Chapter Two: "Jennifer"

9/21/18

I received this educational referral from the Montgomery Public Schools home bound services.
It seemed that very little information was available about this student, other then her diagnosis.  
Jennifer was 16 and a quadriplegic. She was unable to move any muscle in her body, other than her eyes.
She required complete physical assistance in all daily living skills.
Her information regarding her education was very limited.  
It also took several weeks before the mother would allow me to enter their home and meet Jennifer.
During the wait I heard rumors that the parents had filed a law suit against the school system,
since Jennifer had received very little in the way of an education.
Previous home bound teachers had merely sat and read to her.
I would like to share my thoughts at that time,  "It must not have been easy for Jennifer’s mom
to take care of her all those years.  Keeping her neat and clean, feeding her, and trying to keep her interested
in her environment and at least content with her life. Her mom had committed her life entirely to the care of her daughter.
Many parents in similar positions from all over the country have come to Alabama to place their special needs children
in several of our local nursing facilities. Jennifer’s mom had not abandoned her child."

At that time I had asked a friend Jim Watkins, who was a computer programmer for the Department of Defense
if he had any ideas how I could interact with this child. He did have a couple ideas and said he would check the availability
of some software and equipment for me to use. I cannot share the name of the software and equipment he provided for us,
but it was exactly what we needed.  It was an eye tracking program that the military was using for soldiers on patrol.
All they had to do was look at a target and blink, their weapon could hit that target.

      
Since I didn't want Jennifer to shoot anyone, Jim and I worked out a modification, so she could blink and choose a location
on a computer screen with basic words, for communication purposes.  Our concern was whether the software could connect
to her eyes, and whether she would be able to keep them still, long enough to get an eye print. But it worked!
      

I programmed some basic communication on her screen using my voice.  
She could look at and select from the following statements:
“I am hungry.  I am thirsty. I need to use the restroom. Thank you. and I love you mom.”
If she was able to successfully use these basic statements,  I was going to connect a “Clifford Goes to the Circus”
educational program next, so she could learn to spell words. While we were setting this all up, the school system had not,
in fact paid for any of this software or equipment.  Jennifer’s mom insisted on owning this equipment
and the education programming.

After we connected everything at Jennifer’s house, I practiced it on my own eye scans at home.  
On my next visit, I explained the process to her mom then connected it to Jennifer. After a few seconds, Jennifer blinked,
and we heard the words, “I am thirsty.”  Her mom ran and got her a glass of water with a straw. Jennifer took several sips.
At that point neither of us were certain whether Jennifer's command was intentional, or an accidental blink.  
However, the next command seemed entirely deliberate when we heard my voice saying, “Thank you mom.”
Jennifer had in fact, for the first time in 16 years communicated with her mom.

      
Her mother began this very strange sound of crying which seemed to be a mixture of joy and fear at the same time.  
She had told me before that they needed the money from the law suit for a new van to transport Jennifer,
plus they wanted to take a trip to Disneyland. Then of course, there were many medical expenses for Jennifer
that needed to be paid.

I did not know how to respond to the crying and sobbing coming from her mother.  So, I excused myself
and prepared to leave for the day. The next day the school system informed me that I was not to return to see Jennifer again.
They gave me no reason why.

It was clear to me that Jennifer’s mom had understood the program and how the software worked.  
I would like to think that Jennifer is reading at grade level now and enjoying conversations with her mom and others.
I have hoped the best for her, after having being cut off from the world for so many years.
I would like to think that we could and would do the same thing for any child that was non-verbal.  
I would also like to hope that Jennifer was finally able to express herself and connect to the world around her.

Chapter One - "Stories from Ms. Moyer's Classroom"

A Story for All Ages - "Stories from Ms. Moyer's Classroom"

9/9/2018

Heather lived with her grandmother because her father left them after she was born. Her mother had lost custody of Heather to her grandmother for some unknown reason. The first time I met Heather, she was coming off a special needs school bus and being lowered to the ground in her wheelchair.  She was clean, well dressed and kept her pretty face down while tapping her fingers together.  

She was a 13-year-old Afro-American 6^th grader with an extensive IEP history that I had read and reread before meeting her.  What the school paperwork told me was that she was functionally blind and suffered from spina bifida. She could not stand or walk, nor could she read braille, or write it but she had a good memory.  Since Heather was diagnosed as being “Legally blind,” she needed to be learning to read via braille or from other non-visual educational media.

During the first week of classes, while I was getting to know Heather and the other students in my contained classroom, (which means they were not included in any other classrooms for any subject) I became familiar with her strengths and weaknesses. Heather’s hearing was very acute, and she appeared to tap her fingers to help to center herself and maintain self-control.

She also had an excellent memory and could remember instructions word for word.  However, her perceptions were frequently erroneous.  She could repeat words but could not always understand what they meant.  Her lack of vision severely affected her understandings of her environment.  She needed to touch and feel everything in the classroom to learn. 

