Klarinet Archive - Posting 000335.txt from 1998/04

From: Bill Hausmann <bhausman@-----.com>
Subj: Re: lesson motivation
Date: Tue, 7 Apr 1998 18:44:19 -0400

At 11:20 PM 4/6/98 -0600, I AM THE PUFFER... wrote:
> As a senior music education major I can't tell why the music ed.
>folks in the studio would not be motivated to improve. Maybe if they
>start looking at it in the perspective that THEY will someday soon be
>on the other side of it and have to teach lessons. Also there is the
>issue that if they are to become future band directors, they have to
>be grounded in technique and expression if they are going to be able
>to help a band be expressive...

Perhaps they are thinking, "Why bother? I am not going to be PLAYING
anyway." A bad attitude to be sure, but at least a starting point for a
counter-attack.

In our music assessment class
>we often talk about the problems with the A,B,C, D, F grade system and
>realize that to give useful feedback or a goal for the student...such
>system doesn't work well.
>
Who ever said that the grades were supposed to be feedback for the
STUDENTS? Actually, they are good feedback, but traditionally ignored.
The grades are to report to the PARENTS what the child is doing. They also
go into the child's record for FUTURE teachers to see. That is why,
whether A, B, C, D, or 1, 2, 3, 4 or Star, Dot, Square, Triangle, the
grading system MUST be OBJECTIVE. If you give a child an "A" solely
because of his/her superior effort in a misguided attempt to boost
"self-esteem," the teacher next year will be in for a shock when s/he
discovers that, effort or not, the kid is dumb as a post!

None of the above is intended as an endorsement of current grading schemes,
but only as a warning to those who would eliminate their most useful traits
in attempting to replace them with something else. In other words, don't
throw out the baby with the bathwater. Find something IN ADDITION to
standard grading, perhaps, to serve as motivation to the students.

Bill Hausmann
Music Ed bailout

Bill Hausmann bhausman@-----.com
451 Old Orchard Drive http://www.concentric.net/~bhausman
Essexville, MI 48732 http://members.wbs.net/homepages/z/o/o/zoot14.html
ICQ UIN 4862265

If you have to mic a saxophone, the rest of the band is too loud.