Lesson Three Reflection Sarah Dean What instructional decisions did I make before and during the lesson

and why? This lesson is another lesson about African drumming with the same second grade class I worked with on the first African drumming lesson. In this lesson I wanted the students to review the material from the previous lesson and learn how to play the drum by playing drumming games. I also wanted the students to have an opportunity to create their own beats on the drum and practice keeping a steady beat while playing the drum. Based upon student performance, discuss the instructional decisions for the next or future lesson. The students enjoyed playing the drum throughout the lesson and I think it reinforced the concepts that we learned from the previous lesson. If I were to do another lesson to tie in with this lesson, I would introduce more African percussion instruments and have the students play more than one instrument at a time and try to keep a steady beat instead of just playing one instrument at a time. How did you engage or motivate the students successfully? The students were highly engaged and motivated in this lesson because they were excited to play on the drums. I also think they enjoyed playing an instrument that they already knew a lot about from the previous lesson. Also, during the drumming game I was able to make several variations of the game so that the students had to participate in different ways instead of playing the same game over and over again. What instructional mode(s) was employed? (lecture, small group, demonstration, experiment, etc.) I taught this lesson through whole group lecture, games, small group games, demonstration, and listening examples. How effectively did you use instructional aids, i.e., whiteboard, video, calculators, manipulatives, computer, etc.? The main instructional aid I used in this lesson was the djembe drum. I demonstrated how to play the drum and why it is held and played that way in order to make the drum talk. Using a real drum in this lesson was effective because the students were able to see a real life example of the drum and were also able to demonstrate proper drumming technique and different drumming sounds first hand. Were the students actively or passively involved? How so? The whole class was actively involved in the lesson. If they were not playing the drum, they were listening to the drummer so that they could mimic the rhythm of the drum when it was their turn to play. Did you present the information in a clear and logical manner? How so? Yes. I was able to reinforce their learning from the previous lesson by first reviewing the concepts through questioning, then demonstration on the drum, an activity game with the drum, and lastly reviewing the concepts again.

How effective were the materials and resources you selected for the lesson? The use of the materials for the lesson were effective because the students could use their creativity when playing with the drum and also have multiple chances to experiment with the instrument to get the optimal sound out of the drum. Were you able to or could you (in the future) relate the lesson content to the lives of the student. I related the lesson to the lives of the students by explaining that the type of music they like to listen to (hip hop and rap) is based loosely on African songs and rhythms played on drums. Describe any discipline or classroom management techniques used during the lesson. Were these techniques effective or would you employ a different technique the next time? When the students would stop paying attention or would speak out of turn I would hold my finger over my lips and raise my right hand. Or direct their attention to the problem by saying when everyone is quiet and we can listen to the beat we will continue playing the drumming game or everyone must listen to (student) play the drum so they can remember the beat. This helped the students stay focused during the lesson. Reflect on your interaction with the students. Would you describe your treatment of the students as being fair, respectful, and ethical? How so? I think this lesson was fair and respectful. I talked about being respectful musicians with the students and asked them to demonstrate good musicianship in the game by being respectful to whoever was playing the drum. Were you able to summarize the lesson and relate it to the following lesson or homework assignment? At the end of the lesson, I summarized the days learning by asking the students assessment questions to review what we learned for the day. Was your estimated time allocation for this lesson as noted in your lesson plan accurate? If your time varied, what factors contributed to this variance? This lesson lasted about 30 minutes, which is about the amount of time I had in mind for the lesson.