Critical Thinking Scenerio Rewrite Activity
Rewritten Scenerio:
Playing a musical instrument may not be Mr. Yeung’s forte, but he enjoys listening to music and wants to share that passion with his grade two students. Aside from their regularly scheduled music hour on Fridays, he plays a selection of music every morning when students come into class. Some of these selections are his personal preferences or requests from students, such as music they listen to at home, or the soundtrack from their latest favourite movie. As a way to incorporate geography, he will play music from around the world and hold peer and class discussions on what they are listening to, to investigate the “how?” and “why?” (Wearing, n.d.). Some of the questions students reflect on are, “What instruments are you hearing?” “Which country do you think this music is from and what makes you think so?” “How is this music similar or different from other selections we have listened to?”
Another activity is traditional round songs. Mr. Yeung continues to incorporate global music in these lessons and will mix up his repertoire selection to include works like the Hebrew round “Shalom chaverim” and “Bella Mama” from Torres Straits. He provides historical context to each of these pieces as they learn them. They record their progress to listen back to their performance. Students reflect and make conclusions (Wearing, n.d.), on what they are doing well, what they still have questions on, and what they could do to improve.
The class is learning the recorder and will sightread nursery rhymes as well as simple themes from pop culture music. He has students perform to one another in pairs and offers each student individual and constructive feedback (Case, 2005, p. 49). If there is a piece of feedback that he finds has come up several times, he will share it as a general note to the class. Before the evaluation, students have the opportunity to receive partner and teacher feedback. Students also keep a practice log where they make short-term goals and reflect on steps to achieve them.
While the students learn recorder, Mr. Yeung begins to rent another woodwind instrument, the clarinet, to learn for his own professional development. He is open about his learning experiences with his class, how to apply the growth mindset to their practice, and emphasizes how we are all learners.
For their Winter concert, the class will vote on their favourite piece they have learned that year to perform, rather than stick to traditions and playing “Jingle Bells”. The class is informed on the decision-making process and does so collaboratively (Wearing, n.d.). Students are generally excited to perform with their classmates after having learned the power of performing in an ensemble. Students find themselves forming friendships and positive relationships with their peers from these collaborative, community experiences where they work towards a common goal (Case & Balcaen, 2008, p. 89).
To pull away from more familiar methods that he is comfortable with, (Wearing, n.d.), Mr. Yeung watches music education Youtube channels. He shares the interesting and sometimes comedic videos with his class so that they can discuss how music is interdisciplinary. Students use the interactive notation softwares BandLab and Beepbox to learn composition and music theory. Not all of these activities are for summative assessment. As Music is a subjective discipline, Mr. Yeung does not mark based solely on whether or not students are playing the correct notes. A mix of critically thoughtful (Case, 2013, p. 200), assessment as, of, and for learning approaches are used throughout the year. Mr. Yeung recognizes progress and effort in his students. He teaches the tools and supports student learning (Case, 2005, p. 48). He takes into account the practice journals, peer and class discussions, and self-reflections that the students engage in (Wearing, n.d.).
Original Scenerio:
Mr. Yeung is not particularly keen on teaching music as he feels he is not very gifted in this area. He does not play any instruments and could not begin to guess what composing is about, but he enjoys listening to music very much. He wants his grade 2 students to feel likewise. So, he takes an hour every Friday afternoon for music. He plays music from around the world, while students listen at their desks. He feels this is important for teaching multiple perspectives, which is important for his class which is quite multicultural. He does pop quizzes so students remember the names of the countries that the music is from, as a way to teach geography. Another favourite activity is traditional round songs, like row, row, row your boat. He assigns each row of his class a line of the song, and records the result so the class can hear what they sound like. He also asks every student to purchase a recorder, and they learn to read music for simple songs like Mary Had a Little Lamb. Students demonstrate their skill at playing the song in front of the class, and then he gives public feedback to point out where the mistakes were as he feels this helps other students learn to not make the same mistakes. Mr. Yeung gives students their mark in Music based on how much effort the students have put in, how well they remember the names of the songs and bands he has played them from around the world, and also how accurately they follow the notes during their recorder performance. Mr. Yeung’s class always performs in the Christmas show, held every December. They usually do Jingle Bells, a crowd favourite.
References Case, R. (2005). Bringing critical thinking to the main stage. Education Canada, 45(2), 45-49.
Case, R. (2013). The Unfortunate Consequences of Bloom's Taxonomy. Social Education, 77(4), 196-200.
Case, R., & Balcaen, P. (2008). “Supporting a community of critical thinkers.” In: Case, R. &
Clark, P. (Eds.). The Anthology of Social Studies: Issues and Strategies for Elementary
Educators, Pacific Educational Press, Vancouver.
Wearing, J. (n.d.). Teaching Strategies for Critical Thinking Learning Activities. Faculty of
Education, Queen’s University.
Toronto, September 2020
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