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Candy,
I always offer to get the books, but the mom said she would. I think she thought she could save money by internet shopping.

I go over each page assigned, and write the date, underline or circle pertinent info, I never blindly say, "go forth!"

The next lesson, if completed and done, I check it off. If it needs more work,or just a great warm-up or review, I check the old date and add another date. If not done at all, I mark a line through and add anther date. Easy system!

The Music Tree write-up was because he was going on vacation right after first lesson, and the only work to do is write numbers on a hand, color patterns, write ABCDEFG, and draw arrows up or down. I had my non-musical husband look over my notes and he said it was very easy. He was afraid it was too easy, and cautioned me to keep it to only K, 1st, and 2nd graders. And that is what I have done in the past, but with this new boy, not from my school, I figured I might need to do a bit of spoon feeding.

Anyway, my big question is, if you do no books for two months, do you give them any pages at all? I have them play "Jingle Bells" by finger number, and then by note names, along with "Mary Had a Little Lamb" and "Twinkle, Twinkle." But I show them a page (two handwritten by me) of where to place hands, and the numbers, and then notes.

We clap out rhythms (a la Duckworth "beat's in the feet!) and learn quarter and half note, sometimes whole note.

We play patterns all up and down the keyboard, and work on dynamics, and ear training (up? forte?)

part of why I have them do some writing is because I can see their fine motor skills that way, and also adjust lessons as we move on. One of my students loves writing out vocab definitions in cursive, along with cute little pictures. Another is slightly dyslexic, so we do very little writing. Others love doing work in colored pencil, for fun, so I give them supplemental worksheets.

I tell them, "if your fingers are moving, so is your mouth. always say the finger numbers or note names or values or count as you play."

So they have physical touch and feel, they are seeing it on the page, plus hearing themselves say it. Plus, I tap on their back and often speak along with them, as encouragement.

Anyway, this student was a gamble, just for a brief summer time. I will not do so next summer.

Candy, I really would like to know more how you structure your first two months, especially with an older beginner, or a very good student, with no books at all.

Thanks!

Hi Missbelle,

As I stated in my last post, I can go without books for three or four weeks with the type of student you describe. Such a student would still need part of the lesson to be devoted to note-naming by the eighth week so there would still be reminders of the none-score work.

To describe my method in detail would be wrong. However, the part I can help you with is the concept of assigning work. (By the way, one teacher on this forum had a terrific idea of five lessons in one week for beginners, which would have helped prevent the vacation problem you stated.)

For numbers on a hand, ask the student to put his hand on a paper and trace it with the opposite hand. Then ask him to write the numbers on the drawn hand. Then do the same with the other hand. Then do the many things you already do to reinforce the numbers, such as teaching Jingle Bells by finger number. The point is, why send the student home to write this in a book? He won't learn it as well as with you. And you don't get paid for that tidbit of information if he miraculously comes back with the numbers written in. So why? When he's home, he can play around with concepts you've presented but why put his mind to a particular, abstract concept?

I could go on, but I think you mainly need to reinforce concepts through the drama of the lesson, and your presence, not through the abstract nature of homework assigning.

I'm not there at your lessons so I don't really know what you're doing.
But... the phrase "go over" is always a red flag for me. You shouldn't be "going over" anything - you should be teaching it. "Going over" puts the focus and the emphasis on the page. Teaching puts the focus and emphasis on the student, where it should be. Going over is what I do with my grocery list when at the store, "yup, got the chocolate ice cream. check." Teaching is so much more.
What might be critically missing that should be part of teaching is checking/testing for comprehension.

You also mention you never have a student "go forth". I hope you don't mean students of all levels. Remember our ultimate goal for our students is for them to "go forth".

okay, now we are just on semantics.

go over is going over the page, woth what they are supposed to be working on, what to practice. I tend to use the Boy Scout method called EDGE-

The EDGE Method

The EDGE method is a four step method for teaching a skill:

Explain
Demonstrate
Guide
Enable

Explain
First explain what you will be doing. Tell them the steps involved. Visual aids might be helpful for this step. Use questions to gauge their understanding.

Demonstrate
Show them how to do the skill. Demonstrate the steps using the actual materials. Describe what you are doing.

Guide
Let them practice the skill. Guide and coach them as they try to do it themselves. This step will take the most time.

Enable
Enable them by letting them do the skill themselves without any intervention.

For me, going over is the first three parts, and the enable is the practice that I will check next week, and develop further.

Now, as for my words of "Go forth!" -you even quoted me, "I never blindly say 'go forth!'" and I hold to this. That means letting a young beginning student pick any page they wish in their book, units and chapters and skills and weeks of development ahead, and 'go forth" and do what they wish, with no guidance, no instruction, no tools. That means the child will be lost, frustrated, not know what they do not know.

Really, it is just semantics and personal definitions.

Going over for me means thorough. Going over the work alongside the child.

Go forth, esp. for a beginner, means, go and be your own leader!

Now, once they have the skill set, I will give them more lead to focus on their own. But this boy is very new, and his skipping ahead 20 pages was "going forth" and it failed.

But I will take into consideration the words I use. That is why I write on their lesson book, in the assignment ntbk, and verbally. If parents attend, I demo for them, also, or have the child demo for the parents. Auditory, visually, tactile, re-worded, two sets of ears, etc...

Since I have not figured out how to incorporate taste and smell, that is all I can do for now!

Here you go!

Oooh: a piano sandwich for the left-handed pianist!

This is promising. You've made huge progress in figuring out this student. I just don't think you've realized it yet.

Whether he's truly autistic at some level, you've confirmed he cannot do workbook assignments even with your best preparation (and what you've tried sounds quite appropriate for most kids.)

You've also found a way to get him playing with excitement and enthusiasm, and actually learning a song in two keys and succeeding! Well done. And he's practicing at home! Willingly! How many of your students do as much?

You've proven this is a child for whom the cookie cutter approach used on most kids just doesn't fit. And you've isolated what methods work with him, and what don't.

Now you can really get somewhere with him.

It's really simple.

Stop doing what doesn't work. Do what does work.

He's a unique kid, but they all are; to some extent you teach every child as they need, but this one demands a little more customization.

I would fight to hold onto this one.

Thanks for the clarification. From your language I thought perhaps you didn't have a teaching structure or method. There are teachers out there (of all different subjects - not just music) who never really teach - they just give assignments.

Clearly the people who made this cake were not pianists.

not to get off track too much, but that's what I think whenever I see "music notes" somewhere (like as a picture or decoration), and half of them are...backwards.