Kansas State University
Portfolio Handbook Templates
The following templates are a resource that you can use while completing your Student Teaching Handbook. The text fields and charts can be extended as needed when you are completing the templates.
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Professional and Philosophical Platform
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Your philosophy of teaching is a synthesis of your educational perspectives and preparation. It combines your knowledge and beliefs about teaching and learning in your content area into a personal rationale and vision for your teaching. Your philosophy of teaching is based on your understanding of the historical, philosophical, and social foundations of education and how this knowledge guides your educational practices. In addition, it should include your beliefs and vision for effectively teaching all students and your role in promoting the well-being of your students, their families, and the larger community. You have been asked to write your philosophy of teaching as part of earlier coursework, but most likely your philosophy of teaching will be a work in progress. It will change as you are exposed to additional knowledge and experience new challenges in teaching and learning.
Please consider the following Guiding Questions as you develop your philosophy of teaching statement.
|Perspectives |Effective |Professionalism |
|and Preparation |Instruction | |
|What are your beliefs and vision about how |What are your beliefs and vision about teaching |What is your role in promoting the well being of |
|historical, social, and political foundations |and learning which promote students’ learning of |your students, their families, and the community? |
|of education impact your decisions and actions|essential knowledge and skills for ALL students | |
|as a teacher? |and demonstrate your belief in the inherent | |
| |dignity of ALL students? | |
|Compare and contrast the following issues as | | |
|you construct your response. In this | | |
|comparison, provide a clear rationale for how |Questions to consider when you frame your response| |
|these foundational perspectives have |include: | |
|influenced your thinking about how students | | |
|learn and achieve. |•What principles of effective instruction are most| |
| |important to you? | |
|•How education has changed in the last |•What instructional strategies will you use to | |
|50/60 years |promote ALL students’ learning of essential | |
|•The impact of the civil rights movement |knowledge and skills? | |
|socially and politically on schools |•Which strategies will you use to support the | |
|•The Education for All Handicapped Children |diverse learner? | |
|Act and Individuals with Disabilities |•What instructional strategies will you use to | |
|Education Act changed teachers’ perspectives |demonstrate respect for the customs and beliefs of| |
|and planning? |diverse groups? | |
|•The impact of NCLB and the standards movement| | |
|on instructional decisions? | | |
|•The change in lesson preparation caused by | | |
|the increased focus on multicultural | | |
|education. | | |
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Contextual Information and Student Learning Adaptations Template
Total Number of Students in the School: _____611______
School Socio-Economic Make-Up (i.e., % free and reduced lunches): ____65% Free/Reduced_____
| |Class |Class |Class |Class |Class |
| |1 |2 |3 |4 |5 |
|Number of Students in Classroom |20 |18 |20 |23 |21 |
| | | | | | | |
|Contextual Information: |Class |Class |Class |Class |Class |Student Learning Adaptations: |
|(List the number of students identified in each |1 |2 |3 |4 |5 |(Describe at least one example of a strategy to provide |
|class you teach and identify the class in which you | | | | | |equitable opportunities, accommodations, or |
|are teaching your unit) | | | | | |modifications you attempted for any student identified |
| | | | | | |within each contextual characteristic) |
| | | | | | |Throughout my student teaching experience, we |
|Ethnic/Cultural Make-Up | | | | | |experienced many songs that were representative of, or |
|Caucasian/White: |7 |6 |5 |8 |8 |written in various countries, cultures, and languages. |
|African American/ Black: |5 |4 |6 |6 |4 | |
|Hispanic/Latino: |6 |5 |4 |4 |5 | |
|Asian/Pacific Islander: |2 |3 |5 |5 |4 | |
|American Indian/Alaskan Native: |0 |0 |0 |0 | | |
| | | | | |0 |Very few accommodations were needed for this. |
|Language Proficiency | | |3 |2 | |Occasionally, when there were words, phrases or concepts|
|Number of English Language Learners (ELL): |1 |2 | | | |that a student did not understand, I would do my best to|
| | | | | | |explain for the class. If extra help was still needed, I|
| | | | | | |would meet with the students after class or briefly |
| | | | | | |during recess. |
| | | | | | |In many situations and grade levels, using proximity |
|Academic Performance | | | | | |while teaching (including changing a student’s location |
|Students Performing | | | |3 | |on the seating chart to be always right near me. And |
|Below Grade Level: |2 |7 |2 | |1 |even designating a location for the student to move to |
|Student Performing | | | | | |in the event that we are working on the other side of |
|Above Grade Level: | | | | | |the room, so that whatever my location, the student is |
| | | | | | |near) really helped those who perform below the grade |
| |10 |8 |6 |13 |8 |level average. This helped maintain focus and allowed |
| | | | | | |for me to give brief and quick individual direction if |
| | | | | | |it was needed. We also have a reward system for these |
| | | | | | |students- on days when they perform well, they receive |
| | | | | | |stickers on a folder with their name on it. At the end |
| | | | | | |of the semester, they get to take the folder (hopefully)|
| | | | | | |full of stickers and happy notes from the teacher home |
| | | | | | |with them. |
| |0 |1 |0 |0 |0 |We always have a space in the front of the room AND the |
|Students with Special Needs | | | | | |back for the students with visual impairments, so that |
|Learning Disability: |1 |3 |0 |1 |0 |regardless of which side of the room we are working |
|Emotional/Behavioral Impairment: | | | | | |with, that student will always be close to the materials|
|Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD): |3 |5 |3 |2 |3 |we are using so they may be seen. |
|Developmental Disability: | | | | | | |
|Intellectual Disability: |0 |0 |0 |0 |1 |For some of our students who tend to move around a lot |
|Speech/Language Impairment: | | | | | |during a lesson, or we notice fidgeting with their hands|
|Autism Spectrum: |0 |3 |0 |1 |0 |more than what is usual, we have squishy stars that the |
|Gifted: | | | | | |students can squeeze during the lesson- as long as they |
|Blind/Visual Impairment (VI): |0 |3 |0 |0 |2 |are still participating and doing whatever activity the |
|Deaf /Hearing Impairment (HI): | | | | | |class is doing. |
|Physical Disability: |15 |10 |7 |0 |9 | |
|Other Health Impairment: | | | | | |For our Autism Spectrum students, we keep them sitting |
| |1 |0 |0 |0 |0 |very near the teacher, and in the event that we play a |
| | | | | | |game or do an activity where not all students may get a |
| | | | | | |turn, we have the entire class echo, “We may not get a |
| | | | | | |turn today, but that really is okay, we’ll play again |
| | | | | | |another day, and on that day, I’ll get to play.” This |
| | | | | | |does a great deal for these particular student’ |
| | | | | | |emotions, as well as the students’ classmates. |
Contextual Information and Student Learning Adaptations Template
(Continued)
|Student Characteristics: |
|Describe the developmental characteristics of students in your classroom. |
|(Cognitive, Physical, Emotional, Social). |
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|Cognitive: Most classes are right on track with our semester scope and sequence and goals. Some classes are actually a bit ahead of their sequence. |
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|Physical: Students vary in height and weight due to wide ranges of development between Kindergarden and 5th grade. |
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|Emotional: Most students experience very positive emotions during choir, and can get very excited, especially during very active activities and games. Rarely, |
|on the occasions when silliness, or dangerous behavior occurred, and a student had to be moved to a safe seat for the duration of an activity, there were angry|
|or sad emotions, also in the event that not each child got a turn during a certain activity or game, but for safe seat students there is always a procedure for|
|what we, as teachers, are looking for in order for the student to return to the activity or game, and there is always the possibility for the student to return|
|if they are still following along with the activity, singing properly, and showing enthusiasm and willingness to comply with game or activity rules. As for |
|students who do not get a turn during a game or activity, we have a phrase we always echo: “we may not get a turn today, but that really is okay, we’ll play |
|again another day, and on that day, I’ll get to play.” Students typically respond well to the promise of the chance to play during the next class, and if I |
|promise the opportunity to play or do an activity during the next class, that is always one of the first things that occurs during the next class. |
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|Social: The students love to share what they are learning in music with their classroom teacher, and they excitedly greet my cooperating teacher and I in the |
|hallway, and share how they sang a song, or taught an activity to a loved one. The students bond over the games, and even close enough to recognize their |
|classmate’s voices from games such as “Let’s Hide the Pumpkin” (where one student hides their eyes, and the teacher hands another student a small pumpkin toy. |
|The student with the toy then sings individually “I have the pumpkin” and based solely on hearing general location of sound and voice recognition, the other |
|student must guess which classmate has the pumpkin). |
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|Highlight the prior knowledge and interests of students in your classroom. |
|For the third graders in particular, these students can visually and aurally identify and write the following rhythms and pitches: ta, ti-ti, ta-rest, ta-a, |
|half rest, tika-ti, and ti-tika, do, mi, so, and la. Students are very interested in learning the other notes in our solfa ladder, as well as the fact that |
|they now know that the solfa ladder continues (repeats) even beyond the human ear’s ability to hear, they are very interested in learning beyond what we have |
|already established for them as far as pitches and solfa go. |
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|Describe the implications these characteristics have on planning and instruction. |
|(e.g. What instructional strategies will you use to meet the unique learning needs of all your students?) |
|When planning a lesson, I make sure to emphasize the known material, and as I’m teaching, I will at times allude to future lessons. For instance, we may sing a|
|song that has mostly known pitches, but one pitch that is outside their current pallet. I may ask, “Does anyone have a guess as to what that high pitch is?” |
|And some students may guess it right away, and some may have an answer that is incorrect, but I will say the answer, for instance, “That is high do! When we’ve|
|gone all the way through the ladder of pitches we know, and it starts to repeat, that is the first step of the new ladder! We will learn more about it next |
|year!”(Or later this month, or whatever the case may be) This gives the students something to look forward to learning in the future. |
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|Environmental Factors: |
|Describe district, school, and classroom environmental factors impacting the quality of education for all of your students. |
|The Wichita school district has a generally standard set of procedures throughout the district (as far as I have seen) which helps if any students are |
|transferred to Minneha from another Wichita school. As far as our school goes, Minneha is an extremely structured school. Students know their procedures, and |
|follow them, for the most part, very well. This includes everything from walking in the hallway on the second tile from the wall with a voice level zero with |
|shirts tucked in and shoes tied, to entering the classroom, moving to assigned seats, and participating in class knowing exactly what their expectations are, |
|and often meeting, and sometimes even exceeding them. I believe that having this highly structured environment definitely encourages a higher quality of |
|education for the students as a whole. |
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|Describe community and family environmental factors impacting the quality of education for all of your students. |
|The community is extremely supportive of music at Minneha, all concerts are highly attended by both families and members of the community. Parents especially, |
|though, are very supportive. Though our school has quite a high number of students who are free/reduced lunch eligible, there are other students who constantly|
|give extra, and offer them as scholarship, so that all music students can participate in things such as going to Young People’s Concerts, and to see The |
|Nutcracker, or for Honor Choir students, go to and perform at Wichita Thunder games, or purchase the T-Shirts that are worn as choir uniforms for performances.|
