Season Three
Episode 77
Adaptive Music Education with Kelly Surette
Kelly's Bio:
Kelly Surette is the author of the book Creative Miracles: A Practitioner's Guide to Adaptive Music Instruction. Additionally, Kelly is an adaptive music instructor, performer, and composer living in The New England Area. She attended The Boston Conservatory as a musical theater major and received her Bachelor of Arts in Theater from Merrimack College. Kelly holds her Masters in Science in Music Industry Leadership from Northeastern University with a concentration in Entrepreneurship (selected RISE participant - Research, Innovation, and Scholarships Expo.) She currently works as an adaptive music instructor at The Children's Center for Communication and The Beverly School for the Deaf. Prior to working at CCCBSD, Kelly was the Executive Director of Amplifi Adaptive Music Programs, an organization that provided adaptive music programming for those with developmental, physical, and intellectual disabilities.
Kelly lives in Groveland, Massachusetts with her husband, Kristopher, and their two beautiful daughters, Brielle and Chelsea.
TRANSCRIPT OF THE SHOW
Jessica: Kelly, I think this is so amazing that you've written this book and I actually just told you this, but I'm on chapter ten of it and I'm just so impressed with all that you are contributing and just how important this topic is so just thank you so much for not only writing the book, but for coming on the podcast to talk with us.
Kelly: Thank you so much Jessica. I'm so excited to be here. I just - I've been waiting all day for this.
Jessica: Me too. I've been really excited to talk with you. So can you kind of just give us an idea about who you are and what you've done and what you do.
Kelly: Absolutely! So I'm what you would call an adaptive music educator so I work specifically with students and learners with disabilities including those with hearing loss. So I've been in the field for over a decade. I've been working with this population for quite a long time and so you know I'm very excited to be here and talk a little bit more about that.
Jessica: Yeah. So what led you to becoming an adaptive music educator?
Kelly: Well, it was sort of something I fell into because it's not exactly a field quite yet. I think it's getting there, but it started with being a voice and piano teacher and just having students with disabilities come through my voice lessons or piano lessons and just working with them and just realizing the level of impact and the power that music had on those students - almost more so than on their peers without disabilities. It began there and just from there I ended up going to graduate school in music industry leadership, which was basically music business is the idea. I was an entrepreneurship major and I created a program specifically designed to teach music and the performing arts to students with disabilities and then that program was piloted by a music school and launched. And I just kind of ended up ... from there I ended up... now I work as the adaptive music teacher for the school for the deaf with students with disabilities so they are deaf with disabilities and then the other part of the school is students who are hearing with disabilities.
So that's kind of how I landed. Sort of a round about way. I was always in musical theater. I've done musical theater from a very young age. I went to the Boston Conservatory. I did musical theater there. I've been in music just my whole life so it was sort of a natural progression in that way, but a roundabout way to get to the adaptive part.
Jessica: I loved in your book where you really went more in-depth about adaptive music education is and what it is not because I think it's blurry. As someone who - this is my 19th year of teaching and I taught in the elementary age for 14 years and now I've been middle school five and I've had different students with disabilities come into the classroom and they'd have an aide, or not an aide depending on where they're at and what their IEP had for them and those things, but I just think it's blurry and I thought you did such a great job at explaining exactly what it is and what it is not in your book. So can you elaborate on that?
Kelly: Sure. So I think what we're seeing happening for this particular population of students is one of three things:
1- They're getting put in general music education classes where they're often times overstimulated or under stimulated. The teachers are obviously well-intentioned, trying their best to meet the need of every child in the classroom, but they're not necessarily trained with how to integrate that student into the class so those kids kind of end up getting left behind or so far ahead that they're just not in the same classroom even though they're physically in there - it's an included class.
2 - The second thing that happens is that our students aren't getting music education whatsoever. They're not having any kind of musical experience and this often happens in private schools where the focus is predominantly on life skills and on ABA and sort of the really really contained schools and those students often don't have music whatsoever.
3 - And then you have students who are getting music therapy as a replacement for music education, which I think this is where the line gets really blurry as you said. And I think what's really important to distinguish is that, you know, music therapy is a clinical practice where treatments are designed to address non-musical goals and music education is an academic study where we're addressing the musical goals of performance, of musicianship, of self-expression, of actually being good and getting better as a musician. They may have - music education does have inadvertent life skills that come about like self-confidence, improved mood, lessening of anxiety, all of the amazing things that happen because of music, but they are really two different things and I think it's really important to note that.
What I try to propose in my book is that what our students might need is music therapy; they might not. They might just need a music education that's inspired to meet them where they're at.
Jessica: Something that you say on page 37 is that the whole point is to adapt for the needs of students so they can participate fully in their own way in a music class so it's not just the therapy aspect, but that they are really growing as musicians.
Kelly: I think that's so important and that's why I do spend time. In my book I dedicate a whole chapter to performances, which is not a music therapy goal. That's not what it's about and I dedicate a whole chapter to songwriting because our students deserve to speak the language of music in the way that the rest of the world does and participate in music in the same way that their peers are. That's why I think we can really take our music education and meet our students where they're at no matter what their individual ability, disability, whatever you want to call it is.
Jessica: Something I really pulled out - it was actually in chapter one - was just how clearly you put it that you see students as a musician first and then second they are a student with a physical disability, but they are musicians first. And I just love that.
Kelly: Absolutely. In my book I talk about my little student Ella who had no arms and no legs and she rolled into my piano studio and said, "I want to audition for my school band." And I was like... there was that moment where I know I said inside myself "Eeee... how the...how are we going to do this? You don't have fingers. You know what are we going to do here?" And I watched her become a musician. She didn't need fingers. She just needed to love music and be willing to work at it. And that's where we need to reframe our thinking from disability to ability to, as you just said, to musician first. And that's what I think we can and that's what I hope this book will help people to reframe their minds and think of it that way.
Jessica: Something else that you talk about are entry points for how students can experience music and you know it's so easy, I know as I was reading it I was like 'Yes!' where you know that we listen with our ears, but our bodies experience music beyond just that one entry point. So what are some other entry points that students experience music through?
Kelly: Oh my goodness. Well, we know that the brain is stimulated in ten different parts by music. So we know that it's aroused by all kinds of stimuluses happening when music is happening. So let's say a student is deaf. They have the availability to feel and touch that music. It's funny - I was just at a Christmas party the other day and it was a live band and you know it was so loud. It was just a really like one of those booming parties where the speakers were right in your face and I could feel it in my chest. And I turned to my husband and I was like 'Do you feel that in your chest? Do you feel the bass in your chest? Do you feel the guitars in your arms?' And he was like 'Oh my god I do!' And I was like 'That's how we experience music beyond our ears.' So touch is definitely one of the most important pieces that I focus on when I look at a multi-sensory teaching approach for this population and also of course a visual.
I do visuals with everything that I teach. I try to incorporate visuals in all aspects - whatever that is. Whatever that visual is. I try to hit all three:
adaptations for sight
adaptations for touch
adaptations for sound
Jessica: And by visuals do you mean like powerpoints and electronics and technology or do you also mean like the manipulatives like where it's physical? Or both?
