TE Reflection

Austin Berscheid Instrumental Methods/Field Experience Spring 2012 Prompt for Blog Week of 2/13/12 (also counts for CJ TE Day 2 blog) The intent of this entry is to serve as a formal reflection of your teaching experiences at Chief Joseph Middle School. Use this document as a template, but delete any text that is not your own. This will also be included as an artifact in your resource notebook, so spelling and grammar count. The reflection is worth 3 points (the same as an assignment) and will be assessed on clarity, depth of thought, and your response to the provided prompts below. In the final version, be sure to include your name and the date. The blog is due approximately one week after your day 2 of your teaching episode at CJ. Details The first day we had practicum at Chief Joseph Middle School, the class we observed and worked with was 8th grade. First teaching episode was with cellos and basses, while the second day of teaching was with Violas. Our final day at CJMS was spent observing the band. The focus on the teaching episodes was on podium etiquette, name memorization, sectional leading, and teaching a rhythm. Learning Goals What I had hoped to accomplish for my own personal gain is more experience in the thought process of middle school student. Understanding how they think and how to keep their attention, in my opinion it is a major factor in how you design your lessons plans. As for the students I had hoped that they could reproduce my rhythms within 80% accuracy. With the student’s orchestra music, I had hoped to accomplish two things. First I had hoped that with a basic fingering for small sections of their music, they then could use what I gave them and create a fingering (modified if needed) on their own. This I found was successful to the 8th grade level. The second was for them to listen and feel confident with each other, so that everyone had each other’s back when it came to the music. Process On my day of leading sectional (the first day of teaching), we had removed the cello/bass from the orchestra room to out in the hallway. This, fortunately, did not take much time out of lesson plan. Then Adam, me, and the students introduced our selves and our favorite color. After introducing I let Adam take over to teach his rhythm while I stood to the side. At the end of Adam’s lesson on rhythm one girl (whom I don’t remember her name because several weeks have passed since this event) joined on the cello. After Adam’s lesson I took over for the string section. First I asked what parts they feel uncomfortable with; they mentioned three areas (two of which were the same Idea). The first area was difficult due to rhythm/speed. So I had them slow it down to a manageable level. Periodically I would ask if any of them would be willing to demonstrate the rhythm for the rest of the group, and each time a couple were more then willing to demonstrate. Gradually I would speed the tempo back up, and then even a little (around 5-10 BPM). Once we got up around a tempo we would repeat it three times. Then, I worked on their second concern in the music, which dealt with fingering. At first I just gave them the first couple measures of a basic fingering, the following measures were a sequential pattern. After they figured out it was a repetitive pattern I had them look out the small amount, around 3 notes) that didn’t fit within the fingering sequence, I had them tell me what fingers they should use, and they were correct. After the sectional, it was about time for them to go, so we went over their name, and I had missed a few. Then we brought all of out supplies back to the class. On the second day of teaching I only taught my rhythm and helped Adam with some string sectionals. We had the Viola’s in our group and there were five of them. When I was teaching my rhythm I broke it into four cells, then had individual students clap the rhythm back to the rest of the group. Then I had them do two-bar portions secondly. Finally we did all four measures at once. When Adam lead the sectional he had the same concept as me with breaking it apart and going from slow to fast. I tried to not involve myself too much because when we teach we wont have a second teacher to help us. But when Adam needed assistance I did provide suggestions such as fingerings and bow placements. Assessment I wont disclose all students’ grades, because that would take up a lot of space. But my grading would put it each score within the 82%-95% range. I had two main things I was grading on. Participation was one. Where as long as they tried and had the motivation to try their hardest they go 3’s. My other criterion that my rubric looked at was accuracy. No one scored a 1 in accuracy, which was “Student could not accurately clap and sing rhythm, was correct less than 50% of the time, more than 8 mistakes.” My students for rhythm were 2 students scored “2-Average” and 3 scored “3-Excellent”. I designed my rhythm to be a little tricky because it alternated between duple and triple rhythms, which didn’t trick the students as much as I though it would have. Thoughts and Feelings I think teaching students to sight-read rhythms daily is a key element in their musical development. I didn’t really feel much of a feeling other than what I normally fell. Yes, I guess I could say I was a little excited. It’s convenient to be able to test your lesson plans on students. And for our colleagues that don’t play stringed/wind instruments this may be frightening to them because of their lack of experience in instrumental music. So, overall this lesson does help with reinforcing what I already know, and getting more “podium time”.