Developing assessment and lesson planning methods for percussion instruction

¶ … Teaching Portfolio

I am a percussion teacher, and I instruct classes of various sizes in a range of drumming techniques. My students a very diverse in terms of ages and backgrounds, and my classes can include up to twelve students. Some classes focus on group forms of percussion, such as drumming circles, which require skills for both individual and group drumming.

My teaching gradually evolved from my own practice in percussion and music. While I was not formally trained in teaching, as I work with more students, I am quickly developing a deeper understanding of the importance of teaching theories, curriculum planning, and proper assessment.

In this teaching portfolio I aim to first, summarize the feedback I have regarding my lesson planning presentation of material. Over the course of preparing this portfolio I have researched additional teaching and assessment methods, and I will outlined my preferred approaches. Finally, I will summarize my goals and plans to implement these methods into my classes over the upcoming semester.

Observation and Assessment Feedback

The most recent observations and evaluations of my teaching practices were conducted during a seven-week course I instructed at NSCM (?). The assessor's observations and comments were very consistent with my own view of my teaching practice. The strengths he noted were my natural rapport with students and my ability to get my students to work and perform together as a group. I do a great deal of teaching by first modeling skills and then asking the group to practice the skill. I consistently assess the students' progress by requesting individual performance of skills as well as group demonstrations.

My teaching methods normally follow a pattern in which I model a skill and students try to replicate it. I've been encouraged to call on more advanced pupils in the class to model skills or to use a class member to help model or teach the skill. This would offer some variety in the instruction and engage the students in the teaching and learning process.

As evidenced from the attached evaluation documents, my class planning and assessment methods need to be more carefully planned out, with a more detailed schedule for the lesson and specific outcomes that I am assessing.

Future Goals and Objectives

Through the completion of my portfolio and self-assessments I've encountered a great deal of new information and ideas that I plan to integrate into my teaching methods over the next six months. First, one concept that is summarized quite well by Stevens (2003) is to strengthen my role as a facilitator of my drumming groups. First, I want to ensure that I not only continuously employ formative assessment techniques, but I want to make sure that I can also evaluate teaching and learning successes but factors other than the solely the quality of music. I aim to strike a fine balance between solid skills acquisition and encouraging self-expression. Since self-expression is so vital in my area of percussion, I am committed to striking a careful balance between the two. In addition, Stevens (2003) summarizes the "80/20 rule," which states that students in recreational music classes typically prefer to have classes that offer lessons and instructions for about 20% of the time and an opportunity to practice drumming for the other 80% of the time. I hope to design my course structure so our classes will begin with a short review, followed by a new skill, and then offer open practice, games, and group activities that allow for a good deal of drumming practice.

As I continue to strengthen and fine-tune my teaching techniques I plan to spend more time outlining lesson plans for my seven-week courses. In particular I hope to have an outline that summarizes each of the class activities and the exact learning outcome. I want to engage students more, so I plan to ask them more questions and involve them in the presentation of new material by using call and response and games that review the previous week's skills. My organization and structuring of class time needs some improvement, but I realize that investing time in writing thorough lesson plans will allow me to attempt some new approaches and evalauate which ones work the best for me and my students. I am fortunate in that I typically teach 7-9-week courses, and, thus, after one session ends I am able to start over with a new group and implement new ideas or modify activities and lessons that work well.

My coursework has also given me an interest in finding a teaching mentor who can observe my classes and instructional methods. Ideally I would like to find someone who teaches percussion because the teaching and learning methods are unique. The informal nature of many of my teaching positions has given me very little opportunity to receive observation and assessments of my teaching, and because I typically do a good deal of my work alone, I have not had close mentoring. I hope to attend some beginner and intermediate percussion classes in both recreational and school-based settings to complete observations regarding their instructional design and teaching methods. I am now more confident that I can enter a classroom well-prepared to make useful observations that will provide me with new teaching ideas and others with helpful feedback.