Music Practica - MUSC345, 346, 347
Seminar - Group Discussion

Part I - GROUP DISCUSSION GUIDELINES

Structure
The class is divided into groups and each group will meet four times:

1. Prior to orientation
2. Tuesday after school
3. Thursday after school
4. Friday after school

You may meet as a group all at the same time, or you may decide to work individually and check in to make contributions several times during the evening.

Standard for Substantive Content
- For each meeting (T, R, F) each student will make at least three substantive contributions based on items posted for that group discussion.

- There should be a minimum of three substantive contributions and more than three are encouraged. Talk with each other as professionals. Be interested in your colleagues' views and share your own.
- Comments like "I agree," may be an excellent encouragement to previous contributor, but it will not be counted as substantive contribution for you.
- A substantive contribution is one that adds real and new information or perspective to the conversation.

Form and Etiquette
- This is not a formal paper, but you must make your contribution clear to all readers.
- If you use lists or any kind of partial sentences, be sure that it cannot be misinterpreted.
- Use proper grammar and spelling
- No IM / text message abbreviations are allowed. (Note: Your instructor does not use these abbreviations and if she doesn't understand what you are trying to say, you will not get credit for it.)

Part II - GROUP DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

#pre - Pre Practicum meeting
A. Expectations: What are you looking forward to the most in your practicum experience?

B. Question: What are the questions that we should consider before we begin the Practicum?

#1 - Tuesday evening
A. Expectations: How does your situation meet your expectations?

B. Surprises: What surprises have you experienced in the first few days?

C. Aspects: From what aspects of your classroom(s) do you expect to gain the most?

D. Suited: How well suited are you to this particular situation? What improvements will you want to make to be better prepared for a situation like this one?

E. Unique: Discuss any unique aspects of your situation which may be of interest to others in your group.

F. Lesson: How do you define “lesson?” How much of teaching is presentation?

#2 - Thursday evening
A. Previously: What methodology and techniques have you studied previously that you have observed in practice during this practicum? (list)

B. New: What methodology and techniques have you observed during this practicum that are totally new to you?

C. Worked well: For each of the first two questions, what methods and techniques worked particularly well? How and why?

D. Admire: What do you admire most about your cooperating teacher?

E. Emerging: As you are progressing through this practicum, what do you see emerging as your greatest strengths?

F. Important: List the three most important things you have learned so far in the practicum.

#3 - Friday evening
A. Discipline: Discuss a discipline problem that has arisen during the Practicum. How did your cooperating teacher handle it? What were the outcomes? Would you have handled it the same way or differently?What other (non disciplinary) problems have been especially interesting to you in the way they were solved?

B. Communication: What problem did you observe that could have been avoided through better communication?

C. Flexibility: How has flexibility become an important factor to you?

D. Preparation: What has been the most important aspect of the Practicum for you in preparing you for student teaching and for the profession?

E. OJT: What have you learned during the Practicum that you could not have learned in a regular academic class?

F. Future: What suggestions do you have for improving the Practicum experience? (Be professional with this question. It is not an invitation for a gripe session or for venting personal frustrations.)