Using Technology To Assist With Assessment In The Elementary General Music Classroom Amy Burns Far Hills Country Day School aburns@fhcds.org
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he most recent issue of NAfME’s Teaching Music had an excellent section devoted to technology and assessment. This portion supported the 2017 message from NAfME’s CEO and Executive Director, Mike Blakeslee, on how the association has to help teachers “consider and adopt practices that focus on culturally responsive music making.” He included technology in his message as an example of change that is occurring in many schools and how we have to utilize it to expand and enhance our offerings. I have taught elementary music for over 20 years and was excited to see that elementary music was included in their technology assessment segment. There are several ways to use technology to enhance the assessment in the general elementary music classroom. If a teacher likes their current way of assessment, and the school accepts the assessments, then changing to one that is technology-based is not a priority. However, if an elementary teacher would like to further their assessment or want to know how it can enhance their current philosophy, methodology, or approach, here is a list that has been very successful in my classroom or in other elementary music educators’ classrooms that I have observed. Tools You Might Already Own One of the best assessment tools is using your mobile device to record audio or video of your students’ performances. For years, I have taken video of my classes singing one of their concert songs a week before the concert. When finished, the students would watch the recording, analyze, and evaluate the following aspects: Younger Elementary: I asked the younger students questions such as, “Do you see everyone singing?”, “Is everyone standing up straight”, “Can you hear the words of the song?”, and “What else do you see?” These questions prompted the students to think about the performance and to reflect on the items we have been working on like posture, memorizing the words, and everyone working together to perform the song. The young students cannot state any names because there are some students who are shy singers. If I feel that this question might make a shy singer uncomfortable, then I will not ask it. However, these questions prompted the younger singers to assess their performance. I will either record those responses or write them down. Those responses are wonderful additions to their progress reports, such as, “Sarah recently commented that when she watches her class sing, everyone stands up tall and sings out. I love how Sarah is beginning to analyze and evaluate musical performances.” Older Elementary: As the students are watching the recording of the rehearsal, they are checking off items on a rubric. For example, the rubric could include some of the following items: Do you see or hear the following items?
Yes
No
Do you understand the words the performers are singing? Do the performers have good posture? Are the performers projecting well? If the song has the performers singing in parts, can you hear both parts? What else do you see? What did you like best about the performances? What did you find most challenging about the performances? This rubric could be in the form of paper and pencil or electronic. These video and audio tools that are included on most smart devices are helpful in assisting a discussion about analyzing and evaluating students’ performances. TEMPO
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MARCH 2017
