Without asking or looking at your cooperating teacher’s plan, observe one full class or rehearsal and list the musical objectives you think your cooperating teacher had in mind. State each as a full objective, using the language and/or wording you were taught in your methods courses.
MS: recall, musical literacy. HS: recall, musical literacy, expression
How can you tell from your observation that these were the objectives of the lesson or rehearsal?
In both cases, it was clear that these were the objectives because students were explicitly asked to do activities to strengthen their skills in notation and reading new music, but also recalling concepts from previous lessons.
How might these objectives represent a small portion of the larger music curriculum?
Music literacy and recall are both central concepts in music classrooms, and make up the foundation of being a musician, especially in an ensemble.
From this observation, how can you tell what the students already knew prior to this lesson?
It was clear to see where students in both schools were in their music literacy because they completed a written assignment and/or a handout. They were both also asked questions that would force them to think about previously-learned concepts.
How does your cooperating teacher assess student learning in this lesson?
Both teachers will grade the assignments but also circle the room and are able to provide real-time feedback and also make informal assessments.
Marlena's Student Teaching Journey 
Hello, Marlena!
I’m really glad to see you reflecting on the teachers’ ability to recall content from previous lessons and contextualize them in the current lesson. This scaffolds the students’ ability to transfer knowledge and content into long-term memory in addition to showing them the real-world application of the material/skills.
I’ve been interested in how Craig can work with students of varying levels of music literacy without alienating those who are still new to these skills. He is very successful with this. It’s especially apparent as he teaches beginning instrumentalist in a HS setting. See if you can look for these strategies as they will be important to you in the future. Reading Western Standard Music Notation can be a barrier for some students, and finding ways to balance music creation with music reading will be a central tenant for future music educators. Those of us who are experienced with this notational system can sometimes forget how difficult it is to learn when also trying to practice the advanced skills needed to play an instrument.
I’m also happy to see that your CTs are using multiple ways of assessing the students’ music literacy knowledge. This can be so important as we all have different ways of taking in, using, and storing skills such as these. You may want to continue to think of new ways for students to show you what they know about reading western music notation.
Great to read your thoughts, Marlena!
–Robert
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Marlena,
I have to agree with Robert in that I am impressed with the fact that you picked up on recall as an important objective. Often times, when learning a new instrument, it is overwhelming and it is important for the teacher to remind students of what they already know so as to build upon it.
In middle school, I would be interested in dissecting what music literacy means for beginning band. It really could be that the objectives were to play the entire scale, and the ability to talk about music (during music sharing) using musical terminology.
I would like to hear more reflection about your week. Please remember that you should be attaching a lesson plan and connecting the prompt to your week and adding general reflections.
Lauren
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