Elementary Music Observation

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Introduction

I am an Elementary Music Instructor who has the responsibility to educate the future musicians of the Kent Community Schools District and I am interested in the impact of instructional time and classroom organization on students' musical learning. In my capacity as the Elementary Music Instructor I strive to find the best strategies that would maximize the instructional time allotted for the students that are participating in the Elementary Music program. This has been a constant struggle with the continuous back and forth with the administration and the scheduling conflicts of the students. Not to mention pulling students for mandatory state testing from the music class assemblies and other non-musical things, this has been …show more content…

This helps if there is any discrepancy as to why a student received a certain grade in the class as the videos will be available for parents to view upon request. However, parents only have access to their child’s class videos. Furthermore, authorization to inquire about the progress of their student is granted to the parent only. I will not discuss any other student with the parents. At the beginning of each fourth grade class after the students have selected which instrument they want to learn, I always teach a 30-40 minute lesson on instrument maintenance which I log into the online student record book. The students take a 3 question assessment so I can get an understanding to the musical levels in the classroom. The majority of the students in the class score well below average on the music …show more content…

The next procedure that I implemented in the other 2 classes was the weekly practice logs. At the end of each week all students in classes “B” and “C” complete 10 minutes daily practicing on new techniques that we worked on in class. The students would have to practice at home and the parents would have to sign off on the practice times that the student practiced. This has added an extra 50 minutes on rehearsal time to all of the students who are participating in the elementary music program. At the end of each week the practice logs are logged into the online student connect. This also helps to get the parents involved in the student’s learning process. If the student is not practicing then the parent will know why their student is not earning a passing grade in the band class. At the end of the first semester the students in all of the beginning band classes have their summative assessment. The summative assessment is in the form of the winter concert. By this time if all students in class “B” and “C” have completed the necessary work in and outside of the class the concert is always a huge success.
The winter concert comes and the students perform 3 different selections. Each class performs the songs together and I keep an accurate account of how many notes are missed during the performance of each song. Below is a chart that represents the proficiency level of

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