Staying Together

Every week, there are one or two students who haven’t practiced as much as they should have.  This isn't too much of a problem in my multi-level lessons, but I am very strict about practice for my same-level students - their lessons are easier for me if they stay together.  I try to teach towards the fastest child in the group in the hope that the other students will work hard to keep up. This works for the most part, but I could see my primer students were more interested in our theory games than practicing at home.​

So this month, I added some visual motivation to our noticeboard with a “Piano Progress” chart for my Primer students. I listed all pieces from unit 5 to unit 10 in the Primer Book we are using, and assigned each student a column on the chart.
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When a student completes a piece from the book, I add a star to their column on their chart for that piece. I’ve challenged them to try to be one of the first 4 students to complete their column on the chart.

​Now the students run to check that chart each week to see how well they are doing compared to the other students. 

This is not only a motivator for students, but also for parents to keep their kiddos practicing, as I snap a picture of the chart after each lesson and email it to the parents along with the “Student Snapshot.” ​

If a student is pulling ahead a lot, I assign them a corresponding piece from the “Performance Book” to prevent them from becoming bored. Generally, my primer students don’t use the performance book - I reserve it for recitals and students that are ahead. They don't get a star on the chart for it but they are often so proud to be playing from the "Recital Book" that they don't mind about the star.

For the higher level students, I write additional accompaniment parts to the pieces in their lesson or performance books. Then if one of them is pulling ahead, I assign them one of the additional parts to work on that week.

If you have same-level groups, how do you keep your students moving forward together?