Hello, my name is Janet Montgomery and
I am a clinical associate professor at the University of Maryland
and I will be speaking to you about what music teachers should know about students with
disabilities. A school psychologist was
orally administering an IQ test to a 9-year-old boy.
He said to the boy as he pointed to the picture of ducks, "If this is the
first duck and this is the second duck, what do we call this duck"?
pointing to the third duck. The boy paused, and then replied
"I'm not sure, but I think it's a mallard."
Do you think the boy's answer was correct?
Was it creative? Would you like to be a music teacher of that boy?
Maybe. My purpose is to speak to you about the enjoyment of teaching
students with disabilities when you use appropriate adaptations for their
learning. Perhaps you'll be surprised by my final recommendation.
I'm sure you've heard of the acronym IDEA.
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.
IDEA refers to a law that congress passed over 40 years ago
and has amended several times, most recently in 2011.
You probably already know that this law was passed to provide all
students in the US with a right to a free, appropriate public education.
How many million students do you think are being served
under this law? More than 6.4 million
students in the US. That's 13% of the school population
So will you be teaching some special learners? Yes, most likely.
A major cornerstone of IDEA is
that each student is to be educated in the least restrictive environment.
This term means that each student should be educated with his or her
non-disabled peers to the greatest extent that's appropriate.
Each student should have access to the same education as his or her peers.
So the word "appropriate" is most important.
Who decides the definition of appropriate? A team of people
who work with the individual student. It could be teachers, other professionals
such as the school psychologist, occupational therapist,
speech clinician, and also the parents. Sometimes
the most appropriate setting for learning is the classroom
or part-time in the regular classroom and part-time in a special classroom.
But if a student can't achieve goals set for him or her in one of these settings
then the least restricive environment may be
a special education classroom full-time, or, depending on the severity
of the disability or medical condition, the least restrictive environment may be a
special school or even a hospital.
This team of people develop an IEP for each
student with disabilities. Music teachers are allowed, in fact
required by law to read a student's IEP
to be aware of his or her strengths and weaknesss
as well as the learning goals. So what's our goal as music teachers?
We want to provide special learners with an equal opportunity
to experience the expressive qualities of music
we want to help them increase their knowledge of music, their skills in music
and their valuing of music. How? By
engaging in the three artistic processes: create, perform,
and respond. In your career it's very likely
that you will teach many students with special needs to create, perform, and respond.
Now you might wonder:
should I know about the student's specific disability as a label?
IDEA lists 13 different labels for students with disabilities.
And in alphabetical order it begins with autism and ends
with visual impairment. Another approach, however, is
recommended by Hamill and Horrigan in a 2011
publication, and theirs is called the labels-free approach.
This approach lists 5 domains of disabilities.
Cognition, communication, behavior or
emotional challenges, sensory challenges, and physical
or medical conditions.
An even simpler approach may be to think about the three types of human development
physical, intellectual, and emotional. Let's think
through some common-sense adaptations.
First scene: the third grade class is learning to play the recorder.
For a third grade student without fingers on her right hand, you might
put tape over the right hand holes on a recorder so she can play B A G
Or you might decide to have her play bells
rather than a recorder. Either way, she can still make music alongside her peers.
Scene 2: Have you ever
seen a student walk into a music room and cover his ears?
For a student who is extremely sensitive to sound, perhaps
the student could wear regular headphones to mask some of the noise.
Next scene: what is an alternative
way to explain a rhythmic pattern written in muscial notation?
For a student who just doesn't understand your mathematical explanation
of that rhythm you may want to show the rhythmic relationships
of that pattern with magnetic icons and then
transfer it to notation. Last scene:
you've asked your sixth grade band students to work together
in small groups to create a four-bar composition.
Using the syncopated rhythm that occurs throughout one of their band pieces.
A student with emotional challenges who doesn't work well in a small group
you may ask her to work with another student
and you may carefully structure the task so the two students
together can more easily achieve the goal of composition
So, whether you use the 13 labels
or the 5 domains or the 3 types of development
the most important information is what you know about the individual
student's learning needs. This information will help you develop some good
and hopefully appropriate teaching and learning strategies
I'm sure in your career you will use many different strategies to meet the needs
of all your students, including those with disabilities.
So how about a quick quiz? I've listed 5 statements
that I'd like you to analyze, so you're going to ask yourself
Is this statement for teaching special learners or is this statement
for teaching all learners?
Number 1: design multiple ways to present musical ideas. Special learners, or
all learners? 2: Find
multiple ways for students to show their musicianship.
3: Demonstrate tasks and sequence them
in small steps from sound to symbol, such as echo-clap,
echo-say, echo-play, and then move to musical notation
4: Choose age-appropriate and
high-interest musical materials. 5:
be involved with other educators and parents regarding a student's placement in a
least restrictive environment, and learning goals.
How did you do? All 5 could be for
all learners. Only the last statement implies special learners because
of that mention of the least restrictive environment.
So, as you go through your methods and techniques classes think about
adaptations you might use for a student with disabilities.
As you get to know all your students as individuals you will better understand their learning
needs and their special quirks. Think of the boy and the mallard.
His answer was recorded as wrong, but I enjoyed his comment.
Didn't you? I have enjoyed teaching many student with disabiltiies
both in regular classrooms and self-contained classes. I hope
you will too. So my closing recommendation should come as no surprise.
Remember, good teaching for students with disabilities makes
good teaching for everyone.