Announcement: Placement schedules and information

Tentative Placements:

Lori Carpenter

Richie Barker --- 1:20 Tuesday @ Franklin - 3rd Grade
Kyle Govert --- 9:15 Tuesday @ Franklin - 1st Grade
Heather Williams --- 8:35 Monday @ Riley - 4th Grade

Debbie Nearpass

Brian Ingram --- 8:35 Monday @ Franklin - 4th
Melissa James --- 9:10 Tuesday @ Sugar Grove - K
James Jones --- 9:10 Tuesday @ Sugar Grove - K
Jenny Boone --- 8:35 Friday @ Meadows - 1st
Amanda Writtenhouse --- 9:10 Thursday @ Sugar Grove - 4th

Amie Ellison

Caitlin Lincourt --- 12:50 Tuesday @ Davis Park - 2nd
Andrea Mitchell --- 9:05 Wednesday @ Ouabache - 3rd
Chad Roscoe --- 8:30 Froday @ Ouabache - 4th
Ariel Stern --- 8:30 Wednesday @ Ouabache - 3rd
Diana Dailey --- 1:25 Wednesday @ Ouabache - 2nd

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Expectations

• You will arrive EARLY to your placement and stay the full time.
• You will notify BOTH the classroom teacher and me if you can not attend your placement IN ADVANCE.
• You will dress and act professionally in accordance with what your cooperating teacher suggests.
• You will actively participate in class activities and view this placement as a learning experience. If you have questions or concerns that come up during your placement, please see me to discuss things.
• You are representing yourself and ISU when visiting these schools. You are also interacting with possible future colleagues and employers. Act accordingly.
• If you' d like, after contacting your host teacher, you may start observing this week; otherwise, start next week. You are not expected to observe during your spring break or VCSC spring break.
  

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Directions to Schools:

Lori Carpenter - Riley Elementary MWF, Franklin Elementary TF

Debbie Nearpass - Franklin Elementary M, Sugar Grove Elementary TR, Meadows Elementary WF

Amie Ellison - Ouabache Elementary MWF, Davis Park TR

Click on the name of the teacher to bring up that teacher's schedule.

Click on the name of the school to go to the Vigo County Schools homepage where you will find directions to the schools.

Assignment: Lesson Plan 1 - Form

Presentation Schedule for Form Lessons

Tuesday, January 30 @ 7:40am: Kyle Govert, Adam Allen, Richie Barker, Jennifer Boone
Tuesday, January 30 @ 5:30pm: Diana Dailey, Brian Ingram, Melissa James, James Jones, Andrea Mitchell, Amanda Writtenhouse
Thursday, February 1 @ 7:40am: Caitlin Lincourt, Chad Roscoe, Ariel Stern, Heather Williams

Lesson Plan Assignment:

Using the Lesson Plan Format and Lesson Plan Rubric posted on this blog, write a lesson for the elementary classroom using Form as the doorway in. The lesson must be centered around a listening, composing, or performing experiences where students explore form. Be sure to fill out the Lesson Plan Format completely including:

• All materials needed (including CD, artist, album, etc. for the music)
• National Standards
• Organization of lesson (small group, large group, partners, individual)
• How you will connect to the students' prior understanding and/or experiences
• Any groundwork you will do to enable students to succeed at solving the musical problems
• How you will assess your students' understanding throughout the lesson, not just at the beginning and end.
• An extension experience. This should be a potential follow up experience either listening, performing, or composing.

For additional ideas on creating lessons with form as the doorway in, read Chapters 7 & 8 in Wiggins' TMU book.

You may wish to bring a copy of your lesson for each classmate, OR you can wait for my and your peers' feedback and hand out copies after you've had a chance to revise them. You will have approximately 10-12 minutes to teach your lesson, with 3-5 minutes for class feedback and discussion. Your attendance is expected at each class session, unless previously cleared with me.

PLEASE, after writing your lesson, review the criteria on the Lesson Plan Rubric to make sure your lesson is as strong as it can be.

New reading for Tuesday, Jan. 23

For Tuesday, please read Chapter 6 in Wiggins TMU about designing entry-level problems in the elementary classroom.

For the blog response, choose one of the example lessons Wiggins' provides in this chapter and analyze it using the following questions:

• What is the musical problem students are asked to solve?
• How does she suggest the teacher connect to the students prior experiences?
• What is the groundwork the teacher does to enable the students to be successful in the lesson?
• How would the classroom teacher assess that students understand the objective of the lesson?

Please share the lesson and your answers to these questions as comments to this blog post by class on Tuesday.

Also, please bring a copy of your class schedule to class. We will be finalizing your elementary placements in class.

Weekend reading assignment

For next Tuesday, please read Chapter 4 in Wiggins' Teaching for Musical Understanding (TMU). This chapter shares Wiggins' ideas for how to get students into a piece of music or musical experience through her concept of "doorway in." In an elementary setting, teachers need to find a compelling "doorway in" to the music through one of the dimensions shared in her draft chapter 3.

The second part of your assignment is to find a piece of music (and a good recording) that you think would be compelling and appropriate (in terms of length, clarity of musical dimension(s), etc.) for the elementary general music classroom.

• What in your opinion is the best "doorway in" to your piece of music?
  
• What is your best guess as to the appropriate age/grade for your piece/"doorway in?"
• What would students have to understand musically/conceptually in order to engage with your piece of music? What prior classroom musical experiences might they need to have?
  
• Once students have "entered" the piece, what other dimensions might the students also notice?
• How do you envision involving students in experiencing the dimension you selected as your doorway in? Movement, drawing, performing, composing, improvising, listening, graphing, etc?

Please post your answers to these questions as a comment to this blog and bring in a recording of your piece to share with the class on Tuesday. In your blog comments, be sure to list not only the title of the piece, but also the composer and/or performer and the CD you got it from, if applicable. I will create an online database of cool pieces of music that we encounter throughout the semester and suggested "doorways in."

Announcement

As reading and blog assignments are completed, I am posting grades for them on Blackboard. You may check the Blackboard site to keep track of your grade throughout the course. You will receive full credit (10 points) for posting your blog comments on time. If comments are posted within one day after they are due, you will receive half credit (5 points). Any comments more than one day late will receive no credit.

First week overview

For Thursday, read Wiggins' Teaching for Musical Understanding Chapter 3 and the draft chapter 3 by Wiggins available here.

These chapters are about the approach to teaching elementary music that we will be exploring throughout this semester, teaching music through problem solving. Please read these chapters and be ready to discuss it in class. As you read, come up with 3 comments or questions that you would like to talk about in class on Thursday and post them as comments to this blog.

If you have taken MUS 393 with me, you might have read these before. Please re-read these chapters from the perspective of elementary music.

Welcome to Elementary General Music Methods

This semester we will be spending time in some local elementary schools observing and practice teaching lessons with elementary students. We also will be doing a fair amount of lesson planning and peer teaching.

A few things to take note of:

• The texts for this class will be the Wiggins (2001) Teaching for Musical Understanding and the Brooks & Brooks (1999) In case of understanding book. If you have already had a class with me, you should have these books.
• The meeting time for this class is different from the online catalog. We will meet Tuesday and Thursday mornings from 7:40am to 8:55am. Please make plans to arrive on time.
  
• Please download the class syllabus from the link on this page. If you have questions, please feel free to ask in class or email me at sruthmann@indstate.edu.

See you in class!

-Dr. Ruthmann