Kelly: Yeah. Absolutely. So visual can really mean a multitude of things. It can mean anything from a visual cue card that helps you to stimulate the idea 'what's your favorite instrument?' You've got violin, piano, and whatever and they're picking from that. It can mean a powerpoint. It can mean full media where you're playing a music video that stimulates that. In my classroom I have visual sound systems, which are light columns that actually - I like to think of them as sort of demonstrating the music like when you read a book you have like the lower frequencies are sort of reds and oranges and then as you go up you have the yellows and greens and those represent the higher frequencies and rhythms are also pulsed through these columns. So you're literally watching the music happen and so that's another element of visual stimulation you can add in there. I even have students draw sound. You know what does piano mean? What does mezzo forte mean? What does it look like? Can you draw that? What would that... and then you know you're looking at a picture of mezzo forte and then can you play that on an instrument. So creating that sort of integration of all three of these senses so students are really stimulated in all different kinds of ways.
Jessica: And as the students feel comfortable doing that, how do you think their independence is developed? You know it's like you talked in the book that the very thing that schools and institutions are wanting for these students are for them to be independent and that sometimes music is not seen as giving them that gift of independence, but in reality it really is. So how as they're using the manipulatives and as they're seeing the sound and having those entry points, how then are they able to grow in their independence through the music?
Kelly: So I think that the way that independence is fostered is two-fold. I think that it's because students practice expressing themselves and then grow confident in that self expression. That's one of the ways that independence is fostered. And then the second way is having that teacher that trusts them not to limit them. That looks at them as a musician first and then looks for those opportunities for creative miracles or what I call them: transformative artistic personal breakthroughs, where a student just really finds their self expression through music and then part of that is how the teacher then fosters that miracle. Doesn't shut it down. Celebrates it in a major way and allows for that creative miracle to continue to grow and develop.
Jessica: Yeah. Oh that's awesome. And I know that when you facilitate and create these experiences for students you have a really thorough explanation of how you set up your thirty minute lesson so that it takes them through kind of an entering stage and then it builds and then it, I'll kind of say, crescendos down into that...
Kelly: Oooh I love that.
Jessica: Can you tell us how you structure your lesson?
Kelly: Sure. So I structure my lesson very specifically and I use a specific routine that I've tried for many many years now, but there's nothing like sacred necessarily about this routine. I think it works because of the sort of energy build and the sort of energy pull back down at the end. The energy decrescendo, but I think the thing that's the most important thing to take away from it is the routine. That there needs to be a routine because students with disabilities thrive, I mean don't we all thrive on routine really?! When we can eliminate the element of surprise or the element of being startled we can have predictability there. That's what really helps guide the students.
I start with... I always check in with my students. I always do a quick check in. How are you? What's going on? I take the temperature of the room. Then I do traditional things. The Hello Song where that gives everyone the opportunity to do something they've practiced and express something they already know and can feel really confident in. And then I do physical and vocal warmups and then there's always sort of a curriculum component of the routine, which I talk very much in depth about in my book. How to create that routine - I mean. Sorry. Do over. How to create that kind of curriculum. And then I always have some kind of physical dance session and we culminate with cooldowns and celebrations of successes of the day.
So we celebrate whatever successes there are. Big or small. It doesn't matter whether it's 'I stayed in the room for the whole 30 minutes' or 'I sang an entire song from start to finish.' We celebrate all of those things in my class.
Jessica: Yeah. And for your warmups how do you decide what questions because you use a lot of questions...
Kelly: I do.
Jessica: ...for them to respond to. How do you decide which questions to ask?
Kelly: I look at a lot at... I try to know what's happening in my students life. What's going to be relevant to them. You know for example if prom is coming up and I have a group of five 16 year old girls I might ask them to talk about the color of their dress. I do something called musical choice making opportunities and you can find out a lot of detail about that in a chapter in my book, but basically they're just structure to provide the opportunity to provide every student to individually express themselves and guide their own learning through student-centered learning opportunities where they can use whatever communication method is best for them - becoming instantaneous composer through it. So they contribute a lyric to a very short four line song and that's theirs. They own that and we all sing it and honor whatever that communication was. So I've had students communicate that by everything from just saying their answer to forced choice response. So 'What's your favorite color - orange or blue?' Even down to 'Is orange your favorite color - yes or no?' So there's the full gamut of communication, but everyone gets that one on one time and everyone can express themselves in their own way and that expression is celebrated.
Jessica: I love too how not only do you ask them like 'Is your favorite color orange-yes or no?' but if they... I'm trying to word it correctly. But if they say something like - you can tell me if I'm saying it wrong - it's something like 'I don't want to answer it' or ...
Kelly: Yup. That's perfectly valid.
Jessica: Okay.
Kelly: Absolutely. I always have 'I don't want to share' or 'I don't like that.' Some students if you ask them 'Oh what body part would you like to move today, they might say 'I don't want to move any body part because I'm uncomfortable and I'm in my stander. My legs hurt. My feet hurt. And I don't want to move any body part.' As long as they're communicating I celebrate whatever that communication is. So you can say 'I don't feel like sharing today' as long as you're saying 'I don't feel like sharing today' or communicating that in some way either by your device or by sign language or whatever it is then okay, we're still going to say it. We're still going to sing your lyric and we're still going to celebrate what you said, but you can express yourself however you want to and what's right for you. So there's no pressure.
Jessica: I just thought that was important because so often it's like if you - I would think - as teachers sometimes we want them to answer the yes or no and anything else is not acceptable so it's great if they can truly express themselves and say what it is that they're really feeling and know that maybe tomorrow when they see you again or whenever it is that they'll see you again the answer may be different.
Kelly: Well, I think also with students with disabilities so often we indicate to them what their answer should be. So you know we have 'Do you like or are you happy or are you sad? Are you happy today? Are you happy today?' You know we're really prompting them over prompting the correct answer and I think that with music entering the scene all of a sudden there is no right or wrong answer; there's just expression. And that really eliminates the 'I want to say what you want to hear because I've been told five thousand times that you're happy if I'm happy. I'm going to say what's going to get you away from me. I'm going to say it as fast as I possibly can because that's what's going to get you away from me whatever it is.' Because the music's involved it eliminates that pressure around these default stock answers that a lot of our students with disabilities have become used to delivering.
Jessica: That's awesome. Talk a little bit about your curriculum work. So we talked about the warmup and then what exactly does the curriculum work look like within a lesson.
Kelly: So it definitely depends on the students themselves. So I think one of the sort of - I would guess - I am not a public school music educator, but one of the things that I think would be kind of attractive about being an adaptive music educator is the fact that we kind of get to be creative. We get to look at our students ourselves and be like 'Okay, what will make them engaged? What will, in some cases, wake them up? What will get them to want to be here and participate in this class?'
I base a lot of my curriculum decisions on who the students are. What they're going to be interested in. More so than I don't necessarily follow a unit on melody with a unit on harmony with a unit on... I believe I want to meet my students where they're at and where they will be interested. What they will be interested in. So that's a lot of how I make the decision. The units can really be - I mean they're along the lines of anything from music theory to music history to musical theater to I did around the world - anything really goes. There's not a wrong answer. The only wrong answer when you're teaching this population is if you're more worried about meeting some kind of requirement over actually getting them deeply involved. And I definitely favor depth over breadth. I think that longer units where you can really do a deep dive into the subject definitely benefits this population. Repetition, repeating a concept over and over, all of that benefits them. That's how I try to structure my curriculum.
