670 Standard Essay 6

Standard 6: The teacher of PK-12 music can assess musical knowledge and
skills.

As a teacher, I have to be flexible in monitoring and evaluating student

growth and learning. There is no one magic answer to the right teaching method,
which is why flexibility is important. All students learn differently, so I have to be
prepared to make a lesson understandable to all my students. I exhibit this skill
because of the experience I gained in my music education classes I took in college, as
well as the observations I did while watching a music teacher run their own
classroom. We designed lessons based around different learning styles. I will be able
to carry this experience and creativity into my classroom. I will also be able to
assess the musical knowledge my students know, and what they need to improve
on.
My students will benefit from my instruction because I will be able to teach
my lessons that will connect with the different learning types. When I assess the
students knowledge, I will be able to adjust my lesson plans to help my students in
areas that they need help. Teaching flexibility is important to ensure that all
students have a chance to fully understand the lesson. Using different forms of
assessment is a great way to give your students a broad spectrum to learn the
material in various ways, and give feedback to the teacher on what is effective for
student learning.
 Artifact 1:

512 Assessment Portfolio

1. Portfolio
2. Analytic Rubric
3. Checklist
4. Teacher-created tests
5. Self/peer evaluation
6. Journals
7. Exit slip
8. Essay

1. Portfolio Assessment

Definition: An alternative to the traditional classroom test, the portfolio keeps

several works from the student to show their learning over time.

Rationale: This assessment shows that, over time, a student is learning and
constantly improving rather than showing exactly what they know at a certain time
(like the traditional test).

Implementation: Worksheet packets due every month and will be kept in each
students portfolio. Each packet will use questions based around musical
terminology, signs and symbols. The assignments will be graded and placed in each
students portfolio. Each assignment packet will be available for each student to
view whenever they want inside the classroom, but the completed
assignments/portfolio cannot leave the room. The assignments will also be in order
from when each was due.

Validity: Each packet must come with a signature from a parent/guardian that the
packets were not photo copied. This helps with the validity of the take home test
discussed later.

Analysis/reliability: The portfolio is a very reliable assessment because the

teacher can use past assignments to see where the student was initially, and where
they are now.

Adjustment: The portfolio is a good assessment tool that, in itself, does not need to
be adjusted much. The adjustment comes from what the portfolio tells you. If many
students are not grasping a concept and are struggling, then the information the
portfolio gives you can give you the tools and information the teacher needs to make
those adjustments in lessons.
Example:
 2. Analytic Rubric

Definition: A rubric lists specific guidelines for the criteria to earn a certain grade
the assignment the rubric is based on (from poor to excellent).

Rationale: The rubric shows students exactly what to expect when being graded on
an assignment (or in my classroom a performance). Because the guidelines are
specific, the teacher (or student when rating performances) is able to give a grade
that is fair and equitable. The analytic rubric is a useful assessment tool because it
allows for comments on what went well or how something could have gone better.

Implementation: Each performance the ensemble gives will be recorded. Each

recording will be played back during the next class period following the
performance. The students will fill out the rubric, as well as provide any additional
comments on the back of the page.

Validity/reliability: Analytic rubrics allow the teacher and student to watch/listen

for specific criteria to achieve a certain grade.

Analysis: The students will grade their own performances. The teacher will review
the rubrics and base future lessons on the rubric answers. If for example, the
teacher felt like intonation was an issue during the performance and the students
gave intonation a high rating on the rubric, then the teacher now knows that
intonation needs to be focused on during the next lesson.

Example:
 3. Checklist

Definition: A checklist is a list of tasks that dont have any evaluative measure. To
earn a checkmark, a student must show that they did do that task on the checklist.

Implementation:

Validity:

Rationale:

Analysis:

4. Teacher-created tests

Definition: A test that the teacher has created based off of the content the students
have been learning during that particular time frame.

Implementation: At the end of every month, the students will be assigned a take-
home test that covers the material of the assignment packet from that month. The
students may use their own notes and work with their peers, but they may not use
their packets from earlier in the month.

Validity: While there may be concerns over the validity of a take-home test, the goal
is focused around student learning rather than the memorization of terms and
symbols, writing them down, and forgetting them in two weeks.
Rationale: The teacher-made test is a way for the teacher to see what the students
know and what some areas that need more explanation are. This helps the teacher
know how to move forward with instructions and lessons. A purpose of the take-
home aspect is that rehearsal time isnt taken up by giving up time for the students
to take the test in class.

