Observation 5: Group Lesson With Older Students

This is a group lesson with older students. They are in level 2B or higher.

There is nothing in particular I would draw your attention to in this example. This is a great example of how smoothly an hour could run once you’ve trained the students to be independent and self-sustaining.

The boy at the main piano is an early intermediate student. You will notice that I do not interact with him very much at all.

There are two reasons for this:

1. He was working on a big “project song.” It was 12 pages long from an intermediate difficulty Disney book. I would look over his shoulder. If I noticed a problem, I would intervene… but for this student, that was very rare.
2. This was his second to last lesson. He was a few weeks into his 9th grade year at a private high school. His family placed a priority on academics over piano and they were dropping him out until 2nd semester. I was putting a priority on him getting things done, as opposed to teaching a concept to someone who we both knew was not going to be there the next month.

Write down any questions, comments, observations, and takeaways as you watch this video!