12/8/2020
Topic:
Students with Disabilities
Jennifer Moats
|
I had a girl who had autism in my 4th grade music classroom. For several years she had been allowed to not participate in music class and simply earned an A for just being in there. When I became her music teacher, I found this unacceptable and encouraged her to participate in a meaningful way with the help of her aid as well as other students. She was not always thrilled to have this expectation put upon her but eventually she came around. When our class was working on recorders, I knew that sound was going to be way too loud for her. I had her wear headphones and play the same songs that we were playing on the recorder on a keyboard. The keyboard put a huge smile on her face and she started to look forward to coming to music! It was a long process but I am so proud of the effort she continued to put forth in my classroom. She is now an on line learner and it is an entirely new challenge of keeping her engaged. |
12/9/2020
Topic:
Students with Disabilities
Jennifer Moats
|
In one of my 4th grade classes, I have a student with Autism. While we were learning about the note names on the staff, she was having difficulty keeping up the speed of the class. I set her up on an iPad and had her play the game Staff Wars. This allowed her to practice her skill of reading notation in a fun and interactive way on her own. She ended up loving the game so much that she had her mother download the app on her iPad at home and she is now a master at reading notation. It is amazing! |
12/10/2020
Topic:
Assessment of Learning
Jennifer Moats
|
My students were learning about how music can be allegro and largo. Those were their two vocabulary words that were the focus. Students were asked to draw pictures that corresponded to the music they were listening to and label them largo or allegro. The student with special needs in the classroom had a hard time completing tasks such as drawing or writing because he would feel stuck at coming up with ideas. By the time he had an idea, the class time would be over. I provided him with two story boards where there were images that he could piece together to create a story that fit the vocabulary words we were working on. His work still met the standard of recognizing the tempo of the music and assigning the correct vocabulary word to the tempo. |