Rewarding Students For Bringing Their Recorders
Submitted by Nora Hampton, Spencerport, New York
Idea posted 2002-04-05
In the past, I have had lots of kids forget recorders, and it was so frustrating. This year, I tried Recorder Karate with great success. The motivation was incredible. I also told each class that any time they came to class and everyone had their own recorder, they would get a star. If they accumulated enough stars (I picked a number that allowed for one or two misses) the class would earn a popcorn party at the end of the recorder unit. I also had only one recorder available for loan (in the past I would loan recorders). So, if more than one student forgot, only one could participate, and the other had to sit.
I have to say, all of my classes earned popcorn. A small price to pay for the extra learning time it gained us. They were highly motivated and meticulous about their equipment. I have never had my recorder students learn so much. And some of these students couldn't even read. Many of them were on the edge of being special ed and had IEP's.
Perhaps some motivation would help. You've gotta get them where they are and go from there.
