I am excited to get started sharing some of my tried-and-true, go-to handouts with other teachers. Here is the mainstay of my lesson handouts, the sheet I use every week with every student. Yes, it’s the Weekly Practice Assignment Sheet! I have tried using blank notebook paper, composition books and manuscript paper, and found I was writing the same headings over and over again. So I created this form in Excel and I make a couple hundred copies each year. It’s a time-saver AND paper-saver, with room for 4 weeks’ worth of lessons on one double-sided sheet.
There are boxes for Scales, Etudes, Repertoire, and notes to/from the student or parent. There is also a place to record the lesson date and the students’ weekly practice goal and daily practice minutes. Also “emojis” to color in, for the student to let you know how they felt about their practicing, and for you to let them know how YOU felt about their lesson prep!
I have students use 3-ring-binders for their lesson notes and handouts. To use this sheet, hole-punch it on both sides so you can flip it over when the first side is filled.
BONUS ITEM:
You may notice the blank for “Week #” at the top of each lesson block. The school-year of lessons is approximately 36 weeks long, from September through May. I number each week sequentially and write the week number at the top of the lesson assignment block. Each student has a sticker card in the front of the Practice section of their binder with squares numbered 1-36. When a student practices the assigned number of minutes per week, they put a sticker on the numbered square for that week. A sticker could also be awarded for completing every item on their lesson assignment. I have incentive programs for receiving a certain number of stickers in a row without a break, and reaching a certain number of stickers by Week 36. You can design your own incentives depending on what you like to do.
The printable Practice Record Card is laid out 4-per-page on letter-sized paper. I print onto colored card stock (a different color each year) and cut each sheet into 4. Each card also has a place on the back to mark “Practice Passes”: those weeks when students are sick, or on vacation, and simply can’t get their practice minutes in. Since I keep a running percentage score of each student’s practice goal completion, this keeps them from getting a 0% on those weeks and affecting their yearly average.
If you don’t like the incentive idea already printed on the card (small candy bar for every four-weeks-in-a-row), cover it, replace it, or white it out before reproducing.