Jessica: It's really nice to be able to really think about the students you're teaching and not just okay check this off and check this off.
Kelly: And meeting requirements. Yeah. And that's not to say that it isn't a goal for me to have my students speaking the language of music and being initiated into those conversations with the rest of the world. I am always thinking about that. You know for me I would rather teach a longer unit on whole note, quarter note, and half note rather than building every single week more musical theory, more music theory, more music theory just to check off a box and be able to say I did that. I'd rather have my students take away something they're really going to value which is 'I can speak the same language as other people because I understand whole note, quarter note, and half note.' And for me that's what I want them to be able to speak in terms of the language of music.
The way I lay out the curriculum is kind of you have these things you want to hit - the music theory, the performance, the music composition, the music appreciation, the music history. All of those things. You don't want to shove them into a curriculum unit, but you want to try to hit all of those things. Part of my job as an adaptive music teacher is exposure. Offering that broader perspective of what is the world like? What is the music like? Because a lot of our students they have their one type of music that they listen to. That's the one thing that they will only listen to. They are obsessed with whatever they - I have one student who comes to mind right now - they are obsessed with the National Anthem. Like that's it. That is the only kind of music that he ever wants to listen to and he will not listen to anything but that. And I think it's my job like 'Okay this may not be your preference, but you're going to have exposure so that you know about it when it comes up in your life.' Because music's a part of our world! It's just a part of our world.
Jessica: Yeah and I even have - my students do not have adaptive needs in my classroom, but even the same thing where they will listen to strictly rap. Or strictly pop music. Or so you know broadening their idea of 'okay, listen to this music' and making it relatable because if they can relate to it, they can understand it better.
So at the end of your lessons how do you wind down and do the closure?
Kelly: So I do a cool down usually just because the energy is pretty high at the beginning and that cool down can even be as simple as three breaths. Three deep breaths. I use that time to connect to each student. I feel like I'm sending them back out having had 30 minutes of love from my classroom feeling that I believe in them and I'm sending you back out into the world celebrating who you are. And then, like I said, we celebrate successes be they big or small. It doesn't matter what they are. It could be 'I remained in the classroom for three minutes and then I had to leave' all the way to 'I danced for the full time today' or 'I played the bells' or 'I played the xylophone.' Whatever it is. I celebrate that because one thing I truly believe is that our students their small incremental progress isn't celebrated enough. We see these incredible incredibly talented kids on something like America's Got Talent and they're so incredible. This is not to take anything away from the work that they do, but sometimes for our students their American Idol win is they danced for the first time in music class or they sang out loud one word and that's their Grammy Award. And we as a society don't celebrate that. We don't have a place for that. It's not even talked about and for me, I can end my classes celebrating that and they know that someone is.
Jessica: That's so important. And do the students themselves decide what they're celebrating or do you decide?
Kelly: Yes.
Jessica: Or you do?
Kelly: I play it a couple of ways So they decide predominantly. Sometimes I make them decide for their peers, which is a great way to build social and emotional connection and skills. And sometimes I decide with them so if they say something and I saw something else I often will add my own kind of two cents in there. If they say 'Well I'm celebrating singing today,' I might say 'well I thought you did a really great job playing the drum today.' You know, adding that in. Even things like 'you were a great friend today' or 'really supportive peer today - you helped your friend, you encouraged your friend.' Whatever it was. I sometimes chime in.
Jessica: I think that's so wonderful 'cause then just what a bright spot for their day.
Kelly: In a day that's filled with a lot, a lot of challenges. And a lot of 'do this, do better, push-push-push-push' and it's a moment to just pause, breathe, and remember I succeeded today. I did something today. And I get to sit there and watch them all celebrate their successes and just feel so grateful that I get to be in that moment with them.
Jessica: So special. Is there ever a time where a student has a hard time finding a success for that day?
Kelly: Oh my gosh - yes! Definitely. And I think that's where they'll kind of default to dancing or something kind of easier to say, but I think that we find it. We always find success. I had a student come into my class the other day and he couldn't calm his body. He was so... the music room is very overstimulating for him. He was just all over the room. Couldn't sit still. Couldn't sit! He was just so amped up and he was in the piano and the bells and just oh my gosh he was running around and he had to leave. So where's the success there? Okay well he came in with a positive attitude. He came in with a smile on his face. He came in excited for music. Was he so beyond excited that he couldn't get calm? Yes. But it doesn't mean there's not somewhere a success in there that we can celebrate.
Jessica: Yeah. I think that's so important to remember because it's so easy to look for or find the things that don't go right. As a teacher you're always trying those things. Okay I need to fix this or I need to help him instead of looking for those things like 'Today he did this' or 'This went right' and I think it's just a great reminder for all of us just to do that with our students.
Kelly: And I would remind teachers out there that are working with students with disabilities that sometimes it's the long slow gain with these kids. I can't expect the monument...some days you get it! Some days you just get those moments where you're look 'Oh! This is why I teach. This is amazing. This is it.' But it's slow incremental progress in a lot of other places and I think making sure that you have the patience for that and can see it as it's slowly, slowly, slowly growing, that's where it's really. You know, the student that you had at the beginning of the year and the student that you have at the end of the year in adaptive music instruction - it could look the same. It could. But if you look at that year you'll find those small, little, little things and that's what you have to grab on to.
But then that student in two years. And three years from then, I bet you will see that growth. It might just take a little longer and a little more belief and a little more thinking outside the box and a little more creativity to find that student's niche in music.
Jessica: How do you as a teacher keep yourself encouraged through that then? Because if it is so small and incremental how do you not become discouraged that the progress isn't faster?
Kelly: I think. That's hard. I think that, for me, this is where I'm meant to be. This is my home. This is my career. This is who I want to be and what I want to be doing and the people I want to be doing it with. So I think that I don't get frustrated when I see a student not necessarily not succeeding or not growing or progressing because I look at them and I go, 'Okay I have to try something different. I need a new tactic. I need a new way in.' And maybe it's just that they don't like music from Japan. Maybe they will really just jive on the hip hop and rap unit and that might be the thing that pulls them out of themselves.
But I really try to just like keep that super positive attitude that's really, really, really focused on potential and the fact that I can't know what they're capable of. No-one can so we can't presuppose anything. We can't say 'Oh they can't do it.' We don't know. So I just focus on the potential and I just keep with that. I stay with that in my head. I just really... I think about the kids. I think about their responses in music class and I really try to figure out how to meet their needs.
I think about one student who has a sensory processing disorder so music class is like torture because it's loud. And then there's the whole argument of well if you're out in the real world you'd have to face loud sounds so he's going to have to get used to it. And then I would overdo it with the volume. Pulling the volume way, way, way down. And finally it was like let's give him control over the volume. Let's have him choose what volume he wants the class to be taught at today and also be able to use a pain scale to tell me where it's hurting and where it's not hurting. And it's really empowered him. I also warn him before I sing. I say 'Okay I'm going to play the piano now. Here it goes.' And he doesn't cover his ears. We're moving in that right direction. And yeah, is he playing the oboe? No, but he's sitting in music class and he is there and he is present and he is getting an experience. And he is in control of that experience and empowered by that experience and that's going to mean something. I hope will mean something in his life.
