There's an App for Everything

https://www.flickr.com/photos/sunraven0/5451897212

In my classroom, I see every student in the school, regardless of any disabilities.  My classroom and my content needs to be accessible to them and I need to be able to engage and include them.  While I would normally take this time to discuss how I could differentiate my classroom, I instead choose to focus on making accommodations that will help them, but will also help every student that walks into my classroom.  Enter the topic of Universal Design for Learning (UDL).

There are three main principles to UDL:
1.  Presenting the information in multiple ways (the what)
2.  Allowing students to respond in multiple ways (the how)
3.  Providing multiple ways to engage students in the content (the why)
Check out this website for more great information on UDL!

Incorporating UDL into the classroom should be done in small steps.  The students have to be on board with the changes or they will fight against them rather than embrace and use them.  With this in mind, I decided to find apps that I could use on iPads in my classroom (whenever I can get my hands on them).  I've summarized some of the apps that I found and listed ways that they can address these three UDL principles in my classroom in this document.

Do you have other ideas for me?  What other apps should I play around with?  How could these apps help students in your classroom?

TPACK Lessons

Coming up with rationales for some of these TPACK sets was difficult as many do not relate in any way to the content that I teach. Some of the sets were a stretch anyway, but that's what makes the TPACK game interesting. It gets you to think outside the box just a little bit! How would you have connected the content, pedagogy, and technology for each set? What lessons would you have come up with?

Content: Shakespeare Play

Pedagogy: Compare and Contrast

Technology: Excel

With this set, I could assign different Shakespeare plays to small groups of students to read. They could discuss their play with a student group that read a different play and work as a larger group to compare and contrast the two plays. I would have them compile the information they generated from the discussion in an excel spreadsheet. I could also assign different plays to different classes and use GoogleSheets to accomplish a similar outcome without the face-to-face discussion. They could discuss using the chat feature in Sheets.

Content: Social Skills

Pedagogy: Discuss

Technology: Web-based Activity

Students could do a web-walkthrough of a social story individually. We would then discuss the experiences they had with the walkthrough and identify why they experienced certain outcomes and how they could have made different choices in the social story to achieve different (and possibly more-desired) outcomes.

Content: Argument Writing

Pedagogy: Engage in Data-based Inquiry

Technology: Office 365

I would assign a topic and have students randomly assigned to a side, similar to a blind debate. Students would use data-based inquiry to research their side of the argument and use Word from Office 365 to write their argument.

Content: Writing a Script

Pedagogy: Modeling

Technology: OneNote

This one would be fairly straightforward. I would model how to set up and write a script using OneNote. Students would then work on building their own script in the program. OneNote allows for flexibility of placement of text and images so students could adjust the layout to fit their writing style.

Now, for one that actually applies! I created an entire TPACK lesson for this set!!

Content: Note Reading Skills

Pedagogy: Modeling

Technology: Video Recorder

Title: Behind the Music: Recorder Style

Summary: Students will practice note reading skills on the recorder and use video recording to self-assess progress.

Primary Core Goals/Outcomes:

• MU:Pr4.2.5a Demonstrate understanding of the structure and the elements of music (such as rhythm, pitch, form, and harmony) in music selected for performance.
• MU:Pr4.2.5b When analyzing selected music, read and perform using standard notation.
• MU:Pr5.1.5a Apply teacher-provided and established criteria and feedback to evaluate the accuracy and expressiveness of ensemble and personal performances.
• MU:Pr5.1.5b Rehearse to refine technical accuracy and expressive qualities to address challenges, and show improvement over time.
• MU:Pr6.1.5a Perform music, alone or with others, with expression, technical accuracy, and appropriate interpretation.
• MU:Re9.1.5a Evaluate musical works and performances, applying established criteria, and explain appropriateness to the context, citing evidence from the elements of music.

Intended Learning Outcomes:

• Students will be able to perform a piece of music on recorder by reading from standard notation.
• Students will be able to self-assess their own performance from a video recording and use that assessment to make a practice plan for improvement.
• Students will be able to make a video recording presentation of their best performance attempt on the piece of music.

Pedagogical Decisions:

1. The interactions in the lesson will be mostly student-centered.  The initial introduction of the material will be modeled by the teacher, but the students will practice, video record, self-assess, and repeat the process with guidance from the teacher when necessary rather than direct instruction.
2. The learning will be hands-on because music is learned best in this manner.  Students will develop similar understandings as all will be working towards their best performance using guidelines we have established prior to determine what makes a good musical performance.
3. Students will be drawing on prior experiences and knowledge of what makes a good musical performance as well as prior experiences playing the recorder.
4. The surface knowledge of what makes a good performance was taught prior.  This series of lessons will focus on creating a deeper understanding of what makes a good musical performance as well as a deeper understanding of the mechanics of note reading and recorder playing.
5. This series of lessons will be completed in the classroom and will occur over a longer period of time to give students time to analyze and reflect on their performances as well as practice and improve based on the analysis and reflection.
6. The learning will be less structured as the students are all at different levels and have different needs in order to practice and improve their performance skills.
7. The activity will be primarily individual, but will allow for small group work if they choose to work together and analyse each other’s performances to help each other improve.
8. The school iPad cart will be required in order to create a video recording of the students’ performances.

