I have a couple of eight year olds in my fourth-level class who are siblings at my Group placement and the challenging thing about this level is that they're not quite beginners anymore but they haven't quite reached the intermediate piano level yet either - so they are in betweeners.
Department meetings are normally held throughout the months with our Piano Department Head so that we can all discuss and develop new strategies to teach students (I normally drive out to Oakville for this and the treks have been quite good actually!). I find these talks with other teachers to be extremely helpful. I am not alone. It seems like we have all had similar experiences when dealing with eight year-olds - kids at this age really begin to develop their own characteristics and are much more opinionated.
In this particular syllabus (which is not to be confused with Royal Conservatory of Music Grade 4 - it's an entirely different route) the fourth level covers sixteenth notes, the 6/8 Time Signature and we've just gotten through a new rhythmic pattern - "triplets" where three eighth notes attached are counted as "1 + a" but still equal to the value of one Quarter Note. So the content's taken a real turn and has proved to be pretty challenging at times.
I could tell that sometimes my students have hit a brick wall in class - they don't want to clap & count anymore or count semitones. I know they can do the material. I thought to myself, "what could I do to spark their interest again?! What could I add?"... So luckily I was reminded that there are a number of resource binders in our school library where we keep all of our games, looseleaf handouts and activities to include in our lesson plans. Believe me I go through them ALL the time.
It was still early in the month but I decided to go ahead and start our new "Composer Study" with the class... I flipped through all the pages and FINALLY.... I found the biography of Canada's grammy-winning artist Sarah McLachlan! I immediately photocopied the page and right before my class I opened up a new window on the desktop computer to her hit single "I Will Remember You" on YouTube (Ugh... I love her music but to be playing the theme song from my own Grade 8 graduation back in the day was NOT what I was hoping to go through again but anyway... It was suggested on the page that we play this song as an ear-training sample... so there you go). I even had the music video up and everything.
So during the last 10-15 minutes of class we did something fun! My students had to guess what song was playing on YouTube first, and then we read the bio together! I even got them to research 2 more songs at home and share with the rest of the class at the following lesson. It was great how their mother even joined in and played a song off her iPhone (apparently Sarah McLachlan's one of her favourite artists and I had no idea! What a coincidence). In Group classes all the parents usually attend with their child.
It's great that I get to tie in so much more contemporary / pop culture with my classes and with lessons like the one above, I'm really giving them positive examples to look up to. I learned that they had done Beethoven and Mozart last year - and this was definitely something new for both myself (from a teaching standpoint) and for my students.
Unfortunately since Sarah McLachlan herself could not make an appearance I guess having YouTube was close enough....
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