Jessica: I love that that you - going from okay everything's too loud and thinking through okay what can he control. And giving him the tools so that he can make it work for him. Just it takes probably a lot of brainstorming going 'okay let's try this' - and if that doesn't work - yeah exactly! How does it work with the parents? How can the parents of these students - what can they do to encourage the music education with their children either at home or outside the home?
Kelly: Oh my gosh. Start by playing music. Just play it. Play it everywhere. Play it in your car. Have them feel the vibrations of the car. Whatever it is. Just play, play, play music. Structure time with your kid. Sit there. Let them sing for you. Sing for them. Bang on some tupperware. Like whatever it is just make music happen and then if you want to take it to the next level bring them to music class. Bring them to music class outside of their school. If they're not getting music class in their school, get them to a music class now because they need music in their life and it's gonna be a part of their world. So start them in a music class. I don't care if it's not an adaptive class. Figure it out. That teacher will have to figure it out. Read my book and you'll figure it out.
Get them into music class and if they're performing, GO! And move mountains. Get Auntie Mimi there and Grandpa Joe. Get them all there because they need to know that you care about them as a musician and as a performer and that you are fostering that growth and development.
What if they don't sing on key? What if you, in your mind, don't think they have an ounce of talent in their bones? I don't care. Show up. Be there. Encourage it. Because you don't know what they're going to do next week and you don't know what they're going to do the week after that.
Jessica: That's so awesome. I was like man that was so passionate. I'm like yes. Yes! Yes!
Kelly: You got me talking.
Jessica: I love it. I love it. No - it's so fantastic! The other aspect with adaptive music education is that sometimes - and I saw this in public school because I had pull-ins from different types of students with special needs and disabilities who came into my classroom and often times they were with an aide, but what do you recommend for teachers who they've got a classroom of 20 students and then say there's two or three students with aides - how do you incorporate, I'll say, strategies, but some of these... you know what I mean? How do you incorporate that so that you're still able to meet curriculum goals for those students, but you're also including and they're not just sitting there watching a music class, you know?
Kelly: Well, first of all get those aides up and out of their chairs and integrate them into your lesson plan. So that's going to be number one. You don't have twenty pairs of hands and you can't work one-on-one with every student in the class, but if they have an aide there, that's the aide's job. So build them into the plan. Whether that you're playing (I don't know why boomwhackers are in my head), but you're playing boomwhackers and you have a student using a wheelchair who physically can't hold the boomwhacker. Okay - enter the aide. They need to help with that rhythm or they need to help with whatever they're doing. So put that aide to work is number one. It's not a break. Music class is not a break. Integrate them into the lesson plan and don't be afraid to do so. They're there to support the student.
And secondly, start to reframe a little bit of the way that you teach to include all of the senses as best as you can. Start offering vibrational access. If you have that one kid who is deaf in your music class, you're going to have to include visuals and tactile stimulation because they're not going to necessarily hear what's happening so you're going to have to include that. If you have an interpreter, learn how to work with an interpreter and use them to help you really communicate the language of music because if you have to any skilled interpreter will be able to say to you, "Here. Hold on. Let me expand on that concept or let me create this in a way so that the student will be able to comprehend." But if they're not, then make sure that that's going through.
You know, I just think don't forget about that kid in the back row. I know that it's so easy to be like 'But I have twenty other kids.' Okay but you have actually twenty-one and they're there too and they deserve to have a music education experience as well. If you have to step out of your group leadership a little bit to work one-on-one with that kid, it's not going to hurt the other 20 kids because they can learn to wait like we all can. And they can learn that not everybody is going to experience music in the same way, but everyone gets to be a part of it. I think that that's the way to approach it and I get it. If you have twenty other kids it's really hard to manage the other one or two that aren't fitting in with the plan so the plan needs to be adjusted. Unfortunately if one student can't participate in the activity then all the students can't. I mean I know that's laying down a pretty hard and firm thing and maybe harder to do than say.
I have students with a full range. In my class I might have five students: one speaks ASL - sorry, one uses and communicates ASL, another one uses their device, another one uses their voice, another one is pretty much non-communicative in terms of any kind of language and they're only using cards. And this is all within one class and I have to design a class to meet all five of those kids needs. And that's a varying degree of means. One might just need really high behavioral support and another might be really well behaved, but deaf and unable to, you know, if we can work to meet all of those needs then we can certainly do it in the public education classroom because I guarantee you that out of those 20 students, one of those students - one or more of those students would benefit from visual prompts. Another one is going to benefit from tactile stimulation. We have to rethink the way that we're teaching these classes where these students are involved.
Jessica: I think it's such an important conversation and I really, like I said, I'm on chapter ten of your book...
Kelly: Yay!
Jessica: And I really think you know cause I felt like I really needed to learn more about adaptive music education even though I've taught for so long because I don't think it's - I'll say - a training that we've had. You don't get that kind of training in college or you get the experience of having students pull into your rooms or even having larger classes where the focus is more adaptive music ed, but until you've been in those situations figuring out how to include the students and how to make music education really work for them I think can be a challenge because I was never taught how to do that.
Kelly: Yeah - well that's why I wrote this book because I'm hoping that maybe we'll be able to help some teachers out there to feel confident 'cause I think that what keeps on happening is that you have that class of 20 and you have that one kid in the back row with that aide and the teacher goes 'Okay they make a few efforts, maybe a couple of efforts, okay to try to include the kid. Then it just, by the end of the year, that kid's back there coloring because they just can't - and it's not the teacher's fault like you said. They haven't gotten the training to work with that population. So you know, it's a question of really equipping teachers with the knowledge that they need to meet students where they're at. Every single one.
Jessica: Yeah. Yeah. So awesome. So tell us, I mean we've talked here and there about your book, but tell us more. The title of the book is Creative Miracles and I know it's a little longer after it.
Kelly: Creative Miracles: A Practitioner's Guide to Adaptive Music Instruction. It is currently, we're recording this December 15, we're currently in pre-sale. Hopefully by the time this airs we'll be up on Amazon and you can purchase my book at www.kellysurette.com/creativemiracles
Jessica: Awesome! And I am doing a free giveaway for one of Kelly's books so just look at Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter and I'll have the links for how to enter to get her book free. And I just think it's such an important conversation and so grateful to you for taking that time to write it because even though in my situation I currently don't have students with disabilities, you never know, you know. And I feel like thinking through how I use visuals, how I use the tactile, how I'm using these points of entry even with my general ed students, that's important too because it's so easy to get caught in a rut teaching a specific way or not considering all of the ways that students can experience music. So I just - I love it. I absolutely love it.
Kelly: Yay! I love it too. Thank you so much for having me on here.
Jessica: You're welcome!
Kelly: This was a blast. I'm so excited.
Jessica: Good! Well thank you!
