Jenny Jordan

MUS149

Observation Reflection #26

December 11, 2020

This class was an elementary school choir class. The walls were fairly blank with a

singular blackboard at the front of the classroom. There was a piano on the side of the room. The

environment of the classroom felt more task-oriented, but the students still appeared to be having

fun with the music. The teacher didn’t have to diffuse too many disruptions to the class, but

when she did, she used a rhythmic “shh” that students would repeat to bring the focus back to the

task at hand. This was a creative and musical way to get students’ attention.

The class started out with percussive vocal warmups. Then, the teacher had students say

rhythms out loud with syllables while pointing at rhythmic notation. After warmups, the class

moved on to singing a song together. The students sang one part while the teacher sang another

part. After some talk about dynamics and sound quality, the students put their music under their

chairs to sing the song memorized. They then moved onto the next piece, Lachend. This piece

contained a round.

The teacher asked students questions about the rhythms when they were saying them out

loud, as well as throughout the entire lesson. The teacher would call students out by name and

ask them what they thought, engaging the class, and showing that she has a personal interest in

each student. When students would get answers right, the teacher would be sure to reaffirm this

and make sure the students know that they did well. The teacher used a metaphor of a string

coming out of the students’ heads to help the students understand what kind of sound the teacher

wanted to hear. To make sure the students understood who was singing when the teacher asked
the students “Who’s singing first?” and had them raise their hands. The teacher also admitted

when she made a mistake with what she wrote on the board, showing the students that she was

human and could make mistakes like them. Overall, I thought this was a great short lesson to

watch, and I feel as though I have learned a lot from only 12 minutes of observing.

Link: https://youtu.be/NtLgcSSBRYg

Honor Code:

I affirm that I will uphold the highest principles of honesty and integrity in all my endeavors at

Gettysburg College and foster an atmosphere of mutual respect within and beyond the classroom.

-Jenny Jordan