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Jacob Heglund Posts: 2
8/29/2022
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Teaching an ESE music class has given me bountiful opportunities to work with students with disabilities. I recently got to work with several students with hearing impairments. We had an interpreter in the room with us as well. We would use different colors on our whiteboard as visual aids when reading music on bells/boomwhackers, as well as having our non-DHH students tap the steady beats on their shoulders to keep time. Eventually, we were all able to steadily keep a pulse together and read music while stomping our feet!
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Nicole Chui Posts: 3
8/30/2022
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During my student teaching there was a student who had cerebral palsy. It was difficult for him to play certain kinds of instruments because he wasn't able to reach outward easily so he was put on an instrument that suited his height and range of motion, the euphonium. He also had difficulty getting from class to class so as an accommodation he was allowed to leave band class 10 minutes early.
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William Molineaux Posts: 3
9/1/2022
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In the past, I had a student with a Visual Impairment. Many times, the students would use audio recordings to help her learn the music. She has perfect pitch. I would also print the music much larger for her to help her with music literacy.
Currently, I have a student with an Emotional and Behavioral Disorder. This student generally has a low self esteem. The student needs extra praise in class to help them maintain good behavior and success in class. When the student does need to be corrected, he has difficulty continuing his focus in class, but when appropriately praised he is very successful.
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Thomas Brown Posts: 1
9/6/2022
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I had a visually impaired band student. He was independent and moved around quire well as he was not totally blind. As young people are inclined to do, his fellow students nick named him 'Twenty' (short for 20-20). He relished the name and seemed motivated by it to play/read music well. I had to discourage him however from using his partial blindness as a way to get excused from learning his music. I allowed him to place his face very close to his sheet music; as a result he read the applied sight reading lessons very well, and became one of the top music reading performers with few problems.
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Victoria Buffkin Posts: 1
9/6/2022
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I had a student with a physical disability that caused her to be in a wheelchair. I found ways to elevate the xylophones and other instruments she played so she never had to play anything different. I modified our form lessons where I use a parachute so she could still participate in the activity.
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Scott Bourne Posts: 6
10/5/2022
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I have had students in the past with learning disabilities. Being a chorus teacher I have found that individualized instruction has worked in helping these students learn new music. This has usually been in an after school tutorial type program. In each situation I found that the individualized assistance was very helpful.
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jessica udell Posts: 1
10/26/2022
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I have had several students over the years with various disabilities. Throughout this course I have been reminded of one in particular that was able to achieve great success through hard work, determination, and the strategies that we worked on together to achieve mastery of the standards we were covering in the two school terms that I had her in Band. My student has Diabetes and ADHD. When I came into my current job the students had not received proper instruction for an entire semester, so they were not performing on grade level at that time. This particular student had problems staying focused on music reading, tone production, and had emotional issues due to her diabetes not being controlled at that time. Due to having ADHD, she was often off task and was frustrated easily when she could not play passages in the method book and/or sheet music. Her frustration also stemmed from being the only Trombone player in the class. Some of the strategies I used to help and others achieve are listed below:
I. I started everyone in the class in Book 1 of the method book series we were using. If anyone was more advanced than that, they had opportunities to sight read in the more advanced books during small group differentiation.
II. I used Pass-off charts aligned with testing numbers from the Method Book as a Progress Monitoring piece for students to track their progress and receive immediate feedback. This also allowed my students that needed to "randomly leave their seat" for a moment to do so without seeming disrespectful. Checking the chart on the wall normalized many behaviors and made the classroom a safe and prosperous environment for all students.
Seeing her progress daily helped tremendously and gave my student a focal point with a chance to move at her own pace.
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Latoya McCormick Posts: 2
11/14/2022
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I currently have a student that is on the spectrum. He loves music and theater. He struggles with understanding that he needs to blend when singing in the group setting. He loves to sing so he sings very loud. He doesn't have very many notes that he can correctly match pitch on. I currently use a vocal coach to help him one on one matching pitch. Getting him to understand that his sound needs to be smaller not bigger has helped.
