Action Inquiry: Vincent Farm Elementary School

Identifying an Academic Need and Rationale

The class participating in the lessons was an Exploratory Music class at Vincent Farm

Elementary that included an average of 11 students with mixed diversity. Class participants

consisted of students of color, Hispanic students, and Indian students. Additionally, the class has

2 students with IEP goals. Throughout the course of the year, the students had been learning

what makes sound happen and had spent most of their first quarter focusing on a percussion unit.

The academic need focused on by these lessons was basic characteristics of instrument families.

The first lesson covered the percussion family, and the second lesson focused on the woodwind

family. The third lesson was to be focused on the brass family, however, due to unprecedented

events this lesson had to be canceled.

The objective for each of these lessons was to respond to how each instrument makes its

music. Both lessons used audio examples as to how each instrument family uses vibration to

make sounds. In the first week of school, the students learned the science. Through this unit,

students learned that sound can only happen when vibrations are created. In the first lesson on

percussion, the students made their own instruments from household items like beans in an

empty water bottle or water in a mixing bowl. They were then asked to reflect on the instrument

they made and what part of the instrument was vibrating to make sound. The second lesson

focused on woodwinds and what vibrates in a woodwind instrument to make sound. In order to

visualize this, the class watched a Brain Pop overviewing the entire woodwind family including

the reeded woodwinds and the non-reed woodwinds.

My teacher and I realized that this lesson topic was important to the students because

understanding the different characteristics of the different instrument families is essential to

drawing the separation between what we call a percussion instrument and a woodwind
instrument. This is especially important to separate between brass and woodwinds as many

young students confuse the saxophone for a brass instrument since it is made of metal and looks

similar to a brass instrument. The main characteristics the lessons focused on for percussion was

that the player can strike it, scrape it, and/or shake it respective to what is appropriate. For

example, someone wouldn’t normally grab a flute and bang it against a drum in order to make a

sound out of the flute. For woodwinds, the lessons characterized them as long a hollow tube

made of plastic, metal, or wood, played with air, and the player uses their fingers to cover the

holes or keys to make different pitches.

Plan of Action

In the first lesson on percussion, students were led through an assortment of assignments

on Schoology. The first thing the students were led through was a discussion post where each

student was to post a comment answering three questions; name 2 different percussion

instruments, what are 3 ways to play percussion, and what is the difference between pitched vs.

non-pitched percussion instruments? Most students only answered one of the questions, but once

asked by my mentor teacher and myself to answer the rest of the questions, students would

promptly comment on their own post answering the remaining questions. After I led students

through the discussion post, the students were directed to the learning outcomes for the lesson.

These included; review 3 ways to play percussion, review pitched vs. non-pitched, how can we

make instruments at home, and take assessment for percussion unit. Each learning outcome was

read by a different student as to get participation among all students in order to further engage

them in the class.

After the class finished reviewing the learning objectives, the class watched videos on

how to create homemade instruments as well as a video of the now famous Wintergatan Marble
Machine to see how creative someone can be when making their own homemade percussion

instruments. After students watched a short portion of these videos as a class, I asked students to

look around their houses to create their own percussion instruments. Each student was given 2

minutes to find their materials then present to the rest of the class. After each student was

finished presenting, students were asked to take their assessment. This assessment reviewed the

students instrument creation and focused on all topics covered throughout their percussion unit.

The questions included; list all the materials that you used to create your instrument, identify

which of your materials are creating the vibration, think about your materials that were vibrating.

How does your instrument fit into the percussion family, describe in your own words how you

would group percussion instruments, and a drag and drop question placing pictures of pitched

and non-pitched percussion instruments in the 2 categories of pitched and non-pitched percussion

instruments? At the end of the lesson, my mentor teacher and myself hung out for an extra 10

minutes in case any students had any questions or wanted to further demonstrate their homemade

instrument.

