Rebecca Negro

Student Teaching Portfolio

Fall 2023

Lesson 2

In this lesson, the students learned how to openly discuss musical ideas with the whole

class. We took what we learned, added musical ideas that were created by the students, and

rehearsed them in “Where the Light Begins”. They also learned the next section of music to

discuss musical ideas about the next day. It was evident that they learned this because though it

was few and far between, I got to hear students give feedback to what they wanted to do

musically. It typically was the same few people who talked, but people talked, which was the

goal. At the end of the lesson, the students and I worked on the next section of the piece

(measures 14-19), and noted that each section will sing that section on their own without piano

as an assessment. I did this because I wanted them to be able to sing the next section well so that

we could talk about musical ideas for that section, and so that we could move through the piece

faster.

Like the previous lesson, there was not much that I changed in this lesson. I was excited

about how well paced the lesson went, and so there was not anything I needed to add or take

away.

I monitored student learning firstly by how they answered my questions. I could tell by

their answers whether or not they understood my question, but also it intrigued me how they

interpreted the melody that they had just learned the day before. It surprised me how many

students gave their thoughts. I was expecting it to not be as full of a discussion, but there were
many who contributed. It was interesting to have students also feel free to have their own

opinions without feeling ashamed to feel something different than someone else.

Based on my lesson today, I will address student needs by opening up the floor even

more to what musical decisions they would like to try in rehearsal. I also will address student

needs based on what I hear from each voice part. I will address what needs to be worked on the

next day and work on it with them. These internal notes also help me decide how I want to

structure rehearsals going forward.