Assessing students has been somewhat
of a challenge this past school year for many reasons. The biggest reason was
simply lack of class time. Many of the assessments I used this past school year
were playing tests, self-assessments, peer-assessments and some
paper-and-pencil tests to assess knowledge of various musical symbols and
components. Due to lack of technology, all these assessments were done with
rubrics that were posted, as well as given to students before the assessments.
I would record the students grades in my gradebook. This is all I had available
to me to grade my students. When it was time for report cards to be filled out,
I would have to find a computer at school to use, or use my own computer, to
input student grades into the system. The down side of not being able to record
all the student’s grades in the grading system is the students and parents are
not able to go online and keep track of their progress. In order to keep
students and parents informed, I would have to wait until a parent contacted me
for information about their student or send a generic email or take home notice
about the general progress of the group. Having the grades in the grading
system would make figuring out their term grades easier because it computes
their term grade by averaging all the grades entered according to the weights
set in each category by myself.
I feel that assessing the performance of
instrumental students is somewhat subjective when compared to other types of
testing. To use technology to assess a student’s playing ability may not be the
appropriate medium for a given assessment. For some students, playing an
instrument comes naturally and the student does not practice at home. Other
students may not have as much natural ability and they have practice at home
almost every day. Even if the student practices every day, they may not be able
to play the segment of music that is being tested perfectly, but the student
with the natural ability can play it perfectly. Is it fair to give the student
who practices a B while the student who never practices an A? I do not think it
is fair. This is why it is important to know your students and their ability
level. For example, I had a student who was on an IEP (Individualized Education
Plan) for various cognitive disabilities and signed up to play the violin in
fourth grade. She has trouble reading, writing, understanding various concepts,
and many other issues. By the time she was in eighth grade, she could read the
notes in her music, but could not read them fast enough to keep up with the
tempo of a given song. The solution was to write down the letter name so she
could decode the music quickly. She would go home the day I gave her a new song
and write down all the note names and I would check it over the next class. She
would practice every day and still could not keep up with the tempo of the
given song. After every class, she would ask me questions about how she was
doing and I would give her very specific assignments to work on. During a
playing test, she would struggle but would get through it at her tempo. Because
I knew she was trying her hardest and that was the very best she could do, I
would give her an A. If it was a student who I knew had the ability to play the
song at the correct tempo but did not bother to practice, I would grade the
student accordingly because I am aware of what that particular student is
capable of. Using technology to assess playing ability may not be the best fit
for all situations, but could be useful in helping the students prepare for a
playing test instead.
The idea of backwards design is something that
comes very naturally to me. When I was working on my undergraduate degree, we
learned how to write a lesson plan, what went into a good lesson plan, how to
come up with good objectives, and how will you assess learning. When going
through the process of learning how to write lesson plans, I found it easier to
start with what the goal was and how I wanted to test that goal. When I started
working, the district had a professional development session on backwards
design. I realized I was already doing this. The only thing that they added to
the backwards design was the workshop model. This is having an introduction to
the lesson, a working period, and a conclusion with assessment.
The workshop model is perfect for project-based
learning. Project-based learning reminds me of a quote by Confucius (n.d.) that
has been embraced by my districts fine arts department, “I hear and I forget. I
see and I remember. I do and I understand”. Project-based learning engages
students in authentic, real-world learning activities that are designed around
answering complex questions, solving a problem, or to meet a challenge (Bauer,
2014). The introduction of would be presenting the students with the questions
they need to answer, the problem the need to solve, or presenting the challenge
they need to meet. The working period is spent trying to complete the task
presented in the introduction. Technology can assist with this task. The students
can use computers, tablets, or even their smartphones to research their
answers. In music, the task could be to arrange a piece of music using a
specific program or to write their own composition using specific programs. The
closing section could be a check in on the progress of the project, or a presentation
of the project for assessment if completed. Project-based learning can also be
done outside of school time. Students can contact each other using text
messages, video conferencing programs, discussion forums, wikis, email and many
other types of communication platforms (Bauer, 2014). Programs like GoogleDocs
allows a student to start typing up a paper and share it with other students.
Each student can type on this document and the other people can see the changes.
This helps students work with each other without having to be in the same room.
I plan each unit of instruction using backward
design along with the workshop model. I start with by determining what is the
overall goal of this unit and what methods do I want to use to assess that learning
has happened. Once I have the goals and end assessment, I break down the unit
into weekly goals. When I figure out what I want accomplished by the end of
each week, I then design assessments to fit those goals. One of the main benefits
of planning my instruction in this way is I know before many other teachers
when I am going to need the computer labs. I can reserve a lab or a computer
cart well in advance so I am assured I get access to the computers at that
particular time. Planning ahead also allows me to plan how I am going to teach
my students and insure that I am going to meet the needs of my students by differentiating
instruction.
Bauer,
W. I. (2014). Music learning today
digital pedagogy for creating performing
and
responding to music. New York, NY Oxford University Press.
Confucius.
(n.d.). BrainyQuote.com. Retrieved August 5, 2016, from BrainyQuote.com
Web site:
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/c/confucius136802.html
Hi Jodie,
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that the "one size fits all" assessment method does not always work in performance-based classes. As a middle school teacher, I try to always be cognizant of my students' self-esteem and self-perception. I am constantly correcting phrases like "I can't do this" or "This is too hard". For this reason, I mostly do informal assessment during group lessons. I once tried to implement a playing-test rubric but found I did not like it for several reasons. First, it it took away valuable lesson time. Second, it didn't seem to really motivate students to practice. Third, it made students just compare themselves to each other and pointed out their flaws in a very public way.
I have yet to develop an assessment method that works to bolster students' confidence level and celebrate their accomplishments rather than make them feel that they aren't good enough. For example, if the only thing a student learned from me last year was how to play a C# on the clarinet, I want them to be proud that they can now do that, and recognize that that is growth from the previous year, no matter how small.
I really like the idea of portfolios, which can be submitted to the teacher without peer influence or putting that student "on display". Kids often echo how much they don't like playing solo in front of each other, even if it's not for a grade. You can imagine how that turned out when they were being graded! I think I would rather read a student's eJournal or blog that says "I really understand the key of A now!" or listen to an audio clip of a hard piece that the student struggled with all year.
-Steve