The next lesson had the same type of flow. When class started I directed the students to the

discussion board. The questions for this discussion board are as follows; what do you know

about woodwind instruments? How are they different from Percussion? And lastly, can you

name two woodwind instruments? Similar to the first lesson, some students didn’t answer every

question, but as they were asked by my mentor teacher and myself to answer the rest of them,

they did so swiftly. After the discussion, the class was directed to the learning outcomes of the

lesson where the students were to find what the class topic was going to be about. The outcomes

included; what instruments are in the woodwind family, briefly describe woodwind history, what

are the characteristics of woodwind instruments? Once this was reviewed, students watched a
Brian Pop as a class overviewing the entire woodwind family and what separates them from the

rest of the instrument families. This BrainPOP also reviewed a short history of the very first

woodwind instrument made. After watching the BrainPOP, the class was assigned to do a

reading describing the brief history of woodwinds and their discerning characteristics. This

reading was included so students had more than one place to access the information needed for

their assessment. After reading this short article, the students were then graded on an assessment

directly relating to the article and knowledge learned from the rest of the lesson including the

BrainPOP. Questions in the test included; what was the original flute made of? What are the

characteristics of a woodwind instrument? And lastly, true or false, a saxophone is a woodwind

instrument.

The teaching strategies I used for this virtual learning setting included things such as creating

online learning routines. My mentor teacher and myself found that keeping a solid routine helps

the students worry less about the virtual learning situation and focus more on the lesson at hand

(Lapp & Kuntz, 2020). This way, more instruction and learning can take place. Of course, there

are rare instances where unprecedented events may happen like a county wide power outage or

school system malware hack occurs where a lesson might have to be canceled, thus, my mentor

teacher and I must maintain a flexible schedule and prepare for technology to not work when we

need it to. Additionally, I made a strong effort for students to practice their newfound

information on the spot with specific activities (Lapp & Kuntz). For example, the first lesson

included an activity where the students created their instruments. Another teaching strategy I

used in this classroom was more of a relationship builder between my students and myself. Every

day when they enter class, I make it a mission for myself to greet students with a positive

message such as “Hi, I’m really glad to see you today! Are you ready to learn about____?”. This
builds a trusting relationship between the teacher and the student as well as creates an

environment that the students feel comfortable to learn in (Lapp & Kuntz).

Additional teaching strategies that I typically use in an in-person class but adapted to virtual

learning include things such as active learning, where I consistently ask the class questions as to

keep them engaged in the lesson (Cordero & Gil-Izquierdo, 2018). Examples of this throughout

the lesson included activities such as having students read the learning outcomes and the

discussion questions. Meanwhile, I made sure that every student that felt comfortable answering

these questions had a chance to speak in class at least once before another student answered more

than once. Additionally, when sharing screens to watch a video, I would ask a student or two to

verify to me that the video audio is coming through clearly. I found this teaching strategy was

most effective for student learning as it is very easy to stop paying attention to the class in the

virtual setting with distractions at home such as pets or the computer itself. Because I used this

teaching strategy, I feel like the students in this class had a much better virtual learning

experience.

Data Collection and Visual Representation

In the first lesson on percussion, there was an assessment which consisted of 5 questions.

This assessment was based mostly upon the instruments the students created in class, however,

was still based upon the student’s background knowledge from the beginning of the unit. Four

questions consisted of short answer prompts where students had 100 characters to answer. The

last question was a matching quiz where students are supposed to drag and drop pitched

percussion into the pitched column and do the same for the non-pitched percussion. The short

answer prompts are as follows; list the materials used to make your instrument, identify which of
 your materials are vibrating to make the sound, think about your materials that were vibrating.

How does your instrument fit into the percussion family, and describe in your own words how

you would group percussion instruments? For the section of short answer prompts, a rubric was

used to grade the students accordingly:

Question 0 0.25 0.5 0.75 1

List all of the The student did The student The student listed The student listed The student
materials that you not make an made an all the materials in all of their listed all the
used to create instrument instrument their homemade materials, but not materials in
your instrument. from only real percussion how their their homemade
percussion instrument and instrument was percussion
instruments how it was assembled instrument and
assembled, but how it was
used actual assembled
percussion
instruments
Identify which of The student did The student The student The student The student
your materials are not make an listed what part identified one part correctly identified correctly
creating the instrument or of their of their instrument moving parts of identified every
vibration. failed to instrument is that is vibrating their instrument but part of their
describe what vibrating but but not the all not which parts are instrument that
part of the was incorrect materials that are vibrating was vibrating
instrument is in their vibrating
vibrating identification
Think about your The student did The student The student named The student The student
materials that not correctly grouped the their instrument described their answered the
were vibrating. group their instrument in similar to an actual instrument as question with
How does your instrument in terms of size percussion pitched or non- the words hit
instrument fit into any way instrument pitched (Strike, bang,
the percussion tap, etc.),
family? Shake, or
Scrape
Describe in your The student did The student The student The student The student
own words how not group grouped grouped grouped percussion grouped
you would group percussion in percussion in percussion in in terms of how percussion in
percussion any way terms of size terms of what they are played (i. terms of pitched
instruments. they’re made of e. strike, scrape, vs. non-pitched
and/or shake)
 Students were given their time in class as well as asynchronous time to complete this

