Dylan Abbott

Mrs. Finger
Teaching Reflection 2
12/1/15

The goals and objectives in my lesson plan were as follows; to include audiation by
modeling the first pitch of the five note scale (a flat concert) and have the students play the notes
back on their instruments. After that students were to listen to the instructor sing a rhythm that
was pulled from the exercises that was taught. And after that the students were to help the
instructor notate the rhythm on the board. Students were also required to recite the meaning of a
repeat sign. They also learned the meaning of the first, and second ending as it related to the
repeat sign in the music. The students also learned the meaning of a breath mark and how it not
only means to breath during the song, but indicates the end of a phrase in the music. Students
also learned a new note during this lesson which for alto saxophones was F sharp. I believe that
during the lesson I had achieved the objectives which I laid out for my lesson. I achieved
audition and tied the rhythm exercise to the rhythm that appeared in the music.

I believe my biggest weakness in this lesson was that I did not have very good pacing. I
only was able to get through the first song that I taught and I believe this was because of my poor
pacing. I think that if I had used transitions in my lesson I could easily fly through each section
of my exercises which would free up some time to teach the second musical excerpt. Another
weakness that I feel that I really need to work on was completely missing the wrong note that
was placed in the clarinet section. I think that the reason I missed this was because I was too

focused on the actual pacing of the lesson and could not properly assess the ensemble as a whole
because I was simply not listening for wrong notes. Another weakness that I had was not
warming up the ensemble at the beginning of my lesson, and I was the first one to go on that day
so warming up the students would of been something I should have done. Some thoughts for the
future would be to implement a warm up at the beginning of my next peer teaching for example,
I could do long tones and even a quick breathing exercise before the students play.

I felt like all in all my lesson went pretty well, I had a lot of weakness but I feel that those
weaknesses were minor and I also believe that I had some strengths in this lesson as well. One
strength that sticks out to me was that I was able to hear the starting pitches once and from there
on out I could intone the pitch without needing a reference note. I believe that this is a pretty
good strength because it allows me to skip a whole time consuming step of going over to the
piano and clunking out a note or asking a student to play the starting note on their instrument.
Although I should not let my confidence in being able to hear the pitch get the best of me, I
should check occasionally to see if I am correct or not by having a student play the pitch on their
instrument. Not only does this benefit me but it keeps the students engaged in the lesson because
if I call on a random student they will have to pay attention because if they are not, then they
wont know what or where to play the starting pitch from.