6th Grade Band Letter Writing

It has been a goal of my current district to integrate writing in meaningful ways in every class. I took this challenge to heart and decided that I was going to have my students in 6th grade band write letters to college professors from Iowa that teach their instrument. That being said, I wrote to nearly every college applied or music education professor at a majority of the colleges and universities to see if students would receive replies.

This began with student reading the professor's biographies, and developing answers to some questions like:

• Name
• Educational Background
• Places taught
• Instrument played 
• Locations played

After this - we formulated letters based on this information. Students wrote questions about the above items and it has raised some of the best writing I have seen. I have found that students that play an instrument I don't regularly play, ask their professor pen pals questions related to their instruments, asking for help and guidance in playing their instruments.

After reading through the letters and making revisions, I printed them and the students addressed their own envelopes to the colleges and many of them have been mailed. 

Now we wait... Here's hoping the professors have time to reply! I'm so excited to see what happens in the future!

Thank you to Grinnell College, Wartburg College, Luther College, ISU, UNI, U of Iowa, Drake University, and others. 

More to come!! 

Response to Co-Teaching w/ ELL's

This year I have had the unique opportunity of working with an English Language Learner (ELL) teacher. My teaching load this year has changed to 5/6th grade bands and 7/8th grade choirs. I carpool with our ELL teacher and that got us thinking... How could choir benefit ELL students? My thoughts were that language acquisition could be easier based on assigning pitches to words, teaching proper vowel formations, and working through phonetic language. Fortunately my colleague agreed and she has begun putting ELL students (newcomers) into my grade level choir courses. I cannot tell you how much fun it is, to work on socialization, language development, and music making in a nonjudgmental setting.

The above I share because I have been an Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD) since 2015 and I have found a wealth of information through their magazine Educational Leadership. In their December 2015/January 2016 there is an article entitled, Co-Teaching Ells: RIDING A TANDEM BIKE. In this article the authors, Andrea Honigfeld and Maria G. Dove give some exceptional ways to collaborate and co-teach with ELL teachers. I continually hear from my colleague that ELL students will learn the best through content, however some districts and models take them out of courses like social studies and other courses.

In the article the word trust is mentioned as a fundamental part of co-teaching. Often we see teachers afraid of losing control of their own classroom, but co-teaching can build rapport among colleagues, and ultimately boost student achievement. The article also shares a co-planning framework with is three fold - Pre-planning, Collaborative Planning, and Post-Planning. Each of these may at first seem like more work for the teachers involved, but I would challenge those teachers to look at an opportunity for true collaboration.

Pre-planning is performed by the content area teacher and the ELL teacher separately. This portion involves looking at curriculum, identify content specific vocabulary needed, and prepare with background knowledge needed for success in the upcoming lesson. ELL teachers will look at Core language standards and needs - supplemental materials etc.

Collaborative Planning is when co-teachers come together to finish their parts of the lesson. Objectives are determined, and assessments are planned. During this step roles and responsibilities for the lesson are determined.

Last is the post-planning which is where lesson planning and activity creation will take place. Different tools are found to properly assess diverse learners etc.

What I've noticed in different co-teaching set ups, is that often the ELL or SPED teacher are often there for assistance for their specific students on their rosters. Why don't we change this? I found that in music instruction, when I taught elementary, if I made an accommodation for a student with autism, the accommodation could enhance instruction for all learners. Also, why don't we have constant communication regarding lesson planning and specific curriculum? Are teachers being trained how to properly co-teach?

Since I'm still relatively new to education (almost 5 years), I wonder, how to improve such settings. Since our ELL students in particular learn best through content, wouldn't it only help them reach language goals sooner if thrust into content area learning with scaffolds provided? My you, these are merely musings. I think we could utilize professional learning times from proper collaboration. Through unit planning, teachers would be better able to collaborate with ELL and SPED teachers. It seems so simple, but how can we logistically make it happen?

If you wish to be a member of ASCD and reap the benefits you can reach them here - www.ascd.org

Article -
December 2015/January 2016 | Volume 73 | Number 4 
Co-Teaching: Making It Work Pages 56-60