PART I: Clements & Klinger 1.7 and 1.8

1. How does the teacher establish behavior expectations at the beginning of the class period?

At this point in the semester, the kids have an established routine where they come in and pick up their chorus journals and a pencil and sit down in their seats to watch an opening video and take notes on it. In this particular class (6th grade chorus), there was a new student and so the teacher gave verbal instructions to the new student after introducing herself, explaining the questions that students should answer in their journals. The other kids needed a reminder at the beginning of class that we are quiet while we watch the video and sharing our observations only in our journals first, before we share out.

2. How does the teacher establish a positive instructional learning environment?

While trickling in, the students often informally share details of their day as they’re coming in. In this particular class, one of the students had just turned 12 over the weekend so the class sang to her together, which set up the class in a positive mood. In general, the teacher also welcomes the students’ input and opinions in many ways throughout by asking students to give verbal input, or to suggest repertoire, or to decide which parts they want to sing (high/low), or even to direct and conduct the ensemble. This helps establish a positive instructional learning environment because the students are made aware that their contributions are seen and valued, so they are more willing to contribute.

3. What details does the teacher manage at the beginning of a class period or when implementing class transitions?

In general, the teacher gives gentle verbal reminders about established routines if necessary (i.e. we are quiet when we watch the video). They are all getting used to the general flow of the class, which is usually a video, followed by short discussion, followed by sight-reading, followed by warm up, followed by repertoire. In this class, she said, “6th grade, are we ready? Show me you’re ready by facing forward and getting your pencils ready to write in your journal, and by closing your mouths.”

4. What positive/negative reinforcements are used during class?

A few examples include: when a student volunteers to sight-read alone instead of with the group, the students are verbally commended for their bravery. When the student successfully (or almost successfully) sight reads, the students are verbally commended for their success and are given any other feedback if there are parts they messed up. When a student speaks over someone else, the student is verbally reminded to raise their hand if they would like to speak and redirected to that behavior before they can speak to the class. The teacher provides positive verbal feedback to individuals or the group especially when they perform at a high level (i.e. “I love the way you are matching your voices in the group” or “Emily, you have a really great ear for those harmony parts”). So, reinforcements are mostly verbal.

5. Do students appear to understand the consequences for inappropriate behavior?

The students do appear to understand the consequences, which for most classes are not grave because the students are generally well-behaved.

6. What verbal classroom control techniques does the teacher use?

The teacher uses a lot of reminders when students are distracted, like “Remember, we are quiet while the video is playing” or “Please remember to raise your hand when you want to share something.”

7. What non-verbal classroom control techniques does the teacher use?

The teacher uses proximity to help redirect students who are distracted, like walking over to or sitting next to a student who might need a reminder to be singing instead of whispering to a friend.

8. How are the classroom rules defined and adhered to during large and small group activities?

The classroom rules are generally defined by the teacher and are centered around being respectful and listening to everyone, and participating in the singing. As the class is a small class (9 kids), they work together in one group for the whole class time. Sometimes certain students in the 6th grade class need a break because of certain attention or social difficulties, so the teacher bends the rules for those students when necessary by allowing them to sit away from the group or to take a break from singing.

9. How does the teacher bring closure to the class period?

Near the end of class, she lets the students when there is one minute left, and after they sing the last section, she says, “And it’s time for you to go to lunch! Thank you for your contributions today.”

 

1. How do students enter the room?
   1. Are they energetic, enthusiastic, lethargic?
   2. How do you think they feel about coming to this class?

The students come in with a lot of energy and chatter, and it seems like they are very excited to be in chorus class. They come in sharing about their days (i.e. it was Brooke’s birthday, or talking about their other classes) and they also often come in asking “Are we going to sing Dancing Queen today??”

2. Do they know the routine for entering the classroom, such as finding their seats, getting out instruments or music/texts?

Most students remember to pick up their journals, but usually the same one or two students in 6th grade need a reminder to do so. They can choose their own seats, but they tend to stick to the same routine of who they like to sit next to.

3. What kinds of attitudes do you observe? Are they respectful of one another and the teacher?

This class in particular is very respectful of each other and do their best to help each other out if they sense that a classmate is off pitch or off task. They are respectful of the teacher and follow directions without needing much redirection.

