Gian Melo

Stirrup Elementary 2nd grade Music Class Observation

Class Setup
-Class set up in a choral style with no chairs and no risers.
- Bulletin boards around the room along with composers pictures.
-instruments gathered on two of the room corners, also there were two computers
most likely to be used as midi lab.
-A/C seemed to be defective.
Lesson Layout
- 5-10 min Solfege (Do, Re)
- 5-10 min Tchaikovsky Symphony #4 (listening, writing, and reading):

Verbal instruction was delivered as teacher walked around constantly

checking on students.
Cymbal aural recognition in the symphony, cymbal visual recognition and
performance demonstration (students were asked to take note of the
instrument and the composer on their composer composers and instruments
log)

-15-20 min Rhythm Sticks:

Students were introduced to the playing and rest position with the rhythm
sticks
Some rhythmic figures were recalled from the previous lesson
o Quarter notes and half notes
- 5-10 min singing Song Time
Students were asked to recall the song from the previous lesson; Teacher
played it in the piano while they tried to sing the first two phrases.
The next two phrases of the song were presented to the students.
- 5 min class wrap up
Questions about todays lesson were asked as reinforcement.
Refelction
-Through the whole lesson one of the aspects that called most of my attention was
the constant positive reinforcement of those students who were doing the right
thing. I was thinking he could have worded it in some other way where no one is
doing the wrong thing but something that is expected at the moment from the
teacher (also works for future reference of performance or interpretative approach).
-I noticed the girl in the purple sweater was not doing quite well on the rhythm
sticks activity, I was thinking that maybe it was because of a vision problem (maybe
she needed to be seated closer to the board) or some sort of lack of focus on the
subject, I dont know if the teacher was aware or not but for most than half of the
rhythmic figure reading section of the lesson she was struggling until the teacher
partnered the student with somebody. As far as the effectiveness if the student
improved on the task because of the partnering, is still in discussion but; one thing
that was demonstrated and corroborated was that even though he seemed to be

unaware, it was brought up in the Q&A that he knows his student and one condition
she may have, may be the cause of her struggle. The point I am trying to make is
that a key part of this profession is knowing your students.