Episode 77
Adaptive Music Education with Kelly Surette
Kelly's Bio:
Kelly Surette is the author of the book Creative Miracles: A Practitioner's Guide to Adaptive Music Instruction. Additionally, Kelly is an adaptive music instructor, performer, and composer living in The New England Area. She attended The Boston Conservatory as a musical theater major and received her Bachelor of Arts in Theater from Merrimack College. Kelly holds her Masters in Science in Music Industry Leadership from Northeastern University with a concentration in Entrepreneurship (selected RISE participant - Research, Innovation, and Scholarships Expo.) She currently works as an adaptive music instructor at The Children's Center for Communication and The Beverly School for the Deaf. Prior to working at CCCBSD, Kelly was the Executive Director of Amplifi Adaptive Music Programs, an organization that provided adaptive music programming for those with developmental, physical, and intellectual disabilities.
Kelly lives in Groveland, Massachusetts with her husband, Kristopher, and their two beautiful daughters, Brielle and Chelsea.
TRANSCRIPT OF THE SHOW
Jessica: Kelly, I think this is so amazing that you've written this book and I actually just told you this, but I'm on chapter ten of it and I'm just so impressed with all that you are contributing and just how important this topic is so just thank you so much for not only writing the book, but for coming on the podcast to talk with us.
Kelly: Thank you so much Jessica. I'm so excited to be here. I just - I've been waiting all day for this.
Jessica: Me too. I've been really excited to talk with you. So can you kind of just give us an idea about who you are and what you've done and what you do.
Kelly: Absolutely! So I'm what you would call an adaptive music educator so I work specifically with students and learners with disabilities including those with hearing loss. So I've been in the field for over a decade. I've been working with this population for quite a long time and so you know I'm very excited to be here and talk a little bit more about that.
Jessica: Yeah. So what led you to becoming an adaptive music educator?
Kelly: Well, it was sort of something I fell into because it's not exactly a field quite yet. I think it's getting there, but it started with being a voice and piano teacher and just having students with disabilities come through my voice lessons or piano lessons and just working with them and just realizing the level of impact and the power that music had on those students - almost more so than on their peers without disabilities. It began there and just from there I ended up going to graduate school in music industry leadership, which was basically music business is the idea. I was an entrepreneurship major and I created a program specifically designed to teach music and the performing arts to students with disabilities and then that program was piloted by a music school and launched. And I just kind of ended up ... from there I ended up... now I work as the adaptive music teacher for the school for the deaf with students with disabilities so they are deaf with disabilities and then the other part of the school is students who are hearing with disabilities.
So that's kind of how I landed. Sort of a round about way. I was always in musical theater. I've done musical theater from a very young age. I went to the Boston Conservatory. I did musical theater there. I've been in music just my whole life so it was sort of a natural progression in that way, but a roundabout way to get to the adaptive part.
Jessica: I loved in your book where you really went more in-depth about adaptive music education is and what it is not because I think it's blurry. As someone who - this is my 19th year of teaching and I taught in the elementary age for 14 years and now I've been middle school five and I've had different students with disabilities come into the classroom and they'd have an aide, or not an aide depending on where they're at and what their IEP had for them and those things, but I just think it's blurry and I thought you did such a great job at explaining exactly what it is and what it is not in your book. So can you elaborate on that?
Kelly: Sure. So I think what we're seeing happening for this particular population of students is one of three things:
1- They're getting put in general music education classes where they're often times overstimulated or under stimulated. The teachers are obviously well-intentioned, trying their best to meet the need of every child in the classroom, but they're not necessarily trained with how to integrate that student into the class so those kids kind of end up getting left behind or so far ahead that they're just not in the same classroom even though they're physically in there - it's an included class.
2 - The second thing that happens is that our students aren't getting music education whatsoever. They're not having any kind of musical experience and this often happens in private schools where the focus is predominantly on life skills and on ABA and sort of the really really contained schools and those students often don't have music whatsoever.
3 - And then you have students who are getting music therapy as a replacement for music education, which I think this is where the line gets really blurry as you said. And I think what's really important to distinguish is that, you know, music therapy is a clinical practice where treatments are designed to address non-musical goals and music education is an academic study where we're addressing the musical goals of performance, of musicianship, of self-expression, of actually being good and getting better as a musician. They may have - music education does have inadvertent life skills that come about like self-confidence, improved mood, lessening of anxiety, all of the amazing things that happen because of music, but they are really two different things and I think it's really important to note that.
What I try to propose in my book is that what our students might need is music therapy; they might not. They might just need a music education that's inspired to meet them where they're at.
Jessica: Something that you say on page 37 is that the whole point is to adapt for the needs of students so they can participate fully in their own way in a music class so it's not just the therapy aspect, but that they are really growing as musicians.
Kelly: I think that's so important and that's why I do spend time. In my book I dedicate a whole chapter to performances, which is not a music therapy goal. That's not what it's about and I dedicate a whole chapter to songwriting because our students deserve to speak the language of music in the way that the rest of the world does and participate in music in the same way that their peers are. That's why I think we can really take our music education and meet our students where they're at no matter what their individual ability, disability, whatever you want to call it is.
Jessica: Something I really pulled out - it was actually in chapter one - was just how clearly you put it that you see students as a musician first and then second they are a student with a physical disability, but they are musicians first. And I just love that.
Kelly: Absolutely. In my book I talk about my little student Ella who had no arms and no legs and she rolled into my piano studio and said, "I want to audition for my school band." And I was like... there was that moment where I know I said inside myself "Eeee... how the...how are we going to do this? You don't have fingers. You know what are we going to do here?" And I watched her become a musician. She didn't need fingers. She just needed to love music and be willing to work at it. And that's where we need to reframe our thinking from disability to ability to, as you just said, to musician first. And that's what I think we can and that's what I hope this book will help people to reframe their minds and think of it that way.
Jessica: Something else that you talk about are entry points for how students can experience music and you know it's so easy, I know as I was reading it I was like 'Yes!' where you know that we listen with our ears, but our bodies experience music beyond just that one entry point. So what are some other entry points that students experience music through?
Kelly: Oh my goodness. Well, we know that the brain is stimulated in ten different parts by music. So we know that it's aroused by all kinds of stimuluses happening when music is happening. So let's say a student is deaf. They have the availability to feel and touch that music. It's funny - I was just at a Christmas party the other day and it was a live band and you know it was so loud. It was just a really like one of those booming parties where the speakers were right in your face and I could feel it in my chest. And I turned to my husband and I was like 'Do you feel that in your chest? Do you feel the bass in your chest? Do you feel the guitars in your arms?' And he was like 'Oh my god I do!' And I was like 'That's how we experience music beyond our ears.' So touch is definitely one of the most important pieces that I focus on when I look at a multi-sensory teaching approach for this population and also of course a visual.
I do visuals with everything that I teach. I try to incorporate visuals in all aspects - whatever that is. Whatever that visual is. I try to hit all three:
adaptations for sight
adaptations for touch
adaptations for sound
Jessica: And by visuals do you mean like powerpoints and electronics and technology or do you also mean like the manipulatives like where it's physical? Or both?