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Jeffrey Horton Posts: 4
11/21/2022
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In my time teaching, I have had several students with disabilities. One student in particular comes to mind as I work through this course. This student had a visual impairment and was enrolled in my Band 1 course. To accommodate the student I allowed them to color code the notes on new music so that she could better see. I would also enlarge the print of her music and allow her to use her own stand. This allowed her to participate fully with the ensemble, and stay on pace with the rest of the class. In the end I was able to send her music to her digitally as she was assigned a special Ipad to help enlarge items so that she could see them
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Keith Griffis Posts: 3
12/5/2022
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Throughout my years of teaching, I have taught many students with a wide array of disabilities. One particular student that comes to mind is a student that I taught in band that was D/HH (Deaf or Hard-of-Hearing). In teaching this student, I had the opportunity to collaborate with an interpreter that helped to sign my instruction throughout class. I would also wear a microphone to help the student understand me more clearly. The student was an awesome student that worked very hard. The Sign Language Interpreter was also amazingly hardworking, and made arrangements to attend after school marching practices, concerts, and performances. This experience taught me an enormous amount about the importance of creating an accommodating and inclusive environment, as well as collaborating with all educators, para-professionals, and stake-holders to ensure the best possible educational experience for this student.
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Angela Horne Posts: 3
12/5/2022
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I currently have a student with Downs Syndrome. He loves music but has a hard time reading an entire score. I have partnered him with another student, and we highlight his part. On songs that are particularly challenging, I give him a lyrics sheet so he can follow along and keep up with the ensemble.
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Kevin Bogdan Posts: 3
1/8/2023
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In previous years, I had a student with a physical disability, we will call him Christopher. He had some complications at birth that resulted in limited functionality with the limbs on the front side of his body and also impacted some elements of his executive functions. Christopher is a vibrant and funny child that loves music even with his limitations. In middle school, he became a percussionist where he could play limited or altered musical parts with his left hand.
When he joined the high school marching band we worried about how we would include him in the marching show design. After thoughtful consideration, we were able to connect a laptop to an electronic drum pad and novation launch pad. He was responsible for cueing the electronics that tied the marching show altogether. Seeing the smile on Christopher's face when he hit the cue for the final note of our marching show is a memory that I will never forget. He had one of the most important roles in the whole show and made a huge impact in our success. After the show was over and we regrouped at the band trailer to discuss the show, he stepped out in front of all of the band members and shouted "I hit the final note right on time!" The whole band erupted cheering on Christopher and his success. This accommodation is one that I am so proud of. Instead of putting him into a role that simply satisfied his participation we were able to give him a role that was vital to the success of the entire show. At times, it was very stressful to play trust in Christopher and there were indeed times when I questioned whether or not it was a mistake but in the end, seeing his growth and the pure joy on his and other students' faces, I know it was all worth it.
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Katy Polk Posts: 3
1/9/2023
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I have had students in the past with disabilities. I love using exit tickets. However, students with severe disabilities cannot always complete the task of writing/completing the exit ticket. Instead, I have had exit ticket responses up on the board or pre-written on sheets of paper for them to choose from. It allows them to still participate in the exit ticket assessment but takes out the difficult processing skills associated with their disabilities.