TPACK Activity Types:

• Play with a steady beat
• Play with appropriate posture and technical skills
• Play individually
• Play with technical accuracy
• Listen to/view instrumental models
• Read standard notation while singing/playing
• Listen and reflect
• Develop criteria for evaluating a musical performance, improvisation, composition, or arrangement
• Critique a musical performance, improvisation, composition, or arrangement
• Provide constructive suggestions for improvement of a musical performance, improvisation, composition, or arrangement

Assessment Plan:

• Students will self-assess their video recording of their performance using a rubric for good musical performance. (informal)
• Teacher will assess the best video recording the student submits for their final performance using the same rubric for good musical performance. (formal)
• Teacher will visually and aurally monitor progress as students practice and address any problems that arise. (informal)

Materials/Technologies:

Used by the Teacher:  

• iPad
• Recorder
• Copies of reocrder songs
• Projector/computer
• Rubric for assessment

Used by the Students:

• iPad
• Recorder
• Copies of recorder songs
• Rubric for self-assessment
• Headphones

Instructional Procedures:

Introductory Lesson

• Teacher will review good musical performance criteria
• Show video recordings of teacher playing recorder pieces and have students critique the performance using the rubric.
• Whole class walk-through of the song(s) to be rehearsed and evaluated by students.
• Teacher will display the songs on the screen using the computer/projector.
• Students work as a class to identify the notes and rhythms for each piece.
• Teacher models good performance of each piece.
• Students practice each piece as a whole class.

Next Step:

• Students select one of the pieces to practice and perform.
• Students spend the first half of the class time practicing the piece individually, asking for help (if needed) from peers or teacher.
• Teacher monitors practice by walking around the room.
• Students take turns going into the hall to record themselves performing the piece using the video recorder on the iPad.
• Students state their class and the name of the piece before starting to play.
• If there is time, students may use headphones to view their performance and complete a rubric for self-assessment.
• If there is no time remaining, this can be completed the next class period.
• After self-assessment, students talk with the teacher to create a practice plan for improving their performance.

Final Step:

• Students choose the video recording that they feel is their best performance based on the self-assessment rubric to submit.
• Class views video performances.
• Teacher points out the characteristics of good musical performances in each video. (No negatives during whole-class)

TIM

Active Adaptation

• Students are independently using the technology (iPad) in a conventional way but the tool (iPad video) was chosen by the teacher.

The TPACK Puzzle

So I know what content I’m going to teach.  And I have different ways to teach it so I can choose which way provides the best learning experience for the group of students I have.  But what do I do with all of this technology that’s flooding our schools?  This is where the framework TPACK helps.  Like the final piece to an ever-changing puzzle, TPACK completes the picture.

Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5f/Tpack.jpg

All of the things that we already do in the classroom come together in different ways for different lessons.  TPACK helps them fit together better, with the “ideal” lesson including all of my pedagogical knowledge about how to teach the lesson, my content knowledge about the subject matter, and my technological knowledge about the tools and resources to take the lesson to the next level!

This framework is relatively new to me, so I wanted to find resources that would give me a better idea of how to best implement technology into lessons.  While not directly related to music, this matrix developed by the Florida Institute for Instructional Technology provides an excellent framework for figuring out where you are in your technology integration and provides suggestions or guides for how to take your teaching to the next level.  While that’s a wealth of information, I wanted to find something that directly related to my music classroom.  This youtube video provides examples of TPACK applied to different music contexts.

Armed with that information, I wanted to find some resources that I could use with my students.  I have a computer with projector, document camera, and a single iPad available in my music classroom.  Students have been working on rhythm reading skills so I wanted to find resources that would be best used in teaching that concept.

There is an app that was released last March (Chrome Music Lab).  This is a free lesson plan they created using the app and shared online.  I like that it uses a combination of paper/pencil work and iPad work so I could have students working on their own or in small groups and passing my iPad around.

Then I stumbled onto this gem.  RhythmBee is an idea that I could adjust and have my students use for recorder time.  It would be easy to have them record a short video on my iPad of their recorder playing and would provide a unique and quick way for me to individually assess student performance.

Armed with this information and resources, I’m ready to put my TPACK puzzle together.  How could you better use technology to enhance your teaching practices?