School Teaching 2 Reflection

For this, our second and final teaching at Sutton Elementary, John and I decided to teach a composite lesson. We started with a modified version of the listening listen he (and his group members) taught in our MusEd 351 class; this lesson centered around Rimsky-Korsakov’s Flight of the Bumble Bee. Then, in keeping with some of the concepts Mrs. Morris was to be teaching the students that week, we used a simple song (Here Comes a Bluebird) to reinforce the concept of ostinati; there were two ostinati printed in the textbook immediately following the song, so we used these for our lesson.

When we showed up on the day of the lesson, Mrs. Morris informed us that the gym teacher had asked her if, on Thursday, they could collaborate and do some co-curricular lesson. Though initially reluctant, she eventually consented and thus lost a day of instruction. Therefore, the students were not quite as prepared for our lesson as we had hoped they would be, but it ended up being okay. The students came in a couple minutes late, as usual, and Mrs. Morris very briefly described what we would be doing. John then began with his part of the lesson.

Once it was my turn, I started by having the students get books and return quietly; they were not great at the quiet part, but I can’t fault them too much. I then led them through a very brief vocal warm-up. Unfortunately, I used one wrong Curwen hand sign (So when I meant Me). I used my falsetto for the warm-up; warming up in the key of C proved to be a little low for me, especially at 9:00 in the morning, so my falsetto cracked a little and was not very strong. Also, I observed an interesting thing; the point of modeling in my falsetto is to sing in the same range that the students should be singing in; however, when I started the warm-up, there was one student in the front row who actually tried to sing one octave up from his usual range, apparently because he could tell that I was, in fact, singing one octave up from my usual range! Though somewhat amusing, I am glad that he did not continue this, or else I would have attempted to get him to sing back in his range. We then sang through the Bluebird song.

Next, I introduced the rhythms in the ostinati to them, using the Kodaly system of counting, which I was told they had been using to speak the quarter- and eighth-note rhythms. We got through this with a bit of difficulty, but I eventually went on and had the students get percussion instruments, one row at a time. They then played the ostinato, one row at a time, while the rest of the class sang the song; though some were certainly not all that mentally involved, most were paying attention and doing what I was asking. The only complicating factor to this is that I was running out of time; the class is usually lining up to leave by 9:15 at the latest, yet, with Mrs. Morris’s permission, I worked with them until nearly 9:18. I felt bad doing so, and yet at the same time I also really wanted to get through most of my material.

Overall, I felt that the lesson was quite effective. My singing was actually useful to them, and, despite some early chuckles, the students got used to it and sang right along with me. I believe that most of them understood the ostinati and have count and clap them, yet I should have had some better ways to evaluate them in this area. One thing that hindered my teaching, somewhat, is the fact that I assumed that the students know what a measure is. Unfortunately, they do not (at least, they have not been taught it). In my explanation of ostinati, I tried to reference the measure to describe the motion of the rhythm.

Some strengths would include our planning, my falsetto (mostly; at least ), and John’s part of the lesson. If I were to teach this lesson again, I would practice more on my own and try to think of what potential problems I might run into with actual kids and decide what some of my best methods would be for dealing with them.

INTASC Principles:
1. Knowledge of Subject Matter
2. Knowledge of Human Development and Learning
3. Multiple Instructional Strategies
5. Classroom Motivation and Management Skills
6. Communication Skills
7. Instructional Planning Skills
8. Assessment of Student Learning

[ home ]  [ philosophy ]  [ mused courses ]  [ pgp ]  [ intasc standards ]  [ links ]