Justin Ekstrom

MusEd 353
12/9/13
Self-Evaluation and Reflection

This in-field teaching for secondary general music was my first experience
teaching general music content outside the classroom of my peers at Ball State. It
was a new and exciting experience that I learned a great deal from. Being my first
time working with age-appropriate students, I encountered some struggles not
present when teaching peers. I was able to include methods learned in class to
facilitate learning, but the lesson was not without error. Reflecting on these
strengths and weaknesses can ensure that I think through my teaching and grow
from this experience.
The things I did well were what kept this lesson functioning. First, my clarity
of speech as a whole was clear and understandable. This only changed when I
attempted to change thoughts mid-sentence, something that shouldnt be happening
in the first place. I began my lesson with a review of Kims teaching, reminding the
students of the foundation my curriculum built on. This made the spiral curriculum
we developed more cohesive. Though my connection of music to reading with
Shakespeare failed, I did strengthen the lesson by unifying its contents across the
school curriculum. I shouldnt have expected students to know Shakespeare in
depth, but I could have referenced Romeo and Juliet, a work they are likely familiar
with in some form. Corrected from my first time teaching this lesson, I made sure to
give the students their options for conducting before they were asked to do so, and
we practiced both options to ensure the students we capable of doing the required
action. I did my best to utilize questioning throughout. This began with the

perception chart and continued with other listenings as I asked students to justify
their answers or explain differences between two songs. Students were often
incorrect when asked to answer questions, but I did my best to lead them to an
understanding rather than just correct them by stating the answer. This helped
them grow and learn from an error. Related to this, I explained that making a
mistake was acceptable in an attempt to establish a safe learning environment free
of judgment. Though the choices could have been more applicable to sixth-grade
students, I utilized diverse genres of music so that students could experience the
diversity of music available to them. In order to keep engagement, I planned for
active experiences such as the perception chart and moving throughout the room. I
could have utilized this more as the lesson went on. Lastly, as taught by Ball State, I
made sure to introduce notation only after the students had had multiple
experiences with the content to be displayed. Even after showing them, I reviewed
the activities so that they could further make the connection between what they
experienced throughout the lesson and what they saw on the board in writing. This
lesson had as many or more weaknesses, however, and those must be addressed in
order for my teaching to adequately provide for the students learning needs.
The most obvious error in my teaching as shown in the video was my failure
to break down the imaginary barriers around students and get in their space to
monitor progress and control behavior. When it came time for questioning with the
perception chart, I could not encourage students who had the right answers because
I did not know. I failed to make use of proximity. When my lesson was interrupted
by the fire drill, I was unsure what content to leave out, affecting the continuity of

my lesson. Faith, who usually never spoke during class, could not be stopped
(rather, I failed to stop her) from answering most questions aloud. I needed to
establish a system of order such as raising hands and calling on other students to
avoid having the more confident students answering all the questions. The second
half of my lesson, the meter identification, had far too much lecturing. I should have
allowed for more interactive experiences to determine meter other than sitting and
listening. The first half of my lesson took far too long to get through, focusing too
much on the content of the perception chart rather than emphasizing the intended
meter. There must be a balance, however, or the perception chart loses its purpose.
Similarly, I needed to have the Crown excerpt ready at the correct spot to save time
and keep interest. With the excerpt from the Mussorgsky, I was unable to get the
students to hear the moving lines necessary to realize the piece was in triple
division due to a quiet recording and a loud fan in the room. The result was me
talking at them again, failing to lead them meaningfully to the experience in music.
Completion of this lesson gave me my first experience with secondary
general music. The genre of teaching is no longer a foreign theory learned in class. It
is now an experienced event that I feel I did well on for my first time. By continuing
to emphasize the points I did well and correct the mistakes I made for future
lessons, I will be contributing to valuable growth as a future educator of music in the
middle school general classroom.