Ute Meadows Elementary:

Strategies for engagement, inclusion, learning needs, and special interests.

Many strategies include reflections on how the strategy was learned, or implemented in class.

Engagement:
Keep lesson pacing at a childs level and not an adults.
o Often times, instruction for elementary students is set at an adults pacing and not a young
students. At an elementary level, students have about a 5-10 minute attention span and yet,
teachers can often spend 20 minutes or more on a given activity. At Ute Meadows, I scheduled 10-
12 activities per 45 minute lesson, which kept students engaged. Furthermore, if there was an
activity a student was particularly unengaged, there would only be 5 minutes before the next
activity.
Vary between action and inaction.
o If the teacher schedules too many activities in a row that require students to sit-down or stay in
place, then students will begin to lose concentration and engagement in the classroom.
Conversely, if a teacher schedules too many activities in a row that require movement in place,
around the room, or standing up, then students can get fatigued. At Ute Meadows, I learned to
teach lessons in an action-inaction-action-inaction-action pattern.
Move-on from activities that are not working for students.
o At Ute Meadows, I found that every one of my lessons had an activity that was unsuccessful with
students. Sometimes this was because of the way I was presenting the activity, and sometimes it
was because of the time of day, the specific group of students, the behavior of the students, or the
daily schedule: all of which affect student engagement in specific activities. In these scenarios, it
is important to move on to the next activity. I found that if I tried to continue the activity, students
(and myself) would become frustrated and ultimately learn less. It is far more effective to drop a
lesson plan and come back to it in a future lesson. This also gives the teacher time to adjust the
lesson/activity plan to better suit the students.
Use a variety of modalities and intelligences in teaching.
o Students learn through a variety of modalities and through a number of different intelligences.
These can include aural, visual, kinesthetic, spatial, musical, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and
logical-mathematical learners. Students are also not limited to just one way in which they learn.
Teaching musical concepts through all of these intelligences (e.g. having students move to a
concept, listen to a piece of music with the concept, write the concept, create/show the concept
with their bodies, work in groups, work alone, and make connections to other subjects) can help
all students learn and stay engaged in the classroom.
Vary where instruction takes place in the room.
o Students can further stay more engaged if their placement in the room varies per activity. The
episodic memory lane is devoted to this. If a location is specific to an activity or group of activities
for the day, then students can remember content based on where they were when they learned it.
At Ute Meadows, I often had students move from in front of the board, to the back of the room, to
in front of the piano, to the middle of the room etc.
Vary where the teacher is located during instruction and/or group activities.
o Similarly to the previous reflection, varying my own placement in the room helped keep students
engaged at Ute Meadows. If I didnt move around the room and interact with all students in a
lesson, then some students would often check out, or consider me absent from the class. Changing
 my position from the piano, to the board, to walking in-between students during activities helped
keep students on-task.
Moves students always near the back, to the front of the class and vice versa.
o This strategy goes hand-in-hand with the last two strategies. I noticed in my time at Ute Meadows,
that students who were shy or often off-task always seemed to migrate to the back of the room
(furthest from me) and that students on-task would often migrate the front of the room. I found it
especially useful to have students stand up and swap the front and back of the room. This way,
students that were in the front, were still engaged in the back, and students that were disengaged in
the back of the room, were now encouraged to pay attention in the front of the room.

Inclusion:
Give students the opportunity to share who they are, and what defines them personally
and culturally.
o At Ute Meadows, the population of students wasnt particularly diverse. Even so, I found it
important to give every student an opportunity to share their life experiences through stories.
Sometimes these stories would be through one-on-one communication with the student, and
sometimes they would be in class where everyone could share with each other. I also had a Jewish
student in the class, and I was particular in making sure that as I was helping to select Holiday
concert music, that I included a Jewish piece to help represent this students culture.
Vary instruction for SLL learners.
o While the population of Ute Meadows was not particularly diverse, I did have the opportunity to
observe and guest teach a diverse student body at Molholm Elementary with Carrie Nicholas. Ms.
Nicholas was able to speak and communicate using basic Spanish instructions. I also found that
using non-verbal instruction helped these students especially well. Upon returning to Ute
Meadows, I instructed an entire Genius Hour/Enrichment lesson without saying a word. I found
that this not only included all students, but also engaged them.

