12/28/2020
Topic:
Students with Disabilities
Jordan Sawyer
|
For two years I taught a student with Autism Spectrum Disorder and a handful of other auxiliary circumstances. This was middle school aged band; what was most incredible was that this student was able to successfully make music "at level" per se with regards to what the surrounding students knew as well. He was a 7th grade beginning band student in a blended 6th, 7th, and 8th grade beginning band class. I found that this student was rhythmically able to demonstrate musical principals such as rhythm, tempo, dynamics, nuance, and a whole other list of concepts, so I spoke with his mother and the ESE facilitator and worked to keep him in the class and in the percussion section. By pairing him with another student who could comfortably and quickly demonstrate verbal explanations of rhythm, or by working with him myself while a reliable student worked in each other section in small groups, the whole class was able to embrace him and include him without sacrificing rigor much at all. Throughout the two years I had him in my band classes, we discovered that he also had perfect pitch - which accounted for his distress to many of the beginning band sounds! I was able to modify many of our second-level band lessons to include him in actively aiding the other students tuning their instruments (so precise was his understanding that he was able to pick out overtones!).
This isn't to say that there were no challenges. I found myself constantly seeking out the kernel of a concept in a lesson and making sure I could demonstrate and physically aid him if necessary or made sure I could brief his percussion partners to ensure he was receiving the highest quality education we could all provide him with. |
12/28/2020
Topic:
Tools and Strategies
Jordan Sawyer
|
In my classroom I currently implement the following two strategies regularly: Task Analysis and Graphic Organizers.
Task analysis: We constantly break everything down to the very simplest of concepts in my music classroom and build back up to what we are seeing or studying. Take a melodic passage, for instance. We will always start with the first step - rhythm; "Can I count this?" Students can answer the question by correctly demonstrating the rhythm. The next step would be "Do I know the note names?" which can be correctly answered by saying the note names aloud. The next step, if on an instrument, is "Do I know how to play these notes?" which students can demonstrate by, out of time, playing each individual note. The final step is putting it together and making the right sounds in the the right way at the right time.
Graphic Organizers: All students at the upper levels in classroom keep a note card organizing note values. This is reflected in several of the visuals hung throughout the room. We use more than rhythmic notation: we will use circles and the principles of division; we will use blocks and the principles of addition; we will use "v" shaped lines and the principles principles of movement in our feet ... all in an effort to organize the various lengths of sounds we use. |
12/28/2020
Topic:
Assessment of Learning
Jordan Sawyer
|
When I was teaching band, I had an Autism Spectrum Disorder student who also had perfect pitch. He was unable to maintain the facial dexterity necessary to form an embouchure and struggled with the novice-level sounds produced by a beginning band. When it came time to test for intonation, we were able to ask this student to listen to students one-on-one and provide adjustments by saying whether or not they were flat or sharp. Cary would tell the player where they were and that student had to suggesting pushing in or pulling out, to which Cary would tell them if they were correct (I had spent some time with him prior helping him to remember that "out" meant making it lower and "in" meant making it higher).
This was a great success for the whole class and invaluable for Cary who was able to demonstrate his understanding of in tune playing of other musicians |