FIU

Off-Campus Observation Map

Your Name: Constanza de la Fuente

E-Mail: cdela119@fiu.edu
Name of School : Shenandoah Middle Middle School

Town: Miami

State: FL

Name of Teacher Observed: Mr. Reyes

Class: Band

Grade(s): 7th and 8th graders

Observation Date: November 21st, 2014

Time: 7:00 AM

Date Submitted: November 24, 2014

Describe the teaching environment.

Who are the children? Who is the
teacher? How might the school
environment impact what happens
in the classroom?

The classroom looked old, and bit disorganized, but certainly you could notice at a first glimpse that it is
a music classroom. There was an old upright piano, two sets of drums by the entrance of the room, chairs
by the walls, a closet where the teacher was keeping small instruments such as tambourines, triangles,
and other percussion instruments, violins, electric guitars, and many books and sheets of paper. The
teacher is an older man that has been teaching at the school for many years. The school does not seem to
have the best wall and floor maintenance, but it is an old school that seems to be keeping the students in
a comfortable manner

What were the teachers goals for

the class/ensemble? How did
she/he act on those?

The teacher did not seem to have any goals for his class, because he just seemed to be going through the
class without a plan that would help the students in a long term period.

What teaching/rehearsal strategies

did you see? What was the
learning sequence?

He would make the students fix their playing right at the moment where they would play it wrong.
He would tell them how to fix the problem. There did not seem to be a learning sequence since he would
just tell them how to fix it, but would not explain why it should be fixed that way.

What would you do differently?

What was missing from the lesson?

The teacher wasted a lot of time trying to be too friendly with his students by cracking jokes and making
funny faces, by making them tune many times. What I would do differently is that I would spend a whole
class teaching the students about tuning their instruments, what it means to tune, teach them about
rhythms, which was also an issue in class, and not joke around so much during the class time, so the next
classes we can continue playing the repertoire without having to fix the same things over and over.

What evidence did you observe that

would indicate that the learning
goals were met?

Unfortunately I do not think that there were any goals to achieve in the class, other than playing certain
pieces as a band, and for that the teacher would simply make his students play while he would also play
(the trumpet) with his class.

What evidence of critical thinking,

critical feeling and/or critical action
did you see?

Students were struggling to tune at the beginning of the class, and they also were trying to figure out
how to play dotted rhythms.

What National Standards did you

see?

Performing on instruments, along with others.

How did students engage in the

classroom? What was happening
at the time when students were
really focused?

There was a student that would make funny comments in the class time, which I thought it was turning
inappropriate since it was wasting class time. Other students would not play their parts, and others
would do very well as if they had practiced their parts accordingly. There seemed to be a lot of variety in
regards to playing and rehearsal manners. When students were really focused they would stay quiet and
pay attention to what the teacher was saying in regards to tuning and rhythm.

Describe a "teachable moment" that

you might have witnessed.

The teacher would kindly explain to the students what they were doing wrong, and what they had to do
in order to fix the problem with their playing. Once the students did what he said, it would sound much
better.

What constructive comments might you make about this lesson/rehearsal?

The teacher needs to be more careful with how he spends his class time. It seems that the class time seems to be based on the same things such
as tuning and rhythms, so maybe more variety could help the class performance and the amount of teaching the students get about basic theory
such as scales, how tuning works, how to read music rhythms that go beyond the basic quarter and half notes.
What is your overall assessment of this teacher, the students and the lesson/rehearsal?
The teacher seems to be falling into a daily routine that teaches the same thing to the students every day. It was a demotivation being in his
class, so that leaves a lot to think about his teaching methods. The students need to put more effort in the class. And the rehearsal time is
inefficient as of now.