|Some parents donate above and beyond what is required of the music department, either donating to the music department specifically, or donations for music |
|scholarships. Parents are supportive of teacher when it comes to discipline. On multiple occasions, when there are frequent behavioral issues with a student, |
|and parents are called, those parents are there at the next opportunity, monitoring their child’s classroom behavior throughout the day. |
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|Describe the implications these factors have on planning and instruction. |
|(What instructional strategies will you use to address the unique environmental factors impacting each |
|student?) |
|Because the students are so well behaved in class, generally when planning a lesson, most of what you wish to accomplish does get done. There were few |
|occasions where this wasn’t the case, but in general lessons can typically be carried out according to plan. |
|For one particular class, there are several students who have frequent recurring behavior issues. For this class, there have been a few occasions when parents |
|have needed to be contacted, and in each situation, the parents have been extremely helpful. In one situation, a students misbehavior was so extreme it |
|actually caused the lesson to stop. On this situation a parent was called, and that parent suggested positive reinforcement for good behavior- in this |
|situation, the student loves art, so the parent wondered if it would be possible, when this student was behaving very well in class, to allow a few minutes at |
|the end of class for the student to paint or draw. On the very first day this idea was implemented, and the student’s good behavior allowed him a few minutes |
|at the end of class to paint, not only was he respectful for the remainder of class, but when asked to put paints away and get into line, the student |
|immediately followed direction, nicely placing art supplies back in their original places, even gently pushing in the chair and getting into line correctly |
|without even a thought of misbehavior. |
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Contextual Information and Student Learning Adaptations Template
(Continued)
|Focus Students Information |
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|Provide information about the two focus students you selected from the class in which you will be teaching your unit that you feel would benefit from |
|modified instruction. You MUST choose one student with exceptionalities or an English Language Learner as one of your focus students. Complete the chart |
|below referring to these students only as Student A and Student B. Do not use proper names. |
| |Describe this student using information |Why did you select this |What did you find out about this |Based on this information what|
| |from the Contextual Information and |student? |student? Address characteristics |are the implications for this |
| |Student Learning Adaptations | |from the Contextual Information and |student’s instruction? |
| | | |Student Learning Adaptations | |
|Student A |This student is an English Language |This student often asks |Cognitive |Using basic English when |
| |Learner that needs special instruction on |questions that might seem |This student performs slightly below |providing instruction is |
| |some occasions. The student knows basic |silly to the class, but the|grade level average |important so that the student |
| |English well, but has trouble with words |student truly is confused | |can best understand what is |
| |that have multiple meanings. |and does not understand the|Emotional |going on. |
| | |meanings. |This student enjoys music very much, | |
| | | |and enjoys their classmates. | |
| | | | | |
| | | |Physical | |
| | | |This student’s physical appearance is| |
| | | |average for age. | |
| | | | | |
| | | |Social | |
| | | |This student is very social, enjoys | |
| | | |sharing with, and completing | |
| | | |activities with classmates. | |
| | | | | |
| |Describe this student using information |Why did you select this |What did you find out about this |Based on this information what|
| |from the Contextual Information and |student? |student? Address characteristics |are the implications for this |
| |Student Learning Adaptations | |from the Contextual Information and |student’s instruction? |
| | | |Student Learning Adaptations | |
|Student B |This student is on the autism spectrum, |I selected this student |Cognitive |Using very clear direction, |
| |and occasionally needs special |because I have never worked|This student is very smart, but |and clarify anything that may |
| |instruction, especially if a certain |with a student with autism,|instruction has to be detailed and |be confusing before the |
| |activity or game has changed since the |and I figured there would |explicit. |activity even begins. |
| |last time the student has played. |be a lot of very good | | |
| | |learning moments as a |Emotional | |
| | |teacher as I worked with |This student is usually quite happy, | |
| | |this student. |and has a lot of fun in music. At | |
| | | |times, especially if the student | |
| | | |becomes confused, or does not get a | |
| | | |turn for a game or activity, this | |
| | | |student can get very emotional. If | |
| | | |you talk to the student with a very | |
| | | |sweet tone, and explain the | |
| | | |situation/expectations with great | |
| | | |detail directly, the student will | |
| | | |once again return to the student’s | |
| | | |usual happy demeanor. | |
| | | | | |
| | | |Physical | |
| | | |This student’s physical appearance is| |
| | | |average for age. | |
| | | | | |
| | | |Social | |
| | | |This student can be very social, or | |
| | | |quiet depending on the day. | |
| | | | | |
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|Category |Description |
|Grade Level |Third Grade |
|Content Area |Music |
|Unit Topic |“Re” |
|State Standards/Common Core Standards |Singing, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music. |
|Addressed |Performing on instruments, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music. |
|(written format) |Improvising melodies, variations, and accompaniments. |
| |5. Reading and notating music. |
| |6. Listening to, analyzing, and describing music. |
| |7. Evaluating music and music performances. |
| |8. Understanding relationships between music, the other arts, and disciplines outside the arts. |
| |9. Understanding music in relation to history and culture. |
|How does this unit address state curriculum |Singing, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music. |
|standards? |Performing on instruments, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music. |
| |Improvising melodies, variations, and accompaniments. |
| |5. Reading and notating music. |
| |6. Listening to, analyzing, and describing music. |
| |7. Evaluating music and music performances. |
| |8. Understanding relationships between music, the other arts, and disciplines outside the arts. |
| |9. Understanding music in relation to history and culture. |
|Identify and connect School Improvement | The students will be discussing Laos and the culture and religion of the Hmong people as well as Japan. This |
|Goals related to this unit |type of lesson about other cultures widens their worldview. |
|Rationale (why is this unit appropriate?) |This unit introduces the solfege pitch that comes next in the Kodaly sequence (after mi, so, la, and do, re is|
| |introduced, typically to 2nd graders) as we build the students’ pitch repertoire. |
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Learning Goals and Objectives: What will students know and be able to do at the end of this unit?
Unit Goal: Students will sing songs, play games, listen to stories, read, and write music that includes the solfa syllable “re”.
|Objective # |Unit Objectives |Level(s) |
| | |(Bloom’s Taxonomy) |
|1 |Students will listen to a Hmong folktale story. |LOTS |
|2 |At least 90% of the students will accurately sing mi-re-do and do-re-mi patterns in the context of the |LOTS |
| |melody of the story. | |
|3 |At least 80% of the students will sing mi-re-do accurately based on the context of a song |LOTS |
|4 |Students will show the melodic contour of the song using body movement. |LOTS |
|5 |Students will play a game while singing a song that includes re. |LOTS |
|6 |Students will observe and reflect on art related to the subject matter of the piece of music. |HOTS |
|7 |At least 80% of the students will be able to identify re aurally and on a staff. |LOTS |
|8 |Students will play an instrument for a song that includes re with the correct technique. |HOTS |
|9 |Students will accurately place re on a hand staff and a staff on the board. |HOTS |
|10 |Students will play a game to a song that includes re. |LOTS |
|11 |Students will read and clap to melodic flashcards that include the syllable re. |LOTS |
|12 |Students will identify re visually on a staff. |LOTS |
|13 |Students will analyze and evaluate self and group performances on pitched instruments. |HOTS |
Student Teaching
Elementary Music Unit
“Re”
As prepared by Becca Cline
Kansas State University
Spring 2013
The focus of this unit is the addition of the re to the currently known pitch set of do, so, mi, and la. “Known” indicates that the majority of students have successfully performed (vocally and on pitched instruments), identified (aurally and visually), read, and written do, so, mi, and la. The introduction of re takes place in second grade in Kodaly based curricula. For this unit, we will be introducing re to students in the third grade.
The National Standards addressed by this unit are:
1. Singing, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music.
1. Performing on instruments, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music.
2. Improvising melodies, variations, and accompaniments.
5. Reading and notating music.
6. Listening to, analyzing, and describing music.
7. Evaluating music and music performances.
8. Understanding relationships between music, the other arts, and disciplines outside the arts.
9. Understanding music in relation to history and culture.
This unit contains opportunities for cross-curricular connection to academic disciplines. More specifically, the integration of phonics (i.e. rhyming words) and children’s literature (poetry and story) are accomplished in various activities.
This unit contains opportunities for students to learn about the culture of Laos. Students will listen to a folk tale based in Laos, and will discuss the following factors addressed in the book: the Hmong people, the god Shao, the location of Laos, and the Hmong language.
Unit Outline
Prepare
The prepare stage is an opportunity for students to experience re in a variety of repertoire that encompasses songs, singing games/play activities, and pattern work. The teacher at this stage selects age-appropriate repertoire that clearly emphasizes the focus of the unit; the teacher is also responsible for accurately assessing student performance, checking that students are singing re in tune in the context of the songs, singing games, and melodic patterns.
Repertoire/Activities for the Prepare Stage:
“Nine in One, Grr, Grr”
In this book, the author is translating the story telling of a Hmong woman who heard the story of Nine and One, Grr, Grr” as a child. This story is a folk tale among the Hmong people of Laos. Because the story teller, and the story originate in Laos, in this activity we will discuss the location of Laos, as well as the Hmong people and language, and their god Shao. This book has four melodic motives: mi-re-do-mi-mi, do-re-mi-do-do, do-re-mi-mi-mi, and mi-re-do-do-do. There are opportunities for the students to sing these motives throughout the story.
“Hop Old Squirrel”
This song isolates the motive of mi-re-do. This song may be played with accompaniment by a hand drum playing steady beat. During game play, when the melody is finished, the drum is used to initiate movement of the student who is “it” and the three “squirrels”.
“All Around the Buttercup”
This song uses the motives mi-re-do, do-re-mi, and so-re. We will discuss the vocabulary word “maid”, have class give multiple definitions, and explain the correct meaning for the song. (In this version the lyrics of the last line are “If you want a pretty maid, just choose me.”)
Pattern Work: Singing Greeting
Pattern work will be used daily throughout the prepare stage including the following singing greeting which will be done upon the start of class. This greeting contains the following melodic patterns: do-re-mi-re-do, mi-fa-so-fa-mi, so-la-mi-la-so, mi-do, so-mi, and so-do-la-so-mi-re-do.
Present
The present stage is the point in the unit when students are led to name/label the concept under study as well as connect it to its symbolic representation.
Repertoire/Activities for the Present Stage:
“Hot Cross Buns”
This song isolates do-re-mi and mi-re-do. Students will be hearing the story that goes along with the song, which provides several opportunities for the students to sing along with the teacher and story. Students will then sing the song while playing pitched instruments. The students now will identify on which word the highest note occurs, and which note the lowest note occurs. The students will be led to discover that the new pitch on the word “cross”, students will determine whether it is higher or lower than the word “hot”. The note will be identified, labeled, and shown on a staff.
Reinforcement Activity:
Students will sing “Hot Cross Buns” on solfa while looking at a tone latter that contains their known pitches: do, re, mi, so and la. Students will repeat this process with songs that were worked on during the prepare stage. They will identify re in each of these songs. Particular melodic motives (such as mi-re-do, do-re-mi. and so-mi-re-do) will be presented on staff notation on the board.
