My third day of pouring over Suzuki class videos has led me to make another list of good ideas from doing these observations. My top from today:
- Change the tone, pacing, material and expectations as the child changes age. Let the child help set this change–they may ask for certain things (like a trumpet instead of a pocket trumpet).
- When working on fundamentals, try to lead from memory and be spontaneous, so that you are focused on the child (and the child is focused on you).
- Learn lots of games to play as a group when doing a group class with young children.
- Make group classes interactive. Not just between you and the students, but between one student and the next. Make a rhythm train (or “caterpillar”), or divide the notes of a song between the different students.
- Give students lots of choices. Or use a wheel spinner or dice to choose randomly.