4/9/2020
Topic:
Students with Disabilities
Emma Roser
|
Last year, I had my first student with a visual impairment in my piano class. He was completely blind. He already played guitar and had a good understanding of music and notes. At first, I worked with him one-on-one and placed his hands where the notes should be for the song he wanted to learn (He was very interested in pop music). A coworker gave me cardstock with the braille alphabet and I cut those pieces and taped them to the keys on the piano. This helped the student a lot as sometimes he would get lost on the keyboard. I would play a few notes of the melody and he would copy it and we'd build from there. Since he wanted to learn chords as well, we worked those separately. He was getting there before the semester ended and he was no longer my student (darn those semester classes!) |
4/15/2020
Topic:
Tools and Strategies
Emma Roser
|
Option 1: Describe how two of the strategies discussed could potentially be implemented in your music classroom. Be sure to identify the two strategies by name, and describe how they could be used to address the student's disability. Share your response in the threaded discussion.
In my classroom, we use Mnemonic Instruction for identifying the notes of the treble and bass clef. We review the phrases (Every Good Boy Does Fine, etc.) and the students write them on the staff. I also have the students create their own phrase which allows them to make it relevant to them.
Chaining: When the students are learning a new song on the piano and are struggling, I work with them to show them a small part at a time (usually measure by measure). I model, then they repeat what I played. One measure, they repeat. Play the first measure and add the second measure, and keep going until the whole song is learned. Then guide the student as they play on their own. |
4/22/2020
Topic:
Assessment of Learning
Emma Roser
|
I've had several students with injuries on their hands, making it impossible for them to play their piano pass offs. To make sure that the pass off was done in a timely manner, I allowed that student to play with the one hand and just move to different parts of the keyboard to play the notes needed. |