Analysis: The teacher can plan future instruction based on the results of these tests.

Example:
 5. Self/peer evaluation

Definition: Students evaluate their own work/performance, or their classmates

work/performance (in the music class this is mostly referenced to performance).

Implementation: Throughout rehearsals, the teacher will ask the students to access
their performance after playing a specific passage. The teacher will also ask students
from outside the section that played to offer their insight as well.

Rationale: Self/peer assessment is an important way for students to hold

themselves to a higher standard and work their way toward really understanding a
subject. In practice sessions, students need to be able to know what they did well as
well as what needs work/more attention.

Validity: Establishing validity in self/peer evaluation can be tricky. The teacher

should feel comfortable with the students knowledge of the subject before letting
them self-assess.

Analysis: Through self-assessment, the teacher can see what the students
understand, and how they interpret their playing (or their classmates).

Example:
 6. Journal entry

Definition: A short entry that explains what happened during a class period/unit
and what the students takeaways from the class during that time are.

Implementation: At the end of every concert block, the students will write about
what they learned during that concert block.

Rationale: A journal entry is a good way to know what a student is thinking and
helps the teacher access what students understand and how well they understand it.

Validity: As long as the students are being honest, it can be a great tool. However if
they are just writing words on the page to be done with the journal, they dont get
anything out of the lesson and the teacher does not get helpful information toward
helping that student learn.

Analysis: The teacher can see if the students really understand the lesson or if their
statements are vague and they dont truly understand.

Example: Mood Music

http://blogs.evergreen.edu/losttimehodo/week-3-journal-entry-the-greatest-
escape-music/
 7. Exit Slip

Definition: A question at the end of a class period that the students answer about
that days class period. Responses are typically only a few sentences long;
sometimes even a single sentence.

Implementation: At the end of class periods, the teacher will ask the students a
question regarding the lesson from that day. The students will leave their responses
by the door as they leave the classroom.

Rationale: Exit slips are a fast and easy way to access student understanding.

Validity: Exit slips help the teacher with knowing student understanding, as well as
how well the teacher taught the lesson.

Analysis: Exit slips are a quick and easy formative assessment.

Example: Air speed

What happens to the air speed on a brass instrument when playing higher notes?

8. Essay

Definition: A paper written about a subject

Implementation: Each concert block, the teacher will divide the room into groups
of the number of songs performed that concert block (if there are four songs for that
concert, the class will be split into four groups). Each group will be assigned one
song from that concert, and will write a one-page paper over the background of that
piece. Examples include: Who wrote it? Where was that composer from? Is the song
over any specific event? When the papers are due, one person from each group will
pair with one person from every group (so that each song is represented throughout
each new group). Each group member will share their paper with the rest of the
group.

Rationale: An essay is a good way to find out how much the students understand
about the music they are working with for the next few months. Having an essay
also ties together music and language arts.

Validity: Essays can be tedious but they do show how much a student understands
the subject.

Analysis: Since essays show how much students know about a topic and connect
music (in this case) as well as language arts, the essay is a great assessment tool.
 Example: First Suite in Eb by Gustav Holst

Composer

Gustav Holst was born in England and showed musical talent from an early
age on the piano and the violin. Problems with neuritis and asthma forced Holst to
focus on the piano. His early employment as a church organist and choir director
created a lifelong interest in choral music, while studying composition at the Royal
College of Music, Holst was heavily influenced by the music of Wagner and Ralph
Vaughan Williams. Holst had met Vaughan Williams in 1895 and the became friends,
which began their habit of playing their newest compositions to each other. During
this time Holsts neuritis worsened, and he gave up the piano for the trombone,
believing it would both improve his lung capacity and give him greater insight into
composing for orchestra.
As an adult, Holst was a complex persona: friendly in private but not so much
in public.; eager to write music for schools but a member of the Hammersmith
Socialist club; and intensely interested in earlier British composers like Purcell but
keenly interested in Hindu philosophy. He had many failures as a composer,
especially in his operas. Many of his compositions for orchestra were viewed in
Britain as too esoteric and complex for audiences to understand. This rejection,
coupled with a grueling schedule as lecturer at Harvard in 1932, affected his nerves
and health to the point that he was sometimes ordered to take vacations; he was
eventually diagnosed with a duodenal ulcer.
A year before attending the Royal College of Music, Gustav heard Richard
Wagner's Gtterdmmerung under Gustav Mahler at the Covent Garden. He was
overwhelmed by the lush sonorities. Reinforced by the friendship of a fellow student
at the College, Fritz Hart, Gustav became an ardent Wagner enthusiast. Once after
hearing Tristan and Isolde in the gallery, he walked all night through the streets of
London with his mind in a whirl. Another overwhelming experience was hearing the
Bach Mass in B Minor at the Three Choirs Festival in Worchester in 1893. He was so
taken aback by the choruses that he felt as if he was floating about the crowds. It
was one of the few memorable musical events in his young life thus far.
When he was hired as the Director of Music at St. Pauls Girls School in
Hammersmith, Holst had little time to compose his music. One of the few major
successes in his life was The Planets, which was lauded both in Britain and abroad.
Many consider The Planets to be his best work, but his daughter Imogen Holst, says
that his Hammersmith: Prelude and Scherzo to be his best work.

