Group 10 reflection

Chen lianyi, Varence, Kelly, Eunice, Wang Siqi

1. Briefly describe your workshop objectives and learning outcomes (eg at the end of workshop,
what will students learn from you as a team), and what will they do to show evidence of
learning?

We hope that through our workshop, the students will gain knowledge, skills, and exposure to
music. We believe that the introduction of different instruments will help the students appreciate
and have a better understanding of how each instrument works. We also want them to be able to
differentiate fast and slow music, loud and soft music. Surprisingly, the students were very
smart, and they know Italian terms to describe tempo and dynamics such as ​allegro, andante,
largo, pp, p, f, ff​. We also introduced the concept of ensemble playing when they were observing
us play as a group. Moreover, we want the class to learn how dynamics can change according to
the movement of the conductor, and by asking 2 volunteers from the class to conduct us shows
us that they are confident in their learning. In order to make sure that they have learned and
absorbed what we have taught, we ask them questions from time to time. For instance, after
Clare and Siqi introduced their own instrument, we asked them whether it’s possible to identify
the sound of the Cello and the Erhu, which they did very well. At the end of the workshop, we
did a final wrap-up of our lesson objectives to ensure that the students really learn from us.

2. Was there a lesson plan? (if so, attach your lesson plan as an appendix in the report). Were all
team members aware of the lesson plan? Comment on delivery of the lesson plan, including time
management and flow of activities.

Instead of coming up with a lesson plan, we came up with a brief outline as to who does what,
and the flow of activities. We rehearse the parts together when we meet and do minor
adjustments to make it better. All members of the group were aware of what was happening as
everyone was present for every meeting. We managed to deliver everything that we planned to
do during the workshop, and the flow of activities was very smooth, each activity linked well to
each other. For instance, after Eunice introduced her instrument which is the voice, then she led
the vocal warm up exercise, so after listening to Eunice's explanation of the voice, the students
got to experience themselves. In terms of time management, we were able to fit in all the
activities in the time given to us, and the timing for each activity was just right, neither too fast
nor too slow.

3. Thinking back about the lesson, how do you think you and your team have achieved (or not
achieved) the teaching goals? Comment on the musical concepts introduced, and effectiveness of
activities or exercises your team used to teach these concepts; were the activities well sequenced
with achievable goals for the age group or were there gaps between activities? Give specific
examples.

Thinking back on the whole lesson, we have achieved our teaching goals, we thought our group
did a great job in delivering the musical concepts, such as dynamics to the students. We had
students volunteered as conductors to conduct our small ensemble which appears to be a great
experience for them. We also designed a rhythm game as one of the warm up exercises, where
students will clap according to the hand signals given by the teachers. This game improves their
concentration skills as well as reaction skills. They had to concentrate and react fast to the
change of signals given by us. The rhythm game also prepares the students for the next activity,
killing two birds with one stone. The 4 beats introduced in the rhythm game allowed the students
to feel a clearer pulse before singing the song which is also in 4/4 time signature. We think that
all the activities were well sequenced with achievable goals for the age group.

4. Class management and delivery: What is your group’s greatest strength? And weaknesses?
Comment on your interaction with the students and/or participation from the students. Give
specific examples to support your observation. Also, do you communicate well in the online
classroom? Have you established ground rules for effective communication and class
management in the workshop? Were the rules followed during the workshop?

The greatest strength for our group is our passion for teaching. All our group members were very
passionate when we taught the students. For example, when we were teaching, our voices were
loud and clear. Due to the connection issue, sometimes the class would not be able to hear us
clearly, so the classroom teacher had to repeat for the students again. Although it is hard to
communicate with the students through video call, the part where we invited the students to be
conductors were successful. Students appeared to be very excited throughout the workshop, and
we also maintained a high energy level. We think it would be better if we meet the students
face-to-face so that we can observe an even clearer reaction from the students. Our instructions
were quite clear and the students could follow quite well. We failed to mention the “one silent
clap” rule but the students were very attentive and under control throughout the workshop, so we
don’t even need to use the rule.

5. Suggest two musical concepts (either new or repeated concepts) and teaching strategies you
would like to include in your next lesson plan if you and your team were to conduct one more
session with the same group of students either online or face-to-face in class. Give reasons to
justify your suggestions.
Learning from our experience with this class, we think we are able to teach more musical
concepts since this classroom responded well. If we were to conduct one more session with this
group of students, we would like to mention the concept of pitch, and ask them to use their
classroom instruments to play with our ensemble. As they are already very familiar with the
piece, Math Genius, we can use this piece and elaborate from it. It would be good for them to
learn how to play in an ensemble using simple classroom instruments. For instance, they can use
percussion instruments to feel and play different rhythms. Furthermore, they can learn how to
respond and change tempo according to the conductor’s movement.

6. Other relevant observations and thoughts on your teaching experience.

We found that we can improve on our teaching skills by giving clearer instructions that are more
straightforward, and ask less irrelevant questions, such as “do you think this is fun?” or “do you
like it?”. Instead of asking these questions, we can observe from the reactions of the students and
focus on making the lesson more efficient.