assessment. This chart depicts how well each student did on each question from the short answer

section:

Short Answer Questions

1

0.75

0.5

0.25

0
Question 1 Question 2 Question 3 Question 4

JA MM AP APS KR ES DT GW NW

The last question was based on correctness of placements of

the pitched and non-pitched percussion. The pictures included

Timpani, Gong, Xylophone, Djembe, Vibraphone, Maracas,

Marimba, Snare Drum, Chimes, and a Bass Drum. Schoology

required the students to place the instruments in a very specific order

or else the answer would be wrong as seen to the left. Although every

answer is right, Schoology is telling me that this student got

everything wrong except one. Because of this, I made a chart

depicting the correctness based on their observable answers. Note

that the Timpani was placed in the category of pitched percussion

because technically the timpani can change pitch and in a typical ensemble setting, there are two

to six timpani in use at all times giving a wide range of pitches able to be played by the

performer. Also note that there are five instruments per category which is why the chart is

labeled out of five. This chart can be seen below.

Matiching Question
5

0
JA MM AP APS KR ES DT GW NW

Pitched Unpitched

In the second lesson, students were graded by another assessment using multiple choice

and true/false questions. The questions asked the students; what was the original flute made of?

What are the characteristics of woodwind instruments? And lastly, true/false a saxophone is a

woodwind instrument. The first question – What was the original flute made of? – had four

multiple choice options – mud, Mr. Ruth’s goatee, plastic, or bone. The correct answer to this

was bone and students could have found this information in both the BrainPOP video and the

reading provided to them through Schoology. The data for this response can be found in the pie

chart on the next page.

 The second question was similar to the first as in it
Question 1
was multiple choice. The second question asked the
3 students what are the characteristics of a woodwind
7
2
instrument? The answers available for this question were

played with air, long hollow tube made of wood, metal, or

Bone Mr. Ruths Goatee Mud Plastic

plastic, use your fingers to cover the holes or keys to

change pitches, and lastly, all of the above. Out of the twelve students that attended class, eight

of them got the question correct. Although the other four answered the question partially correct,

the students still got the answer wrong as they did not answer the most true statement.

Additionally, of the four students that answered incorrectly, two of them answered the letter A

which might be because that was the first thing they read and did not read the rest of the answers.

The last question in their assessment asked the students a true or false question asking if a

saxophone is a woodwind instrument. I chose to ask this question since it may be confusing to

some students since a saxophone is made of metal, however, the saxophone follows the

characteristics of a woodwind instrument, not a brass

Question 3
Tru
instrument. Students could have found this information in
2 False
both their reading and the BrainPOP video. The data from 10

this question is laid out in the circle graph to the right.

Data Analysis and Interpretation

To measure the effectiveness of the lesson, I used data from each assessment to gather the

mean, range, and standard deviation. The mean was calculated by taking the total percent from

each question, add them together, then divide that sum by the total number of questions in the
assessment. In the first assessment, the percent totals for each question are 100, 100, 66.7, 88.9,

and 94.4. This total sum equals out to be 451. From here, I divided 450 by 5 as there was five

questions in the assessment equaling an average of 90.2% for the entire assessment. I found the

range of the first and second assessment by dividing the highest percent by the lowest percent

and this equals 33.3%. To find my standard deviation, I used this equation;

From using this equation, I calculated my standard deviation to be 12.35. I will review these

numbers soon.

