5/24/2023
Topic:
Students with Disabilities
David Martinez-Cooley
|
For the past two years I have had the pleasure of working with a student who has an intellectual disability. He also had seizures when he was younger that has made it difficult for him to use one side of his body. He is reluctant to accept my help holding instruments that he can strike with a mallet, so we give him extra time to position instruments on the carpet, up close to his body in such a way that he can successfully play along with the class. During boomwhacker activities in which we were working on "left hand low" and "right hand high," we positioned the tubes on the carpet with a velcro band, so he could strike each one with a large mallet. With gross motor activities, we adjust as we go - each week it's a new adventure and we work together to discover how he can best show us what he knows. |
5/25/2023
Topic:
Tools and Strategies
David Martinez-Cooley
|
- Option 2: Describe at least one way you have used technology to meet the needs of a student with a disability in your music classroom. Be sure to identify or describe the specific technology and the student's disability. Share your response in the threaded discussion.
I have enjoyed utilizing many of the interactive slides housed in our online music curriculum (Quaver) with our students with disabilities. One of my favorites from this past semester was a slide for notating rhythm patterns. For students who are used to traditional notation but may have difficulty using pencil and paper, there are drag and drop "cards" that can be placed together in a measure (and some students simply point and I can move the notes for them). Many of these notation slides have an icon option, so a quarter note becomes "dog" (word and picture in some activities) and beamed eighth notes become "rabbit." I have used this activity for both composition and rhythmic notation. Several of the students with intellectual disabilities still struggle with this method of composing but have had success with another feature on Quaver, QBackBeat. In this program, the student simply needs to choose a track (from a variety of timbres) and click colored rectangles on a "timeline" to create rhythmic patterns. Students can then toggle to display the traditional notation and see (and hear!) the rhythmic patterns they have created. With this program, we're actually able to "notate" (with technological assistance) much more complex rhythm patterns than what we can do with the iconic system of the other activities. |
5/25/2023
Topic:
Assessment of Learning
David Martinez-Cooley
|
Option 1: Provide/Describe one or more examples of adapted or alternative assessments you have successfully used in the music classroom for students with disabilities. Be sure to identify the student's disability. Share your response in the threaded discussion.
I use a simple echo song to assess my students' singing ability - sometimes they echo me and several students sing the "teacher part" and have the rest of the class echo them. Several students in my primary access points class have an intellectual disability and are reluctant to sing, or even make a verbal response. One student who has been completely non-verbal switched his stomping of the rhythm to a clap so he could show me which pitches are higher and which are lower. One student will sing the part if I sing with her, and another will make sounds if given a mallet to act as his "microphone" (which he points at his classmates at the perfect time). Finally, on a complete whim I decided to make a video of a particular student who had shown increased engagement over the previous several weeks. To everyone's surprise, when he could see his face in my phone, he sang the entire song! |