Haley Kinker

MUED 271
Dr. Lisa Maynard
October 20, 2020
Practicum Observation #1
The class that is being observed during this first practicum assignment is a twenty-one-
student second grade general music class. The teacher begins musically by playing a classical
piece that will be easy for the students to find a beat to. She then uses common physical
motions the children are used to, such as stomping, jumping, clapping, and pointing to body
parts, in order for the children to then replicate the tempo of this piece on their own bodies in a
way that is more interesting to their developing minds. She then has the children replicate vocal
noises that she first makes towards them, as well as breathing exercises she first does herself,
which may seem like a fun activity to them, but in reality is most likely a beginner-level vocal
warmup to prepare them for vocal activities.
After this, the music educator has the second graders sing a song they have memorized
titled “Seashells”. Even when giving directions of adding rhythm to “Seashells”, she continues to
speak smoothly in the pitch of this song, so that the correct pitch remains in the students’ ears.
She continues this exercise with more songs such as “Who’s That Tapping At The Window” and
“King’s Land”. The next activity she has the students do is a “your hand-partner’s hand” exercise
in which the students tap their right hand to their own left then their right hand to their partner’s
left hand, where their partner is the person sitting directly to their right in the circle. This exercise
evolves into passing a button from your own hand to their partner’s hand while singing “Button
You Must Wander”.
For the next exercise, the students must clap a tempo while singing a short rhythmic
melody. She has the students use multitasking in order to also count the number of beats in the
melody and then she has the students conclude which beat is the longest in this rhythmic
melody. The music teacher also has the students determine for how many beats the longest
rhythm is sung for, which is another example of these students multitasking, as they have to
clap the tempo, sing the melody, and count in their heads.
When having the students’ experience positive reinforcement by clapping for
themselves, she only has the students’ clap once so that the celebration doesn’t become out of
control and she can quickly move onto the next topic. When having the students change where
they are sitting, she has them continue singing in order to avoid excessive talking or distraction
for the students. When students come to the incorrect conclusion, the teacher still encourages
them by stating that they were close, and then she has the exercise be performed again so that
all students can have another chance of thinking of the correct answer rather than just moving
on to another student’s answer while the first student remains confused.
I thoroughly enjoyed the music educator’s approaches to correcting wrong answers, and
how there seemed to always be positive reinforcement, even when students were struggling to
find the correct answers. I also found her approach of having the students sing when changing
positions to be a great addition, as it reinforced the idea of remaining focused and on task.