Classroom Observation: Elementary General Music

​I think my experience at Stone Spring Elementary school was one of the best classrooms I have observed this semester. Their focus today was on rhythms, and at the end of class they worked on solfege.  The started off with music and the students stood in a circle and figured out the “big beats” of different songs. This was a good exercise because it showed that they could find the tempo in a song and keep a consistent beat with the music.  What I liked about Mrs. Miragliotta is how many different games she had to keep the students engaged.  They students loved singing while they were playing games. However, I think sometimes  the students were more focused on the games and running and having a turn that they would forget the singing. The teacher was very patient throughout the whole class, especially at the end when they were getting restless and their attention was wavering.  The class and the students were able to hear rhythms and given choices pick out which was the correctly written rhythm.  They were also given the choice of two very close rhythms and the teacher would clap one rhythm and they would have to determine which of the rhythms it was.  They were also able to hear solfege and repeat it back to the teacher. I think this is very good for a third grade class because when they were focused and listening they were able to distinguish between different rhythms easily. Another exercise the teacher did that I think was awesome was they all sat in a big circle and it started with them just repeating the teachers rhythms, however, then they were able to make up their own rhythms that the whole class had to repeat.
            One thing I didn’t realize was just how many activities the teacher has to come up with for each class. Since student’s attention spans, especially in younger children, are short you have to change up activities to keep them engaged. Also, a lot of the activities involved moving or some sort of body engagement because have the students moving and doing something.
            Overall Mrs. Miragliotta was a very engaging teacher. She had various activities that engaged the students and helped them understand rhythms, distinguish between different rhythms, and they were able to repeat solfege. She was very patient when her students lost their focus, and got them back on track.  This practicum was very informed, and offered a different approach to teaching general music then I went through in Elementary school, and have experienced before.