FIU

Off-Campus Observation Map

Your Name Cindy Lopez

E-Mail: clope297@fiu.edu
Name of School Zelda Gazer Middle School
Name of Teacher Observed Mrs. De Paz
Observation Date 10/10/14

Town Miami
Class Chorus
Time 1:55pm-3:40pm

State FL
Grade(s) 7th-9th
Date Submitted 10/13/14

Describe the teaching

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

Pictures of rhythm and rest trees, the circles of fifths, scales, and the well known dead white composers around
the room! There was a theater class mixed in with the choir class on this specific day. The chorus kids were, as
described by a their teacher: a melting pot. You have everything from kids with ADHD to asthma and allergies.
Then of course the class clowns,etc. There were only two boys in the classroom and they were the most attentive
ones overall. Mrs. De Paz knew everyone by their name and knew their strengths and weaknesses. From time to
time shed thank kids for doing things the way she wanted them to do it. The fact that it is a magenta program
definitely affects the way the teacher runs her classroom in a positive way.

What were the teachers goals

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

The teachers goals were to work towards improving repertoire for November concert. She held auditions during
class time in which she had the students rate one another based on musicality, tonality,and character (given
that more than half the students did not know what these things were). She ultimately makes the decision on
who made it into the show. To work on the ensembles blending issue, she plans on working on their
individuality more.

What teaching/rehearsal
strategies did you see? What
was the learning sequence?

Had a microphone for whenever class was too loud. Echo teaching music instead of sight reading it or at least
looking at sheet music. No sight reading or use of any solfeggio whatsoever. No warm-ups using any scale. The
rehearsal strategy most present was teacher-centered, where the students would just mimic anything (pitches,
rhythms,etc.) the teacher did or sang, without truly understanding the material. Mrs. De Paz also spent a big
chunk of time repeating things until the kids got it right, even if this meant sacrificing other activities.

What would you do differently?

What was missing from the lesson?

If I see that blend is a problem with my ensemble, I would use warm-ups and exercises that work on solving the
issue, instead of working more on their individual voices, which just adds to the problem in my opinion. To me,
solfeggio was the most important thing missing from this lesson. There was this one specific portion of the class
time in which they rehearsed one of their pieces without ever using the sheet music. If I see that my students
dont know any solfeggio, I would immediately start working on singing scales and getting them familiarized with
it from the get go, because in the long run, it will make the process of learning new music much faster.

What evidence did you

observe that would
indicate that the learning
goals were met?

Mrs. De Paz would not move to the next activity until she was satisfied with the current one. Even if this meant
cutting some of her plan. In this way, she made sure that the goals for that specific activity was met. I could
clearly hear the students improving their sound as time passed by, but was afraid that the they had worked on
the same portions of the song on previous classes because they are not really understanding the material.

What evidence of critical

thinking, critical feeling and/or
critical action did you see?

I witnessed the students listening back to their recordings and evaluating their own performance on whether
they heard specific sections or people sticking out of the group. They also evaluated their classmates concert
auditions based on musicality, tonality,and character.

What National Standards did

you see?

How did students engage in

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

Describe a "teachable
moment" that you might have
witnessed.

1.Singing, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music.

7.Evaluating music and music performances.

Students were more focused in the listening portion of the class time. They all were allowed to record with their
phones the two songs they performed in class, then listen back to it with their individual headphones, and
critique their performance. I think this would have worked even better if she had recorded it herself and played
back the recording through a sound system instead of having them using their cellphones as recording devices.

When one of the students kept messing up her audition for the November concert because she kept laughing at
her friends face who was sitting in the audience, the teacher used this a teachable moment to teach kids where
to look when performing with lots of nerves. She had both the theater and choir students give out suggestions to
the girl auditioning on where they look when they audition for plays and shows.. Their responses ranged from
above the peoples heads to imagining your audience in their underwear. I thought the teacher did a great job in
taking this opportunity to give a solution to kids who are afraid of making eye contact during auditions.

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

 I would work on blend rather than on their individual voices if I know blend is an issue for my choir.
I would use solfeggio and sight singing, which in the long run will help my students learn new music
quicker and the teacher wont have to pound notes on piano every single class.
Also, I would work on making transitions smoother to avoid chaos in between activities.
I would not use the students personal cellphones as recording devices, because the phones create
distractions and students may be pretending to do their work while they are actually just texting.

What is your overall assessment of this teacher, the students and the lesson/rehearsal?
The rehearsal was very loud! There were a lot of dry transitions where the kids were just told what to do and
they talked while they prepared for the activity. A lot of verbal directions and a few memorable quotes: Stop
saying sorry, you are only sorry if you fix it! and Yes it is hard, life is hard so get used to it.
As I read Teaching in a Student-Centered Music Classroom by Deborah V. Blair, I realized Mrs. De Pazs class
is a perfect example of an uninformative teacher-center classroom where kids do exactly as they are told by
their teacher without really internalizing information and understanding how their part fits within the musical
whole.