Do you hate drop-everything-and-test days in the elementary music room? We still need to know what students know. Ideas for assessment without stopping.
Listening journals in Music help develop musical literacy as students learn to think critically and explore their own emotional responses to music.
Stageworthy by Widy creates performing arts lesson materials that help you teach the arts like a rockstar - even if you're not a specialist.
Assessment in General Music: Performance Assessments. Organized Chaos. tips for using performance assessments in elementary and middle school general music class so they don't take too much time or effort but still effectively assess student skills
Last spring, I made up some simple “Smile-O-Meter” evaluation cards to help my elementary students learn to critique themselves and each other after performances at group lessons. They had a great time filling in smiley faces, and the cards have since become a staple at group lessons. I use them frequently in private lessons, too. When I want a student to self-assess their progress … Continue reading →
I learned this song from my KTIP mentor, Alicia Franklin, during my first year teaching. I introduce this song in kindergarten and we sing it everyday when we line up. I sing the first note as a fermata and hold it until every student is joining in and doing their job to line up. There are hand motions to accompany the song. On the first word "my", we raise our hands in the air (this makes it easy to see who is actually paying attention in line and ready to sing the song). Then, we do what the song says. Phrase 1: place hands back Phrase 2: exaggerate good posture Phrase 3: take 2 fingers, point at eyes then straight ahead Phrase 4: hands return behind back Phrase 5: zip lips, pretend to put in pocket, hands return behind back, mouth is closed When the kids get to 1st grade, the song only makes guest appearances when we need help remembering how to line up or when I want to see if they can apply the musical concept we just learned. Using the Song For Assessment Assess Tempo If we learned about tempo that day, we may choose a tempo (largo, moderato, allegro) and sing our song accordingly. They may also get to line up to a tempo. I may ask them to show me allegro feet, largo feet, or moderato feet to line up. Depending on how much time is left in class, I may do this individually or in small groups. If I do it individually, I usually take notes in my grade book for a performance assessment. Older students can watch the conductor and respond to accelerandos and ritardandos. Assess Dynamics If we learned about dynamics that day, we may choose a dynamic level for the entire song (piano, mezzopiano, mezzoforte, forte) or watch the conductor to see how the dynamic levels change throughout the song. Older students can usually remember a pattern to assign different dynamic levels to each phrase. Similar to the game discussed above, sometimes we can line up with piano feet (tiptoeing) or forte feet (stomping). Again, depending on the time remaining in class, this is either done individually or in small groups and is sometimes used as a performance assessment. Assess Melody If we learned about melodic direction that day, we may use our hand levels to show the melodic contour. (That's why I like the simple shape of this melody going upward then downward.) If we discussed pitch, we may sing it in a high key or a low key. Assess Harmony If we learned about minor harmony (Halloween), we may choose to change the song to minor and make it sound spooky. (All the kids LOVE this!) Assess Timbre If we discussed different types of voices (speaking, whisper, calling, singing), we may choose to use different voices to use throughout the entire song, or we may change our voices for each phrase. I also have voice cards that I can hold up and show the students what to change to. (View the next post for printable voice cards.) Assess Rhythm If we discussed rhythm (long and short sounds), we may sing the song exaggerating note lengths in tenuto or staccato style. If we discussed a fermata, we may choose one or two words to have a fermata and sing those words really long. Coda These are just a few examples of how I use our line up song for assessment. Sometimes, instead of telling them how to sing it, I let the kids pick a variation to sing. Again, I only sing it every time with kindergarten; and they never get tired of singing it. It only appears occasionally with older grades. It appears sometimes as a warning to those not ready for the hall: "Do we HAVE to revisit kindergarten and sing the line-up song?" Their behavior is quickly corrected. Many older students LOVE the line up song, as it brings nostalgia from kindergarten. Even if you have a line-up song already in place, you could probably use these assessment strategies with your song as well. I would love to hear other ideas to use line-up songs as assessment tools. If you have some more ideas, please comment below.
As I've stated before, my district requires us to use Kagan structures. You can visit the website at the previous link for more inform...
Music Rubrics contains 12 elementary music rubrics for grades K-5! Impress your administration by using these rubrics to track student growth! Please click on the “preview” of this product to view sample pictures of the rubrics. For a simplified curriculum to go with these rubrics, click the link below: Simplified Music Curriculum and Song List For lesson plans, resources, and written assessments for the whole year, click the links below: Elementary Music Lesson Plans (Bundled) Music Resources Music Assessments Bundled (K-5th Grades) Included in this product: ~A TOTAL OF 12 MUSIC RUBRICS! ~Rubrics assess the following concepts: steady beat, opposites, writing melodies (after hearing a melody), melody composition (independently), singing, writing rhythms (after hearing a rhythm), rhythm composition (independently), playing rhythms, playing recorders, improvising, group performance: singing, group performance: playing instruments ~Each rubrics has 2 different versions. One version contains helpful “Tips” at the top of the page along with a “Notes” section which allows you to customize the rubrics according to grade level. The second version contains a simplified version of the assessment. (Take a look at the product preview to see examples!) EACH SIMPLIFIED VERSION NOW INCLUDES A BLANK TEMPLATE. SIMPLY INSERT A TEXT BOX (AR CENA FONT) AND TYPE! ~Cover and Instruction Pages with helpful hints about the utilization of rubrics! ********************************************************************** Other products from my store: Music Coloring Pages (MEGA-BUNDLE) 96 Pages Color By Note Music Coloring Sheets (Bundled) 4 Musical Genres Elementary Music Substitute Notebook (For the Non-Musical Sub) ********************************************************************** Get credit for future purchases: Please go to your "My Purchases" page (you may need to login). Beside each purchase you'll see a "Provide Feedback" button. Simply click it and you will be taken to a page where you can give a quick rating and leave a short comment for the product. I value your feedback greatly as it helps me determine which products are most valuable for your classroom so I can create more for you. Become a follower: Be the first to know about my new discounts, freebies, and product launches. Look for the red star near the top of any page within my store and click it to become a follower
Simplify teaching the elements of music with these 5 easy lesson ideas. Enhance understanding and engage students with these lesson ideas...
