Edtpa Pfa Instruction Commentary

K-12 Performing Arts
Task 2: Instruction Commentary
TASK 2: INSTRUCTION COMMENTARY

Respond to the prompts below (no more than 6 single-spaced pages, including prompts) by typing your responses within the
brackets following each prompt. Do not delete or alter the prompts. Commentary pages exceeding the maximum will not be
scored. You may insert no more than 2 additional pages of supporting documentation at the end of this file. These pages
may include graphics, texts, or images that are not clearly visible in the video or a transcript for occasionally inaudible portions.
These pages do not count toward your page total.
1. Which lesson or lessons are shown in the video clips? Identify the lesson(s) by lesson plan
number.
[ The first Video clip is from Lesson Plan #2. Video clip #2 is from Lesson Plan #4. ]
2.
Promoting a Positive Learning Environment

Refer to scenes in the video clips where you provided a positive learning environment.
a. How did you demonstrate mutual respect for, rapport with, and responsiveness to
students with varied needs and backgrounds, and challenge students to engage in
learning?
[ In both videos, I encourage student responses and ideas. I think it is very important to always
refer to students by name to show respect for each person. Rapport is demonstrated through
kind, courteous interactions. At 0:50 of Video #1, you hear me ask the whole class to take a
vote on the bowing. In this way, I am showing the class that I value the opinions of all and I will
go with the majority of the class in this case. Later, when the whole class is playing the G major
scale at 3'40, some students start to finish the scale by descending and others continue to
ascend to the second octave. Instead of reprimanding students for not listening to my directions
(just play one octave), I acknowledged that the students did different things but said that it was
okay because the goal of playing the ostinato went correctly. This example of responsiveness
is echoed in Video #2, when I give the entire class a chance to play their ostinato if they'd like.
This illustrates mutual respect as well; I expect them to play my ostinato, and they can expect
that I will play theirs with the whole class. Additionally, I am creating a welcoming space for
students to showcase their creativity; everyone can come up with an ostinato and share it, and
as long as it is a pattern that can be repeated by the class, it is a superb contribution.
Also in Video #2, when we were sharing our own ostinatos, I recognized that the students
needed some help playing their ostinatos so I invited all students to help me keep a steady beat.
When the last student needed some help playing his, I walked near to him to see what kind of
rhythm he was trying to play (see Video #2 from 5'50-6'00). Instead of playing his correctly
myself or telling him loudly, You played it wrong!, I quietly gave him a tip on how to play the
quarter notes longer to achieve his desired effect. I didn't want to discourage him when I saw
that he was a little frustrated that he couldn't play it exactly right on the first try. With this gentle
coaching, he was able to play it for the class and we successfully guessed and played his
ostinato too. Through this example in particular, the class understands that I believe that each
student's contributions are valued and worthwhile. While some may have more difficulty
expressing their ideas, it is just as important (if not more!) to help them convey their creativity.
In order to challenge students, I enlisted their help in playing each other's ostinati and even
replicating the rhythm patterns after hearing them briefly.
A final fun and challenging moments happens at the end of Video #2 (see 7'00 and after), when
I challenge the students to attempt to play this song from memory! One student is comfortable
enough with me to ask if I am holding myself accountable to the same standard, asking at 7'30
if I have my score in front of me. When I assure the students that I am conducting without a
score, there are audible gasps and one student even says WHOA! as they admire that I am
Copyright 2015 Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University.
1 of 5 | 6 pages maximum
All rights reserved.
V4_0915
The edTPA trademarks are owned by The Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University. Use of the edTPA trademarks is
permitted only pursuant to the terms of a written license agreement.

