Teaching Assistant Ass1

1.   Describe how you might contribute to a lesson given to a group of seven old children learning to play percussion instruments.

Firstly I would need to set up the classroom and percussion instruments as per instructions from the teacher, ensuring that everything is set up safely. One way to set the instruments out could be to have them neatly in boxes or out on the tables, where the children can easily see the different instruments, and where once they have been taught about them can easily choose and reach which instrument they would like to play.
To assist in teaching the children about the instrument, I would consider preparing visual aids; images of the instruments which the children could pair up with the names of the instruments, helping the children associate the written word with the physical instrument.
I could then go on to assist with teaching the children about rhythms, getting them to beat or shake their instrument to a simple rhythm, following the lead of myself and the teacher. The children could be made to change tempo and volume while beating to the rhythm. They could then be split into smaller groups and encouraged to play together; each group playing at a different tempo or volume.
I could also prepare a series of different patterns of rhythms using symbols, have all the children together learning these rhythms, again following the lead of myself and the teacher, and eventually lead up to smaller groups playing a different rhythm at the same time, showing the children how rhythms can be used to create a tune. While the children were doing this activity I would need to assist in making sure that they were following the rhythm correctly.
It could then be taken a step further by encouraging and helping the children to write their own music score, which once practised could be recorded and played back to them, allowing them to hear what they have created and achieved.
Throughout the lesson I would also help ensure that the instruments are...