Assessment in Elementary Music

Assessment in elementary music is something that can be a bit tricky. Unlike a general classroom where formative assessments are done all day long in reading and math, a lot of what happens in elementary music is performance based. Therefore, the assessment waters can get a bit confusing and it’s overwhelming trying to figure out when and how to assess every student. Honestly, there’s not one size fits all approach.

A lot of what happens in an elementary music classroom from planning, to teaching, to assessing, is up to you as the teacher. So, in this blog post, and on podcast episode 192, I’ll break down assessment in elementary music in an easy to understand way. We have talked about this a lot in the Harmony membership, and there are lots of resources in there to guide you.  My goal is to provide you with tips and strategies that you can in return, think about how you can make them work for your teaching situation.

 

Formal Assessment

The first type of assessment is formal assessment.  This is where you’ll collect data and enter grades at the end of each 9-weeks for your students. The type of formal assessments you do will depend on several factors, including the requirements set by your school, what grade levels you teach, and your teaching approach. I’ll provide 3 formal assessments you can do with grades K-5, that can be adapted based on the ages of your students.

A lot goes into planning what formal assessments to do with your students, and a lot of it starts with backwards planning and knowing what you’re teaching that particular week.  After you know what standards you’re teaching to, you can immediately turn to how you’re going to assess that standard, before even planning the lesson. Have a virtual (like a simple Google sheets template) or a physical gradebook that you can keep track of students grades in.

 

Exit Tickets or Writing Assignments

The first type of formal assessment is the traditional “paper and pencil” type of assignment. When you’re aware of what assessments you’re doing ahead of time, you’ll know how much time to allow for them in that class period. So, if you’re handing out exit tickets, for example, you’ll want to leave around 10 minutes for students to write. Other writing assignments can include writing about their personal preferences or the musical style of a song, writing about (or coloring a picture for younger students) of how the song made them feel, or even writing in a discussion post or journal. Be creative with your ideas and don’t be afraid to think outside of the box.

 

Centers and Group Work

One thing I love about doing centers in elementary music, is the fact that informal and formal assessments are naturally embedded into the different activities. If students are doing a listening activity, this can also be a writing assignment. When students go to the technology or computer center, there are many websites where students can do some type of formal assessment. Besides centers, students can do partner or small group work in the music room. Have them work together to do a writing activity, research project, write a blog post, create a podcast episode together, or any other idea you can come up with.

 

Worksheets and Quizzes

To be honest, worksheets and quizzes aren’t my favorite type of formal assessment. But, if used correctly, they’re a great way of assessing where your students are. If you’re creating worksheets, try to have students use higher order thinking skills or do more than answer true/false on a quiz. If your students are learning the lines and spaces and the note names, a worksheet would make sense to use here as a formal assessment. Remember, it goes back to knowing what standards you’re teaching to and creating assessment opportunities that make sense for the lessons and assignments your students will be engaging with.

 

 

Informal Assessment

A large part of assessment in elementary music is informal. Students are participating in various means of making music, and it can be tough to assign a “grade” to what students are doing in a regular music class period. But, you’ll figure out what works best for you and your students and will develop a way to assess them. I provide two examples of ways you can informally assess your students below.

The easiest way to keep track of informal assessments is by walking around with sticky notes. That way, you can mark down the initials of students who aren’t meeting a standard yet, and can mark it down in your gradebook later on. Or, you can create a system that works for you to easily mark down and keep track of informal assessments (like a class list or a template created on Google sheets that’s separate from the formal assessment rubric that you use from your iPad).

 

Thumbs Up and Down

One of the easiest ways to use informal assessment in elementary music is with a simple thumbs up or thumbs down approach. Another thing you can do is to have students hold up a finger if you’re giving a verbal multiple choice assessment. Use statements like, “a quarter note gets one beat.” If the students agree, they hold a thumb up and if they disagree, they can put a thumb down. You can have students close their eyes so they can’t see what each other are holding up. Or, if you have a rhythm pulled up on your Smart Board, you can give four options of how to count that rhythm and students hold up the correct finger to match the right answer.

 

Matching Pitch and Rhythm

When students are singing or using instruments, a great informal assessment is to check if they can match the pitches and rhythms correctly. This will require you to do a lot of listening and watching. Students can be engaged in whole group instruction, playing a music game, or learning a rhythm on instruments in a center group. While doing these activities, walk around with your sticky note, and listen to students individually as they’re participating in whole group instruction. Yes, you can have students individually echo sing or play rhythms, but students don’t want to be singled out. So, the easiest way, in my opinion, to assess students is to listen and observe as they’re naturally participating in the regular class period.

 

 

How do you use assessment in your elementary music classroom? Tell me about it in the comments below or share your thoughts on social media as you share this post.   I’d love for you to share this post or any of the resources on my website with a friend or colleague who you know NEEDS to see it too.

P.S.  Are you feeling frustrated or stuck as an elementary music teacher?  Check out these free resources to help you teach elementary music with confidence!

Also…I wrote a book called “Make A Note: What You Really Need To Know About Teaching Elementary Music” to help music teachers move forward in your teaching career.  You can get your copy here.