Constructivism

To teach with the 5 Es Model I would:

1. Engage:  To engage my students I will start off class by playing a popular song for them. (It could be "Wrecking Ball" or "Imagine" or something popular that they will be interested in)
2. Explore: I will hand out the lyrics and a worksheet. I will ask my students to explore the lyrics and develop meanings behind why the writer chose those words and how they may effect society.
3.  Explain: I will then ask the students to pair off and explain what they came up with and why.
4.  Elaborate: After hearing others opinions I will ask them to elaborate on their answer and dig deeper into the meaning of the song.
5.  Evaluate: Then I will have the students evaluate themselves on how well they discovered meaning and write it on their worksheet.

Social Cognitive Learning Theory

How I would model a skill for someone:

I would first show them the finished result so they have an idea at what they are creating or accomplishing. This is also to grab their attention.  If they have a goal in mind and it is in their interest level they are more likely to pay attention.  Then I would show them step by step how to accomplish the task.  In class I showed a student how to draw a flower. I went step by step on how to outline, draw the petals, erase extra markings, and add the final touches.  As he was following me I would say that he is doing a good job, offer any necessary help or extra instructions. To improve retention I divide the modeling into chunks, for example I start with the finished product, then I teach the flower, then the stem, and then the extra details to make it pretty, such as shading.  To ensure the task is in the ZPD I will do a little pre-assessment and ask my student if they have ever drawn before.  This is a way to decide if the task is too hard or if it will stretch them a little bit.  I will motivate them by encouragement.  To provide opportunities for practice after they have drawn the flower I will ask them to draw another one using the same steps.

In a beginning band class I would demonstrate how to play the flute (or whatever instrument) and then teach my students first how to hold it, then how to blow in it.  I will allow them time to practice what they are learning and encourage them to keep trying.  I will teach in steps so they won't get overwhelmed or discouraged.   I will basically do the same things I did when teaching how to draw a flower.

Information processing

I will have a lesson where I teach breathing techniques.  To get my students attention I will have a comic on the board about breathing and then ask them questions about breathing and why its important. I will then teach them the proper way to breath then I will practice with them (rehearsal).  I will then explain that to remember what it feels like to breath properly imagine you are wearing an inner tube around your stomach and that it needs to be inflated all the way around, but just in the front.  This is an example of encoding because the students are getting an analogy to use when thinking about breathing.

Attention quote, comic, music videos,
Rehearsal: practice
Encoding: use analogy, pictures, mnumonics, elaboration

Behaviorism: Shaping

Explain how you would shape students' behavior/skill/knowledge for something specific in your content area. Be sure to explain how you would reinforce students' efforts along the way. You may use either form of shaping: reinforcing successive approximations and/or breaking the task into smaller chunks and reinforcing for each chunk. BE SPECIFIC!!!

Beginners B flat scale

I want my beginning students to be able to play a B flat scale.
1.  I will first have the students learn B flat, C and D and reward them with points for learning those. With every point they earn the students will become closer to having a free quiz (20 points) where they can get a perfect score on a quiz no matter how well they played.
2.  Then I will have the students learn E flat F and G and reward them for completing B flat, C, D, E flat, F, and G. I will reward the students for doing all of the notes.
3.  Then I will teach the students A and the higher B flat.  I will only reward them for completing the whole scale. 
4.  I will shape students as they learn the other scales and different octaves.

Identity Development

How will I support your students' identity development?

• Have students find a role model of a professional musician they can look up to. 
• Encourage students to talk to school counselors if they have problems that are out of my league. 
• Give students constructive criticism. 
• Encourage them to listen to all types of music to give them more understanding of all genres.
• Have them write a journal entry of their favorite piece of music we played this year and why it was their favorite. 
• Have students write a song that represents their life.
• Have students bring a song to class that represents who they are.
• Have uplifting messages on the walls and always encourage students.
• Give them opportunities to succeed and fail in music. 

Differentiation

In my classroom I want to include differentiation.  Differentiation is basically a process of presenting information to the individual needs of each student.  Dividing the class into groups according to levels can be a great way to focus on the needs of students.  The idea is to have the more advanced students be in one group, the intermediate in a group, and then the not as advanced students be in a group.  After they are separated give them similar, but different problems to push all of them at their different levels.  In my band class I want periodically separate the players into three groups: more advanced, intermediate and beginner level.  At a High School it is possible to get all three levels in one classroom.  I will give the advanced players opportunities to play harder music and on the opposite end I will give the beginners more attention and easier music.  There is no way I could do this by myself, so I will hire help to be with each group.  As the children meet in smaller groups and with other students of their same level more needs can be met.  I can focus on basic skills and technique.  The more advanced students will be able to working on technique and musicianship.  The intermediate group will receive a little bit of both.

Another idea of including differentiation is to use technology.  To teach the students to keep the rhythm and time I will use a metronome in practice.  This will help them see where the beats are and give them a goal as to where to go musically. 

I will also include scaffolding in my class. For example, I will teach the students the vocabulary of music; such as legato, andante and so on.  I will teach them what these mean so when we are rehearsing a piece of music they will know what style to play the music at.

I'm excited to use these tactics and see how they will help my future students.

Piaget

A topic that causes disequilibration in a music class is note values and difficult rhythms.  To teach note values at a concrete level I would start with the basic note value; which is a whole note.  I will draw on the board and also have flash cards that are cut out according to their length.  For example: a whole note would be eleven inches long, a quarter note would be half of that and so forth.  As I show them the whole note flash card I will ask them to count the value of it out loud with me.  I will repeat this process with the quarter note, the half note, then the eighth and the sixteenth.  When the students count the whole note they will say "one....." for the length of the whole note.  The half note will sound like this, "one...two..."  After I have refreshed their memory of those notes I will introduce the more difficult note lengths and rhythms.  These may include one half note and eight sixteenth notes. I will write the rhythms on the board and let them practice them.  I will demonstrate as needed.  I will give the students the opportunity to think about the rhythm and work it out themselves before I tell them how to do it.  Disequilibration is occurring when I show the students these difficult rhythms they have had to count before.  However, I will help them assimilate by associating the basic note values and rhythms and tie it all together.  I will show how a syncopated rhythm using sixteenth notes is similar to two eighth notes. (Accommodate)  By practicing and seeing how it fits in a measure mathematically the students will be able to assimilate.

At a formal level  I will give the students handouts with difficult note lengths and rhythms and have them work in pairs to figure them out and count it.