Week 2 - JJ Cahill Memorial High School
Mon - Aug 22, 2016
Here I am pumped for another week of prac - these are the classes I observed today for periods:
Year 8G - Students continued working on the song "How much does your love cost?" They were split into 2 groups in order to learn either the piano part with me (3 chords - Em, G, Am) or the guitar part with Luke (riff and extra bit on top).
Life Skills (SU3) - Students kept working on piano and recording projects on Garageband.
Year 9 - New topic: Jazz & Blues. Luke got the class to stand in a circle and imitate him to get a feel of the beat: "Move to the left, move to the right." He then introduced the topic of Jazz by first going around students in a circle and letting them come up with their own rhythms on djembes - "Jazz began in Africa (hence why we played our rhythms on drums - African drumming). Music and improvised rhythms like what we did today, play a big part in Africa's tradition. Improvisation in Jazz comes from African music." He got students to understand that improvisation means to come up with something they've never came up with before.
Year 9 - I team taught with Luke in getting the class to play the Blues scale using the following notes: G Bb C C# D F G. I taught a couple of students to play it on piano while Luke taught the rest to play it on guitar by following the guitar tablature that he had already written on the board: ------------------------------------------------------------ 3 ------------- --------------------------------------------------3----6------------------- ------------------------------3---5---6----------------------------------- ----------------------5---------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Aim of getting them to play the scale so that they can use it as a model to improvise over it.
Year 8B - I was asked to lead the class and give instructions. Students continued working on the song "How much does your love cost?" They split into 2 groups (piano and guitar players) to learn their parts as 8G this morning. Drummers were in the back practise room. Whole aim of this group work was to get them not only involved and participate, but to challenge them to play their part by the end of the lesson.
Tues - Aug 23, 2016
Today was a challenging day, as it was the first time I got exposed to the spotlight. Yes it's show time - time to teach!!! Periods:
Year 9 - this is the only class I taught today. Lesson focus = Improvisation on Blues scale. I got students to play through the Blues scale they learnt in previous lesson and I also went around piano players to make sure they used fingers 1,3,1,3,1,3,4 - "finger 2 is not allowed to be used when playing the scale." I then tried to get them to sing back a couple of riffs which I had played on the piano, before letting them come up with their own patterns whilst standing in a circle. I made them listen out for the Blue scale as well as the improvisations that occur over the riffs within 2 versions of Paul Desmond's "Take Five."
Overall, the lesson wasn't that bad. Videos were good ways in engaging this class. If I redid this lesson, I would have chosen different examples where there were guitar and piano solos (instruments they've learnt). I need to direct my future lessons towards their assessment in 3 weeks time where they would perform (in groups) a 12-bar blues piece that incorporates improvisation.
2. Year 8G - I was meant to teach this class, but Luke had planned that they learn the structure of the song "How much does your love cost?" I helped out where possible to write it out all on the board for them and lead a couple of entries while they played along with the recording.
3. SU4/5 (with Tom) - went through the theme song from Harry Potter.
4. Year 11 (with Tom) - Here I just observed. This class listened to a piece and began to write about it, and its structure referring to the concepts of music. Question = How is interest created in this excerpt?
Wed - Aug 24, 2016
Today is my free day - no teaching. Plainly observing senior classes with Tom and preparing my lessons for tomorrow.
Thurs - Aug 25, 2016
Today I taught 2 classes:
SU3 - Purpose of this lesson is to develop an understanding that we are here to work as a team and that everyone plays an important role. Introduction to the concept of texture, and its practical application in the song The Lion Sleeps Tonight from "The Lion King" movie. I began with a little Starter Activity (a call and response and getting students to have turns in becoming leaders). I then asked students to repeat each layer of the song (total of 4 layers), and then transfer what we learnt on instruments. Didn't get to go entirely through what I had originally planned... and here is where my feedback from Luke kicks in: - Be conscious of space and mindful of repertoire e.g. Top 100 Hits - Put yourself in position of students: "I want to move, utilise space, play an instrument." - It's very important to have that energy going.
Year 8G - first lesson in their new topic: Classical Music in Advertising. Purpose of lesson is to get students to understand reasons behind why certain music (such as Classical music) have been used for advertising purposes; also learn the theme song from 'Ode to Joy' / Beethoven's Symphony #9. Here are the general ads that students watched and through this a discussion was formed on why music is used:
A discussion was formed, and I created a mindmap for the responses they came up with using PowerPoint and asked them to copy them in their books:
I spoke to them a little about what Classical music is and the huge range of instrumentation evident within this music.
Further ads were shown to them, but this time incorporating Classical music. They were asked to answer the following questions for each ad:
What is the ad about?
What instruments can you hear?
Why do you think this music in particular was used for this ad? What is it in the music that makes this ad successful (is it the mysterious feel, tension, calm nature, etc...)?
After answering questions, I got students to listen to the first couple of minutes (up to 2:06) of Beethoven's Symphony #9 and time was up!!
REFLECTION TIME / FEEDBACK FROM LUKE:
What worked?
Students were engaged and loved the new topic so far
Got through my lesson as expected, but didn't get them through the 'Ode to Joy' section except that I made them hear it.
What didn't?
Some students were not engaged. A lot of distractions occurred and was difficult to manage the class especially when I don't know all their names.
Guidelines for future or next lesson:
Put yourself in students' shoes
Make use of the space in the classroom and move around
Important to have everyone seated on the chair (some girls were on the floor( - ask students to sit on chairs, come closer.
Give credit to those who put their hands up - ignore those who call out and don't have their hands up.
Would've been good to make students actually watch an orchestral performance.
Fri - Aug 26, 2016
I taught 1 class today - panicked a little as this is the class where my tertiary mentor would inspect me.
Year 9 - lesson topic = improvisation using the notes in the Blue scale. This lesson wasn't that bad. I gave them tips on how to improvise and created "baby steps" for them: Come up with a short rhythm (clap it) and repeat it a couple of times until you're familiar; Play the first note of the Blue scale based on the rhythm you came up with; You can choose to keep the same rhythm and this time adding extra notes of the Blues scale OR you can choose to challenge yourself and come up with another rhythm, and with this rhythm, play the notes of the Blue Scale. Feedback from tertiary mentor include: "she has a warm and encouraging manner in the classroom and tried to establish acceptably rules for the classroom. At times she could be more assertive to keep students on task, but she was very active moving amongst the student, offering advice and urging them to engage with the task. She showed great patience with a rather challenging class." Lesson strengths: passion and patience in the classroom; tried to engage with all students to help them achieve their best; offered positive feedback for their efforts, and broke down learning into manageable steps; lesson preparation is developed in great depth. Goals and strategies for future professional development: work on developing classroom management skills and developing a range of techniques to keep students engaged. Changes in voice and following through on expectations are beneficial.