Formative Assessment For HS Choir

Formative assessment is an indispensable classroom learning tool. It is important for the students to have formative assessment to account for their personal growth academically and behaviorally. It is also important for the teachers to know whether their teaching styles work for the students and any modifications are needed to enhance the learning procedure.

I am planning a lesson for my high school men's choir with this lesson objective singers will interpret a musical piece and sing with each of the following dynamics: shaped phrases, loud and soft, crescendo and decrescendo.

I have chosen the song and I will explain the music concepts in class. I have created three formative assessment activities to ensure students are learning towards meeting the objective.

Assessment#1

Self evaluation among small group members

Within a group of six, create a checklist to evaluate on the performance of the specific dynamics and compare notes among each other after each singing session. They grade themselves to observe their progress and submit their checklist to me.

Rationale: This is for the students to help each other out; to be on the same page knowing exactly how to shape and make the nuances for each phrase.They will also be aware of where and when to make a crescendo and decrescendo.

Assessment#2

Video recording of student performance

While the students are singing, record a few students at a time to watch their postures, mouth positions, facial expressions, and performance of dynamics.

Rationale: The video recorder is the most honest and fair judge of all. Video recording the students' performance can help them eliminate bad singing habits while maintaining the good ones. They can also work on their singing skills to shape the music and sing with dynamic levels. I can also keep a record of their progression.

Assessment#3 

Student conductor

Students will be placed in groups of six. Each student will be the conductor of the group to conduct the song, emphasizing on how he wants the music to sound. Have the others in the group sing exactly to the conductor's gestures. I will also record the activity for peer review.

Rationale: Being the conductor, the student needs to know the interpretation of the song very well to lead the singers. He needs to feel the music in his own body in order to convey the dynamic nuances through his hand gestures and have the singers perceive and interpret his ideas. Each conductor has a different style in leading the singers. It is interesting to watch each one's creativity and how the singers respond to the interpretation. This activity helps students to develop a sense of singing sensitively with music dynamics as the elements are gradually growing in their inner-self. I am also able to gauge their progress .

A Reflection on Undersatnding and Applying Standards

This unit is indeed one of the most practical and beneficial lessons I have ever read. All the three activities are very useful for me to create not only my lesson and unit plans but also my entire curriculum for the courses I am teaching. More importantly, they are cornerstones for me to become a very successful teacher.

Unpacking a standard

By dissecting each standard into three parts: the skill, the concept and the context, I have come to understand the 11 anchor standards for music so much clearer and can immediately outline my unit plans based on the standards with clarity. For example: what to teach? how to teach? And what context to cover? As soon as I outline my unit plans, I am able to constructively write my lessons for each unit. I can also revise and update my curriculum map in specific details. The students will benefit from a more specific curriculum and be clear of the course outline they are to study. This will eventually help students to be successful during self-directed learning.

Backwards mapping

I have in the past been writing my lesson plans using this approach that is seeing the end from the beginning. I know what I want my students to achieve from the very beginning and put in the nitty - gritty to reach that achievement. However this week's activity helped me to organize my skills far better by teaching me to come up firstly with the outcomes, then create the assessments to achieve the outcomes and lastly develop the lesson plans that are accessible for assessments. This is in fact a very systematic process for teachers to do their planning as well as students to know their ultimate goals and learning directions.

SMART goal

Writing these goals gives me a precise knowledge of 

i) what I am teaching the students 

ii) how I am assessing the students' knowledge and learning. 

iii) what the students' capabilities and limitations are.

iv) what the time frame for learning a unit should be so that no students become bored or anxious.

I have learned that in my future lesson plans, I must include this goal when developing the lesson objectives. Students will know exactly what is expected of them and how to revise and study the subject with specific directions.

Standards and Backwards Mapping

Here is the standard I am using to create a unit for my first grade Music class,  the National Core Arts Anchor Standard # 2: Organize and develop artistic ideas and work.

I choose this standard to teach students how to organize pitch and rhythm into musical ideas and further develop the ideas into a musical work.

At the end of this unit, first graders will be able to achieve the following three proficiencies:
1) Use musical pitches and rhythms to organize sounds into short four - beat musical ideas or patterns called motif.
2) Describe an emotion such as happy or sad in the motif through organizing the tempo ( fast and slow), dynamics (loud and soft), pitch and rhythm.
3) Organize the motifs to develop a musical work.

The students' progress and success will be evaluated through the following three assessments: 
1) Students demonstrate their work through playing on the instruments.
2) Teacher records students' performances via digital devices.
3) Students show their musical ideas using iconic notation.

The students will work on the following three activities to achieve the target.
 1) To organize a motif:
Students will explore  la, so, mi pitches on the xylophone to create a four-beat pattern using quarter and eighth notes.
2) To describe an emotion
Students further explore and focus on  the combination of tempo, dynamics, pitch and rhythm to specifically create a happy or sad mood.
3) To develop a musical work:
Students plan on developing a structure for a musical work by creating two motifs, and then repeat or alternate the motifs. For example: AB, AABB, ABAB.


Examples of iconic notation