Post #4 - IPT Days & The National Park of Music
It was my third year teaching, and I knew that I wanted to shake things up. Not in a bad way because things were going poorly, but actually because my orchestra was doing really well, and I felt it was time to give them a challenge. It felt like going back through a level of Super Mario Brothers just to get all of the golden coins.
For years, ever since I had been in high school orchestra myself, the evaluation process was always the same. We would leave class one at a time to perform an excerpt of the concert music for either our teacher or a video camera. Then, we would wait for the feedback, usually returned in the form of a number between 0-100 on our report card. As this was the status quo, for the first two years of my teaching career, I simply carried on the tradition.
However, this year, it just didn’t feel like the right move.
My goal was to give each student the individual feedback they needed without destroying their grade if they performed poorly on the one day I assessed them (which was often the case). Thus, the concept of I.P.T. Days was born!
What is I.P.T.?
I.P.T. stands for “Individual Practice Time,” and it has become such a foundational part of my orchestra’s culture that I can’t imagine how I operated before this system was in place. Basically, it means that, on an I.P.T. Day, students are free to practice however and wherever they wish. I assign them work to be completed on a check-off system. Simply put, they raise their hand when they have something completed, I come over and listen to them play it, and if it’s correct, I check it off their sheet. If it isn’t, I give them instant feedback on what to improve and they go back to work. It’s basically a 45-minute free-for-all which, quite honestly, is pure cacophony; much like our beginner orchestra rehearsals already. But the benefits of this system have reverberated throughout the years and produced a classroom culture that I am excited to participate in every day. Also, do I use too many commas, when I write?
The National Park of Music
I believe that creativity should be a foundational part of every classroom, and while we often associate creativity with boundless energy and creative expression, too much freedom is often a cause of creative block. Students need some imposed guard rails in order to feel safe until they’ve matured into a manner of self-discipline that allows them to create their own productive guard rails.
On I.P.T. Days, I always begin class by doing a run-down of things students should be working on. If they’ve accomplished all of my classroom expectations already, which most often have, then they are free to explore on their own.
This leads to my analogy of the “National Park of Music.” If you are let loose to explore Yellowstone National Park completely by yourself, you will likely become overwhelmed with the immensity of this geographical phenomenon. Thus, seeking a Park Ranger to give a guided tour is probably the best course of action. However, if you’ve done lots of research prior to visiting Yellowstone, and you’ve read books and watched National Geographic documentaries to the point that you are comfortable exploring the park on your own, then you will get more out of your trip by exploring on your own than if you spent money on guided tours for beginners.
I structure I.P.T. Days along these same lines. While everyone is practicing, I am able to walk around the room and touch base with students individually who may need more one-on-one instruction or coaching. My students who have proven their trust and independence are able to work at their own pace and pursue things that I likely would never have time to cover from the podium in a given rehearsal.
Above: Students working during an IPT Day in Spring 2021. An interval timer on the board guides them through different segments of their practicing.
Do I.P.T. Days work?
This past January, my orchestra was selected to perform at our state’s Music Education Conference, an honor that, in 2022, was awarded to only two public high school orchestras. Since implementing the I.P.T. system in 2014, I have given up so many rehearsal days, but have only seen the quality of my student’s musicality rise and rise. When I gave them a survey last year asking their thoughts on our I.P.T. culture, of the 53 students that responded, 36 strongly agreed (and 16 agreed) that I.P.T. Days are a valuable part of our concert preparation.
It is daunting to think that surrendering days of rehearsal will not come back to bite you in the end, but I hope this post encourages you to try. Like doing a backflip for the first time, you think you will land on your head and break your neck, but the truth is that that will only happen if you don’t commit 100% to completing the rotation.
I believe that I.P.T. Days show my students that I trust them, and because they feel trusted, they work harder and harder at being independent. Do I still have weeks where we only rehearse in order to prepare for the upcoming concert? Of course I do (we call this Shark Week!). Do I still have to get on teenagers now and then to stop goofing off and get back to work? Of course I do. But the proof is in the data. Giving students the autonomy to guide their musical development is a successful pedagogical practice. I hope you will consider this approach for your classroom, and feel free to reach out if you would like more information.
Whenever I ask my students, “What is the goal of this orchestra program?” they respond with an enthusiasm that can only be mustered by adolescents who think playing call-and-response games with their teacher is lame: “Independent musicians!”
“That’s right,” I say.
And then we get to work.
