Reflecting on Teaching and Learning
The goal of this Series of Lessons was to have students engage in the three artistic processes of Creating, Performing, and Assessing. The students were able to create a cover song through performing and recording. In addition, students also created the backbone of the arrangement by using their ideas rather than mine. As a result, they were able to assess their own progress through listening back to the material they created. This led to further discussion and collaboration as they met to accomplish a goal through Creating, Performing, and Assessing.
In order to help students reach a point where they could complete a task involving Ear Training, Transcribing, Arranging, and Recording, there had to be quite a bit of scaffolding. As seen in the video, students were tasked with creating an arrangement of Mary Had a Little Lamb. This part of the project was led by myself, but I involved the students in recording, arranging, and sharing my ideas. They were able to learn through seeing and doing exactly what I was doing which set them up quite well for their end of the project.
One of the reasons this project was successful was the atmosphere the students were able to learn in. When it came to playing for each other, the students were extremely comfortable. There was never a concern for judgement or disappointment, but each student genuinely wanted to succeed as an individual so they could contribute. At many points during this process, students were quite encouraging as they supported each other instead of displaying annoyance or frustration. I found this to be the best way to complete this project as the students were able to enjoy the process rather than fear it.
Though I consider this project a great success, I believe there are multiple ways I can improve upon my ideas. The factors of my teaching which caused the most hinderance to learning stemmed from my assumptions. For example, the first assessment I gave the students was a "Pre-Test" of their listening skills. My goal was to determine how quickly we would be able to process information by having them complete a rhythmic dictation. However, though the students knew every rhythm I gave them, they were all jolted by the idea of having to transcribe the information because they had never done so before. The same goes for all of the Music Theory information I focused on. Much of listening can be simplified if everyone is on the same level of understanding, but I did not start us at this point. In the future, I would spend a lot more time preparing for these types of situations at the beginning of a project rather than focusing so heavily on the end.
In order to help students reach a point where they could complete a task involving Ear Training, Transcribing, Arranging, and Recording, there had to be quite a bit of scaffolding. As seen in the video, students were tasked with creating an arrangement of Mary Had a Little Lamb. This part of the project was led by myself, but I involved the students in recording, arranging, and sharing my ideas. They were able to learn through seeing and doing exactly what I was doing which set them up quite well for their end of the project.
One of the reasons this project was successful was the atmosphere the students were able to learn in. When it came to playing for each other, the students were extremely comfortable. There was never a concern for judgement or disappointment, but each student genuinely wanted to succeed as an individual so they could contribute. At many points during this process, students were quite encouraging as they supported each other instead of displaying annoyance or frustration. I found this to be the best way to complete this project as the students were able to enjoy the process rather than fear it.
Though I consider this project a great success, I believe there are multiple ways I can improve upon my ideas. The factors of my teaching which caused the most hinderance to learning stemmed from my assumptions. For example, the first assessment I gave the students was a "Pre-Test" of their listening skills. My goal was to determine how quickly we would be able to process information by having them complete a rhythmic dictation. However, though the students knew every rhythm I gave them, they were all jolted by the idea of having to transcribe the information because they had never done so before. The same goes for all of the Music Theory information I focused on. Much of listening can be simplified if everyone is on the same level of understanding, but I did not start us at this point. In the future, I would spend a lot more time preparing for these types of situations at the beginning of a project rather than focusing so heavily on the end.