As promised in my post from yesterday, I am going to explain how I set up the SLMRD pathway for my students to work on. This particular pathway is a lot more hands on and requires a little bit of time with me. The first thing I did was find a great So-la-mi SMARTNotebook document from SMARTExchange. I downloaded it, and put it up on the SMARTBoard in my classroom, then I went over it with the students a little review on how to read So, La, and Mi. This SMARTNotebook document will stay up in my classroom over the next couple weeks so different students can experience it and practice in small groups on their own as they explore more about reading notes in solfege. I also made sure to set up a folder in Schoology that included information about the long term and short term goals and targets to think about as students work on reading the notes and project information. Unlike the composer and orchestra pathways, this project is not optional for any student. While they are able to choose whether or not they would like to demonstrate their learning on the composers or the orchestra, all students must complete a singing or playing assessment using SLMRD. I did make sure to add an extension option using composition for students who wished to go above and beyond just reading and playing or singing the notes. 

Students are also required to add to a discussion page on their note reading progress each time they choose to focus on that particular pathway in class. 

So basically, that is the behind the scenes set up. Whether or not this set-up is going to be fruitful to adding to the learning experiences of the students is still to be noted. Each time students come to class I expect them to choose a pathway and get to work. I provide mini-lessons for students each time they come to class that they are welcome to attend if they feel it will help their learning process. Every music class has a 15 minute mini-lesson focus on reading the music on solfege and every other class has a 15 minute mini-lesson on either the orchestra or the composer of the month. I am planning to conference with students in groups every 3 weeks in place of a mini-lesson to make sure that they are on track, putting effort into their studies and discuss possible project options with them. To be honest, I am a little nervous about whether or not my students, especially since they are in 3rd grade, are able to handle such responsibility yet or be able to handle such projects, but I am hoping they will be able to surprise me and exceed expectations. Will they choose to spend their entire class times on their iPads or will they try to do more hands on learning? Time will tell.  Will my students be responsible enough to come to a mini-lesson with me? I hope so. We never try to  let students take control, to give them the power to choose and decide for themselves. I am hoping that by allowing the learners to take responsibility of their own education, even at such a young age, will have positive impacts not only on their academic growth in music, but also will inspire a passion and love for music that they discovered and came to terms with on their own!


Happy Personalizing!

--Lauren

So, after I set up the expectations for the project, the long and short term goals, my next step was to get the information out there. Since a picture is worth a thousand words, below are a few screenshots of my set-up in Schoology. 
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As you can see, I have a few things from earlier in the year (concert season). Pay attention to the last three folders: Note Name Games, Orchestra Links, Composer of the Month. Those are my three pathway folders. There is also a Solfege Discussion page for students to add their thoughts about what they did with DRMSL during a mini-lesson or in their own breakout work time. It is outside of a folder because our solfege activities are more hands on and use less technology. 

Next I am going to show you inside the folder for Composer of the Month

In January, our composer of the month was Mozart, so there is a folder dedicated to him as well as a discussion page about him. Our February Composers are Scott Joplin and William Grant Still, so there are folders and discussion pages for them as well. In March, my composers of the month are Amy Beach, Clara Schumann and Fanny Mendelssohn. Since Personalized Learning is so much about giving the learner a voice and choice as well as the ability to pace themselves, I just put everything they needed out there and told them not to worry about the month constraints. They can work on learning about any of those composers at anytime before April. All I require is that they add something meaningful to each discussion page for our composers. I also made sure to link to our district log-in page for iCurio, a child friendly research database, so that they can find their own articles and videos about the composers. Notice that they also have access to the learning targets/project information at any time, this will help them remember what the goals are when we are learning about the composers and what questions to ask themselves in order to check their learning. It also includes information on the final project. 

Each pathway folder, like the composer folder above, has access to several resources to help students access information and explore, as well as access to short and long term goals, and project information. 


Finally, I want to show you an example rubric that I created using Markboard for the orchestra pathway. I used this rubric creator for the composer pathway as well, but I think that one needs a little tweaking still. Note that we use a 1-4 rubric to evaluate proficiency. A 1 is minimal understanding of a topic, a 3 is proficient and a 4 shows exemplary work and understanding beyond what was expected. I used the categories and levels given by Markboard and created my criteria around that. 

So you have now seen a little bit about the Orchestra pathway featuring long and short term goals, as well as a project description, from my last blog. You have also seen a little bit about the composition pathway, featuring how I set up each pathway folder with resources. In my next update, I will add a little more about how I set up the SLMRD Pathway.


Happy Personalizing!

​-Lauren

We had an optional work day on Friday because of the end of the quarter, so naturally I spent that entire day in my classroom getting ready and excited for the next "unit" for my third graders. In the next several weeks, I am going to let my students decide what curriculum path they want to choose, which they would like to create a project on, and what questions need to be answered in order to demonstrate that learning occurred. I put together three curriculum paths for my third graders.

