SO UN D I N G T H E T E A CH IN G
2
EX A MI NI NG MU SI C LEA R NI NG EX P ER I ENC ES
L E T T H E
S H OW B E G I N…
Exposition
I
am going to share a few observations I made in the 10 weeks of
practicum and how Ben, Professor Choo and I tried to handle
some of these issues.
Before the commencement of the new semester, I shared with Ben my
intention to try using Class Dojo 2 , an online app, to monitor the progress
of the students. We could use Class Dojo to keep track of the tasks the
students have completed and award them points, or deduct points from
their account if they misbehave.
Ben was very enthusiastic about the app and introduced it to his
classes. I have never tried this app and the outcome was not what I
had expected.
Ben then invited Chris, a shy student, to give a demonstration on
correct breathing techniques, but Chris refused to open his mouth or do
anything. To encourage Chris, Ben asked the class whether they thought
he should conduct the demonstration with Chris and the class spent
some time voting on it.
In the end, Ben had to finish his lesson with only 50% of his lesson plan
completed but most of the students seemed to be having a good time
sitting there watching the show.
After the lesson, Ben, Professor Choo and I sat down for a discussion.
Professor Choo started by asking Ben how he felt the lesson had gone.
Ben thought it went okay as he had taught the students the correct
singing posture and how to use the diaphragm. The professor was taken
aback by his answer and started shooting Ben with lots of questions.
It was Professor Choo’s first lesson observation with Ben; Ben was
teaching class 1A about correct singing posture and breathing
techniques.
After some explanation and demonstration, Ben asked for a volunteer
to show the class how to breathe using the diaphragm. He said he would
award two points to the person who volunteered. One cheeky student,
Justin, asked if he could be given 50 points if he volunteered and Ben
said, “Yes.” Justin went up and tried to follow Ben’s instructions, he made
funny noises and postures and drew a lot of laughter from the students.
Ben asked for another volunteer and, this time, another student asked
if he could get 500 points for volunteering. Some bargaining went on
between Ben and the students and again, it had everyone laughing.
1 Purpo se and
necessity of using
Class Dojo? 4 Did the students
learn what you
taught?
2 Were all students
engaged throughout
the lesson? 5 Was it necessary to
get the students to
vote?
3
How much time did
he waste and why
was so much of
the lesson plan not
completed?
6
Who was in control
of the lesson – the
teacher or the
students?
64
65
Ben was dumbfounded. He knew he was going to fail this lesson
observation. But the lesson really shook him up and got him thinking.
As his mentor, I did not feel good hearing all those comments from
Professor Choo, which got me thinking about what I had to do.
2
https://www.classdojo.com/