Learning Needs:
Communicate with Paras on limitations and abilities of special needs learners.
o First and foremost, I found it especially important to start and maintain communication with para-
professionals and needs workers at Ute Elementary to discover the best way to approach
individual needs students. I did not communicate during my first couple of weeks at Ute
Meadows, and I was unsure how to approach each student. I especially feared trying to help a
student in a way that would be detrimental to their cognitive and emotional state. As the weeks
progressed however, I was able to establish this communication before or during lessons and
better discern what was appropriate and inappropriate for individuals.
Make a big deal out of special needs students success.
Based on my experiences in the classroom, and my conversations with Marcia
Bohnenblust, my elementary supervisor, I learned that pointing out the success
of special needs students in my class, ended up greatly increasing their
confidence and their joy in the music classroom. Sometimes these interactions
could be simple as including these students on demonstrations (teacher or
student-led), but often included the extra step of applauding for this student after
a demonstration or activity.
Supply manipulatives and other stimulating content for students less able
to participate.
At Ute Meadows, there were some students that were unable to grasp what was
going on in the lesson, even after trying to modify content for them. For these
students, I learned that I could still include them in the classroom by moving
 them into groups, and giving them manipulatives that other students were using.
For example, if we were using beanie-babies to show dynamic contrast in the
lesson, I would make sure to give a beanie-baby to these students so that they
could interact in some way. While these students were perhaps unable to grasp
what was going on in the lesson, this inclusion brought smiles to their faces,
which sometimes, is all you can ask for.
Make physical contact with special needs students during class.
Upon communicating with professionals, I was given the advice to make
physical contact with special needs students at least once every lesson. I found
out that these students can greatly benefit and often seek out physical touch in
the form of hand-holding and hugs. Even holding a hand for a moment when
handing out manipulatives could provide these students with tactile interactions.
While there were some students that would not have liked this, I began to
interact with each of these students on a personal level, every lesson. This
further helped them become part of the class.
Assign/encourage advanced and mature students to help out students with special needs.
o I learned this strategy in one of my 3rd grade classes. A young girl by the name of, lets say
Maggie, routinely helped a young boy named Trevor, who had special needs. When the class
changed activities, or I varied my instructions, Maggie was always there to help Trevor put his
things away, get new things out, or move to new areas of the room. She was a good friend to
Trevor, especially since I was unable to make sure he was doing alright all of the time. Upon this
observation, I further discovered that I could encourage positive experiences in students with
special needs by putting my trust in mature/advanced students to supply emotional and social
support.

Special Interests:
Discover/find out the interests of individual students teacher/student relationship.
o Inquiring about student interests is especially important for engagement in the classroom. If
students feel a connection with me as their teacher, and if I connect the content of the lesson with
student interests, then students will stay invested in the classroom. At Ute Meadows, I had the
opportunity to talk with a number of students before, during, and after class, who told me stories
about their families and details about their interests. Because of this, I was able to really connect
with a number of students in my class and further gain their attention and respect. This in turn
helped students that I had talked to less to maintain concentration.
Incorporate student interests in activities and learning.
o In using the Dalcroze Eurhythmics approach in teaching, it gave students the opportunity to make
connections between their own lives and musical concepts. For example, at the beginning of each
lesson I used a list exercise where students would act like animals, workers, nature, and more to
a musical concept. If the lesson was on articulation, then I might have students be smooth legato
clouds and then be short staccato raindrops. I would then ask students to come up with their own
animals, elements of nature, etc. to be, in relationship with the content. I also used student interest
in sports and other extra-curricular activities in connection with musical content. For example, if a
student was interested in basketball, I might have everyone be a basketball player in order to teach
tempo. This gave students creative control and input in daily lessons and further engaged and
invested them in the music.
Give students the opportunity to share with the class.
o Finally, I found it important to give students the opportunity to share their own music with the
class, so that I was not the only one playing, or sharing music. At Ute Meadows, there were a
number of orchestra, band, and piano students that brought their instruments once a week. A
couple of students approached me to see if they could play for the class. I of course allowed them
to. Sometimes student peers can be more beneficial to student engagement and learning then
teacher instruction.