6/1/2022
Topic:
Students with Disabilities
Christopher Tredway
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I had a percussion student with mild-moderate autism this year. He read his music parts well but struggled to visual social cues, or interpret verbal colloquialisms, or interpret instructions that were not stated in a way that he could process. I learned to frequently conduct a visual check on him to see that he understood what we were doing and then to rephrase my instructions with more specificity if he appeared hesitant or lost. Most of the time this worked out fine. Occasionally, I would need to walk over to him while teaching and just point to something specific in order to give him a visual cue that supported the auditory instructions. He was an all-county player this year and is now successfully participating in the high school band. |
6/1/2022
Topic:
Tools and Strategies
Christopher Tredway
|
An electronic tuner that clips to the bell of the instrument is an example of technology that I have used to help a student with a disability. The student's learning disability caused a real struggle with pitch recognition and matching. He was unaware of whether he was on pitch, too high, or too low and became frustrated with always being "wrong." Clipping the tuner to bell of the instrument provided a visual picture and the letter name of the note in a window that the student could see. He was able to use this visual representation of the pitch to be successful in finding the correct pitch. |
6/1/2022
Topic:
Assessment of Learning
Christopher Tredway
|
A former student that scored average or better than average on playing assessments, scored very poorly on written quizzes and worksheets. She was found to have a dyslexia related disability that made processing letters difficult. Recognizing and understanding musical symbols was not that difficult for her. A simple testing accommodation that worked well was to allow her to give verbal answers for all written quizzes. |