6th Grade Student: “Adam”

Adam is a percussionist in 6th Grade band. Due to additional resources he receives

during the school day, band is one of the few times he has a chance to feel like he is involved in

a group activity. I noticed that Adam both in music and in other classrooms was very willing to

do what was asked of him, but needed to be prompted, and only seemed to retain one task at a

time. Specifically in music, he would arrive on time, and then sit on a stool while his percussion

counterparts set-up the room for rehearsal. He was not being lazy or defiant, he just not absorb

the similar routines that other students did without being reminded every class.

Similarly, in his coding and in his reading classes, I observed him execute the first verbal

instruction, and they patiently sit and wait for a teacher to notice he needed to know what to start

next. I believe he heard the instructions because he would smile at teachers’ jokes, and respond

in other ways through body language. My impression is that he has a disconnect somewhere in

his ability to receive and process information.

Based on these observations I recommended to my cooperating teacher that we take

pictures of what the percussion section should look like in preparation for rehearsal, and what it

should look like at the end of class just before dismissal. We also created a list for him to

accomplish in the same order every day, because one day he realized he needed to grab his

music, but then walked back to his section and did not know what to do with it because there was

not a stand for him to place it on. With these modifications he quickly became self-sufficient,

and as an unintended consequence, the other percussionists became more organized because

there were clearly laid expectations.

 In addition to helping Adam with routine tasks, we also modified his sheet music because

he was not having success with his given part. We simplified his parts in Finale, added numbers

on top of the measures to help him count, and enlarged the font size to meet his identified visual

impairment on his IEP. However, even with these modifications, he still struggled to play a

repeating rhythm of quarter notes on 1 and 4, with rests on beats 2 and 3.

His elementary school aid happened to came to the middle school for a teacher

development session, and afterwards I asked her many questions. Regarding counting, she said

that Adam took a long time to have success with counting consecutively, so telling him that 1

comes after 4 in a sequence of 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 etc was going to take a significant amount of

retraining. My cooperating teacher and I agreed that the best thing for Adam was simply for him

to feel like he was contributing to the group, so we amended his part further to only play on beat

one, and teach him what a downbeat looks like in conducting so he can focus on that visual cue

to play his part.

 8th Grade Student: “Katie”

Katie is a flute player in 8th Grade band. I choose her because by the 7th week of

school she had already missed more than 10 days. Because her parents always excuse her

absences she is not technically a truancy case, but if anything this only caused more

frustration with the staff at my middle school placement because there was less they

could do to get her to come to school.

Katie’s family system consists of her mother, father, and older sister. Her older

sister was also a student with chronic absences, and eventually left public school to be

homeschooled. Her absenteeism greatly affects her ability to form healthy relationships

with her peers. Her math teacher shared with me that most of her class time consists of

differentiated groupwork, and while in the beginning of the year her peers were willing to

help her, more recently they were raising their hands to inform the teacher that she

needed to teach Katie the material she missed because they were not willing to anymore.

In music class Katie has a reserved demeanor, but is a cooperative learner. While

she obviously missed many days of instruction, she produces a great flute sound, and

learns her parts quickly, so she is able to contribute positively to the ensemble when she

is there.

My middle school placement was a very small school. There were less than 20

faculty members, and they were all very close, and in constant communication with each

other. At lunch we frequently asked the school counselor about Katie’s progress, and

what we could do to support her. As the end of the first quarter approached she was

failing all of her classes to include band, and some teachers were torn on whether to give
additional opportunities for her to turn in her work and make-up assessments, or if they

should fail her to reflect how little she did. The guidance counselor said we needed to

fail her because at this point the parents needed a wake-up call. While we wanted to

show compassion for Katie, without the parents support the situation was futile, and they

as a family were already under advisory with the school because of how many days she

missed the year before.

I publicly cheered for Katie when she came to music class, and told her that I was

so excited for her to be there. My cooperating teacher and I both regularly complimented

her tone, and made every effort to encourage her, as well as let her know that she was a

great contribution to the group. Beyond that, I do not know how to help a student that

does not come to school.

 1st Grade Student: “Tommy”

Tommy is highly emotional, and in the process of learning how to self-regulate.

He is a 1st Grader with an IEP for Speech, specifically to develop his S. However, many

teachers are also aware of his behavioral challenges. With this being his first year at this

elementary school, the faculty have very limited information on him prior to this school

year.

