Presentations

Wow! I don't know what else to say. I am so impressed by everyone's presentations. Our class has the most talented, well-versed, and hardest working teachers I have ever seen.What a privilege it is to be a part of this class!

I was very nervous to stand up in front of all of you knowing what vast amounts of knowledge you all have on the subject of reading. You made me feel very comfortable and in a few minutes I felt like I was in my classroom comfort-zone (not that y'all act like a bunch of kids).

I was happy to discover that one of my favorite ways to teach students how to sight-read music is one of the strategies that Stahl used in his research. I have used peer pals in sight-reading music for years. Several years ago, I paired students consistently through one semester to see which students had the most improvement. Some were grouped high to low abilities, some were grouped with equal abilities, some chose their group, and some groups used a combination of all the different groups. The groups that used a combination of groupings made the largest gains. I have used this strategy consistently since then and have gains every year. It was nice to relate successful music reading strategies to successful reading strategies.

I'm looking forward to use some of the vocabulary comprehension strategies with my music students. I think that using some of these will help the students to sing the texts with meaning and improve the emotional context of the musical performance. I can probably incorporate some of the games that were introduced.

Until next time,
T