(Optional Composition activity)
In the Hot Cross Buns story, we mention that this is the favorite breakfast item for the Baker family. Have students list some of their favorite breakfast items, and list them on the board, have students determine the rhythms of the words to the best of their ability, translate the rhythms to body percussion. Have students select their favorite item and do the body percussion for that item (hopefully the students will pick a variety, so that the patterns can be heard all together). Students will repeat their pattern until the teacher says “switch” at which point they must use a different pattern and body percussion. Students will then get their own white boards or papers, (whatever material the teacher has available), and write their own combination of breakfast words. Individuals will then be called on to perform their breakfast rhythm on body percussion.
Practice
The practice stage provides opportunities for students to read, write, and perform music containing the newly learned concept in familiar and unfamiliar patterns and repertoire. Activities at this stage may include simple melodic dictation exercises using large staves and bingo chips, sight singing songs using familiar patterns, and playing melodies on pitched instruments (such as xylophones). In addition to reading, writing, and performing melodies with re, students will be given opportunities to use the note in improvisation and composition activities.
Repertoire/ Activities for Practice Stage:
“Closet Key”
Melodic patterns in this piece include d-m-d-m, d-m-r-m, and d-m-r-d. The story of the Closet Key will be told, with several opportunities for the students to sing along. Students will then play the Closet Key game, which also addresses dynamics (the class sings with a louder dynamic when the “it” student approaches the location of the hidden key.) As they return to their seats, students will sing the song on solfa. Students will put the solfa into their body signs along with a tone latter, then hand signs, and then into their “hand staves” where do is placed in the space between their pinky and ring finger (or the first space of the staff, F) so that they can feel individually where do, re and mi are on the staff. Students will then be called up to place the solfa on a staff on the board (using magnetized bingo chips as note heads).
“Button You Must Wander”
This song contains do-re-mi-so-re-so-mi-so, do-re-mi-so-re-so-do, and la-so-do motives. For this activity students will sing first from Rhythm Flashcards which take the first four beats of various songs and give the rhythms on a staff as well as identifying the first solfa pitch (the name of the song is not given). Students will know, for instance that the first solfa for the rhythm card for “Ring Around the Rosie” would be so, they would then use their knowledge of solfa and staff work we have done in the past to find mi, la and do. The last few note cards will all contain re as one of the unlabeled pitches, and the last card will have the first four beats of “Button You Must Wander”. Students will then practice the rhythm of the piece, practice singing “in their head”, and then play the game. After game play students will learn a new text pattern which they will transfer to solfa (so and la), and use as an accompaniment. Students will then have opportunity to improvise using F pentatonic pitches.
“Frog in the Meadow”
The melody (which contains mi-re-do, and mi-do patterns) will be presented on a staff. Students will identify re, and perform the melody with hand signs while singing “in their heads” using pitch names. Students will then sing out loud, then words will be added. Then on pitched instruments (that only contain the pitch set) students will identify the solfege, and play through the song all together (or depending on number of instruments available, in groups that rotate until each students has had a turn). Students will be analyzing and evaluating self and group performances. A rhythmic ostenato will be presented through text and body percussion. The class plays this while small groups of students perform the song on the pitched instruments, rotating until everyone has played along with the accompaniment.
Activity Plans
Activity Plan: “Nine in One Grr, Grr”
Objectives:
By the end of this activity:
1. At least 90% of the students will accurately sing mi-re-do and do-re-mi patterns in the context of the melody of the story.
2. Students will listen to a Hmong folktale story.
National Standards:
1. Singing alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music.
8. Understanding relationships between music, the other arts, and disciplines outside the arts.
9. Understanding music in relation to history and culture.
Materials of Instruction:
Book “Nine in One Grr Grr”
Smart board
Smart board compatible document containing pictures and information for the lesson.
Sequence:
Once students are standing in their spots, sing “Hello, Everybody” and do a brief vocal warm up by having the students’ hands and voices match yours, and use varying “roller-coaster” motions to have students sing at various points in their range. Have students sing “yoo-hoo” with a soft dynamic in their head-voice. Sing “You, you, you, you, you” on a s-f-m-r-d pattern.
1. T: Go to map ask if anyone knows where Laos is. Discuss Laos, and the Hmong people that live there.
2. On Smartboard: Display various Laos related photos, and photos of Hmong people.
3. Discuss that different cultures have different religions and the Hmong people believe in a god called Shao. (on smart board, display images of Shao if possible)
4. T: Today we are going to read a story. This story is a folk tale. Define folk tale- Folk: People, Folk Song: Song of the people, Folk Tale: Story of the people, passed by word of mouth. A story or a song becomes a folk story or song, when one generation passes it down to another. What does that mean?
S: Share ideas. (One Mom or Dad tells their kids a story. Those kids grow up and share the story with their kids.)
5. Intro into story. T: There once was a Hmong woman, named Blia, who learned the folk story as a girl. When she grew up, she shared the story with a lady who spoke both Hmong and English. I am sharing Blia’s with you today.
6. Vocab for this lesson: Laos, Hmong, Shao, Cub, bamboo, quail, pheasant, and Eu bird (pictures of each of these will be displayed as they are defined).
7. CHAMPS story reading expectations:
Converstation = 0, unless answering a W T asks.
Help = raise hand
Activity = listening to a book
Movement = stay in your seat
Participation = flat on bottom, eyes on teacher and book, listening
Success = All enjoyed a story
8. T: I need your help telling the story. I will read the words, and when you see me make a Tiger paw, you will do this: (Tiger paws and sing) “Nine in One Grr Grr” on mrd mm and m rd dd.
-tell students they have a job to do, to listen for the part in the story where the melody is not the same!
Assessment:
Informal assessment will be ongoing throughout the lesson, particularly performance of mi-re-do and do-re-mi.
Analysis:
|Tone Set |do re me |
|Range |3rd |
|Rhythm Set |Ta |
|Form |ABCD |
Pedagogical Use:
|Melody |Prepare re, mi-re-do |
|Rhythm | |
|Other | |
Activity Plan: “Hop Old Squirrel”
Objectives:
By the end of this activity:
1. At least 80% of the students will sing mi-re-do accurately based on the context of the song
2. Students will show the melodic contour of the song using body movement.
National Standards:
1. Singing alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music.
Materials of Instruction:
None needed
Sequence:
Once students are standing in their spots, sing “Hello, Everybody” and do a brief vocal warm up by having the students’ hands and voices match yours, and use varying “roller-coaster” motions to have students sing at various points in their range. Have students sing “yoo-hoo” with a soft dynamic in their head-voice. Sing “You, you, you, you, you” on a s-f-m-r-d pattern.
1. Teacher sings Hop Old Squirrel while telling story of Mr. Squirrel
2. Class sings Hop Old Squirrel together
3. T: What do squirrels eat? Who has ever seen a squirrel maybe by their house nibbling on an acorn? Everyone pretend to be a squirrel and nibble on an acorn.
4. Teacher demonstrates body movement (looks like a squirrel gathering acorns nibbling on them before hiding them in the ground- the movement follows the melodic contour)
5. Have students copy teacher movement while teacher sings, then whole class sings while doing the movement.
6. (optional activity for extra movement) Trade “Hop” for other adjectives, students demonstrate on SB. Trade squirrels with other animals, what motions might those animals do? (ex: Leap Old Frog, Creep Old Mouse, Run Old Cat [students would run in place]). While this activity is going on, students should be singing on their own, without the teacher.
Assessment:
Informal assessment will be ongoing throughout the lesson, particularly performance of mi-re-do and tone (tall vowels vs wide).
Analysis:
|Tone Set |do re me |
|Range |3rd |
|Rhythm Set |ti-ti, ta, tika-ti |
|Form |ABAB’ or AB |
Pedagogical Use:
|Melody |Prepare re, mi-re-do |
|Rhythm |tika-ti |
|Other | |
Activity Plan: “All Around the Buttercup”
Objectives:
By the end of this activity:
1. At least 80% of the students will sing re accurately based on the context of the song
2. Students will play a game while singing a song that includes re.
3. Students will observe art related to the subject matter of the piece of music.
4. Students will correctly use body signs to physically represent the melodic line of the song.
National Standards:
1. Singing alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music.
8. Understanding relationships between music, the other arts, and
disciplines outside the arts.
Materials of Instruction:
Smartboard
Smartboard compatible document with image of the painting “Ranunculus” by Charles Belle
Fake Buttercup flowers
Red heart-shaped magnets
Sequence:
Once students are standing in their spots, sing “Hello, Everybody” and do a brief vocal warm up by having the students’ hands and voices match yours, and use varying “roller-coaster” motions to have students sing at various points in their range. Have students sing “yoo-hoo” with a soft dynamic in their head-voice. Sing “You, you, you, you, you” on a s-f-m-r-d pattern.
1. Remind the students of the story of Julie and Bobby (Julie was Mrs. Moss-Davis’ friend who fell in love with her neighbor Bobby Shafto [she is the character that sings the song “Bobby Shafto” when the students first hear the song in 1st grade] in this story, Bobby finally proposes to Julie, but tells her that first he has to go to training for the navy. So in this part of the story, Julie is excited for her wedding to Bobby Shafto, and begins planning, including picking their flowers, the flowers she decided on were buttercups.
2. Ask the students what the word Maid means? (someone who cleans your house, someone who works at a hotel, or a young lady. If students did not mention the ‘young lady’ definition, say “yes you’re exactly right. Did you know there’s also another definition? A long time ago, people used the word maid to describe a young lady!” This song mentions a maid, be sure to clarify that they are referring to a young lady (or since boys can be in the middle also, it is appropriate to describe a maid as a “young lady, or in this case, a young man too.”
3. On the Smart board show the painting of buttercups (or Ranunculus) by the French artist Charles Belle
a. Charles Belle was a French artist who liked to create art related to nature.
b. Show a map, point out France
c. Show some of Charles Belle’s other nature art
d. Have students think pair share what their favorite nature art was, and why? Why do we think Julie chose the buttercup as her wedding flower?
4. Play the game:
a. For this game, the students stand in a circle. One student carries fake buttercups and walks around the inside of the circle. Whoever he or she lands in front of at the end of the song (unless they have already had a turn) is the next person to carry the buttercups around the circle. The song is sung ad nauseum as long as it takes for everyone (or as many students as there is time for) to get a turn around the circle.
5. Have 2 helpers hand out the Buttercup worksheet while the class sings the song on words and returns to their seats.
6. Students will look at the board where teacher will have blown up the worksheet.
a. Students will watch and listen as the teacher taps the buttercup icons (which are placed on a staff exactly where noteheads would typically be.) (The teacher is tapping the rhythm.)
b. Students will sing and air-point with teacher as the teacher again taps the buttercup icons.
c. Teacher will get student volunteers to come to the board and tap the icons while the class sings and air-points. (allow several students to have a turn).
d. Have students sing and point to their individual papers. Do this several times (enough times for the teacher to have walked around and checked off whether students are correctly tapping the icons with the words.
e. Now allow time for students to individually circle the words and pictures that have the “new sound”.
f. Have students write in the solfege for so, mi and do above the words. Students are to write a question mark above the word the new sound occurs on.
