ABSTRACT
Mrs. Sweet has taught for ten years, with eight years of experience in the urban setting. Presently, she teaches high school strings and orchestra in an arts-intensive public high school located in a large urban city. Although students must audition for acceptance into the school, Mrs. Sweet acknowledges that their skills are often at a novice level: Most of the students who audition have only played for a year and that experience is usually ensemble-based. We have to see if they’re raw beginners or they have potential. For instance, some of them don’t read music. When they come to the audition, this is what we look for: Do they have a good ear? What are their grades? What kinds of books do they read? In other words, do they initiate reading on their own? If I can tell they are interested in learning and have a good ear, then I will accept them.
