Music, Teaching, Learning, and Life

A few more experiences have come to mind as I’ve thought more about ongoing assessment and the possible influence of seeing it put into practice by excellent teachers.  I’ll try to be brief.

The very first teacher that I remember demonstrating ongoing assessment was my high school band director, Archie Sharretts.  He often gave individual lessons (at no additional charge).  During those lessons he observed carefully, then used any tools he had at his disposal to help us see what needed to be done for improvement.  He kept mirrors on hand, books with photographs of correct embouchure and hand position (The Art of Clarinet Playing for us budding clarinetists) and any other tool he could imagine.  Throughout his career in that little town in northeast Georgia, he produced many fine musicians!

I’ve either taken lessons in recent years or been in classes with several other  great teachers.  Three in particular come to mind at the moment.  During one summer at VanderCook, I took percussion lessons from Kevin Lepper.  It was obvious that he was very attentive to the details of my hand position, technique (or lack thereof!), etc. during lessons.  He used that information throughout each lesson to give me tips on how to improve and then use that information with any future students.  I was able to do that with several children afterward in my old job at Jackson Middle School.  Fred Lewis, my present clarinet instructor is also always listening and watching carefully, asking me questions, and leading me to discover ways to improve my playing.  Jean Hersey from my Orff Level I class also seemed to always actively watch us, assessing how we were performing.  She seemed to always look for details.

I saw another excellent teacher in a video, Circling Around.  Mimi Zweig of the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music teaches a String Academy for young string players from the very youngest students through high school.  A memory that sticks with me from that documentary is seeing her ask a very young violinist, “Are you comfy?” as she carefully watched his playing position, then gently helped him adjust accordingly.  Once again, it was the way she watched (assessed) then used that information to help him improve that struck me as unique at that moment.  Mimi Zweig also happens to be one of Joshua Bell’s former teachers!

I can think of quite a few teachers with whom I’ve worked (including in my present job) who have also been very skilled in this area.  I think the lesson for me as a teacher is to ask myself every day if I’m truly assessing students all of the time, then use that information to plan accordingly.