Most music lessons involve active responding – students singing, playing instruments, dancing or chanting. Lessons that keep students engaged throughout instruction lead to payoffs on their understanding and retention. This is also how teachers can continuously monitor learning and behaviour. For example, when you sing a five-note pattern and ask students to echo it back, you hear correct and incorrect responses, or there are no responses and inattentiveness. That immediate feedback helps you adjust your lesson – you might repeat instructions for the task, home in on a particular student or two to provide support, or modify the instruction altogether.
Just as important as producing music is listening to it and understanding what you're hearing. Listening exercises are critical for developing a student's musical skills. Unlike when a student plays a line of music on an instrument – where you can count errors or note points where they hesitate – there aren't any in-the-moment observable behaviours that tell you whether a student is getting it (or not) during a listening exercise. While listening to a piece of music, students could be overlooking the elements you've highlighted in your lesson or otherwise lack the prerequisite skills to absorb what they're hearing.
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