Discovering your Students' Musical Superpower (Strengths-based Teaching)

"There is music in every child. It is the teacher's job to find it and nurture it."

Frances Clark

Just as the legendary pedagogue Frances Clark said about music being in every child, every child also has a musical superpower! When teachers help students discover and nurture their superpowers, students learn to embrace their inner musicality with confidence and creativity and use those strengths to build up other skills. 

What is a musical superpower? Any musical area in which a student most naturally excels! Their area of strength.

Composition, improvisation, pattern recognition, ear training, finger patterns, note reading, rhythm, sight-reading, chords, music theory- any aspect of a music!

Strengths-based Approach = Musical Superpower

• In education/music education, this is commonly referred to as a strengths-based learning approach, where the teacher works to identify the students' strength area(s), and then uses those to help increase the students' abilities in other areas.

"Strengths-based (or asset-based) approaches focus on individuals’ strengths (including personal strengths and social and community networks) and not on their deficits. Strengths-based practice is holistic and multidisciplinary and works with the individual to promote their wellbeing." 

https://www.scie.org.uk/strengths-based-approaches

SBA (strengths-based approach) is also used in assessing individuals with disabilities to ensure their natural talents and gifts are being nurtured, and to create a more positive view on abilities rather than maintaining focus on lack of abilities. In education, we can apply this to a students' learning aptitude, their natural gifts or talents in a given subject area (music), rather than focusing on deficits. 

• When educators help students discover their strengths, this results in more confident students! Think of this like an initial assessment in which you offer the student exposure to many different musical activities in fun game-based ways: sight-reading, improvisation, composition, patterns, ear-training, music theory, note reading, etc.

Let's be honest- students (neurotypical and neurodiverse) are extremely observant and sensitive, and they cannot be tricked into thinking they are good at something if they feel they are not. When a student continually struggles with reading music, they'll feel they are inadequate in this area. When a student continually succeeds at an ear-training activity, they'll feel successful and proud of themselves with a sense of- "Hey, I'm good at this!" 

• Identifying a students' musical superpower (strengths) is helpful for the teacher. When a teacher discovers the students' strength area(s), they can then be used to build up other musical skills in a way that allows students to be successful while still learning and building new skills! If a student excels at improvisation, we can use improvisation to teach new concepts and prepare the students for new concepts, or use improv to encourage growth in areas of struggle. Here's an example: if my student needs to become more comfortable with moving their hands to different positions on the keyboard, I might plan an improvisation where we both move our hands from G position to D position. If I know the student needs to become familiar with 6/8 time signature for the next unit in their book, I'll use improvisation to introduce that time signature. This approach does not negate the presence of learning new things or trick students into learning. Quite the opposite! It uses a skill at which they excel to introduce or reinforce other skills. Going from the known to the unknown- isn't that what educators are taught from the beginning of our training? 

What are your students' superpowers? Do you have any students who are struggling to catch on to a specific concept in their music? Assess their strengths and use that as an encouragement to the student and their parents! If students' deficits are constantly being highlighted, they will become discouraged and may lose their motivation and desire to continue learning. Let's keep them inspired and encouraged while still creating an environment where all students can learn and feel confident in their strengths! 

Are you struggling to identify your students' areas of strength or figure out how to best use that in teaching? Send me an email or contact me through my website- I'd love to work with you to help give you the tools to discover your students' musical superpowers!

Until next time, Elizabeth

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