My Reflection

There were some things from the Twelve Touchstones of Good Teaching (Goodwin and
Hubbell, 2013) that worked better than others. I used rubrics for each learner activity (I had
four), which helped greatly. Here is an example of my rubric for a voice activity:
Area 1=Needs More
Improvement
2=Progressing 3=Meets
Expectatio
ns
4=Exemplary
Posture
Breathing
Intonation

I was only working with four students in my after school program, since I am a pre-service
teacher. At the end of our lesson they completed their personal goal worksheets (read more
about those in the next paragraph). I then asked my students verbally (but privately) what their
answers were to our essential questions:
Why is pitch important when were singing?

Why is rhythm important in music?

Here are the results of the students understanding of the lesson in a graph form:



The touchstones that I found worked the best for me were:
Item 2: I ensure students set personal learning objectives for each lesson
Item 8: I create an oasis of safety and respect in my classroom
Item 9: I make the most of every minute (Goodwin and Hubbel, 2013)
Item 2 worked amazing because I used a personal goal worksheet with my students. They had to
fill out the following sections, (1) I will learn, (2) What I have learned, (3) Proof, (4) Questions I
still have, and (4) Reflection. This worked well with my learners because it made their
expectations clear for both teacher and student. Item 8 is pertinent for the level of students that I
am teaching, since they are elementary level students. If there are not precise rules and
procedures set up for my students, I will lose them. I have my students read the rules of the class
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
3.5
Student 1 Student 2 Student 3 Student 4
Solid Understanding Still Needs Improvement
at the beginning of each class time. They are posted visually with the acronym M-U-S-I-C (see
item 8 on my website for more details of what this stands for). This works very well with my
learners. Item 9 is another touchstone that I relied on greatly. I only have forty minutes of class
time with my students, so I broke my lesson into (4) ten-minute long learner activities. My
learner activities were:
(Pitch matching roll call
Steady vs. rhythm with a speech piece
Voice use activity (sing, speak, whisper, shout)
Steady beat marching activity
Based on my knowledge of the twelve touchstones, I believe this lesson was a great success.
I was able to engage my students to the fullest, give them nonthreatening feedback when needed
and it was a great basis to make me feel I was doing an amazing job as their teacher. The twelve
touchstones provided me with a checklist for success, which equaled student success as well. I
feel like I aided my pupils to do something with their learning and it provided growth in myself
as an educator. It has been said that change is inevitable, but growth is intentional. If this is
true, then intentionality is crucial to becoming a great teacher (Goodwin & Hubbell, 2013, p. 182).
References
Goodwin, B., & Hubbell, E. R. (2013). The 12 touchstones of good teaching: A checklist
for staying focused every day.