PRESENTED AT: THE ISU SUMMER DIRECTOR WORKSHOPS, JULY 10, 2012 DAVID W. SNYDER MAKING THE GRADE: QUALITY ASSESSMENT FOR INSTRUMENTAL GROUPS

Before we start…. from Understanding by Design (2 nd edition) by Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe 1. Identify Desired Results 2. Determine Acceptable Evidence 3. Plan Learning Experience and Instruction

In other words, start with… 1. What will students be able to do (Behavioral Objectives)? a. what are some acceptable behaviors to assess? 2. How will you evaluate that the students have mastered those (Assessment)? Then… 3. What activities or experiences will the students have to accomplish this?

I. Traditional ways performing ensembles assess students A. Attendance (objective) 1. Performances 2. Rehearsals (laminated seating chart)

I. Traditional ways performing ensembles assess students B. Written tests (objective) 1. Test on historical knowledge or composers for the repertoire of that grading period 2. Test on theoretical/term knowledge for the repertoire of that grading period

I. Traditional ways performing ensembles assess students C. Improvement (can be subjective) 1. Practice cards/logs a. hard to verify 2. Observation over time a. hard to quantify and verify

I. Traditional ways performing ensembles assess students D. Attitude (very subjective) 1. What factors determine attitude? attendance? being prepared? “good behavior”? Doing extra work?

I. Traditional ways performing ensembles assess students E. Performance (can be subjective) 1. To be more objective, grading students in performance situation requires a RUBRIC: a. naming the task b. defining the evaluation criteria c. describing the standards to which results will be compared

II. Rubrics Naming the task- a student needs to know WHAT they will be asked to do in a performance test. The most common performing tasks include:  Playing music (excerpts)being worked on in class  Playing scales  Playing exercises out of a method book  Sight reading music that contains concepts/notes/rhythms that the student has been working on

II. Rubrics Defining on the Criteria to be evaluated-a student further must know what specific aspects of their performance will be evaluated. Some of the most common criteria are:  Tone (can be very subjective)  Intonation  Articulation/sticking  Rhythm  Note accuracy  Posture/hand position  Musicality (can be very subjective)

II. Rubrics Describing standard to compare- finally, we as the evaluators must know what is considered outstanding, acceptable, unacceptable, average, poor, etc. in each of these criteria areas. This is the difficult part of creating a rubric. o The idea is to present enough of a descriptor or exemplar to the person evaluating that their score is likely to be the same as another person who evaluates the same performance. o The benefit of using a rubric is the standardization of performance grades AND the providing of specific feedback on the performance to the student.

Rubrics Let’s look at some examples: MEJ rubric

Rubrics Let’s look at some examples: NFHS rubric

Rubrics Let’s look at some examples: Additive scale rubric

Rubrics Let’s look at some examples: String rubric

Rubrics Let’s look at some examples: My beginning band rubric

III. Assessing Students of Different Abilities A. Tiered Evaluation 1. Students can choose their level of assessment in the class with guidance from director (1, 2 or 3) 2. Director can set minimum limits, such as all 8 th graders in JH band must be at level 2 3. All students are asked to do the same kind of tasks but the amount and difficulty is varied 4. Assignments involve other tasks in addition to performance

III. Assessing Students of Different Abilities A. Sample Tiered Evaluation

IV. Tracking individual improvement over time A.Why is it good to track improvement over time? 1. it is a good way to objectively assess “effort” 2. to motivate students to accept more challenging tasks 3. it helps students move beyond comparing themselves to others 4. it helps students focus on progress towards educational goals rather than just a grade.

IV. Tracking individual improvement over time B. Portfolios 1. Process Portfolio (Mitchell Robinson, MEJ March 1995) a. contains samples of work in various forms of completeness b. students are encouraged to reflect, revise, and re-evaluate their work contained within c. excellent for grading students of differing ability and tracking improvement d. the teacher can add reflective writing assignments on work or performances that have been completed 2. What can be included in Portfolios? Student journals, written tests, rehearsal tapes, recordings of playing exams, ensemble rehearsal critiques, listening exercises, self-evaluations, contest scores, rough drafts and finished composition projects, etc.

IV. Tracking individual improvement over time B. Some examples: 1. critical listening

IV. Tracking individual improvement over time B. Some examples: 2. critical listening complete

IV. Tracking individual improvement over time B. Some examples: 3. tracking improvement

IV. Tracking individual improvement over time B. Some examples: 4. SmartMusic (cue 1:49)SmartMusic a. there is a portfolio within SmartMusic to archive students performance tests over time.

Questions? David W. Snyder This Power Point presentation can be found at: