Every recital I wish I had more students pushing to memorize their songs. I don’t require the students to memorize the song, but I do think it’s a useful thing to have a song at your fingertips. It’s also good to really work your brain “muscles” as well. So, even though I don’t require it, I do encourage it. This year I decided to try out a little incentive to those who wanted an extra push.
Enter the Memorization Star wall!
If the song was memorized they got to fill out their name on a star and put it wherever they wanted on the wall. It actually worked surprisingly well for the first attempt. I definitely had a few students eyeing the wall to figure out who had made it and came the next week eager to show me their song. I think it will be a fun to bring back the Memorization star every recital!
(As a side note, Josiah didn’t quite have his memorized by the recital, but he worked on it really hard the next day until he had it memorized–and came running to tell me he was ready to add his star. If you look really closely at the picture, you’ll notice he has been able to add his star on the bottom right side. I just didn’t have the heart to tell him no. 🙂 )
What a great idea!