4. Do students appear to feel comfortable asking questions during class time? Explain your answer.

In general, the students do feel comfortable asking questions during class time, especially if they forget how a certain part goes. They have no qualms about asking me to re-sing or re-play a part for them if they forgot their notes. They also are always curious about what we will perform and when, and like to recommend songs, so the teacher has them save some of those questions for the end of class so she can keep them focused on their learning.

5. How do the answers to questions 1–4 influence the climate of the room?

The climate of the room is generally positive and allows for the students to be curious and to work well as a team. They seem to feel comfortable bringing their whole selves into the chorus room.

6. Are teacher expectations for student behavior, participation, and progress obvious to all? If so, how are they communicated?

Teacher expectations seem clear to the students, as the students generally can follow directions with some modifications if necessary. The expectations are usually communicated verbally, such as, “Now let’s just have the low part sing your part together,” or, “Hopefully soon we will have a few songs learned that we can pick from and perform at a town meeting.”

7. Are students accountable for their own behavior and learning? If so, how is this demonstrated?

I don’t know exactly what this question is asking, but the students know that they are working toward a better understanding of their singing voices and are working on singing in harmony. They also know that they are working toward performances, which is something that keeps them accountable to learning their parts.

8. Is assessment teacher or student driven, or is it a combination of both?

As far as I can tell, it is both. Students decide when they are ready for informal assessments of their sight-reading skills by choosing to try it alone. The teacher does a lot of informal assessment of whether students have learned their parts by having them try it without the piano accompaniment or by having students sing in smaller groups or even pairs.

9. Does the teacher “praise” the students and their work? If so, how?

Yes, the teacher gives some broad feedback to the group about the excellence of their sound, and gives some specific feedback to individuals when a particular student does something really well.

10. Describe the pace of the lesson. Fast, moderate, or slow?

Moderate.

11. How do the answers to questions 6–10 influence the climate of the room? 

As the school is not focused on assessment or product, it makes for a very relaxed climate of learning in the room; it feels like there is time to work on everything at a pace that matches the students’ abilities.

PART II: Reflection

This week I found myself thinking a lot about the culture of my school, as it presented itself in different ways in my classroom, and this has less to do with my actual teaching but is important for how I know and understand my students. Many of the students at this school come from highly privileged backgrounds and families, and that in itself is interesting as it interacts with a progressive ed environment. When a child is used to getting what they want at home, and then at school they are told over and over how much their voices matter – which they do! – I feel like sometimes they can miss other crucial parts of learning, like how to listen deeply to their peers or how to care about OTHER voices and not just their own. I see a lot of entitlement in my vocal workshops class in high school, in the ways they speak to me about how I should run the class, or in the ways they choose not to take certain things seriously. So, I’m thinking a lot about what my response to that is, or should be. (I am working closely with Collin at an after school program at a charter school, where the kids have NO singing classes at all in their school and so they stay after school so they can sing from 5:15-6:15 two nights a week in a crowded room with no air conditioning…and going from that back to school is sometimes disorienting.) I feel like this entitlement and privilege definitely affects the learning process, because the students are deciding what they think is important to learn and aren’t necessarily interested in anything beyond that. I’d like to work on motivating those students in particular to stretch themselves and challenge themselves, and I wonder if that might require having a candid conversation about privilege with that particular group.

I’m also seeing the effects of privilege in the middle school. A small population of students at the school are on financial aid, and I am noticing how difficult it is for those students to cope with those huge gaps in wealth. In 8th grade chorus yesterday, we were doing our opening activities (video, discussion, and sight-reading), and I could tell the 5 of them were all totally off and were having extra trouble focusing. One student asked, “Wait, can we just talk for a little bit?” so I said sure, and we sat together in a little circle on the floor and most of the students shared some of the events of the past few days that had been affecting them. There was some of the usual boy drama that comes in middle school, but then one student, Theo, shared about the student government elections, for which they had just received the results the class before. She was explaining that she lost to another student, and she wasn’t necessarily angry with that other student, but she knew that the other student’s family had so much more money than hers, and that it just seems like she always gets everything even when Theo works just as hard and puts so much effort in. It was an important moment to establish a “safe space” (the students’ words!) to share in our small class, even though we didn’t end up doing much singing that day. And now I am thinking about how we can tie that conversation into our musical and creative practices – like, could we compose some lyrics about those feelings, or could we write about what it feels like to have a safe space to share? That could easily tie into musical elements like major/minor, melody, phrases, etc. Anyway – I would just like them to know that really, that’s why these creative spaces are important; they are places to (hopefully safely) process the things of the world that feel wrong, and to find solidarity with other people through the music you share.

