4/21/2021
Topic:
Students with Disabilities
Stephanie Devane
|
A few years ago I taught a student with ASD. Though he had a student-specific para, we really wanted him to perform as much as he could independently. He was unable to perform basic movements such as walking down the stairs using alternating feet, skipping, or clapping to a beat. Upon meeting him you might think he was low functioning, and in some aspect he was, but he had a fascination with dinosaurs and knew many facts about various dinosaurs. I used dinosaur figures in my class to help calm him when needed and later as tools to help him demonstrate knowledge, such as clapping to a beat. He could hold his dinosaurs and clap them together. He also used them to create his own beat, which he needed more assistance with, but the dinosaurs seemed to help tremendously. We used them as much as possible, however we could work them in. |
4/21/2021
Topic:
Tools and Strategies
Stephanie Devane
|
There are many helpful strategies that can be implemented in a music classroom to help students with disabilities. One strategy is peer partners. Selecting the right pair of students can be extremely effective in helping the student with disabilities learn a new task. Teaching students how to hold and play the recorder for example. I find peer partners to be helpful since students can sometimes explain things in a way a teacher cannot. They show tips and tricks that sometimes surprise me. Having a peer partner is beneficial to many students, not just those with disabilities. I often assign partners for everyday things such as modeling behaviors and procedures to those struggling.
Mnemonic Instruction works well using the Letter Strategy to teach students to remember the names of the lines and spaces on the staff. FACE stands for the spaces on the treble staff. An anchor chart made in class with regular review helps students remember this quickly. Another color-coded anchor chart helps students remember the lines on a treble staff; Every Good Boy Does Fine. These are tried and true methods, not just for students with disabilities, but for all students. |