It was the first day of music class and it was Derrick's first day of fourth grade at a new school—a therapeutic day school for students with behavior disorders. He did not make it past the threshold into the music room. Derrick stomped his feet down defiantly in the doorway, crossed his arms, and announced quite assertively, accenting each word: "I HATE music and no-one's gonna' make me do nothing!" Well, if you start from the bottom of the continuum and "hate" music, then there is a great deal of room to grow. And Derrick was correct—I surely could not make him do a thing. I realized in Derrick's declaration was that of a little boy who had not experienced any success in a music class before. He was going to take a great deal of thought on my part to encourage him, dismantle his strong defenses, and develop his sense of self-efficacy. Most importantly, Derrick required me to carefully examine my approach so that he could actually have a fun and rewarding time in music class.

We all have students who have degrees of behavior and attitude issues much like Derrick. How can we get them not only to follow directions and participate, but to enjoy the subject area we so value ourselves? Following are brief summaries of very helpful and informative articles about using praise more effectively. A generic "good job" after each activity will not serve our students as well as behavior-specific praise can. Each of the authors stress that, as music teachers, we need to put as much thought into our praise comments as as we put into our musical lesson plans. Using positive affirmations appropriately is a proactive approach to teaching music, rather than responding in a reactive manner to difficulties. The first articles present teaching situations we all can relate to; the final research article addresses music students and their teachers specifically.

Shaping students' behavior requires "patience, consistency. . .warmth, kindness, and sincerity" (Marchant and Anderson, 2012, p. 24). Behavior specific praise is "one of the most powerful tools teachers can use to encourage children's learning and prevent problem behaviors from occurring," Conroy, Sutherland, and Snyder explain (2009, p. 18). The effective use of praise increases students' appropriate behaviors. Effective praise statements include the following characteristics (Conroy et al.):

• Praise is specific about the appropriate behavior desired.
• Praise is immediate.
• Praise considers the instructional nature of the activity-children need more praise when initially acquiring a new skill.
• Praise is teacher initiated, not dependent on responding to a student's solicitation.
• Praise needs to focus on improvement and effort, rather than evaluating talent or intelligence.
• Praise needs to be sincere and given in a natural tone of voice, and be considerate of the age of the student. For elementary students, public acknowledgement is fine; teenagers often prefer private acknowledgement.
• Praise should avoid competition ("The altos are paying better attention than the basses.").

Providing "explicit feedback for the desired student behavior" reinforces the desired behavior we are teaching, according to Stormont and Reinke (2009, p. 27). For example, "Bobby, you did a good job lining up without talking" addresses the desired appropriate behavior, not only for Bobby but also for the whole class. Using behavior specific praise is a proactive approach to classroom management. Behavior specific praise can be individualized to a small group of students or to an entire classroom. See Table 1.

Table 1: Behavior Specific Praise

example Alex, you're following directions well. Keep up the good work! Altos, thank you for sitting quietly while I worked with the tenors. Susie, you worked hard on that tricky rhythm pattern and you got it right! The bell has rung and you all entered quietly, just as the rule states.

non-example Good job, Alex! Awesome work, choir! Way to go, Susie! I like the way Joey is sitting criss-cross applesauce.

Stormont and Reinke (2009) remind us that using behavior specific praise increases positive interactions with students and decreases the need for reprimands. It is a successful strategy to use even for students with disruptive behavior disorders. "The important thing to remember . . . is that without systematic planning for consistent use, it will not be as effective" (Stormont and Reinke, p. 29). Teachers can audio-record his or her teaching or ask a colleague to track the number of behavior specific praise statements used. Or, a music teacher can determine a goal of using five behavior specific praise statements per class session—then line up five paper clips on the edge of a music stand to tally one's goal. Smart phones and laptops also offer a range of tracking applications for our instructional use. The benefits of using behavior specific praise are that it is easy to implement and can be done without cost. However, the real benefit is a more positive classroom environment that the students look forward to attending.

Haydon and Musti-Rao (2011) studied two middle-school math teachers and the use of behavior specific praise. Teaching music is different from math, but we can learn from the discipline issues these two math teachers faced. The average rate of disruptive behaviors was every one and a half minutes to two and a half minutes for a 25-minute period. Typical disruptions necessitated an office referral that students typically tore up when they left the classroom. Neither teacher used behavior specific praise statements prior to intervention. In using more effective affirmations, the authors stress that the teacher must:

• Link the praise statement to a specific behavior.
• Provide feedback.
• Be sincere.
• Reflect the student's skill level.
• Evaluate the effectiveness of the praise statement.