In general, this week was a good reminder that teaching really is all about relationships, and I hope to hold onto that in other classes like 7th grade that currently feel more anonymous or detached just because they are so much bigger.

PART I: Clements & Klinger 1.5

1. How does the teacher focus the attention of students at the beginning of the class? If this is an elementary setting, how do students enter and exit the room? This is a 5^th grade chorus class, and when the students come in they help put the chairs in a circle and the teacher uses a “talking piece” (a small object to pass around) to have each kid tell how they were feeling and why, on a scale of 1-10. They do not have a special routine for entering or exiting the room.
2. How does the teacher determine the students’ prior knowledge of a subject or concept? The teacher asks questions of the students about things like breathing and vowels, and asks why we should lower our jaw when we sing. Their responses show the teacher what they already know (or at least, what they can verbalize about what they know).
3. Does the teacher use a visual organizer or post an instructional outline to help direct student learning? When and how is it used? The teacher does not have a visual organizer or instructional outline, but at the end he does hand out papers to show them what the sheet music looks like of the round they are learning.
4. If the students are assigned independent or small group work, what does the teacher do to ensure students understand the instructions? Is there more than one strategy for providing instruction? The students generally work as a full group, but at one point they do break off into two groups in order to hear each other better for the round. Their instructions were to break off into groups, and they were told which group would go first and which group would go second. The instruction was given verbally, so there were no other strategies for providing instruction.
5. If students are assigned cooperative learning groups, when and how does the teacher give the instructions for the group work? How are the groups selected? When the students split into two groups for the round, the teacher allows them to choose their groups, but later in the class he has a few students switch so that the skill level of the two groups is more balanced.
6. How does the teacher assess student understanding? The teacher asks the students how they thought they did in the round singing, and then asks questions to clarify their responses. One example is that a student says, “We were really off key.” The teacher then responds, “What does that mean?” The student can then explain what their understanding of “off key” is, and the teacher can help the student fill in any gaps.
7. What instructional strategies encourage participation of all students during large and small group work? One strategy is asking all the students to stand while they sing, and to look in the mirror as they sing to match their vowels. This gets all the students involved in the group, and gives them a specific thing to look for in both themselves and in others as they sing.
8. Does the teacher provide additional instruction while the students are working/playing? If so, how is this done? The teacher does not provide instruction while students are singing besides cueing the second group to come in for the round with a nonverbal gesture.

Part II: Reflection

This week was our first full week of school (finally!) so it was good to feel out what a 5-day week of teaching actually feels like. I realized that my more on-task groups meet on even days of the cycle, and my groups who have a little more trouble focusing and investing in the class meet on odd days of the cycle, so I think that’s just good for me to recognize because I think it takes a different kind of preparation for odd days and even days. It’s easy for me to get more anxious or uncertain about myself and my presence on those days where the classes are a little more difficult, but those feelings definitely affect my actual teaching in class, so I am working against getting stuck in those thoughts and instead trying to be as present as possible with the kids in the room and celebrating their (many!) successes.

6th grade is a sweet group to work with, and they are an interesting crew because a few of them have some combinations of learning/processing/hearing difficulties. Something I noticed this week, though, is that even though I notice the other girls getting annoyed sometimes, they are also very gentle about helping the other students self-regulate. There is one student in particular who has some general social awareness differences, which I think results in her not always singing on pitch because she has trouble connecting with what the students around her are doing. However, as I was working with one section of the chorus, I heard another girl gently explaining to her how sometimes her voice was just going a little bit too high and she had to make it a little lower to stay on the right part. As I write it down, it sounds like such a small thing, but that moment of her taking care of her classmate was incredibly special. Those are the little moments I hope I always remember to celebrate.

7th grade this week was a little tricky as usual, and I can tell that they are still adjusting to the idea of chorus as an actual class where they have to focus and stay on task (I don’t think this was at all the case with the previous teacher). Ideally chorus would be a place to come in and just sing, but I am learning that it’s also okay if they are not ready for that yet as a group. On Tuesday we practiced standing up quietly (!) because they couldn’t do it the first time, and while I kind of hated spending time on that, it was clear that this group in particular needed to take some steps back and focus on creating a respectful classroom culture. We stood up and sat down probably 4 or 5 times, but then after we warmed up I only had to ask once for them to quietly sit down and they did. So, a tiny success! But in some ways, also a big success – I think laying this ground work will help them be a more coherent and respectful group as we work together this year. One thing that I always find hard in chorus (and especially in larger groups like this one) is trying to figure out what other sections should do while I am teaching one part to a given section. I recognize that it is hard to just wait quietly (I even have trouble doing that in groups as an adult!) and sometimes they haven’t learned their own part yet so they can’t even hum along to practice. Something to think about for next week!