Assessment:
Informal assessment will be ongoing throughout the lesson, particularly performance of mi-re-do and tone (tall vowels vs wide). And performance of known solfa through singing and body signs.
Formative assessment: Students will individually circle the words and pictures that have the “new sound”. Students will write in the solfege for so, mi and do above the words, then write a question mark above the word the new sound occurs on. (This will show that students can identify the new pitch.)
Analysis:
|Tone Set |do re me so |
|Range |5th |
|Rhythm Set |Ti-ti, ta, ta-rest |
|Form |AB |
Pedagogical Use:
|Melody |Prepare re, mi-re-do, do-re-mi, so-re |
|Rhythm | |
|Other | |
Activity Plan: “Hot Cross Buns”
Objectives:
By the end of this activity:
1. At least 80% of the students will be able to identify re aurally and on a staff.
2. Students will play an instrument for a song that includes re with the correct technique.
National Standards:
1. Singing, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music.
2. Playing, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music.
5. Reading and notating music.
6. Listening to, analyzing, and describing music.
Materials of Instruction:
Pitched Orff Instruments
White Board
“Solfa Neighborhood” magnets
Sequence:
Once students are standing in their spots, sing “Hello, Everybody” and do a brief vocal warm up by having the students’ hands and voices match yours, and use varying “roller-coaster” motions to have students sing at various points in their range. Have students sing “yoo-hoo” with a soft dynamic in their head-voice. Sing “You, you, you, you, you” on a s-f-m-r-d pattern.
1. Tell the story of Mrs. Baker singing while she bakes hot cross buns. (After the 2nd time singing through during the story, ask students to help you sing.)
2. Have students sing through song on own
- Sing on solfa and body signs, humming and shrugging when you get to re.
3. Students sing song while playing on Orff instruments. –remind students of proper playing techniques (how should they hold the instruments when they get them, how should the mallet strike the instrument?)
a. Play “Hot Cross Buns” on instruments without singing the song
b. Which word has the highest note, Hot, Cross, or Buns? Which is the lowest?
4. What about the word Cross, is it higher or lower than Buns?
5. Introduce new Solfa as re -> Neighborhood story, “Dr. Re” moves in next to “Mrs. Do” and “Mr. Mi”
6. Demonstrate new hand sign, have students copy
7. Apply new information and sing “Hot Cross Buns” on solfa with hand sign.
8. T: explain that on the staff re touches do and remind students that “Dr. Re” moved in one house UP from “Mr. Do”, so on our staff, re is above do.
9. Place re on the staff and have students place re on their “hand staff” (when the hand is spread out with the palm facing in toward one’s self, the pinky facing down and thumb up, the pinky is the first line, and the thumb is the 5th, the area between each finger are the spaces.)
- To start with, place do on the 1st line
- Have students place mi and so on their hand staff
- Ask students if re travels with do, mi, and so.
- Have students place re on their hand staff.
10. Have students sing “Hot Cross Buns” while showing the solfa on their hand staff.
Assessment:
Informal assessment will be ongoing throughout the lesson, particularly performance of mi-re-do and tone (tall vowels vs wide), playing of instruments with proper technique, correct demonstration of the new hand sign, and correct placement of re on “hand staves”
Source:
Analysis:
|Tone Set |do re me |
|Range |3rd |
|Rhythm Set |Ti-ti, ta, ta-rest |
|Form |AB |
Pedagogical Use:
|Melody |Present re, mi-re-do, |
|Rhythm | |
|Other | |
Reinforcement Activity:
1. Students will sing “Hot Cross Buns” on solfa while teacher points to solfa on a solfa ladder that contains their known pitches: do, re, mi, so and la.
2. Students will repeat this process with songs that were worked on during the prepare stage.
3. Have students identify re in each of these songs.
4. Particular melodic motives from these songs (such as mi-re-do, do-re-mi. and so-mi-re-do) will be presented on staff notation on the board.
(Optional Composition activity)
1. In the Hot Cross Buns story, we mention that this is the favorite breakfast item for the Baker family.
2. Have students list some of their favorite breakfast items, and list them on the board, have students determine the rhythms of the words to the best of their ability, translate the rhythms to body percussion.
3. Have students select their favorite item and do the body percussion for that item (hopefully the students will pick a variety, so that the patterns can be heard all together).
4. Students will repeat their pattern until the teacher says “switch” at which point they must use a different pattern and body percussion.
5. Students will then get their own white boards or papers and pencil, (whatever material the teacher has available), and write their own combination of breakfast words.
6. Individuals will then be called on to perform their breakfast rhythm on body percussion.
Activity Plan: “Closet Key”
Objectives:
By the end of this activity:
1. At least 80% of the students will sing mi-re-do accurately based on the context of the song
2. Students will accurately place re on a hand staff and a staff on the board.
3. Students will play a game to a song that includes re.
4. 90% of the students will accurately place re on the staff on individual worksheets.
National Standards:
1. Singing, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music.
5. Reading and notating music.
Materials of Instruction:
Large cardstock, gold-colored key.
Solfa ladder containing only do, re, mi, so and la.
Magnetized bingo chips to use as note heads.
Closet Key worksheets
Sequence:
Once students are standing in their spots, sing “Hello, Everybody” and do a brief vocal warm up by having the students’ hands and voices match yours, and use varying “roller-coaster” motions to have students sing at various points in their range. Have students sing “yoo-hoo” with a soft dynamic in their head-voice. Sing “You, you, you, you, you” on a s-f-m-r-d pattern.
1. Tell the story of the boy who lived in a mansion with a hundred rooms, some of which he’d still never been in, one in particular that always remained locked until one day the boy’s grandma gave him the key, and he discovered that it was full of candy! Then the boy ran to tell his friend down the street, cutting through a neighbor’s garden to get there, and dropping the key along the way. The story goes on to say it took the boy, the boy’s friend, the boy’s friend’s brother, and the girl across the street searching until sunset until finally they found the key, and returned to the boy’s house for their candy rewards for helping, only to find the grown ups being silly and eating a bunch of candy themselves. The grown ups did share though, and everyone was very happy in the end.
2. Play Closet Key game: One student hides his or her eyes in the corner of the room. Another student hides a large cardstock gold colored key. Once the key is hidden, and the hiding student returns to his or her seat, the teacher tells the student hiding his or her eyes to re-join the class. The class helps this student find the location of the hidden key by singing with a louder dynamic when the student gets nearer to the secret location of the key.
3. On their way back to their seats, students will put the rhythm of Closet Key in their hands while they sing.
4. Students will put the song into body signs while following along with teacher pointing to a solfa ladder.
5. Students will then sing the song on solfa using solfa hand signs.
6. Students will then place the solfa on their “hand staff”. Start with do on the space between pinky and ring finger (F) ask students where the next pitch will be (the next ti-ti is a mi-mi) (after students have identified the correct location, teacher also demonstrates (mi-mi will go into the space between the ring and middle finger (A)). Continue through the song this way.
7. Translate to staff on the board. T gives first beat (do-do), then picks students to place the next solfa pitches on the staff. – The note heads will be represented by magnetized bingo chips
8. Students will now be reminded how to “make the loop” to get materials from the cabinets.
o Students (beginning with the first student in the last row) will get up one row at a time and walk to the cabinets to get a writing board, a Closet Key worksheet, a pencil and an eraser. Staying in their places in the line, they will then loop all the way around the seating area of the room and return to their row.
o Once in their seats students will be instructed to write the note heads in the correct places on the staff. The rhythms and solfa are given above the staff, so all students need to do is remember where on the staff that solfa would go. For instance, the first note not provided is a do. There are already two dos at the beginning of the song, so they know that do goes in the first space on the staff. Once they have placed the note head on the staff, and colored in the notes, students are to circle re.
9. Once they have finished filling in the solfa, they will look up at the board where the solfa is written out.
o Students will now sing the song on solfa and use body signs.
o Students will continue to sing on solfa while getting into line. Before they leave, students will sing one last time with words.
Assessment:
Informal assessment will be ongoing throughout the lesson, particularly performance of mi-re-do and tone (tall vowels vs wide). And correct placement of solfa on both hand staves and the staff on the board.
Source:
Analysis:
|Tone Set |do re me |
|Range |3rd |
|Rhythm Set |Ti-ti, ta, |
|Form |AA’ |
Pedagogical Use:
|Melody |Practice Re, d-m-d-m, d-m-r-m, d-m-r-d |
|Rhythm | |
|Other | |
Activity Plan: “Button You Must Wander”
Objectives:
By the end of this activity:
1. Students will sight-sing re within a melody on a flashcard with 80% accuracy.
2. Students will play a game while singing a song that includes the pitch re with 100% participation.
3. Students will improvise on a melodic ostenato while others sing a song that includes the pitch re with 100% participation and 80% correct pitches.
4. Students will analyze their own performance based on a rubric.
National Standards:
1. Singing, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music.
3.Improvising melodies, variations, and accompaniments.
5. Reading and notating music.
6. Listening to, analyzing, and describing music.
Materials of Instruction:
Melodic Flashcards (with some including re and the final one being Button You Must Wander)
Sequence:
Once students are standing in their spots, bring out a favorite puppet, in this case, a cow called “Lau Lau”. Do a brief vocal warm up by having the students’ hands and voices match “Lau Lau”, and use varying “roller-coaster” motions to have students sing at various points in their range. Have students sing “yoo-hoo” with a soft dynamic in their head-voice. Sing “You, you, you, you, you” on a s-f-m-r-d pattern. Have students identify a mystery song: Students just listen and watch as “Lau Lau” sings (on loo loo loo) Closet Key. Students then must identify the mystery song, once one student knows the song, ask “raise your hand if you knew that, too?” “Wow! You are all so smart, you remembered a song without hearing the words! If you know the song, sing with Lau Lau!” Students sing through the song and anyone who did not get a turn the last time the activity was done, just those people get to be “it” as we briefly play the game one more time.
1. Teacher: This class is so smart, I have a challenge for you, and I bet you can do it! What I have here are flashcards with several melodies on them. We will first clap the rhythm of this melody. Next we will find the first solfa syllable which is given at the bottom, and decide together the rest of the solfa. Finally we will sing the song together as a class.”
2. Students will use these directions to sing the first flash card.
3. Now we will only identify the first two solfa syllables, and students will sight-read the other flash cards.
-After a few flashcards, we will start seeing flashcards that include re.
-The final flashcard should be for the song “Button You Must Wander”
*After singing this flashcard, T: “Raise your hand and tell me if you know what song this is?” “How many of you knew that was the song?” “If you know the song, can you sing it with me?”
4. Sing Button You Must Wander.
-Sing while putting the rhythm in your hands.
-With the rhythm in your hands, sing the words in your head.
