Emma~ FLASHCARD EXTRAVAGANZA
Today I gave Emma an hour long lesson. This was probably one of the more frustrating lessons I’ve given her, but I take the blame as my tired state disallowed me to stay on task. Regardless, I think that by the end of the lesson I actually got her excited about practicing this weekend.
We went through her gold sheet from the string project stations. I was upset but not too surprised that she didn’t have the highest scores on the majority of the tasks. I asked her if she had practiced what the teacher suggested for each task and she said that she didn’t have the time to practice at all this week! I, with my wit still in tact despite my drowsiness, responded with telling her that I don’t have time to practice either but I always somehow get in 2 hours a day!
I really wanted to focus on just a few things during the lesson so that she could concentrate on those few things during the next couple of days before Monday’s class. I went over flashcards with her (making her sit down, otherwise she would LITERALLY dance around the room while I was trying to get her to say the note names) starting with just saying what the note name is, then playing and saying. Near the end of the flashcard time (only about 5 minutes or so) I started counting down and then changing after I counted from 3 to 1, which obviously frustrated her, but she started to actually get the notes quicker, before I even got to 1.
I told her that I wanted her to study her flashcards really hard this weekend and have her mom or dad practice changing the flashcards after 3 seconds. After flashcards we went immediately to composition reading. The flashcards helped with her getting the note names but she still had trouble with playing through the song without stopping. I made her play the hard parts at least 4 times and then the whole song. This helped a lot!
She asked me why I kept making her play things over and over. I told her why AFTER she did it. I explained to her that before she repeated it she was having a hard time getting through the song, but the fourth time she played it it was almost perfect! She noticed this too. I told her that this is how she should practice.
We went over a lot of other things on the sheet, but my main focus for her this weekend was note names with flash cards and composition assignments.
I told her that today she only played like an okay violist, but I know that Emma is a great violist and that the great violist would come out if she practiced really hard. I gave her a challenge: She had to get a 3 on her flashcards and 3’s all the way down in the student composition assignment. I said, if she got any 1’s I would be very upset, and 2’s would be okay, but if she got all 3’s I would be so proud of her and maybe even get her any piece of candy she wants the next week.
Here’s a funny thing: I ask all of my students after their lessons if they’re “doing anything fun this weekend” or “what are you doing this weekend?” And when I asked Emma she said, “Practicing my flashcards and my composition assignments really hard.” I didn’t realize I had drilled that into her head THAT much during the lesson.
Anywho, I really hope she get’s 3’s on those things, at the very least. I’m excited to see how many people show up to Monday’s Dolce class, hopefully more than 4 
hehe
isucelloprof said,
April 9, 2008 at 10:08 pm
SO, are the results in? Did she get 3’s on her flashcards and composition readings? I’m anxiously awaiting the results! It sounds like in the end it was a productive lesson, if a bit repetitive for you. I like your tactic of having her figure out/realize the importance of repetitions just because she was able to discover that she improved. You can recommend that she use dice to practice: roll them to see how many times she should repeat the hard parts, or be able to play something without stoping. (You can “threaten” to give her one that goes from 1-20! But, even with 1-6, most of the time she’ll get a 2-5, so it’s worth it, and kind of fun for them.)
One word of advice- I’m not sure if you used the word “upset” when you were talking about upset vs okay vs really proud (maybe you wrote that and said something else). Generally that is too strong of a word; I would go for “disappointed”, although that is pretty strong too. Or just say you won’t be impressed with the results, or something that gets the point across. Generally, I think that was a good tactic, because she will want to make you “proud” (and get a piece of candy, too!) We just always have to be really careful with word choice with these youngsters!!
iluviola said,
April 13, 2008 at 5:08 am
yes she got mostly 3’s which was great! i am so proud of her!:) she practiced so hard and did so much better! when i said upset I made a frowny face like i would be sad and she giggled, i didn’t mean it like i would be angry or anything…but your point is well taken, i agree we have to be careful:) THANK YOU!