M344 Peer Repertoire Teaching Reflection Guidelines

(adapted from EdTPA)

Your response (including the prompts themselves) should be approximately 3 single-spaced

pages. (Use lots of detail and specific examples throughout. This will be important for EdTPA.)

Promoting a Positive Learning Environment

1. How did you demonstrate mutual respect for, rapport with, and responsiveness to
students with varied needs and backgrounds, and challenge students to engage in
learning?
I sang through the song once by myself once and briefly explained the lyrics to the students
who may not have sung “Bingo” before. I also instructed students to listen to their neighbors if
they did not get the lyrics the first time. Because the song was sung all the way through six
separate times, all students had the time to learn the lyrics and the melody. There were no
students in the classroom with mobility impairments, but if there were, I would have modified
the section where we stood up, as well as making sure that the dance moves were appropriate for
the situation. I also asked students to come up with dance moves for the whole class. This
allowed students to exercise their motor-creativity skills and didn't force students who aren't
comfortable making up dance moves to do so. Throughout this lesson, I appeared to be much
more enthusiastic in my teaching – through the use of vocal inflection, facial expression, and
pacing of the lesson. This isn't to say that I am not engaged in the lesson regularly – I just don't
express it the same way that most people do. By expanding outside of my comfort zone in this
way, I showed respect for students that need engaging interpersonal interaction to be fully
engaged in the lesson.

Engaging Students in Learning

2. Explain how your instruction engaged students in developing and applying:
a. knowledge/skills (e.g., tools/instruments, technical proficiencies, processes,
elements, organizational principles)
b. contextual understandings (e.g., social, cultural, historical, global, personal
reflection), AND/OR
c. artistic expression (e.g., interpretation, creativity, exploration/improvisation,
individual choices).
In this lesson, students engaged in knowledge developing learning in several ways, including
vocabulary, executing correct rhythms, playing in a stylistically appropriate manner, and for
some students, learning the lyrics to the song "Bingo." The new vocabulary word addressed in
this lesson was "variations," which was defined for the class by Ben as "when you take
something and then you change it." While this is not a fully fleshed-out definition, it was good
enough for the lesson. This was immediately related to the music that the students were looking
at, which included variations on the melody we had just sung as a class, with the variations
printed in gray. They then heard the teacher model the variations, which allowed for an aural
association with the vocabulary, as well as an informal assessment, as the students raised their
hands every time they heard something that was changed from the original. The knowledge-
based learning about rhythm centered around the concept of rests and strategies students can use
to make sure they are paying attention to when rests occur. This centered around the students
visually identifying a rest that they had accidentally played in earlier, the teacher instructing
them to play it again but this time stomp in the rest, and then to complete the activity. The
combined movement and aural marking of the rest made students process the rest visually,
aurally and kinesthetically. The stylistic component of this lesson was unplanned and mainly
directed at the trombone player, but it was still a relevant and necessary concept for the whole
class. One trombone player was misarticulating a slur, which must be lightly tongued on the
trombone to prevent a glissando. Ben was also leaving the first note early to accommodate for
the glissando, creating unwanted dissonance. I chose to teach this conceptually rather than
directly, as it would apply to more of the class this way. I asked students to identify which way
was better aurally and then I related the half notes to the lyrics in the song and pointed out how
it’s an immediate change between the notes, not a gradual one. We then articulated the two notes
instead of slurring them, reinforcing the concept. If this continued to be an issue, I would address
the trombone player more directly and talk about how he needed to articulate notes very lightly
while slurring to prevent this. We also addressed the concept of form indirectly through the
dance moves. During the narrative part of the song, we did the disco dance move and during the
spelling portion, we did a contrasting downward punching motion before returning to the disco
move briefly. This aligned with the AB(a) form of the song and was a form of kinesthetic and
aural experiential learning rather than defining the form verbally.

The main contextual aspect of this lesson was the fact that I related it to a common American
folk song by singing it through in its original form. If I had more time in the lesson, I could have
related this to earlier versions of the English folk song that this version came out of and the
broader folk tradition of spelling songs. Regardless, the singing activity encouraged students to
draw connections between the song in their books, the concept of variations and the folk song
that many of them knew from prior experiences outside of the classroom.

