Marzano Reading--Reinforcing Effort and Providing Recognition

I felt that this chapter really resonated with me in terms of what I do with Recorder Karate for CP345 and Discovery 4th and 5th grade. Students are motivated to "pass" levels of songs based on how much effort they have put into practicing, whether or not they have completed a self-evalution and a peer-evaluation, and how ready they are to perform the song accurately without mistakes and with good recorder technique.

Students LOVE to receive belts, but I will never hand out belts unless all the necessary expectations have been met. Lots of students are so obsessed with getting to the next level that they take advantage of times before and after school to pass belts. I love recorder karate, too, because it helps me assess students one-on-one and allows me to provide recognition and verbal praise, and to prompt changes that need to be made in order for the students to improve. I think this definitely fits well with the ideas presented in this chapter.

Cooperative Learning

What Cooperative Learning Strategy did I try?

I had students in all my primary classes work in groups of four to invent a movement that demonstrated a 16 beat rhythm. This rhythm included whatever notes we were working on (in CP123 and 2nd grade the rhythm empasized was a whole note). I made sure to post a "Social Goal" and a "Brain Goal" just like David Sponheim suggested. My social goal was "Participation by all and no put downs" and my brain goal was "Show understanding of the rhythm through creative movement."

I made sure to have students stop after the first day working on these rhythms and decide with their group on a goal they would do for next time. Sharing this goal with me was their "ticket to the door" and many of my students said their goal was to work harder to incorporate everyone's good ideas. The end result was great. I filmed each group and we watched our performances so the students could self-evaluate how they did with their group and whether or not the social and brain goals were met. Here's an example video of one group!

My case study student worked very well with his group, and all my other student enjoyed this activity as well. We work in small groups all the time, but having the social and brain goals was much more concrete and helpful in guiding them. I really enjoyed using this strategy!

I don't know that I really have any specific questions about cooperative learning other than the concern of time. I tried to think of something I could do along the lines of the cell phone debate we had in class, but that would be too much discussion and time spent on reasearch and writing types of activities, and not enough time actually making music. When things come up that might provide an interesting or insightful discussion, I will always take advantage of that--but it's not really something I plan for in my class. Any ideas how a project like that might be able to work without taking away from music-making time?