fully engaged and with the students in this new challenge. I illustrate my commitment to
learning with them and challenging myself to new heights as I demand more of them.
Overall, I make a strong effort to incorporate positive, encouraging language and thus help all of
the students to engage in learning as they try to accomplish new concepts in each lesson. ]
3. Engaging Students in Learning
Refer to examples from the video clips in your responses to the prompts.
a. Explain how your instruction engaged students in developing and applying
knowledge/skills (e.g., tools/instruments, technical proficiencies, processes,
elements, organizational principles)
contextual understandings (e.g., social, cultural, historical, global, personal
reflection), AND/OR
artistic expression (e.g., interpretation, creativity, exploration/improvisation, individual
choices).
[ In the first video clip, the focus from that lesson is the acquisition of a difficult bowing skill.
Instead of jumping straight to the difficult bowing at performance speed, I engaged students by
starting with what they knew well the simple notes and rhythms at a slower tempo. Over the
next few lessons we will increase the speed in order to lead the students to a more difficult skill,
as seen in the second video. By the end of the warm-up in Video #1, the students were not
proficient by any means at the new bowing skill. However, they gained a new idea of the
process behind learning the bowing and how to perform it. Next, we put the technical skill into
the context of the piece. Even though I did not show this in the video (because of inadvertent
references to the school name), the next part of Lesson plan #2 contained our application of this
bowing skill to the playing test portions and by extension, to our performance of the entire
Ukrainian Bell Carol piece.
A glimpse of the students' own exploration of ostinati took place in the second video. Here, the
concept of creating our own ostinati took place in an environment where students were free to
improvise and offer up their own individual choices as they wrote their own rhythms. They had
all been exposed to examples of ostinati in the Ukrainian Bell Carol piece, and in this lesson
they were challenged to use those experiences to inform their creations of their own musical
ideas. While they were guided through this process, all students were given the chance to
make choices within a framework of three or four beats, featuring quarter notes, eighth notes,
sixteenth notes, and corresponding rests. The students' progress is illustrated based on the
evidence comparing the first day of the segment (where the students had never heard of an
ostinato) to Video #2 (Lesson 4), showing the students' very own ostinato creations. ]
b. Describe how your instruction linked students prior academic learning and personal,
cultural, and community assets with new learning.
[ In the first few lessons, students were able to apply their prior knowledge of playing string
instruments generally in tune and with mostly correct bowings. The students had a few
rehearsals using the music first, to start learning their notes. Using this basic performance
ability as a baseline, my instruction could then catalyze new learning with related vocabulary
words and concepts, a focus on a specific bowing, and even give them a chance to demonstrate
their ability using a formal playing test assessment. After learning the basic pieces of the
puzzle, students could then create their own ostinati and improvise with them as well. While all
of these musical learning objectives were happening, other elements were creating layers of
comprehensive learning on top of it all.

V4_0915

The cultural aspect of this piece was definitely a large part of the lessons. Although this was
not showed in any videos, I wanted to highlight how the entire piece was put into a new cultural
context for the students in Lesson #5. After the students learned to play their individual parts in
the first four lessons, the song took on a new meaning when Ukrainian-born parents were
invited to come speak about the folk music of the Ukraine and more background on our specific
piece. In order for this connection to be made, the students had to spend considerable time on
their notes, rhythms, and bowings as shown in the videos. Thus, they could appreciate more
deeply the cultural consciousness that was involved in the composition. I am sure many
students had some prior understanding of Ukrainian culture, no matter how basic; they knew
that some fellow students had Ukrainian heritage and many students knew that Ukraine is in
Europe. For the parents to come to the class and showcase the music, art, and hand-sewn
costumes of their country brought a whole new level of understanding for the whole class.
From the second lesson where we looked at a picture of traditional Ukrainian dress to watching
a choir sing the song in Ukrainian all the way to the final lesson where parents were invited to
come speak about their experiences as immigrants from the Ukraine, there were many
opportunities for students to encounter and engage with the true culture behind the music.
Personal learning took place as each student was accountable for their own practice in
preparation for the formal playing test assessment. Students took the information and music
home, practiced, and then performed for a video-recording. Later, their creativity was given a
chance to shine when all students wrote their own rhythmic ostinatos and when the entire class
got a chance to participate and play each others' creations. When the orchestra performs this
piece later in December, the students will not just be playing notes off of a page. Rather, all
their experiences with the culture and compositional techniques will combine for a holistic
performance of the music and all the connotations it carries. ]
4. Deepening Student Learning during Instruction
Refer to examples from the video clips in your explanations.
a. Explain how you evoked student performances and/or responses to support
students development and application of knowledge/skills, contextual understandings,
and/or artistic expression.
[ The class responds as a group in Video #1 to acquire the new skill of the difficult bowing, but in
my opinion, the real encouragement of student performances happens in Video #2. Barely a
minute of class is spent while I demonstrate my ostinato, and the rest of the video is dedicated
to the student performances of their own creative ideas. Although time does not permit every
student to share their ostinato idea in the large class format, all students are engaged
throughout the class period in a variety of ways. All students are challenged in their aural
listening skills as they hear the others' performances and try to replicate the rhythm in notation
and/or on their instrument when all students are given the chance to try the ostinati together.
While all students who share are recognized for their bravery and individual creativity, they are
also able to evaluate their ideas as they compare to others in the class. This does not happen
in a tense competitive manner, but a relaxed and comfortable let's try this new expression
environment. ]
b. Explain how you used modeling, demonstrations, and/or content examples to develop
students knowledge/skills, contextual understandings, and/or artistic expression for
creating, performing, or responding to music/dance/theater.
[ In both videos you can see when I pick up a violin to show how I want the students to play their
instruments. I am consistently modeling good posture and position, as well as other goals such
as how to get the best sound or how to play an ostinato. In Video #1, I start the lesson with
modeling and ask the students to play as I do.
V4_0915

