For this project I researched and discussed the tendencies and specific needs of 2 students with my cooperating teacher and other representatives that work with these two students. The goal was to find ways to engage these students and individually help them by applying a non-standardized curriculum.  These two students abilities and struggles were exposed when we moved to hybrid and both of these students attended classes in-person. 

Student A was an ELL student. Student A was in the Percussion ensemble class and had never been able to follow classes because they don't speak english. Student A has a passion for music and enjoys listening to and playing along with music but hadn't been able to play along in class or follow the lesson plans. The county/school failed to provide a translator for Student A so when they came in the first thing we did was show them how to hold drum sticks. The other students in-person for Percussion Ensemble were Advanced and Moderate in terms of music performance ability level. This made Student A stand out in a negative way.  The struggles of teaching in-person and virtual at the same time are already challenging but add a student who has never attended a band class and cant speak english, makes it near impossible. The first few classes Mrs. Hall and myself split teaching obligations. One of us taught the online students, while the other teacher took Student A and helped him.  After a few classes, Student A was able to join in with our warm ups.  Some materials I adapted for them were our warm ups and basic terminology.  Instead of saying "Right" and "Left" for stickings we shortened izquierda (left) to "iz" and derecha to "de". Which switched a paradidle sticking from R L R R to De Iz De De. This helped Student A quite a bit.  Some other modifications we made included rhythmic syllables. Instead of teaching: 1+2+3+4 1e+a 2e+a 3e+a 4e+a, we taught sixteenth notes as ra-pi-do-+, eighth notes as len-to, and quarter notes as 1 2 3 4. The basic pattern of 1 2+ 3+ 4e+a would be taught as 1 len-to len-to ra-pi-do-+. This helped Student A with rhythm reading and allowed them to participate in warm-ups at the same pace of other students. Student A also had issues with navigating through smart music. Instead of typing and translating directions, we made a hard copy of the music to be able to write on and mark up as needed. Lastly Student A and I worked together and taught each other constantly.  Student A has helped me learn new words in spanish and I was able to help Student A with rhythm reading! By the end of my student teaching, Student A has played, Toms, Bass Drum, Snare Drum, and is able to sight read half note, quarter note, eighth note, whole rest, half rest, and quarter rest rhythms in 4/4 time.  T has even began asking for additional practice time on the drums at school! 

Student B plays the saxophone. This student doesn't have any diagnosed learning or attention disabilities or additional accommodations. This student just had a very challenging time adjusting to in-person classes.  Student B plays the saxophone and is generally a solid player. Student B doesn't practice at home but gets frustrated that they cant play everything perfectly.  We made a few accomodations to help them with his transition to in-person learning. We printed out hard copies of his music to help them be able to focus on the music rather than the plethora of computer screens.  I also modified warm-ups to be more interesting by including a drum-beat backing track for lip-slurs, F-stretches, and Bb-stretches. Some additional modifications I made to help them and the rest of the class included making warm-ups more physical by having students stand up and move throughout the first 10 minute of class.  While this student is not dealing with a recognized disability it is obvious that this student is dealing with a lot motivational and depression issues. I set aside time each class to allow all students time for individual practice. This additional practice time seemed to really help the student gain confidence. This student is up to date on all assignments and is more active than passive during class. ​

For this project I researched and discussed 2 students with my cooperating teacher and other fine arts representatives that also work with these two students. The goal was to find ways to incorporate elements that the students could connect with in our general lesson plans without isolating those students. The two students I chose were outliers in their classes in terms of ability levels, focus, and preparation.  

Student A had an IEP and learning disability. Their most challenging points in classes tended to be with analyzing instructions and with unmuting during class. Many times during our ensemble class, they would unmute and ask questions, lose focus, get frustrated, and feel isolated. One area I excel in is with having patience.  As I continued to research and inquire about this student, I found that they were a verbal learner. Visuals didn't quite help them but repeating the instructions and guidelines twice were very helpful to them.  To prepare for lessons that they would participate in I created slides that listed the schedule for the day, had a slide where I read the instructions aloud, then demonstrated visually for the rest of the class while repeating the instructions and guidelines a second time for them.  This removed the focus from them needing to hear instructions twice and placed an emphasis to students to listen first watch second-- for them- they listened twice and caught on very quickly.  One issue that they faced in the classroom was that they always wanted to ask questions.  In google meet you cannot direct message someone so that class either had to see their question in the chat or they would randomly unmute and ask aloud.  To address this situation, I added in a check-in every 5 min during class when new material was being presented so that anyone who had questions could ask them at that time.  This allowed them to ask without interrupting the entire class. They also slowly began asking fewer questions because of the repetition I had focused on in presenting the information. 

