Assessing singing in elementary music can be hard, and it wasn’t until well into my teaching career that I felt comfortable assessing it. I mean, sure, I know whether a student is using his head voice or not or whether she is matching pitch, but I struggled to find assessments that were authentic and not too boring. Over the years, I’ve found some ways of assessing that I really enjoy that I wanted to share with you! My hope is that you can take at least one of these tips and make assessing singing in your elementary music room easier!
Use Games for Assessing Singing
Study after study shows that students learn better through play. So use those games in your classroom! While you’re playing a singing game, make it a rule that everyone sings. If they don’t sing, they don’t play. If you have students who don’t want to play because they don’t want to sing, have them stand away from the circle and sing so you can still hear them. If that doesn’t work, you can use the tips in the next section to assess them.
Here are a few singing games you can try:
Ye Toop Doram
Ye Toop Doram– Students sit in a circle. During the first part of the song, students pass the ball of the beat of the song. During the speaking part, whoever is holding the ball on “seh” has to pass the ball off, stand up, and get in the middle of the circle. Students will roll the ball at the student during the next singing part. If the ball hits the student, he is out. If the student dodges the ball and doesn’t get hit, he can get back in the circle and keep playing. My kids LOVE this game- especially the kids who tend to be my more reluctant singers!
Ida Red, Ida Blue
Ida Red Ida Blue– Students sit in a circle. One student is a mail carrier and is holding a red and a blue envelope. Each envelope has movements inside (hop, skip, gallop, speed walk, crabwalk, etc.) The mail carrier walks around the circle during the song. At the end of the song, she gives the envelopes to the two students she lands by. Those students each take an envelope, grab a movement, and race around the circle doing that movement. Whoever makes it back first is the next mail carrier.
Apple Tree
Apple Tree– Students stand in a circle. One student is the apple tree and stands outside the circle with his arms up. Students walk underneath his arms during the song. On the last word (“out”) the apple tree brings his arms down. Whoever he catches is now a tree with him. Whoever they catch creates a new tree somewhere around the circle. You add trees until there is one person left standing. Read more about how I use the song Apple Tree in my classroom here.
Pass the Pumpkin
My K-2 students love this game! While singing the song (find it here), they pass the pumpkin to the steady beat. On the last word, whoever is holding the pumpkin is out! This song really could be adapted to fit about any holiday or season. It’s a huge crowd-pleaser!
Use Technology to Assess Singing
Let’s be honest- students love technology and are really tech-savvy. I don’t plan a lot of activities with student devices because they use them so much outside of my room. However, technology certainly has its place in the music room, and, as their teacher, I have an opportunity to help them learn the benefits of using technology responsibly. And it can certainly be a useful tool when it comes to assessing singing in elementary music!
Assignments in Your LMS
An easy way to assess students singing is by having them sing as an assignment that gets submitted online. I will pick a song that we’ve been working on and let them go into different areas of the room or hallway to sing their song. When they’re done, I usually have a second assignment with rhythm play-along videos for them to do.
The nice thing about having them record online is that they are by themselves and nobody else will hear it except for you, their teacher. While it takes time outside of class to grade, which I try to limit, I find it gives me the most valid scores because students aren’t trying to sing quieter so nobody hears them.
Your Learning Management System (LMS) likely already has a way that students can record directly into an assignment that gets sent to you. You don’t need additional login information, parental permission, etc. For example, I use Canvas and there is a setting on the assignment page that allows students to submit videos (media submissions.)
Outside Sites
In addition to using your LMS for video submissions, your students may be familiar with sites such as Flip or SeeSaw. My students actually prefer to submit via Flip because it’s easier to use than our LMS video submission. Plus I let them add fun backgrounds and stickers as long as it doesn’t impede with my ability to grade it (for singing, that means I still have to be able to see their face and it can’t change the sound of the video.)
SeeSaw is another great option, especially for younger students. It’s been a while since I’ve used SeeSaw, but I’ve used it with my recorder students in years past and found it to be very user-friendly. It’s important to check with your classroom teachers to see if they have student accounts already. If they do, it’s very easy to add your class on to the students’ accounts. It’s easy for them to switch back and forth between their classes. However, when students are ready to complete an assignment, they need to make sure that they are in the correct class. Most students catch it, but I’ve certainly had to send math videos to fourth-grade teachers and they were sending me recorder videos!
Recording Students During Whole Group Practice
For quickly assessing singing in elementary music, you could send a small handheld recorder around the group while you are practicing.
If you are practicing a song for an upcoming program, students could hold a recorder up near their faces while the song is playing. You could give a signal of some kind to show that it’s time to pass the recorder on to the next student.
I have never used this method before (though, now that I’m thinking of it, I want to!) but it’s an easy way to assess without taking time out of class to do it. Plus, I like recordings because I can go back and listen to them as many times as I need to. However, you want to make sure to tell students not to press any buttons. It would be easy for them to press the stop button, whether on accident or not.
Have Students Sing While Completing Another Task
Another option for assessing singing in elementary music is by having individuals or small groups sing for you in person. I like this option because it is during class rather than adding extra work that needs to be graded outside of class. However, it does take up valuable instructional time, which we’re usually lacking.
I personally try to have the other students complete an assignment or activity of some sort while doing this type of assessment. I do this partly because it helps distract the students from who is singing (which helps my shy singers). Also, it helps with classroom management. Students who are sitting watching groups sing the same parts over and over get bored, and bored students tend to find ways to entertain themselves…and they may not be ways that you like!
If you choose this method, I still recommend recording the students using a voice recorder or the camera on your computer. You can grade students as they come up to you, but it’s still nice to have the recording just in case you need to go back.
Use Shorthand for Quick Assessments
To make assessing faster, I recommend using shorthand or codes to mark down grades. I use this mostly for whole-group assessments that are short, like during sing-along (or rhythm play-along) videos or games. Here’s how I quickly assess students:
- Get a class roster. If you don’t have one, ask the classroom teacher or your secretary. They may already have them typed out and can just send you the file.
- Mark down who is absent.
- Decide what your standard is. If I grade on a 1-4 scale, with 4 being at grade level, 4 is my standard.
- Anything that is not hitting that standard gets marked down.
- Don’t mark down any of the students who hit your standard.
So if my standard is a 4, anyone who gets a 4 on the assessment won’t have anything marked down on my paper roster. I will mark down anyone who did not get a 4 on the assessment. So usually, my paper roster only has a few numbers written in. Sometimes I go back and write in the 4s later, but usually I just leave it blank because I know what it means, and the grades I write down on my roster are just for me. I put the grades into the online grading system after school that day, and that’s where I’ll put the 4s. It saves a lot of time!
What are your best tools for assessing singing? What is a way from this post that you hadn’t thought about before that might help you in the future? Leave a comment below or DM me on Instagram (@caffeinated.j). I would love to connect with you and talk about assessing students quickly and authentically!
