Hourigan, R. M. (2009). The invisible student: Understanding social identity construction within performing ensembles. Music Educators Journal, 34-38.
Serres, D. Think Everything’s “Normal?” Then It’s Time To Reconsider And Promote A New Narrative Of Disability. Retrieved from http://organizingchange.org/think-everythings-normal-then-its-time-to-reconsider-and-promote-a-new-narrative-of-disability/ Invisible students will likely fall under one of the following two; a gap in communication between the student and their peers and/or a student’s lack of motivation to socialize. It is beneficial to note that not all students who embody the “invisible student” traits want to socialize with other students, they may actually feel more comfortable working on their own. However, if you allow these students to work separately and give them special privileges the other students may not be in full support. Instead, by taking these students out of their comfort zones and encouraging them to work with other students in the class you will be able to unify the lesson and hopefully will provide this student with a different experience. I think a music class can be a very intimidating place for many students. Taking from experience, I know most students in my instrumental music class dreaded test days because they were forced to play for the entire class. Unlike a written paper that you can keep private, everything in a music class is very public. The fact is, unless you have many years of instrumental training you will sound inexperienced, however, no one puts that into account. Instead, student’s feel almost humiliated when they play poorly for the class. I think this is a key reason why teacher’s have to be vigilant about watching students in a music class, to encourage them, give them constructive criticism and positive reinforcement. I think there is a tendency for “non-musical” students to become invisible in a music class in order to shield themselves from humiliation. This could be a reason why a student may prefer to become invisible in a classroom. Adapting a lesson plan to suit student’s needs best should always be done. In the case of Serre’s article and closing the gap in communication, one section in particular stood out to me. The section reads, “Puts emphasis on people to “overcome a disability” rather than seeking societal changes”. This section looks into detail at the changes which should be made by society to become inclusive instead of placing the responsibility to adapt on the person with disabilities shoulders. Each lesson plan should be changed depending on the class to include activities that all students will be able to participate in. This will lead to a smooth and uninterrupted class. This new concept of teaching will allow all students to work with one-another well. In my music class in elementary school our teacher was very transparent with who he liked and who represented the rest of the class. Fortunately for those students, they received a lot of opportunities to play a small solo or an interesting instrument during our school concerts. However, for the rest of us we were stuck playing the chorus recorder line. Through favouriting some students and showing little to no interest in the rest in the class our teacher subconsciously formed a distinction in our minds of who is musical and who is not. This style of teaching can be extremely damaging to a group of young children as it teaches them that things are given to some people however may not be earned. This type of teaching could easily lend itself to create “invisible students” out of multiple students in the class. In this case, I found it frustrating to participate in my class because my communication skills were not developed enough for me to comfortably talk with the teacher about the issue I was experiencing. The tendency of the invisible student will always be to shy away from opportunities to communicate, however, if the teacher is watchful and reacts to what they see this could possibly open up opportunities for the “invisible student” to communicate. It is not the teacher’s job to create student-student relationships, but it is their job to make the students feel welcome and comfortable in the space. The traits of an “invisible student” varies so much from case to case so there is no specific technique to use with all students. However, from reading these articles I have understood that each student requires a share of the teacher’s attention and deserves for the teacher to treat them always with the best interest in mind.
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