6/23/2017
Topic:
Students with Disabilities
Allison Arthurs
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I have had several students throughout my teaching career who have had a range of disabilities from ADHD to a student with Spina Bifida who played the piano. But the story that sticks out to me is betterseet. I had a young man who was coming to me that I was told had an amazing voice. He'd been a soloist in his Jr, HIgh school Chorus and I was looking forward to working with him in my Choral ensemble. Months passed before he came and I discovered that he was a student in our EBD self-contained unit. That didn't matter to me I always welcome kids who love to sing especially boys. They are a rare commodity. When he finally came to class, but due to his anxiety and new and consistent stresses at home he was literally and physically unable to sing aloud with the class. He had completely lost all confidence in his ability to sing in front of people. We tried and tried lots of things to encourage him but nothing worked. Finally after several frustrating weeks he was withdrawn from the class. However......Sometime later he was able to perform at our school's talent show where he and I reconnected. I found out that his homelife and the issues causing his anxiety had improved and he was able to come back to our class where he performed beautifully. He was a wonderful addition to our Tenor section. Unfortunately he moved away but he was hoping to return and vowed to rejoin us if he did move back to the area. |
7/18/2017
Topic:
Tools and Strategies
Allison Arthurs
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Looking at the various strategies I have many ideas to float around. The two that stuck out were the story maps and the E-center. The story maps in Piano classes especially will be helpful especially with the special needs students/ students with disabilites. We can break down a piece either measure by measure or line by line to show where notes, rhythms or phrases are alike or repeated. We could use different and like colors to show similarities and differences. The E-Center can be used to create powerpoints to help those students in Piano class who have fine motor issues and/or visual issues by being able to manipulate symbols instead of drawing them on paper thus adapting it for students with certain processing problems. Also they can change the ink color or page color and font size to suit their visual learning experience |
7/18/2017
Topic:
Assessment of Learning
Allison Arthurs
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I have adapted assessments in several ways. One way is when a student, due to a disability, has a lot of trouble performing for a Piano playing test with both hands simultaneously either because of cognition or coordination.Sometimes they just can't get both hands to work together. In those cases I will have them play with me as a duet. They would play the right hand while I played the left and then we would switch parts. |