Room Set Up for Groups
Found in: Coaches, Shared Lessons
Shelly E., Utah
I was wondering how you all set up your groups of 5 or more. I have the chairs arranged in a horse shoe shape. Do you have the moms sitting next to their child of do you separate the kids from the parents? I was confused because in the Shared Lesson video Neil talks about putting the mounted keyboard pads in a group of three….one person in the middle while the two surrounding are watching. But if I did it this way then a mom or a child will be separated from each other. It would make sense to keep the mom and child working together.
One more question: How involved do you keep the Moms (or Dads) in these lessons? Do they participate in everything? Round Robins?
Thanks! I’m really new here so any guidance you could give would be so, so welcome.
Cate R., Australia
Hi Shelly, As a student of SM and now just licensed, my teacher has a horseshoe shape of 7 chairs and seven chairs behind for parents close enough to lean over the shoulder of their child/children. Parents don’t use keypads but observe their child. Sometimes she will invite parents to look over children’s shoulders to see the piano too. Only the kids round robined, not the parents as that would take a big chunk of your time. Hope that helps.
Sheri R., California
USE THE TEACHING SHARED LESSONS Audio recording! It will give you lots of good ideas. If I’m not mistaken, it’s Samali D. (sorry if I butchered the spelling) doing a fabulous job of articulating so many aspects of leading shared lessons from the whys to the scheduling to the actual lesson structure.
As Laurie Richards said recently the workshop audios are fabulous. I just started listening to them. I especially recommend the one by Neil where he talks about having a requirement-based studio. In the past few days I’ve already listened to it many times. (One of my adult students who just started Alma said at his lesson last week that after reviewing the video so many times he finally got the concept of going slow. He said between me and Neil he must’ve heard it 1,000 times! I told him he’s way ahead of the game as a lot of students are still struggling with that idea in Level 2 and beyond. As much as I work with them at lessons it
just doesn’t always take hold with everyone immediately.) So I figure if we listen over and over to these support audio recordings we will more readily start creating what it is we want or need to create in our studios. Invaluable information on all of them.
For now I think if the shared lesson is very large mentor groups of 3 is fine but for 5 or 6 you can seat children with their parents. And I am currently working at getting more parental involvement. I would start
that from the beginning but not round-robins. Just having kids demonstrate on their parents hands what you just taught everyone and having them watch each other demonstrate on keypad. Again, listen to the audio for more details on this! If anyone is wanting to do shared lessons but is a little intimidated or just not sure how to do it, use the audio!!!
Laurie Richards, Nebraska
Amen, Sheri, to everything! I believe it’s Kerry Hanley on the Shared Lesson audio. She covers a lot of territory.
I set my chairs up in a big horseshoe and have the parents right there along with the kids.
During round robin, try this some time: “Hey, who wants their mom/dad to give it a go?” . The kids get really geeked up, and EVERY one will volunteer his or her parent. I always tell the kids, “your mom might need your help, but let them try first.” I think they enjoy having the tables turned, telling the parent what to do, and while they do it they are reviewing learning strategies without even realizing it. I don’t do this all the time, but it sure is fun to throw it in sometimes.
Shared lessons are so much fun!!