Tell me, I forget. Show me, I remember. Involve me, I understand
Carl Orff
Have you ever had students who learn about something one week, but at the following lesson it’s as though they had never encountered it before?
At last weeks lesson you taught Ben about tones and semitones, for example, and he seemed to get it. He went away happy and you write in your teaching notes what you covered and that he understood. But did he?
The following week Ben comes to the lesson and you begin teaching him a chromatic scale, thinking he is ok with tones and semitones so he will know the terminology. To your surprise he looks at you blankly and after a while you start to wonder, “did I imagine last weeks lesson”?!
Looking back, did you “tell”, “show” or “involve” him at the lesson before?
Children do learn with repetition, or “telling”. I’m sure we all have memories at school of learning speeches or poems for some kind of class show or performance. The teacher would say “repeat after me” as we chanted it over and over until it was solid and ready for standing on the stage.
It’s the same with times tables. I have memories of reciting these out loud with the rest of the class until it became second nature.
Repetition has a place in the music room too, without question. But should it be the sole strategy for learning?
Perhaps with Ben you told him about tones and semitones, and “show” by demonstrating what they looked like on the piano. But did you “involve” him and take it that step further?
Did you get Ben finding and playing them on the piano himself? Did you ask him to doodle little tunes about semitones on the spot and experimenting with the sounds they make? Perhaps creating a mini composition about a creepy castle walking up the keys with semitones. Some kind of activity like this where Ben was “involved” and fully immersed in tones and semitones.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on this quote.
