Maybe measuring progress is measuring something even more important?
Is progress related to resilience?
It’s always fun to see a student thrive and grow as a musician.
As teachers, I’d say we get addicted to progress. We adore those moments when a student inches forward and beams with pride.
I’ve always been curious about how to measure progress. Recently, I learned that measuring progress at an instrument may be measuring something more important.
Here’s why.
A while ago, I posted in my Facebook group called Piano Pedagogy On and Off the Bench.
“Would anyone be interested in how I measure progress and how I inform student parents about the progress using some analytics and charts?”
As I was about to write up a brief post about the details of what I do, I encountered a “big picture” moment.
After weeks of contemplation and synthesizing ideas, my reply morphed from a brief post to a new resource called The Effective Practice Tracker.
It’s because I listened to an episode from Tim Topham’s Topcast podcast featuring Anita Collins.
One particular quote of hers jumped out at me:
“We are breeding resilience out of our children.”
Her argument is that when parents let their child quit a musical instrument because things get hard, their child is missing out on learning an important life skill. Playing a musical instrument builds resilience in musicians who stick with an instrument even when the going gets tough.
Around the same time that I was listening to this podcast, I was preparing my session for the MTNA Virtual conference which I call “Keeping it Together When Life Falls Apart.” The gist of the session recounts my search for how and why music seems to be a powerful healing agent after a devastating trauma hit our family.
And then this question came to me.
Photo taken at Palm Beach Atlantic University where Carter gave a speech. There was an unexpected request from the crowd for Carter to play the piano and so he did.
After being struck by a boat, we watched our son Carter endure 68 days in the hospital, learn how to walk again on two legs that were considered almost irreparable, adapt to losing an arm and return to playing the piano with one hand.
Did Carter’s practice efforts to play the piano and the bass guitar for over 20 years have something to do with his remarkable resilience?
I don’t know if there is scientific evidence to prove the answer to my question—yet! However, after listening to the episode and witnessing Carter’s recovery, I claim to some degree, that being a musician helped Carter power through and overcome staggering odds.
As you continue reading about how I measure student progress, I encourage you to consider two things:
When you measure progress you measure resilience.
You are not only a music teacher but also a resilience breeder!
Back to the question I posed in my Facebook group
“Would anyone be interested in how I measure progress and how I inform student parents about the progress using some analytics and charts?”
The post received dozens of likes and comments from interested teachers.
Apparently this is a hot topic most likely because of two reasons:
Many expressed an apprehension about delivering honest feedback to students without discouraging them.
Others were interested in how to tangibly measure progress.
As I mentioned, the answer to this question developed into an unexpected new resource that I’m thrilled to share!
What is The Effective Practice Tracker resource?
The resource offers a detailed outline about how I help students to practice. It includes my system of scoring student progress that I’ve used for years.
5 = WOW exceeded my highest expectations, all goals were met and then some.
4 = EXCELLENT all goals were met and progress made by consistent and effective practice.
3 = NICE most goals were met but some were not, due to lack of time, unclear statement of goals, goals set were too difficult to meet.
2 = OK some goals were met, but practice between lessons was not effective for much progress.
1 = HO HUM looks like last weeks goals will be repeated as little or no practice occurred and little progress made.
I’ve shared this system before in several posts—it’s not new. What’s unique about the resource is a spreadsheet that I’ve developed with my son Levi—a sharp business and analytics grad. It’s a chart where you can record these weekly scores and generate data and charts from them to share with parents.
I thought that this spreadsheet would be the “big” feature of The Effective Practice Tracker and then…I listened to Anita Collins talk about how she asked her students to rate the effectiveness of their practice. That challenged me to reconsider my system and offer a two-prong approach:
Teacher progress scores
Student practice ratings.
What questions does The Effective Practice Tracker tackle?
How can progress be measured?
What are the problems with measuring progress?
What systems need to be in place to measures progress?
How do you generate assignments that help to measure progress?
How do you set goals for assignments?
What are the levels of mastery used to help determine goals?
Why is comparing and sharing scores important?
How do we teach kids to become aware of how effective their progress is?
How does Tonara help me share scores with students?
How do we teach kids to become aware of how efficient their progress is?
How do you discuss effective practice with students so they understand what it means and how to achieve it?
Why did Tim’s interview with Anita Collins have such an impact on this resource?
More about Anita Collins
Her podcast episode with Tim is titled: “What to Say to Parents When their Child is about to Quit Piano with Anita Collins” and is packed full of neuroscience research applied to practice.
Collins explains how the brain functions when students practice. She talks about how engaging the brain can trim down practice time down—it’s all about efficiency and effectiveness over the amount of time spent on an assignment.
Collins provides insight into why powering through the hard parts is essential to progress and resilience. Then she frames this information in a way that will make parents think twice about stopping lessons when things get tough at home.
Follow this link to listen to the podcast. You may want to share it with your student parents, too.
By the way, Collins is well-known for her viral TED talk and TEDx videos featured below. Two more items to pass along to student parents!
The Benefits of Music Education
How playing an instrument benefits your brain
This would be great for your students to watch!
Why use The Effective Practice Tracker in your studio?
Coming at progress with the systems featured in The Effective Practice Tracker keeps parents informed and students accountable to their progress. It may be the ticket for empowering the three-legged stool of piano lessons—the student, parent and the teacher.
My newly re-structured system provides:
You with a peace of mind that you are doing your part.
Your students with a sense of ownership that their progress ultimately belongs to them and determined by them.
Your student parents with a feeling of trust in your program that keeps them in the loop and gives them a vocabulary to support practice at home.
Don’t throw away those old vinyls or CDS!
The Effective Practice Tracker offers a non-threatening way to chat about practice with your students.
My students look forward to rating their practice over the past week. Now they talk freely and frankly about how effective their practice was because they can put their thoughts into words.
Instructions for creating a clever Effective Practice Wheel are included in the resource. It’s made of repurposed household items and is a terrific tactile tool to help students explain their practice challenges.
Within two weeks of using this system, I saw a marked increase in student self-awareness and a desire to raise their level of practice so they could give themselves a higher score.
Watch the video to hear students tell about their experiences.
By allowing your students to observe and rate the effectiveness of their practice, you keep them engaged in their learning. When engaged, they’re much more likely to stick with their instrument. And according to research, when they stick with an instrument, you are endowing your students with a lifelong skill called resilience.
Now more than ever, I’m convinced that measuring progress is all about measuring resilience.
