Forget ensemble expectations; let’s talk about ensemble scaffolding.
Like all educators, I’m spending a lot of time talking about the way things work in my ensembles.
Let’s not call it setting expectations, though. Setting expectations centers the director in the conversation, when we should be centering the ensemble members. It accentuates the power differential, by emphasizing that there are expectations that I have that you are to meet.
Instead, let’s talk about creating ensemble scaffolding. Scaffolding is the structures used by construction workers to support them as they do their work. Ensemble scaffolding describes what we’re talking about in our start-of-the-year conversations, and rather than centering the director, it centers the work,
This scaffolding will help us build what we are setting out to build here. It’s here to help us as we work together.
That’s the message, the attitude, and the emotional energy that I want to pour into my ensemble from the very beginning. Language matters.