Assessing students in elementary music is important, but not always the most fun part of our jobs. In this post, we’re going to talk about types of assessments, assessment examples, and how to make assessing easy and quick.
Why Keeping Data is Important
So, why keep data? Well, first, how can you purposefully plan when you don’t have a true, clear picture of where your students are now? In my first few years of teaching, I thought I knew where my students were at with concepts…until I started tracking the data more carefully. I realized that I was missing students who were quiet and not asking questions and that I hadn’t truly been serving my students the way I thought I had been. Now that I track how my students are actually performing, my planning is so much more aligned with what they actually need. We don’t spend extra weeks covering things that they don’t need to cover or speeding through concepts that I feel they probably should know by now.
Also, this helps validate our profession. Now, I know that other people’s opinions of me are none of my business. However, I do think that is important to make sure our subject is seen and valued in our school culture. I can do that by making sure that I’m assessing and treating my class like an actual class. When I started teaching, I was very much in the camp of just wanting my kids to have fun. And while that’s still a large part of my teaching philosophy, my class is also important and purposeful and I want my colleagues, administrators, and parents to see that. In a time when music education is being cut from schools, I want to make sure that my community sees the value of music and its benefits as much as I do.
Finally, you need to keep data on how your students are doing because your students deserve to know how they’re (truly) doing. If you don’t keep track, students will fall through the cracks. I was shocked to realize that the students that I thought were doing well actually needed more review. They were so quiet that they just slipped by. Your students want to do well in their classes, and they deserve to know how they’re doing.
Types of Assessments
Formative Assessments
Formative are the assessments that we do during instruction time. This is the assessing in elementary music that you probably naturally do already! These are the ones that we naturally do that help guide our teaching. The key here is writing down at least some of your findings. You don’t need to record every single assessment you do, but you should write down at least some of them. Let’s look at a few ways to use formative assessments within a sixteenth note unit.
- Observations- While students are practicing making sixteenth note patterns with popsicle sticks, you walk around and check their work. You jot down any students who needed a lot of help.
- Exit tickets- At the end of class, students get a post it note and notate a pattern you say or clap.
- Completing the digital or print worksheet to notate the rhythms of Old Brass Wagon
- Centers- You meet with a group of students and have them draw, clap, or say rhythm patterns to you.
- Playing patterns with rhythm sticks- While students do a rhythm play along video you found on YouTube, you check to see who is playing patterns consistently correct and who is struggling. I like the channel Music Mrs. Gibbs for this!
Summative Assessments
Summative assessments are the assessments at the end of the unit. These are the assessments that typically go in a gradebook. These show what the students have learned and show the overall mastery of the unit objective. Some examples in our sixteenth note unit might be:
- Notating several patterns that you say and turning the paper in. Lately I’ve been using a digital version like in my space mission or football rhythm games. I like using these because there’s an activity good for formative assessment and an activity for summative assessment!
- Playing three patterns on a xylophone or with rhythm sticks
- Completing a worksheet in which students circle the correct pattern that they hear
You could use most of the formative assessment ideas I listed above, too! I think the key with summative assessment is that it needs to be more in-depth rather than a quick observation. If my formative assessment is one pattern that students play, I’ll want my summative assessment to be 3-5 patterns instead.
Making Assessments Purposeful
While we want to get valid assessments, we also want to make sure that they are purposeful. The beauty of our subject is that it is FUN, even when we’re assessing! Here are some ideas for purposeful assessment:
- Composing with new rhythms (you can read more here about composing in lower and upper elementary, or check out this year-long bundle of print-and-go composition worksheets to make planning easier.)
- Playing rhythms or songs on xylophones (they could play the composition they make from the bullet point above and it could be two valid assessments in one meaningful activity!)
- Singing a solfege composition that they create
- Playing a song they know on xylophones (I use first or second-grade songs for this, even with my older grades)
- Having students sing a song from an upcoming program into an assignment on their learning management system
Organizing Assessments
Now let’s talk about how to make assessing in elementary music easier for you! Here are some tips to make writing down your data quick so that you can get back to doing the activities you love with your students!
- Write absences and outliers in only, then fill in the blanks later- I mark any students who are absent first. Then, if a student needs a comment or grade for being either below or above the average, I’ll write them down. Anyone who is at the average or expectation won’t have anything written down right away. Then when I get a chance later, I can fill in the rest of the empty boxes.
- Keep your online gradebook open. If it’s convenient (like if you’re at centers), keep your online gradebook open and fill it in right away than writing it on paper and then transferring it later.
- Videos or no videos? Video submissions on your learning management system (LMS) can be a great option. It saves time during class and you can watch it several times to give students a valid grade. However, it does take precious time outside of class to grade. You have to decide whether the time spent outside of class to grade is worth the time you save in class.
- Self-checking assessments- I love self checking assessments! Google Forms quizzes are great for this. You can embed a Google Form into an assignment on your LMS for students to take and see their score right away. I use a lot of self-checking assignments in my recorder jewel hunt unit. It saves me so much time and gives students immediate feedback!
Assessing in elementary music (and actually writing down the observations and data) is important. You need to be doing both formative and summative assessments. My hope is that this post gives you some ideas for incorporating purposeful assessments into your classroom. You can get your free set of pre- and post-assessments for quarter and eighth notes by clicking here. If you want to brainstorm some more ways to assess specific concepts or how to assess quicker, I’d love to chat! Simply comment below or DM me on Instagram (@caffeinated.j) and we can come up with more ideas that will work for your classroom!