Given the tactile needs of most of my pupils, I had an extensive collection of tactile educational material.  Plastic fruit, vegetables, large Styrofoam alphabet letters, uniform hats, easy reader braille books, Lego blocks, stacking blocks, plastic shapes, stars, circles, triangles, squares, tactile readers, art supplies with clay, pipe cleaners, sparkles, plastic eyes, ears, lightweight wigs of different colors, educational software and a large wireless mouse with interactive educational software were used to assist with their educational programs. I also raided the closet in the science room and received permission to use a human-size plastic doll with removable organs. 

Every day we started with a silly alphabet recording with a large book and large letters to sing along with. By learning the sounds of letters and sounding out words Heather quickly learned all the words to the alphabet song and could sing the notes perfectly.  However, when we put a muffin pan and tennis balls in front of her and attempted to teach her the braille alphabet, she would throw the balls as far as she could and then laugh in a very self-controlled manner.   

I came to realize that although Heather would not understand her environment in many circumstances, there was something she always knew.  She had an uncanny skill for determining the truth from people.  You could not lie to her, or even stretch the truth, she always knew. 

When I told her that learning to read was important, she would respond that her grandma and others would always read to her.  When I told her that reading would help her learn more words, she said that others would explain words to her that she did not know. Finally, when I informed her that if she could write braille, she could share her thoughts with many other people that she could not see or talk to.  She said she had nothing to say to anyone else.  She then continued to throw the tennis balls daily, instead of spelling braille words with them.

One day while listening to her singing the alphabet song, I had a thought.  That afternoon, I sat next to her and listened while she tapped her fingers. She was singing songs in her head that she had heard from others and memorized.  The finger tapping was the beat to songs in her head.  Wow, how could I get her to open up and sing I wondered?

During lunch every day  I started playing gospel songs and my aides and I would sing along with them.  Within a couple days, Heather started singing along with us.  She had a beautiful voice and she could remember the lyrics pitch perfect.  One day I recorded her singing, then played it back to her the next day.  Everyone that heard her applauded and complimented her. She was surprised that everyone enjoyed it. 

The following day when I asked her if there was anything she would like to share with all the people in the world that she did not know? She finally smiled and shook her head yes.  Heather took the tennis balls and spelled the word, “I,” then she spelled the word “can,” then she finally spelled the word “sing” in braille.  She had learned this truth about herself.

I hugged her and told her, “Yes Heather, yes, you really can!”

Visual Aid:

Ii		Cc	Aa	Nn

Ss	Ii	Nn	Gg

Note:

 (Heather's name was changed to protect her privacy.)

"Are Baby Beethovens fictional or non-fictional?"

"Are Baby Beethovens fictional or non-fictional?"

Music prodigies are defined as young children (at or under age 12)

who have displayed a talent in music comparable with skilled adult musicians.

It is theorized that "musical therapies" that have proved effective

for full term newborns, may also benefit premature infants, i.e.,

• lullabies promote language development;
• familiar music is recognized, reinforcing, and comforting;
• and the infants orient to and avidly attend to music more so than other auditory stimuli.

This possible hereditary existence of a “music module” in an infant’s working memory

was discovered by Baddeley (1986) and Berz (1995). They observed the performance

of a prodigious musical savant in hearing and playing back an unfamiliar piece.

The child’s ability to reproduce complex auditory images on the keyboard

with immediacy and an unusual technical facility offered a rare opportunity  

to glean something of the workings of the musical mind — through purely musical responses.
These were subjected to musicological analysis using “zygonic” theory (Ockelford, 2005a, 2005b),
which seeks to explain how the structure and content of the child's output is derived from the stimulus
and from other sources, and how both are woven into a coherent musical whole.
The underlying methodological assumption is that these sonic relationships, offer evidence of processes

that necessarily underlie the learning, storage and retrieval of musical elements in cognition.

If this is so, then hypothetically “Baby Beethovens” not only can exist, but they must naturally occur.
If this is driven by a sort of musical precognition, so let it be.

Let yourself go and enjoy this set of worksheets.

“Music Theory for Beginners”

All Grade Levels for All Students

This educational resource pack includes:  

Musical notations and descriptions of Solmization in Music Education with auditory,         
tactile, and visual prompts to accommodate all ability levels:

(Level 1)  Cut and paste descriptions to label the seven syllables of solfège

(Level 2)  Distinguish lower pitches from higher pitches using Kodály method with ________
Curwen hand signs

(Level 3)  Formulate the tune “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” using hand signs.

(Level 4)  Apply concepts to post a choice of four songs independently using hand signs.

Additional worksheet with Word Search for Keywords practice.

To see more of the “StoneSoupSchool.com” store with other great teaching resources for culture,
holidays, ESL, ELLs, literature, history, science, easy readers, math, etc.  as they become available in 2017, go to:

TeachersPayTeachers.com, TeachersNotebook.com, or...

http://www.StoneSoupSchool.com

“Stone Soup School. com provides digital educational strategies for all students, regardless of their ability level.”

