Communicating Practice Assignments in an Online Environment

Most teachers have a system of giving assignments to students. You might write in a notebook, on the music, have the student keep a notebook, etc. When you are teaching online, you have to adapt how you communicate assignments, especially with young students. Below are some ideas for adapting your communication with students and parents.

Email Report:

If you don’t have a lot of students a post-lesson email report is a great way to stay in touch with students and especially parents. You can send a synopsis of the lesson, assignments for the week and any attachments they might need.

Parents can also stay up to date with how the lessons are going and address anything they need to before the next lesson.

The key here is to email relatively soon after the lesson as the student will need the information quickly so they can begin their week of practice with little down time!


Shared Cloud Folder

This is my recommendation if you have a lot of students. Create a shared folder for each student in Google Drive, Drop Box (or other) and share it with the student and parent.

Each folder should contain the following:

• Create an assignment document where you will write the assignments each week. Each week you can add the new week’s assignment to the top of the doc. One of my favorite things about this idea is that the document is searchable. If you or the student wants to find information on a previous assignment, they just have to search the doc!
• Within that student's folder, create more folders for other topics or handouts: Sheet Music, Warmup Routines, Technique, Music Theory, etc.
• Upload any recordings.  I often make piano tracks for my online students so they can practice playing with an accompaniment.

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Take a look below at a sample Google Drive setup.
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Phone Call or Video Chat

In this day and age, a phone call or video meeting with a parent can be saved for times when you need more discussion. I recommend using this at the beginning each school year or session to set goals for the year and cover any policy updates. 

You might also decide that the first lesson of the year will be a family meeting. This is a great time to go over policies and expectations as well as make sure all the families questions have been answered before online lessons begin.

A phone call or video chat is also the best way to handle an issue. Do you need to get the parents more involved in monitoring practice, or is there a behavior issue that needs to be covered?

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Share some ways you have adapted your communication in your online lessons? I'd love to hear from you and I'm sure your fellow teachers would as well!