My Assignment
Guided Field Experience Questions:
Week One Question: Describe instructional strategies used with gifted and talented students. There is a certain student in the Advanced Jazz Band that is more advance than the rest of the students. This student plays in concerts and recitals with students from the university pn a regular basis. He plays with the school band for credit and for his transcript. He understands fully that not everyone is on his playing level, but does not show it in any kind of conceited way. He sits patiently while the other students need to be instructed on things he has already mastered. He sees the calss as a break from the rest of school and a time to have fun for a grade. He basically does his own thing and gets class credit for it. Week Two Question: What approach of reinforcement and punishment is preferred? The teacher says that he prefers to act naturally with the students. He says that his personality is joking and upbeat, therefore, this is how he must act with his students. His method of punishment consists of joking and poking lighthearted fun. The students know exactly what he means exactly when he says it, because he is consistent with them. When reinforcing the students, he is sincere, never condescending. The students give this teacher a lot of respect because he treats them with respect. Question: Punishment and other students: At one point in the lesson, a student disrupted the class by talking. The teacher made a joke in order for the student to be quiet and he did. However, he continued tot alk later, and the teacher told him to put his instrument away. The other students continued playing and hardly looked at the punished student who left the playing area to put away his instrument. They understood fully that he was being punished, and they continued playing because they knew that it was time to be serious and rehearse. The punished student did not make a scene, but out of respect for his teacher, quietly sat off to the side and watched the rest of the rehearsal. Week Three For my third experience, my teacher suggested that I might want to visit another classroom in the school. So, I spent my day in the drama room. They did mostly improvisational drama games, and honestly, I could not find any answers to this weeks questions in what was going on in the room. I did however notice discipline problems. The teacher repeatedly had to tell the same student to sit in his seat after he got up to do nothing in particular. This same student wandered and spoke out of turn throughout the class. There was no attempt made to control him at all. The interesting thing was that the rest of the students were not bothered by him in the least. They continued with thier work and games, and basically ignored him. I noticed that after more than half a period of being ignored, he settled down a little (very little) and participated in the classroom activities. In spite of his behavior problems, the teacher even let him participate in the games and freely continue to do as he pleased. When the class ended, I asked her about this particular student and she said that by this time in the year, she had given up on being a policeman to him and just decided to let him be. It's taken me this long to write this evaluation because I still don't know what to make of her decision. Has she just given up? Has she decided that there's nothing she can do? Does she have ulterior motives? I've decided to ask her the next time I'm at the school and hopefully, Ill be able to answer my owen questions next time. Week Four Question Number One The "lesson" was to play five forms of a scale starting on E flat. THe students were arranged by instrument, in family sections and arched around the music director. The director provided the tempo and let the students play through their scales with no other assistance. The director pointed out when a student was off pitch or playing the worng scale, and the student was then able to correct his mistake. The students themselves played the bigger role in the learning proces, because a scale is learned by practice, and that's just what the students did to learn the scales. Learning did occur, you have to learn new fingerins evertime you play a new scale, and the students knew that they would have to play hem eventually without sheet music, so they took seriously the task of actually learning how to play. Week Five 2. What are the rules for the class(es) you are observing? How were these rules created? Are the rules not stated but implied or are they clearly presented to the students? The rules of this classroom are implied. They are to practice your material on your own, and to be prepared for class. THere is also a general rule to show respect to the teacher and not to be disruptive. Even though they are implied, they seem to be very clear to the students. Not one of the (only 2) students who were punished for being unprepared, or disruptive were surprised, nor did they argue the teacher's reprimand. What are the consequences for breaking class rules? The teacher did not allow the student to practice with the rest of the class, and he had to put his instrument away and sit and watch. Both students that got in trouble in all the times I went to observe seemed to be very ashamed to have be reprimanded by the teacher. There was no rebuttal. What are the benefits to students who meet class expectations? The class gets to proceed with needed rehearsal. They do not get called out by the teacher who seems to command much respect in the classroom. What are your thoughts regarding these rules and the consequences (or lack of consequences) for breaking them? I love that the students respect the teacher so much that they automatically know all the rules. When the students were punished, they other classmates kind of hung their heads, not wanting to encourage the behavior that was reprimanded. They were so well-behaved and I think that it had a lot to do with respect for the teacher rather than because of rules.
