Trapped in a Box

I (briefly) mentioned my mid-winter refresher in my last entry but I’m afraid that was quickly squelched this past Monday thanks to 50 8^th graders with brass noisemakers.  (or was it?)  For my 8^th grade band, this past Monday was particularly… Monday; their sound was poor and their preparedness was even poorer, and I had to be the bad guy and tell them this.  So needless to say, today’s rehearsal was not one that I was looking forward to, until my drive to work today…

My thoughts were tossing and turning over our previous rehearsal and it drifted past their lack of practice to my own work in the classroom during this particular rehearsal; I needed to identify the failures of the rehearsal:

Too much talking amongst students

Too many questions that could be avoided

My directions were too heavy and lengthy and

They simply were not paying attention to each other (musically)

So I reached for one of my favorite rehearsal techniques (and the one I fear the most), the silent rehearsal.

(The silent rehearsal is a lesson with regular outcomes and processes, however the director does not speak during the entire class period)

This is a difficult lesson to prepare for but it is worth every minute of prep and perspiration.  Unlike the average lesson plan of outcomes and processes, I also had to practice my nonverbal communication and several contingency plans in case of a kink in the plan.

By eliminating my verbal communication I was able to keep students working at all times.  When the music fell apart I’d bring them back to a certain measure marker (with numbers written on the white board) and have them start over.  They knew what went wrong; they may not have known why it went wrong or how to fix it but without my help they were forced to solve their problems together.

Hopefully the students retain what they learned today.
Hopefully I retain what I learned today.
Hopefully these lessons continue to be effective in the future and
Hopefully I don't turn out like this guy:

As an aside; I'm curious to know if any teachers have done this in the traditional classroom (or if it's possible?)