Differentiated music curriculum

Summary

Hui-Min Phang, a pre-service teacher at Darwin High School, shares her experience teaching a complex music lesson to students of varying levels. With her major in music and minor in biology, she tackles the challenge of instructing multiple grades simultaneously by adopting differentiated learning strategies. By providing tasks tailored to level three, four, and five students, she ensures each student can learn at their own pace. While level threes and fours harmonize melodies, level fives are introduced to four-part harmony. The program, developed to accommodate different musical backgrounds, utilizes color-coded boards and group settings to manage the diverse classroom, fostering a collaborative and creative learning environment.

Highlights

• Hui-Min is juggling teaching four different levels of students in a single class, focusing on harmonization.🎶
• Level fours are building on their previous term's work by harmonizing every beat rather than just one chord per bar.🌟
• Level fives are introduced to the complexity of four-part harmony, involving soprano, alto, tenor, and bass.🎼
• Despite initial challenges with time management, Hui-Min has adapted well, ensuring smooth transitions and equal learning opportunities.⏱️
• The differentiated approach fosters a collaborative environment where students can teach and learn from each other.🤝

Key Takeaways

• Differentiated learning can effectively accommodate students with various musical backgrounds by structuring tasks according to skill levels.🎵
• Utilizing color-coding and dividing the board into sections helps in managing classrooms with multiple instruction levels.🖍️
• Effective classroom management involves adapting strategies for different student groups, promoting equality and peer learning.🤝
• Integrating multi-level teaching in music theory encourages creativity and analytical skills in students.🎶

Overview

Hui-Min Phang, a pre-service teacher driven by passion for music education, crafts varied learning experiences for her multi-level music class at Darwin High School. With a background in music and biology, she faces the daunting task of teaching students from levels three through five, each with unique curriculum requirements. Her strategy involves creating tailored tasks that match students' skills, providing a conducive environment for learning music creatively and effectively.

A significant part of her approach is the physical structuring of the class, including dividing the board into sections and using color codes to distinguish different lesson levels. This innovative strategy not only helps in managing the classroom dynamics but also empowers students by offering clarity and a sense of equality in the learning process. Students are encouraged to engage in peer learning and tackle tasks that challenge their musical skills.

Through thoughtful planning and adaptation, Hui Min helps students navigate the intricacies of music theory. Every student sees their potential expanded as they learn to analyze and create music, from harmonizing simple melodies to exploring the depths of four-part harmony. The community of learning she fosters allows students to thrive in a supportive yet challenging environment, much to their and her mentor's delight.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 01:00: Introduction and Lesson Plan The chapter introduces Hui-Min Phang, a pre-service teacher at Darwin High School and a full-time student at Charles Darwin University pursuing a graduate diploma in teaching and learning. She majors in music and minors in biology. The chapter outlines a lesson plan where Hui-Min teaches four different levels of students, specifically focusing on levels three, four, and five. The lesson includes a similar activity for level three and four students, involving writing a simple melody on the board.
• 01:00 - 02:00: Teaching Level Five Students The chapter discusses teaching strategies for Level Five music students. It highlights the differences and progression from Level Four, where students harmonized one chord per bar, to Level Five, where they harmonize for every beat. During the teaching process, students take approximately 10 minutes to copy down notes, after which the teacher provides a worksheet and delivers the lesson content gradually.
• 02:00 - 03:00: Music Theory and Multi-Strand Course Development In the chapter titled 'Music Theory and Multi-Strand Course Development,' the instructor introduces level five students to four-part harmony. The session includes a brief interaction with students where they correctly identify the harmony components: soprano, alto, tenor, and bass. The instructor, Hui-Min, emphasizes the use of performance standards to assess students' creativity and their ability to apply it in music theory.
• 03:00 - 04:00: Classroom Management Techniques The chapter titled 'Classroom Management Techniques' explores different strategies for managing diverse classrooms, particularly focusing on music theory education. It emphasizes the importance of assessing students' current levels and their goals to tailor the course accordingly. The chapter highlights the design of a course by a mentor teacher that accommodates students with varying musical backgrounds, promoting a multi-strand approach where different tracks can run simultaneously to meet diverse learning needs.
• 04:00 - 05:00: Peer Learning and Lesson Sequencing The chapter discusses the challenges of managing multiple levels of instruction within a classroom setting. It highlights the necessity of placing students into appropriate group settings for a term due to time constraints and the difficulty of delivering content exclusively to one group. This scenario presents significant challenges to pre-service teachers who must handle multiple groups with varying instructions and content, making classroom management more complex.
• 05:00 - 05:30: Conclusion and Cadence Explanation In this chapter, the focus is on the importance of dividing tasks into manageable sections using visual aids such as a color-coded board. This approach helps in reinforcing memory and understanding. The girl acknowledges the familiarity of the task, noting it's something she has previously learned but forgotten over time. They proceed to discuss musical structure, specifically bars and beats, highlighting the necessity to identify and emphasize particular notes. The chapter concludes with a reference to omitting parts for level fours, indicating a tailored approach based on skill levels.

