Our fall recital is this weekend. On the last lesson before a performance, I always like to record the kids several times and watch it with them. It’s extra practice for them, but even more importantly, it gives them a good opportunity to analyze their own performance and talk about what went well and what still needs work. I find that students tend to fall into one of three categories:

• Those who think their performance was perfect, when it definitely wasn’t.
• Those who think their performance was terrible, when it was actually pretty good.
• Those who stare at me blankly and have no idea what went well or what needs work.

When I listen to their analysis, I start to understand why their home practice isn’t always very effective. How can you make progress if you can’t tell what needs to improve? It’s definitely something we need to work on.

At any rate, we always need this to be a little fun, and here’s this year’s incarnation.

What You Need:

• These Halloween numbers, printed on orange cardstock
• Plenty of memory on your phone
• A pen and/or Halloween stickers

Setup:

• None

What to Do:

• Talk about what Take One, Take Two, etc., means in movie-making. (Most of my kids didn’t know.)
• Record Take One by starting the camera on the orange number One. The student can start playing at any point after that.
• After Take One, ask for two things that went well and one thing they could improve. Many of them will need help with that.
• Record Take Two and repeat the process. If there is time, record Take Three and Four. If not, stop with two.
• Watch the recordings. When the student has determined the best take, allow them to draw or add a Halloween decoration to that Take Number.

By the end of the week, the kids are all playing well and my somewhat plain Halloween numbers had a lot of delightful additions. Most of my kids preferred to draw rather than using my googly monster eyes or Halloween stickers.