Submitted by Kara Jamieson Douthitt, Everett, Washington

Idea posted January 24, 2003

I have tested two ways:

  1. Only one student plays at a time, and the rest "chinger" (mouthpiece on chin and finger the notes).
  2. All play, but I move around the kids so I grade one student at a time.

Both ways have worked really well for me management-wise, and it has eliminated some of the panic some kids feel if they are the only one playing. I tried testing while the other kids worked in small groups preparing to test or working on the next song, but that didn't work so well for me - it was harder to keep all the kids on task and to make sure they were practicing new songs correctly.