Student B was an english language learner and had an IEP due to a learning disability.  This student regularly did not follow instructions, would repeat the correct instructions vocally but then would move to do something completely unrelated or incorrect.  This student regularly would try and change the subject when asked to play for the class or even one on one for a breakout room.  This student also never turned on their camera.  A big challenge for this student was that they loved playing the saxophone but HATED practicing and hated the repertoire that we were playing. I would ask them what notes were used in a song, they would play them fine, and then when we moved onto another song that used the exact same notes they would ask how to play the notes.  In talking with them and other colleagues I found that they really enjoyed songs that had a groove to them.  Some things I included in my lesson plans for them were- switching up the repertoire to more relatable songs like "Seven Nation Army", presenting material in a visual, verbal, and auditory manner, and finally expanding time in class for questions. Seven Nation Army also has two phrases that are very similar and use the same notes.  When teaching this song, I was able to connect the two phrases and show how the same notes are used but the rhythm changed.  I think they began to understand the connection but definitely needed more repetition of that idea to really master understanding the relationships with notes. Finally scheduling more time for questions and clarification really allowed them to pace their questioning throughout the lesson plan. 

This project's purpose was to design a full scale lesson plan for an entire year.  My partner Sophia and I decided on general music with an emphasis in modern band rather than standardized band or orchestra.  This lesson plan includes activities, performances, ideas for events, and standard classroom procedure through instrumental methods. 

​Link to Full Google Sheet of Lesson Plan for the Year HERE

Link to document HERE

For our percussion ensemble activity we chose a short rhythmic pattern that consisted of 5 parts.  We decided to teach the rhythms orally rather than sheet music.  We used famous composer names as an outlet to communicate the rhythms.
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View activity HERE.

View video HERE

I think our group ideas were very strong in terms of pedagogical terms.  We faltered with execution. 
Why did we not execute as well as we hoped?

• Not everyone was familiar with the one rhythm that they taught.
• We didn't communicate how the rhythm related to the rest

What are some ways we could solve these problems for the future.

• Have a dry run before class. 
• Allow a few seconds to fix problems in class. 
• Always have a back up plan, maybe limit the group to 2 or 3 rhythms. 

Beginning Instrumental Music is the first exposure in an educational setting to westernized instruments that student receive. Some of these instruments may include but are not limited to, recorders, drums, boom whackers, some simple percussion accessories like shakers and caterpillars, xylophones, glockenspiels, piano, and body percussion. The purpose of having beginning instrumental music is to allow student to begin exploring the instrumental world. Some of the goals should include basic aural skills such as call and response, how to play instruments, ability to read a treble and bass clef, basic rhythms and notes (spanning from whole notes to 16th notes), major scales, and 2/4 3/4 4/4 time signatures. Some fun activities should include drum circles, recorder, sight reading, singing from aural examples and music, and performances to receive appreciation for their hard work!! These classes should prepare students to start in an orchestra, band, choir, or non-traditional ensemble setting. One example of a non-traditional ensemble setting would be a bucket drum ensemble. These skills should transfer and allow for more complex skills to develop if they choose to continue to music in a formal class setting. As a beginning instrumental teacher, I should prepare myself by planning for; wide and differing ability levels, multiple ways of teaching (color spots/plain sheet music/aural/by example), and honest feedback from students.

I constructed an interactive musical instrument that allowed for participants to make music by simply placing magnets on a board. 

