5/2/2020
Topic:
Students with Disabilities
Michael Dye
|
During my career I have had many vocal music students with documented disabilities. It seems the ESE specialists at my high school like to place some of their music-loving students with various disabilities in my choral classroom. I have had two blind students, several hearing impair students, and my share of students with both learning disabilities and behavior issues. No matter the disability, it seems the community of musicians around them support and embrace each one of them. I encourage complete inclusion, no matter the disability. This means participation in all learning and all singing. Each student performs at every concert and at district and state-level MPA's. Knowing that a fellow ensemble member has a disability becomes an opportunity for students without a disability, and the student who faces a challenge, to work together toward a common goal. Both share the talents and energy both possess for the betterment of the choir. I have document ESE students in every one of my six choirs; each with an IEP. Children with autism, in various places on the spectrum, are most common. Two of most musically successful singers (vocalists, all-state, composition, etc.) have IEP's and easily discernible disabilities. The most challenged child is a ninth-grade girl with aural, visual, speech, and other learning disabilities. She spends most of her day in the ESE classroom. She has a difficult time singing in pitch, singing too loud, reading the music and words, and comprehending verbal and written instruction. With help from her classmates, and individual coaching from me, my assistant, and older students, she has learned, inside the team, to listen more carefully to what tone and intonation she produces. Her fellow singers do in-class coaching in theory while I teach them. Combined with the accommodations made for her, she is successful. While she will never make all-state or receive a music scholarship, onstage, offstage, in and out of chorus, she fits into something special. She uses the resources she arrived with, and has subsequently learned in chorus, to become a contributing member to her chorus family and a person with a "place" in our school. |
5/8/2020
Topic:
Students with Disabilities
Michael Dye
|
Describe at least one way you have used technology to meet the needs of a student with a disability in you classroom. Be sure to describe the specific technology and how it assisted the student with a disability.
I have consistently used two very effective online tools to teach all of my student to improve their sight-read, ear-training, and music theory skills, (Sight Reading Factory) and musictheory.net. I have found that both sites are quite effective in increasing skills and understanding in children with disabilities in my classroom. Using a smart phone, lap or desktop computer, or a tablet, any student with internet access can access the sites. Sight or hearing impaired students have the opportunity to adjust volume and/or screen resolutions to be better accommodated and therefore less restricted by their disability when using their devices for group or private study. Tempos can be set to a slower setting to allow student with processing and comprehension disabilities more time to successfully perform the exercises. Working with peers in the classroom, small-group or individual practice can be tailored to accommodate a student's vocal and hearing range in both musictheory.net and SR Factor. I have purchased individual accounts for every student to access SR Factor as will so they can readily access that site as easily as they can assess musictheory.net. I have presented in class tutorials using a quality sound system and overhead projector. I have also allowed for peer student-mentoring so that students are able to work together to learn how to set control levels for musictheory.net drills and subsequently perform the exercises or do the drills in small groups. These drills include both theory and ear-training. So a student can study and learn at home at his/her own pace using automated lessons for key signatures, time signatures, note values, scales. They can then test their skills with drills for musical intervals, chord quality recognition, and scale identification, set by the student for the appropriate difficulty level. When students come back to class for theory and sight-reading practice in a group setting, I can visually assess the level of comprehension and, if necessary, adjust levels of instruction for both the class and the individual. I can also assign struggling students to outside-the-classroom peer groups or work with the individually with the student-musician. This even better allows me and peer group leaders to determine what is need to improve both the success of the student and the instruction needed to better serve students. |
5/8/2020
Topic:
Students with Disabilities
Michael Dye
|
Describe an example of adapted assessment you have successfully used in the fine arts classroom for students with disabilities.
When assessing a child with a sight disability, I have administered assessments that were made up of multiple choice, essay, or short answer questions, I have orally administered the exam to the student, modifying parts or all of the exam to better help the student convey his/her knowledge of the content taught. These modifications would be as simple as reading the possible answers for multiple choice questions, to describing a key signature and having the student identify the major and relative minor key. I have also had tests and music scores converted into braille (a local church musician had extensive experience and knowledge of braille). |