3-1 Assessment

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.

One of the hardest parts about working in a music classroom is learning how to assess student
development and competency. Many classrooms can simply administer multiple choice tests,
but assessing music has to be done in various ways in order to be effective.

When students are first being exposed to music in the elementary classroom, the students
might not be comfortable with doing individual performances just yet, so the teacher has to
come up with other ways to see where each of the students are at without having to single
anyone out. While teaching at an elementary school, we learned a game called “Rhythm
Memory” (15:45-22:15) where the teacher put different rhythms up on the board. There would
be four cards taught to the students. After they learned all four cards, the teacher would flip
the cards over so they had to perform from memory. The teacher could also switch the cards to
try and get their brains really working hard. This game was very effective for me in assessing the
students. I could watch and see who was having a more difficult time with the rhythms and who
tended to get it really quickly. This also allowed me to assess without the students knowing I
was assessing them, which helped them be more open and expressive.

In the secondary classroom, the teacher is able to use more formal types of assessment. This is
not to say that each assessment should be a singing test or a recording submission, but that
these types of assessment can be used more often because older students will be more capable
of understanding constructive criticism than younger students. In this lesson plan I have the
assessment listed as a simple recording assignment where the students are to record
themselves playing their instrument and upload it and send it to me so that I can hear them
individually. In an ensemble setting it is important to have these types of assessments so that
the teacher can hear each student’s individual sound. During normal class time, it would be
impossible to listen to each person, but at the same time it is important to know where each
person is at in order to achieve the greatest sound. In this lesson (1:43-18:50) I taught to a
freshmen women’s choir, the assessment was less formal. We were playing a game where the
students competed against each other to identify musical excerpts. Based on how quickly the
students were able to guess the correct answer gave me an idea of how advanced their musical
knowledge was.

Assessment should vary regularly in the music classroom. Since music cannot be assessed like
other subjects can be, it is important to have a variety of types of assessment so that the
teacher can really get an idea of student comprehension. Logging growth over time and keeping
track of abilities mastered will be the best way to show students’ levels of success in the music
classroom.