Week #7: Musical Assessment and Professional Productivity with Technology
Assessments.....they are used in multiple facets of humanity. Employees are, in most cases, assessed on their job performance on an annual basis to let the employer know whether or not the employee is accomplishing what they are hired to do. In the state of Missouri (where I live), automobiles are required by law to be assessed for safety every two years to ensure that unsafe vehicles are not on the roads putting lives in danger. In the classroom setting, assessments are used before, during, and after learning to assess what students know and what they have learned. This knowledge is used to design instruction, design assessments, and to verify the validity of a teacher's curriculum and lesson plans.
In the music education world, the vast majority of assessments are done through performance. In elementary general music, we have students move fast or slow to a song about The Tortoise & The Hare to assess their learning of the difference between fast and slow. In 5th grade band (or whenever the first year is), we have students sight read a simple melody using the first 3 notes of the Bb concert scale with only half notes and quarter notes to assess if students are developing at the same rate as the class. In high school band, we have students perform scales from memory on command to assess learning of the major key signatures. When new students enter our theory classes, we then give them a paper and pencil diagnostic exam to see what they know, and where instruction needs to begin. While all of these methods are perfectly valid forms of assessment in music education, technological advances make possibilities for assessment growing day by day.
Music Matters is an organization in the United Kingdom dedicated to the cause of music education. They have a YouTube channel full of instructional videos, but also full of assessment videos, such as the one just above this paragraph. You'll have to excuse the English notational lingo (i.e. crotchets, quavers), but this is one great example of how technology can be used to assess students in new ways which will further engage students. In the above video, the test giver directs the students through an active problem-solving conversation in assigning time signatures to different rhythms. Using this video with a class of students, pausing periodically to ask questions or further conversation, is a great way to assess informally with an entire class. While you won't be able to assign a grade for each student, you will gain a better understanding of if the class is ready for a formal assessment, or if more time is needed for instruction.
Take a moment to take this Google Quiz on music theory:
In the music education world, the vast majority of assessments are done through performance. In elementary general music, we have students move fast or slow to a song about The Tortoise & The Hare to assess their learning of the difference between fast and slow. In 5th grade band (or whenever the first year is), we have students sight read a simple melody using the first 3 notes of the Bb concert scale with only half notes and quarter notes to assess if students are developing at the same rate as the class. In high school band, we have students perform scales from memory on command to assess learning of the major key signatures. When new students enter our theory classes, we then give them a paper and pencil diagnostic exam to see what they know, and where instruction needs to begin. While all of these methods are perfectly valid forms of assessment in music education, technological advances make possibilities for assessment growing day by day.
Music Matters is an organization in the United Kingdom dedicated to the cause of music education. They have a YouTube channel full of instructional videos, but also full of assessment videos, such as the one just above this paragraph. You'll have to excuse the English notational lingo (i.e. crotchets, quavers), but this is one great example of how technology can be used to assess students in new ways which will further engage students. In the above video, the test giver directs the students through an active problem-solving conversation in assigning time signatures to different rhythms. Using this video with a class of students, pausing periodically to ask questions or further conversation, is a great way to assess informally with an entire class. While you won't be able to assign a grade for each student, you will gain a better understanding of if the class is ready for a formal assessment, or if more time is needed for instruction.
Take a moment to take this Google Quiz on music theory:
https://goo.gl/forms/D4G5iPwspfao0jy72
How did you score? Google is a phenomenal resource for many different facets of communication. With Google, you can search the web for information, send and receive email with a free account, store documents and files digitally for free up to 15 gigabytes, and digitally create documents, presentations, surveys, and quizzes, with many free templates available. Through Google quizzes, students can be prompted to answer questions in several forms: multiple choice, short answer, long answer, and scale are just a few of the possibilities. Through this medium, interactive assessments can be created which include videos of prompts, audio files for analyzing, graphs, and so on. I am now in the works of creating a full music theory diagnostic exam for my students which they can take at home on their own time, and they can take multiple times throughout the year as they progress. My students hate taking paper and pencil tests, so I know I can create something through Google quizzes which they will really enjoy.
The life of a teacher can be hectic. Between showing up before school to be available to help students, teaching nearly every hour of the day, spending our free time fixing instruments or creating emergency replacement parts for the percussionists (come on, you know it's true!), staying after school so students can use the practice rooms to prep for solo and ensemble or complete their playing tests in Smart Music......teachers have jammed packed days! How do we keep it all together? While physical calendar books work for some, digital is so much better for many teachers - myself included. Google to the rescue! With every free Google account, users can create an unlimited number of digital calendars to keep track of everything they need to remember. These events in the calendar can be set up to send a reminder beforehand, can keep track of the specific location, and can even invite other teachers and colleagues to meetings. Most of us have smart phones, and some of us even have smart watches, and now Google can use these devices to keep us on track all day long. What a life saver!
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