MUED 376 - Choral Music, Materials & Techniques

Assignment 10S. Dr. Alice Hammel

Chapter 8 discussion questions
DUE 10/30 on Canvas!!!

Students – please read chapter 8 and respond to the discussion questions. Please craft
three discussions of your own below and submit to Canvas.

NAME: Journee Smith

Question #1:

When I worked at a performing arts camp over the summer as a music

instructor, I had the opportunity to facilitate a songwriting class. One of the campers
who participated was very gifted when it came to writing songs and singing. I
separated them campers into groups and whoever wanted to work by themselves had
the opportunity to do so. She initially worked by herself, writing many verses and
playing her Ukulele with them. One of my groups was doing a great job with figuring
out the chords to an original, but were struggling with the lyrics. I pulled the camper
who was doing her own specialized songwriting into the group to work with them and
help them with lyrics. The result of this ended up backfiring, as the camper was able to
help so much that they ended up writing most of the lyrics and then the group the
camper was helping was unsatisfied because they didn’t have a say. The group ended
up wanting to change some of the lyrics of the piece.
In this instance, the camper’s lyrics added to the group they were in were
beautifully done, but the group was unsatisfied because it was art created by solely one
person instead of a team.
What are your suggestions to having productive conversations with the
participants if this were to happen again in the classroom? What are your suggestions
in helping to prevent this from happening in the classroom?

Question #2:

“students who perform at an average to below-average level in the inclusion classroom

benefit more from a heterogeneous classroom. For gifted students, however, the
opposite is true” (174).

How do you maintain a healthy balance between these two statements?

Question #3:

“[Gifted students] benefit more from homogenous grouping with other students
who are gifted.”

After reading this chapter, there are many different levels and types of giftedness.
For example, there’s general intellectual ability and then specific academic aptitude.
Does this statement refer to all gifted students regardless if they have general
intellectual ability or specific academic aptitude or does it refer making sure that
gifted students are put with other students who have the same type of specific
academic aptitude, etc?

Discussion Questions Responses:

1. Be prepared to wind the lesson forward for the student. Take great caution
that when winding it forward for the gifted student not to make winding it
forward seem like a punishment for the student. The task should be exciting
for the student and it must be done in a way where the they are able to find
their own interest in the topic so that they will work to their full potential by
their own intrinsic motivation to learn more.
2. Because creativity projects are limitless, adding a creativity project to the
curriculum would help the student to flourish and delve deeper into the
music. It also allows them to work at the level that they are on.
3. Giving students the opportunity to compose their own music will give them
the opportunity to work on their own level. After this, I can pair them up and
have them share their music with each other and give suggestions. Another
way of helping balance this “variety of levels” orchestra would be to separate
the students into smaller groups on different days. Because gifted students
succeed more when paired with other gifted students, I would make sure
that students have this opportunity. Because the students with the average
or lower IQ succeed more when paired with different IQ’s from themselves, I
would also leave opportunities for this to occur in small groups as well.
4. An IEP or 504 Plan as well as Adaptations, Accommodations and
modifications might be beneficial for students who have enhanced cognitive
abilities and also challenges in the area of communication.