The candidate understands and uses a variety of instructional strategies to

encourage learners to develop deep understanding of content areas and their

connections, and to build skills to apply knowledge in relevant ways.

In a music classroom setting, there are multiple instructional strategies that can
take place to lead students to success. You can teach them using visuals: diagrams on a
white board, notated flash cards, sight reading, and so on. An example of students
completing a visual scaffolding activity can be seen as an artifact in this entry. You can use
body movements like one of my artifacts where my 2nd graders play a movement game
called Grizzly Bear, or you can use body movement to help students associate a certain
musical concept with an action. Another way for students to become stronger as individual
musicians is to have them analyze themselves, and self-reflect on their performance in the
classroom. Just as important as self-reflection is analysis of others. An example of this is a
lesson plan I used with an 8th grade ensemble. I have used this as an artifact for this entry.
The students listened to a recording of the song they were singing and discussed what
aspects of that groups performance they liked and wanted to incorporate into their own
performance, as well as what aspects of the song the students do better than the recorded
group. Having students take ownership of what is good and bad sound in music is
important for them to grow as musicians. It allows the class to become a student-centered
environment where the teacher facilitates learning but does not just deposit information
onto the students. The students take what they know about musical concepts and dig
deeper to find answers to questions the teacher may propose. Questioning is a crucial tool
in helping students develop the skills to apply their musical knowledge in relevant ways. I
have developed a practice during my teaching that I dont give away any answers that I
could ask of the students, no matter how simple or complex the answer is. I want the
students to find the answers on their own, and not just be given to them.