Some of the suggestions are ones that I have already been incorporating into my lessons. I just never realized how important and effective doing these things could be. One of the "adaptions" they suggested was repetition. This is something I have used in my lessons since I began teaching solely violin two years ago, and I have been using it more and more in recent months. One of my very first violin students had auditory and sensory processing disorder, and this created many obstacles and frustration for the both of us. Unlike other students I have taught, this little boy learned incredibly slow. His excessively short attention span, doubled with his inability to hold his violin for a long period of time caused us to only be able to get through only a few measures in a half an hour lesson. There were days when I thought this student would never progress past his first song. In an attempt to move past this huge hurdle, I taught him in the only way I knew how - repetition. It did not matter if we only got through four measures in one lesson. I would have him repeat those measures over and over again until he was able to play them well. We would then move onto the next four measures and use the same method. Hansen, Bernstorf, and Stuber state, "As previously state, repetition is one of the simplest adaptions available. "Let's do it again faster" is a hint that young leraners give their teachers to let hthem know that they are learning through repetition" (Hansen, Berstorf, Stuber 121). I could not help but think of this little boy as I read this. Over the course of my time with him, he not only began asking me to play songs faster, but he would also ask me if he could try to play it without his music, or with piano accompaniment (which I would do occasionally to challenge them). I was always so encouraged when he would ask me if he could do these things, as I knew that the repetition was paying off and that he was, in fact, learning.
I am currently sitting at the kitchen table working on this assignment. My mom was just talking to me about a violin workshop that I am teaching this summer, and my little sister, who has been playing the violin for around six years and is very good, walked in and said, "Can you have us sight-read in the workshop? Sight-reading is so fun!" As I was reading about different enhancements a teacher could make for more advanced students, I could not help but think of MK, my little sister. In this enhancement discussion, the text first stated, "They may need encouragement, however, because their heightened abilities also may make them more fearful, or perfectionistic" (Hansen, Berstorf, Stuber 123). This actually cleared up some things for me. I have always wondered why MK is consistently critical of her playing and has always resisted any comments I make about teaching her how to improvise. She is well advanced for her age, but has always seemed to fail to recognize that. Or so I thought. Her comment about sight reading, made while I was simultaneously reading about advanced students, has caused me to think that perhaps she does recognize her advanced level. She just does not want to make mistakes, which are bound to happen if she begins to learn improv. This text gave me a few good ideas for teaching my more advanced students like MK. The authors encourage sight-reading, along with teaching improvisation and composition skills. Perhaps I could begin pulling out different pieces of music and demanding that she sight-read them on the spot. I could also have her take a simple song that she learned years ago and ask her, over the course of her personal practice time, to create her own version of the song. Students like MK, who are advanced and thirsty for ways to challenge and build on what they know, need to be given activities like this to keep them advancing in their musical literacy.
Stephanie L Standerfer's article, "Differentiation in the Music Classroom", provides some great ideas and concepts behind differentiating learning in the music classroom. An incredibly important statement she makes is, "Teachers need to make modifications for students rather than assume students will modify themselves to fit the curriculum" (Standerfer 47). The whole article focuses on how each classroom will look distinctly different, and she also provides us with some key questions to ask ourselves as we assess our classroom to determine what kind of learning activities and methods we will incorporate into our curriculum. Three questions she tells us to ask ourselves are, "What are the characteristics of students in this class regarding readiness levels, interests, and learning profiles?", "Which elements of this lesson are important for each student: content, processes, or products?", and "What elements of this lesson are most flexible: content, process, or product?" If we guide ourselves with these three questions as we design our curriculum and lessons, we will be sure to attend to the wide variety of student needs in the classroom.
Altogether, I felt that the main point of both the book and the article concerning differentiation was that all students will process information and show their progress in different ways, and our job as music educators is to design learning activities that give each student an opportunity to utilize their own learning style. The book states, "Some students are better responders and describers of music. Other students are better performers. still others are better at creating music" (Hansen, Berstorf, Stuber 138). I can attest to this. Remember that little boy I described above? While he struggled with performing music, he had a fantastic memory and could sing the fingerings of a piece with only one run through. It also did not take him long before he could play the violin piece without the music. In fact, the music was often distracting for him, and he would ask if he could play it memorized so that he wouldn't be distracted. And remember MK? She is a fantastic performer. It may take her longer to learn to memorize a piece of music, but once she does, she can kill any performance. She just recently received a perfect score at Solo Ensemble. One thing I realized as I pondered these thoughts was that I need to be giving my students a chance to practice what they are good at. I feel as if I have always found their weaknesses and centered on growing those. However, perhaps the little boy with the short attention span would be more interested, engaged, and confident if I allowed him to sing through the fingerings of a song more often. Perhaps MK would have less insecurity issues if she performed for people more often and received their positive feedback. Every student I teach, both now and in the future, will be wildly different, and this is both the challenge and the fun in teaching. I have the privilege to get to know so many students on an individual level, and I should always be striving for creativity in my instructions and curriculum.
"The key is to bring these same principles in to group settings so that each learner can reach his or her maximum potential, knowing that some learners will need more support than others" (Hansen, Berstorf, Stuber 128). This is a statement we find in the book. This was convicting, as I have done much more private teaching than I have ensemble, though I have worked with both. There is more of a challenge for differentiated instruction in the ensemble setting, because you have to account for so many different interests and learning styles all at the same time, and somehow teach a musical concept in a variety of different ways. However, the article by Standerfer makes a point to say, "Differentiation is not individualized instruction. It does not require a dozen lesson plans to meet one learning objective. Instead, teachers look for shared characteristics among students within a class in order to group students in ways that make the most of the learning experience" (Standerfer 43). This was encouraging and got my mind spinning on a variety of different ways to recognize the students on an individual level and group them according to similar characteristics, thus giving them both companions and ways to learn that are specific to them. I anticipate this will be a challenge for me as I continue in my teaching education. It is simply easier for me to apply what I am learning to private, individual lessons, but the challenge as I move forward will be to take this gained knowledge and find ways to actively incorporate it in a group setting. Luckily I have the violin workshop coming up in a few weeks, and I can apply this knowledge then!
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