5/7/2020
Topic:
Assessment of Learning
Keitha Bledsoe
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Option 1: Provide/Describe one or more examples of adapted or alternative assessments you have successfully used in the music classroom for students with disabilities. Be sure to identify the student's disability. Share your response in the threaded discussion.
I had a visually impaired middle school choral student with additional comorbidities, and an intense love of singing. He played piano by ear with strong aural skills, and had a beautiful vocal instrument. His lack of visual acuity made it difficult for him to see the music on the page, and created some difficulty assessing his sight-reading skills progress. Initially we made enlargements of the sight-reading excerpts, and eventually we connected with a Braille music printer near us who was able to create Braille copies of his choral music (with permissions) and sight-reading examples. She came to our classroom twice a week after school for several months to teach me, the specific student, and several other non-impaired students (who just wanted to learn) the basics of reading Braille music. While students typically sang their sight-reading excerpts by themselves in a one-on-one setting with me, I allowed him to do his formal SR assessment in a small group (usually 3) for confidence building and increased support. While the level of difficulty of the sight-reading exercises was not adapted, I allowed a longer study time, and shorter excerpts that featured the key concepts I was evaluating.
Many more unique strategies for this talented young musician were employed during the course of the years he was in my program. |
5/12/2020
Topic:
Students with Disabilities
Keitha Bledsoe
|
I had a student in 6th grade chorus with cerebral palsy and autism. He loved chorus, and had a very nice voice, but would become extremely anxious during class. I provided a least restrictive environment setting for him (with obvious guidelines for his safety and those of his classmates), and when he would begin to feel stressed he was allowed to to move around the room. The caveat was that he had to always keep his focus on the instruction, and if we were singing, he would have to continue participating. As he became more comfortable with the environment, he would come back and sit in his chair for the duration of the class. The other students quickly learned to remain focused and were at ease with his movement. Little by little the frequency of his pacing decreased, but he always knew he had this as a coping mechanism. He went on to sing in my advanced ensemble as an 8th grader, and is graduating this year having participated in chorus all 4 years of high school. |