The teacher uses understanding of individual differences and diverse cultures and communities to ensure inclusive learning environments that allow each learner to reach his/her full potential.
A music teacher must understand that the students they will work with will come from many different types of cultures and communities, and that they need to make a point to include these students in their teachings so that they can learn to the best of their ability. Teachers of music must be willing to understand that students learn musical skills and concepts in different ways. Music teachers should employ a wide array of methods to facilitate successful musical learning for all students. Teachers can incorporate different cultures into his/her teachings as well to broaden the students’ minds on what type of genres of music are out in the world. By doing this, teachers can make those individual students who may be from different cultures, as well as those students who may learn differently to feel more comfortable and that they are being included by learning a variety of music and not the same type of music all the time.
I feel that I have not been put into the position of working with students or children that learn differently or are from diverse cultures or communities that I do not much experience with this standard. I have taught after school lessons for band, but those students I taught were all from the same community and I was not with them long enough to learn specifically how they learn compared to others. I feel I need to be put in front of an ensemble or classroom in order to be comfortable with incorporating lessons that involve all those students from different cultures and communities. I know that once I do this, I will become familiar with the diversity of students and the individual learning abilities of students and be able to teach in the most efficient way that those students I teach will reach their full potential.
I will take those Music Education classes at Ball State that require me to teach in front of my peers to get the experience of teaching in front of people, and then learn about the differences in how students learn and the best ways to approach teaching them as well as others. I will also learn about different cultures and how to incorporate those into my lesson plans in order to introduce my students to a variety of genres and cultures. I will also continue to be involved in choirs and ensembles that make me familiar with the many genres and cultures there are and the possible songs to teach my classes and ways to add them into lessons and make them some basis teachings for my students. All of these things will allow me to grow in my knowledge of these aspects and learn how to include those students who may learn differently or be from a different place and help them to reach their fullest potential.
MUSE 356- Choral Methods 1 Rationale: Observing and teaching in middle and elementary school music classrooms have allowed me to be aware of learner differences. When teaching students, I have learned how to adapt my language and approach to instruction during an actual lesson so the students understand completely the music and concepts being taught. My teaching processes have developed to include many different questions and activities learners partake in to explore the many types of learning and environments that suit them. Teaching middle school students in this course has given me the opportunity to notice what sorts of differences learners have while I'm teaching.
MUSE 376- Choral Methods 2 Rationale: Along with learner development, I understand the differences learners have in the classroom. I feel that by observing a high school music classroom, I have more experience teaching students that have a variety of ways of learning. In my lessons, I include questions and activities that students engage in to use many different styles of learning. Through witnessing the students struggle with their teacher and with me as the teacher, I understand the major differences they have with learning and succeeding during the lesson. I feel that this experience with high school students has helped me to become more aware of differences and know how to teach effective lessons.
MUSE 353- Secondary General Methods Artifact: Cultural Lesson Plan Rationale: This lesson plan that I created in Secondary General Methods is an excellent example of learning differences and expanding students' knowledge of other cultures. Within this lesson plan, I researched and found a popular song performed by a Kenyan artist. I observed the musical differences each of the singers put into their performances, and in the end had to decide which version I felt was most suited to be a model to teach my students. This song added Swahili translations of the words, and many new instruments that the original version did not have. This plan presents a diverse culture to students and allows them to hear familiar songs sung with different interpretations such as different languages, instruments, etc. I feel that this artifact presents opportunities to inform students of the tremendous amount of cultures that a person can learn about just by studying what types of music comes from these cultures. This lesson plan is a basis for what I can look for in other pieces that come from other cultures that I can teach students.
MUSE 350- Practicum Artifacts: Lesson Plan #1 Lesson Plan #2 Rationale: These artifacts are two lesson plans that I created for my practicum course when I field taught for two straight classes during the morning. The first choir I taught was an non-auditioned choir and the second choir was auditioned and called Vocalise. Both of these choirs were at completely different levels musically, and therefore when I carried out my warmups, I had to create lesson plans that would fit their ability levels. I made sure to choose vocal exercises that I knew they could succeed on and figured out very quickly if they were doing the exercises correctly and warming up their voices well enough. I made sure to be creative with my vocal and choral technique exercises, but not do anything too overwhelming to shut them out. I think that comparing these two lesson plans helped me realize how differently learners and ensembles are and that it is necessary to plan accordingly. I feel that I will utilize the skill of making sure my lesson plans fit the ensembles and their ability levels. It is far too easy to just plan one lesson for the entire day, especially with warmups. I know that I will cater to the differences of my students and help them succeed in every area of learning.
Student Teaching Artifacts: Fifth Grade First Class Fifth Grade Second Class Rationale: These artifacts I have attached are two videos that compare two different fifth grade classes. The students in these classes vary in learning styles and speed of learning. I noticed this when I was teaching them the songs for the Spring program. The first class caught on very quickly and displayed confidence while singing and learning. The second class took great encouragement to sing loudly and took more run-throughs of the music before feeling confident in singing. It was interesting to compare these two classes and their learning differences. The first class was very quiet and listened well to directions while the second class was extremely talkative and made it difficult to get through the material. After experiencing these students in these lessons, I figured out how they are different in learning the songs. In later lessons, I learned how I could change my teaching strategies to help the students learn better. For the first class, I kept the same approach and continued what I was doing when teaching the songs because what I was doing with them was working. For the second class, I realized that I needed to begin the lessons with stating my expectations for the day. After I stated my expectations, I found that the students in the second class all listened very well and learned the songs quicker. It was amazing to see this change in their attitudes as well as their singing and learning of the songs. The second class still needed a different approach with many run-throughs and more guidance, but they improved in their behaviors and talking. After watching these two videos of myself teaching, I was able to recognize how I could make these changes and help the students learn better. I will utilize watching past teachings and reflecting on teachings to help me learn students' differences in learning and how I can help those differences as the teacher.