would easily become frustrated, angry and then would start sobbing. It was a tough situation and other students were often irritated with him, as they did not fully understand his situation. I built a good relationship with him, which provided a foundation for further input.
I often had to talk to him after class and encourage him by telling him that he could do this and learn the material, which was rigorous and required lots of practice. I often needed to provide individualized instruction to help learn the material. I also had him work with adult and student mentors who would help him learn the matierial.
Succes is the great encourager. The good news is that he stayed in the class for three years. By the time he was in 8th grade he could play fairly well and enjoyed performing in our concerts. But to get to this stage, he had to go through a long journey which included lots of tears, frustration, and hard work.
edited by Charles Rogers on 12/14/2021
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William Brown Posts: 3
12/21/2021
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Describe how fine arts educators can use the state and federal laws to advocate for the inclusion of students with disabilities in fine arts.
Fine arts educators can use state and federal laws to advocate for the inclusion of students with disabilities in fine arts by being knowledgeable of the laws. Their understanding of the laws will allow them to enhance their instructional practices to support students with a disability. If a student is scheduled in instrumental music and has visual, physical, intellectual, or behavioral disabilities, a teacher can implement strategies to help the student in the normal classroom setting. If a student has a physical disability, a teacher can include the student by allowing the student to play an alternative instrument. If the student has an intellectual disability, a teacher can arrange to provide tier 3 instruction/private lessons to increase the student's depth of knowledge. A teacher can also modify the individual music parts to help support students with a disability.
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Steven Dean Posts: 3
12/27/2021
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This semester I have several students with learning disabilities (primarily autism/ autism spectrum) in my percussion ensemble. My main observation is that they need each step broken down and repeated much more frequently. Instead of giving a series of tasks, each task becomes its own collection of activities. I can’t just say, “set up and practice.” Setting up has many steps to it (backpacks, chairs, instruments, sticks, ‘eyes on the board’). Then, when it’s time for practicing, even if we’ve covered a concept before, I’ll want to repeat it, go over the procedure and make sure everyone is on-board. As for their learning, I have found that my students with autism or on the spectrum are mostly able to play the same rhythms as their peers but they will require many more tries (or days) to do so.
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Abbey Duncan Posts: 3
12/28/2021
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I have a student who is diagnosed with multiple intellectual disabilities, and it is very frustrating for this student to play their instrument. We are an orchestra class, and many of the other adults in her life have enabled her frustrations and made unnecessary modifications to instruction that have had a negative impact on her own self-esteem and taught her learned helplessness. It is extraordinarily frustrating to her peers because she will not attempt many activities and is very vocal about being unable to learn. Many mentors have refused to work with her in other classes (both adults and other students) and this has made matters worse because she is also still learning how to be part of a community (previously homeschooled). As a result, she thinks she is incapable of learning and that no one expects her to be successful, so why even bother?
Positive interventions have been offering additional visuals, written cues, and allowing her extra 10 extra minutes for her own "individual" time in the storage room to practice. Yes, she does miss occasional content but feels much more successful when introduced to new content. Sitting closer to me has also helped because students see how to address others who are struggling without calling out their flaws and praising their work. All students started to get "practice prescriptions" in class so now when we do peer work or private practice, her mentors/acquaintances know what everyone's personal goals are and can focus their feedback on that particular skill. She can also give relevant feedback to her peers without feeling like she has something to prove. Extra time, extra support, and visual cues have made a huge difference for this student!
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Abbey
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Angela Wolfenden Posts: 4
1/3/2022
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I had a student that had seizures and was in a wheel chair. She was in my MS choir class. She struggled reading, writing and moving, but loved to sing! She did not have positive experiences in music previously and was very shy to share out in class. This student had trouble fitting in with her peers and did not have many friends at school. She had a full time aid but often times the aid did not help much in the music class.