5. Play the game:
-Students sit in a circle criss-cross with knees almost touching. Students “glue” their left hands to their left knee. With their right hand students pretend to pick up a button from their left hand, and then gently place the pretend button in the hand of the student on their right. After doing it just from teacher saying “Pick up” “Now pass”. Students will complete the action on a steady beat while saying “Pick up, pass”. Once students have the correct movement, and are on beat, teacher explains that one student will be chosen to sit in the middle. This student will be watching very closely as a small button is passed around the circle. The trick to this game is that everyone has to constantly be doing the “pick up, pass” motion smoothly, and the person who is holding the button must be very sneaky when they pick it up and pass it, so that it looks like they are just pretending like everyone else. When the song is over, the student in the middle must guess where the button ended up. After playing several times students may now be extra-tricky; when they get the button, the students may now pretend to pass it once before they actually pass it. If the person in the middle is truly watching with “sharp eyes” as the song insinuates, he or she should still be able to find the key! While students are picking up and passing the button, at first, it is just the teacher singing while the students are whispering “pick up, pass” with their actions. After a couple of turns, the students will be asked just to think “pick up, pass” while they do the actions and the teacher sings, and once the teacher decides the game can be “super tricky” the students will sing along while they play.
6. After playing the game the students will learn a new pattern: Please! But-ton must you hide? Hide from me?
-Speak the pattern
-clap the pattern
-create body percussion: Please =clap, but-ton must you= alternating leg pats, hide=clap, hide from=alternating leg pats, me=clap. Creating the percussion: clap, pat-pat-pat-pat, clap, pat-pat, clap.
-Sing the words on C and D.
-Now half the class sings this pattern while the other half sings the song. On the 3rd line of the song: “Bright eyes will find you…” all sing regular notes together.
7. Now everyone picks a pitch, either do, mi or so (F,A, or C) and sings the new pattern with those pitches.
-(FIRST have students sing F for Please and Hide and C for the other words. Then have students sing F for Please and Hide and A for the other words.) Now tell students they can pick either one of those options to sing. Whole class sings that pattern with their choice, either mi (A) or so (C).
-Now half the class sings the song normally, and the other half sings the new pattern with their choice option. Switch.
-T: “WOW! You guys are so smart! I bet you can do something even trickier!”
-Now tell students they can pick ANY of the three notes, do, mi, or so to sing with the new pattern. Have everyone do this together. Teacher model first, then have students echo. Now teacher model a different option and have students echo. Teacher: Now you get to choose! You can sing any of those three notes while we do our pattern! This game is fun, there is no wrong answer! Let’s all try together!
-Once students have done this a few times, have just half the class sing by themselves, then the other half.
*now have the half not doing the new pattern singing the song, and switch, and switch again, make it a game, where you never know when the teacher will have you switch between the song and the pattern! Think quickly!
Assessment:
Informal assessment will occur with emphasis on correct sight-singing of re, as well as participation and best effort while improvising.
Source:
Analysis:
|Tone Set |do re me so la |
|Range |6th |
|Rhythm Set |Ti-ti, ta, ta-a |
|Form |ABCB |
Pedagogical Use:
|Melody |Practice Re, d-r-m-s, r-s, m-d, d-r-m-s, r-s-d l-s-d |
|Rhythm | |
|Other |Improvisation |
Activity Plan: “Frog in the Meadow”
Objectives:
By the end of this activity:
1. Students will identify re from written notation. With 90% accuracy.
2. Students will sight-sing a song that includes re with 80% accuracy.
3. Students will play pitched instruments to a song that includes re with 80% accuracy.
4. Students will evaluate and analyze their own performance.
National Standards:
1. Singing, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music.
2. Playing, alone, and with others, a varied repertoire of music
5. Reading and notating music.
6. Listening to, analyzing, and describing music.
7. Evaluating music and music performances
Materials of Instruction:
Orff Instruments
White board with markers
Sequence:
Once students are standing in their spots, sing “Hello, Everybody” and do a brief vocal warm up by having the students’ hands and voices match yours, and use varying “roller-coaster” motions to have students sing at various points in their range. Have students sing “yoo-hoo” with a soft dynamic in their head-voice. Sing “You, you, you, you, you” on a s-f-m-r-d pattern.
1. The melody of this song will be presented on a staff on the white board.
a. Students will identify the location of re.
b. Teacher and students will then write in remaining solfa.
c. Students will review all of the hand signs.
d. Students will be asked to sing this song “in their head” on solfa while using hand signs.
e. Next the students will sing out loud while still using their hand signs.
2. The teacher will present the words to the song by singing through once alone while students listen.
a. Now the teacher will have students echo-sing after her or him.
b. Now echo-sing once more with larger phrases.
c. Have students sing with teacher all together.
3. Students will sing the song as they make the loop to get small glockenspiels. (This will happen in partners. Partner A (cosest to the door) carries the instrument, and Partner B grabs the mallet and the paper visual of a glockenspiel) Once students have returned to their seats, Partner A will play first.
4. All students will look at either their instrument or practice paper.
a. Students will be told that G is do (each instrument has the letter name written on it in some way, so students just look for the key that has the letter B).
b. Tell students that the first pitch they will play is B, and ask what solfa it is? (it is mi)
c. Have students look at the board. Ask what solfa comes next after we play mi? (re)
d. Students will now identify which note would be re if B is mi. (the answer is A)
e. Students will then locate do.
5. Now students will play the song as a group. Partner A will have the instrument first, and Partner B will be following along with his or her practice paper.
a. Once Partner A has gone through the song two times, A and B switch. Now Partner B plays through two times.
b. Switch again. Student A plays again one time, then B plays one time.
6. The teacher will now introduce a new part to the song. The teacher will say “ Hide Frog! Run a-way!” On Ta Ta Ti-ti Ta
a. Now students will echo after the teacher a few times.
7. After this is confident, the teacher will introduce body percussion:
a. Clap on Hide Frog, stomp alternating feet on Run a and then pat legs on –way.
b. Have students do body percussion while they say “Hide Frog Run A-way”
i. Now have students take away the words and JUST do the body percussion.
8. Have half of the class continue doing the ostenato while the other half plays the instrument for the song.
a. Rotate until everyone has had a turn.
9. Sing Button You Must Wander as you make the loop to put away instruments, Student B now takes the instrument back and A takes the mallet and the practice paper.
Assessment:
Informal assessment will occur throughout with an emphasis on correctly playing re.
Students will self-assess given a rubric.
Source:
Analysis:
|Tone Set |do re me |
|Range |3rd |
|Rhythm Set |Ti-ti, ta, ta-rest |
|Form |AB |
Pedagogical Use:
|Melody |Practice Re, m-r-d |
|Rhythm | |
|Other |Ostenato |
Instructional Design Template (continued)
|1. Learning Strategies: |
|Explain how you included multiple learning strategies to address diverse cognitive, physical, emotional, and social needs of all your students. |
| |
|Each lesson included multiple modalities. There would be objectives written on the board, as well as read out loud. Students read rhythms or melodies |
|see pictures that describe the concepts, hear rhythms, melodies, and stories about the subject matter, and every day sing rhythms and melodies, they |
|also play games/ dance along with songs. Occasionally there are paper and pencil worksheets or quizzes (like identifying rhythms or pitches.) Because |
|of this, students who are mostly visual learners, or mostly aural learners, etc, always have a part of the lesson that they can connect to better and |
|truly learn from. |
| |
| |
| |
| |
|2. Adaptations/Differentiation to Meet the Needs of All Students: |
|Explain how your instructional strategies were designed to address the contextual characteristics and pre-assessment/diagnostic assessment information|
|gathered on your students. What strategies did you use to provide equitable opportunities for all students? What adaptations/differentiation did you |
|make to address varied reading levels and/or students with special needs? What adaptations/differentiation did you make for Focus Students A and B |
| |
|Because most of the students were able to at least identify “re” in a song, I used a lot of game play, and story telling that includes “re” which |
|would enrich them beyond strictly lecturing about “re’. When playing games, and to answer questions, etc, I always vary who I call on, and I alternate|
|gender, and ethnicity as often as possible, until everyone gets a chance to play or answer some question or another. |
|In general, when we have an activity that requires reading, such as lyric packets, or worksheets, we allow students with lower reading capabilitiy, |
|ELL, and any special needs to get these firist and look over them. We also make sure to read them together as a class, allowing volunteers to read out|
|loud, or the teacher will read them off. |
|As far as daily activities that require reading, we often use pictures as visual representations of the subject we are discussing. |
|In the classes of focus students A and B everything is read out loud by the teacher very slowly, if students have questions, I always let them ask, |
|and answer in a way that everyone can understand. Both of these students’ seats in class are right next to the teacher, which allows the students to |
|answer questions quickly, and for me to see where they are in their work, and if they need further help and instruction. |
| |
| |
|3. Active Inquiry, Student Centered, and Meaningful Student Engagement: |
|Justify in what ways this unit is student centered. Describe how students were meaningfully engaged in active inquiry (i.e. questioning concepts, |
|developing learning strategies, seeking resources, and conducting independent investigations). |
| |
|Questions are frequently asked during this unit, and student input is used frequently. Think, pair, share is also used so that students are answering |
|questions not just to me, but with neighbors, so that students can hear what each other have to say, it also gives me a chance to walk around the room|
|and clearly see who is or isn’t paying attention, and listen to their answers to catch generally how many students aren’t getting it yet. |
| |
| |
|4. Integration of Technology: |
|How did you use technology to plan and teach your unit? |
|I used technology frequently for planning, as most of my work was done on my computer, activities were researched, many youtube videos of dances or |
|games were watched. For the students, we occasionally used computers to watch short videos of instruments playing a song we knew, which also gave us |
|the opportunity to ask the students “what instrument was that that just played?” And encourage aural and visual recognition of individual instruments.|
|We also use the smart board to display, and occasionally use CDs with our various songs on them to give students a strong idea of tempo as we practice|
|a certain activity. (This is rare, though, because we usually encourage singing acapella.) |
| |
|How did students use technology to enhance their learning? |
| |
| |
|5. Integration of Reading Strategies: |
|What reading strategies did you use in your unit? Why did you choose these specific strategies? How did these strategies support your students |
|reading development and content knowledge? |
|(include at least 3 reading strategies in you unit) |
| |
|One reading strategy used was having students clap what they saw on rhythm/melodic flashcards, and then sight reading solfege from those same cards. |
| |
|Students would read visual representations of music, and clap rhythms, or pat the heartbeats as they sing the song. |
| |
|For one lesson, students had a worksheet that had just the lyrics written in patterns up and down like this: |
| |
|-tain high. |
| |
|-tain. –tain. Moun- |
| |
|Ro-cky Moun- Ro-cky Moun- Ro-cky |
| |
| |
| |
|Studetns then tap each part of the word while they sing it, so that they can feel the melodic contour of the song while they read the lyrics. |
|6. Integration of Critical Thinking Strategies: |
|How did you address critical thinking, problem solving, and higher level thinking in your unit? |
| |
