Teacher-Assessment of Apprentice

Student Name: ____Christian Martinez___Date of Full Lesson: Thursday, March 8th, 2018

Describe your observations concerning the following topics. Cite specific examples from the
teaching.

Assessment Considerations:
 aspects of instructional presentation (strategies, proximity, posture, pacing, etc.)
 interaction with students (speech, eye contact, communication, non-verbal, etc.)
 reaction from students

Observations of Teaching for discussion:

Friday, February 9th – meet with me to introduce each other, discuss schedule, lesson plans,
classroom management, resources/materials and curriculum available, tour the school, etc.
Tuesday, February 13th – observe a 5th grade class
Tuesday, February 20th – observe a 2nd grade class
Tuesday, February 27th – assist with a 2nd grade class
Thursday, March 1st – teach part lesson to a 2nd grade class
Thursday, March 8th – teach lesson to 2nd grade
Tuesday, March 13th – teach part lesson to 2nd grade

What aspects of the lesson were successful? (include student achievement)

 Good explanation of what categorizes instruments as percussion instruments and the
difference between mallets, sticks, and brushes.
 Good sequencing of starting simple and adding the complicated parts to the chant
 You didn’t let them get too silly saying the wrong names, etc.
 “When I point at myself it’s my turn”- good and you eventually used the word “echo”
which you want to do both at this age.
 Good- echoed and made phrases longer each time to learn the words to the chant
 Pleasant vocal tone and energy
 Good counting off to have them start together
 Switched arrangement of instruments and added B section to extend.
 Good encouragement when they were doing well

Suggestions for instructional improvement? (Describe teaching strategies, presentational

changes, student/teaching interaction, etc.)
 Don’t let them speed up the tempo, “Keep the beat steady, don’t rush!”
 At one point you had them clap the beat. Generally, we pat the steady beat and clap
rhythms to help students distinguish the difference
 Be careful not to ask unnecessary questions that you don’t really want an answer to. You
want to say what you mean and mean what you say. Everything should have meaning
with no extra words. You might get a smart alec remarks or blurting out to questions like
“Can everybody show me…?” (Instead just say “Show me…” , “Do you want to do
that?” (unless you really want their opinion and they have a choice), ending sentences
with “Ok?”
 You didn’t quite follow the plan in the book which might have been your plan and that’s
ok. I do think it would have been beneficial to say poem with patting the rhythm they’d
be playing before getting in front of instruments.
 Have a rest position for the mallets so they’re not playing when you don’t want them to. I
usually say “shoulders” where they hold the ball end of the mallet on their shoulders.
 Need to review the instrument technique listed in plan. They haven’t played barred
instruments much this year and even if they have I find I have to review this technique to
some degree every time any grade level plays them.
o bouncing on the bar, playing in the middle, short stick height, fingers
wrapped/pointer fingers not pointing out, mallets point inward hands are like
you’re holding handlebars of a bike, not playing too hard
 Be careful calling things with different names the same thing- xylophone (wood) vs
metallophone (metal), and song (sung) vs chant (spoken)
 Have everyone say chant including students on the rug
 Have a way to get them silent – “Voices off”
 Could have assigned pitches on the barred instruments to have them play instead of any
random pitches/bars, could have the yellow post-its on those pitches or take off bars not
being used
 Could take tempo a little faster to have the rotation get through faster
 Would have had the line of kids waiting sit instead of stand. They were restless and more
likely to move around and talk when they were standing
 I know it’s hard to correct individual students when you don’t know their names and
they’re not sitting in their seating chart spots, but if you did know names you’d want to
correct individual students who had incorrect technique or who were playing at the wrong
time

Teacher Signature __Gretchen Hartsook__