Examples Of Observation In To Kill A Mockingbird

I went to observe the preschoolers with Dr. Whitcomb and another student and also got to observe her teaching the children in class. Dr. Whitcomb used activities that involved movement, instrument exploration and call and response to foster basic music competence. Activities like Shake Your Egg were chosen to expose the children to music and get them to do things along with the song. I taught Jack Be Nimble so that the children could get exposure to a meter other than common time. Walk and Stop and Gallop were also a few of the other lessons that were taught to teach things like walking to a steady beat or improvising different movements to songs.
Dr. Whitcomb presented the musical material by simply starting the song. She never really said out loud what the children were learning at the time because it was not necessary for the students at this age. The students responded positively to all of the songs and seemed to understand each concept that was being taught; especially the movement ones. Dr. Whitcomb modeled musicianship skills by modeling a good singing voice to the children. She sung in the children’s range, which is important for younger children,
especially. She also had very clear cues and cut offs. All of the children knew how to follow her lead and the way she sung the songs or used props always made sense. I noticed that because the older children were familiar with some of the songs and Dr. Whitcomb, they were able to sing along. They did not always know what they were singing, but if they did not, they swayed or tried to hum along.
Before I had seen the children, I had no idea what to expect.
I did not realize that the children would be able to sing whole songs and did not think they would have them memorized. I also did not think that they would be so active and involved in the dancing and movement songs. Once I actually observed the preschoolers, I found very quickly that the older ones knew exactly what they were doing. If the teacher sung to them, a lot of them were willing to sing back in their singing voice. The older toddlers surprised me, too. Some of them sang and some of them did not. They did not always get the movements that went along with the songs, but a lot of them tried and some of them were successful. The older toddlers were able to get sol mi patterns sometimes. I did not think that some of them would be willing to
sing.
The pace of the music lesson was very quick and one flowed smoothly right into another. Once one song ended it seemed like another lesson was starting. I think that this pace was chosen because there was only so much time that we got to spend with each group of children and since they were so young, if there was any time left for them to not do anything, their attention would be lost. I thought that moving the lesson along was effective, though, because it allowed for the most musical experiences with the children. I taught Jack Be Nimble to the children. This was really memorable because I got to interact with the children. If I could go back and reteach it to the same children, I would focus on my musicianship skills. I think that my cues could have been a little better and I also could have involved the students in the lesson more, especially with the older toddlers. I did not realize that they would have been able to interact as well, unlike the younger toddlers, so I did not ask for their input. I just gave them all of the answers to the song and had them do the movements with me. I thought that my teaching persona was authentic, though. I was not being fake with the children. I was genuinely enjoying myself so I was smiling and I thought that it was clear that I liked being there and teaching them, so I would do that similarly.