Form: "PACT - Music - 5. Reflection Commentary Form v.

2009"
Created with: Taskstream
Author: Marcus Gerakos

Write a commentary that addresses the following prompts.

(REQUIRED) 1.
When you consider the music learning of your students and the development of their
academic language skills, what do you think explains the learning or differences in learning
that you observed during the learning segment? Cite relevant research or theory that
explains what you observed. (See Planning Commentary, prompt # 2.) (TPEs 7, 8, 13)
Because music is language, much like all the spoken languages, it has the same basic
elements as any other spoken language. It is something we learn to listen to, speak, read,
and write, and these are the four pillars of musical literacy, just as they are in English or
Italian or Spanish or French. It follows that the aspects of musical literacy that involve the
interpretation of the written page would be easier overall for students who scored highest in
CELDT reading, because of the similarity in process (the assessment and decoding of images
on a page) than for students who are struggling with reading and writing English. This also
helps to explain why the students scores on the vocabulary quiz more closely followed their
CELDT scores than their musical evaluations didacademic language comes easier for
students with a higher degree of mastery over English literacywhile there were a few
disparities between the English literacy levels of students who struggled academically and
their musical abilities.
Because the struggling student may easily become discouraged by the process of wrestling
with academic language and concepts he or she doesnt readily understand, the
constructivist approach in the classroom can help level the playing field for the struggling
student by linking new musical information with prior knowledgeplaying songs that are
familiar to them. They should be playing songs that are part of their own real world, songs
that mean something to them and not simply exercises written solely for didactic purpose
that usually fail to engage them or anyone else within earshot. This type of authentic
assessment serves not only to engage the struggling student, but they are also better able
to assess their own progress, since they already know what the end result is supposed to
sound like. (Hiebert, Valencia & Afflerbach, 1994; Wiggins, 1993)

(REQUIRED) 2.
Based on your experience teaching this learning segment, what did you learn about your
students as music learners (e.g., easy/difficult concepts and skills, easy/difficult learning
tasks, easy/difficult features of academic language, common misunderstandings)? Please
cite specific evidence from previous Teaching Event tasks as well as specific research and
theories that inform your analysis. (TPE 13)
I learned that rhythm is the first element students were able to grasp, possibly because
its the most basic and pervasive element in everyday life. The human body has its own
unique rhythm, its own heartbeat. I thought it was particularly telling that 37.50% of our
struggling students were able to score at level 4 in this category. This further underscores
the universality of rhythm, and that its understanding is not hinged upon academic
language. Its also the easiest element for students to teach each other, and to underscore
Vygotskys Social Development Theory, social interaction precedes development and that
consciousness and cognition are the end product of socialization and social behavior. I also
learned that my students gained confidence in answering questions as part of the group as
opposed to in an isolated setting. Their scores on the vocabulary quiz serve as proof of this
disparity.
Reading pitches was the most challenging of the three performance tasks because its the
most academically demanding of the skills assessed. Expression and style are subtler

elements that are not as academic in naturethey are expressions of musical intuition. This
helps to explain why so many great musicians throughout history couldnt read music at all
and couldnt explain music from an academic or theoretical perspective, yet they had a
musical intuition their more academically-literate peers could only marvel at. Keith
Swanwick, in his book, Musical Knowledge; Intuition, Analysis, and Music Education
(1994), puts it this way, The relationship between intuition and analysis..can be a
productive tension in music teaching.

(REQUIRED) 3.
If you could go back and teach this learning segment again to the same group of students,
what would you do differently in relation to logistics, planning, instruction, and assessment?
How would the changes improve the learning of students with different needs and
characteristics? (TPE 13)
I would have the students spend more time each day working in pairs. This would mean
that more of my struggling learners would have more one-on-one time with their more
advanced peers, and more of their immediate questions could be answered I would spend
less time explaining to the whole class and give students more opportunity to explain to
each other.
I would simplify the lesson by devoting more time to studying the individual musical
elementsthe rhythms one day and the pitches the next, for exampleand focusing on two
of the three guitar parts. I thought the students did well considering how much information
they were being asked to assimilate. I think I could have made it easier for more of them to
succeed by giving them less of the song to learnintro and verse would have plenty for
them to work on in a four-day unit. These would all be effective scaffolding strategies,
especially for struggling students.
I would frontload the weeks learning unit by spending more time the previous week
reviewing the vocabulary words, especially since we devoted the majority of our time during
the learning unit to learning and practicing the song and comparatively little time focusing
on vocabulary review. My struggling learners in particular need to overlearn these terms so
that even if they panic during testing (as they did) their reinforced knowledge of the
material sustains them.