a. I am teaching my fifth grade students about the Circle of
Fifths. I just went over relative keys and how they work in the circle. If I
was checking for successful mastery from a behaviorist perspective I would ask
the class, “does anybody not understand how every Major key has a Relative
minor?” and then I would move on. If I were checking my student’s mastery from
a social cognitive perspective I would call one or two students to come up to
the board and write the Major Keys and their Relative minors on the chart. By
doing this I would be assuming that if two of my students understand, then most
of them do, and if not the students who do not understand will learn through
observing the behaviors of other individuals, or models.
b. One way that I could discourage unacceptable behavior in
my classroom is punishment. At the beginning of the year it was made clear that
there is a no cell phone policy in my classroom. The students know the rules
and are expected to follow them. On the first instance of a student using their
cell phone in class, they will be written up, and their cellphone will be taken
up. This also will work as an example for other students. They will see the
consequences that their classmate received when the rule was broken, and now I
will not have the problem of multiple students using phones during class time.
On the
other hand, I could use self-efficacy and self-regulation to intervene in my
classroom. At the beginning of the year I will have the group make goals for
themselves. I will split them into small groups and have each group come up
with a list of goals they wish to achieve within the academic year. This gives
the students ownership of their class time and what they are studying. I can
also have them set goals at the beginning of every piece we study. We can
analyze the music, then go around the room and set goals for our ensemble that
are specific to that piece. These elements will keep the student working hard
and help them have interest in pieces they might otherwise strongly dislike,
because they see it as a challenge, not an obstacle (self regulation). When the
ensemble does become rowdy, and talkative, all I have to do is remind them of
the goals that they set (self
regulation).
I really like your approach to using self-regulation in your classroom. Setting goals in music seems like it would be a lot more interesting, especially for the students who choose to take the music course. I can see how implementing the cell phone rule in the classroom can help keep students on track. Would your strategies differ any with students who enjoy music, but can't truly grasp the concept because they are not naturally "musical"? I ask this because I personally love music, but have no clue about the specifics involved in the art of music. I love listening to a great musical artist sing and play, especially a solo with an acoustic guitar. I can imagine that some students take music solely based on their appreciation of the art. Would these students have different goals? even if they are in a small group with musically gifted students? I ask this based on the concept of self-efficacy. Some of these students may have low self-efficacy as a result of previous musical experiences. They may feel unworthy of electing music as a course. How do you handle these students?
ReplyDeleteI see where your coming from, but I am not asking the students to come up with elaborate, musically trained answers. My "natural talent" students would probably not even fully grasp that. These goals are for the entire group, such as, "We'd like to be more expressive, or We'd like to do some challenging pieces." They will be given the tools they will need and information that is important to know before I split them up and ask them to create goals.
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