chapter 14 questions to consider

Chapter 14 questions to consider

     Think of a lesson plan from your licensure area (feel free to use the same topic you used for Chapter 6, 9 & 10). Knowing that assessment is an integral part of teaching, explain at least four informal and formal assessments that you will use in your lesson plan to provide you with feedback and involve the students in assessing their own learning.

      Consider norm referenced assessment and criterion referenced assessment. Are there advantages to both? Are their disadvantages?

     In the music world, assessing students can be somewhat difficult.  Formal assessment is difficult, because what is being assessed can vary from teacher to teacher.  The skill levels of players within the ensemble will vary greatly.  Some students will be naturally talented and pick up playing an instrument quickly and easily.  Some will take private lessons, and be grade levels above their peers.  On the other end of the spectrum, some students will not be able to hear the music as well, and will make mistakes and not even notice.  The question is how do you grade these students fairly?  A naturally good musician, who listens to good musicians, will naturally develop a better tone quality than players who don't have the ear for playing their instrument.  It would be unfair to grade a student poorly based on how good of a player they are, so I feel that improvement is a good way to gauge a students grade for the class.  This requires getting to know how each student plays when they begin playing in your ensemble.  At the high school level, it is necessary to keep in touch with the middle school director, and know which students practice regularly, and which students don't play their horn outside of rehearsal.  
     One way of assessing the students formally is through chair auditions.  The students should be notified well ahead of the audition what material will be required for the audition.  Many auditions consist of scales, a prepared piece, and a sight reading piece.  This is a good way to gauge whether the students have prepared and practicing or not.  Any student, whether a good musician or not, can learn their scales with practice, so these are a good way to see basic practice habits.  The prepared piece is an excellent way to gauge a player's musicianship, as this piece is prepared by the student ahead of time, to the best of their ability.  The prepared piece should sound well known to the student, and if the student is playing the prepared piece as if it is the first time they are viewing it, it is obvious that the student is not practicing outside of rehearsals.  The sight reading portion is a good way to see a student's basic understanding of music.  A student who really understands how music is written, will do a good job on the sight reading portion.  Most bands have a chair audition near the beginning of every semester.
     Other ways of formally assessing your students include requiring the students to play pieces of the music for you, written exams covering topics discussed in class, or Smart Music tests.  Smart Music is a software program that allows a player to play an exercise into the computer, and the computer records them so they can listen to themselves, and gives them feedback on notes and rhythms that they may have missed.  Smart Music has most of the common method books included on the software, and many of the popular band pieces can be downloaded.  Smart Music can be used from home, and sent to the director through email.
     Some informal ways to assess students include asking questions and student input during class and moving around the ensemble during rehearsal to listen to individuals.  Asking questions is a good way to keep students focused on the rehearsal, and keep them listening.  Listening is a very important part of band class, and many students do not develop this skill until the college level, because band directors often just tell the students what to fix and adjust and the students just play their music.  If the students are asked to listen to other sections and provide feedback, the students are more likely to listen when they are playing as well.  Getting the students to listen outside of their stand and blend with the rest of the ensemble makes the music improve much more quickly.  When asking questions, it is possible to assess how much the students are truly understanding.  Moving around the rehearsal is also a good idea because individual students can be heard more easily.  Also, if the director stands on the podium the entire rehearsal and calls commands from there, a "barrier" between the director and students forms, and behavior issues can arise, especially from the back of the classroom (low brass and percussion).  If the director moves around the rehearsal area, the students are much more likely to pay attention and remain on task during the rehearsal, as well as the teacher benefiting from listening to individual players. 

     As far as norm and criterion referenced assessments are considered, both have their highlights in certain education areas.  For example, a criterion referenced assessment can work well in subjective areas such as English, Art, or Music.  I believe this because having a criteria to make sure certain aspects are obtained helps prevent bias and opinionated grading.  Though this can never be completely avoided in areas without concrete questions and answers, a criteria can help.  Norm referenced assessment works well in areas with concrete answers, such as Math or Science.  If most students at a certain grade level have a certain comprehension of math skills, a student can be compared and placed as above, at, or below grade level.  A criteria would not work well when grading a math test, being as how no matter the scenario, two more than two is always going to four.  Also, norm based grading is difficult in areas like Art and Music because the levels of talent and skill vary so greatly between students.