There may be few things more important for music teachers than providing Follow Up on what we did at our students’ previous lesson. When teachers include this strategy in each week’s lesson, we confirm that we value what students do at home. And we’re interested in finding out how things turned out. 

Did students resolve what needed resolving? Did students run into more problems on their own? Did students achieve success? 

The biggest challenge with Follow Up may be with time management during the students’ lesson period. Because, if during the previous week, we gave students a lengthy list of assignments, we may be challenged to actually follow up on the entire list at the following lesson. When teachers make assignments, we’re not just thinking about what students need to get on top of this week. We also need to take into consideration how much time it will take for students to follow through themselves at home. And also, how much time it will take teachers to follow through at their next lesson. Too many assignments, and it’s unlikely students will have sufficient time or effort to follow through at home. Too lengthy a list, and it’s unlikely that teachers will have time to meaningfully provide Follow Up. 

A second challenge may originate with the teaching model presented in master classes at workshops or conferences, where the master teacher may spend 15 minutes on a one-page piece pulling out every detail possible. However, that’s not the situation we’re looking at in weekly music lessons, where we’ve got multiple repertoire selections and activities to make it through. Weekly lessons involve a much quicker pace of instruction. And unlike standalone master class situations, weekly music lessons involve a continuum of instruction week after week after week.