|Critical thinking is addressed through HOTS questioning. Beyond “what is….” I often also asked “How do we know that?” or “Why is that the answer and |
|not this?” So that students must actually be thinking beyond regurgitating answers. |
|7. Integration Within and Across Content Fields: |
|How did you demonstrate integration of content within and across content fields? How did this integration enhance your student’s ability to understand|
|relationships within and across these subject areas? |
| |
|Students learned a bit about history and culture as we discuss Japan, and the culture, people, religion and language of Laos. During our lesson about |
|Laos, students identified Laos on a map, with helps with map-reading skills, we also see images on the smartboard of Hmong people from Laos, images |
|(art created) representative of their god Shao, so world religion was also touched on, which is something they have been recently working on. We |
|discussed their language, and received a bit of language arts, and as an extension of that, we discussed what a folk tale was, and we read a story |
|that was a Hmong Folktale. All of these bits of information can certainly be carried back to the classroom. |
|8. Community Resources: |
|What community resources did you use to achieve your unit goals and objectives and foster student learning? |
| |
|This community has a Kodaly certification program, through which teachers gain access to many materials for elementary music. I used many of these |
|resources while choosing music, and preparing activities. |
|Because Kodaly is such an important teaching method, I could be sure that whatever information I was using through their program was going to be |
|written for the correct age level, and even for this exact unit study. I never had to wonder if it was appropriate, because in order for them to |
|publish this content and distribute it to teachers, much research had been done to be sure it would be for the correct cognitive, physical and |
|emotional situation. |
| |
Unit Assessment Design Template
|Pre-Assessment / Diagnostic Assessment |
| |Describe the |Explain the rationale |Explain the specific |Which unit objectives |Describe how specific student |
| |pre-assessment you |for choosing this |adaptation(s) made for |does this assessment |results impacted your unit plan. |
| |will use-What is the |assessment. |Students A and B OR why no |address? |How do you plan to differentiate |
| |format? | |adaptations are needed. |(each learning objective |for all learners? |
| | | | |must be assessed) | |
|Formal | | | | | |
| |Students would be |Because the students |No adaptations were needed |“Students will identify |Knowing that quite a few students|
| |given a worksheet |who I am teaching this|for my focus students, |re visually and aurally |remembered re I knew that more |
| |with a familiar song.|unit to are in 3rd |student A understood what was|within a known song.” |game play, and stories would be |
| |They would then be |grade, and not 2nd |being asked, and student B is| |important so that the students |
| |asked to write in all|when the topic is |not included in this unit. | |could be experiencing re verses |
| |of the solfa, but to |typically introduced, | | |mostly being lectured about re. |
| |identify the note |I know that they have | | |Then when the time came to |
| |that we do not |briefly touched on | | |identify re, I knew that that |
| |currently know the |“re” in the past. This| | |activity would go fairly quickly.|
| |name for. |type of activity | | |Also, when placing re on our |
| |Students would then |allows students who do| | |“solfa neighborhood” diagram, |
| |be asked, “if you |remember to | | |instead of simply telling the |
| |know the name of this|demonstrate that right| | |story, and showing students where|
| |pitch, label it |away, while those who | | |re belonged, I started to tell |
| |below”, and students |do not know can leave | | |the story, and then asked |
| |could label “re” if |that part blank | | |students “can someone raise their|
| |they knew it. |without any worry. | | |hand and tell me what happened |
| | | | | |next?” And for placing re in the |
| | | | | |neighborhood, I had a student |
| | | | | |place the magnet, and had their |
| | | | | |peers give thumbs up if they |
| | | | | |agreed with the answer, thumbs to|
| | | | | |the side if they were unsure, and|
| | | | | |thumbs down if they disagree. |
|Informal |
|Please provide a narrative description of your pre-assessment |
| |
|The students were given a worksheet with a familiar song on it, they labeled the solfege they knew, and were asked to circle the solfege that the class |
|does not know yet. Because some students take piano lessons, or may have musical backgrounds, I wanted to know that they at least knew which pitch was |
|unfamiliar for the class. Then students were allowed to name the pitch if they already knew it. This helped me see that students at least can identify |
|what it is that they do not know, and if they do know it gives them opportunity to share that information so that I know how many students have at least |
|heard of the pitch before, or remember it from their brief lesson last year. |
| |
| |
| |
|Formative Assessment |
| |Describe the assessment |Explain the rationale |Explain the specific |Which unit objectives |Describe how specific |
| |you will use-What is the |for choosing this |adaptation(s) made for |does this assessment |student results impacted|
| |Format? |assessment. |Students A and B OR why no |address? |your instruction. |
| | | |adaptations are needed. |(each learning objective| |
| | | | |must be assessed) | |
|Formative 1 |On a worksheet, students |This assessment is the |Student A did not need any |Students will accurately|Students had done very |
| |will write the note heads |next step after students|accommodations. |place re on the staff on|well with placing re on |
| |in the correct places on |have just placed re on |Student B is not included |individual worksheets. |their “hand staff” so I |
| |the staff. The rhythms and|the staff on the board |in this unit. | |was very confident that |
| |solfa are given above the |and on their “hand | | |students would succeed |
| |staff, so all students do |staff” together as a | | |with this particular |
| |is remember where on the |group. | | |activity, and in fact |
| |staff that solfa would go.| | | |all but 3 students |
| |Once they have placed the | | | |correctly placed on the |
| |note head on the staff, | | | |staff, and circled re. |
| |and colored in the notes, | | | | |
| |students are to circle | | | | |
| |re. | | | | |
|Formative 2 |Students play the song |This assessment allows |Student A did not need any |Students will aurally |This was very |
| |“Hot Cross Buns” on |me to know that students|accommodations, and B is |identify the placement |enlightening, it showed |
| |pitched percussion |are hearing and |not included in this unit. |of re in a known song. |that some students were |
| |instruments |differentiating between | | |clearly able to hear the|
| |(glockenspiel). After they|high and low pitches. | | |high and low pitches, |
| |have sung the song and |This assessment also | | |and deduct that the new |
| |played, they are asked |ensures that students | | |pitch was between them, |
| |identify the word that |can hear, and know that | | |but not all students |
| |occurs on the highest |our new pitch occurs | | |could. We tried various |
| |pitch. The students play |between do and mi. | | |manners of helping them,|
| |the song again while | | | |such as holding the |
| |singing, and then are | | | |glockenspiel sideways, |
| |asked to identify the word| | | |and explaining that |
| |that the lowest pitch | | | |shorter bars on the |
| |occurs on. Based on this | | | |instrument are higher, |
| |information students are | | | |and longer bars are |
| |told as they play once | | | |lower, THEN asking the |
| |more to decide if the | | | |class which sound was |
| |pitch for the word “cross”| | | |high and which was low. |
| |occurs higher or lower | | | |At that point the |
| |than “do ” (or the word | | | |students showed much |
| |“buns”). Students then | | | |greater understanding. |
| |guess which solfa (of | | | | |
| |their known range) the | | | | |
| |song starts on. I would | | | | |
| |then demonstrate on body | | | | |
| |solfa and sing the pitches| | | | |
| |they recommend (the answer| | | | |
| |is mi, but the student may| | | | |
| |say “so” in which case I | | | | |
| |would sing hot cross buns | | | | |
| |on “so-mi-do” and ask if | | | | |
| |that sounded correct. | | | | |
| |Once students identify | | | | |
| |that the highest note is | | | | |
| |mi, the teacher will say, | | | | |
| |“very interesting. So we | | | | |
| |know our new pitch is | | | | |
| |between what two pitches?”| | | | |
| |and hopefully students | | | | |
| |will say “mi” and “do” | | | | |
|What is the minimum |At the minimum, students should be participating, and trying to do their best at all times. Even if they perform the incorrect |
|level of performance you|body sign, if they are at least trying I know that they will get it. If a student is haphazardly doing any body sign at all |
|expect all students to |without really listening, or to be silly, that is when he or she will be re-directed to listen and try their best. |
|achieve on the formative| |
|assessment? |For the listening high-low assessment, when a student answers on which word the highest pitch occurs, their peers will be asked to|
| |give a thumbs up if they agree with the answer, a thumbs to the side if they’re really not sure, and a thumb down if they |
| |disagree, or believe there is an another answer. Minimum level of performance expected here is that students are thinking and |
| |giving an honest response. If I see one thumb down when the rest are up, I will ask the student to explain why they believe the |
| |answer was incorrect, and how they would change the answer. This way I know if the student is confused, or possibly being silly. |
| | |
| |In general, I at least want the students trying. That is what is most important at this stage. |
|Summative Assessment |
| |Describe the assessment |Explain the rationale for|Explain the specific |Which unit objectives |Describe how specific |
| |you will use-What is the |choosing this assessment.|adaptation(s) made for |does this assessment |results will impact what|
| |format? | |Students A and B OR why |address. |you would teach next. |
| | | |no adaptations are |(each learning objective | |
| | | |needed. |must be assessed) | |
|Summative |Students will complete a |I love this assessment |No adaptations were |Students will read and |If there are a lot of |
| |worksheet called “Re Song |because it is a |needed for this activity.|sing in their heads |students who are not |
| |Match” |challenge. This | |melodies that include the|hearing the melodies |
| | |assignment gets students | |pitch re with 80% |with their |
| |For this worksheet there |to truly read the music | |accuracy. |inner-hearing, I may |
| |are 5 two-measure melody |and sing in their heads. | | |spend more time working |
| |snips (on the staff). On |Each of the chosen | | |on inner-hearing |
| |the other half of the |melodies has re in it, so| | |exercises. Also, if they|
| |sheet there are 5 familiar|they are showing that | | |are still not able to |
| |song titles lettered A-E. |they can read re. | | |identify re I may do |
| |Students are to match the | | | |more work on the board, |
| |written melody with the | | | |etc. |
| |correct song title. | | | | |
| | | | | | |
| |I will have students first| | | | |
| |go through and label the | | | | |
| |correct solfa. This is how| | | | |
| |I know they can read re in| | | | |
| |each of the melodies. AND | | | | |
| |it will help them to hear | | | | |
| |the melody. I will allow | | | | |
| |students to use hand signs| | | | |
| |to help them with their | | | | |
| |inner hearing, but they | | | | |
| |will not be allowed to | | | | |
| |sing out loud at any | | | | |
| |point. | | | | |
|What is the minimum level|I expect students to at least be getting the solfa correct for so, mi, and do. I expect students to be raising their hands and |
|of performance you expect|asking for help if they are not getting it, and I expect students to at the very least get the final melody correct, because we |
|all students to achieve |will have spent quite a bit of time on it, and they will have sung it many other times, beginning in kindergarten when we used it|
|on the summative |just to work on dynamics. |
|assessment? | |
| |I expect students to be able to fill out the solfa without trouble. Being able to then apply and use inner hearing to label the |
| |song may be more of a challenge, but I know several of the students will have no problem with this. |
|What differences might |I expect the sub-groups to still do well. These students will be able to label the solfa about the same as the rest of the class.|
|you expect in the |They may have a little more trouble with matching them to the song title, but if they ask questions, or I notice they’re really |
|performance between the |not getting it, I will do what I can to help them and make it easier. |
|subgroups and the | |
|remainder of the class? | |
Attach a copy of your pre-assessment/diagnostic, formative, and summative assessments. Attach a copy of all supporting documents—for example, a rubric used to evaluate student performance.
