The candidate understands how to use multiple measures to monitor and assess

individual student learning, engage learners in self-assessment, and use data to

make decisions.

In a music classroom, assessment is happening at an almost constant rate. I am

continually listening to the class as a whole, small groups, and individuals on their singing,
playing or speaking. An example of this is given as an artifact on my Entry 3-1 webpage,
where I ask certain students to play a passage from the song we are learning on their
instrument. Each time I listen to the students I either tweak a problem, or ask the students
what the problem is and how they can address it. It is also important not to give instruction
where it is not needed. Especially for older students, they often are already self-assessing in
their head as they are singing or playing, and can often fix the issue without being
instructed on what to do. But there are times when I make self-assessment an activity for
all students, since some are stronger at self-reflection than others. This could be as simple
as listening to a recording of themselves, a solo piece or whole group work, and giving
specific feedback about their performance, and an example of this is also given as an
artifact for this entry. Students will often be hard on themselves when self-assessing, but it
is important to encourage them to focus on positive aspects of their performances first. As
the teacher, I try to model what successful self-assessment looks like, by watching my
teaching, reflecting on it, and improving what I do for the next class period. While it doesnt
occur as frequent as in core classes, formal assessment also plays an important role in my
music classroom. For elementary grade levels, formal assessment gives data to build off of
and plan for the next unit. A good formal assessment not only tells you what the students
learned, but is also a valid reflection of how you taught the content. The most typical kind
of formal assessment I use in my teaching is a post assessment at the end of a unit. An
example of the post assessment for my 2nd grade unit plan on dynamics is given as an
artifact for this entry.