An important aspect of teaching is understanding how your students are learning and reflecting on how your teaching is effecting their growth. Here is a rubric I developed in the fall semester for my assessment assignment but tweaked to use this past semester in my 8th grade band class. We had been focusing quite a bit on articualtion, especially in the melodic theme in On the Edge of Tomorrow. Many students were having difficulty matching articulation even after using syllables and modeling to teach so I decided to use a rubric to show them exactly where they need to improve. Using a rubric is a great way for students to clearly see what their areas of strengths and areas of weaknesses are.
Here is a link for my teacher work sample website from my fall course. The website shows assessment tools and results as well as information about a related arts presentation I gave to my graduate class.
Link:
http://filebox.vt.edu/users/kmvaeth/TeachingWebsite/kelleywebsite1index.html
In the fall semester I tested my student's on a piece they were currently working on, Swan Lake. The assessment tool that was used to record data was a rubric (the rubric shown in section III). When administering the playing test the students were very confused and worried but I assured them that this was a pre-test and not graded, just to help me teach better. Below you will see the scores of the pre-test, post-test, and the average, as well as my reflection on the assessment process. Note, the score is out of 40 points.
Reflection
Through the process of assessing my students I have learned that students become very scared and nervous when you give them a "surprise" playing test which could hinder their abilities to perform well. I was very surprsied that many of my students were playing with consistent tone but not playing with differentiated articulation and dynamics. After seeing these results I tailored my instruction to focusing on articulation in the piece "Swan Lake". When administering the second test the students were much more calm and relaxed then before which certainly did help may of them play better along with the additional isntruction in articulation. As you can see all the students above did improve even if by little amounts. In the future I will try to focus more in the individual performers. I've learned that some students can be struggling and it's difficult to notice unless you are doing a playing test, which is why I feel like that is a great assessment because you learn about your students as individual players.
As a teacher we should always be reflecting on our teaching but also on how our students are learning. The past few years I have enjoyed reflecting on how my students were learning and trying to find new ways to teach them. Below you will see one of my first reflections from my elementary music teaching experience, even then I was able to observe that all classes learn differently.
Next you will find two reflections from this past year, one from the end of my fall experience and one from my spring experience showing my reflection on how my students are learning. My growth in the fall was substantial, especially in the areas of being comfortable teaching all instruments (even brass!) and learning how to manage each class. Obviously I had a wonderful experience in the fall and was concerned the next semester wouldn't live up to it but it absolutely did!
December 8, 2012
In this final blog I want to talk about what I’ve learned and the experience I’ve had this semester!
First, I really enjoyed working with the students at RHS and DIS. They understood that I was still learning how to teach and were always encouraging. I’ve learned how to follow/write a lesson plan but how to also deviate from it if necessary. I’ve become much more comfortable being in front of an ensemble as well as learning about each instrument. I’ve become a much stronger player on brass instruments which is an area I felt was weak, as well as learning how to communicate issues on the instruments themselves. I”m really starting to understand the balance that is needed when dealing with students, you can’t constantly be mean to them or let them walk all over you but somewhere in the middle. My ct has told me that you need to have a sense of humor, especially with the beginning band students.
I was lucky enough to be able to conduct and rehearse a piece with the symphonic band which was a change because I was used to rehearsing the small concert band. I’m still having trouble clearly hearing what instrument is having the issue and ways to correct it, particularly with trombones, but my ct told me that is something that comes with time and practice.
After our concert the following day I was at the school I decided I would give each percussionist a sheet of paper to write 3 things I need to know about teaching percussion since I feel like I need to learn more about that. The students were helpful for the most part, some students wrote things like “Give us food” but then they wrote “you need to be strict with us, we don’t listen very well” which was beneficial for me. I even had a student write me a note about how they enjoyed having me with them this semester and they look forward to hearing how I do in the future!
Overall I feel like my strongest areas are classroom management and having very solid lesson plans but I need to work on my error detection skills in a larger ensemble as well as working with students to develop an independence of parts. I really do look forward to do more teaching next semester!
March 24, 2013
This week overall went very well! I feel like my teaching has definitely improved ever since I really started to pay attention on assessing what my students are learning while I’m teaching it. I try to pick one scale in each class that is giving them trouble and break it down for them again like we’re learning it again to practice. I think that’s very important because I remember as a middle school student I would learn scales just for the test then forget after that, these students also do that so I believe every now and then we need to re address those scales to make sure they really do know them. That is proving to be true in our 8th grade class, they “know” the whole circle of the fifths but they definitely have trouble on many scales. In that one class I’ve been doing a breathing scale based on what scale they are week on then supplementing their book to do a study in thirds on that scale then a chorale in that same key, it seems to be working very well!
On Wednesday my teacher was not there and it was only me to teach with the sub. My 6th grade class went VERY well like I talked about in class and I believe it’s like you said, they knew they wouldn’t get away with anything with me there and they would have to listen and pay attentino the whole class. I decided since they were doing so well we would do a rhythm studies game instead of just playing them over and over again, they love the game and it gives me a chance to hear where they have real weaknesses in their rhythms. The 8th grade class was okay but still very talkative and that has been an issue all week. I’ve been trying to think of ways to get them under control and I decided tod o like I said in class and write on the board what time we were starting and that worked very well! They were for the most part in their seats and ready to play, class started off very well. I think one of my issues with that class is that they’re used to being able to talk through the whole class and it’s hard for me to come in and try to change that. When I stand and look at the clock they do get quiet and even one ofmy worst students tries to shush the class, I really love that the students do that for me! I think it means so much more coming from their peers than me constantly trying to get them to be quiet.
I didn’t teach so much on Thursday since myt eacher needed to make a video for an award he’s nominated for so I filmed his teaching. I’ve been teaching almost all the time for a few weeks now and it was interesting to see how the students reacted to his teaching after they had been used to mine. I also got to experience picture day and of course it’s scheduled during elective time, but thats just an obstacle that I’m going to face once I have my own band also.
Something I realized this week is that making connections with each student is so important for how they respond to you in class. I think the field trip we took helped so much in building relatinoships with my students, they even wish I could go with them to New York now! It’s also funny to hear them say that they wish I could be their teacher next year, it makes me feel like I am doing something right even if I feel that I’m being a little mean sometimes. Overall I feel like my teaching is getting stronger and now I really want to try to implement new ways of teaching them rather than just playing through exercises, thats my next goal! I’m sad that I’m a little over halfway done with student teaching but I’m excited to hopefully have my own band next year!
As you can see from the above blog I had stopped assessing how and what my students were learning and began "going through the motions" with my teaching. Once I realized I was doing that and started to focus again I began to really teach and help my students grow, even if it was just with scales. Something important that I learned from this particular experience is that every school has a different personality and you need to adjust how you handle your students to fit that personality, otherwise you will not succeed in teaching them.
A huge part of being a successful band director relies on being able to effectively show phrasing, tempo, style, etc through conducting! For me this has been a weak area in my teaching since sophomore year. I have consistently found opportunities to improve my conducting, whether it be observing successful conductors or taking a graduate conducting course, I have continued to grow! In the video below you will see three quick clips of my conducting from this past year: My winter concert at my fall placement, graduate conducting recital in the winter, and my spring concert a week ago. My conducting technique has made some improvements but the greatest growth conducting wise for me is my confidence in front of the group! I hope in the future to continue to find opportunities to improve as a conductor.