Lesson Four Reflection Sarah Dean What instructional decisions did I make before and during the lesson

and why? For this lesson I wanted the students to learn about different careers that a musician can have besides becoming a music teacher. Since I knew this group of students liked hip hop, I chose to introduce them to the music of Miri Ben-Ari, the Hip Hop Violinist. I decided to use the SmartBoard to show pictures of different types of careers and present information about Ben-Ari along with a video of her perfoming. I decided to use lots of technology in this lesson because I knew that the students would be more engaged if they were watching it happen instead of just talking about different careers. Based upon student performance, discuss the instructional decisions for the next or future lesson. The students were engaged during the lesson and seemed interested in the material. Based on the scores of their written quizzes, I would probably spend more time summarizing the different careers at the end so that they can be reminded of what we discussed at the beginning of the lesson. I will also be more aware of students speaking out of turn and give them clear signals to indicate that they have a question or need to speak. How did you engage or motivate the students successfully? I think the pacing of this lesson was strong. We moved from topic to topic without much lag time in between. The students were engaged because there were interactive parts of the lesson alternating with more passive parts of the lesson. I successfully motivated the students to participate in the lesson by incorporating the type of music they are already interested in. What instructional mode(s) was employed? (lecture, small group, demonstration, experiment, etc.) I chose to use short lectures, pictures on the board, video, Q & A, and compare and contrast questions with videos and pictures. Students had to answer probing questions about what the musicians in the pictures were doing. They also had to describe and explain ways that the playing in the videos were similar and different than each other. How effectively did you use instructional aids, i.e., whiteboard, video, calculators, manipulatives, computer, etc.? I used the SmartBoard to display the presentation and the video. Students were able to come up to the board and point to the different pictures of careers as they explained what the musicians were doing. This turned the lecture portion from a passive mode to an active mode. I also used a video presentation of the featured musician and asked students to listen to specific things in the music. The instructional aids helped keep the class focused and interested in the material. Were the students actively or passively involved? How so? Students alternated between passive and active. They were passive while listening to me talk, active while listening to music through compare and contrast, active while looking at and describing pictures of careers, and active while explaining different careers to me at the end as part of their informal assessment. I think its important to set a pace of active and passive involvement to keep the students stimulated without over loading them with too much activity or information.

Did you present the information in a clear and logical manner? How so? Yes. The information was clear because I started the lesson by telling the students what we were going to learn in the lesson. I then started with a broad definition of a music careers by using many different types of careers. During this section I chose to relate the material to myself by telling them about my career and what I do as a musician and a teacher. After that, I narrowed the topic down to focus in on one or two performers. I explained how musicians often do more than one thing as their career, or play their instruments in more than one way while we listened to two contrasting performances on the violin. At the end, I summarized the material. How effective were the materials and resources you selected for the lesson? I think using a variety of methods for instruction engaged the students and helped the pacing of the lesson move smoothly. The materials were effective because they could relate to some of the resources and some of them were completely new to them. Using the SmartBoard made the lesson move more smoothly because I had all the presentations already open on the board before I started the lesson. Were you able to or could you (in the future) relate the lesson content to the lives of the student. I was able to relate the lesson to the lives of the students by discussing what I do as a musician and how I want to become a teacher like their teacher. I also related to the students because I picked music that I knew they would be interested in. Describe any discipline or classroom management techniques used during the lesson. Were these techniques effective or would you employ a different technique the next time? When the students would speak out of turn I would remind them to raise their hands. When they would speak during the video or recordings I would remind them that we need to have our listening ears on. Reflect on your interaction with the students. Would you describe your treatment of the students as being fair, respectful, and ethical? How so? I think I treated the students fairly because everyone had an equal opportunity to be involved in the lesson. When asking questions I tried to call on students who hadnt already answered a question so that everyone got a turn to be involved. Were you able to summarize the lesson and relate it to the following lesson or homework assignment? I summarized the lesson by asking the students questions about the lesson as well as reiterating some important points at the end of the lesson. I then ended the lesson by assessing what they learned through a short written quiz. Was your estimated time allocation for this lesson as noted in your lesson plan accurate? If your time varied, what factors contributed to this variance? I wanted to spend about 15 to 20 minutes on the lesson. We spent about 20 minutes. I think this was a good amount of time because it wasnt too long.