Assessment in Music Class -What Do You Hear?

Can I confess something to you?  I have no idea how any of my elementary or junior high teachers came up with a grade for me.  Not a single one.  Did they just "give" me a grade?  Did I do something to earn it?  Was there every any real assessment?  I don't think so.  I think that I got an A because I was a good kid that did what I was told.  Of course, that must mean that kids that didn't do that would have received a different grade.  Is that crazy?  Have you been guilty of that?

I guess that is one of the reasons that assessment has been so important to me.  I've created hundreds of rubrics, sat through dozens of assessment workshops for math and reading teachers trying to glean everything I could and challenged other music teachers to show me how they plan for authentic assessment.  I've learned that there is a wide variety of strategies for grading or assessing students in music class.  I've seen elaborate data tables and heard others say "I just give them an S, no matter what."  Whaaaat?  I've tried to find a balance based on how often I see my students and what I want them to be able to do when they leave my classroom.

Today I'm going to share with you one of my favorite tools for assessing rhythm skills.  I call it ear training, but it isn't exactly what I remember doing for my Ear Training classes in college.  I use these assessments most often with 3rd through 6th grades but they could be adapted for use with younger and older students.  When I taught high school band I used this type of assessment all of the time.

Check out this video to see how I use my What Do You Hear set of worksheets.  You can download them HERE if you are interested in trying them out in your classroom.

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Erasers as Music Manipulatives

My 5 year old daughter is a collector.  Okay, she is probably a future hoarder.  She loves putting things in her "collections" and one of those treasures is erasers.  She loves those colorful, unique erasers not so much for erasing but for pretend play, counting and more.  This gave me a great idea for music class!

I decided to use the 16 block grid as a means for students to create and organize rhythm patterns based on the erasers.  I talk a little bit more about the grid and the lap packs they are used with in THIS blog post.

At this workstation, students choose an erase and put it in a square.  Then, students decide what to call the eraser.  They can be creative with this part (and often are!).  When they decide what to call the eraser they write the name under it.  In this picture they actually put it in the second row, but usually we put it in the same box as the eraser.

Students can be creative in naming the erasers depending on the rhythms they know or want to use.  For example watermelon could be called "fruit".  Pizza could be "slice" or "piece of pizza" or "veggie pizza".  This works are a means of differentiation.  Students can make this as difficult or as easy as they like.

After they have created the rhythms, they share them with their group.  I use this activity as part of a workstation rotation so there are 3-5 kids in a group.  Students can then choose body percussion or a small percussion instrument to perform their rhythm as an ostinato in their group.

This would also work as a whole group activity.  You could write the rhythms on the board or use a document camera, erasers and grids to replicate student compositions.  Then you could create ostinatos using percussion instruments, Orff instruments or body percussion to create a really fantastic piece.

I've found erasers in many different stores:  Target (Dollar Spot), Office Max, Five Below, Dollar Tree and more.  I'm storing them in a box that was designed for beads right now, but I think that I might try this organizer (from Michael's) as my collection grows. (Pictured below.)

 In addition to using the erasers for rhythm practice you could also use them with a staff and do melodic dictation using the erasers as note heads.  This would be particularly fun if you had erasers to match the theme of a song.  For example, fish while listening to "Aquarium" from Carnival of the Animals or Jack-o-lanterns while listening to "Night on Bald Mountain would be fun to create an activity around.

I hope that you have been inspired to try mini erasers in your classroom.  I also hope that I haven't created an addiction for you!  I have already started collecting erasers for Halloween, Christmas and Easter!

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