Table 3.1.

1 Narrative Daily Teaching Reflection (limited to 4 pages)

Day 1: On the first day of the unit there were some successes and there are some things that will need work. I began reviewing rhythms and the kinesthetic actions that are assigned to each note or rest. For example whenever the students see an eighth note the students say eighth note as they stomp their feet. This part went extremely well! All of the students were catching on and really retaining the information. Then, we moved onto the syllable work. I began explaining that syllables are like the beats in a word. I showed them that words could be split into parts and we could then add rhythms we knew to these parts to create music. They seemed to be getting it. I was modeling and giving lots of examples. But, I forgot to tell them that we were not using eighth notes in our syllables because eighth notes only receive half a beat. Since I forgot to explain this detail the next part did not go as planned. Each student was given a sticky note and instructed to write their first and last name. Then, they were to identify the syllables and then add a note or rest to each syllable to make a rhythmic passage. This would be their exit ticket and allow me to see what each student understood from the lesson. When I got them back, I immediately knew that I forgot to tell them not to use eighth notes. Now, nearly all of their rhythmic notations were incorrect. To fix this confusion, I will have re-teaching to do during the next lesson. As for students meeting todays lesson objectives, student could identify syllables and they can identify notes and their values. But, due to minor mishaps, the students did not achieve the objective of writing rhythmic notations to words. Overall, the lesson strategies seem

Day 2: As soon as the class came in we reviewed the lesson from yesterday and I explained my mistake. I had the students do the activity again and this time on the board and it worked perfectly. Once this was completed we moved onto our music math lesson. I reviewed our notes and their values. Then we created simple addition problems using these symbols instead of numbers. The students loved this! We later turned it into a relay race where I called out simple music math problems and the students solved them. All of the students really seemed to understand the concept. The best part about the activity was that Student A and Student B were both very engaged and correctly answering the music math problems. I continued to praise these students as well as the class as we moved onto a discussion about time signatures. We discussed the meaning of 4/4 and 3/4 time. Afterwards the students had the opportunity to do music math problems where the sum added up to 3 or 4. The students were all engaged and participating. Several students were asked to come to the white board and solve problems. They understood the concept so well! Since the students were doing so well, I challenged them by adapting the problems where they were solving simple algebraic expressions by determining the value of the missing note.

Day 3: This was another fun day in the classroom. We began by reviewing or notes, rests and their values. We have also been reviewing the kinesthetic actions that I assigned to each. We have been focusing so much on the numerical values to the notes that we havent focused much on the names of the notes and rests. So, we played a game called Vocabulary Swat. On the white board I drew out all of the symbols and wrote out all the names. The class was split into two teams. Each student, on their turn, was given a tiny fly swatter. When I pointed at a symbol they had to swat its corresponding name and vice versa. The student who swatted the correct answer first got a point for their team. In order to get an additional point the student would have to demonstrate what action we do when we see that symbol. If the student could not demonstrate correctly, the other team would get a chance to steal and earn a point as well. This class responds well to competition. So, having a competitive game helps keep the class engaged. Having a game like this, it gives me the opportunity to informally assess the students through observation. After playing, I realized that they are still several in the class struggling with identifying the note and rest names, so we will continue to review each day for solidity. I also made note of the students so that I make sure to give them more one on one attention. After we played the game each student was given a pumpkin that was split into 4 sections and the time signature 4/4 was put on the stem. Students were told to produce a rhythm in 4/4 time. The sum of the four notes or rests had to add up to 4 which they learned the day before. The students had a lot of fun with this and it gave me the opportunities to walk around the class and help and independently help who were struggling. Student B worked with me one on one to complete his pumpkin. In the end, every single student did it correctly and we ended up with +beautiful art for our hallway!

Day 4: Today for our lesson we worked from the SMART Board. The activity works on notating rhythm in 4/4 meter. The students really enjoyed this activity because it was very visual. The program used different colored apples with different note values on them. For example, red apples were quarter rests and yellow apples were quarter notes. The students one by one came up to the SMART Board and chose an apple to take off the tree and put in our composition. Once we had several rhythms notated, as a class we would say the rhythms and do our corresponding actions. The students really seemed to understand the concept. To continue building on their previous knowledge I began asking them to solve the music math problems to check and see if each line added up to 4. This seemed to help draw conclusions from the previous lessons about time signature. During this lesson, I made sure to give Student A and Student B opportunities to answer questions and come to the SMART Board and compose. This helped keep both of them engaged. Student B was also so engaged he began asking questions and speaking out more in class! I made sure to follow up these actions with positive reinforcement in hopes that he will continue speaking up in class.

