Kai Smith

MUED 273

Practicum Observation 1

For this practicum, I had the pleasure of visiting Mrs. C’s kindergarten class at a local elementary school. In

this kindergarten class, it was my assignment to observe student J for a collaborative project between the Music

Education department and the Engineering department. For this project, the two departments had to work together to

construct an adaptable instrument for a number of students with a disability in the local public school system.

For this practicum observation, my main goal was to get to know student J. To be as helpful as possible for

my engineering team, I needed to know what limitations the student had and how the student interacts with their

peers. After observing the class period and after asking the student’s paraprofessional some questions afterwards, I

was able to gather some important information about the student.

It was very clear to me that the student was very intelligent and attentive during the class. Although the

student is confined to the wheelchair most of the time, the paraprofessional is always there to assist in any way that

they can. During the class, there would be times where the music teacher had the entire class moving along to the

music and the paraprofessional would be wheeling the student around the classroom with the classmates. I was also

able to uncover that student J had troubles using his voice and lacked fine motor control, but student J was able to sit

up on the floor without support and was left hand dominant.

Using this information, I hope to help my engineering group build the most accessible instrument for

student J.