For the second lesson, my mean calculated out to be 69.4%. This was found by adding

my question totals (83.3, 66.7, 58.3) and dividing them by three as that was my total amount of

questions from this assessment. The range was found from subtracting the lowest number (58.3)

from the highest number (83.3) which gave me a result of 25%. With these numbers, I was able

to find my standard deviance of 12.64.

To further understand the meaning of these numbers, I will discuss the importance of the

mean, range, and standard deviation. The importance of the mean in this data is to represent the

average line of assessment for the two lessons. So, for the first lesson, the assessment measured

an average of 90.2%. This number helps measure where the class lies in the mass of schools.

Although the total measure is not available for this particular assessment, we cannot conclude if

this lesson is above or below the typical average. With that said, the mean is also a key factor in

helping us determine the standard deviation. Standard deviation is a measure of variation or

dispersion between values in a set of data. The lower the standard deviation, the closer the data

points tend to be to the mean. Conversely, a higher standard deviation indicates a wider range of

values. Since the standard deviation of these two assessments are both around 12.45 this means
that the data sets are about 12.45 away from the mean. Having wide spread data in this instance

of assessment would not be the greatest thing as one might assume that students would be

guessing on their assessment. However, since we do not have a lot of varying data to pull from

(five in the first lesson, and three from the second) it is hard to discern how effective the teaching

from each lesson was. However, looking closer at the actual assessment questions themselves, it

is easy to tell that student learning was taking place. Additionally, if we look at the student

submissions in the discussion board, it is easy to see that students are recalling knowledge to

answer those questions.

If we look at the individual questions from each lesson, there is clear evidence that most

students are learning from the lesson, but maybe the questions in the assessment need to be

reviewed as they might be too difficult. In the second assessment, the first question asks students

what the first flute was made of. This question had one throw away answer and two serious

answers with only one being correct. The one throw away answer is Mr. Ruth’s Goatee, and the

two serious answers are plastic and bone. The correct answer was bone, but considering only

seven of the twelve students answered correctly, the question must not have been taught

thoroughly enough or students were too confused between plastic and bone. This same concept

could be applied to all the other questions between both assessments. What I mean by this is that

maybe the standard deviation of my assessments could be shortened by further giving the

students more in-depth knowledge of the material on the test. On the other hand, maybe the

questions could be made easier so the questions aren’t as confusing so students have more of a

chance to succeed.
 On the other hand, there were some questions from the first assessment where students

answered them all correctly. This means that students were properly supplied for their

assessment and had no confusion. In the first assessment, this was the case for two of the

questions. Although these questions were about their homemade instrument, students still needed

to make a percussion instrument with household materials as well as describe what part of the

instrument is vibrating. This was not easy, especially as the rubric used to grade these questions

was very in depth about how they described both of these processes. So, on this front of the

assessment, I can believe my teaching to the students prepared them to successfully answer these

questions.

Professional Reflection

Teaching these lessons to this group of elementary school students was very insightful.

Although I’ve observed many elementary classes throughout my professional education career, I

have never taught one. Additionally, with the exception of observations, I have not been in an

elementary classroom since I was ten years old, which is now eleven years ago. Many things

have changed since I have been a part of one of these classrooms. So, seeing these classrooms in

full swing was very enlightening. In the virtual setting, I was warned by my mentor teacher that

it is very hard to keep the attention of the students since there might be outside distractions

considering they are now learning from home, rather than a controlled environment in a

classroom. With that being said, I tried the most on this front to maintain student attention.

The first thing I learned from teaching these elementary students was to always try and

keep their attention on the screen. However, with the students that have their screens off, this

was a whole different challenge. In a classroom with mostly students with their cameras on,
teachers tend to forget about those with their cameras off. So, when I taught my lessons, I made

an active effort to get students with their cameras off to answer some questions. Most of the

time, I got a response from those students which is good because it means they were paying

attention. However, with the students that didn’t answer my question, I could assume either they

left their device to do something else, or they joined the class, then went back to sleep. More

often than not, this was not the case, I believe most students just have their cameras off because

they have a bad hair day, or are just not in the right mind space to have their cameras on.

Another thing I learned from teaching these lessons, was that my energy level was not up

to the standard it needed to be. But by the end of my first lesson, I felt if got a grasp of what my

personality needed to be. Although I went out of my comfort zone to get there, I felt it was much

more motivating to the students as towards the end of the class, I noticed more and more students

wanted to participate. Additionally from this, I was able to better find my teacher voice and keep

a solid steady pace across my lessons.