Day 5: This day was a bit chaotic. Upon arriving to school, my cooperating teacher and I were notified of a Math-a-thon assembly that would be taking place throughout the day. One of the assemblies happened to take place during the 2nd grade class I am doing my KPTP with. So, my lesson time was cut in half. Though, the time was short, I do not think it affected the lesson. The rigorous tempo I had to take helped keep them on task and focused. After the students came back in from the assembly, getting them calm and back on task was difficult. But, I was able to get them engaged quickly. We discussed the upcoming Battle of the Bands project. I explained what kinds of items students should bring to be used as instruments. The students were really intrigued. Student B was so engaged he kept giving examples of recyclable materials that could be made into instruments. The students really seem excited about the project. This kind of buyin is really helpful. Its easier to teach concepts when the students are enjoying what they are doing. After we discussed the project, I wanted to show them an example of how everyday items can be used as instruments. As a class we watched a few videos of the musical group STOMP. This musical group performs percussive numbers with everything from newspapers, pots, pans, trashcans and so much more. This was a great way to end the class time because the students were very excited. It will be interesting to see how they act tomorrow when they come in and begin forming their bands.

Day 6: My first experience teaching during group work was very interesting. Once the students arrived to class I explained that we would be forming our bands and creating a band poster. I then lectured about the use of persuasive advertising. Together we came up with a list of persuasive words that could be used on our posters. I drew an example poster on the board for them to reference. I also listed items that were required for the poster such as; band name, pictures and band members names on the back. After directions for the project were given I listed off the band groups. I specifically placed certain students in groups together. I wanted to make sure that I had a mixture of higher level and lower level students together. I wanted to give the lower level students a chance to learn from the higher level students in a group setting. Once the groups were made, materials were passed out. This is when chaos struck. As I am walking around the room answering questions, I have two problems. The group with Student B is having problems sharing. Student B is very upset because he has an idea and no one in his group will listen. He has begun to shut down. As I begin to deal with this problem, another student comes up to me in tears because Student A was angry and pushed him down. I immediately call Student A over and try to understand the situation, but he has also shut down. So, I send him into my cooperating teachers office to discuss the matter with her. In the meantime I dealt with the sharing problem of Student B and get it resolved. But, Student B is uninterested in doing the assignment any longer. At this point, class time is over so I collect the posters and we finish the last few minutes of class discussing how to share and why it is important to be nice to our friends. Unfortunately, because of behavioral issues, I dont think the students got much out of the lesson. After Student A spent time in my cooperating teachers office, she discovered that he was having a rough day because of his home life situation. Student A told us that his parents are divorced and Moms new boyfriend has moved into the house. After learning this information,

we spoke to his mother who works in the school cafeteria. She then explained that the new boyfriend has taken interest in Student A and gives him lots of adult male attention. His mother believes this is why he has had less violent outbursts this year. But, she also told us that Student As father is back in the picture and he is telling Student B that because the new boyfriend is living in the house, he will never return. This has student A very confused and upset which led to his angry outburst in class. We explained to Student A that his actions were wrong and that he needs to communicate when he is getting angry beforehand. We are discussing a new strategy to help keep Student A calm during classes as he is going through these changes at home.

Day 7: The lesson for this day included the students writing their rhythmic compositions. Students were split into their bands and given a worksheet to begin writing 10 measures of rhythmic passages of 4/4. Each student in the band was required to compose two of the 10 measures. As the students worked in their groups, myself and my cooperating teacher walked around the room helping the groups along. As I walked around the room, I could tell that the groups were fully understanding the objectives and accurately notating rhythms in simple meter. The students finished their compositions sooner than expected so, I adapted the lesson to where the students began practicing playing their compositions on their bodies. During this part I realized that students were not fully understanding the duration of half, dotted and whole notes and rests. Instead of holding a whole note for four beats, they were giving a whole note four individual beats. This confusion was coming from the kinesthetic actions that were assigned to the notes and rests. I began visiting group after group trying to remedy the confusion. Some of the students seemed to understand the additional information, but some students were confused even more. Before the students perform their compositions on their instruments tomorrow I will make sure to do some more re-teaching of the duration of notes. I will use repetition and modeling to help the students understand.

Day 8: When the students arrived, I began re-teaching the note values. I tried to model several examples of how we hold the notes for the durations, rather than keep the steady beat. Student A got really frustrated because he wasnt understanding and began to shut down. I tried to work one on one with him and he began to understand a little but more. As for Student B, I continued to model and be very repetitious, Once I felt like the students were grasping the concept, I decided to go ahead and let the students play their compositions. As students were playing, I could tell that the students were not really able to bridge the new concept of holding notes for the duration of their value. I decided to go ahead and let them finish performing and we would continue to revisit this concept after the unit. Since the students enjoy competition so much, at the end of the performances, the students got to vote on their favorite band. Even though I do not feel the objective was met for the performance, I believe the students have learned a lot from this experience. I will continue to take what they have learned and build upon it.