At Mililani-Ike this week, I worked with third grade classes. I taught two solfege based activities. The first activity that I taught was having the students practice reading the standard notation to
Star Light. The purpose of this activity was to help the students practice reading music off of a real music staff, and for them to practice la. Lauren and I have been asking more students to sing
unmuted by themselves during class. If they are too scared to sing by themselves, we usually sing along with them even though there’s lag. I have been trying to work on how to give feedback to the
students when they sing individually. The students vary in level, some sing and do the hand signs easily while others struggle with both. When students sing and do the hand signs incorrectly, I have
been trying to find a way to acknowledge their errors and how to improve without discouraging them to volunteer again. We have been trying to emphasize that we are in a safe place and it’s okay to
make mistakes.
The second activity I taught was solfege identification using I See the Moon. We figured out the solfege for the song together to practice do in this song. On the Smartboard slide, all the notes are
on so, and the students have to figure out where the notes belong. When figuring out the notes, when I ask students questions such as “is the word ‘the’ higher or lower than ‘see?’” they sometimes
show me the incorrect answer. Something that I picked up on from Lauren is to sing the song incorrectly so that the students can compare their answer to the correct answer. I have been trying to do
this when I teach as well. Generally, when I sing the song the wrong way and compare it to the right way, the students who initially gave the incorrect answer change their answer to the correct one.
Today, I had a difficult time singing the end of the song incorrectly in order to help the students compare their two options. I had the students figure out if the last three notes of the song went
down to mi or down to do. The last three notes were do, but I tried singing them on mi first, and then on do so the students could hear both options. Since I had some difficulties singing the song
incorrectly, after class Lauren pointed out that it could have been a good opportunity to show that making mistakes is okay. I realized that I should have thought about that in the moment so that I
could turn my struggle into a teaching moment.
#1
Ashley Maeshiro(Saturday, 17 October 2020 06:13)
Highlands:
At Highlands on Monday, I observed Clement teach the beginning band class and then I taught the same thing to the beginning band class on Tuesday. We reviewed what was covered in the first quarter,
and then we introduced eighth notes. After watching Clement teach on Monday, I tried to use the methods he used to teach the eighth notes, but I also tried to add some of my own ideas. Clement
compared eighth notes to telephone poles, with the poles being the stems and the wire connecting them being the beam. Then to explain the notation of an individual eighth note, he “cut” the wire and
when the wires were hanging, he compared it to the flag of an eighth note. When I introduced eighth notes on Tuesday, I tried using a story that we learned in MUS354 to teach eighth notes. Dr. Loong
read a book about two children who become friends and she compared the friends to two ta’s. When they become friends, they hold hands and become ti-ti. When I told the story, I drew two quarter notes
and said that they are tired of being alone on a beat by themselves so they want to become friends. They hold hands and now they share one beat together, so they are only worth half a beat so that
they can fit. Then sometimes friends have fights, so they let go of each other's arm (and I compared this to the flag of an individual eighth note), but they still share the beat.
After class, Clement talked to me and told me that this may not be a good story to use because it made him think about divorce, and it may be upsetting for students with problems at home. I felt
really bad about it. Of course I didn’t mean it to come off that way, but I think this was the first time that I have encountered this type of situation. When I have been planning lessons, I have
honestly really only been trying to make my lessons as engaging and effective as possible. Although those things are really important, I think that I have been failing to acknowledge other important
things, and the darker side of what I may encounter as an educator. I think that learning how to be more cautious about darker implications that things may have when planning lessons or interacting
with students is an additional goal for me. I honestly do not know how else to get better at this than to be more aware and give it time and experience, but this is a quality that I would like to
have as an educator.
Ashley Maeshiro (Saturday, 17 October 2020 06:14)
Mililani-Ike:
At Mililani-Ike this week, I worked with third grade classes. I taught two solfege based activities. The first activity that I taught was having the students practice reading the standard notation to Star Light. The purpose of this activity was to help the students practice reading music off of a real music staff, and for them to practice la. Lauren and I have been asking more students to sing unmuted by themselves during class. If they are too scared to sing by themselves, we usually sing along with them even though there’s lag. I have been trying to work on how to give feedback to the students when they sing individually. The students vary in level, some sing and do the hand signs easily while others struggle with both. When students sing and do the hand signs incorrectly, I have been trying to find a way to acknowledge their errors and how to improve without discouraging them to volunteer again. We have been trying to emphasize that we are in a safe place and it’s okay to make mistakes.
The second activity I taught was solfege identification using I See the Moon. We figured out the solfege for the song together to practice do in this song. On the Smartboard slide, all the notes are on so, and the students have to figure out where the notes belong. When figuring out the notes, when I ask students questions such as “is the word ‘the’ higher or lower than ‘see?’” they sometimes show me the incorrect answer. Something that I picked up on from Lauren is to sing the song incorrectly so that the students can compare their answer to the correct answer. I have been trying to do this when I teach as well. Generally, when I sing the song the wrong way and compare it to the right way, the students who initially gave the incorrect answer change their answer to the correct one. Today, I had a difficult time singing the end of the song incorrectly in order to help the students compare their two options. I had the students figure out if the last three notes of the song went down to mi or down to do. The last three notes were do, but I tried singing them on mi first, and then on do so the students could hear both options. Since I had some difficulties singing the song incorrectly, after class Lauren pointed out that it could have been a good opportunity to show that making mistakes is okay. I realized that I should have thought about that in the moment so that I could turn my struggle into a teaching moment.
Ashley Maeshiro (Saturday, 17 October 2020 06:13)
Highlands:
At Highlands on Monday, I observed Clement teach the beginning band class and then I taught the same thing to the beginning band class on Tuesday. We reviewed what was covered in the first quarter, and then we introduced eighth notes. After watching Clement teach on Monday, I tried to use the methods he used to teach the eighth notes, but I also tried to add some of my own ideas. Clement compared eighth notes to telephone poles, with the poles being the stems and the wire connecting them being the beam. Then to explain the notation of an individual eighth note, he “cut” the wire and when the wires were hanging, he compared it to the flag of an eighth note. When I introduced eighth notes on Tuesday, I tried using a story that we learned in MUS354 to teach eighth notes. Dr. Loong read a book about two children who become friends and she compared the friends to two ta’s. When they become friends, they hold hands and become ti-ti. When I told the story, I drew two quarter notes and said that they are tired of being alone on a beat by themselves so they want to become friends. They hold hands and now they share one beat together, so they are only worth half a beat so that they can fit. Then sometimes friends have fights, so they let go of each other's arm (and I compared this to the flag of an individual eighth note), but they still share the beat.
After class, Clement talked to me and told me that this may not be a good story to use because it made him think about divorce, and it may be upsetting for students with problems at home. I felt really bad about it. Of course I didn’t mean it to come off that way, but I think this was the first time that I have encountered this type of situation. When I have been planning lessons, I have honestly really only been trying to make my lessons as engaging and effective as possible. Although those things are really important, I think that I have been failing to acknowledge other important things, and the darker side of what I may encounter as an educator. I think that learning how to be more cautious about darker implications that things may have when planning lessons or interacting with students is an additional goal for me. I honestly do not know how else to get better at this than to be more aware and give it time and experience, but this is a quality that I would like to have as an educator.