Music Teachers Central
What works for you? Email your favorites to add to the site:musicteacherscentral@gmail.com
Created by Sharon Burch (a.k.a. Freddie the Frog's Mom)K-3 Music Teacher
Centerville Community School District, Centerville, Iowa
Teachers Downloads
Assessment spreadsheets and reports, worksheets, lesson plans, etc.
Assessment -- Our Greatest Advocacy
Incorporating assessment into our teaching routine is a constant challenge, but the benefits make it worth the effort.
I began assessing many years ago to test my teaching strategies. I quickly discovered that I learned far more about my students and educated my students’ parents!
As music teachers with limited class time, we tend to do most activities in large groups with little one-on-one interaction. My job entails traveling between five K-3 buildings and teaching 420 students twice a week for 25-minute periods. Informal assessments of the general group are fairly easy, but I like to assess the individual in a one-on-one situation.
Using a video for the class, I individually assess students in October and April to check understanding of music concepts and learning growth. I record the assessment on an assessment spreadsheet for my records and on an assessment report sheet for each student. I then hold the assessment sheets until grade card time. The assessment sheets are printed on blue paper and designed to fit inside the report card. Classroom teachers insert the music assessment sheets inside the envelope and send them home. The feedback is tremendous! I quickly realized it was my greatest form of advocacy.
Perception is reality, and the parents receiving the grade sheet with the regular grade card perceive it as being just as important as their other academics. I include music concepts that we continually work on throughout the year. Parents often comment that they don’t remember learning all so much when they were in music. It is a strong, silent statement that we take music seriously and there is a whole lot more going on in music than playing games, dancing and singing.
