Looking for Suzuki group class ideas or violin teaching ideas?

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Last week I got a reader question. I felt it was great one and instead of answering to the reader privately I wrote a post that may help all of us.

Here is the question:

One problem I find in my small group classes is when teaching something new there will be one or two children struggling to understand it and I wanted to know if you have any tips on helping them without drawing everyone’s attention to the fact that they are struggling and then making them uncomfortable.

How To Reach The Lower Performing Students in Suzuki Violin Group Classes

One easy way to do this is to involve the parents. Create activities for them to work with the kids at the end of class or right after the new skill was taught. This way you can get to work with the struggling students without drawing attention to them.

The way I might go about it:

I would probably teach the concept to the whole class. At that point of the class I would stay with the whole group and deliver the instruction teaching to the higher performing kids in class.
Either right after or last 10 minutes of class I would do a group activity where the students get to practice that concept.

Some ideas to practice more without students feeling put on the spot are:

Having activities where parents check the skill

In these cases you can say something like:

Students, I need you to find your parent and show your new skill. Johny…come play for me instead.
Now we will play a game: you need to show the new skill to three people: your own parent, a different parent and your teacher. When you have done ll three come back to the line!
Students, stay in the line. Parents, walk around the room, ask students to show you the skills we just learned.

Read also this article with lots of ideas involving the parents into Suzuki group class activities.

The Circle Activity

Make a circle. All parents are on the outside and students on the inside of the circle. The students get to show the new skill to the person right in front of them once. Then they move one person to the right. They rotate until they come back to the original person (in a very large class you can rotate just 3-4 times).

This is a fantastic way to practice any concept from bow hold, to specific parts of pieces and even sight reading! It is also a great way to get every single students to practice one thing many times.

Parents Check Us

Students, stay in the line. Parents, walk around the room, ask students to show you the skills we just learned. This is also a great ready group class activity asking the kids to do exactly that last 10 min of class.

Practice Chart Group Class Activity

I just created this activity which you can print and use for practice of a specific concept rift after it has been taught in the group class. The chart is asking the students to play 5 times for a parent (who is not their own) and 5 times for another student. It lis a great was to get more practice and movement in the Suzuki group class while having the students a clear goal. Find the activity here

The Line Game

This is similar idea that allows you to work indovidually with kids. Sometimes at the end of a group lesson I simply ask the students to form a line. They have to show me the new skill as their ticket to pack. So students pack one at a time right after they have played for me. This way you would keep the kid who needs more help toward the back and spend more time with them.

This activity will only work in small to medium classes. But a very nice Suzuki activity to add to your group classes.