2/15/2022
Topic:
Students with Disabilities
GaJauna Jackson
|
Years ago, I had a student who was blind. This student did not have any severe cognitive disabilities, so the student attended music classes with the general education students. This student was extremely musically talented and enjoyed singing, dancing, and playing instruments. When we engaged in movement activities and instrumental activities, the student participated enthusiastically with the help of the student-specific paraprofessional. To help this student participate when we used textbooks to read information about the lesson or to learn the lyrics of songs, I had the therapist translate the text on the pages into braille. When administering classroom assessments, I would use various accommodations and modifications to find out what the student had learned about the material. The student thoroughly loved music and displayed that love by singing solos for school-wide performances. This student was an inspiration to all. |
2/17/2022
Topic:
Tools and Strategies
GaJauna Jackson
|
Two of the strategies I use in my classroom are cooperative learning and pneumonic instruction. The cooperative learning strategy I use is peer partners. I partner my students with learning disabilities with students who have grasped the concepts and/or skills taught through the lesson. Most often peers have a way of learning information easier from one another. That peer partner would be there to assist, prompt, and/or reinforce the concepts/skills. I use peer partners often when learning how to play new pieces of music or to learn vocabulary or to demonstrate a skill. The pneumonic instruction strategy I use is the letter strategy. I often use the acrostic to help students learn the names of the treble clef lines (every good boy does fine, EGBDF) and the acronym FACE to help students learn the names of the treble clef spaces (FACE). I also give students a chance to create their own acrostic to learn the names of the lines and/or spaces. The majority of the students - those with or without a disability - would benefit from making a connection with the information by using these strategies. |
2/18/2022
Topic:
Assessment of Learning
GaJauna Jackson
|
I have used various assessment accommodations for the disabled students I have taught and currently teach. In the past, I had a student who was visually impaired (blind). When it came time for paper/pencil and/or multiple choice assessments, I would read the directions and answer choices to her and then she student would tell me the answer she chose. Some of my current students are Language impaired (non-verbal). For those students, whenever there are assessments, I use visuals and have students point to the picture that represents their answer for the test items. |