6/13/2022
Topic:
Students with Disabilities
Steven Bass
|
In my choir classes, we spend a lot of time using the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). I had a student who was diagnosed with dyslexia who struggled with the association of symbols and sounds. My first time introducing IPA to this class, she approached me very concerned that she would not be successful in the class if I were to assess students on IPA. First, it was great that the student did not have a problem with expressing her disability with me. I was able to accommodate her by having a cheat sheet with the different symbols and "sounds like" words. It took her more time to do certain tasks, but she was able to use her recall skills to start learning the specific sounds.
During our vocal warmups, I would use hand motions to represent different vowel sounds, which would then translate to our music. While this was used mostly for this student, all of the students saw the benefit. Also, I would use different color flash cards with the IPA letters and then use the same colors every time I had to write things on my board. The students were able to associate the sounds to different colors. |
6/13/2022
Topic:
Tools and Strategies
Steven Bass
|
One of the two strategies I currently use in my choir classroom are mnemonic devices. I use the Letter Strategy for identifying the order of sharps and flats using the following phrase "Father Charles Goes Down And Ends Battle" for sharps and "Battle Ends And Down Goes Charles' Father" for flats. The reason I use this mnemonic device is because it is reversible, just like the order of sharps compared to flats. Students will be able to "check their work" by confirming the mnemonic device makes grammatical sense both going forwards and backwards.
Another strategy I use is breaking tasks down with task analysis. Currently, when learning new music, we follow the same method as we learn music literacy.
1. I sing rhythms or pitches on neutral syllables and students repeat back.
2. I sing rhythms or pitches on takadimi syllables or solfege and students repeat back.
3. I speak the text and students repeat back.
4. We put it all together.
This system works because we follow the same tasks every time. Students who are struggling with music literacy will get reinforcement, while students who are grasping concepts are given opportunities to "read as I read" instead of "repeating after me". |
6/14/2022
Topic:
Assessment of Learning
Steven Bass
|
I had a student with an IEP for his diagnosed dysgraphia. He struggled with his handwriting abilities and was provided a school-owned laptop to use in class. This student is also designated as gifted and is very bright. I have a class set of dry erase boards that we would use for different formative assessments during lessons. He was persistent in asking to use his laptop to provide the answers. I worked with him individually so that he knew he would not have to ask for permission to use his laptop for any assignment that I provided. Rather, I gave him the option of trying to use the dry erase boards and paper or his laptop based on the specific task. He went from insisting he used his laptop to asking me how difficult would it be to do on paper. He knew that I would provide him the means to be successful, which made him feel more confident that he did not have to fight for his accommodations. |