I love working with the upper school chorus! They are also a rather small group (we are down to 10 students), but they are doing a fabulous job of tackling the challenges I am giving them! They are singing in 5 part harmony in one of our pieces – meaning they are mostly just 1 or 2 on a part! – and I tell them every class how impressed I am by them. Something I am learning, though, is that a few of them are relatively new to singing and definitely to chorus, so there’s a significant gap between the more advanced students in the class and the more beginner level students. I feel badly for the few kids who are definitely more advanced because it takes a while to learn parts, so I’m brainstorming ways to help give them more challenge or leadership in the class. One thing that is challenging for all of them, though, is reading music, so we are taking time every class to do a little bit of sight-reading. That feels like a sort of equalizer for everybody, which is nice, and it’s a good time for me to celebrate the successes of the students who are newer to singing but are catching on quickly to the sight-reading.

All in all, I feel like I am learning a ton every day! It’s hard to remember everything that I want to do, and hard to keep the big picture in mind, and still definitely hard to have daily reminders about the teacher I am replacing and how she used to do things, but in all of the things that are hard, there are so many great moments and good days – and the good days are so good! I am looking forward to seeing where this next week takes us.

 

PART I: Clements & Klinger 1.2

Draw a map of the music classroom environment that indicates the following items. If you are teaching in various non-music specific locations, draw several smaller maps that indicate the space available for music activities. Then respond to the points below.

• Arrangement of desks, tables, chairs, risers, etc.
• Teacher work area or office
• Student storage areas and/or classroom instrument storage or lockers
• Learning centers/stations
• Resource materials such as bookshelves, drawers, etc.
• Equipment such as drinking fountain, sink, pencil sharpeners, bathroom, telephone, computers, etc.
• Bulletin and chalk/white boards
• Anything else you think is important in the environment.

The chorus room, on the 5th floor, is set up with anywhere from 5-25 chairs depending on the class size, and there are no desks, tables, or risers. For the 5th grade chorus class, the children move 8 chairs into a small circle in the center of the room with the teacher. There is not much of a work area for the teacher, besides a small laptop sized rolling desk, and there is not a designated office for the teacher. Students store their binders on a shelf right beside the door to the classroom. There are a number of file cabinets and bookshelves with sheet music on them. The water fountain and bathroom are down the hall and to the left. There is a projector and a screen that can be pulled down to cover the wall that has mirrors across it, and the cords to hook up the laptop are on the adjacent wall. There are curtains on the wall with mirrors so that the mirrors can be covered if necessary. The piano also sits in front of the mirrors, so that the person playing would face the mirrors. The wall opposite the mirrors is a window that looks out on 81st street. Another teacher’s office is within the room, right to the left as you enter.

1. How does the set up of this classroom contribute to student learning? Putting the chairs in a circle allows the students to be closer together (as opposed to sitting in a row), and therefore allows the students to be able to hear each other better. The mirrors are helpful for students to look at their bodies as they sing, so they can observe things like the shape of their mouths as they sing. The mirrors can also be distracting, as some children look at themselves in the mirrors when they should be focusing on another task. The person facing the piano also has to face away from the students unless they move the piano, so it can be tricky to adjust your body to play and teach at the same time if you use the piano to teach.
2. Is it possible or feasible to rearrange the classroom environment for various activities? If so, how can this be done? The classroom environment can change for various activities, because the space is open for the chairs to be moved around. For example, the 5th grade teacher split up the larger group into two smaller groups, and had them make two smaller groups with their chairs so that they could focus on singing their assigned part in the round they were singing. The chairs can be in rows or circles, and can move to face the screen if necessary. The piano, though bulky, can be moved as well if you unplug the humidifier tool.
3. How far away for the music-teaching environment are the following locations? The school office and the custodian’s office are on the first floor to the right of the elevator, the water fountain and the bathrooms are on the 5th floor down the hall and to the left, the cafeteria is on the first floor straight across from the elevators, the main performance area is on the 5th floor right next to the chorus room, and the practice rooms and instrument storage are spread out on the 6th floor.

