During my junior year as an undergraduate student, I developed lesson plans for my first teaching experiences in an elementary classroom. In the following lesson plan, I taught short songs using the rote method. This being one of my first lesson plans, my method of writing down procedures was very different than it is now. Yet, my focus was to teach melody and rhythm of the song as clearly as possible. At this time in my learning, I also did not have the modifications or assessments listed. As the reflection explains, I learned that I needed to break everything down much more than I had been doing. This is true for most grade levels; the teacher needs to be able to adjust to any situation.
One of my main goals in teaching is to be able to reach every student. This includes students of all levels and abilities. Therefore, I did a case study of a particular student who one would not know right away had an IEP. Yet, it was very important for me to modify my lesson plans for her, even if it was a subtle change. This ultimately helped her as well as others in the class who needed more time to understand certain concepts. It is important to remember that inclusion in the classroom can be positive for all students as long as we create the right learning environment for our students.
When the teacher sets specific goals for the different learners in the class, each student has a chance to learn at their own speed. The following lesson plan is adapted for learners of different needs. The content of the lesson is the same, but the approach is modified to help them stay focused. I found that this was a great learning experience that helped me realize just how much detail needs to go into my lesson planning.
Although there is a plethora of music to choose from, the ability to arrange music is certainly a skill that will aid in the classroom. Sometimes, certain arrangements may not fit the level of the students you are teaching. If the teacher and/or students want to sing this song, the teacher can arrange the piece to fit their needs. This can also be helpful when creating warmups to address certain aspect of music the choir needs to work on.
Being able to analyze a score definitely helped when I arranged the Russian Hymn score for my orchestration class. It was important to know how to express what I wanted from the orchestra in my arrangement. Although I have done arrangements before, this project presented a challenge of combining the many timbres of an orchestra.
The link below displays my arrangement of the Russian Hymn set for an orchestra:
As a teacher, finding reliable resources aids immensely in building a good music program. As I explored my options for the budget project, literature project, and other projects, I realized just how much these websites would help me in the future. Making sure that each website is reliable, helps in the creative process of being a teacher. Getting new and exciting ideas will help create a great classroom environment!
