Spring 2019

Elementary Placement
Background Project: Student B
The second student I decided to observe for this Background Project was another
student who I thought presented me with a unique set of challenges. This student, Student B,
was a student who came from a musically gifted family and was gifted himself but his
behavior caused him to struggle in the classroom.
After speaking to my cooperating teacher, both of Student B’s parents are
professional musicians as both performers and as professors. Student B has also been taking
private for the past several years. As a result, Student B has been exposed to high quality
musicians since a very young age and has since been developing his own ears and skills at a
much faster rate than his peers. He has frequently told me about how already knew his
chromatic scale, all of his major scales, some minor scales, and his pentatonic scales. It
should also be noted that Student B has no IEP on record.
While his musical knowledge is impressive, his behavior in class often is not. From my
observations, Student B is frequently wandering around the class and playing instruments in
the middle of instruction being given. He also has been seen having trouble understanding
that some of his classmates might not be as far along as he is musically.
Even though this student repeatedly disrupts the flow of instruction and the classroom,
I do not think that this student is intentional in doing so. From my several weekly interactions
with him and from knowing his background, I have begun to see that Student B is just not
challenged enough in this class and requires a different way to channel his excitement that
doesn’t disrupt his classmates.
While I can not change the topics covered in the class to just challenge Student B, I
can try to use Student B’s skill as an example for his classmates. By entrusting Student B with
this responsibility, not only would the pressure help challenge him but it would also motivate
his peers so that they can also become model students. Another thing I can do to help
Student B understand that his behavior is disruptive is to have him put his sticks on his stand to
prevent him from playing while the teacher is talking. Lastly, to help challenge Student B, we
have decided to let Student B learn some of the music that 6th graders are learning as well.