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Christopher Benoit Posts: 3
1/16/2023
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I have had several students with various disabilities, but one in particular has really stuck with me. I got a request from my administrator to talk about a prospective student...I was told that the parents were wondering if it would be ok to have him take a band class, as he had multiple disabilities and had not been allowed to take band at his previous school. I was horrified, and said that of course he could take band! He did have rather severe intellectual delays and learning disabilities - there were some other things, but those were the most impactful. He was a very pleasant young man, and took to instruction well - on the day it was given! The next day would be like starting all over again; he really had great difficulty retaining information from one day's class period to the next. We decided that percussion would be the best fit...he was able to learn the location of the notes on a keyboard and I could teach him to play a scale, and he would do great. Then the next day he remembered none of it, and it was starting all over. Other students in the class were great, and many were willing to pitch in and help him, and we just kept plugging away each day with basic skills on the various percussion instruments. I really did want him to learn something that he could perform with the band on the spring concert, so ultimately we had him do the bass drum "cannon shots" on an arrangement we were performing of the 1812 Overture...he had the physical technique fine, and he could follow the music just well enough that if I cued his notes as I was conducting he was able to perform them in time with a sufficient degree of accuracy to create the needed effect. At the conclusion of the performance, he had the biggest grin on his face, and his parents came up in tears to thank me for allowing him to be a part of it. It was a great experience for all of the other students in the band, who were all incredibly supportive. Some years later, the family came to a football game at the school and found me - the parents told me that concert was the very best thing from his entire high school experiences. The arts are for EVERYONE!!
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Loryn Steele Posts: 3
1/31/2023
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During my years teaching Music I have had two students who were blind, one of whom was as adult who had sight until recently, and another, a first grade child who was blind from birth, but was beginning to learn braille. Both students benefitted greatly from kinesthetic learning, as well as individual ear training lessons. I used a phenomenological or emotional based ear training approach for both students to recognize their feelings associated with intervals and chords. We also used the key shapes and patterns on the piano as a kinesthetic method to identify and pair the sound/pitch of each note and to be able to find that note on the piano, and then pair it with the voice. This helped immensely with being able to initiate or begin a song or piece on the piano without their needing to place their hands on the correct keys to begin a piece, or to change positions on the piano.
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Stephen Covert Posts: 3
2/2/2023
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I recently saw a truly inspirational performance by Adrian Anantawan who performed for every administrator in our district regarding the importance of ensuring access to the arts for all students- and all means all! Adrian was born without a right hand, and his amazing story of his parents never giving up on exposing him to the arts was moving. He is an acclaimed violinist, and has founded his own school for students with a variety of disabilities in the Boston area, and is department chair of music at the school where he teaches music and violin.
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C Touchton Posts: 3
2/6/2023
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I have a student that deals with a brain injury that doesn't allow him to process information as fast as the other students. He is a percussionist. I modify his part by simplifying rhythms for his instrument(s). I also have a peer student assist him with his entrances so that he can find success on his part. If it allows, I will adjust those rhythms to be more complex if the student is learning the part. This gives him the educational challenge he needs and the opportunity to progress in his learning.
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Jeffrey Horton Posts: 4
2/21/2023
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Over the course of my teaching, I have had several students with disabilities in the classroom. One that comes to mind in particular, suffered from Brittle bone disease. He was such a sharp kid, but the concern was on him not getting hurt. We eventually settled on percussion (mallets specifically) so that he wouldn't have to carry anything heavy or metal that could fall and injure him. He was in a wheelchair, so we settled him close to the instruments with soft mallets. Once he got the understanding of the notes he was of to the races. I modified his music to fit within an octave and 1/2 so there was no need to move his wheelchair once he set up and he was able to flourish in the band class.
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Gina LaVere Posts: 2
2/25/2023
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I have had many students with varying disabilities in choir over the years, but this year I have a student who has limited hearing. This student was very up front about her hearing loss and how she just loves to sing and was always worrying about what sounds she made. I put her mind at ease by working individually with her on the solfege curwen signs and singing close to her the major scale. When we work on sight reading in class I model by singing and signing at the same time. it was great for her because she felt more confident in what she was singing by seeing the curwen signs.
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emily kyle Posts: 20
3/2/2023
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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 profoundly deaf student in my music class. Being deaf might lead you to believe that the student would not be able to be in the band. At first, it seemed as if it was going to be quite challenging however, with the help of the student herself, I quickly realized that it wasn't a problem at all! The use of a metronome was key to her success and quite, frankly kept me in check, too as far as keeping the beat! Being a percussionist in the band seemed like a great fit and indeed it was. Her fellow percussionists were on board with helping keep the beat. Everyone worked well together.
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