The main artistic expression involved in this lesson plan involved the incorporation of dance
moves and having the students pick dance moves to pair with the song. This gave the students a
great deal of creative freedom to come up with something that fit the style of the song and then
the ability to perform the dance move in a way that worked for them individually. The students
also made an artistic decision about the length of the eighth notes when we played through the
variations together, in the process learning that they could decide about whether to play these
notes short or long.

3. Describe how the instruction linked students’ prior academic learning and personal,
cultural, and community assets with new learning.
By introducing variations to a well-known folk song, I introduced a musical concept to
something that already existed in the broader cultural sphere. We also expanded on the prior
academic learning concerning rhythms and rests, particularly eighth notes, quarter rests and half
notes. By stomping in the quarter rests, we reinforced the idea that you have to be an active
musician during rests – students should not just check out when they are not playing a note, they
should be counting in their heads and listening to the rest of the group.

Analyzing Teaching
4. What changes would you make to the instruction—for the whole class and/or for students
who need greater support or challenge—to better support student learning?
If I were to do this lesson again, I would print out the original melody and have students play
the original version through at least once, making the process more gradual and directly relating
it to the previous activity, instead of taking multiple steps at once. I would assign an optional
homework activity where students either vary the pitches of the variation rhythms or come up
with their rhythmic variation, with optional pitch variations. I would then mention that we would
play through these student compositions as a class the following Monday. To reinforce the
concept of variations in band music, I could play “Variations on a Korean Folk Song” by John
Barnes Chance or “Fantaisie Brillante” by Jean-Baptiste Arban for the class and ask them
comprehension questions about aspects of the melody that were varied throughout the piece. I
would spend a little more time teaching the lyrics and the melody by rote as this wouldn’t take
that much time and would increase student participation overall. I would also make sure to be
consistent in following my instructions. At one point, I said we would sing through the song
twice, but we only ended up singing through the song once. This could be confusing for students
and reduces the value of my instructions for future activities. Instead of modeling by myself
throughout the lesson, I would provide the opportunity for a student to model for the class.
Students should hear their teacher play something correctly with a characteristic sound at times,
but it can also be a learning experience for them to hear their peers play something for the class.
Finally, I would include more planned activities in my lesson plan so that I would have options
for what to do if we got through the lesson quicker than I expected to.

5. Why do you think these changes would improve student learning? Support your
explanation with evidence of student learning you observed (or didn’t observe).
By printing out the original melody and having students play through it before addressing the
variations aspect of the lesson, students that aren’t as adept at sightreading as their peers would
have a greater chance of success. This would also be a more logical sequence for the lesson to
follow. The optional composition activity would encourage creativity for driven students,
motivate students that may not be quite as driven and incorporate composition in a way that is
non-threatening and doesn’t take up a lot of class time. This is because students are more likely
to explore new ways of doing things when they aren't graded on the project and it provides
students an opportunity to display their creativity for their peers and friends. This is also
incorporated with the idea of discovery-based learning, as I would provide space for them to flex
their creative muscles and then provide feedback, even if it isn't for a grade. This would also aid
in reinforcing the concept of variations for students that struggle with remembering vocabulary if
they don’t have a chance to apply concepts. By providing examples of pieces centered around the
concept of variations, I provide another way to understand this concept: through the definition,
by playing a variation and by hearing one, both in and out of context of the piece being played in
class.

Grading Rubric
25 21 17 13
All questions are All questions are Questions are Writing contains
answered in a answered in a mostly answered in a many errors. All
thorough manner. thorough manner. somewhat thorough questions are
Writing consistently Writing usually manner. Answers to answered in a
demonstrates demonstrates one or more minimally thorough
thoughtfulness and thoughtfulness and questions may be manner. Answers to
attention to detail. attention to detail. missing. Writing some questions may
sometimes be missing. Writing
demonstrates rarely demonstrates
thoughtfulness and thoughtfulness and
attention to detail. attention to detail.