| ELEMENTARY GENERAL MUSIC | MIDDLE & HIGH SCHOOL BAND | HIGH SCHOOL BAND CAPSTONE | PSU EXPERIENCES |
Elementary General Music
Donann Stoicovy, Principal
2181 School Drive State College, PA 16803 |
Phone #
814-231-5010 Fax 814-235-4588 |
Patti Begg
Elementary General & Vocal Music Teacher Cooperative Teacher |
Duties
~Taught general music classes for grades K-5 ~Assisted with elementary choir (grades 4-5) ~Assisted with Orff ensemble (grade 5) ~Helped with All School Gatherings (weekly school assemblies for grades K-5) ~Helped with 1st and 2nd Grade American Celebration Concert ~Helped with 5th Grade Opera Productions |
I started off working in an elementary general music setting with Mrs. Patti Begg at Park Forest Elementary in the State College Area School District. The State College Area School District draws its students from a 150 square mile attendance area encompassing the Borough of State College and the surrounding townships of College, Ferguson, Halfmoon, Harris, and Patton, totaling an enrollment of approximately 7,200 students.
Prior to the start of my student teaching, my experiences in general music were limited to my coursework during my junior year in secondary general music, where I had the opportunity to explore the broad spectrum of general music curriculum at the secondary level as well as prepare and teach two group lessons with my peers at Mt. Nittany Middle School in State College with Mrs. Carolyn Gardner. While I had no idea what to expect from this experience, I was very eager to learn from Mrs. Begg and see what it takes to be a elementary general music teacher. With the limited time I had in my non-emphasis setting, Mrs. Begg had me working with students and leading activities by my second and third day. By the end of my time at Park Forest Elementary School, I had taught general music classes to all students in grade K-5. I spent a lot of time working with the students in Grades 1 &2 as well as those in Grades 3 & 4, getting the opportunity to develop and implement short term units of study in my short amount of time with them. I got to see each class only once a week for about 45 minutes, so I had to make the most of ever minute I had with them the five or six times I worked with them in class. Below are examples from these different units and lessons.
Prior to the start of my student teaching, my experiences in general music were limited to my coursework during my junior year in secondary general music, where I had the opportunity to explore the broad spectrum of general music curriculum at the secondary level as well as prepare and teach two group lessons with my peers at Mt. Nittany Middle School in State College with Mrs. Carolyn Gardner. While I had no idea what to expect from this experience, I was very eager to learn from Mrs. Begg and see what it takes to be a elementary general music teacher. With the limited time I had in my non-emphasis setting, Mrs. Begg had me working with students and leading activities by my second and third day. By the end of my time at Park Forest Elementary School, I had taught general music classes to all students in grade K-5. I spent a lot of time working with the students in Grades 1 &2 as well as those in Grades 3 & 4, getting the opportunity to develop and implement short term units of study in my short amount of time with them. I got to see each class only once a week for about 45 minutes, so I had to make the most of ever minute I had with them the five or six times I worked with them in class. Below are examples from these different units and lessons.
Kindergarten-
Peter and the Wolf With the kindergarten classes, I learned that students really learn a lot through using games and activities. Using this, I worked with Mrs. Begg on developing their musical listening skills through activities related to Sergei Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf, narrated by Leonard Bernstein. For several classes, we had fun acting out the story of the Peter and the Wolf with the CD narration and music without saying a word, but rather using our ears. Students got to experience playing different roles in a fun and nurturing setting then using what they learned in games related to our listening. The lesson I have chosen to highlight my work with the kindergarten students was my last class at Lemont Elementary School, where Patti taught three kindergarten classes on Thursday afternoons. I had worked with this class every week and they had really grown used to working with me. In this lesson, we started off with a unique activity where students were given a small object and they had to sing what object they to introduce themselves. Next, we played a fun game about a wolf and playing in the woods (the game is explained in the video). I wrapped up the lesson by doing stations with "Johnny Works With One Hammer" (students rotate between different instruments that play different roles in the song, can be done with different activities as well). Here, the students created a drone on the xylophones, others created a beat on claves and woodblock, and lastly students worked their "saw" with rhythm sticks. |
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Grades 1 & 2-
Carnival of the Animals For the first couple weeks of my time at Park Forest Elementary, the 1st and 2nd grade students were busy preparing for their upcoming Celebration of America assembly for their parents. This assembly tied in with the students' study of American history and culture, featuring skits on American symbols and singing important songs that define America. Following the conclusion of their concert, I got to work with each class on a unit of study that I developed.
With the 1st and 2nd grade students, I developed a unit of study centered around animals and listening with the help of Camille Saint-Saëns' Carnival of the Animals. Within this unit, I incorporated listening with moving, singing, and dancing in a fun and educational setting. Students learned how to listen and identify excerpts from the orchestral suite through listening to the excerpts, dancing and moving to these excerpts like the animal they depicted, singing songs about animals, and recalling information from their education and lives about different animals. We learned about different animals each class and got through over half of the excerpts from the suite. This was my last lesson with this particular class. In this lesson we: ~Started off with our usually greeting and name introduction. ~Learned a song about a mother rabbit feeding her young as well as did stations to create an instrumental accompaniment to the song ~Reviewed all the animals we had been learning through a fun listening game that pitted boys vs. girls. ~Learned and performed a brand new dance accompanied by the CD recording ~Performed and improvised simple drum patterns in a drum circle. In addition, I had given one of the 1st and 2nd grade classes an assessment the week before on the different animals we had been learning with Carnival of the Animals. I have attached a blank copy of the assessment as well as couple completed student assessments. |
Grade 3 & 4-
Turn the Glasses Over I spent the most time working with the 3rd and 4th graders, establishing a great report with each class and getting a chance to work on many different concepts with the students. One thing I really got to practice with these students is developing my own ideas for lessons with some help from Patti. In addition, I really got to work on my classroom management with these students, which was critical when they were first getting to know me and work with me. With these lessons, students worked on learning to read music through recorder playing, coordinated their body movements with music through dancing and singing, singing and experiencing a range of American folk music, and learning about form and how to recognize it in the music we listen to on a daily basis. All of these activities are present in the lesson that I have chosen to highlight with the attached video, subsequent lesson plan, and .pdf file of the recorder excerpt I used with these students |
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Grade 5-
Dixieland and Jazz With the 5th graders, I spent most of my time helping them out with their 5th grade opera productions. This was one of my favorite units to watch and assist with as they took charge of their assigned operas. These operas were genuine operas (Verdi's La Traviata & Il Trivotore, Bizet's Carmen) that were condensed down for obvious time reasons. However, students still acted out these operas, sang trademark songs from each opera, designed sets and costumes, and organized their performances. This unit game them a unique opportunity to experience drama in action and possibly pursue further studies in drama when they went over to the middle school. Once they finished their operas, I had two classes to finish up with the 5th graders. I worked with the students on singing an African American spiritual as well as having fun with listening on different styles of jazz, including dixieland, swing, bebop, and blues. Here is my last lesson with the 5th graders on Valentine's Day. At this lesson, I not only had Dr. Thornton conducting his final observation at my non-emphasis placement, but also had the principal of Park Forest Elementary watching me and evaluating my progress (copy of her evaluation found below). In this lesson, we listened to a variety of jazz artists and jazz styles, listened to me perform some swing music with Artie Shaw's Concerto for Clarinet, got up and danced to the different musical styles of jazz, learned about great jazz artists and the origins and evolution of jazz, and had some fun with drums. I have attached a video of my lesson as well as my lesson plan, jazz listening PowerPoint presentation, and drum circle activity. |