Probing Questions

Teacher: Marlin Jeffers

Interview

Overview

Principles of Learning

Information Processing

Content Standards

Tenets of Democracy

Questions

Interview: Previewing Questions

1. In the video you are about to watch, teachers from different areas (Math, Geography, Music, Science) join together to make up a complete lesson. Devise a lesson plan that would integrate teacher knowledge in different areas.
2. In this project, the teachers pick two schools (an inner-city school in Sioux City, Iowa and a rural school in Iowa). Have you ever been involved in a project with a different school?  If you were a teacher, would you be for or against such a project?  Give reasons for each case.
3. How does being an active participant facilitate learning?

Interview: Post-viewing Questions

1. The goal of Jeffers’ lesson is to teach the children how to play an instrument that is not normally used in a music classroom. What was the first step Jeffers took in teaching them how to do this? Why do you think it was important?
2. Jeffers assesses his students throughout the unit with a performance rubric. Review the areas of assessment included in his lesson plan. Would you add or delete anything from the list? Explain.
3. How does Jeffers’ lesson differ from music lessons that you have seen or been a part of?

Overview: Previewing Questions

1. Jeffers starts his lesson by explaining the objectives to the students.  Do you think it is important for children to be familiar with the requirements of the course before beginning it?  Why or why not?
2. Reflect on your music classes when you were a student.  How did your teachers directly involve you in a musical learning activity?  In what ways did it help you as a student?
3. While in school, did you learn how to play an instrument? Explain how music impacts a nation’s culture.

Overview: Post-viewing Questions

1. Read Jeffers’ lesson plan. What are the purposes of his lesson?  How does he accomplish them?
2. Jeffers’ music lesson involves two different schools in the project (Woodbury Central and Hunt), which has the potential to spur some competition between the two.  Explain how competition may or may not stimulate learning.
3. Besides explaining to his students about panpipes, Jeffers uses the Iowa Communication Network (ICN) so he has some of the experts from the University of Cincinnati join the students. This is a type of distance learning.  What are some advantages and disadvantages of this kind of learning?

Principles of  Learning: Previewing Questions

1. Devise your own lesson in which you teach your students to play a musical instrument. What instrument would you choose?  How would you provide the cultural context of the instrument/music?
2. Do you think that while teaching the children how to play an instrument it is important to involve them in its construction and provide them with a cultural background? How does this relate to the multiple intelligences of children?
3. How can Frequent Feedback from the teacher influence the performance of students? Describe a school experience in which you received both corrective and supportive feedback from your teacher and the ways in which it had an impact on your learning.

Principles of  Learning: Post-viewing Questions

1. Jeffers’ students display Active Involvement during the teacher’s review session at the beginning of the class period. Explain how the students are active and responsive.
2. How does Jeffers provide opportunities for Informal Learning in the class?  In what ways do you think that integrating informal learning in a lesson can motivate students?
3. How does Jeffers introduce Direct Experience and Frequent Feedback into his lesson? What types of feedback does he provide? Explain the importance of each of them.

Information Processing: Previewing Questions

1. What role does brainstorming play in a school activity? How can brainstorming before learning help students better understand the lesson?
2. Review the Principles of Learning in the Technology as Facilitator of Quality Education Model. Choose two of them and describe how they influence learning.
3. What is an ethnomusicologist? In what ways do you think that his/her presence would be beneficial in a music class?

Information Processing: Post-viewing Questions

1. In what ways does Jeffers’ lesson allow students to relate information to their prior knowledge and build background information for the lesson?
2. How are the students involved in the Appreciation stage of the Information Processing? Give at least two examples.
3. How do Jeffers’ students enter the Search stage of Information Processing? What are the human resources they appeal to when gathering information?

Content  Standards: Previewing Questions

1. Browse the net and familiarize yourself with Music Content Standards. Describe any two of the achievement standards listed.
2. Do you think that it is possible to introduce standards from other academic content areas in a music lesson? Give some examples of how this could be done.
3. If you were a teacher, how would you enable your students to understand music in relation to culture and history? How can this cultural and historic understanding enhance learning?

