Improving Your Teaching Effectiveness
Planning the lesson: A studio teacher's self-examination checklist
By James Reel
ROBERT JESSELSON, A FORMER PRESIDENT of the American String Teachers Association, has been a studio cello teacher for 35 years, for many of them as a professor at the University of South Carolina. Along the way, he had to figure out exactly what sort of teacher he was, and how he could best serve the students who came to him. He’s seen that many teachers, whether recent graduates or seasoned professionals who give lessons on the side, haven’t developed a clear idea of what a studio teacher needs to do—something much more strict and detailed than the inspirational work of teachers who handle either absolute beginners or advanced students in master classes.
Some string teachers have been able to take courses in pedagogy or psychology, or at least learn techniques by example from their own teachers, but not everyone is so fortunate.
Jesselson recommends that every teacher undertake a continuing process of self-awareness,introspection, and self-criticism.
To that end,he has compiled a comprehensive list of (mostly) yes-or-no questions studio teachers should ask themselves about their process of planning and teaching,and their overall teaching personality.
—James Reel
PREPARATION
1. Do you have a clear idea of your short-term, middle-term, and long-term goals for the student?
2. Do you think about these goals and revise them from week to week?
3. Do you spend some time thinking about your lessons and the students, visualizing yourself in action, imagining your students’ possible responses, etc.?
4. Do you have a clear idea of your priorities from lesson to lesson?
5. Do you make these priorities clear to your students?
6. Are you aware of the balance of aural, visual, and sensory-motor approaches in planning your lesson?
7. Do you experiment with new approaches to old problems (even if they don’t always work)?
8. Do you have three or four solutions for the same problem in case the first one does not help the student?
9. Are you planning ahead with several exercises or tricks to help solve a musical problem?
10. Are you coming up with new exercises to solve problems, as well as new metaphors for addressing technical and musical issues?
11. Are you always aware of the technical concepts you are working with?
12. Are you thinking carefully about how to analyze the technical problems you are encountering in your students’ playing?
13. Do you practice the music that your students are playing so that you can demonstrate adequately to them?
14. Have you planned clear, step-by-step directions as to how the students should work and practice at home?
15. Do you plan for the lesson ahead of time, instead of winging it?
DURING THE LESSON
1. Do you have a “plan” for a lesson, which might include scales/arpeggios, exercises,etudes, and pieces?
2. Are you aware of the “rhythm” of the lesson, and are you pacing the lesson correctly?
3. Are you requiring that the student memorize something every week?
4. Are you always working on a variety of things with your students? Left-hand technique and right-hand technique?
5. Are you letting the student play rather than dominating the lesson with talk?
6. Are you having the student check notes for intonation?
7. Are you asking the student questions, using the Socratic method?
8. Do you check the student’s knowledge of key signatures, musical terms, periods of history, etc.?
9. Are you only having the student do “play throughs” of pieces, or are you working on the details?
10. Are you only working on the details, or are you letting the student do “play throughs”of pieces?
11. Are you praising your student when he/she has done something well, even if it is only alittle thing?
12. Are you aware of the different learning styles that people have?
13. Are you aware of accessing the student’s left and right brains for technical and musical issues?
14. Are you giving the student too many left brain things to think of at one time—overloading him or her?
15. Are you just teaching through the right brain and not giving the student the technical information he or she needs?
16. Does the student know the assignment?
17. Has the student practiced and prepared?
18. Is the student getting through an adequate amount of material?
19. Is the student progressing from week to week?
20. Is the student keeping a notebook?
21. Are the lessons being held on a regular basis?
22. Are you making up or re-scheduling lessons that you had to miss?
23. Is there someone who can take your student if you cannot make up the lesson so thestudent does not lose a week’s worth of material?
24. Are you communicating with the parents if there is a problem?
25. Does the student feel good about him/herself?
26. Are you clear in your language and your directions?
27. Do you have long-term goals for your students, such as recitals, master classes,performances?
28. Does your student have a clear idea of what is expected from him or her?
29. Do your lessons begin and end on time?
30. How musically are your students playing?
31. Do you cover a lot of material at a comfortable level, or do you get “bogged down” and spend too much time on something?
32. Does your student have enough material to practice—or maybe too much to do well?
33. If you spent lots of time in the lesson on one detail, will the student “spin his wheels” during the week with material that came into the lesson already prepared but not heard?
34. Do you demonstrate occasionally so the student hears a model of sound, tempo, etc.?
35. Do you sometimes throw out all of the above ideas and do something spontaneous?
36. Do you spend time in the lesson discussing practice, sometimes even “pretending” that they are practicing to see how they work on a problem?
37. In other words, do you make them independent of you rather than dependent on you as their teacher?
38. Are you prepared to “pass them on” to the next teacher when you feel that you have nothing more to teach them at this level?
YOUR TEACHING PERSONALITY
1. Are you creative in your teaching?
2. Do the students feel free to talk to you about their problems?
3. As a teacher, are you yourself? Is your teaching a comfortable reflection of your personality?
4. Does the student have a sense of having accomplished something after the lesson?
5. Do you have a sense of having accomplished something after the lesson?
6. Do you feel totally involved in your teaching?
7. Are you enthusiastic? Do you think you have a real spark in every lesson?
8. Are you flexible as a person and as a teacher?
9. Do you communicate to the students accurately what you mean to say?
10. Do you admit when you are in the wrong, or do you project a false image of being perfect?
11. Would you teach the same way if you were being observed by someone?
12. Is your relationship with your student a good one?
13. Are you reaching your students?
14. If not,what can you do to get through to them?
15. Are you able to deal with occasional frustration?
16. Have you thought about the student as a person, not just a cello-machine that you see once a week?
17. Are you varying your style and approach to conform with the student, or do you treat your pupils as if they come to you in one mold?
18. Are you“getting inside the student’s head,” trying to understand what makes him or her“tick”?
19. Are you being too harsh?
20. Are you being too lenient?
21. Is there a rich sense of enjoyment in the lesson?
22. Do you use humor in the lesson?
23. Is the atmosphere of the lesson a positive one, or is it consistently negative?
24. How musical are you in your teaching?
25. Do you speak with a pleasing voice quality?
26. Does your teaching have energy? Are you dynamic?
27. Do you leave your problems at home when you step into a lesson?
28. Do your students trust you implicitly? Have you established the kind of relationship in which they feel safe about following you into the unknown?
29. Are you working to improve your communication skills?
30. Do you keep a balance between holding their hands and pushing them off the diving board?
31. Do you really care about your teaching, or are you just doing it for the money?
32. Are you learning from your students?
33. Do you realize that if you are not changing for the better as a person, you are not changing for the better as a teacher?
Source: http://www.allthingsstrings.com/ ... spx?articleid=23779
Want to find a music book store.. Click here...!!
http://www.sheetmusicplus.com/instruments/piano-sheet-music/900069
Free Download link:
http://violinsheetmusic.org/classical/b/bach/
No comments:
Post a Comment