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Analysis of Assessment Procedures
Presentation and Analysis of Assessment Data
|Pre-Assessment/Diagnostic Assessment Data |
|•Disaggregate your data using at least two contextual factors in chart/graph/table form (e.g., male/female, ethnicity, SES. etc.). |
|Males: 60% |
|Females: 80% |
| |
|•Analyze your pre-assessment results. |
|The students did really well on the pre-assessment. Quite a few students at least recognized which pitch was the new note, even if they could not |
|remember its’ name. |
| |
|•Discuss the results in reference to your learning goals and objectives. |
|Students were able to identify re visually, they just could not name re, so they did complete the objective. |
| |
|•Describe how you used pre-assessment data to proceed with instruction for all students. What specifically did you do for Focus Students A and B? |
|Knowing that most of the students could identify re, but could not name re I knew that they would generally go quite quickly through the prepare stage |
|and be successful. I knew that the present stage would not be too difficult, and that the students could more easily apply the information. My focus |
|students did not need accommodations for this. |
| |
|•Based on your data, how do you plan to differentiate for all learners? For those who already knew the information, there was a lot of game play and |
|fun activities that included re but were not all about re all the time. We were learning about re, listening to, singing, and moving to re but without |
|the students really realizing that is what we were doing. |
|Formative Assessment Data |
|• Analyze your formative assessment results. |
|Many of the students were successful at placing re on the staff. The assessment they struggled with more was hearing the difference between high, low, |
|and in-between for the Hot-Cross-Buns assessment. |
| |
|•Discuss results in reference to your learning goals and objectives. Are students learning what you intended them to learn? The students did |
| |
|•Discuss any adaptations based on the results of the formative assessments. |
| |
|•Identify differentiation needed to help all students meet the goals and objectives of the unit. |
| |
|•Provide evidence that you are persistent in helping all your students succeed. What specifically did you do for Focus Students A and B? |
| |
|•How did you report these results to your students to help them become more responsible for their own learning? |
| |
|•How did your students use this information to enhance their own learning? |
|Summative Assessment Data |
|•Disaggregate and analyze (in chart/graph/table form using the same contextual information from the pre-assessment) your results to reveal differences |
|of achievement based on the students that fall within different contextual factors. What did the disaggregated data reveal? |
| |
|•Discuss these results in reference to your learning goals and objectives. Did students learn what you intended them to learn? Specifically describe |
|your evidence. |
| |
|Students did in fact complete the objective for formative 1, they correctly placed re on the staff on their own worksheet. As for the second |
|assessment, students needed more help, but eventually they did understand and did complete the objective. |
| |
|•Did Focus Students A and B learn what you intended them to learn? Specifically describe your evidence. Focus student A did very well with this |
|assessment. This student did not have any questions, the student simply drew the notehead right where it needed to be, and circled re as well. |
| |
|• Discuss at least one intervention for future instruction for any subgroup performing lower than the rest of the class. What changes could be made in |
|this unit to help all students be successful? |
| |
|We would definitely do more group work. More opportunities for students to come up to the front of the room and answer, more opportunities to |
|think-pair-share would have been good, I think. |
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Analysis of Student Achievement
Presentation of Disaggregated Data
Sample
| |Pre-Assessment/ |Summative |Percentage of Students Who |
| |Diagnostic Assessment |Assessment |Achieved Unit Objectives |
|Whole Class: |85% | | |
|Subgroup; |
|Male |31% |90% |90% |
|Female |29% |95% |95% |
| ELL |50% |100% |100% |
|Native Speakers |32% |97% |97% |
|Identified Students (IEP) |25% |80% |80% |
|Non-Identified Students |50% |90% |90% |
|Focus Students: | |100% |100% |
|Focus Student A |90% |100% |95% |
|Focus Student B | | | |
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Self-Evaluation of the Instructional Unit
Name: ___Rebecca Cline_______School: ____Minneha Core Knowledge Elementary_______
1. Select the learning objectives where your students were the most successful. Provide two or more reasons for this success (Be specific and provide evidence). Consider your objectives, instruction, and assessment along with student characteristics and other contextual information under your control. Were Focus Students A and B successful? Why or Why not?
a. Students were most successful at identifying re in a known melody.
i. Students were successful with this, I think because they were already familiar with re at the end of last year, so they at least had an idea of how to find re. Focus student A was very successful with this. This student has a very musical background, and picks up on things like this easily.
ii. We also spent a great deal of time in each lesson of present and practice stages of the unit identifying re, so by the end of the unit, they really understood that part of the unit.
2. Select the learning objectives where your students were least successful. Provide two or more reasons for this lack of success (Be specific and provide evidence). Consider your objectives, instruction, and assessment along with student characteristics and other contextual information under your control. Explain any mid-unit adaptations you made to enhance learning for all students. Discuss what you could do differently or better in the future to improve your students’ performance. What would you do differently for Focus Students A and B?
a. Students were least successful with improvisation.
i. Though all students were participating, not everyone was able pick a note to sing quickly enough to stay in beat while singing the pattern, so this made that part of the lesson tricky, because we had to do a lot of echo-singing and I felt that it was not entirely successful.
ii. Students would also get very confused as to what part they were singing, so there would be times when only a few students would be singing the ostenato.
3. Discuss how and in what context you have communicated with students, parents, and other professionals about your decisions regarding students’ learning and assessment. You must address all three.
4. Demonstrate that you understand the School Improvement Process in use in your school and explain how your efforts as a professional fit into it. How can you contribute to achieving the school’s School Improvement Process goals?
5. Reflect on possibilities for professional development. Describe at least two professional learning goals related to your professional strengths and weaknesses revealed by teaching this unit. Identify two specific activities you will undertake to improve your performance as a teacher in the critical areas you identified.
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Analysis of Classroom Learning Environment
|Creating an Environment of Respect and Rapport |
|Explain how you established and maintained an atmosphere of trust, openness and mutual respect in your classroom. Describe specific strategies used to |
|encourage: |
|Positive student verbal and non-verbal communication skills |
|Positive student social interactions |
| |
|When addressing students, I am constantly making eye contact, showing interest in the activity we are doing, or subject we are discussing. I call students |
|by name, and if I do not know their name, that is the first thing that I ask as I call on the student, so that I have an opportunity to learn their names |
|as quickly as possible. While teaching I often use non-verbal cues and proximity to quickly gain attention and continue engagement. This kept the lesson |
|from being interrupted. I always do my best to compliment students in the hallway, and often (when there is time) give chances at the end of class for |
|students to share thoughts, stories, ideas, etc, and make sure I not only show interest, but share something about myself as well. |
| |
|Establishing a Culture for Learning to Encourage Student Engagement and Responsibility |
|Describe how you created a culture for learning in your classroom. Describe specific strategies used to encourage: |
|Active engagement in learning |
|In each lesson I do my best to keep students moving, singing, or listening for as much time as possibly, even if it is as simple as singing one song as we |
|transition into the next activity, or if we are working with rhythm at one point, have them practice tapping a rhythm while we transition. |
|Student responsibility for their own learning |
|Anytime students act silly, or do not paying attention, I first motion to our bead incentive board (in specials at Mineha, we have a bead system. When |
|students do very well in a special, they receive a blue bead, green if they did well, but not their best, yellow if they did not do so well, red if it was |
|not good, and clear only if enough members of the classroom were showing poor behavior that the entire class had to be stopped, and/or help called to the |
|room. At the front of the music room, on the whiteboard all of the bead colors are displayed in order of preference. A fun-shaped magnet is used to point |
|to which bead color the class is currently demonstrating.) If even after this action the behavior continues, I will point to a knowledge poster, and |
|discuss how important it is for students to pay attention and learn, and even directly ask “class, who is responsible for your learning?” (Usually someone |
|will answer “we are”) I will say “My job is to teach, and your job while you are at school is to learn!” At times there will be a question that many |
|students know the answer to, but one student will be called on to answer. If another student shouts out the answer before the chosen student answers, we |
|discuss the learning process, and how synapses in the brain come together and grow stronger as we learn, and that when we shout out answers before the |
|person answering has a chance to remember the answer, that means the synapses in that person’s brain that were just about to connect, have now lost that |
|opportunity, and therefore, that student has lost an opportunity to learn. The students tend to understand this concept well, and do fairly well at |
|applying it thereafter. |
|Student commitment to the subject |
|Students are usually quite committed and excited about music class. Students know what is expected of them, and even if it does take a few reminders, do |
|very well with following procedures and doing their best to make sure they are contributing to a good music class. |
|High expectations for achievement |
|Keeping the expectations high for the students is something that students enjoy. For the most part they love being challenged to do their very best. In |
|order to help with this, it is important not to move on from a subject or activity until it is the clear that the students are performing to the best of |
|their ability, and giving their best effort. It is important not to expect perfection, but it is also very clear when a child is or is not trying their |
|best in music class. |
|Student pride in work |
|Often letting students know that what they are doing is difficult, and in some situations, being honest and telling them that even some grown ups and |
|musicians don’t know how to do the things they are learning, and that their hard work will truly pay off makes the students feel confident and increases |
|pride. |
| |
|Managing Classroom Procedures |
|Describe your classroom routines and procedures. Include specific procedures used to promote: |
|Student responsibility |
|Students are responsible for beginning class by standing in the hallway on the second tile from the wall, facing forward on a voice level zero with shirts |
|tucked in and shoes tied. Upon entering the music room, students are responsible for remaining on the line facing forward on a voice level zero. When the |
|teacher says to go, students are responsible for going to their assigned seats on a voice level zero and sit criss-cross-applesauce in their spot, ready |
|for the next direction. |
|Smooth operation of the classroom |
|All materials and notation needed on the board for the lesson are written drawn, prepared, etc. before the students enter the room. At the very beginning |
|of the year procedures were established for going from sitting in lines to sitting in a circle in quick and fluid motions, as well as procedures for |
|getting materials or instruments from the cabinets. We practice what is called “make the loop, return to your group” or simply “make the loop”. Starting |
|with the first person in the fourth (or farthest back) row, students stand, and stay in their line as they walk to get their instruments/materials, then |
|they stay in line as they walk all the way around the room and back into their seats. As soon as the last person in the back row has started to move, the |
|first person in the next row stands and walks behind them, etc, so that if done correctly, there should be a spiral-type shape occurring as students walk |
|around the room and back to their seats. |
|Efficient use of time (e.g., organizing and managing groups of students, distribution and collection of materials, use of student helpers, transition |
|between activities, etc.) |
|Every activity includes immediate transition of some kind, either rhythmic, melodic, or story that takes us immediately from one activity to the next |
|without stop. If the activity calls for materials, the procedures for getting those materials is reminded, and then usually whatever song is to be used |