Content  Standards: Post-viewing Questions

1. Jeffers’ music lesson integrates Music Standard Number 6 for Grades 6-8. What does this standard require and how is it important for the lesson’s development?
2. What is the Technology Performance Indicator Number 7 for Grades 6-8 as explained in the video? How does Jeffers implement this standard in the lesson?
3. Students in this class learn to perform on instruments individually and in groups. What content standard does this activity fulfill, as described in the video? Do you think this is important for learning?  Explain.

Tenets of Democracy: Previewing Questions

1. What individual characteristics are required in order to work in teams? How would you, as a teacher, encourage these characteristics?
2. In this music lesson, Jeffers encourages the ear training skill. What other skills would you encourage in a music lesson? How do skills relate to ability formation?
3. Review the checklist of observable behaviors for Tolerance. Select one thing that the students should do and one that they should not do in a classroom and discuss their importance.

Tenets of Democracy: Post-viewing Questions

1. Jeffers’ students demonstrate Critical Thinking after they view a videotape of a professional panpipe player. How do they display qualities of critical thinkers?
2. How does Jeffers encourage Individual Responsibility and Civil Involvement with Others in his lesson? What characteristics do his students display while they learn to play the panpipe as an ensemble?
3. This technology-assisted project will help students to learn more about music from another culture, the role music plays in another culture, and the role music plays in their lives. How will this learning affect students throughout their educational careers?

Technology: Previewing Questions

1. What are the forms of technology that can be used with Distance Learning? Rank them in the order of their frequency of use, and explain.
2. Browse the web for the site of the University of Cincinnati Conservatory World Music Series. Familiarize yourself with their resources and summarize them. How could you use this resource in the classroom?
3. What is ICN? How it be used in the classroom? Go to the site to learn more about it.

Technology: Post-viewing Questions

1. Students are actively engaged in this activity through technology. What are the technological tools Jeffers includes in this lesson that make it unique?
2. Are you familiar with Video Conferencing? What are the advantages of including it in the lesson, as seen in the video?
3. How does Jeffers help his students to become familiar with the technology involved in video conferencing?  How might video conferencing improve student learning?

Teacher Knowledge : Previewing Questions

1. What qualities do you think a teacher should possess in order to improve his/her teaching and facilitate student learning?
2. In what ways does Reflection connect with the Teacher’s In-Depth Content Knowledge?
3. Read the examples of the Musical Rhythmic Intelligence in the component of Knowledge of Student Characteristics. Devise a music lesson plan based on this type of intelligence.

Teacher Knowledge : Post-viewing Questions

1. Jeffers’ In-Depth Content Knowledge is evident as he evaluates the ways that technology has improved student learning in his classroom. Give two examples in which his content knowledge helped to promote student learning.
2. What are the ways in which Jeffers addresses his students’ musical intelligence? How does this demonstrate his Knowledge of Student Characteristics? What other intelligences, based on Gardner's Theory of Multiple Intelligences, does Jeffers address in his lesson? How?
3. How did Jeffers adapt the lesson content in order to meet the needs of his students?

Teacher Behavior: Previewing Questions

1. Read the description of Content Management in the model. List various ways that music teachers can display and possess good Content Management skills.
2. Why might a music teacher choose an uncommon instrument to teach their students about? How would their choice of instrument relate to a teacher's Pedagogy?
3. Do you believe that a teacher is also a learner? Give examples in which teachers can learn things along with their students.

Teacher Behavior: Post-viewing Questions

1. How does Jeffers demonstrate good Pedagogy through his knowledge of music and skills in music?
2. In what ways does Jeffers facilitate musical learning throughout the lesson? Give specific examples and comment upon the advantages of these methods.
3. Jeffers demonstrates good Pedagogy by engaging in collaboration with two colleagues from the University of Cincinnati, who joined his class via the Iowa Communication Network.  Do you think it is important that the teachers provide their students with different points of view and different teaching strategies? Explain.