In the beginning, I found some fun rounds I could teach by rote so that she could learn along with her peers easily. I gave lots of positive feedback to all students for being bold and using their voices. I also sat this student next to friendly and encouraging students to make her more comfortable. She made some friends and starting raising her hand to answer questions. Once we moved to sheet music, I highlighted the text of the music for the student to focus on. I also shared recordings of the music with her parents so they could listen/practice at home. When we started choreography, I modified the movements so she could use her hands and take breaks when needed. I also created accomodations by having her complete assignments aurally with her aid's help to ensure she was learning materials. Sometimes, I would modify the length of the work and gave extra time to complete when needed. Seating in the front of the room, and lots of verbal praise and cues helped too. Overall, I found that choir was a class that this student could enjoy while learning and connecting with her peers!
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Mackenzie Mowry Posts: 3
2/4/2022
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I had a student with a medical/physical disability. He struggled with muscle control in his hands, so playing an instrument proved challenging.
I helped him find an instrument with minimal finger movement required. We also found a device to hold the instrument for him. With those accommodations, he was able to fully participate in band.
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Juan Posts: 2
2/10/2022
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I had a student with hearing impairment that played trombone in my band classes. Tuning a note (matching pitches with the other students) was a struggle at first. I mentioned to the class that tuning is both an auditory and tactile endeavor, so as to not single them out. In fact, I have personally dealt with loud situations while performing that forced me to use earplugs. I had to rely on my tactile sense to survive in that environment, and I passed the knowledge onto my students - but particularly the one in question. This helped immensely.
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Juan Posts: 2
2/10/2022
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I had a visually impaired student in my band class that played saxophone. We waited months for a braille version of our method book to arrive, to no avail. Not that it would have been very practical, since the saxophone requires both hands to play. I assigned numbers to notes instead of names that would eventually make up a G Major scale. If any new notes were introduced we would change the notes to "flat 2," or "sharp 4," always comparing them all to the original 7 notes learned. His memory and determination were uncanny. I miss him incredibly.
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Devin Bieber Posts: 3
2/20/2022
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Think of a student with a disability you have now or in the past. Describe ways in which their disability affected their learning in your class.
When thinking of this prompt, a current student of mine comes to mind. He has an Intellectual Disability and thus has a lot of trouble with written assignments, as well as online assignments I've created in their class portal. Furthermore, this disability extends to reading music as well. It takes him significantly longer to learn a line from our method book. In years past (when I wasn't as experienced as a teacher) I thought reading /processing written music didn't present the same challenges as normal text would to those with Intellectual Disabilities. Of course, now realize how wrong I was.
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Dalys Parkhurst Posts: 3
2/21/2022
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I have had many students with varying disabilities over the years. The students are usually very successful in the choral setting. This one particular student was confined to a wheel chair and needed an oxygen tank to assist with breathing. She was in one of my beginning choirs and had a nurse who attended her classes with her at the time. We were doing a show choir piece which involved choreography. We adapted the choreography to what she was capable of handling. We also made videos for her to practice at home. She knew the choreography better than 95% of the class. Because she was so successful, we gave her a featured dance solo at the end of the song and she stole the show. It really is a highlight and one of my fondest memories.
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Dede Darby Posts: 4
2/22/2022
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I had a student in a piano class who had an orthopedic impairment on one hand. He was only able to use his thumb and pinky. This became a challenge when we began learning chords. I started by encouraging him to play the notes of the chord that sounded the best to him, which encouraged his ear, and that he could reach with those fingers. When he felt discomfort in his thumb, I encouraged him to play some of the chord with his right hand or just one note of the chord. He adapted each piece to what sounded good to him and excelled beautifully. He inspired me as his teacher!
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Devin Bieber Posts: 3
2/25/2022
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Describe at least one way you have used technology to meet the needs of a student with a disability in your classroom. Be sure to describe the specific technology and how it assisted the student with a disability.
Two years ago I had a student with an auditory impairment. She had earing aid implants, but still had extreme difficulty hearing in loud environments (like a band room, with multiple noises and auditory distractions). She actually became very proficient at clarinet but had issues with tempo (speed). I had a metronome with a vibration function (Soudbrenner Pulse). It essentially is worn like a wristwatch. She was able to enter in the desired tempo and is pulsed it. This immediately helped her.
