Katie Appl

Secondary Case Study

Hunter is a senior student at BG high school and is eighteen years old. He lives

with both of his parents and has two younger siblings. His younger siblings are twins

(boy and girl) and are freshmen. Both of his siblings look up to him as a role model,

especially his younger brother. The younger sister keeps both of her brothers organized

and on time for school and activities. The family is considered to be in the middle class,

and his father is a member of the BG school board. Both of his parents were musicians in

high school and encourage their children to stay involved in band and choir. Hunter sings

in the high school choir and plays euphonium and tuba in the concert band. He also plays

trombone in the high school jazz band. Hunter is one of the top musicians in the high

school; he has earned many honors including All State Choir, SD Honor Choir, Regional

Honor Choir, and a participant in the SDSU Honor Recital.

As a senior who will soon be graduating, Hunter is experiencing the challenges in

Erikson’s identity versus role confusion stage. Although he has chosen his college and

major, he is still considering if he wants to pursue music as a minor or additional major.

The college he has chosen is six miles away from his high school. Most students at the

school and surrounding area choose this school without thoroughly researching other

possibilities. As someone new to the region, I am unsure if his college choice was based

on his major and opportunities or if it fits the expectations and traditions of students from

the school.

Throughout his education, Hunter has displayed natural music abilities and has

become an advanced singer and instrumentalist. However, as his final high school
semester reaches its end, he will occasionally pull his focus and attention away from the

class and simply ‘go through the motions.’ In the past, we could rely on him to lead band

sectionals, but recently, I have entered the sectionals and the students have been sitting

around and talking. As I offered suggestions for the section, he began to lead the

sectionals again.

There is a difficult double-tonguing section for the low brass in the Sousa march.

Hunter has developed this skill, but the rest of the low brass section has not developed

double-tonguing yet. The majority of the low brass section is comprised of freshmen;

they are strong musicians for their age, but this is the hardest music they have

encountered. When working with the section, Hunter becomes easily frustrated with the

others for not picking up the double-tonguing immediately and will eventually stop

working the other students. Although he sets a great musical example, his attitude may

start to have a negative impact on the rest of the section. The teacher and I have worked

with the other students on this section in order to boost their confidence and provide them

with more learning opportunities. In order to improve the accountability of student-led

sectionals, we assign each section a specific part of the music to perform and what the

focus needs to be. The section records their first play-through, listens and evaluates their

recording, describes what they need to work on, practice, and then record a final version.

This method not only holds the student leaders like Hunter accountable, but it also keeps

the rest of the section more focused and goal-driven during the rehearsal.

In choir, Hunter exhibits his flexibility by being willing to sing tenor, baritone, or

bass as needed by the piece or the choir’s abilities. Again, he is a student leader in the

choir. Earlier this semester, Hunter was having some difficulty managing his extra music
for auditions, solo/ensemble contest, Festival of Men’s Voices, and Regional Honor

Choir. We found extra times to meet with him outside of class. We had to pull his solo

for contest because he was not prepared. Occasionally in choir, Hunter will shut down

and choose to not participate in class. When we ask him to join in, he will usually use a

loud and somewhat obnoxious tone to draw attention. We have found it more effective to

ignore this behavior and give positive reinforcement to students who are appropriately

participating because we do not want to reward him for singing the correct notes if he is

purposefully using an obnoxious tone. When we use this response, he will typically not

repeat the tone for the rest of the class period.

Because he is a standout musician in the BG music department, Hunter has

developed the belief that his musical abilities are superior. He does not readily accept

feedback from his teacher or adjudicators. In band class, most of the other students are

very willing to hear feedback and improve on their skills and musical abilities. When I

work with him on a more individual basis, he is more willing to take my advice. He does

not always verbally respond during these times, but he does make the adjustments in his

playing. This response has made me believe that his behavior in class is because he does

not want the other students to know that he still has room for improvement. For many

students, the demands and challenges of college force them to take the extra step to

improve their work ethic. I truly believe that Hunter has the potential to be successful in

college and his future endeavors if he strengthens and develops his time management

skills, ability to receive feedback, positive demeanor, and patience.