This week I got the chance to experience what its like to be a teacher in the preschool environment.  A few members including myself of the sophomore music education class are in brass band and were on tour during one of the keister music night experience assignments, (field studies).  To make up this assignment we had to create and schedule our own day of music with a preschool.  We all decided to separate into three groups and run three different music experiences for the kids based on their current curriculum.  For my station I decided to run a drum circle.  I prepared different lesson plans to include basic counting, rhythm, and solo vs accompaniment exercises.  I went in the classroom only to be greeted with failure to follow through my carefully planned lesson.  The children didn't want to follow the specific instructions so I had to adapt and change my plans.  I quickly realized that the drum was a barrier to rhythm.  I remembered the previous week that the children had sang songs while slapping their lip and clapping.  To revise the solo section of my lesson plan I had everyone in the group slap their lap and clap their hands while one child played on their drum.  This initiated a huge turn around and positive path for the drum circle.  Eventually we worked with playing soft and loud.  Some of the exercises I had the children do to teach them dynamics were getting as close to the floor as possible and then jumping up and creaming.  I had them do this exercise about three time and then transferred it to the drum.  Instead of screaming they were asked to play loudly on the drum.  Then we proceeded to work on speed.  After working with speed we routed all of the drums (7 drums) and practiced shapes of the drums (circle and triangle).  I did however still run into some challenges.  I had two "rules".  My two rules were that when I put my hands up everyone put their hands up and stopped talking.  The second rule was that when it was time to play the drum we put our hand on top of the drum head.  Some of the issues I ran into were children not wanting to participate, children throwing drums, and kids refusing to listen to instructions.  Some of the things I had to do to counter the behavior issues were to have the children put their drums on the floor, change topics and areas of focus quickly and repeatedly, and when it came down to it, the main teacher in the classroom had to remove two students who had behavior issues.  Overall I feel like my drum circle was a huge success.  My favorite moment was meeting a girl named Adriana.  The first thing a did with every group was go around and ask names.  Adriana softly spoke her name and another kid shouted out "down worry, she's just really shy".  When it came time to solo Adriana asked to solo and she played as loud and as fast as she could.  It reminded me of how music can be a channel that people feel comfortable expressing theirselves through when other channels are not as friendly.  

​This past Wednesday I attended a night of fun displays of research and innovations in music technology.  Some of the most phenomenal displays of research that inspired me included information on dyslexia in music and the differences and difficulties in music in rural areas.  These topics interested me because they are areas that are not explored or talked about enough in our profession.  Some of the interesting ideas that were expressed to help students with dyslexia were changing the color of paper music is printed on, recording yourself, emphasizing listening before playing to help analyze what the music is supposed to sound like.  I personally have used all of the methods to help me memorize and read music better.

On the rural poster some things that were talked about were issues not prevalent in more urban areas.  Some of these topics included a lack of enrollment, lack of funding, and adaptation to isolation (lack of diversity).  In rural areas funding is an extreme issues.  Some people can't afford instruments and the schools systems don't get a lot of funding to buy instruments.   This decreases enrollment and interest in music.  The adaptation to isolation includes including middle school programs in marching bands, joint concerts, and additional community outreach.

I then attended multiple music education technology innovation presentations.  I had a lot of fun playing with the different devices primarily made of makeymakey and other conductive materials such as tinfoil, liquids, and metal objects.  

Lastly I attended a music education debate about the inclusion of music education in public school systems.  I was very intrigued by both sides of the debate but ultimately sided with the inclusion of music education as a core subject required every year in pre-k to 12.  The other side (no inclusion of music education in public schools, music education should be a community learning experience) made good strong points in their argument but were ultimately trumped by the other side.  I created a FB poll online to see how many people who participated in music would or wouldn't have participated in music if it weren't in public schools.  The poll can be found here.
Facebook     

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Students will get to use all different types of drums and instruments.  Students will be taught 2-3 basic beat/rhythms that are easy to replicate.  Students will then implement counting to 5 to practice their counting skills.  In this activity, we will keep a basic beat going and all students will have the opportunity to solo individually.  Next on the agenda is dynamics (how soft and loud) and a unison section.  This “section” of the drum circle will focus on playing loud and soft with one or two rhythms.  We will play one rhythm soft, and one loud and have fun going in-between the two.  This experience is purely to get the children to have fun while focusing on basic counting skills and dynamics.  This activity is also used to let kids express themselves and have fun without any judgement (the solo section).  Drum circles purpose is to bring people together through a language that everyone speaks or can recognize; music.  The last thing I would like to incorporate in my station would be making sure that we clap and appreciate all of the soloists at the end of the circle one by one.  This type of gratitude and appreciation will not only be nice for the students but will make them want to congratulate their peers as well.  
Drum Circle? What’s that?
A drum circle is an activity including a celebration of friends, life itself, community, and music-making in the moment.  Participants sit in a circle while playing drums and hand percussion, and join in creating a group rhythm. The circle is "moderated" by a facilitator who guides the group in rhythms and rhythm-based activities.
What will students gain?
Students will gain basic music skills such as rhythm, dynamics, balance, and counting skills.  Students will also gain the experience of playing music with peers.  Music teaches many things, some of them being, a way of communication, expression, teamwork, and leadership.  These key concepts are vital to the expansion and growth of a human.