12/19/2019
Topic:
Students with Disabilities
Marissa Kotzin
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I had a young lady in my high school beginning band whose right hand fingers were underdeveloped and her height was stunted-- during fittings she struggled to produce a buzz on brass mouthpieces but was incredibly adept at reading notes and rhythms- we placed her on percussion as she was able to maintain a good grip on the mallets and snare sticks and she quickly became one of our best musicians. |
2/3/2020
Topic:
Tools and Strategies
Marissa Kotzin
|
Tools that I find the most useful in an ensemble setting are:
1. Computer Assisted Instruction- With the use of Smartmusic, playing assignments can be carefully chosen for students, with parameters such as tempo thresholds put into place. Students have the opportunity to adjust the settings and get immediate feedback on what went well, and what could be done better. Teachers have the ability to set expectations that students only submit assignments after reaching a certain percentage threshold, ensuring that students master the task before moving on to the next assignment.
2. Peer partners are excellent for establishing relationships among students in the class. Mentoring programs allows students that are higher achieving to deepen their learning by tutoring a peer. In my previous classroom, many of my all-state and all-county students would take the younger ensemble class to learn a secondary instrument, but on days when needed, were available to pull out struggling students for one-on-one help.
3. Chaining is a wonderful practice technique, and I love using it with students to help them digest technical passages that seem out of their reach. I often stress the benefits of chaining in at-home practice as well as during rehearsal. It's particularly useful when a student is learning their scales and comes across a key that is giving them extra trouble. Learning the scale one note at a time, and slowly adding additional notes really reinforces and deepens their knowledge of the scale. |
2/3/2020
Topic:
Assessment of Learning
Marissa Kotzin
|
I once had a student who was hospital homebound, and instead of assessing the student in class via a live performance, I set up a means for the student to submit a recording of the playing test via google classroom. |