The action inquiry project will affect my future teaching endeavors in many ways. For

starters, I learned so much just from two lessons that I feel already that I am ready to student

teach in the spring. Additionally, I can use my research knowledge from action inquiry to further

develop my student learning to become more effective. Using standard deviation will benefit

myself in my lesson building strategies so that I can understand what I can change about my

lesson or the assessment. Action inquiry has provided me with the skills I need in the

professional world to succeed in my own future classroom. Likewise, in the future, this action

inquiry project will help me further reflect upon my professional career. If my future students

appear to be having a difficult time in my lessons, I could use action inquiry to find teaching
strategies through studied research and develop my teaching to adapt to what might work with

my current students. Children are always changing and every student is unique, because of this,

my teaching needs to also be unique in order to acclimate to my students needs and promote their

learning. Because action inquiry helps me reflect on my own teaching, this is why it might

potentially help me in my future happenings.

 Lesson 1

Class: Exploratory Music Grade: Elementary Teacher: Chris Hettenbach

Academic Need(s):

Instrument Family Characteristics

Learner Objective(s):

SWBAT create their own percussion instruments using materials found around their house

SWBAT identify the characteristics of a percussion instrument

SWBAT identify the difference between pitched vs. non-pitched percussion instruments

Essential Question(s) for Enduring Understanding:

How is sound made? What is pitch? How can we tell if a percussion instrument is pitched or

non-pitched? What are 3 ways to play percussion?

Multiple means of engagement:

- Optimize relevance, value, and autonomy – because this class is oriented in educating

students about key basic information in music, this class is crucial to students wanting to

pursue a career related to anything music.

Multiple means of representation:

- Clarify vocabulary and symbols – through this idea, I can and will clarify the vocabulary

covered in the essential questions such as pitch, sound, and the difference between

pitched and non-pitched percussion instruments.

- Illustrate through multiple media – the students will watch videos of homemade

percussion instruments as well as create their own. Students will also have the

opportunity to share their instruments with the class as well as share it in their

assessment.
 - Activate or supply background knowledge – In the first week of school, students learned

what sound is and how it is made, therefore, asking the class what makes sound will

active this background knowledge for this lesson.

Multiple means of action and expression:

- Vary methods of response and navigation – Students will be able to answer questions out

loud or in the chat function in google meets. Additionally, students will have this same

option for the discussion post as well as answer in Schoology.

- Optimize access to tools and assistive technology – Since most students have some issues

accessing videos, I will present them to the class so each student has the capability to

watch at least a short portion of each video.

ASSESSMENT EVIDENCE

(What will students do to show they have learned?)

Formative Assessment(s)

List the materials used to make your instrument

Identify which of your materials are vibrating to make the sound

Think about your materials that were vibrating. How does your instrument fit into the percussion

family?

Describe in your own words how you would group percussion instruments
PLANNING FOR LEARNING

(Learning Activities: Step by Step from start to finish, detailed enough for another teacher to

follow; include time estimates)

1) Greet students as they enter the google meet

2) Have a student read the discussions, one student for each question
3) Allow students time to post their discussions in Schoology and say them aloud our in the

google meet chat

4) Review answers in the chat and Schoology and correct any mistakes

5) Have a student read the learning outcomes, one student for each outcome

6) During the outcomes, briefly discuss what each outcome is supposed to mean and what

the goal for the end of class

7) Direct students’ attention to the Learn About It section of Schoology to watch the

YouTube videos about creative ideas for homemade percussion instruments as well as the

Marble Machine

8) Share my screen to present to students the videos for a short while as to allow students to

understand what they are viewing

9) Allow students 2 minutes to find materials around their house to construct their own

homemade percussion instrument

10) Allow students to share their instruments with the class

 11) Direct students to the assessment and present the screen again and walk through the

assessment with them in order to clear up any questions regarding the assessment or the

lesson in general

12) Allow students 5 minutes to complete the assessment

13) Stay after class 10 minutes for students that still have questions or want to continue

sharing their new homemade instrument

PREPARATION FOR LEARNING

(ie. Materials needed, any special seating arrangements or collaborative learning assignments,

visual aids etc.)

