Background Project- 2nd Placement

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. ​