Archive for: Teaching Questions

It would be nice to say that there is a set path every student can follow and you just need to start at A and work your way to Z. But that's not true. Every student will need to take a different path and will end up in different situations. Trying to fit all students to one curriculum is asking for trouble.

The key to planning future lessons, creating a curriculum or figuring out what order to teach certain topics is by constantly referring to your student's goals. What does your student want to achieve on guitar?

Creating a curriculum that matches your student's goals not only helps the student stay motivated along the way, but it makes your job easier with planning.

As an example, let's say a beginner wants to learn a rock song with a fairly complicated solo. You would first take a look at the skills and topics the student needs to know to be able to play that solo. List all the skills, techniques, scales and exercises that can help the student learn that solo. Then while looking at that list, figure out the easiest path for the student to take through all of those items.

You might decide the student should start by learning the basic Pentatonic scale shapes and give him some basic exercises to get used to it. When you introduce the Pentatonic scale to the student, you would explain that the song the student wants to learn uses this scale, so learning the scale now will make it easier later on to learn the song. This is really important to explain so the student knows why he's being asked to learn this. If the student knows why it's worth learning and it matches his goals, then he will put more effort into practicing it.

You would then gradually work through the skills needed until the student is ready to take a look at the actual song and solo. Each skill along the way you would explain how it relates the the student's goals.

Here's a basic summary of this approach:

1. Figure out the student's goals
2. Work out what skills and topics need to be covered to meet those goals
3. Arrange those topics in a logical order starting with the easiest and working towards the harder topics
4. Start with the easiest areas and explain to the student why the topics are being covered
5. Gradually work through the topics covering anything relevant to the goal along the way

By taking this approach you're ensuring that the student is constantly working towards their goals. If at any point you feel you want to teach a topic that doesn't relate to the student's goals, then it's really important you consider why the student should learn it. If you can come up with a good reason why it should be covered, then it can be added to the curriculum.

For more information on structuring lessons, check out TPS-03 Structuring Your Lessons.

Knowing when to move on to a new topic with a student is important to get right. You need to find a balance between these two extremes:

• If you move on too quickly, the student won't properly develop their skills and understanding
• If you move on too slowly, the student can lose motivation or become frustrated

Every student will learn at a different rate so there's no one answer that works for everybody. So while you can't apply a set rule on how long to stay on a topic, you can learn how to identify when your student is ready to move on.

Understand the skill acquisition process

If you understand the skill acquisition process in depth, you will be able to identify how far along the process your student is with any skill. The challenge here is that most teachers think they understand this process when they really don't. A student properly performing an exercise doesn't mean he has learned the skill. Even if the student looks like they have mastered the skill, you need to dig deeper to find out if they really have.

To learn the skill acquisition process and how it applies to your students, start by working through the Fine Motor Skills Course.

This course will explain the entire learning process and how to identify what stage your student is at for any particular skill. The course includes plenty of examples so you can fully understand the stages students go through when learning anything new.

Once you understand these stages, you will immediately have a better idea on when to move on to new topics and when it's too soon.

Ask the right questions

After you complete the Fine Motor Skills Course, start working through the Questioning Fundamentals Course. At first it may not be clear why this is so important, but a massive part of your job as a teacher is asking the right questions. Asking the right questions will help you identify how well a student knows a topic.

Questions allow you to get a deeper understanding of your student's development that you wouldn't be able to get just by watching the student play an exercise or piece.

The course walks you through different types of questions and how those questions actually influence how your student develops. With a series of simple questions, you will be able to identify when your student knows a topic well enough for you to move on to a new topic.

Make haste slowly

Once you complete the two courses mentioned above, read through this guide on an important pedagogy topic. TPD-02 Make Haste Slowly explains a fundamental pedagogy principle relating to how quickly you should move a student through topics. At first glance it's a very simple principle, but as you spend time thinking about it, you begin to realize how important it is.

If you want to know when it's the right time to move a student on to a new topic, it should be clear now that to be able to answer that question you need to build up an understanding on the skills acquisition process. Once you learn how to identify which stage your student is at with any skill, you can make better decisions on when to move on and when to continue working on a topic.

If you receive cash from your students, there will come a time where a student forgets to bring their money. It can be frustrating to deal with as a teacher, but how you deal with it will play a big part in future problems.

Read through BQA-02 as it explains how to try and prevent the issue from happening as well as different ways you can deal with the problem.

There are three important principles to remember when dealing with this issue:

• You need to be professional
• You deserve the money on time
• Every situation needs a different approach

The first principle will make sure you don't accidentally treat a student poorly when they forget to bring their money. Sometimes people forget because they were running late or they're having money troubles and feel embarrassed about it. Treat people poorly and you'll likely lose a student and gain a poor reputation.

The second principle will remind you that you should get paid for the lesson. It's not okay to let a missed payment slide and the student to get something for free. If a student misses a payment, you deserve that payment - even if it's late. Missing a payment doesn't mean they don't owe you in the next lesson.

The third principle reminds you that what worked for one student may not work for another. For one student a gentle reminder may be all that's needed while for another student you may need to give them an ultimatum or place lessons on hold.

Keep all three principles in mind any time you deal with this situation.

Asking for payment

Asking for payment has a lot to do with confidence as well. If you're a new teacher, then it can be extremely awkward to ask for payment when a student has forgotten. As an example, if a student normally pays at the end of the lesson and he forgets to pay you at the end, how should you remind him?

It's easy to tell you to say 'do you have your payment for this lesson?', but until you feel comfortable asking this, you might feel really awkward asking.

A good way to work on this confidence is to practice it with somebody. Give a friend or family member a large bill (eg: $50 or $100) and tell them to hold on to it. Tell them you will ask them later for the money back and they need to try and come up with excuses why they can't give it back to you. Then an hour later or so, go up to the person and ask them for payment. It sounds like a silly exercise, but it gives you practice in how you word your request and the confidence you display when you ask for payment. The reason you hand over a large bill is to make it feel more real - that's your money! It's the same at the end of a lesson.

Another way to prevent this type of issue is to change the routine. If a student tends to forget to pay you at the end of lessons, ask for payment at the start of the lesson. Again this depends completely on your confidence and how you word your request, but once the student is used to paying at the start of the lesson, you will find it easy to continue that habit.