Thursday, February 21, 2008
Special Education in Music Education
I was just wondering,.. and thinking about teaching special education students. How did your past teachers handle children with special needs? And what if one came across a deaf or blind student who wanted to learn music?.. What is one to do? The thought scares me a little, and I just wanted some thoughts on the topic.
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9 comments:
Thoughout my high school choir term we had one girl in a wheelchail, and another who was blind. Both of which seemed to go without any trouble. I remember in middle school there were two mentally challenged people who participated in out choir as well. One had down syndrom and the other had something similar. Our director let them participate, but didn't really give any special attention--he kind of treated them the same i guess. Socially--within the choir, it was a little bit awkward, because--well, you know how kids are. There was something noticably different about them.
All in all, they were allowed to participate and "share the love of music" but it must have been a little bit socially stressful to be in a classroom with judgmental middle-schoolers.
Comming from someone on both ends of the spectrum, patience and getting to know your student is key. Treat them normally but pay attention to their needs accordingly when they need it. Allow them to enjoy music learn what they can be able to learn but don't under-estimate them.
To give you a taste as to what a child with disablities go through, let me give you an example by putting myself out their with something that is deeply personal.
As some of you may know ( or not know) I have aphasia and was not able to speak coherently until I was 6 , learn to read and write properly at 9, was in speech therapy until 13 and was in special education course till highschool when I finally learned how to deal with my disabilities( and to this day still recieve help from time to time). You can imagine my poor music teachers trying to teach me when they could not receive feed other than muttered sounds or jumbled words.
It can be socially stressful ( and still is in my case because I still deal with it and it can sometimes impair my comunication with others) so depending on wch student, learn from them, their strengths and weaknesses and work towards reaching a feasable goal. It really does make a difference. It has in my life.:)
I have to agree. When I was in 8th grade as part of a special project that was awarded to some honors students, I was allowed to work with some of the special needs children in my school. Our team project was to build a race car with a helium cartridge and race them at the end of the semester. At first, my classmates didn't know what to expect from the special needs kids, but we decided to just try and make friends with them the way we would with anyone else we were assigned to do a project with. All went very well. We would talk to them and in the end we did make strong connections as friends. We acted the way we would normally act, but when an instance would arise that my partner would not be able to accomplish, I stepped in and helped. I guess in the end its a teamwork thing. Everyone has strengths and weaknesses and I guess that as a teacher in a situation of dealing with special education children, you must create a friendly and open community. It may be a little awkward at first but the kids should get over it. Just encourage respect and consideration. Teach the way you would any other class and like in any other class if a student needs a little extra help, offer it.
Karina hit it right on the head if your talking about an inclusion class (a class in which special learners are included with students without special needs). The key is to know these students and what their needs are. Completely reading IEP reports and gathering information from the administration/ other teachers is a must.
The hard part is balancing "treating them normally" and "paying attention to their needs when they need it". As someone who's attended special education programs as well as observed these programs my whole life (my mom's a special ed teacher), you can't grade/treat the autistic special learner as the blind special learner or the special learner suffering from severe seizure syndrome or the student with a behavioral disorder due to their extremely individualized disorders.
A big problem that's facing special education today is the No Child Left Behind Act for this very reason. Take this example from the elementary school where my Mom currently teaches; All students, including those with special needs, are required to take standardized tests such as CAPT, CMT, etc. Although there are some modifications to the standardized test for students with special needs (such as an aid to write down the answers given by the student), the tests are standardized and therefore not individualized to the student's actual stage of progress/development taking into account the students' respective disorders. This means that the student who may not be able to identify his/her own name due to a cognitive disorder is taking the same exact test that the non special needs child down the hall. Obviously, the student with the cognitive disability will receive a much lower score than the student down the hall because he/she is taking a test that his well past his IEP and developmental goals. These "low scores" then lower the overall test scores of the school- meaning less federal funds for the school, which continues the vicious cycle that Dr. Abrahams spoke about when he subbed for Prof. Haltmeier.
Now that I've completed my required rant against No Child Left Behind....
The fact of the matter is teaching those with special needs in an inclusion class is not too much different than teaching those without special needs; preparedness, patience, adaptation, and creativity are required for both. The main difference is the individualization of each special learner's disabilities.
In my school there were levels of Choir. Vocal Workshop, Concert Choir, Chansons and East Singers. All choirs are auditioned except Vocal Workshop, which is a general music class. There were a small few special needs students in VW, who were talented enough to move up the ladder to Concert Choir or higher and they did, the others were forced to stay in VW because of their lack of musical aptitude.
My teachers would help the special needs students in the beginning, however after the students showed little or no improvement the teachers moved on allowing the child to continue to make mistakes without correction.
I personally would like to see a special needs music class, possibly as an after school activity. Or some kind of time devoted to their music education. I don't think the children should suffer for something that was not in their control. If music is universal than it should not only cross nations, but it should reach every person who is willing and able to enjoy it's beauty.
But then again, we do not live in a perfect world.
I have to agree with Matt Barbosa on the no child left behind act. I always did just below the required standardize test score especially in Math. Eventually, I did pass them with the minimal grade but it can be a detramental thing on your psyche.
It saddens me to see that students are placed as a percentile now a days and it is difficult as a teacher to maintain a balance. But keep optimistic. If the teachers in our lives and mine helped us get through, they must have done something right and we can too.
And although we many not live in a perfect world, we do not know what the resilts will be unless we try.:)
This isn't exactly special ed, but it does involve a disability. When I went home over break, I basically hung out in my old choir room like 3 times a week, cuz i'm a nerd. Anyways, before the winter concert, I observed a rehearsal for the middle school choir. I noticed that there was one student who constantly moved around and wasn't always singing, and I didn't really get why. The middle school choir teacher was busy conducting, but my high school choir director stepped in and helped the student sing through the song. Then, during the concert, an older student stood with the boy to make sure he didn't walk around/move around too much.
Basically there are usually resources around and people are there to help with a situation that you can't deal with literally every second of your rehearsal.
If I have students with special needs at some point during my teaching career I will do my best to give them the special attention they deserve. These students should not feel ashamed if they need extra help in and outside of the classroom. My high school choir teacher treated all of her students according to each individuals needs. She let it be known that she was always available after class for questions or extra practice. I can not even count how many times I walked into her classroom between periods or afterschool to find her working on music or theory with a group of students. This was the case with students who spoke a different language or had trouble learning certain material. I will definitely take a lesson from her in this area. Not all students should be treated the same because not all students are the same. There is healthy balance of accomplishing this all while being fair.
I believe that if a child with a disability of any kind wants to learn about music they have that right. We, as the teachers, must, like any other teacher, develop a suitable plan for the child so that he or she will be able to experience music in an uplifting and beneficial way.
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