Peer Teaching Reflection

GOALS

During this lesson I had hoped to teach my students the 3 main elements of successful
successive articulation. These components were air support, rhythmic accuracy, and quick
tonguing. I wanted essentially to break down how they would go about building up speed while
working on a quick staccato articulation in groups of 16th notes.

ACTIVITIES

To achieve these goals I began by having the students sustain a concert Bb, then play it again
with a crescendo. I asked them how they achieved a crescendo, letting them identify that air
was the force creating a bigger sound. Then, we counted 16th notes and tried to play/sing
them. Once I reminded them to use a crescendoing sound, they were more supported, and
achieved a more successful staccato, but struggled with speed. So, I described the motion of
the tongue muscle while tonguing, which is light and bouncy on the roof of the mouth or back
of teeth. After this, there was more success overall, and we could successfully increase the
tempo to the goal pace. My sequence began with singing a sustained Bb, then crescendoing.
Next, I had a student play the first 5 notes of a concert Bb scale in a legato style, then staccato
style and asked students what the distinction was. Next, I wrote a diagram on the board to
visualize the difference between staccato and legato. The student then demonstrated again as
the students observed the visual aid. Next, the student played and the class copied her in both
styles. After this, I asked them to repeat 16th note counting and we moved onto articulating
these 16th notes with voice or instruments focusing only on staccato articulation. We again
referred to our example and visual aid. I asked them if they felt they had a nice staccato and
once there was a satisfying sound, we increased tempo. I would stop the process whenever I
felt there was a falter in true staccato or rhythmic accuracy and we would work out any
difficulties until we again found success.

OUTCOMES

I think that the students were quite successful in achieving the goals of the lesson. This
concept of fast articulation was clearly new to our singers in the group, but as we broke down
each part of a successful fast staccato, they seemed to get more comfortable and find
success. I could sense this not only by asking them questions like “Raise your hand if you got
a little tongue-tied that time through,” and by listening to each individual as they played or
sang. Especially with articulation, non-uniform sound stands out and is easy to hear, so I could
always sense if they were ready to continue or if we needed to regroup. By the end, we had
achieved several successful successions, and I could tell they were grasping each component
of the lesson well.

CHANGES

If I were to do this again, I would use a different lesson plan entirely. Much of what I did today
was improvised since so many students were not playing instruments. In hind sight, I would
have given a lesson applicable to every musician, not just wind instrumentalists. Furthermore, I
would have added more variety to my lesson. I did have that originally in my lesson plan, but
again, I had to think on my feet today, so it did feel more of a rehearsal of a technique than a
lesson at moments. Furthermore, I might have asked less questions. Usually questions are a
great tool for engaging the students, but today the class was not particularly responsive, so I
might have been better off not asking questions. Perhaps I might have used more physical
engagement like standing to get the students involved in the lesson better.