INTRODUCTION TO TEACHING SKILLS (SECONDARY) EXAM

1. HOW TO SELECT AND APPLY A RANGE OF INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGIES AND RESOURCES FOR A MUSIC LESSON

Using the nsw board of studies syllabus, the school curriculum and drawing on my own interests, I would formulate an outcome to be acheived. This would be age appropriate and culturally relevant and of interest to the target population and involve one or more of the three main areas of music learning experiences: listening, performing and composing. For example, for a student to perform solo and/or ensemble music with an awareness of song structure.

I would consider what musical skills and knowledge students already possess that they can bring to the lesson and how far these might be extended in one or more lessons involving the topic (i.e. looking at prior learning and Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal Development).

Following the above example, I would select songs possibly in a range of styles with one or more features that make them accessible to the students, such as a simple chord structure, a catchy riff, a well known tune, a fun chorus, a basic bassline. Where possible I would have recordings of the songs or know how to access them (such as on youtube) and be able to play and sing the different parts.

I would prepare some visual representation of the song such as a chord chart, a notated rhythm and/or melody, guitar tab, a labelled pictorial keyboard.

As Hattie refers to expert teachers having an integrated approach and deep understanding of one's subject area, and being already passionate about music, I would reflect on and gather information that relates to the songs such as the songwriters and performers - who are they and what's interesting about their playing/lyrics/style/life path/practice schedule, etc. that might help stimulate students to learn.

As well as having ready information on style, content and cultural aspects, I would collate questions to arouse interest and encourage discussion such as who is your favourite singer/musician/songwriter?, what singer songwriters are doing well publicly in Australia at the moment?, what is your favourite tune at the moment? can you identify what musical elements in the song appeal to you? Do you know how to access chord charts from the web? By asking these questions, a social experience has begun (which will later lead to a musical experience), students' interests and perceptions become evident and hopefully thay are having fun and have a sense of belonging (Glasser).

I would prepare Advanced Organisers (Ausubel) that can help integrate new material with old, e.g. the chord structure for "Let it be" is the same as "Where is the Love" with one new chord in the chorus.

The main activty, to prepare a song to perform, could get underway. If students are for some reason uncomfortable playing or find it too challenging, they may be given other duties such as drawing up chord charts, helping set up or maintain equipment, writing lyrics on the board, or doing some related computer based task such as researching songs on youtube or composing in garage band, etc. Students have the opportunity to gravitate towards an instrument they can already play or become interested in learning a new skill (freedom).

The lesson would be flexible so as to accomodate for everyone learning one song or small groups or individuals learning different songs. Also, they could choose their own song to play or even write one if they possess enough musicianship, confidence and desire (more freedom) .

Gardner's Multiple Intelligences are well engaged in music making, for example it encompasses obviously musical, visual spatial (looking at music sheets and at each other for cues), bodily kinesthetic (hands on playing of an instrument), linguistic (singing lyrics), interpersonal (being part of a group and discussing ways of playing).

Giving the students a time limit (such as you need to perform what you've done so far at the end of the lesson/the song at the end of the week) will help keep students on task. They may also be able to take part in evaluating both the creative process and the end product for themselves and each other, gaining an insight into their learning strategies and musical development (Hattie's expert dimension of enhancing self-concept and self efficacy).

Evaluation might include demonstrated ability to follow the song structure, play the correct chords and rhythm, complete the song, listen and respond to cues. A checklist to this effect could be compiled with the students input so they gain an understanding of what comprises a good performance and what they can do to work towards it.

If it felt appropriate I may also source other teachers or students to be an audience for the performance, providing more incentive for mastery and achievement and a feeling of power, recognition and acceptance.

Some students may feel discouraged or have low self esteem in which case their efforts could be congratulated and perhaps a story of a famous muso who had a struggle before they "made it" (like Macy Gray being told she couldn't sing).


2. PRINCIPLES THAT ARE BASIC TO ASSESSING, MEASURING AND EVALUATING STUDENT PROGRESS IN AN AREA OF DEVELOPMENT IN MUSIC TEACHING

Assessment reveals progress and informs future instruction. It is important that learning activities and their assessment relate directly to course objectives and outcomes, By setting high yet acheivable standards, specific instructions on what how why when and how much is to be acheived, incorporating self and peer evaluation and giving constructive feedback, students can feel responsible for and motivated to engage in assessment tasks.

