Standard 8 Instructional Strategies
The teacher understands and uses a variety of instructional strategies to encourage learners to develop deep understanding of content areas and their connections, and to build skills to apply knowledge in meaningful ways.
Reflection
The teacher uses a variety of instructional strategies to engage their students while also encouraging to deepening their knowledge on the content. By forming activities or experiences that are relatable, interesting and meet the needs of all learners, this will ensure that the connection between them and concepts within the content are done in a meaningful way.
Artifact 1 -
Gamification
This Pass the Pumpkin game my students love to play whether they be in 1st or 2nd grade. Through this game, it allows to reinforce the concept of a steady beat, collaboration, listening and following direction for the students. In addition, it presents an opportunity for them to play a variety of instruments. This could also include practicing various rhythm patterns.
The students would create a circle, and then we would go over the rules of the game. Next, I would hand one of them the pumpkin and we would begin the game. The object of the game is if a student gets the pumpkin on the word “Boo” at the end of the song, then they would go the first group of instruments out of four that are lined out on the outer edges of the classroom. Through this method, it keeps the students actively engaged while participating and practicing their skill at playing different instruments.
I would like to note that in this song, I have modified the words to be respectful to students who observe other religions. At the end of this past school year, I have recently adapted to include Boomwhackers to be among the instruments.
The one thing that I would change from this activity is having a countdown starting at ten to make transitioning between moving from the circle to the instruments quicker.
Artifact 2 -
Grouping students
By periodically arranging my students in heterogenous groups throughout the year, this will ensure their success in understanding the content while having supports pertaining to their learning abilities. In this artifact, I have placed 2nd grade students according to the informal formative assessments I have done visually and aurally. In each color row, I have one or two students who have strengths in executing rhythms from simple to challenging with those who are average or need improvement. Some of these students have strengths in singing on pitch or can recognize the direction of a melody.
In the future, I would like to try assigning groups according to the proficiency level they are at. This way, I can better support my students who are having difficulty understanding certain musical concepts when put into small groups. I am very much looking forward to trying this method in the fall.
