9/19/2017
Topic:
Students with Disabilities
Rainy Barton
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Last year, I had a student with both cerebral palsy and an intellectual disorder. For the first two months, it was not noted in her IEP that she needed an aide to be with her everywhere she went, including specials, which made it extremely difficult. She struggled with walking immensely, and would burst out with different comments every five seconds. I was essentially having to focus all of my attention on her, because she needed it, and I could not find the balance between teaching my class and providing for her. Finally, an aide started attending with her, and it was still difficult to have her do what the other students were doing, simply because she could not go at the same pace of instruction. Some of the students would be bullies, which of course I handled, but I just wanted to help her succeed in any way that I could. Some accommodations I tried that seemed to help was putting her in between two students who excelled at music and were positive role models. They were always willing to help her, and she seemed to do better when she was sandwiched between the two students. I also would make sure her seat was in the front row when I was teaching at the front of the class, in order to help her with immediate questions, and break things down for her more easily. |
9/20/2017
Topic:
Tools and Strategies
Rainy Barton
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Two strategies that work really well in my music classroom are Discovery Learning, and Mnemonic Instruction. In music, there are tons of different instruments, along with categories, such as pitched and unpitched, woods, metals, shakers, skins, woodwinds, brass, strings, percussions, keyboards, etc. There are many different instruments within each of those sub categories, and in my class, the students learn about them the best through discovery learning. When they approach a new instrument, I give them a minute to try finding different ways to play it (I first show the ways not to play it so the instrument does not break), and give them questions to think on, such as what is the sound like? Long or short? Does it ring? What type of music could you find this in? It gets the students thinking and they love playing all different types of instruments. I always make sure students with disabilities are sitting next to people that really understand what is going on, so they can help them figure out how to play it, and how to answer the questions.
Mnemonic devices also work well, especially when learning about the five line staff. My older students always have to come up with a mnemonic device for the lines of the treble clef (One of mine this year said every grandma bakes doughnuts faithfully). That helps them remember it for the rest of the year. I use it for the younger kids too, with the four unpitched instrument families: Woods, Membranes, Metals, and Shakers (Making Music, Wacky Sounds). My students with disabilities can usually remember stuff more easily if they have a funny phrase that goes with it. |
9/21/2017
Topic:
Assessment of Learning
Rainy Barton
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In my class, the students often take written tests to assess whether they understand that musical concept or not. I have an autistic student that freaks out at tests, but loves to write in a journal. One day, I asked if I gave them the questions to the test and instead of picking the right answer like a test, they would like to be able to write them all down in a journal like an entry, and they loved that. Now, they are one of my top students in the class, and can participate in all aspects of the class now, because I found what works for them. I also use the app kahoot in my classroom a lot, as it is fairly accessible to students of all types. I always make sure to have the answers be picture based in order to help my students with disabilities find the answer more easily. |