4/11/2023
Topic:
Students with Disabilities
Thomas B Gaona
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We had a trumpet student about 4 years ago who always had trouble with notes on the staff. Gorgeous sound and great style but really struggled to identify notes. We thought it was just a kid who got by with fingering and the middle school didn't fix their issues with reading. Come to find out through a theory work page and the fact they never missed B (middle line for trouble clef) he had dyslexia. Well, at the middle schools the teacher kept the letters so close together on the staff that they student turned them around. BOOM, identified, next is how do we fix this? I kept it simple and made flash cards with the note names in a line or space by themselves. Kid was reading music in 3 weeks better than anyone else. This students had all the knowledge but was not set up for utilizing it in a meaningful way!
edited by Thomas B Gaona on 4/11/2023 |
4/11/2023
Topic:
Tools and Strategies
Thomas B Gaona
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Option #1
- I have utilized flash cards before to assist a dyslexic student over come issues with identifying notes on the staff. Self -Evaluation, reflection and self-discovery are potentially great tools in a music classroom. When my students come back from the weekend and I asked them to looked at a musical passage, they usually come back better and more confident. Now, if we can take that an be guides for them in that discovery, we could increase their gains as musicians. When they have that "aaaahhh haaa" moment it connects them to the task and helps create ownership.
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4/11/2023
Topic:
Assessment of Learning
Thomas B Gaona
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Every Friday in Jazz band we listen. Then, every three weeks we have a "drop the needle" test on the albums. This promotes students listening to Jazz and gets them in the habit of listening to professionals on their own. I have a Tenor sax student who is brilliant on the Saxophone with an amazing ear. He has a disability where he struggles with connecting albums/text/names to music. I started by having him test every week with just names, but that didn't really help him. We figured out he does a better job with color identification. So, he uses highlighters and the colors correspond with the albums. During the year his association with the albums has improved by 60%. He's even gotten to a point where he can join us every 3 weeks for the full test! |