Differentiated music curriculum Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 My name is Hui-Min Phang. I am a pre-service teacher at Darwin High School. I currently study full-time at Charles Darwin Uni for the graduate diploma of teaching and learning. I major in music and I minor in biology. Since today's lesson is quite complicated, I'm teaching four different levels of students - doing level three, four and five. Now, the level threes and fours are doing a very similar activity. So what I will do is I'm going to write a simple melody on the board,
• 00:30 - 01:00 which has a simple melody and where they need to harmonise at the bottom. Now, level fours, it's actually just an extension of what you've done last term from level three. It's very similar, but instead of harmonising just one chord per bar you're actually doing every beat instead. HUI-MIN: While they're copying it down - usually it takes them about 10 minutes to do it - I provide level fives with a work sheet and then I slowly deliver the content to them.
• 01:00 - 01:30 Now, level fives, I'm going to introduce to you today a four-part harmony. So any ideas what that involves? -GIRL: Four parts? -(BOY SPEAKS INDISTINCTLY) Four parts of...? -GIRL: A harmony. (LAUGHS) -GIRL 2: Soprano, alto, tenor, bass. Soprano, alto, tenor and bass. Good. HUI-MIN: I'm using the performance standards where it's just seeing if students can use their creativity, to put it into music theory
• 01:30 - 02:00 and whether they can use statistical information provided to them and analyse them properly. With music theory, because there's different levels, my mentor teacher designed this course to accommodate different students who want to learn music with different musical backgrounds. I developed a course a few years ago now where we allow for multi-strands to run in the classroom. So the way it presents in music theory is that we assess where the students are at, where they'd like to be
• 02:00 - 02:30 and then put them into the appropriate group setting for a term. So that means because there's not enough days in the week to deliver content solely to that group, we actually have to have multiple levels in the classroom. It does present a huge challenge to the pre-service teachers because just managing one classroom with one set of instructions and content is difficult enough, whereas in this setting they've got to manage three different groups
• 02:30 - 03:00 so they have to divide the board into three equal sections and colour-code everything and be very explicit. GIRL: This is just refreshing my memory because I know I've done all this for a whole term. I've just forgotten it all in a year. OK. -So we've got four beats in a bar. -Yep. So what are the notes that I need to circle? So this one. Where's the second one? Level fours, we are skipping this part right now
• 03:00 - 03:30 because now you're harmonising every beat. HUI MIN: At first it was very challenging. I found it hard to manage my time. But after repetition and just with the advice from Alana, I've become more accustomed to moving around the classroom in a sequential order, whereas at first it was very chaotic. I jumped from one student to another and every time people would go, "Miss, I need help," I would just go to them straightaway rather than saying, "OK, I'll come back to you
• 03:30 - 04:00 "after I'm done with whoever I'm with." I've noticed that the students, even though they're in separate streams, they felt more equal because not just from the division of the board, but I was able to sequence my lessons much better. All the groups felt like they were learning and they had the opportunity to learn from each other as well - peer learning, which is very effective. (PLAYS CHORD REPEATEDLY) What do we feel like doing?
• 04:00 - 04:30 (ALANA SPEAKS INAUDIBLY) Resolve! Ah, that's comforting, isn't it? So that chord - that 7th degree five-seven - just makes the perfect cadence a lot stronger.