Becky+G

**Music Education Symposium: Inclusive Strategies for Diverse Learners**
By: Eric Bolton

My article was basically about teaching students with special needs how to play music, and the question the article was asking was "Is it best to form our programs around our special learners or should we find ways to include special learners into pre-existing educational structures?". The article goes on about musical performances done by schools filled with students with special needs, and how the performances were beautiful. The article just provides you with strategies to help you be more comfortable about teaching students with special needs. It gives a lot of good advice like, ask yourself what the student //can// do, and focus on their abilities instead of their disabilities. The Symposium that all these students and schools attended all allowed them to openly talk about various issues concerning the teachings of special education. There was high authority people at this meeting like Chi Kim, Berklee alumnus and associate professor of music therapy, who is blind, state representatives, college professors, and students. So, the discussion opened larger discussions to solve the issue of teaching students with special needs. This article connects to our class because it adds to the point that we have to be able to teach any type of person. As teachers we will face many challanges that we will have to over come. Nothing is impossible when it comes to teaching you just have to get around certain obstacles. Also as teacher we will be in classrooms filled with diversity, so we must be prepared for anything. I think this article will impact my classroom because it gives good strategies to take on when dealing with students with special needs. It opens up my eyes that these students are more capable of doing great things than people give them credit for. This article does not just pertain to music lessons, but any type of lesson you have to teach students, just see what students can do, and focus on their __abilities__ instead of their disabilities. Bolton, E. (n.d.). Music Education Symposium: Inclusive Strategies for Diverse Learners | Berklee News | Music Education Symposium: Inclusive Strategies for Diverse Learners. //BERKLEE | Berklee College of Music//. Retrieved May 1, 2012, from http:// www.berklee.edu/news/3530/music-education-symposium-inclusive-strategies-f
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Alisha - This has to do a lot with my article, where is gave strategies for teaching diverse students. I think that it is important to educate ourselves with the types of students that we might encounter in our classroom. If we do this, we have an idea what to expect and an idea of how we can handle various situations. I'm really interested in reading this article because by nature, we want to take extra care to students with disabilities, but infact as teachers we need to be able to challenge them. They can do many things that every other student can do and it's important to keep that in mind.======



I read the story //One Green Apple// by Eve Bunting. This is a story about a young girl named, Farah. She just moved to America from another country, and is starting to go to a new school. At first Farah feels alone, even though she is surrounded by her classmates, because she does not speak english, and it is hard for her to communicate with them when she does not understand them and they do not understand her. She listens and nods, but does not speak. Also she notices that she is the only girl wearing a dupatta, which is her head dress, In her village she is use to seeing all of the girls where them. On her second day of class, they go on a field trip to an apple orchard. Farah sits next to this little girl named Anna, and she tries to communicate and be friendly with her. This makes her feel much better about being in a new school. Farah discovers that there are a lot of things that sound the same as they did back home, from dogs barking, to kids laughing. The teacher tells the students to pick one apple from the tree, and Farah catches on to this, and finds a tree that is different than all the others just like her. She picks out a small green apple, while the other students all picked out red ones. When they were all done picking their apples, they were told to drop them into a machine that is going to make apple cider. The kids are the ones pushing the handle to chop the apples up, and they tell Farah to come join. They all worked together and made their own apple cider. Anna, Farah's new friend from the wagon tries to teach her that it is called "apple cider", and Farah speaks it to herself to try and learn it. Farah realizes that her apple may be different than all the rest on the outside, but when blended together it was the same. And just like her, she will eventually blend in with everyone else.

The diverse group being depicted in the book I read was the Muslim culture. But this book can relate to anyone of a different culture that has moved into a new school, and is not use to their surroundings.

'Reading this book made me realize that when i become a teacher i may have students that are new to America and feel alone because they feel that they do not fit in. It makes me aware that i will have to look for this and make all my students feel comfortable, and let them know that they can ask questions, and that i can take extra time to work with them. Everyone deserves an equal oppurtunity towards their education. So, reading this made me recognize that one day when I do have a class of my own, it will have a wide diversity of students, and i will have to be able to communicate with all of them.This text was very relevant to my teaching practice because when you get put into your classroom with students they are not all going to be from the same culture. So, you should have knowledge of where they are from, and ways you will be able to make them feel comfortable, and communicate with them. It also makes me realize that i would have to make my students aware of different cultures, so it would be helpful for me to educate them on that. I would recommend this book, because it tells a story of a young girl trying to fit in, and how welcoming her classmates are. It would be a great book to use in the classroom, to show that everyone should be friendly, and treat others with respect no matter what they look like,