Kelly: Yeah. Absolutely. So visual can really mean a multitude of things. It can mean anything from a visual cue card that helps you to stimulate the idea 'what's your favorite instrument?' You've got violin, piano, and whatever and they're picking from that. It can mean a powerpoint. It can mean full media where you're playing a music video that stimulates that. In my classroom I have visual sound systems, which are light columns that actually - I like to think of them as sort of demonstrating the music like when you read a book you have like the lower frequencies are sort of reds and oranges and then as you go up you have the yellows and greens and those represent the higher frequencies and rhythms are also pulsed through these columns. So you're literally watching the music happen and so that's another element of visual stimulation you can add in there. I even have students draw sound. You know what does piano mean? What does mezzo forte mean? What does it look like? Can you draw that? What would that... and then you know you're looking at a picture of mezzo forte and then can you play that on an instrument. So creating that sort of integration of all three of these senses so students are really stimulated in all different kinds of ways.
Jessica: And as the students feel comfortable doing that, how do you think their independence is developed? You know it's like you talked in the book that the very thing that schools and institutions are wanting for these students are for them to be independent and that sometimes music is not seen as giving them that gift of independence, but in reality it really is. So how as they're using the manipulatives and as they're seeing the sound and having those entry points, how then are they able to grow in their independence through the music?
Kelly: So I think that the way that independence is fostered is two-fold. I think that it's because students practice expressing themselves and then grow confident in that self expression. That's one of the ways that independence is fostered. And then the second way is having that teacher that trusts them not to limit them. That looks at them as a musician first and then looks for those opportunities for creative miracles or what I call them: transformative artistic personal breakthroughs, where a student just really finds their self expression through music and then part of that is how the teacher then fosters that miracle. Doesn't shut it down. Celebrates it in a major way and allows for that creative miracle to continue to grow and develop.
Jessica: Yeah. Oh that's awesome. And I know that when you facilitate and create these experiences for students you have a really thorough explanation of how you set up your thirty minute lesson so that it takes them through kind of an entering stage and then it builds and then it, I'll kind of say, crescendos down into that...
Kelly: Oooh I love that.
Jessica: Can you tell us how you structure your lesson?
Kelly: Sure. So I structure my lesson very specifically and I use a specific routine that I've tried for many many years now, but there's nothing like sacred necessarily about this routine. I think it works because of the sort of energy build and the sort of energy pull back down at the end. The energy decrescendo, but I think the thing that's the most important thing to take away from it is the routine. That there needs to be a routine because students with disabilities thrive, I mean don't we all thrive on routine really?! When we can eliminate the element of surprise or the element of being startled we can have predictability there. That's what really helps guide the students.
I start with... I always check in with my students. I always do a quick check in. How are you? What's going on? I take the temperature of the room. Then I do traditional things. The Hello Song where that gives everyone the opportunity to do something they've practiced and express something they already know and can feel really confident in. And then I do physical and vocal warmups and then there's always sort of a curriculum component of the routine, which I talk very much in depth about in my book. How to create that routine - I mean. Sorry. Do over. How to create that kind of curriculum. And then I always have some kind of physical dance session and we culminate with cooldowns and celebrations of successes of the day.
So we celebrate whatever successes there are. Big or small. It doesn't matter whether it's 'I stayed in the room for the whole 30 minutes' or 'I sang an entire song from start to finish.' We celebrate all of those things in my class.
Jessica: Yeah. And for your warmups how do you decide what questions because you use a lot of questions...
Kelly: I do.
Jessica: ...for them to respond to. How do you decide which questions to ask?
Kelly: I look at a lot at... I try to know what's happening in my students life. What's going to be relevant to them. You know for example if prom is coming up and I have a group of five 16 year old girls I might ask them to talk about the color of their dress. I do something called musical choice making opportunities and you can find out a lot of detail about that in a chapter in my book, but basically they're just structure to provide the opportunity to provide every student to individually express themselves and guide their own learning through student-centered learning opportunities where they can use whatever communication method is best for them - becoming instantaneous composer through it. So they contribute a lyric to a very short four line song and that's theirs. They own that and we all sing it and honor whatever that communication was. So I've had students communicate that by everything from just saying their answer to forced choice response. So 'What's your favorite color - orange or blue?' Even down to 'Is orange your favorite color - yes or no?' So there's the full gamut of communication, but everyone gets that one on one time and everyone can express themselves in their own way and that expression is celebrated.
Jessica: I love too how not only do you ask them like 'Is your favorite color orange-yes or no?' but if they... I'm trying to word it correctly. But if they say something like - you can tell me if I'm saying it wrong - it's something like 'I don't want to answer it' or ...
Kelly: Yup. That's perfectly valid.
Jessica: Okay.
Kelly: Absolutely. I always have 'I don't want to share' or 'I don't like that.' Some students if you ask them 'Oh what body part would you like to move today, they might say 'I don't want to move any body part because I'm uncomfortable and I'm in my stander. My legs hurt. My feet hurt. And I don't want to move any body part.' As long as they're communicating I celebrate whatever that communication is. So you can say 'I don't feel like sharing today' as long as you're saying 'I don't feel like sharing today' or communicating that in some way either by your device or by sign language or whatever it is then okay, we're still going to say it. We're still going to sing your lyric and we're still going to celebrate what you said, but you can express yourself however you want to and what's right for you. So there's no pressure.
Jessica: I just thought that was important because so often it's like if you - I would think - as teachers sometimes we want them to answer the yes or no and anything else is not acceptable so it's great if they can truly express themselves and say what it is that they're really feeling and know that maybe tomorrow when they see you again or whenever it is that they'll see you again the answer may be different.
Kelly: Well, I think also with students with disabilities so often we indicate to them what their answer should be. So you know we have 'Do you like or are you happy or are you sad? Are you happy today? Are you happy today?' You know we're really prompting them over prompting the correct answer and I think that with music entering the scene all of a sudden there is no right or wrong answer; there's just expression. And that really eliminates the 'I want to say what you want to hear because I've been told five thousand times that you're happy if I'm happy. I'm going to say what's going to get you away from me. I'm going to say it as fast as I possibly can because that's what's going to get you away from me whatever it is.' Because the music's involved it eliminates that pressure around these default stock answers that a lot of our students with disabilities have become used to delivering.
Jessica: That's awesome. Talk a little bit about your curriculum work. So we talked about the warmup and then what exactly does the curriculum work look like within a lesson.
Kelly: So it definitely depends on the students themselves. So I think one of the sort of - I would guess - I am not a public school music educator, but one of the things that I think would be kind of attractive about being an adaptive music educator is the fact that we kind of get to be creative. We get to look at our students ourselves and be like 'Okay, what will make them engaged? What will, in some cases, wake them up? What will get them to want to be here and participate in this class?'
I base a lot of my curriculum decisions on who the students are. What they're going to be interested in. More so than I don't necessarily follow a unit on melody with a unit on harmony with a unit on... I believe I want to meet my students where they're at and where they will be interested. What they will be interested in. So that's a lot of how I make the decision. The units can really be - I mean they're along the lines of anything from music theory to music history to musical theater to I did around the world - anything really goes. There's not a wrong answer. The only wrong answer when you're teaching this population is if you're more worried about meeting some kind of requirement over actually getting them deeply involved. And I definitely favor depth over breadth. I think that longer units where you can really do a deep dive into the subject definitely benefits this population. Repetition, repeating a concept over and over, all of that benefits them. That's how I try to structure my curriculum.
