5/8/2018
Topic:
Students with Disabilities
Crystal Pekoe
|
A few years ago, I had a young student in my elementary music class, with Autism. This student LOVED music, so that was really good for me. However, this student had a hard time with transitions. He did not want to leave when class was over. Also, if we were moving on to a different activity in the lesson, he had a hard time transitioning out of it. This students teacher helped me to create a “story book” for him. It was all about his day and included lots of visuals. In music, we would use his book often when transitioning. Shortly before we would be transitioning to the next activity or leaving music, I would point to the image in his book. For example, singing, playing, moving, listening, class is over, etc. This greatly helped this student with the transitions and helped him to understand what was coming next.
In addition, I had another student with Autism who did not like music. He often would want to tell me something or wanted to do something. Basically he only wanted me to give him attention. With this student we tried the strategy of telling him: “when you do this, you can have/do this”. This really helped him to stay on task in music and accomplish the learning goals in music. It also helped him to understand what was expected of him. |
5/11/2018
Topic:
Tools and Strategies
Crystal Pekoe
|
Two strategies that I can implement into my classroom are: learning centers and graphic organizers. I am really interested in implementing learning centers into my classroom. This would be a great strategy to group my students into groups that they will be successful in and then they can work at their own pace. I have noticed that there are several units in my curriculum that are difficult to teach in the whole group setting. For example, Recorder. I find that teaching Recorder is a unit that my students are all at many various levels on. Some pick it up extremely fast and are learning the Recorder Karate songs on their own, while others are still struggling to read the notes and associate the notes with their fingers. Learning Centers would be such a great tool for this. I could put students in a center to work on reading and identifying notes, another center could be learning the Recorder Karate songs, another center could be with me to help students to get one on one help with the Recorder. This would especially be great with my students with special needs. These students would greatly benefit from my help with getting the fine motor skills down and blowing softly. Also, this is a great strategy for my students with special needs because it will help them to develop their social skills by working with their peers.
Another strategy that I can implement into my classroom are graphic organizers. Graphic organizers would be a great tool to use to help students to process and store the information we are learning. For example, Instruments of the Orchestra, Voices and Form would be great units to use graphic organizers with. The students could organize the information about the instruments of the Orchestra into a graphic Organizer. They could organize it based on the families of the Orchestra and list characteristics of each family as well as the instruments in each family. Through writing this down in a graphic organizer and visually seeing where the instruments go, this would help all of my students to not only process what they are learning, but also to retain it. The graphic organizers would be especially great for my students with special needs, because of the organization and visually seeing where the Orchestra instruments fit into each family. |
5/11/2018
Topic:
Assessment of Learning
Crystal Pekoe
|
Option 1:
I have many students at my school with Autism. When assessing what they know in my music classroom, I have had great success with response cards. Sometimes I have them hold up the card that they think is the answer or sometimes I will have them point to the answer.
With Recorder, I have recently had great success with these students by putting a piece of tape on the back hole and just having them focus on the first 3 fingers for B, A and G. I have found that some of my students with Autism have trouble playing the Recorder due to the fine motor skills it requires.
Another idea that I have not yet tried is using a device called the "Makey Makey". This is a device that allows the user to make connect everyday objects to computer software. So, you could make a piano out of fruit or you could make the pitches B-A-G out of play dough. If a student was unable to play the Recorder, they could use a "Makey Makey" to play the notes on the staff. This would assess their knowledge of the staff and reading music. |
4/13/2023
Topic:
Students with Disabilities
Crystal Pekoe
|
I have a student with an orthopedic impairment with her left hand. I have taught her for several years and up until now the only thing we had to modify was when playing the Orff instruments. I just modified how she held the mallets. This year we have just started playing Recorders and I have modified this for her. She puts her right hand on top instead of left hand. I am also in the process of reaching out to another colleague who created a device for her student to enable the student to play the recorder with both hands. I am very excited to learn more about this device for my student! |
5/19/2023
Topic:
Tools and Strategies
Crystal Pekoe
|
One strategy that I can implement in my classroom is centers. By using centers, I can send students to the center that is appropriate for the level they are at. Also, centers will allow me to give more individualized attention to my students and it will also allow my students to work with their peers. This will be especially helpful with recorders. Students will be able to practice the skill they need more work on before they move to another center.
Another strategy that I can implement in my classroom is note taking. I have used this skill in the past with music journals. This will be helpful for the students to remember the concept being taught and they will be able to go back to previous information. They can also use it from year to year.
I also use task analysis with my students when we play recorders. First we clap the rhythm, then we identify and label the pitches, then we sing the pitches, then we sing and finger and finally we play. This allows my students to be more successful when it is time to play the song and it teaches them how to effectively practice at home. This is great for students with disabilities because it breaks up the tasks for them. |
5/19/2023
Topic:
Assessment of Learning
Crystal Pekoe
|
One example of an adapted assessment I have used for students with disabilities is when assessing recorder playing and note reading skills. Some of my students with special needs attend class with the upper grades, but the fine motor skills that recorder requires can be challenging. I have found a few different ways to do an adapted assessment with these students. One way is by giving them a Glockenspiel to play the melody on instead of recorders. This shows me that they are learning how to identify and read the notes, but doing it on a Glockenspiel shows that they can play the melody. If I want to assess my students on recorder playing, I will do one of two things. Sometimes I will have them just play one note, instead of changing notes. I have also recently been experimenting with the NUVO recorders. This has provided great success with my students with special needs, because they don't have to cover the holes. Instead they just press each key down. |