I wish to dedicate this to all my students past and present.

Photo credits go to: Dreamstime.com, Teaching-children-music.com

Sincerely,

Mrs. Cheryl Lynn Peele

Creator of StoneSoupSchool.com

Key Music Words - Click on each underlined Keyword for a recorded definition.

Audiate: To mentally hear and understand music. For example, you audiate when you play a song “by ear.”  
The famous composer Beethoven, composed music by audiation when he lost his hearing.                                     

Curwen Hand Signs: A series of hand symbols designed to physically represent vocal pitch.

“Do”:  Is the leading musical note in any major or minor scale.  Because of how octaves work,
it is also always the final note in any major or minor scale.

Half-Step: On a keyboard, to play a half-step above (or below) a certain note is to play the very next piano key beside it.
n Western music, there are no pitches between half-steps.

Interval: A comparison of two notes that describes the distance in pitch between them.
Intervals are usually describing pitches that are within an octave.

Note:  A single tone, constant in pitch, made by a musical instrument or a voice.

Octave:  An interval between two notes, sometimes called an 8th.
The note that begins a scale and the note that ends a scale are octaves to each other.
Octaves always have the solmization note. For example, in the image below, the two “Do” signs make an octave.

Pitch:  The ‘highness’ or ‘lowness’ of a sound.  

Scale:  A set of musical notes ordered by pitch. In this Worksheet we focus only on the Major Scale,
but there are many different types of scales.

Solfège: Making music using solmization.

For example “So, So, So, Do, So, Fa, Mi, Re, Do, So” is the solfège for the Star Wars theme song.

Solmization: A system of attributing a distinct syllable to each note in a musical scale for the practice
of vocalizing audiated music, the basis of solfège.  For example: Do, Re, Mi, Fa, So (or Sol), La, and Ti are each a solmization.

Tone: A musical sound or pitch.

Whole-Step: Two half-steps next to each other make a whole step. The interval that makes up a whole-step
would be called a Major 2nd.

Instructions: ♪ Listen to the entire major scale ♪  

Do the hand signs as shown below while listening to the three major scales provided in the recording.

Note how the pitches of solfège notes can change but the intervals between them are always the same.

This is why we can sing different scales but still use the same solmization.

DO ♪

RE ♪

MI ♪

FA   ♪

SO  ♪

LA   ♪

TI   ♪

DO ♪

 

The illustration above is describing the location of where on the torso each hand sign should be.

Student Name _______________________________________    Date______________________________

Instructions: (Level 1)  Cut out and paste the hand signs to label the seven syllables of solfège.

First Tone of a Major Scale Paste Hand Sign Here	Recording of Tone: “DO” 🔈
Second Tone of a Major Scale Paste Hand Sign Here	Recording of Tone: “RE” 🔈
Third Tone of a Major Scale   Paste Hand Sign Here	Recording of Tone: “MI” 🔈
Fourth Tone of a Major Scale Paste Hand Sign Here	Recording of Tone: “FA” 🔈
Fifth Tone of a Major Scale Paste Hand Sign Here	Recording of Tone: “SO” 🔈
Sixth Tone of a Major Scale Paste Hand Sign Here	Recording of Tone: “LA” 🔈
Seventh Tone of a Major Scale Paste Hand Sign Here	Recording of Tone: “TI” 🔈
Octave of the First Tone Paste Hand Sign Here	Recording of Tone: “DO” 🔈

Student Name _____________________________________    Date_____________________

(Level 2)  Distinguish lower pitches from higher pitches using Kodály method with ________
Curwen hand signs. Click on the hand signs for audio!

Instructions: Of these two hand signals, which note is higher?  Circle the highest note.

1.            or               

2.                   or                    

Instructions:   Of these two hand signals, which note is lower?  Circle the lowest note.

3.   or                      

4.   or                 

Student Name _____________________________________    Date_____________________

(Level 3)  Formulate the tune “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” using hand signs.

Instructions:  Listen to the first line of the music by clicking the title, then cut out and place the notes in the right order.

♪ “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” ♪    

Student Name _____________________________________    Date_____________________

(Level 4)  Apply concepts from the previous worksheet. Select a song the post it using hand signs.  

Instructions:  Have your students pick a song listed below.  Then listen together to the first  six notes of the music,
then have each student cut out and place the first six notes in the right order.

 Twinkle Twinkle Little Star ♪ AUDIO ♪

   Happy Birthday ♪ AUDIO ♪

Mary Had a Little Lamb ♪ AUDIO ♪

  I’ve Been Working on the Railroad ♪ AUDIO ♪

Student Name:  ___________________________   Date: _______________

Instructions:  Locate and circle (or point to) these five music key words in the wordsearch below:

AUDIATE

SYLLABLE

SOLFEGE

NOTATION

SCALE

PITCH

A

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    www.StoneSoupSchool.com

    Certificate of Achievement

    This Acknowledges That

                        Name: ________________________________

                  Has Successfully Completed

                                     “Music Theory for Beginners”