4. If appropriate and available, ask your cooperating teacher for seating charts that indicate student names and attach a copy to this worksheet to help you learn names. N/A – I already have all my students’ names and have learned them.

5. What do the contents and the layout of this classroom(s) say about the music activities valued by the cooperating teacher or school building? From the set up of the room, you can tell that this room is designated for choral ensembles and that it also functions as a (disorganized) library for all the choral sheet music. The circle set up of the chairs tells me that the teacher values community and group work, which makes sense for a choral environment.

PART II: Reflection

One specific thing that I learned this week is that my 7th grade class (my biggest one) functions better when they sit in a huge circle in the room, rather than in a few rows. I had originally set up the room in a circle, and wanted to see if they would focus better if they had more structured rows – and they definitely did not! There was excessive chatter and unfocused behavior, I think partly because the kids in the back row thought I couldn’t see them, so then the next class we went back to using a big circle. One more general thing I am learning is that being a new teacher who is replacing someone who was there for a long time comes with some interesting challenges. For example, a student who was used to the lack of structure of one of my classes (which is now slightly more structured) told me she would like to drop the class unless I changed it back to how it used to be. Navigating that conversation was tricky because I know I am doing what I am doing for the right reasons, and it will just take a bit for people to understand the why behind it. But I am naturally a people pleaser, so there have been some situations like this one where I had to tell myself to have a backbone!

This week I especially enjoyed working with my 8th grade students. They are working on singing in harmony while they also learn a complicated body percussion pattern, and they are so into it! It’s great to see them tackle something that I knew would be a challenge for them, and to see them put in the work and the repetitions to get the muscle memory to do these complex tasks all at the same time. We also took a video and watched it back so they could see how it looked and hear how it sounded, and they were able to informally give themselves some feedback to improve their performance for the next run-through. Also, I am really proud of my students in all my classes for jumping into some sight-reading! This is a skill I really want all my students to develop as the year goes on, so that we can learn music more efficiently and can work on more pieces of musicality, rather than on plunking out notes.

One thing I want to improve with my 7th grade class is trying to use positive narration to encourage the behavior I want, rather than continually calling out people’s names who are not doing what I want them to be doing. I think it’s both good for me, because I won’t lose my patience with them so quickly, and good for the students, because they can direct their focus to the positive behaviors instead of being distracted by the unfocused behaviors.

“First impressions – what are you expecting? What worries you? What excites you?”

Having finished my fifth day of teaching so far at Calhoun, I feel like I have a much better sense of what to expect from each of my classes than I did before I started. From my high school courses, I expect a bit of push and pull from the students simply because I am replacing a teacher who has been there for a long time. She had ways of doing things, and I have some different ideas than she did, so I expect that there will be an adjustment period as the kids get to know me and get to understand why I would like to structure things the way I do, and I adjust to some of the things they would like to keep as part of the class. My 6^th and 8^th grade chorus classes I expect to feel easy! They are attentive, engaged small classes (8 kids in 6^th grade and 5 kids in 8^th grade), and they have done a great job even in these first few days of providing thoughtful reflections on the music they hear and sing. My 7^th grade class feels huge relatively (25 kids!) and I expect that this is the class where I will have to create the most structure to keep everyone engaged and singing, since there are a lot of students squeezed into a pretty small room.

I have a lot of general little worries about the various parts of teaching – whether I will be able to develop trust with the kids, whether they will enjoy the class and come back next year, how to balance process and product in the ways that all music teachers must, and how to be authentic and be myself in my work. I also know that I am incredibly critical of myself especially because I care so much about this work, so I am actively working on being gentle with myself and welcoming this year (and every year of teaching!) as one of growth.

I am really excited about singing! It has been great so far to hear everyone’s voices, and also to hear about my students’ musical backgrounds (I had them fill out a “musical autobiography” to share some of that with me). These kids love so many different kinds of music for so many different reasons, and I am excited for them to be able to explore new kinds of music with me too. I am especially excited to help them build confidence in their skills; there are a lot of students who love music but are scared of performing, and so I am looking forward to coming alongside them and making some steps toward healthy attitudes in performing. And finally, I am just excited for relationship-building. I feel like that is the cornerstone of teaching for me – building and developing relationships and empathy for the people around us – and so I look forward to getting to know each of the students in my classes.