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INTASC Standard #3 |
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Adapting Instruction for Individual Needs |
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The teacher understands how students differ in their approaches to learning and creates instructional opportunities that are adapted to diverse learners. |
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[Headings for INTASC standards are taken from - |
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It is very important that as teachers we try to reach not just a few of our students but as many of them as possible. By only teaching to one type of learner (visual, aural, or kinesthetic), we are limiting whom we reach; we must not forget that we need to adapt our classrooms for disabled students as well. This can be a different kind of adaptation that needs to be made that is different from learning types. I reviewed an article for a General Music Methods class that was about Movement and Music Activities for Disabilities. This text gave insight on what can be expected out of students will all kinds of disabilities as well as what we can do to help these students learn music in our classrooms. This text can definitely be used as a resource guide for me in the future when I will need to be incorporating all my students in the class. In a group listening lesson I team-taught, we included various activities to get the students involved in the listening lesson. We taught the song “Syncopated Clock”, and incorporated in visual, aural, and kinesthetic activities throughout the lesson not only to enhance the lesson but to engage all types of learners in our lesson. In Elementary General Music 2, I taught an Orff orchestration along with two of my peers to both our college class and to an area fifth grade class. When we developed the lesson, we thought carefully about the process it would take to put this lesson together, not only for us but for the students. We made sure to start with gross motor movements to represent the parts they would later play on their instruments. After teaching in the field, I wrote a reflection on the experience teaching and working with my two peers. In Choral Literature class we learned about a variety of music that can be used in classrooms and choirs for a diverse group of learners and situations. We talked a bit more in this class about the physical limitations that can be put on voice during the maturation of the voice in children and adolescents. We discussed ranges and tessituras that can be expected of each age level, as well as what voicings would be appropriate for each age level to ensure that every student has a voice part to sing that is comfortable and able for them to sing. We can incorporate tasks into our lesson plans that reach all three types of learners, visual, aural, and kinesthetic. In a peer teaching in MUSED200, I taught the chant “Stop Thief” and addressed all three of these learning styles. The students not only learned the melody but ostinato harmonies as well. I wrote the rhythmic notation and words on the board for the visual learners, modeled the ostinato for the aural learners, and had the students echo me to stimulate the kinesthetic learners During high school, I helped a young lady learn to play xylophone. This doesn’t seem like a significant feat; however, this young lady is mildly autistic. I was asked to help her because I have had experience with autistic children all of my life because a close family relative is autistic. When I was asked to help this girl, I jumped at the chance because this really interested me. While I worked with her, we developed our own notational system. She had difficulty understanding standard western notation; so we use a system of colors and shapes because this was something she felt very comfortable with. Starting out, we assigned each note on the staff a symbol and color and the same with the bars on her xylophone. We began by writing in the corresponding color and symbol under the western notation the other students were reading. As she became comfortable with the system we developed, she also learned the western notation. Eventually we were able to slowly remove some of the writing in her music. However, we weren’t able to do this with all of her music. This process took quite a bit of time because she had difficulty in areas students her age understood quite well. The one thing I was taught and have found to work is to find the one thing an autistic student enjoys and excels at. This can be a key and an enormous help when it comes to teaching new things. If you can relate new topics to the one thing they understand, things can become easier. Teachers can incorporate such things as PowerPoint presentations, overhead transparencies, web quests, group assignments, lecture outlines and worksheets into their lessons to teach the students in a variety of different ways. Not only does this reach out to all the students, it adds some variety in their daily classroom routines. PowerPoint presentations can get students involved because they are capable of connecting to the internet, containing graphics, sound files and video clips. I have designed a PowerPoint presentation for a Jazz/ Blues Unit; this PowerPoint is extremely basic but provides an outline of what would be discussed in class. I would then provide a variety of worksheets to students based on their academic needs and styles. Some would require more fill in the blank type notes, whereas other would require the students to fill in almost everything. This is another way to alter lessons to each individual’s learning capabilities. I also have designed a web quest that asks students to pick a musical identity of their choice and research their life. The student has very few limitations on what this can include and how it can be presented. Each student would choose a different person and used their creativity to teach the class about that person. This can be done for all ages because it is an internet assignment and children of all ages are computer literate. However, I would direct this more towards middle school students.
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