CaChoo It!: Teaching Mastery by Reframing Negative Thoughts

When children are struggling with anything, particularly an instrument, they forget that learning can be fun. They need to be reminded that they are "playing," not "working" an instrument! A CaChoo is a fun symbol of accomplishment, no more than a line drawn by a child on a page* with a flourish. We exuberantly exclaim "CaChoo!" in order to inspire him or her to practice and to "do it again" until the material is mastered. Mastery can be an abstract concept but the "CaChoo method" makes it concrete: the children know they have to "get" it on their own and eventually play it with no mistakes. If the piece is challenging, I say a child can get a CaChoo after playing it correctly three times in a row. That's because after three times, our hands revert to automatic and we need to direct our hands with our 'minds' by telling our hands out loud what to do. The beauty of a CaChoo is that it is so simple. It comes from the child, with only the go-ahead from the teacher. This allows for open ended creativity on the child's part to make it truly his or her own. By using a CaChoo even the youngest children can express their uniqueness with their own "signature" without needing to know how to write. I use CaChoos for teaching music but they apply to any subject! The CaChoos are small enough so that they allow the children to still be able to read the material on the page while leaving a proud track of their achievements. I have been utterly delighted at what imaginative variations children have come up with and how they have owned "the concept of CaChooing" so easily. What is more satisfying than crossing off an item on your list? Here we do it with flair! Not to mention pride, joy, and applause. CaChooing has helped the children replace their self-doubt with confidence and push them beyond just "getting by" with a willingness to polish their work as if they were a diamond! No longer do we have to explain what mastery is. We just do it and CaChoo It!