Marie Murphy
Middle School
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During remote learning, students receive an assignment at the beginning of each week which is due on Tuesday of the following week. Students upload performance videos onto Google Classroom and receive individual teacher comments on each video. Students have learned Fiddle tunes, pop songs, scales, duets, Patriotic songs, Christmas tunes, Pachelbel's Canon, Pomp and Circumstance and simple improvisation.
Students have been challenged to return videos of performance quality with creative twists.
The Benefits of Remote Learning in Orchestra
In a live ensemble rehearsal, young musicians play and
receive group feedback from the conductor.
Remote learning involves the same process but the feedback is individualized
and not simultaneous.
Benefits of Remote Learning for students:
1. Students have higher individual accountability. They cannot hide in a section. Every student is a soloist.
2. Students self-evaluate while recording their performance. Performances are recorded numerous times before the student decides it is good enough to send to the teacher. Self-evaluation is an important component of effective learning.
3. Students need to analyze their difficulties with the music. They need to problem-solve for a way to get past these challenges. In a live rehearsal, this is often done by the teacher/conductor but in remote learning, the student takes a more active role in problem-solving.
4. Students can access help, such as play-along recordings for learning each individual part or an individual zoom with the teacher, but the student needs to be proactive about finding the help they need. Students need to analyze the problems in the music and decide what help is needed for them to be successful.
5. Recordings allow students to easily see and hear their growth and progress from the beginning of a semester to the end.
6. Students can create multiple performance tracks enabling them to play a different part with their recording of themselves. Students who play other instruments have sent in assignments playing multiple instruments in a duet or trio.
7. Students become self-reliant tuning their instruments. This is an advanced skill that remote learning necessitates learning quickly.
8. Students have access to master teachers via videos that a live class usually doesn't have time to explore. When we studied Fiddling tunes, videos of master fiddlers teaching each song were included in the assignment.
9. Students learn to play with a click-track. This can be a metronome, a recording of another part, a recording of their part or a piano part. Students often have the problem of rushing through a piece. Playing with a click-track is a more advanced skill and helps solve the problem of rushing.
10. Students learn to record themselves. This includes camera set-up and familiarity with various platforms.
11. Instrumentation can be filled in for a final online performance. A weaker section can be made louder or a missing instrument line can be added, creating a performance that students are proud of.
12. Students usually have access to recordings of all the parts in a piece so they can listen to (or play with) another part to better understand how their part fits into the whole.
13. Students learn to compose and improvise on their own instrument (many have experience doing this on a midi keyboard in MM General Music class)
14. Remote learning encourages students to collaborate with their peers. The first student to record becomes the click-track and all other students play with that click-track. Students have put themselves into ensembles of their choosing - a few have chosen to perform with students who are not at Marie Murphy.
15. Diversification is especially easy in remote learning. Students progress at their own pace. Highly motivated students submit more than one video each week or request harder music to make faster progress.
16. Videos provide students, parents, and administrators with an artifact of student performance and achievement.
17. Remote learning can be more engaging to students who do not like to play in front of peers or who want to hear teacher constructive criticism privately. Also, students who are motivated by the process of recording their performance.
18. Grouping students virtually encourages efficient differentiation. We do not have to abide by the parameters of the school schedule and are able to combine students from different grade levels. Students throughout the district can study specific topics together such as vibrato or shifting (MM + advanced AW) are able to attend the same online classes.T
