The candidate understands the central concepts, tools of inquiry, and structures of the discipline(s) he or she teaches and creates content-specific learning and literacy experiences that make the discipline accessible and relevant to assure mastery of the content.
Music teachers must know about central concepts, tools of inquiry, and structures of the discipline of music that they teach. If teachers do not have a solid understanding of fundamental musicianship, how can they be expected to teach it properly? Teachers must know how to break down the concepts of tone, pitch, timbre, theory, etc. into feasible, accessible, and relevant ways for students to achieve understanding.
My student teaching gave me a chance to exercise my creativity as a teacher in ways that would help students of all ages understand the items discussed in the prompt. I was privileged to be able to work with students from preschool up to 12th grade in unique ways that assisted them in their iconic understanding of music, aural abilities, technical abilities, and much more. My focus classes for this prompt are the kindergarten I worked with at my elementary placement, the middle school and high school bands with a specific articulations game/exercise, and the high school jazz band.
One of the best successes I had with making the lessons I was teaching accessible and relevant was incorporating games during my practice lessons (within the prepare, present, practice sequence). Kindergarten was working on the concept of sound vs. silence and understanding how the two work together to make music. In order to provide students with a variation of ways to engage in this concept, I developed a game that worked on sound vs. silence in an aural, visual, and kinesthetic sense (Reference artifact #1, Kindergarten Sound and Silence).
The middle school bands all know an exercise called "Concentration" which is introduced at the 6th grade level (first year of middle school). This is an articulation exercise that works on an ensembles ability to articulate short, clean, and together while playing the correct rhythms (working on subdivision of the beat). I had the privilege of being able to start those lessons with the 6th grade band and continue working on them with various scales at the 7th - high school levels. This game added a new layer of focus on listening and counting as each section only played one measure while adding an element of friendly competition for the ultimate glory of whatever section won (Reference artifact #2, Concentration Game - Scale Contest).
One of the best ways that a teacher can demonstrate that they know the fundamentals of teaching is having several ways of presenting and practicing a concept with a specific sequence. I was able to practice this with the high school jazz band when they were working on learning their blues scales as well as the style of swing music. The group had done lots of playing blues scales with music and then working on memorizing them. From there, they had done lots of listening to several jazz groups for an idea of the swing style but were having a very difficult time transitioning that knowledge to what they were actually playing in their solos. The method I used to bridge this gap for the most part after teaching them the primary fundamentals of listening and the technical abilities to play the scale was a modeling game that I used during warmups (Reference artifact #3, Jazz Call and Response Lessons). This allowed students a way to practice all the skills they had been working on as well as develop the style by listening to my example with practice immediately following.
I like to think of myself as being a very creative teacher. One of my goals is to really know my students and understand what makes each one click. When teaching fundamental concepts I constantly ask them what they enjoy and what they don't. Often times if students are struggling with a concept, we simply need to find a new way to structure it and present it to them. If we can make the content we are teaching personally accessible and relevant to each student then we have promoted significant learning of fundamentals and music within our classroom. As teachers we must find fun ways of engaging in material and give students multiple ways to look at it. As teachers, we must have those tools and abilities to bring a variety of educational tools to the classroom. I think outside the box so that I can bring the most relevant and exciting material to my students.
My student teaching gave me a chance to exercise my creativity as a teacher in ways that would help students of all ages understand the items discussed in the prompt. I was privileged to be able to work with students from preschool up to 12th grade in unique ways that assisted them in their iconic understanding of music, aural abilities, technical abilities, and much more. My focus classes for this prompt are the kindergarten I worked with at my elementary placement, the middle school and high school bands with a specific articulations game/exercise, and the high school jazz band.
One of the best successes I had with making the lessons I was teaching accessible and relevant was incorporating games during my practice lessons (within the prepare, present, practice sequence). Kindergarten was working on the concept of sound vs. silence and understanding how the two work together to make music. In order to provide students with a variation of ways to engage in this concept, I developed a game that worked on sound vs. silence in an aural, visual, and kinesthetic sense (Reference artifact #1, Kindergarten Sound and Silence).
The middle school bands all know an exercise called "Concentration" which is introduced at the 6th grade level (first year of middle school). This is an articulation exercise that works on an ensembles ability to articulate short, clean, and together while playing the correct rhythms (working on subdivision of the beat). I had the privilege of being able to start those lessons with the 6th grade band and continue working on them with various scales at the 7th - high school levels. This game added a new layer of focus on listening and counting as each section only played one measure while adding an element of friendly competition for the ultimate glory of whatever section won (Reference artifact #2, Concentration Game - Scale Contest).
One of the best ways that a teacher can demonstrate that they know the fundamentals of teaching is having several ways of presenting and practicing a concept with a specific sequence. I was able to practice this with the high school jazz band when they were working on learning their blues scales as well as the style of swing music. The group had done lots of playing blues scales with music and then working on memorizing them. From there, they had done lots of listening to several jazz groups for an idea of the swing style but were having a very difficult time transitioning that knowledge to what they were actually playing in their solos. The method I used to bridge this gap for the most part after teaching them the primary fundamentals of listening and the technical abilities to play the scale was a modeling game that I used during warmups (Reference artifact #3, Jazz Call and Response Lessons). This allowed students a way to practice all the skills they had been working on as well as develop the style by listening to my example with practice immediately following.
I like to think of myself as being a very creative teacher. One of my goals is to really know my students and understand what makes each one click. When teaching fundamental concepts I constantly ask them what they enjoy and what they don't. Often times if students are struggling with a concept, we simply need to find a new way to structure it and present it to them. If we can make the content we are teaching personally accessible and relevant to each student then we have promoted significant learning of fundamentals and music within our classroom. As teachers we must find fun ways of engaging in material and give students multiple ways to look at it. As teachers, we must have those tools and abilities to bring a variety of educational tools to the classroom. I think outside the box so that I can bring the most relevant and exciting material to my students.