I specifically noticed him because on my first day he moved to sit next to me, and

grew physically closer and closer as he became increasingly more upset, which

culminated to him crying while sitting on my lap by the end of class. The music room

has a cozy cube for students to ask to retreat to when they desire space, and Tommy is a

frequent flyer. Prior to my arrival my cooperating teacher was brainstorming how to

diminish the appeal of the cozy cube, and set limits to it, because Tommy would want to

spend the entire class in it, and this upset the other students who wanted a turn. While a

cozy cube sounds like a positive tool in theory, with this particular class my cooperating

teacher found it to be more of a disruption to learning.

While observing Tommy in his 1st Grade classroom I noticed that he was

regularly out of his seat showcasing his work to his teacher, and her student teacher. He

liked receiving high fives, and attention from adults. In contrast, other students stayed in

their seats, and got in trouble for talking too much to each other. Tommy was more

active than every other student both in terms of participating in his own learning by

raising his hand consistently to answer questions, as well as physically standing up to talk
to adults while the rest of the class was writing down examples of communities, and

brainstorming a summarizing sentence together.

While talking to Tommy’s Speech aid, she mentioned that he is highly motivated

by the promise of playing a game at the end of their sessions. Sometimes she offers

stickers or good behavior school “cash”, but interacting with adults in a game is the

biggest incentive for him. She also informed me that his mom is good about supporting

his Speech goals at home, but is not overly involved in his progress. The aid was unsure

about the rest of his family system, but in an art piece he drew three people when asked

to represent his family, so potentially he has two adults in his life, or his mom and a

sibling.

Due to Tommy, I have thought considerably about how to modify my teaching

practices for learners who desire more adult attention than their peers. I have also

thought extensively about whether I would have a cozy cube or equivalent in my future

classroom due to the pros and cons I have noticed. One day my cooperating teacher

decided to close the cozy cube, and he had a complete meltdown. He was not angry, he

was devastated. I was thankful to have the opportunity to sit with him, but what would I

have done if I was the only teacher in the room? Mostly with Tommy my approach was

to be hyper aware of his desire to receive adult recognition, so I made an effort to be

intentional about giving him an opportunity to speak or play music about the beginning,

middle, and end of every class, without being out of balance from his peers.
 5th Grade Student: “Rosie”

Rosie caught my attention in our second class when I was pulling learners out

individually for a pre-test, and she told me her name, followed by an immediate apology for any

confusion I may have with her feminine name, and masicline appearance. This really caught me

by surprise, but also deeply saddened me that this 5th grader had clearly already had several

instances where she felt the need to explain herself to adults. I immediately reassured her that

her appearance did not bother me in any way, and that she should not feel the need to explain

herself to others. I also asked her what her preferred pronouns were, and when she did not know

what that meant I clarified he/him, she/her, or they/their. She answered she/her, and then we

went about the pre-test.

Later when I had a chance to talk to my cooperating teacher about this experience, she

was shocked that Rosie spoke to me, and even more so that she shared so much. In her

experience, Rosie typically keeps to herself, and is not very vocal with teachers or peers. We

decided she would be a great choice to get to know further, and brainstorm ways we could

improve the learning environment for her.

Rosie does not have an IEP or 504 Plan, so my primary information stems from strictly

observing her. In music class she is a very cooperative learner. She always appears to be

engaged, and attentive to instruction. Additionally, she does not speak or play out of turn. When

I observed her in science class she was equally on task. However, I noticed that she was one of

the few students who was not looking at the teacher giving verbal instructions. She was

executing what the science teacher was directing the students to do, but she maintained eye

contact with her paper a large majority of the time.

 Later when students were dismissed to continue working on their group projects, I was

quite happy to see her enjoying working with her peers. Many smiles and little laughs were

exchanged while they talked through their ideas, and cut and assembled their science models.

They all seemed to work well together; they had their tasks divided, and worked cooperatively to

share the workload.

Rosie is an excellent example of how everyone requires differentiation. For all intents

and purposes she is a successful student. She could easily fall under the radar due to her quiet

demeanor and achievement of the standards. However, she also is an example of why we should

consider removing the unnecessary overuse of gender division in our classrooms. Instead of

having a boys and girls bathroom pass, just have two bathroom passes. Instead of saying boys

do this and girls do this, say if you have a birthday between January and June do this, and if you

have a birthday between July and December do this. This simple change in language has the

potential to greatly improve some students’ level of comfortability in your classroom.