Feedback Blog 1

Who: Classroom Instructor

Date of Activity: March 22nd

Date of Feedback: March 30th

The Need: There are a handful of 8th grade band students that are performing beyond their grade level in this area. Because they are seen as gifted, they are not being provided with extra lessons to expand and improve their abilities. This activity focuses on teaching these students the musical scales that they will be required to know by memory if they choose to continue with band into high school. This activity also allows these students to be challenge by new material that has not been covered in class yet, as well as expand their knowledge and abilities on their individual instruments.

Blog: 

In this activity, students were asked to memorize the Concert F and B-flat major scales at whatever speed and rhythm was most comfortable for them. The activity began by having each student slowly play the notes for each scale in ascending and descending order. During this process, I would tell the student which note to play, have them hold it for a few beats, and then tell them which note to play next. I then have the students play the notes by reading them on their scales pages, which I had provided prior to the lesson, without me saying the notes out loud. Finally, I had the students turn their stands around and attempt to play the first 5 notes by memory. Once this was successful, I then had them play the entire scale without looking. As expected, this took several tries and a lot of patience from the students, but at the end of each lesson, each student was able to perform both scales by memory. To test their retention, each student was asked to either record themselves playing the scales by memory or perform them for me via zoom in the following lesson before we began to work on the next set of scales. Each student was successful in being able to retain the information that they had previously learned.

So far, my experience with these students has been wonderful. They have all been incredibly eager to learn and have been more than receptive to the new material. Since beginning activity 1, my students have been able to successfully memorize 6 major scales (all of the “flat” scales). So far, I have learned that I am very good at adapting to their learning needs. Rather than having one set way to teach these scales, I always go into the individual lessons with at least 3 ways to say the same thing. Since working with the students, I have been able to learn their learning styles and adapt my teaching strategies to fit all of their needs. Though I have been able to easily adapt to each student’s needs, I believe that I could do a better job at responding more quickly. I have noticed that there have been a few instances where the student has asked me a question and I have to pause for a few seconds before answering them. Though this has not seemed to cause any issues, I do believe that I could be more efficient with my time if I was prepared to answer these questions beforehand.

Before beginning this project, I made the assumption that the parents of this community were not heavily involved in their children’s music education. Boy was I wrong! Since I have began working with these “star students,” I have found that each parent, including those of the average or underperforming students, is heavily interested and involved in their child’s music education. This came as a huge surprise to me. I expected one or two parents to be involved, but not every parent! This is the type of parent involvement that I hope to have with my future programs!

Overall, I have discovered that I have been incredible successful with the activities done thus far. I have been able to build strong relationships with each of my students to the point that they look forward to their bi-weekly lessons with me! (This comment is coming directly from classroom parents, students, and the instructor.) The most uncomfortable and challenging thing so far has been when I am unable to answer a student’s questions. There have been several times where I have openly had to tell a student that I did not know the answer to their question. However, I am proud to say that I have always told them that even though I do not know the answer, I will figure it out and answer them in our next lesson. That is the best skill that I have learned so far. Instead of accepting the idea of not knowing, I have sought out answers for my students no matter how embarrassing it may be for me.

No that I have found my weaknesses, I will be better prepared to answer possible questions in Activity 2. Rather than pausing or saying “I don’t know, but I will find out,” I plan to go to the lesson with possible answers in mind. I also plan to ask my students if the would like to meet for an extra 30 minutes for each lesson. I plan to do this because each student has expressed excitement for our interactions.