Name: Alex Pobocik

Date of Video: 9/25/18

Brief lesson description: For this lesson I first conducted a silent warm-up with the students,
focusing on staccato articulations and the key of Eb. I then began working on American Patrol
with the students. While working on the piece I continued to emphasize staccato articulations
and the key of Eb.

Planning:
What were the goals/objectives for this lesson as stated in your plan?

My stated objective was that students would be able to accurately perform American
Patrol with attention to articulations and key signature.

Describe the overall degree to which you accomplished your goals.

I believe that my students made observable progress in regards to my stated objective.

Although they by no means showed mastery of either staccato articulation or Eb, they showed
improvement in both areas. At times, particularly towards the end of the lesson, I could hear
spots that had improved from the beginning of the lesson.

What additional standards were addressed in this lesson that meet the ELL, Reading, or
Exceptionality standards studied this semester? How are these standards manifested in your
plan?

During my first visit to the classroom I asked my cooperating teachers if they had any
students with IEPs or English Learners in the class I would be working with and they informed
me that they did not, so I did not have to address those learners in my lesson plan. In regards to
UDL I attempted to address all three principles:
● Multiple Means of Representation:
○ Rather than having students read musical with articulations, I had them listen and
echo me.
○ I represented different articulations using percussion instruments.
○ I used figurative language to describe how to articulate.
○ I connected students’ auditory perception to a visual representation of staccato.
● Multiple Means of Action and Expression:
○ I had students echo my rhythmic patterns both vocally and with their instruments.
○ I gradually added extra elements into the echoing activity.
● Multiple Means of Engagement (Motivation)
○ I used a rehearsal strategy that students weren’t used to to get students
engaged.
 ○ I used creative figurative language to give students another way of approaching
the subject.

Execution of the Plan:

What are some of your personal idiosyncrasies? How can you address them as you grow as a
teacher?
● I almost always snap when conducting or keeping time.
● I waste too much time counting off.
● The personality I bring to the classroom might come off as condescending at times.

What did you do/not do to set the tone for learning? Would you do anything differently? If so,
what?

I think the silent portion of my rehearsal really set the tone and engagement level for the
class right away. This was definitely the best portion of my lesson and I plan on using this
approach in future lessons! Although this was good, I wish I had been more strict with what I
wanted from the students right from the get go, but again I was afraid of getting bogged down--
especially during the silent portion of rehearsal. Listening back to my video I can hear a lot of
mistakes with notes and rhythms that I should have stopped and addressed right away. Instead
I just let these slide, which then set my standards for the rest of rehearsal too low.

Focus on your questioning. What did you notice in terms of the quality of your
questioning?Frequency? Levels? Response/feedback to students? Cite examples.

For this lesson I felt that my questions were sufficient, but could use more depth. I asked
students to describe our articulations using whatever adjectives they see fit, and then asked
them to label that articulation, and tell me how to write it down. This chain of questioning
allowed students to hear the concept, practice the concept, and talk about the concept before
labeling it. I also asked the class to listen critically and compare the articulations between two
sections, which was good in theory, but I think I need to come up with another way to approach
this.

How well did you engage ALL learners in this lesson? Would you change anything about the
participation? If so, what would you do differently?

This continues to be an area of my teaching that I need to work on. I need to find ways
to engage each and every student throughout the lesson. I did a better job during this lesson
that in prior ones, but I still need improvement. In subsequent lessons I found ways to involve
the entire ensemble while still focusing on a particular passage in the music by writing the
passage out for all instruments and projecting it on the board. This helped keep everyone
involved, and in hindsight I should have done that for this lesson.
Discuss the incorporation of the new standards in your instruction.

I incorporated MU:Pr5.3.E.8a: Develop strategies to address technical challenges in a

varied repertoire of music and evalutate their success using feedback from ensemble peers and
other sources to refine performance in this lesson. I had students listen critically to other
sections play a passage, evaluate them, and then determine what way we wanted to articulate
that passage.

What are your greatest strengths in the delivery of this lesson?

By far the silent portion of rehearsal was my greatest strength. I think the approach I
took really got the students’ attention and kept them engaged. Now that I have some experience
with this in an actual classroom I think I’ll tweak some things and use it again more effectively.

What areas in this lesson need attention and improvement?

I think I need improvement in two main areas based on watching my video: engaging the
whole class and attention to detail. In regards to engagement, this is an area that I’ve known
that I need improvement in and I think I have been making gradual steps with engaging the
whole class. With attention to detail I think I just need to spend more time in front of an
ensemble to improve my ear so I can hear more intricate parts than just the melody and bass
line, and so I am more comfortable with addressing specific issues in ensemble rehearsal.

On a scale of 1 (weakest) to 10 (strongest), rate your overall effectiveness as a teacher in this

experience. Defend your rating with examples.

Overall I would rate myself a 7. I think I made improvements from my last lesson but I
have a long way to go still. Some positive aspects were my silent warm up, my use of figurative
language in explaining concepts, my use of modeling, and my improved comfort level in front of
the ensemble. Areas that need improvement are classroom engagement, level of detail,
questioning, instrument specific knowledge, and specificity.