During the length of the intervention, the researchers found a dramatic decrease in disruptive behaviors in the two math classrooms. Specifically, on average, there were up to 40 fewer disruptions for a 25-minute class period. Additionally, the teachers decreased their number of verbal reprimands. Using behavior specific praise is indeed effective in changing students' disruptive behaviors.

In Alfie Kohn's provocative article, "Five Reasons to Stop Saying 'Good Job,'" he states that the repeated use of the generic praise statement "Good job!" has become like a "verbal tic" for adults who work with children (2001, para. 1). Kohn challenges educators and parents to examine carefully the use of generic praise statements that often serve to meet the adult's needs rather than the child's needs. Generic praise may increase a child's dependence on adults' evaluations when we begin statements with, "I like the way you . . ." Constant, generic praise encourages a child to measure themselves in terms of what makes the adult happy rather than focusing on the child's sense of self-efficacy. The evaluative compliment of "Good job" is just as much a judgment for the child as "Bad job!" No one, including children, likes to be judged. Generic, empty praise is conditional. If we are not careful, our praise to students means "offering attention and acknowledgement and approval for jumping through our hoops, for doing things that please us" (para. 20). Instead, a descriptive statement such as "You are sitting quietly, ready to listen" communicates the adult's desired, independent behavior rather than making the child dependent on the adult's judgment. "You did it!" is positive, descriptive and focuses on the child's autonomy. The focus, Kohn argues, should be on raising a child's sense of autonomy and independence with descriptive comments, rather than making the child dependent on an adult's approval and evaluation.

In his study of praise with music students, Droe (2012) examined attribution theory and teacher affirmations. He studied teacher and student behavior during a rhythm tapping examination. Students praised for effort had a higher rate of choosing learning goals. The students who were praised for effort not only selected learning goals but also had higher rates of task persistence and task enjoyment—even if they performed poorly on a challenge. Students who chose learning goals have a mind-set geared towards growth and learning. In contrast, a student with a fixed mind-set focuses solely on their performance evaluation. A persistent attitude shapes students' approach to challenging music tasks—activities are simply opportunities for learning.

But here is what caught my attention in Droe's study: the students who were praised for effort chose more difficult rhythm tasks at a significantly higher rate than the students praised for talent, who chose easier rhythm tasks. "When music educators encourage students to attempt and learn more complicated tasks that carry an element of risk, verbal feedback from a teacher can affect a student's mind-set toward these more challenging goals" (Droe, 2012, p. 11). Droe cautions educators to be careful in using positive affirmation because praise for talent can actually inhibit a student's mind-set. Rather than accepting greater musical challenges, praising talent actually impedes a student's persistence. Droe concludes that, "Exhibiting enjoyment of a challenge and a positive attitude toward task persistence may be two of the most important attributes conducive to learning" (p. 12).

SO, what happened to Derrick? When he adamantly refused to enter the music room, I simply told him that he could just take his time when he was ready. I continued teaching and introducing the rest of the class to fun, hands-on activities, engaging them in active learning and providing them with a great deal of encouragement and specific praise. It took Derrick four class sessions to make it past the doorway to his chair, but then he just stood behind it. Again, no pressure from me for him to actually join us and participate—I knew Derrick had his own timeline. Three more sessions and he decided to sit in the chair, but sideways to demonstrate that he still wasn't participating. Two more sessions and he was face forward yet with head down. However, after weeks of seeming to not participate, I did see his lips moving to one of the songs. Very casually afterwards, privately, I told him I was impressed with how hard he was trying. Turns out Derrick had excellent rhythm skills when we did hand drum activities—I could count on him to play alone as an example for his classmates. As his singing voice developed, it was clear he was consistently in tune. I kept affirming him for his efforts in music class. Beneath the hard exterior was simply a little boy who needed patience, nurturing, and encouragement. It was a slow process, but steady. By the end of the semester, Derrick not only was fully participating, he was enjoying himself and became a good leader both musically and behaviorally.

The implications for music educators from this brief literature review are two-fold. If we want to accomplish more in rehearsal or music class, we need to use our instructional time well. That is, our students need to be engaged in active music learning activities. Using behavior specific praise encourages more on-task behavior, which creates a more positive, productive learning environment. Behavior specific praise encourages independent behavior because it focuses on the child's ability to make choices, rather than evaluating the student with judgments.

Implementing behavior specific praise is a proactive approach to teaching. Most importantly, it is effective for students with behavior challenges. Ideally, we all want students to accomplish more challenging musical objectives with a persistent attitude. We would be more influential teachers if our praise were directed towards our students' effort rather than talent. Combining two forms of praise—for behavior and for effort—will accomplish more in our music and rehearsal classrooms.

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