Chapter 5--Project 2

Project 2--Observe a middle school general music class or a rehearsal of a performing ensemble.

· Determine what the teacher was attempting to teach.

· Decide what might logically be worked on in the next class.

· Offer reasons for your choice of the topic you selected.

I observed a 7^th grade choir rehearsal Tuesday morning with Sheila Zinke. Mrs. Zinke made efforts to teach several things through the use of sight reading exercises and pieces of literature intended for future performance on a concert. The sight reading exercises were for precisely that—to practice reading music at sight, a valuable skill needed as musicians. Mrs. Zinke’s intent is to give them a good start at it now so they can progress to more difficult material in the upper grades. In teaching the literature, Mrs. Zinke incorporated the use of sight reading while emphasizing good intonation, blend, balance, correct rhythm, and tempo. She rehearsed particular sections of each piece. Mrs. Zinke also encouraged proper breathing technique, and used student and self demonstrations to do so.

In the next class, Mrs. Zinke might choose to review the same portions of each piece, and go on to learn the other sections of the songs, using the same concepts covered in Tuesday’s rehearsal. If I were to teach the next lesson, I would also probably review the sections learned on Tuesday, and spend a bit more time learning pitches so there could be less time spent correcting them later, in addition to moving on and getting a sense of what the other sections are like. I would also take time to review proper breathing technique, as it is something important to singers in all venues.

I chose to observe this particular class (not just because it fit into my schedule) because the middle school grades are the ones that I am most nervous about having to teach. I also found it interesting to see how Mrs. Zinke divided the students on each part since the boys’ voices may be beginning to change by such an age. I do appreciate that she had the girls sing both Part I and Part II. In addition to this, I would probably split the boys into Part I and Part II as well, depending on the piece and which voices are already changing. There’s a lot to observe in the middle school setting because the students are experiencing so much physically, sometimes unbeknownst to them.