Context for Learning

For my observations this quarter I am placed at a middle school in the suburbs.

 For three days a week I will be traveling out to the school and get to work with the Jazz band and 7^th grade band each of those days. Only on Fridays will I have the opportunity to work with the percussion class and 8^th grade band.

The middle school uses a quarter system that divides the school year into four parts, not including summer with class periods lasting 50 minutes. Each day, except for Thursdays, begins with a twenty minute class called “Connections” or “Homebase.” This is a Advisory/Navigation-type class where the students prepare for their eighth grade presentations.

Thursdays are late starts days, which is why there is no Homebase on those days.

As one would expect, there is a lot of grouping in the music classroom, but mostly by instrument and grade level. There isn’t necessarily any ability grouping since the bands are divided by grade rather than ability. The bands are currently set up this way because this is the director's first year working with the music program. She used this year to get to know all of the students and how they play and will create bands based on ability level for the next school year.

In the 7^th grade class there are 34 students: 25 males, 9 females. To break it down even further the instrumentation is as follows:

Flute           8

Oboe
Clarinet      6

Bassoon      1

Alto Sax     2

Tenor Sax   1

Bari Sax      1

Trumpet     6

Trombone   1

Tuba

Percussion  6

This class is the first period of the day at 9:09am, right after Connections.

There is one student in the class who is an English Language Learner. This student knows very minimal enlgish. His family is from Russia, and the students in the class simply call him “Alex” because they can’t pronounce his Russian name.

There are approximately three students in the class who are underperforming and have gaps in their knowledge. These three boys are from “The Boys Ranch.” The Boys Ranch is a place for children who don’t have parents. One of these boys was raised in Tenneessee and recently moved to Spokane. His math level is that of a second grader and his reading/writing is around the same level.

In regards to students with special needs, there are four in the 7^th grade band: 3 boys and 1 girl. A couple of them are only mainstreamed into band during the day.

Instead of using one single methods book or textbook for warm-ups, etc. the teacher hands out warm-ups from various resources to the students.

The band room is a nice, large size with special instrument storage along the back wall for large items and a storage room with instrument lockers for the smaller instruments. All of the percussion instruments are stored neatly in the back of the room and properly covered. The chairs are set up in a typical concert band arc.  In general the room is very tidy and organized. All of the walls are colorful with posters and such. One of my favorite features is the “Word Wall.” When the students run across a word in their music that is new to them, the teacher puts it up on the wall. Every once in a while, at the end of class, she will ask the students what certain words on the wall mean, using it as an educational tool. This is an example of a great band room and one that I can use as an example for my future room.