Top three ways every teacher can speed up students’ progress
A student’s Progress depends on several things: their motivation, the teacher’s ability to motivate them, and how well they can see, hear and feel differences for themselves.
Make sure lessons are interactive
The fastest way to speed up progress is to make sure the lessons are interactive and fun. When lessons are fun, learning takes place without a lot of analysis and the student is far more comfortable and retains the Lesson easily. It becomes more like allowing the body to do something it knows already.
Students need to see for themselves
Students need to see for themselves to take on board changes that feel or sound strange to them. Today that is very simple, almost everyone has a phone with a camera. When a student sees on camera something that felt awkward, but looks and sounds perfectly normal, you will not need to convince them that you are right. While they will do their best to believe you when you ask then to do something awkward, it still feels strange and the message they are getting is more convincing than what you are saying. As a result, they have to work very hard to do what you say to overrule their habits, and this takes a lot of time. With a video the change can be instantaneous. I have found that using the video cuts learning time by over 60%.
Let the student create the action plan
Lastly, the best way to find out what a student has absorbed in a lesson is to ask. At the end of the lesson I always ask my clients two or three things they are taking away. Their feedback is important because it will give you a clue to their perceptions and allow any reframing of vocabulary when necessary. By asking them, instead of telling them, they own the process. You can then ask them how they are going to put that into action before their next lesson. The best motivation is the one that comes from them.
There are many exercises and explanations of working with students in the CoreSinging Teachers’ Course online. www.coresinging.org/online-courses