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Devin Bieber Posts: 3
3/3/2022
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Dede Darby wrote:
I had a student in a piano class who had an orthopedic impairment on one hand. He was only able to use his thumb and pinky. This became a challenge when we began learning chords. I started by encouraging him to play the notes of the chord that sounded the best to him, which encouraged his ear, and that he could reach with those fingers. When he felt discomfort in his thumb, I encouraged him to play some of the chord with his right hand or just one note of the chord. He adapted each piece to what sounded good to him and excelled beautifully. He inspired me as his teacher!
Describe an example of adapted assessment you have successfully used in the fine arts classroom for students with disabilities:
I've had a similar situation with a student in band. He had an orthopedic impairment and couldn't use his index and middle finger on his right hand. He really wanted to play trumpet, but since the valves are operated with those two fingers, he was having a very difficult time. For playing tests, I had him bubble in the fingering below each note on the sheet music, just to have him illustrate that he knew all of the fingerings. He later would sing the melody as well as aurally identify the notes. We later got an attachment for his trumpet so that he could use his left hand instead, and hold the instrument comfortably.
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Mario Trejo Posts: 3
3/7/2022
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One of my students with a disability that stood out was an outgoing young man with down syndrome in my guitar class. He had a lot of trouble playing any type of chords, so we really focused on key single notes. I gave him as much time as he needed. We repeated and reviewed these notes in each class and he had a peer that worked with him to solidify the correct fingerings as well. He really enjoyed learning the instrument and always came to class with a positive attitude.
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David Schwartz Posts: 3
3/17/2022
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I teach at an all in one school. I have students from 5th to 12th grade and see not only a variety of age groups and therefore a variety of levels of comprehension but also a variety of styles of learning, some of which are impacted more or less by disabilities. Since I teach at a private school, the school has determined to what degree of disability it will educate a student. For instance, I have a child that is both deaf and on the autism spectrum. Our school is not equipped to educate a student with that degree of disability though they do work hard with many students who struggle at a higher level of functional ability, students who deal with CP, ADHD/ADD and behavioral disabilities.
In my orchestra classes, I have a number of students who have attention disorders, some of which have not managed to learn how to read the music, even though they have been in my class for at least a couple of years and reading is given great emphasis, especially in the beginning years. Students in particular show frustration because of their inability to play with the rest of the group. They at times become disruptive behaviorally as well. The ways I have tried to address this disability has involved one on one tutoring. Often times, students need the one on one to recognize a missing piece of the learning puzzle. Once the piece in place, the light bulb goes off and they are able to progress further. Such has been the case with a number of students. Other strategies have included, slowing down the pace of the music, pointing out patterns in the music as well as making the music and recordings available to them to work on at home. They are therefore in a better position not only to know what to play in class but to know how it sounds. Some of these students try to work around the difficulty of reading by trying to play by ear. Providing recordings gives them an avenue to do just that.
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Peggy Slichter Posts: 2
3/23/2022
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- Describe an example of adapted assessment you have successfully used in the fine arts classroom for students with disabilities.
When I taught painting, I always used journal writing as an assessment for all my students. This helped my students with IEPs specifically because they were comfortable with expressing themselves and the challenges they would have with the class. I made sure they received immediate feedback. I also used exit tickets as an assessment to help me better understand how i needed to improve those that were having a difficult time with the assignments in class. Never punitive, always positive. This helped students know that i was always approachable.
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Jared Benyola Posts: 3
3/27/2022
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A former student of mine had Asperger's syndrome and had frequent issues with anxiety and other students. His curiosity about music was amazing and would often ask questions to the point where it would sometimes disrupt class with the sheer number of questions. He was legitimately interested and in no way seeking attention, but we had to come up with a journal system for him to write questions down as they popped into his head as to not disrupt the class. He was a talented musician and had a truly gifted mind!
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Kathy Johansen Posts: 5
4/1/2022
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One student with autism was having trouble playing the xylophone. The rhythm and the tempo were the most difficult aspects for him. Another general ed student was excelling, and I asked for this student to play on the same instrument as the first (in different octaves.) It made a huge difference to the boy who was struggling. He felt more confidant and more accepted with a classmate by his side.
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