6/20/2017
Topic:
Students with Disabilities
Charlotte Walters
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I had a student with autism in my chorus class. He didn’t speak or sing much and would periodically wander around the room. I would routinely alter lessons by having the class move when he was moving around the room while singing one of their chorus songs or playing music with the movement. I also would periodically have the students make “rain” by clapping, snapping and stomping, which he really enjoyed.
One day after all the other students had left for their next classes, he stayed behind and, unprompted, started singing one of the chorus songs. The song was in a different language, and he sang it perfectly by memory. I did not realize the impact of learning a chorus piece without ever singing a note of the piece. He learned the music in a different way by listening and movement. From this experience I have learned to incorporate multiple strategies to teach chorus songs to students. He has been an inspiration. |
6/22/2017
Topic:
Tools and Strategies
Charlotte Walters
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I have used a free online review game called Kahoot. I have used this fun game to target learning gains from pre and post tests. Students can compete against each other using their phones, tablets or computers. You can even divide the class into teams if some students don't have a phone, tablet or computer. After each question is answered, it shows a graph of all students from first to last who has gotten all the answers right the fastest. I use this to monitor student achievement. With this tool, I was able to identify that my student with disabilities needed more attention with music vocabulary. I asked the ESE teacher how I can help her in this area. The ESE teacher told me that her strength is visual and I was able to find a clip from Little Einsteins that targeted the specific terms that the student was having trouble with it. After watching the clip, which the student loved, she made a big learning gain the next time I did a post-test using Kahoot. |
6/23/2017
Topic:
Assessment of Learning
Charlotte Walters
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I had a student with dyslexia. I have all of my students keep a journal as a summative assessment. I post questions on the board and students will answer the questions in their journal. If they do not know the answer then they tell me in their journal. I also ask the students to write how they are progressing with their music. For the student with dyslexia, I would provide a copy of the questions for the week so she could have more time to work on the questions at home. If she needed further explanation she would verbally tell me before or after class. She would also discuss with me her progress with the music. She is allowed to use her phone to take a picture of any notes or examples on the board or sometimes I would provide an extra copy with the specific notes for that student only. I also read any formal assessments verbally to the student with extended time so she can process each question. These strategies worked well for her. |