Effective assessment involves testing material while it is relatively fresh and a conducting a number of regular assessment tasks rather than one big one. It needs to be reliable, which can be acheived by including a concept in a variety of tasks and using different assessment stratgies. The principles of validity and fairness should be adhered to, ensuring all assessable material has been well presented, is directly linked to outcomes and is accessible to all.

Two types of assessment are: formative, which can be held at the beginning of or during a unit to ascertain students current abilities and how to pitch the course content, and summative, conducted at the end of a series of lessons. Formative assessment can be fairly informal, such as asking reflective questions and ascertaining levels of understanding through group discussions.

Norm referenced assessment compares students performances against each other and enables ranking of highest acheivers to lowest. This method of assessment is not always an adequate reflection of students' acheivements or understandings but can help identify students who need help.

Criterion referenced tests compare the students results against a pescribed standard relating to objectives and outcomes.
Performance Descriptors indicate what is necesary to acheive a certain standard. A rubric matrix defines a range of possible performance levels. It can be specific to a learning area and provides a range of possible responses that illustrate the acheivement of different standards.

For example, a music performance by year 9 might be self and group assessed. Students individually, and/or in a group, determine criteria that constitutes an excellent performance, such as positive attitude, confidence, participating team member, energy and projection, diction, expression, accurate pitch, good tone quality, correct rhythm, concentration and focus, good posture, audience awareness. Creating a checklist with variable weightings helps students clarify what is neccesary, understand why a standard framework was chosen and may serve to motivate students to continue to improve.

A portfolio may also constitute part of the assessment where students can reflect on the process of learning music in a group.
Describe the learning and rehearsal process you have just undertaken (for you as an indicidual and group member)
Describe how your performance skills have developed (make a comparison between now and the beginning of the year)
How has your understanding of musical concepts changed (pitch/tempo/dynamics/duration,etc?
What areas do you feel you could improve upon? (musical performance/musicianship)
What do you feel are the advantages of group music making?
What would you like to do differently next time?

Evaluation, a teacher's professional judgement, should be a good feedback tool that can show students their areas of strength and motivate them to work on their less developed skills. Measurements, or quantative data, can be used to identify individual differences so that relevant activities can be used to target such differences.. (ie gardner's Multiple Intelligences).

Currently standardised reference assessment has been seen to be effective in accurately reflecting students abilities and acheivements. In accordance with outcomes based assessment, it allows for demonstrable, observable, measurable results where students can work towards a common goal within the realm of their own potential.


3. HOW I WOULD PROVIDE FOR THE DIVERSITY OF LEARNING STYLES AND ENSURE DEEP LEARNING OCCURS IN ALL STUDENTS WHEN TEACHING A MUSIC LESSON

Different learning styles can be identified and addressed with the help of Gardner's Multiple Intelligences. By presenting material in a variety of ways, I can assess what a student responds to most effectively and adapt learning experiences to suit their needs.

By following Bloom's taxonomy that ensures higher order thinking. I would refer to these cognitive objectives and weave them into my planning.

As groupwork is an effective way of learning, I could devise a range of tasks that each highlight a particular intelligence and place students in groups accordingly. Music is such a vast subject that can be understood, percieved and experienced in a variety of ways.

Let us take the music of Pink Floyd as an example of a topic. This relates to other subject areas such as English (philosophical lyrics) and entertainment (elaborate live shows) and Society and Culture (psychedelic music and drug abuse).

As an introduction, the song, "On the turning away" would be listened to and sung and perhaps played. Then, a discussion about the musical elements, lyrical content and emotional responses to the song. A broader discussion on Pink Floyd, their work and cultural context would reveal students interests (or lack thereof).

Students could then choose to start on one or more of a variety of activities to be completed at a later date:
Using a pink floyd song
Learn and perform it, solo or group (musical, interpersonal, intrapersonal, kinesthetic)
Present a musical analysis as a chord chart, by notation, a picture or a stuctural map (visual, mathematical)
Write a response/interpretation of lyrics, exploring themes-either one song in depth or compare and connect two or more songs (verbal, existentialist, interpersonal)
Write your own verse or bridge using the same structure (verbal)
Describe the recording process
Describe how it is has been or could be performed live with lighting and visuals
Computer based possibilities:
Present accompanying visuals
Locate chords and lyrics on the web and describe how you did it
And further possibilities that could be chosen by the student. If they really didn't connect with pink floyd as a topic they could complete the activities with a different song/artist of interest to them.

Musical intelligence will be tapped through most activities and it is possible to complete them as group projects.

