5/16/2021
Topic:
Students with Disabilities
Jessica Moore
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BEESS Portal Course Question: Think of a student with a disability you have now or in the past. Describe ways in which their disability affected their learning in your class.
Years ago, I taught music to a self-contained ESE class consisting of students in the 3rd-5th grades who had autism spectrum disorder. One student was highly sensitivity to light and sound. When his class would come to the music room each week, I would always turn off one of the switches controlling the ceiling light panels, and made sure we had a pair of noise-cancelling headphones on hand. The student also had a speech impairment and would self-stimulate by yelling or screaming. We used a "whisper-phone" (two elbow-joint PVC pipes connected together) to help him "hear" his own voice and this often helped him self-calm and refocus. The student had difficulty responding verbally during singing, so I gave him a visual of the solfege scale to point to assist him in demonstrating which pitch we were singing as we ascended and descended the scale. |
5/19/2021
Topic:
Tools and Strategies
Jessica Moore
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"Describe how two of the strategies discussed could potentially be implemented in your classroom. Be sure to identify the two strategies by name and describe how they could be used to address the needs of a student with a disability."
Strategy 1 - Group Practices: Peer Partners
Using an instrument sorting program on the SMARTboard - In this scenario, the teaching peer could model to their partner how to drag a finger/fist/Koosh ball (depending on the partner's physical needs) across the board to sort an orchestral instrument to the correct family. The partners would could analyze selected instruments for the identifying characteristics that place them in an instrument family. After modeling the task, the peer teaching partner could encourage their learning partner to practice sorting.
Strategy 2 - Mnemonic Instruction: Letter Strategy
In learning lines and spaces on the staff, students can create their own sentences to help them remember each note of the staff. Using the floor as a giant interactive space on which to move "up and down" the staff, students can position their bodies to identify notes called out by a teacher or student leader. For those with varying physical disabilities, a magnet board (or projected staff on the wall/SMARTboard) with a pre-created staff can be provided and round button magnets (or other manipulatives) can be used to position notes on the lines and spaces. |
5/19/2021
Topic:
Assessment of Learning
Jessica Moore
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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.
Years ago, I had a student with autism who was non-verbal. Although he did not sing or use words to communicate he was able to appropriately respond through movement. When it was time to read rhythm patterns and other students would speak the pattern on syllables, the young man would demonstrate his understanding by tapping an instrument, or identify a teacher-selected pattern by pointing or touching the correct pattern he saw. |