Composition

Little is known about the origin of First Suite in Eb except the year of its
composition, kept in Holsts source notebook under the page for the year 1909. No
printed parts existed until Boosey and Co. printed a set of parts in 1921, and no full
score existed until 1948. In the 1948 score, Boosey added parts. This edited score
was the only authoritative version until the Colin Matthews edition of 1984.
 Although it wasnt until 1920 before the first known performance of the First
Suite in Eb took place, the piece instantly gained respect and acclaim. Most
professional conductors say that this piece is the first original work for the concert
band genre, and is still a cornerstone of band repertoire today.
The piece features a 16-note melody passed through the band, with 15
variations on the melody. The first movement begins with a baseline similar to that
of Henry Purcell and William Bell. The last note of the first movement is one of the
most famous Eb chords in all of musical literature. The second movement features
solos for the cornet, oboe, and clarinet. Many textures are also presented in the
movement. The third movement is a march that starts quickly after the second
movement. The brass performs the first theme; and the woodwinds play the second.
The movement ends with both themes together and a crescendo to the final note.

Historical Perspective

Prior to 1909 there were only a few original compositions for band excepting
marches, transcriptions, and novelty repertoire. Gossecs Symphonie Miliatire en
Fa (1974) and Berliozs Symphonie Funbre et Trimphale (1840) are two of the few
examples of serious music that composers wrote exclusively for winds and
percussion. These early compositions were written for groups like the Guard
Republicaine of Paris, and from that time until the 20th century, military bands and
the professional bands of Sousa, Gilmore, etc. were the only notable groups
performing this type of literature. Although the Suite contains a march, it is part of
an organic whole in three sections, all composed of original material.
The Suite was revolutionary in its treatment of the parts of the band as
soloists. Earlier music for band included numerous doublings, and it was expected
that there could be any number of players on one part. Holst, however, envisioned
the Suite in Eb as a collection of soloists, and there are frequent instances of de facto
chamber music.
The other two notable composers of early 20th century British band music
are Gordon Jacob and Ralph Vaughan Williams, and they wrote nothing for band
until after the 1920 premiere of Holsts Suite. In many senses, this composition is
the progenitor of music for concert band as we know it.

Rationale: This is an assessment portfolio I created in one of my college courses.

This is to assess the students in different ways to gauge their understanding of the
concepts they are learning.
 Artifact 2:

5. Art

Activity: The students will listen to First Suite in Eb, with the two pictures displayed
on the board. The students will write a story based on at least one of the pictures
based on what they hear in the music.

Objective:
The students will complete a story (minimum 1 page) based on the presented
artwork and recording of First Suite in Eb.

Sequence:

- The teacher will instruct the students to get out a piece of paper and write out a
story based on what they hear in the music of First Suite in Eb. The guidelines for
the paper will also be explained (guidelines listed in assessment portion of lesson)
- The teacher will pull up the two pictures, and the students will be given about 45
seconds to look at and observe the pictures
- The teacher will play the recording
- The students will write their papers as the recording plays
- The teacher will replay the recording as necessary
- The teacher will collect the papers

Assessment:

Story is one page long Yes No

Student mentions which Yes No
painting is being
referenced in the paper
Specific musical Yes No
examples/stylistic traits
are mentioned throughout
the paper
The paper has fewer than Yes No
3 grammatical errors
Student mentions which Yes No
movement is being talked
about in the paper

Rationale: This is a lesson plan from my secondary unit where the assessment has
specific criteria listed. The students are to make up a story based on the musical
terms they know and the music they can hear. The point is not for them to create the
worlds best story, but to show that they understand musical concepts.