This month my flute and piano students worked together on duets and trios , and my group class students in the Rhythmic-Solfège program prepared for their end-of-year exit evaluations. I introduced the idea of giving each other feedback – students giving and receiving comments as colleagues, peer-to-peer. I know I have amazing students, but they still managed to surprise me with how supportive, thoughtful, analytical, and open they were! The younger ones, even as young as 6 years old, were much more articulate than I was expecting them to be. The teens and pre-teens went out of their way to be both honest and very empathetic when speaking to their peers about something tricky or difficult in the music that still needed a lot of practice.

After I gave examples of feedback they might give to each other, students understood the idea and offered their own insightful comments to their friends. I reminded them that it is important to point out specific things that are good, as well as specific things their colleagues can work on. A “good job” without specificity is not as meaningful as “good job on your rhythm at the beginning of the piece.” The students were honest with each other without being mean or destructive. As a teacher, I got to assess my students’ ability to analyze each other’s performance, and by extension, their ability to analyze their own playing when they practice at home. In a group setting, working with each other regularly, we all come to know each other’s strengths and weaknesses. It’s not a secret that a particular student always has trouble singing while stepping rhythms (in our movement class), or another student has a beautiful tone in the high register of the flute. What was truly lovely to see was the united sense of celebration when all the students noticed improvement in our one friend who finally was able to step and sing at the same time, or that the high register of one student inspired and reminded her duet partner to play with his best sound.