Jessica: It's really nice to be able to really think about the students you're teaching and not just okay check this off and check this off.
Kelly: And meeting requirements. Yeah. And that's not to say that it isn't a goal for me to have my students speaking the language of music and being initiated into those conversations with the rest of the world. I am always thinking about that. You know for me I would rather teach a longer unit on whole note, quarter note, and half note rather than building every single week more musical theory, more music theory, more music theory just to check off a box and be able to say I did that. I'd rather have my students take away something they're really going to value which is 'I can speak the same language as other people because I understand whole note, quarter note, and half note.' And for me that's what I want them to be able to speak in terms of the language of music.
The way I lay out the curriculum is kind of you have these things you want to hit - the music theory, the performance, the music composition, the music appreciation, the music history. All of those things. You don't want to shove them into a curriculum unit, but you want to try to hit all of those things. Part of my job as an adaptive music teacher is exposure. Offering that broader perspective of what is the world like? What is the music like? Because a lot of our students they have their one type of music that they listen to. That's the one thing that they will only listen to. They are obsessed with whatever they - I have one student who comes to mind right now - they are obsessed with the National Anthem. Like that's it. That is the only kind of music that he ever wants to listen to and he will not listen to anything but that. And I think it's my job like 'Okay this may not be your preference, but you're going to have exposure so that you know about it when it comes up in your life.' Because music's a part of our world! It's just a part of our world.
Jessica: Yeah and I even have - my students do not have adaptive needs in my classroom, but even the same thing where they will listen to strictly rap. Or strictly pop music. Or so you know broadening their idea of 'okay, listen to this music' and making it relatable because if they can relate to it, they can understand it better.
So at the end of your lessons how do you wind down and do the closure?
Kelly: So I do a cool down usually just because the energy is pretty high at the beginning and that cool down can even be as simple as three breaths. Three deep breaths. I use that time to connect to each student. I feel like I'm sending them back out having had 30 minutes of love from my classroom feeling that I believe in them and I'm sending you back out into the world celebrating who you are. And then, like I said, we celebrate successes be they big or small. It doesn't matter what they are. It could be 'I remained in the classroom for three minutes and then I had to leave' all the way to 'I danced for the full time today' or 'I played the bells' or 'I played the xylophone.' Whatever it is. I celebrate that because one thing I truly believe is that our students their small incremental progress isn't celebrated enough. We see these incredible incredibly talented kids on something like America's Got Talent and they're so incredible. This is not to take anything away from the work that they do, but sometimes for our students their American Idol win is they danced for the first time in music class or they sang out loud one word and that's their Grammy Award. And we as a society don't celebrate that. We don't have a place for that. It's not even talked about and for me, I can end my classes celebrating that and they know that someone is.
Jessica: That's so important. And do the students themselves decide what they're celebrating or do you decide?
Kelly: Yes.
Jessica: Or you do?
Kelly: I play it a couple of ways So they decide predominantly. Sometimes I make them decide for their peers, which is a great way to build social and emotional connection and skills. And sometimes I decide with them so if they say something and I saw something else I often will add my own kind of two cents in there. If they say 'Well I'm celebrating singing today,' I might say 'well I thought you did a really great job playing the drum today.' You know, adding that in. Even things like 'you were a great friend today' or 'really supportive peer today - you helped your friend, you encouraged your friend.' Whatever it was. I sometimes chime in.
Jessica: I think that's so wonderful 'cause then just what a bright spot for their day.
Kelly: In a day that's filled with a lot, a lot of challenges. And a lot of 'do this, do better, push-push-push-push' and it's a moment to just pause, breathe, and remember I succeeded today. I did something today. And I get to sit there and watch them all celebrate their successes and just feel so grateful that I get to be in that moment with them.
Jessica: So special. Is there ever a time where a student has a hard time finding a success for that day?
Kelly: Oh my gosh - yes! Definitely. And I think that's where they'll kind of default to dancing or something kind of easier to say, but I think that we find it. We always find success. I had a student come into my class the other day and he couldn't calm his body. He was so... the music room is very overstimulating for him. He was just all over the room. Couldn't sit still. Couldn't sit! He was just so amped up and he was in the piano and the bells and just oh my gosh he was running around and he had to leave. So where's the success there? Okay well he came in with a positive attitude. He came in with a smile on his face. He came in excited for music. Was he so beyond excited that he couldn't get calm? Yes. But it doesn't mean there's not somewhere a success in there that we can celebrate.
Jessica: Yeah. I think that's so important to remember because it's so easy to look for or find the things that don't go right. As a teacher you're always trying those things. Okay I need to fix this or I need to help him instead of looking for those things like 'Today he did this' or 'This went right' and I think it's just a great reminder for all of us just to do that with our students.
Kelly: And I would remind teachers out there that are working with students with disabilities that sometimes it's the long slow gain with these kids. I can't expect the monument...some days you get it! Some days you just get those moments where you're look 'Oh! This is why I teach. This is amazing. This is it.' But it's slow incremental progress in a lot of other places and I think making sure that you have the patience for that and can see it as it's slowly, slowly, slowly growing, that's where it's really. You know, the student that you had at the beginning of the year and the student that you have at the end of the year in adaptive music instruction - it could look the same. It could. But if you look at that year you'll find those small, little, little things and that's what you have to grab on to.
But then that student in two years. And three years from then, I bet you will see that growth. It might just take a little longer and a little more belief and a little more thinking outside the box and a little more creativity to find that student's niche in music.
Jessica: How do you as a teacher keep yourself encouraged through that then? Because if it is so small and incremental how do you not become discouraged that the progress isn't faster?
Kelly: I think. That's hard. I think that, for me, this is where I'm meant to be. This is my home. This is my career. This is who I want to be and what I want to be doing and the people I want to be doing it with. So I think that I don't get frustrated when I see a student not necessarily not succeeding or not growing or progressing because I look at them and I go, 'Okay I have to try something different. I need a new tactic. I need a new way in.' And maybe it's just that they don't like music from Japan. Maybe they will really just jive on the hip hop and rap unit and that might be the thing that pulls them out of themselves.
But I really try to just like keep that super positive attitude that's really, really, really focused on potential and the fact that I can't know what they're capable of. No-one can so we can't presuppose anything. We can't say 'Oh they can't do it.' We don't know. So I just focus on the potential and I just keep with that. I stay with that in my head. I just really... I think about the kids. I think about their responses in music class and I really try to figure out how to meet their needs.
I think about one student who has a sensory processing disorder so music class is like torture because it's loud. And then there's the whole argument of well if you're out in the real world you'd have to face loud sounds so he's going to have to get used to it. And then I would overdo it with the volume. Pulling the volume way, way, way down. And finally it was like let's give him control over the volume. Let's have him choose what volume he wants the class to be taught at today and also be able to use a pain scale to tell me where it's hurting and where it's not hurting. And it's really empowered him. I also warn him before I sing. I say 'Okay I'm going to play the piano now. Here it goes.' And he doesn't cover his ears. We're moving in that right direction. And yeah, is he playing the oboe? No, but he's sitting in music class and he is there and he is present and he is getting an experience. And he is in control of that experience and empowered by that experience and that's going to mean something. I hope will mean something in his life.