In Video #2, we began our ostinato adventure with a model of my own creation. I played a
rhythm on the violin that used some of the same ideas as our music, had the students play it
with me using a scale, and then wrote the rhythm pattern on the board. By modeling what I
wanted, I showed the students how I used prior knowledge and context to develop my own
ostinato. Students already had been thinking about ostinati of their own, and some students
were ready to share theirs with the class when I gave the opportunity. As mentioned earlier, the
last student to share had some difficulty playing with the correct rhythm that he himself came up
with. I had to try a few times to help him play it right, starting with a more general directive to
play it again in the hopes that he would fix it himself. When it became clear he was having
trouble interpreting his own rhythm on his instrument, I changed my tactic and unobtrusively
went over to him to see if I could offer some quick advice for his playing. I said I think you're
getting there, is it 3 beats or 4 beats and then gently reminded him at 5'50 to play the quarter
notes with more bow so they would last longer in the pattern.
At the seven-minute mark of Video #2, we wrapped up our exploration of student-created
ostinati and I told the students how THEY could be composers of songs like the Ukrainian Bell
Carol by working more with their compositional ideas. Although they did not immediately get to
try composing their own songs (because I don't think that would be an appropriate challenge for
this class considering their current level of musicianship), their contextual understanding was
raised to the next level as they considered how musical compositions are put together.]
5. Analyzing Teaching
Refer to examples from the video clips in your responses to the prompts.
a. What changes would you make to your instructionfor whole class and/or for students
who need greater support or challengeto better support student learning of the central
focus (e.g., missed opportunities)?
Consider the variety of learners in your class who may require different
strategies/support (e.g., students with IEPs or 504 plans, English language learners,
struggling readers, underperforming students or those with gaps in academic
knowledge, and/or gifted students).
[ I think one area that I would improve was the format of student-shared ostinati in the second
video. When the first student began to play hers, I realized that it was very difficult to discern
her rhythm because I, along with everyone else in the class, probably had a different concept of
how fast she was playing. Therefore I made the change of having the whole class provide a
metronome by clapping a steady beat for her to play for. Next time, I think something I could
do is specify how the students could share their ostinati in a different way to help everyone hear
it in rhythm. For example, the student sharing could set their own tempo by counting a full
measure (ex: 1 2 3 4 ) before playing their idea.
Also, another option to support student learning for some who have difficulty reading and
performing is for students to write down their ostinato ideas and then exchange with their stand
partner. Then, higher-performing students could perform the ostinati of their stand partner who
may have had a great idea but lacked the skill to play it successfully. Alternatively, I could offer
students tasks of varying complexity in order to allow higher performing students to demonstrate
the application of the ostinato idea to something more than just one measure. This change is
directly in line with the research of many who explored the benefits of Differentiated Instruction.
In particular I am thinking of the work of Carol Tomlinson in her 1995 article, and Pearl Subban's
Differentiated Instruction: A research basis which both delineate how teaching a concept in
many ways (and allowing students to be assessed in a variety of ways) can increase true
learning in many educational models. ]

V4_0915

Why do you think these changes would improve student learning? Support your
explanation with evidence of student learning AND principles from theory and/or
research.
[ First of all I will address the idea of the student acting as their own metronome before they
played their ostinato. I believe this would improve learning because the student could set the
tempo as fast as they wanted so that they could play it successfully, instead of having a classimposed rhythm to stick to. Also, the whole class would have a tempo in mind from the start to
adhere to as they listened.
Next, having students share their ostinati first with their stand partner could foster a wonderfully
collaborative environment in which students could mentor each other, offering feedback and
mentoring each other in their ostinato-playing before even sharing with the whole class.
Last of all, I wish I had thought of teaching this and assessing it in multiple ways prior to
recording in order to incorporate the research of Tomlinson that clearly shows how valuable it is
in a diverse classroom to offer many modes of knowledge acquisition and performance
opportunity for students. ]

V4_0915

Edtpa Pfa Instruction Commentary

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Edtpa Pfa Instruction Commentary

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

K-12 Performing Arts

Task 2: Instruction Commentary

TASK 2: INSTRUCTION COMMENTARY

Promoting a Positive Learning Environment

K-12 Performing Arts

Copyright 2015 Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University.

K-12 Performing Arts

K-12 Performing Arts

Copyright 2015 Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University.

K-12 Performing Arts

Copyright 2015 Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University.

You might also like