3/17/2022
Topic:
Students with Disabilities
David Schwartz
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I teach at an all in one school. I have students from 5th to 12th grade and see not only a variety of age groups and therefore a variety of levels of comprehension but also a variety of styles of learning, some of which are impacted more or less by disabilities. Since I teach at a private school, the school has determined to what degree of disability it will educate a student. For instance, I have a child that is both deaf and on the autism spectrum. Our school is not equipped to educate a student with that degree of disability though they do work hard with many students who struggle at a higher level of functional ability, students who deal with CP, ADHD/ADD and behavioral disabilities.
In my orchestra classes, I have a number of students who have attention disorders, some of which have not managed to learn how to read the music, even though they have been in my class for at least a couple of years and reading is given great emphasis, especially in the beginning years. Students in particular show frustration because of their inability to play with the rest of the group. They at times become disruptive behaviorally as well. The ways I have tried to address this disability has involved one on one tutoring. Often times, students need the one on one to recognize a missing piece of the learning puzzle. Once the piece in place, the light bulb goes off and they are able to progress further. Such has been the case with a number of students. Other strategies have included, slowing down the pace of the music, pointing out patterns in the music as well as making the music and recordings available to them to work on at home. They are therefore in a better position not only to know what to play in class but to know how it sounds. Some of these students try to work around the difficulty of reading by trying to play by ear. Providing recordings gives them an avenue to do just that. |
3/17/2022
Topic:
Tools and Strategies
David Schwartz
|
Since learning to identify notes is an important part of learning to read and perform music, I have used a couple of different technological tools for this task. I have used the Essential elements interactive, a strings workbook with an interactive site in aiding students in learning to identify notes on the music staff and also to find them on the fingerboard. Another tool I've used is the website, musictheory.net which can be used as a competitive note-learning tool with students within the class as well as with in competition with other music classes. |
3/18/2022
Topic:
Assessment of Learning
David Schwartz
|
I have had students who despite the introduction and review of material, still have had difficulty understanding and implementing the information in the playing of an instrument. I decided to create opportunities for 5 minute after school evaluations and assessments by asking them to tell me basic information about reading music and application to their instrument. I asked them to tell me the names of their strings and how the pitch would change if they put a finger down. I also evaluated their understanding of the names of the notes on the music staff for their particular clef. Some realized that their understanding was falsely based on their understanding from piano clefs or just treble clef (viola students). Some just hadn't made the connection between note names on the staff and their placement on the instrument. The five minute assessments helped them to make that connection. |