Jessica: I love that that you - going from okay everything's too loud and thinking through okay what can he control. And giving him the tools so that he can make it work for him. Just it takes probably a lot of brainstorming going 'okay let's try this' - and if that doesn't work - yeah exactly! How does it work with the parents? How can the parents of these students - what can they do to encourage the music education with their children either at home or outside the home?
Kelly: Oh my gosh. Start by playing music. Just play it. Play it everywhere. Play it in your car. Have them feel the vibrations of the car. Whatever it is. Just play, play, play music. Structure time with your kid. Sit there. Let them sing for you. Sing for them. Bang on some tupperware. Like whatever it is just make music happen and then if you want to take it to the next level bring them to music class. Bring them to music class outside of their school. If they're not getting music class in their school, get them to a music class now because they need music in their life and it's gonna be a part of their world. So start them in a music class. I don't care if it's not an adaptive class. Figure it out. That teacher will have to figure it out. Read my book and you'll figure it out.
Get them into music class and if they're performing, GO! And move mountains. Get Auntie Mimi there and Grandpa Joe. Get them all there because they need to know that you care about them as a musician and as a performer and that you are fostering that growth and development.
What if they don't sing on key? What if you, in your mind, don't think they have an ounce of talent in their bones? I don't care. Show up. Be there. Encourage it. Because you don't know what they're going to do next week and you don't know what they're going to do the week after that.
Jessica: That's so awesome. I was like man that was so passionate. I'm like yes. Yes! Yes!
Kelly: You got me talking.
Jessica: I love it. I love it. No - it's so fantastic! The other aspect with adaptive music education is that sometimes - and I saw this in public school because I had pull-ins from different types of students with special needs and disabilities who came into my classroom and often times they were with an aide, but what do you recommend for teachers who they've got a classroom of 20 students and then say there's two or three students with aides - how do you incorporate, I'll say, strategies, but some of these... you know what I mean? How do you incorporate that so that you're still able to meet curriculum goals for those students, but you're also including and they're not just sitting there watching a music class, you know?
Kelly: Well, first of all get those aides up and out of their chairs and integrate them into your lesson plan. So that's going to be number one. You don't have twenty pairs of hands and you can't work one-on-one with every student in the class, but if they have an aide there, that's the aide's job. So build them into the plan. Whether that you're playing (I don't know why boomwhackers are in my head), but you're playing boomwhackers and you have a student using a wheelchair who physically can't hold the boomwhacker. Okay - enter the aide. They need to help with that rhythm or they need to help with whatever they're doing. So put that aide to work is number one. It's not a break. Music class is not a break. Integrate them into the lesson plan and don't be afraid to do so. They're there to support the student.
And secondly, start to reframe a little bit of the way that you teach to include all of the senses as best as you can. Start offering vibrational access. If you have that one kid who is deaf in your music class, you're going to have to include visuals and tactile stimulation because they're not going to necessarily hear what's happening so you're going to have to include that. If you have an interpreter, learn how to work with an interpreter and use them to help you really communicate the language of music because if you have to any skilled interpreter will be able to say to you, "Here. Hold on. Let me expand on that concept or let me create this in a way so that the student will be able to comprehend." But if they're not, then make sure that that's going through.
You know, I just think don't forget about that kid in the back row. I know that it's so easy to be like 'But I have twenty other kids.' Okay but you have actually twenty-one and they're there too and they deserve to have a music education experience as well. If you have to step out of your group leadership a little bit to work one-on-one with that kid, it's not going to hurt the other 20 kids because they can learn to wait like we all can. And they can learn that not everybody is going to experience music in the same way, but everyone gets to be a part of it. I think that that's the way to approach it and I get it. If you have twenty other kids it's really hard to manage the other one or two that aren't fitting in with the plan so the plan needs to be adjusted. Unfortunately if one student can't participate in the activity then all the students can't. I mean I know that's laying down a pretty hard and firm thing and maybe harder to do than say.
I have students with a full range. In my class I might have five students: one speaks ASL - sorry, one uses and communicates ASL, another one uses their device, another one uses their voice, another one is pretty much non-communicative in terms of any kind of language and they're only using cards. And this is all within one class and I have to design a class to meet all five of those kids needs. And that's a varying degree of means. One might just need really high behavioral support and another might be really well behaved, but deaf and unable to, you know, if we can work to meet all of those needs then we can certainly do it in the public education classroom because I guarantee you that out of those 20 students, one of those students - one or more of those students would benefit from visual prompts. Another one is going to benefit from tactile stimulation. We have to rethink the way that we're teaching these classes where these students are involved.
Jessica: I think it's such an important conversation and I really, like I said, I'm on chapter ten of your book...
Kelly: Yay!
Jessica: And I really think you know cause I felt like I really needed to learn more about adaptive music education even though I've taught for so long because I don't think it's - I'll say - a training that we've had. You don't get that kind of training in college or you get the experience of having students pull into your rooms or even having larger classes where the focus is more adaptive music ed, but until you've been in those situations figuring out how to include the students and how to make music education really work for them I think can be a challenge because I was never taught how to do that.
Kelly: Yeah - well that's why I wrote this book because I'm hoping that maybe we'll be able to help some teachers out there to feel confident 'cause I think that what keeps on happening is that you have that class of 20 and you have that one kid in the back row with that aide and the teacher goes 'Okay they make a few efforts, maybe a couple of efforts, okay to try to include the kid. Then it just, by the end of the year, that kid's back there coloring because they just can't - and it's not the teacher's fault like you said. They haven't gotten the training to work with that population. So you know, it's a question of really equipping teachers with the knowledge that they need to meet students where they're at. Every single one.
Jessica: Yeah. Yeah. So awesome. So tell us, I mean we've talked here and there about your book, but tell us more. The title of the book is Creative Miracles and I know it's a little longer after it.
Kelly: Creative Miracles: A Practitioner's Guide to Adaptive Music Instruction. It is currently, we're recording this December 15, we're currently in pre-sale. Hopefully by the time this airs we'll be up on Amazon and you can purchase my book at www.kellysurette.com/creativemiracles
Jessica: Awesome! And I am doing a free giveaway for one of Kelly's books so just look at Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter and I'll have the links for how to enter to get her book free. And I just think it's such an important conversation and so grateful to you for taking that time to write it because even though in my situation I currently don't have students with disabilities, you never know, you know. And I feel like thinking through how I use visuals, how I use the tactile, how I'm using these points of entry even with my general ed students, that's important too because it's so easy to get caught in a rut teaching a specific way or not considering all of the ways that students can experience music. So I just - I love it. I absolutely love it.Kelly: Yay! I love it too. Thank you so much for having me on here.
Jessica: You're welcome!
Kelly: This was a blast. I'm so excited.
Jessica: Good! Well thank you!
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