Clarity of Instructional Purpose and Accuracy of Content

I. To what extent does the teacher demonstrate depth of important content knowledge and conduct the class with a clear and ambitious purpose, reflective of the standards for the discipline and appropriate to the students' levels of knowledge and skill?

Score Study

II. To what degree are the elements of a lesson (the sequence of topics, instructional strategies, and materials and resources) well designed and executed, and aligned with the purpose of the lesson?

Lesson planning

III. To what extent are they designed to engage students in high-level learning in the discipline?

IV. To what extent did the teacher make adaptations to the lesson?

Mandalorian lesson

Lessons adaptations

V. To what extent did the teacher use formative assessment to check for student understanding?

Sample of polls

I. To what extent does the teacher demonstrate depth of important content knowledge and conduct the class with a clear and ambitious purpose, reflective of the standards for the discipline and appropriate to the students' levels of knowledge and skill?

Score Study

Tonight score.pdf

Here is one example, from Chamber Orchestra's repertoire, of score study. Notice the attention to classic score study principles, such as red designating forte or crescendi while blue signifies the opposite: piano e diminuendi. This coding allows free expression in the moment since the colors make the score easier to read.

Listen

Here is another example score study, completed on a repertoire selection from Orchestra class. With this, a less traditional approach was taken. The score was used to understand the rich harmonies and the chord progressions. As you scroll, you'll find many vertically highlighted areas which collect all of the pitches in a particular harmony.

Listen

A Prayer For Peace score.pdf

II. To what degree are the elements of a lesson (the sequence of topics, instructional strategies, and materials and resources) well designed and executed, and aligned with the purpose of the lesson?

Lesson planning

To the right, a typical lesson plan is displayed. The purpose of the lesson is stated at the onset and the instructional strategies and sequence of lesson all relate back to that topic. This lesson could have been part of a larger unit on articulation, but the wonderful part of teaching orchestra is its inherent spiral nature.

Lesson Plan 11/2/20

III. To what extent are they designed to engage students in high-level learning in the discipline?

Lessons this year have become integral in engaging in challenging materials. Since lessons are smaller, they have provided more challenging material. The focus has been on individual solos, or duos for the seniors. At the beginning of the lesson, we review the intervals of a major scale, and use that as a point of reference for the minor scale. Each week, we have done a different scale each week. That is our warm up. Then, we might warm up in the key of the piece they're about to play. Depending on the solo or their duet partner, I put them into Zoom break out rooms. They are never alone in the break out room, so they always have an opportunity to ask their peer a question or try playing some measures for them and get feedback as I make the rounds through each room.

What works well about this lesson structure is the freedom resultant from consistency. In other words, since everyone knows what to expect, the pieces become the focus. In the latter half of the third quarter, and as we have become better at our piece, we have a mini master class. I close the break out rooms and one or a few students who wants to share their progress plays for us. We each give specific praise, and then I summarize it. It is a great opportunity for their peers to actively listen and try to give constructive comments beyond "it was good!"

IV. To what extent did the teacher make adaptations to the lesson?

Mandalorian lesson

The plan was to have the Mandalorian be a fun one-day lesson:

Listen to the Mandalorian theme.
Look at the sheet music.
Record and submit to Schoology.

It would be great practice for the students to listen to a piece, maybe some of them would have recognized it from watching the show, and then practice recording. Once I listened to many students' recordings, I realized that the majority of them could be significantly improved. Thus, instead of my original plan, the rest of the week became a mini unit on the pitches and rhythms of the Mandalorian theme.

Monday served as a pre assessment and Thursday as an opportunity to re-record with improvements
Tuesday could be spent breaking it down and talking to the students about the various important aspects
Students would then be aware that rhythm and pitch were the most challenging aspects

It turned out to be a great opportunity to dive deeper into rhythmic and pitch integrity. And we all had fun!

Lessons adaptations

This was the year, if any, of adaptations! In section V., you'll read more about my Highview adaptations, going from in person lessons, to virtual, and now back to in person. At the high school too, every lesson had to be fresh and in the moment. Depending on the lesson group, the period I pull them out, the day of the week, and many other factors, I will have a vastly differently combination of students with different interests and knowledge. You'll find the schedule below, left. Let's take Group A for example. As much as possible, I have put students into groups based on their grade, aptitude, NYSSMA participation, etc. In Group A, Riya and Chloe are both doing NYSSMA. But I may only have Jessica and Melana for a lesson one day and I have to rethink not only my plan for the day but also how this will impact the trajectory of lessons the following weeks. That's why I created a the Benchmarks for solo works, to the right. Even if a student misses a lesson, they are still responsible for the particular focus for the week, and they know what to expect for next week. In addition, students are required to sign up for Office Hours if they miss a lesson. It's a ten minute check in, I use the Benchmarks for reference, and I mainly focus on how they week has been going, or if their test went well, so they know I care.

HS Orchestra Lesson Schedule Q3

Benchmarks for solo works

V. To what extent did the teacher use formative assessment to check for student understanding?

Formative assessment manifests in various ways in the music classroom, but became a particular challenge with remote and hybrid learning this year. For high school lessons, students were able to either play for their peers or go into break out rooms and play just for me. Both options allowed for maximal student comfort while being an opportunity for formative assessment. Then, I can give the most accurate feedback. I didn't have this knowledge at the start of Zoom lessons. We spent many weeks with students staying muted for most of the time. We couldn't play altogether and even when I would attempt to hear students, bandwidth, lag, and other technical issues were obstacles. For those weeks, weekly recording assignments were implemented while the synchronous time was devoted to other demonstrations of learning (verbal, written, or visual signs of comprehension). Once I began using break out rooms, I found that the classes flowed well.

However, for Highview, the online lessons could not work the same way. I tried using break out rooms, but they would take more time than they were worth, and all of the other students remaining in the large room would not know what to do. I then decided to have the beginning students, whether third or fourth graders, to stay muted and pay close attention to the visual feedback and the chat messages I received from them. The more I did it, the better I got and the more flexible and adaptive I could be.

Here is one really successful activity that worked well with Highview virtual lessons: the Bow Crawl. I introduced the principle and explained how the bow race worked, what the rules were, etc. Soon enough, the students began asking, "Can we have a bow race?" Such a great activity to have everyone doing the same thing, and easy to see, week to week, who had been practicing and who still needed more dexterity work in their bow hand (right hand).

Here is a sample of a portion of a lesson in a break out room. The student is a fourth grader, one of the more advanced students, and is mature enough that the lesson goes rather efficiently.

Sample of polls

Polling has become such an important part of my class this year and I can tell it will continue to hold an integral role for years to come. With 60 students, and hopefully more every year, there is no way to personably interact with each of them and assess accurately each day. However, with a quick poll at the beginning and end of class, I can touch base. I also appreciate the opportunity that anonymous surveys provide, like the one below. This shows me that I could afford to do a slower and slightly more thorough explanation of the G minor scale, either explicitly spelling out the letter names or just reminding students of the intervals. Without names, I know how to tailor my presentation to the class generally for that class period.