1) The Orchestra Pathway: students need to demonstrate an understanding of the instruments in the orchestra by sight and sound. This is a benchmark that needs to be covered and assessed before the end of the year. I chose this as one of the options for this unit because it really doesn't require me to stand up and lecture. The best way for kids to get interested and understand the orchestra is to let them discover and explore it. 


2) DoReMiSoLa - Note Reading Pathway: Students will be able to read, sing, and play melodic patterns on DRMSL. This is a benchmark that also needs to be covered before the end of the year. A lot of this will be covered in mini-lessons or conferences with me as students decide when they would like to learn more about it. 

3) Composer of the Month Pathway: This doesn't really go with an assessed benchmark, but it does fit in with relating music to history and culture, and gives students the opportunity to listen to works by the composer and maybe connect with it on a more personal level, enhancing a love for classical music!

"Planning" Personal Pathways
A lot of "planning" went into this experiment of personalized learning, but not the traditional kind of planning that I have been used to.
First, I took all three pathways and created  folder for each in our classroom management system Schoology. I then began to take a look at my benchmarks for each category: knowing about the orchestra, learning to read pitches with solfege, connecting music to history, and started to think about what was really important for students to think about as they were learning and what did I want them to be able to know when everything was said and done. I provided documents in the folder that gave the Long Term Goals: concepts that needed to be shown for learning and growth by the end, and Short Term Goals: Examples of small learning targets that could be completed in a lesson or two. I provided some guided questions for students to ask themselves with each pathway to check their learning process, and then created a Rubric that would help them as they were thinking of some kind of project to demonstrate their growth. Once the long and short term goals, guided questions to check learning, and the rubric were created for each pathway, I set up a project. I asked students to create a project to demonstrate their knowledge and understanding of certain questions that related to the long term goals. I gave students a choice between creating a project for the Orchestra, or creating a project on the composers. 

Below is a screen shot of my "planning" This was shared with students to guide them through the orchestra pathway and the project expectations if they chose to focus heavily on this pathway. 
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It is important to note that while students were given the option to choose a pathway to focus on for their project, I did want to hold students accountable to learning about each path. I created discussion pages on Schoology in its corresponding pathway folder. Students are required to at some point to cover all of the pathways and add to the discussions in each, but can choose one pathway to focus their project on. So, if a child focuses on the orchestra for their final project, then they will take a little quiz about the composer's from me at another time. If a child focuses on composer's for their final project, they will take a quiz about the orchestra for me later in our studies. The students and I went over how the discussion was like one big group note-taking session and encouraged students to use it to help each other. I have been pushing Digital Citizenship in my classroom and how they need to use the online resources to contribute to their own learning and the learning of others. 

Stay tuned for more information on how I set up this personalized unit and the resources that I used. There is a lot that went into setting it up, too much for one blog post, but so far the set up has been pretty fun and not exhausting!



Happy Personalizing!

-Lauren

It is that time of year again when assessments are being wildly worked on in order to get grades in for the end of quarter 2. So what do you do when you want all of your students to be engaged in their learning but you also have to be able to individually listen to students play? Traditionally you would have called students over one at a time to play in alphabetical order while the others completed some kind of worksheet to keep themselves busy or everybody played the same exact part dictated by the teacher. But what if you could do something different? Something that made students feel responsible for their own success? Something that gave them voice, choice,  and the ability to set their own pace? I tried to incorporate those aspects of personalized learning into my assessment process. 

Last week, my third graders came into the room and instead of having everyone practice together and play the same part, I put out Tubanos, Bass Xylophones and Metallophones, Glockenspiels, Alto and Soprano Xylophones and Metallophones. I reminded students of the instrumental piece in our concert from the month prior that featured certain students on various instruments. I then asked those particular students to stand with the instrument that they played during the concert. I asked them to coach for me. Those students would be "coaching" other students to success in playing that particular instrument part. I instructed the rest of the class that they would be choosing which instrument part they wanted to learn and play for me. They had the opportunity to decide which part they wanted to learn and then how long they needed before they came to play for me. As long as they played for me before the class was complete, they could take as long as they wanted to practice. Below is what this looked like in action. 

As you can see from the video, students began to collaborate with each other. The "coaches" were really paying close attention, analyzing and evaluating their peers' performance and then coming up with constructive criticism as well as offering suggestions to help them with their success. Being able to listen to all of their comments to each other was amazing and even the students who usually do not participate or are reluctant to complete the task assigned, were fully engaged in the learning process. When it came time for students to come and play for me, "coaches" would often come with their "student" wanting to be there to encourage them and congratulate them on their successes. Throughout the whole lesson, I saw 100% participation from students. With 21st century skills, I saw critical thinking and creativity on the part of the "coaches" as they watched and adapted their instruction based on what they saw and heard from their "students'" performances. I saw collaboration from all students, citizenship in the way they tried to work together and use respectful language to help each other, and the process of using effective communication to get their ideas across. In terms of music standards, I saw students evaluating and analyzing performances, figuring out ways to improve the performance, and accuracy in both melodic and rhythmic aspects of their instrument part. As I listened to students perform, I was able to give all of my students a proficient rating on their particular rhythmic and melodic performance, and I really didn't have to do much, just set the expectations, let them know what the outcome was and then let them figure out how to get there. 

