Do you use an incentive program in your piano studio? Incentive programs can be a useful way to motivate and encourage students to be diligent and productive with their practicing. Let’s face it – most students really can be bribed into doing well! :]
Have you discovered a program that works well? I recall my piano teacher implementing a number of different programs while I was taking lessons – unfortunately, she never stuck with one long enough for me to earn a prize very often. A good incentive program must be simple enough for the students to understand, and can’t be too time consuming as to take up a lot of the lesson time. It needs to be easily attainable, otherwise students will give up on ever earning a prize. And it needs to be affordable – as teachers, we need to keep our expenses low, especially during these economically rough times.
Most incentive programs are based on the number of minutes or days that the student practices. A weakness of this approach is that the older students might be more likely to win prizes more often than the younger students, which doesn’t seem very fair, especially since the younger students are the ones who can most easily be influenced through the use of an incentive program. In addition, this approach does that guarantee that the student practicing productively – that is, troubleshooting and solving problem areas, rather than mindlessly playing through their pieces.
For the above reasons, I designed my incentive program to be based on the number of pages they “pass” each lesson. For example, if a student “passes” a three-page song from their Lesson Book, they earn three points. Each page completed form their theory book also earns them points. Bonus points are also awarded if a student memorizes his/her music, if they write in the counts (1…2…3…4…1…2…3…etc.), or if they complete any other task that goes above and beyond what was required to do. No matter what the activity, it’s simply 1 page = 1 point.
Points are recorded by placing stickers on colorful index cards that have their name written across the top. (Kids love stickers – there’s no way around it!) When a student earns 25 stickers on their index card, they may choose a prize from the the prize box at the end of the lesson.
My prize box is a clear purple, plastic shoebox decorated with music stickers. I regularly restock the prize box full of inexpensive trinkets – such as little notepads, colored pens (usually 2 or 3 rubberbanded together), bouncy balls, matchbox cars, keychains, etc. I generally limit myself to spending between 50 cents and $1.00 per item. Most of the trinkets I buy come from the party favor section at the local dollar store or at Meijers. Sometimes, it’s difficult to find items suitable for older students. For their sake, I have started keeping a few $1.00 gift certificates to the local dollar store on hand. I tell them to pick out their own prize!
I have found this incentive program to work well because it encourages the students to practice with their minds fully engaged, consciously working towards the goal of “passing” their pieces. It also is flexible enough to allow the teacher to reward any extra, miscellaneous tasks that students might complete. The goal of 25 stickers is easily attainable, even for the younger students. Having an incentive program in place has helped me motivate my students to progress through their books, rather than stagnantly staying at about the same level of playing. What kind of incentive program have you found to work for your studio?
9 Comments
A few years ago I did something similar. I used “composer bucks” -- fake money printed with composers faces instead of presidents. I had certain things they could earn money for. I had bigger prizes as well as smaller prizes so they could save their money or spend it on smaller things as they earned it. I’m going to start up something like this again. Thanks for sharing your ideas and program.
I have a question, please. Do you keep those index cards or do you let the students keep them? I have few younger students and they keep forget things, and so I was wondering how you’d do it! Thank you so much for sharing your great ideas!
Oh by the way, target has great one dollar section that has many cute things, too!
I hang on to the index cards. You can store them in a recipe card box, or you can use a three-hole punch to keep them in a binder. I keep them in alphabetical order by student’s first name. Once the student has filled up one side of the card, I use the back for the next prize. Once both sides are filled, I let the student keep the card to “put on their refrigerator.” =) Good luck -- I hope this works for you!
I reward with music money. It is just play money that I found online and printed out. I reward various things, but the “cost” for the student to buy the rewards are all different. I usually price bigger items higher and smaller items lower (even though they all cost about $1 or less at the dollar store!) and that way if they want something like sidewalk chalk, they really have to save and earn it. If they want to spend their music money right away though, there are a few smaller items they can get such as candy or small trace rulers or stickers. I also do an auction at group lessons every so often for something really big and that way students want to come to group lessons to see what they might get! Those are just ideas. It seems to be working so far!
I made a bonus card filled with 24 or 25 empty blank boxes. I bought a happy face stamper to use as my point system to fill those empty blank boxes. For each song they pass, I would give them a stamp. If they completed their theory homework, I would also give them a stamp for that because most students tend to forget they have “homework”.
My incentive box is known as a “treasure chest” to the students.I go through the clearance and the dollar section at Walmart and Target. I notice kids tend to love bubble wands. These bubble wands would only cost 97 cents at Walmart and they make huge bubbles. The kids look forward to those. Girls tend to love decorative erasers and pencils. For the boys, I filled them with Superheros puzzles, a pack of stickers, mini skateboards and yo yos. I also tend to find that activity books or coloring books work really well also. I never go wrong with these items that I find at Target and Walmart. Today, I went to Walmart and was browsing through the clearance section and picked up some Crayola color bubbles. Supposedly it is messy, but I’m sure the kids will love seeing purple bubbles. I know the parents probably won’t like it. But hey, if the kids love it, they deserve it. A little fun won’t hurt sometimes.
Do any of you have older students (beginners in high school)? I am trying to keep a high school student motivated who has been on and off with lessons for years, mostly due to family moves. I am really wanting to keep him interested and wanting to do well, but not do treat him like a “baby” either…any thoughts?
My “treasure box” incentive works very well for all student ages -- even my teen-age and adult students. I started with a variety of items and trinkets, but soon found out my students mostly wanted candy. So, that is what I mainly stock with the exception of a few students that arent’s into sweets (both of them like small office supplies). Part of my initial interview question is “What would you like to find in the treasure box?” To earn a “trip to the treasure box” my students must complete 15 practice sessions. They keep track of their practices on their weekly Practice Record (which I print off for each lesson which also shows their next lesson date and their cirriculum for the week, personal goals and self-assessment check-list) and then I note their practice totals each week on their Practice Record. Each student knows they must bring their weekly Practice Record sheet so I can keep adding up the total. (When they have 15 practice points at their lesson, I starting putting a zero, but now I make it into a “donut with sprinkles”). Beginning students are asked to practice at least 5 days per week, so they can earn a trip to the Treasure Box every 3 weeks. I add “extra points” for excellent lessons and if they have improved in a particulare skill. I also add points for additional research tasks or playing for talent shows, at church or for grand-parents visiting from out-of-town. I have found the extra points incentive has worked very well for students b/c they are thrilled to earn “extra practice points” as a way to get to the treasure box faster. It is a great self-motiivator b/c most of my students will end a lesson by saying, “Okay, so I need to practice ____ more time before I can go to the treasure box!” Or, “I get to go to the treasure box today.!” It is a great incentive for consistent practice and to be able to reward students for excellent lessons and additional “extra credit” work done well.
I love the note card with stickers on it for its portability . My trouble with a consistent incentive program has been traveling to multiple studios and not having my sticker chart up on the wall!
Debra, I love the “extra credit” points idea but do you tell all the students in advance how they can earn points or week by week determine those things?
Joy, your blog has been a great help to me as I became a full time private teacher this past year!
Yes, notecards are pretty portable! I also like that notecards allow it to easily be an ongoing thing. Once a few students reach the end of a sticker chart, you have to put up a new one on the wall.
Thanks for your comment, Belita!