Assessment and lesson planning work together and not against each other. So many times, teachers (including myself) do a great job lesson planning, but feel frustrated their students aren’t connecting the dots between concepts and it ends up making you feel frustrated. But, when you plan for assessment and not just plan the actual lesson, you’ll notice how much more your students are retaining.
In this blog post, and on episode 233 of The Elementary Music Teacher podcast, I’ll talk about how you can assess your students and why it fits like a puzzle piece when it comes to lesson planning. Oh yeah, and make sure to sign up to attend the “How to Design Curriculum for your Elementary Music Classroom” workshop that’s coming up soon.
Assessment Shouldn’t Be an Afterthought
We’re all guilty about just tacking on some kind of assessment to the end of the lesson. But, assessment and lesson planning work together. While planning lessons, also plan for assessments. Have a running list of assessment ideas and think about what makes the most sense to check for student understanding. Consider both informal and formal assessment ideas and remember it’s about quality over quantity. This means, if it’s an assessment that’s going to take a ton of work on your part or is too confusing for the students, then maybe reconsider what you’re doing.
Assessment Should Be Embedded Throughout the Lesson You’re Teaching
There are formal and informal assessments. These are both important and needed to assess student understanding. They’re also both great to help gauge where each class is and when they’re ready to move on or need to stay on a concept for a while. This is where curriculum development comes into play. Checking for both individual and whole group understanding of a concept is ongoing and not just a one time thing. So, embed assessment in your lessons and weave them into what you’re doing every single class period.
Students Should Be Informally Assessed on an Ongoing Basis
There’s a lot of focus on formal assessment. As a teacher of any subject area or grade level, you’re required to grade your students. How many assessments you come up with and the ways you will formally assess your students is completely up to you. But, what’s forgotten about a lot is informal assessment. There’s already so much informal assessment being done in the music room from watching, to listening, to observing. But, this shouldn’t just be something that’s done when your students are participating in an activity, but should be ongoing from the minute they walk into your classroom to the minute they leave.
Assessments Need to Tie into the Concepts Being Taught
While thinking about and planning, remember how assessment and lesson planning work together. The assessments need to tie into the concepts being taught. If you’re focusing on having students “describe the elements of music in this song” yet the assessment asks them to count rhythms, this isn’t related. This will cause confusion for not only your students, but yourself. When tying assessments to the concepts you’re focusing on, this will save you tons of time and energy. When the assessments don’t align with the concepts, it’s almost like you’re planning two completely different and unrelated lessons. So, a better way to assess the way students to describe elements of a music in a particular song is to have them tell a partner, write about it, draw a picture of it, or even create a word wall about it.
In Backwards Planning, Assessment Comes First
Backwards planning, like when using an instructional model like ADDIE, assessment is thought about first and not last. This is contrary to the way most of us teachers were taught to lesson plan. Most of the time, assessment is at the end of a plan, so we get to it last. But, when planning for assessment first, you’ll know how you’re wanting to check for student understanding and will plan activities accordingly. This might take time to wrap your mind around, but once you flip the way you lesson plan, it will be a simpler process from what you’re used to.
Do you feel like assessment and lesson planning work together? 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.