https://youtu.be/S8Cqyi5WxSU

https://youtu.be/IvUU8joBb1Q

Schoology

Google Meet

Homemade percussion instruments

Laptop with microphone and camera

 Lesson 2

Class: Exploratory Music Grade: Elementary Teacher: Chris Hettenbach

Academic Need(s):

Instrument Family Characteristics

Learner Objective(s):

SWBAT create a list of differences between woodwinds and percussion

SWBAT identify the key characteristics of a woodwind instrument

SWBAT reflect upon the brief history of woodwind instruments and respond to them in a

formative assessment

Essential Question(s) for Enduring Understanding:

What are the key characteristics of a woodwind instrument? How are woodwind instruments

different from percussion instruments? Name two woodwind instruments. How do we play

woodwind instruments? How does a woodwind make a sound?

Multiple means of engagement:

- Foster Collaboration and Community – When students are asked to list two woodwind

instruments, other students are encouraged to help their classmate if they are having any

trouble.

- Develop self-assessment and reflection – After students are taught the key characteristics

of a woodwind instrument, they can then use that knowledge to help discern what

instruments fall into the woodwind family

Multiple means of representation:

- Activate or supply background knowledge – Asking students how woodwind instruments

make a sound will activate their background knowledge of knowing how sound is made

through vibrations

- Highlight patterns, critical features, big ideas, and relationships – Although woodwinds

and percussion are very different from one another, students can still draw some

similarities between the two and helping identify these similarities and differences will

further educate students about the different instrument families

Multiple means of action and expression:

- Vary the methods for response and navigation - Students will be able to answer questions

out loud or in the chat function in google meets. Additionally, students will have this

same option for the discussion post as well as answer in Schoology.

- Optimize access to tools and assistive technology – Since most students have some issues

accessing videos, I will present them to the class so each student has the capability to

watch at least a short portion of each video.

ASSESSMENT EVIDENCE

(What will students do to show they have learned?)

Formative Assessment(s)

PLANNING FOR LEARNING

(Learning Activities: Step by Step from start to finish, detailed enough for another teacher to

follow; include time estimates)

1) Greet students as the enter the google meet

2) Ask students to open their Schoology page for exploratory music and once they are there,

open the folder that says Quarter 2, Week 2

3) Once that folder is open, have students open the discussion

4) Have students read the questions in the discussion, one student for each question

5) Allow students some time to answer the discussion in Schoology, out loud in the Google

Meet or in the chat function with Google Meet

6) Once most students have answered the discussion, review answers in the chat and

Schoology and correct any mistakes

7) Direct students’ attention towards the learning outcomes in Schoology

8) Have students read the outcomes, one student per outcome

9) During the outcomes, briefly discuss what each outcome is supposed to mean and what

the goal for the end of class

10) Direct students’ attention to the Learn About It section of Schoology to watch the Brain

Pop Jr video about woodwinds (

11) Share my screen to present to students the video

12) Once the video is over, ask students what they learned or maybe something they already

knew before watching the video

 13) Once the video review is finished, direct students to the Try It section of Schoology

where they will open a reading and learn about the history of woodwind instruments

14) Once the students are aware of how to access the reading, the students will then be shown

the assessment for the class

15) Describe to students that the reading is necessary to their success in the assessment

16) Let students complete their assessment during their asynchronous time

17) Once class is finished, wait in the class for an extra 10 minutes to allow students to ask

their questions about the lesson or assessment so students have a resource they can access

before they are on their own

PREPARATION FOR LEARNING

(ie. materials needed, any special seating arrangements or collaborative learning assignments,

visual aids etc.)

Schoology

Google Meet

Laptop with microphone and camera

Woodwind Week 1.docx

https://jr.brainpop.com/artsandtechnology/music/woodwindinstruments/
 References

Cordero, J., Gil-Izquierdo, M. (2018). The effect of teaching strategies on student achievement:

An analysis using TALIS-PISA-link. Journal of Policy Modeling (1313-1331), 40(6).

Lapp, D., & Kunz, K. (2020). Reflecting on virtual learning: Supports and strategies to continue

teaching and learning growth. Literacy Today (2411-7862), 38(3), 8–10.