“Teaching Woodwinds” Textbook Online Resources
This includes fingering charts, exercises, pedagogy tips, and more.
Processed Class Notes – as “Director’s Reference” Resource
Beginner Handouts
Blank Fingering Charts
Miscellaneous Woodwind Resources Sheet (With Links)
Final Exam – Saxophone Lesson
0:00-7:00 Teaching, 7:00-12:00 Comments
Strengths in this teaching episode:
- I created a practice environment in which the student had the opportunity to “figure it out,” rather than telling him what to do.
- The lesson followed rough whole-part-whole structure, where I had the student try it once, then we worked on individual elements, and then put it back together.
- The student showed lots of progress on the excerpt by the end.
- I used positive reinforcement of other strengths (though not enough).
- I was a little bit silly, which created an open environment for learning.
Areas for improvement from this teaching episode:
- I struggle to sit still, which distracts from a student-centered environment.
- Too much talking still, I need to focus on giving the student more opportunities to try interspersed with targeted, specific, and purposeful feedback.
- I didn’t effectively link the paraxial ability we worked on into repeatable techniques or conceptual knowledge; I should have asked the student what he learned, or what to apply to future music.
- I should have started with positive reinforcement after the first play-through. The student is naturally thinking of what went wrong, so reinforcing and establishing strengths is an opportunity to begin on the right foot.
- I got distracted from my own instructional progress by introducing a different concept, which resulted in slow instructional pace in the first half of the lesson.