Assignments

Author: admin

4 Mar

I had a “slap the forehead” moment this past week when I visited my nephews and peeked at their assignment books for piano. Their piano teacher numbers each practice assignment! Brilliant! I always simply list each item, often bulleting each assignment. Many times, my students come back to lessons having missed a practice assignment.

Now, instead of this,

warm up- C Major scale. Watch the fingering!
Lesson Book pg. 3. Remember to play staccato!
Technique Book pg 2.

an assignment page will look something like this:

warm up- C Major scale. Watch the fingering!
Lesson Book pg. 3. Remember to play staccato!
Technique Book pg. 2.

Now, they know exactly how many pieces and warm ups they should be practicing.

How do you list student’s asssignments?

Filed under: Solutions to My Problems

5 Responses for "Assignments"

Dan the Music Master March 5th, 2009 at 8:27 am 1
I’ve always used the numbering technique (number one being the most important). This is the technique that all of my past teachers (and university professors) had used.
Cristina March 5th, 2009 at 10:53 am 2
I’ve always just listed the assignments with bullet points as well, but I like the idea of numbering them. I’ll try that this week. Something else I’ve been doing lately is to use a different colour for each assigned song/exercise. That way it looks a bit more fun too.
Heidi March 7th, 2009 at 10:26 pm 3
Thanks for the idea! I generally just write assignments down as I think of them, probably not the best way. This sounds more easier for me and my students!
Laura March 10th, 2009 at 6:50 pm 4
I started numbering assignments just last year. I had been bulletting them before that. I do think it makes it easier for them to decipher at home.
Tammy June 27th, 2009 at 5:47 am 5
I’ve always numbered assignments, trying to remember to list technique and related warm-up material first, but emphasizing that it can be done at the end, too. I also try to be very specific for my beginners & transfer students so they & their parents know exactly what and how to practice for the week. An interesting question to ask at the next lesson is, “What did your notebook say to do on this piece this week?” You can tell right there whether or not your student is reading the assignment or not. Ouch.