|with the activity is sung while students get materials. If something needs to be handed out, student helpers are utilized. |
| |
|Encouraging Appropriate Student Behavior |
|Describe your classroom management plan. Include specific classroom management strategies used to: |
|Establish clear expectation of conduct |
|The students know from the very first day exactly what is expected of them in order to be successful. The procedures, rules, and guidelines for success are|
|posted in a clearly visible front and central-facing location so that they can be quickly addressed if students are not meeting expectations in any of |
|those areas. As a whole though, we are very clear with what we expect, and the students know what we expect. If we do not see what we require, we practice |
|until the students comply and follow directions correctly. If it takes more than a couple of tries for the class to do the right thing, we go back over the|
|procedure, and if we discover that the misbehavior was just due to students being silly, we discuss all rules and guidelines, the first of which is “Follow|
|directions the first time they are given.” In the event that we need to review the rules, starting with the first one, I say the rule, then the class says |
|the rule together, and then I call on individuals to tell me what the rule is. |
|Monitor student behavior |
|The students are set up in rows, which is the most structured seating arrangement- it allows for me to see every student while I am in front of the room. |
|It also means that all eyes can easily be on me, and not peers as much. |
|Respond to behavior that does not meet your expectations |
|Step one for an individual student not meeting expectation is a pause and look at the person who is misbehaving, followed by a verbal warning, followed by |
|time in the safe seat, time in the buddy room, and so on. When the not meeting expectation is occurring in an activity as students not doing exactly what |
|they should be, standing right next to that student to model. If the class as a whole is not meeting the expectation, have students stop, sit, watch and |
|listen as I model exactly to-the-tee what I am expecting to see or hear. If the issue is melodic (for instance, students were using silly voices, or |
|yelling voices, and not truly listening, or singing while they should be listening, we will stop, and I will say “Don’t sing, just listen” (and I will say |
|this three times). Then I will model exactly what I expect to hear once all the way through, then I will have students echo-sing after me with no other |
|action so that I can hear that they are or are not demonstrating accurate pitches. If this is not resolving the issue, the students will sing the melody |
|repeatedly as I walk up and down the rows listening closely to each student until I find the students that are struggling the most, and I will either |
|determine the issue can easily be corrected by singing it to that person and having them repeat back until I hear it correctly, or I may have a student |
|stand right behind them and sing into their ear for the time being until they are singing it confidently. In some situations, I may simply ask for |
|individuals to sing softer, so they can hear more easily. |
| |
|Organizing the Physical Environment |
|Attach a simple sketch of the arrangement of the physical space of your classroom. Design and describe a plan to: |
|Make learning accessible to all students |
|To make learning accessible to all students, I sit facing the student seating and doorway at all times. Any time I am in my room, my door is open, and |
|students are welcome to come in and ask me questions or for help, or turn something in, etc. |
|Address safety concerns |
|Students know exactly what to do in the event of a fire or tornado drill, and these procedures were practiced several times at the beginning of the |
|semester. There is always a clear path to the door in case of emergency, and the emergency safety kit is located in an easily reachable position. |
|Arrange the furniture to support typical learning activities |
|The space is very open and clear, which provides perfect space for students to sit criss-cross in rows facing either the front of back of the room, get |
|into a circle to play a game, dance, and play games. There are chairs available, but they typically remain stacked and out of the way. There are also |
|tables set up with bells on them, but they are to the side, and do not disrupt the learning space. Most instruments (all small instruments) and student |
|materials are put away in cabinets until time comes that they are needed, in which case, students know the procedures to make the loop and retrieve these |
|materials. |
| |
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Formal Observations
Guiding Questions for a Single Lesson
Name: __Rebecca Cline_____________School: ____Minneha Elementary__________________
Grade Level/Subject Area: ________________Date of Lesson: _______________________
(The following form is adapted from Danielson, 1996, and the KSU Student Teaching Handbook)
1. What are your goals and objectives for the lesson? What do you want the students to learn and be able to demonstrate?
a. Students will be demonstrating appropriate dynamics, and showing part independence while singing concert piece Old Abram Brown.
b. Students will sing with correct words, pitches, and sign language while singing the song Morning Has Broken.
c. Students will demonstrate correct footwork while dancing to the song Great Big House.
d. Students will demonstrate correct actions while singing the song Sweet Potatoes.
e. Students will correctly echo-sing the song Trampin
f. Students will demonstrate knowledge of form while singing Tumba.
2. Why are these goals and objectives suitable for this group of students? What evidence do you have that you have high but reasonable expectations for your students? (Refer to Contextual Information in Entry 2)
a. These objectives were suitable for this group, because they were preparing for a concert, and needed to solidify these specific aspects of their concert repertoire.
b. We expect the students to perform to the very best of their ability- the goals for this lesson encourage such behavior.
3. How do the goals and objectives build on previous lessons and how do they lead to future planning?
a. Our last lesson we learned actions and worked on memorization. This lesson was intended to strengthen knowledge of actions, and now that the music is memorized, move to the next step of singing the correct melodies and lyrics WELL.
4. What difficulties do students typically experience in this area and how do you plan to anticipate these difficulties?
a. The students occasionally forget the actions, and may mix up the forms of the songs Tumba and Abram Brown which have multi-part singing.
b. We will go over the actions several times, first students will watch me model them, then the students and I will all do the actions together. Students will then do the actions without my help. This will occur without singing, and encourage memorization. Then we will add singing. We will go over Form the same way, discussing the form repeatedly, and then practicing with the correct form until it is secure.
5. How do these goals and objectives align with a.) National and/or state standards, b.) District standards, goals, or scope and sequence, c.) School Improvement Process?
One goal I set for myself was to use Professional Development plans to collaborate with my cooperating teacher about ways she has been successful, and advice she might give to help me to begin successfully. Another goal I set for myself was to view more local choir concerts, as well as to join some kind of choir. To improve even more as a professional, I will continue to attend the KMEA Convention.
Formal Observations
Reflections on a Single Lesson
Name: ______________________________School: _______________________________
Grade Level/Subject Area: ________________Date of Lesson: _______________________
(The following form is adapted from Danielson, 1996, and the KSU Student Teaching Handbook)
1. As I reflect on the lesson, what did I do to actively engage the students? What evidence do I have (based on observations of students) that students were actively engaged?
2. Did the students learn what I had intended (i.e., were my instructional goals and objectives met)? Were my expectations high yet reasonable? Was I persistent in helping all students achieve success? What is my evidence?
3. Did I alter my goals, strategies, activities, student grouping and/or assessment as I taught the lesson? If so, what changes did I make and why did I make these changes?
4. Were my strategies and activities effective? What is my evidence?
5. To what extent did the classroom environment (Respect and Rapport, Culture for Learning, Classroom Procedures, Encouraging Appropriate Student Behavior, and the Physical Environment) contribute to student learning? What is my evidence?
6. Was my assessment effective and useful to my students and me? Describe an instance in which my feedback positively affected a student’s learning.
7. If I had the opportunity to teach this lesson again, what might I do differently (describe at least one thing)? Why?
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Professional Logs
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Name: _ School: _________________________________
|Date |Person Interacted With |Type of Interaction |Purpose |Impact on Teaching and Student |
| |Staff |Staff Meeting |Introduction into the new school year, |It was very cool to hear objectives and |
| | | |introducing new teachers and how to work |goals that the the administrators had for |
| | | |the new student information system. |the teachers, and to know what was expected.|
| |Fine Arts Staff |SIS meeting |All fine arts teachers got together to try|I thought that this system was very |
| | | |to figure out how to get their classes |interesting, and I learned it pretty |
| | | |started on the SIS and how to do things |quickly, so I was able to help some of the |
| | | |such as enter weighted grades, etc. |other teachers. |
| | | | | |
| |Music Staff |Fundraiser Meeting |Discuss upcoming fundraisers, and when |There were numerous requests for their |
| | | |would be good times for each of them to do|school to use various fundraisers, and it |
| | | |their fundraisers, also, suggestions on |was clear that some of the fundraisers were |
| | | |good funraisers to use |quite a bit better than others. This gave me|
| | | | |ideas for how I will implement fundraisers |
| | | | |in my choir. |
| |Parents/community |Concert |Many parents and community members come |I love meeting parents, especially when |
| | | |back to the choir room after the concert |their student is doing well, and you can |
| | | |to congratulate, wish well, and just say |brag on them. |
| | | |hello. | |
| |Parents and Child |Conference |Student is pregnant, how will this effect |My cooperating teacher handled this |
| | | |her choir placement, and what are her |situation very well. He was considerate, and|
| | | |options for the concert grade in the |professional, and told the family that he |
| | | |Spring if she cannot attend |was flexible and will figure out whatever he|
| | | | |can do to help |
Based on your experiences and information from this log, (1) identify your professional strengths and weaknesses in terms of your ability to interact with families, community, and other educational personnel to support student learning, (2) at least one professional goal for continuing to grow professionally in your area of weakness, and (3) plans for achieving this goal.
1)Strength- I communicate very well with families, students, and the community.
Weakness- I am not doing very well with getting to know many teachers outside of the fine arts.
2) Goal –Make a better effort to communicate with staff members outside the fine arts department.
3) Plan- I will sit by other staff members outside the fine arts department at staff meetings
[pic]
Professional Logs
[pic]
Name: _ School: _________________________________
|Date |Event |Contribution / Insight |Impact on You, |
| |(E.g., committee meeting, QPA/NCA | |Other Teachers, |
| |activity) | |Students, Parents |
| |Broadway in Bluejeans Concert |Helped direct several songs, choreographed| |
| | |and taught dance moves | |
| |Fall Concert |Directed several songs | |
| |Regional Solo/Ensemble |Helped | |
| |3rd Grade Concert | | |
| |4th Grade Concert | | |
| |Caroling for tourists of the | | |
| |McCormick House School Museum | | |
| |5th Grade concert preview at | | |
| |Cherry Creek Nursing Home | | |
| | | | |
Based on your experiences and information from this log, (1) identify professional strengths and weaknesses related to your participation in and contributions to school and district improvement, (2) at least one professional goal for continuing to grow professionally in your area of weaknesses, and (3) plans for achieving this goal.
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Professional Logs
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Name: _ School: _________________________________
|Date |Event |Benefits / Learning Derived |Plans for Continual Growth |
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Based on your experiences and information from this log, (1) identify your professional strengths and weaknesses identified through your professional development experiences, (2) at least one goal for continuing to improve your teaching, and (3) plans for achieving this goal.
-----------------------
Entry 1
Philosophy of Teaching
Entry 2
Entry 3, Part 1
Unit Overview
Instructional Unit Objectives
Entry 3, Part 3
Entry 3, Part 3
Entry 3, Part 4
Entry 4
Entry 5
Entry 6
Interactions with Families, Community, and Educational Personnel
(To Enhance and Support Student Learning
Entry 6
Involvement in and Contributions to School and District Improvement
(To enhance and Support School and District)
Entry 6
Professional Development Experiences
(To Enhance Your Professional Growth)
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