Bite Sized Pieces

One of the biggest changes that I've noticed in my teaching this year is how much more willing I am to give songs in bite sized pieces. I personally am a big picture learner, and feel like I need to see how all the pieces fit into the whole before it makes any sense to me. I've seen that several of my students are the opposite. They get overwhelmed by the big picture and start to shut down before we can even start working on the smaller bites. So, I've learned to adjust and show just a small portion of the song and teach a couple of measures at a time. I've had to learn to back up what I've always said that "I'd rather you do a little bit really well than the whole thing really poorly." by teaching only what the student can handle in that lesson and over the course of the week. Sometimes, I wonder if parents dislike that I ask their kids if they want more work or not (So far, you have three things to practice, do you want a forth or want to stick with just the three?). I hope they realize that I only ask that when I am confident that the what they already have to work on is sufficient to meet the goals of the week, and I don't want to overwhelm them with work. Again, do less really well. If you tend to get bored or think you will get bored, we can do more. Another aspect to this, is that I offer an optional piece. Here is what you need to know to play this. If you have time after you have mastered the other things, you can work on this. It's just an added optional challenge, and I have been surprised at how many students will take me up on that offer. And I get to ask them to show me what they did and encourage them in what they did well for figuring out a new piece on their own and help build their confidence and independence. Once they start taking bites, sometimes they realize that can handle more than they thought they could. It also takes a bit of the pressure off when they know I'll ask if they were able to do anything with the optional assignment. If yes, they will get positive feedback. If no, that's fine, they did what I asked them to. Now the question is how to ensure that I'm not spoonfeeding them their bite sized pieces. That's a tricky balance, but I'm learning with each student how to guide them to the answers rather than just giving them away, but also telling the answers when they really don't understand.