Issues in Instruction:
Yes there were some aspects of the lesson that didn't work well for me. The very first class I attempted this with struggled to understand the expectations. I had to do a lot more one on one prompting to help them get started. I realized later that this problem arose because I did not give clear expectations. I let them start the process of figuring out how to be successful without giving them the tools and strategies first to help them be able to do this independently. I also did not have a clear expectation of what was to happen when they had finished playing for me. I corrected this in later classes by having students get their iPads and begin note reading work on DRMSL using the app Noteworks Free. To help them get to the app, I taught one student the process, and then that student went on to teach the other students until I had a whole group of tech coaches who were able to help those who finished their assessment get started on their apps. This led to more independence in the classroom and a respect between my students and myself that I could trust them to continue learning without my explicit instruction to do so. Besides some of the management pieces, overall this was a successful class and I was able to note 21st century skills in progress as well as see musical learning growth! 


Feedback from Students:
I asked my students for feedback on this opportunity to learn from each other. Most of my students said they loved being able to choose the part that best fit them and learn from a peer instead of from just me. I even had one third grader use the language of our 21st century skills saying that he, "liked that he could collaborate with people to learn the parts". This was the most telling statement to me because I could see that not only did my students see value in what we were learning, they also could see that they were learning skills outside of just musical standards. 


​-Lauren

 ​When you are an educator in any subject area,  there are always buzz words that pop up. You hear a plethora of acronyms and become so accustomed to speaking in said acronyms that when you talk to anyone else about your job as an educator it sounds like you're speaking in tongues. These buzz words and acronyms don't tend to last long, as most things in education shift and change drastically every few years. Personalized Learning, however, is one of those ideas that I think is here to stay and it is something that educators should be celebrating! 

A little bit about me:
 I graduated from St. Norbert College, a tiny gem of a school in DePere, WI with a degree in music education. I spent a year teaching in Oshkosh before heading back to the Green Bay area to teach in the Howard Suamico School District. This is my 2nd year of teaching elementary music and so far the journey has been rewarding. Personalized Learning is something that my district has adopted as an approach to reaching all learners and helping them succeed to be college or career ready. While this seemed really exciting, I felt a lot of anxiety about Personalized Learning. I see nearly 500 students twice a week for only 30 minutes at a time. How am I supposed to keep track of the individual goals, and self-pace study, how do I even find the time to make it work in only 60 minutes of contact with a class a week?  I began to research personalized learning in the music classroom and found that there weren't many sites on this subject and the few that were came from music teachers in grades 6-12. So, I decided to start this blog as a way of recording my journey into personalizing the learning in an elementary music classroom. My hope is that this will be a good way for me to look back and reflect on how my students and I have grown together. I also hope that those of you who felt like me, stressed, anxious, and nowhere to turn to figure out this personalized learning thing for your music room, will find something that you can use in your journey. At the very least, I hope this site can provide you with the ability to see some real experiences of personalized learning in a music classroom. 

It is important to note that I am just starting to personalize learning in my classroom. I am by no means an expert, nor have I spent a lot of time honing the culture of personalized learning in my classroom. This blog is a journey, for myself and my students,  to personalized education through trial and error. 

So what is Personalized Learning?
Well for starters it is not a one size fits all approach to learning. It also is nothing like a traditional classroom. Personalized learning takes into account what the learners (students) want to learn and how to use that passion in their own way to make learning meaningful. If you are reading this blog looking for tips on how to create whole group lessons where the teacher stands in front of the room gives direction and students follow along in a book and learn songs and play teacher led games, then you are in the wrong place. If you are looking for real life classroom experiences of students taking ownership of their learning and making that learning meaningful then you are in the right place! Some of what you will see here might be whole group learning first. With elementary students having voice, choice, place, pace and path in their learning all at once and for the first time can create chaos. Students first need to learn how to use their voice before they do so. They need to learn to figure out what their best learning style is and how to articulate that. They need to be given tools to help them make choices that will further learning. But once they have figured out how to use their voice, what their needs for learning are, and how to articulate this,  then you will start to see some amazing progress. My goal is to get to a point where I am a facilitator of learning not the micro-manager of learning. I don't use a strictly Kodaly or Orff method of teaching. You will see a lot of mixed methodologies. My philosophy is to always strive to do what will keep the learner passionate about music. If the student has a passion for music, then the technical aspects of music making will come when they are ready for it. 



--Lauren