Teaching Adults

Over the past two sessions in music we split into groups of about three to plan and deliver a music lesson in one of the BBC Ten Pieces Programme.

For my group, we were set with Beethoven's Symphony No.5.

The guidance given by the BBC is a beginning of a lesson plan so that it can be used and adapted to fit the class being taught and the learning objective can be tweaked accordingly to the individual needs of the children.

For our lesson plan- we decided to follow the theme and lesson objective of beats and rhythms and in particularly rhythmic ostinatos. (as seen in Beethoven's symphony No. 5 first movement).

Using the ideas already given to us, we adapted them to fit into a 20 minute lesson which we would then teach to the rest of our class. Even after completing the lesson (UPDATE: EVEN AFTER PLACEMENT!) upon reflection this still slightly terrifies me! I don't like the idea of teaching adults- that's why I'm doing primary education! In front of adults I felt stinted and nervous, my palms were sweaty; nothing like I would feel like I would be on placement. During the process I questioned the point or the value of the task, I was completely out of my comfort zone. In class I prefer to only answer when I am sure of the answer to the question posed; I don't purposely seek to be the center of attention in class- this was the complete opposite.

However, reflecting on the task and when we discussed our 'performances' as a whole class; it was reassuring to find that most of us felt the same way. A huge point I took away from these sessions was that if I could teach a lesson to 15 adults, and a teacher giving us feedback and critique, then I would be perfectly capable to teach a music lesson to a group of children.

Through the feedback we gave to the other groups and our own feedback, we were encouraged to point out the positive things we did which put a focus on the positive; this being a critical part of teaching music in schools to enforce positivity to the children in their self and peer assessments. We were also encouraged to give constructive criticism as a way to improve our delivery for future teaching and to be able to comprise good practices of teaching together.

However, all in all, through the planning and preparation for the lesson I did enjoy listening to Beethoven's music and my group had fun deciding which instruments to use and what activities we would do. I definitely feel that the lesson we created could be used in the classroom on placement and I will definitely take elements of the lesson with me into my placement class or when I teach in the future.

Sometimes it takes being a mile out of your comfort zone to truly accomplish the intended goal!