Students are likely to go deeper into a task they have chosen for themselves. Group discussions with lower and higher order questions and process based group evaluation enable deep learning to occur.

Bloom's taxonomy provides a structure catering for different levels of complexity and ways to go deeper into a subject via knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis and evaluation.

A way to apply this to individual learning needs, for example, is to give students activities where they are to learn the structure of a major scale. They can write C major scale in notation or letter form, marking the degrees, tones and semitones (knowledge), sing or play a scale by reading or from memory and say where the tones and semitones occur (comprehension), be able to sing/play/write a different major scale (eg G major) using the tone/semitone formula (application), talk about how these scales are related (analysis) and play or compose a melody based on one of these scales, identifying the degrees, and where tones and semitones occur (synthesis). They can hear or see if they are correct (evaluation).

QUESTION 4

boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au is the essential site for all nsw teachers. It provides syllabus for creative arts, of which music is a part, K to 6, and music syllabus for year 7 to 10 (stages 4 and 5) and year 11 and 12 (stage 6).

On the left side of the home page are a list of access points to various areas including HSC, school certificate for year 7 to 10 and K to 6.

Click on HSC Exam papers and "M" to access those available from past years, with notes from the marking centre.

At HSC level are Music 1, Music 2 and Music Extension, found under "M". An introduction to the syllabus, support documents which include examples of how to outline and assess a unit, draft performance bands which set out what is needed to achieve a "band" or grading, past exam papers and notes on them, marking guidelines, specimen HSC exam resources, sample marking guidelines for practical tasks and submitted works and advice regarding the latter.

There are HSC exam and timetables and important dates for practical submissions and marking, resources and textbooks and updates, rules and procedures, a guide for year 10s entering the new HSC.

There are syllabus and assessment resources including FAQs, newsletter, standards setting, glossary and course descriptons.

Clicking on HSC assessment on the home page takes you to HSC assessment policies and documents including rules and procedures, advice to parents and teachers and "All my own work".

Under advice re: HSC assessments and submitted works is an example of a student declaration form that music composition students are required to fill out.

School Certificate has syllabus for years 7 to 10, course performance descriptors, guide to the syllabus, advice on programming and assessment, Life Skills (for students with special needs) planning, programming and assessment, Life Skills outcomes worksheet. there are rules and procedures and portfolio credentials, and school statistics that date back to 1955.

Back on the home page, the assessment resource gives access to all levels of study and acheivement where samples of students' work can be found with their grading and commentaries.Then there is advice on work samples and the grade alignment process and the common grade scale.

Manuals and guides inform about things such as equipment checklist for exams, recognition of prior learning, applying for special provisions, and guides to assessment practice.

Special education needs provides support for teachers of life skills students.

Vocational education

Official Notices and the board bulletin have a variety of current information including a note about the use of unusual musical instruments or sound sources in HSC music exams.

Down the middle of the home page is The HSC exam timetable, respect and responsibility, values and education information, Aboriginal educational contexts, special education needs and certificate test reports.

In the ICT section, click on the database and choose music and the relevant stage to attain outcomes, content and syllabus requirements regarding computer based work.These pointers can be incorporated into lesson planning.

On the right of the home page, are relevant partner sites AMEB NSW and ENCORE.The latter site can be shown to HSC students so they can hear outstanding performances and compositions of previous HSC students, which would serve to motivate and inspire them and perhaps give them some ideas.

One can program the music curriculum using the syllabus as a guide. It shows the pathway of learning from K-12 and the three main learning experiences are addressed through out the document, those of listening, composing and performing. Objectives, outcomes and content can be used to inform programming and lesson planning. For example a unit could comprise essential content, Australian music and individual lessons could be based on one or more musical concepts of pitch, duration, expressive techniques, tone colour, texture and stucture.

A lesson based on tone colour could be adapted from the content overview:
for students to explore, identify and discuss the following aspects of tone colour in relation to traditional and contemporary aboriginal music:
• sound source material, for example, wood, metal, string, skin, electronic and vocal
• combination of sound sources, for example, single voice, multiple voices, voices accompanied or unaccompanied by instruments
• method of sound production, for example, blowing, hitting, plucking, scraping and shaking.

The syllabus also indicates key competencies, such as orgainising ideas, communicating information and working with others in teams, environmental considerationas, using mathematical ideas and technology. It suggests ideas for topics which can be
used for a series of lessons such as jazz, music for film,tv and multimedia, and music of a culture.

Basically the syllabus is a great resource guide and helps one organise ideas and concepts into learning experiences and how they might be assessed.