Do you hate drop-everything-and-test days in the elementary music room? We still need to know what students know. Ideas for assessment without stopping.
Are you ready for Student Learning Objectives? Do you need to show student growth in music class? Do you need to use pre-tests and post-tests to produce data? This pack is designed for 1st or 2nd grade general music students and covers mi-sol-la and ta & ti-ti. Also Available/Coming Soon: Grade K-1 {Musical Comparatives} {mi sol} - (Coming Soon!) Grade 1-2 {mi sol la} {ta & ti-ti} Grade 2-3 {do re} {rest & half note} Grade 3-4 {low la, low sol} {tika tika, ti-tika} Grade 4-5 {fa ti do'} {tika-ti & syn-CO-pa} - (Coming Soon! Because music teachers can follow so many different state/national standards, sequences, methodologies (Orff, Dalcroze, etc.), or philosophies (Kodaly), the Elementary Music Assessment Packs are divided into "ish" grades so you can decide how to adapt and implement them into your own elementary music program. Included In This Pack: 2: About Assessments and This Product 3: Tips for easy assessments 4: Non-paper assessment activities 5: Assessing the singing voice 6-8: Melody Pre/Post Test & Student Growth Record Form 9: Rhythm Pre/Post Test 10-11: Fast & Slow Assessment Cards and Worksheet 12-13: Beat Charts (with hearts) 14: Beat & Rhythm Assessment Sheet 15: Rhythm Syllables Assessment Sheet 16: Rhythm Assessment Sheet (Bee Bee) 17: Rhythm Aural Assessment Sheet 18: Popsicle Stick Beat Card for Rhythm Practice 19: Assessment card for sol & mi only 20: Assessment card for mi sol & la 21: Staff Card (to use with pennies) 22: Note Writing Assessment Worksheet 23: Solfa Street ID Assessment Worksheet 24-25: Singing Assessment Charts 26: Singing Voice Development Chart - Track student progress!! 27-28: Thank you, credits, and contact information Don’t wait... Get ready for SLO's!! Give a post test at the end of this year to develop trend data to use for next year’s students. Satisfaction guaranteed... If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, please ask! Kodaly Inspired MusicForAll
Assessing students and collecting data in music class has been made simpler with this HUGE set of musical scoring guides (also called rubrics). The rubrics are ready to go for music assessment. You just need to print and copy. Make it your own! Do you need to customize a rubric or create one for a topic that isn’t addressed? No problem! I’ve also included some rubric templates that you can use to create your own. This set is created for the K-6 elementary music teacher, but I have used several of the scoring guides with middle school and high school. Please download the preview for a closer look at what is included. Here’s what included in this download: ➡️ Introduction to using rubrics and tips for using the scoring guides in this download. ➡️ Explanation of SLOs and tips for collecting data. ➡️ A data collection sheet for student learning objectives (SLOs). ➡️ 6 editable templates (Templates are in PowerPoint. You’ll need that program to use them.) Please note that the templates are not for commercial use. That means you are not allowed to use them to create your own scoring guides to sell. Topics of Music Rubrics in this Download: PLEASE NOTE: Each of the topics below contain a single page holistic rubric, the same rubric but two to a page to save paper and a whole class sheet with the same rubric. ➡️ Fast and Slow Rubrics –This set includes the same music class rubrics but using the terms “presto” and “largo”. An assessment worksheet for both is also included. ➡️ High and Low –A worksheet that could be used for assessment is included in this set. ➡️ Improvisation -Scoring guides for both rhythmic improvisation and melodic improvisation are included. ➡️ Instruments -Identifying instrument families, identifying classroom percussion instruments by sight and aurally identifying classroom percussion instruments are addressed in this set. Each topic comes with a worksheet that you could use for assessment. ➡️ Legato and Staccato – A worksheet that could be used for assessment is included in this set. ➡️ Loud and Soft –This set contains rubrics for loud/soft, loud/quiet and forte/piano. An assessment worksheet is included for each version. ➡️ Movement- Movement/dance with steps that are taught are assessed in this set. Also included are scoring guides for creative movement. ➡️ Orff Instruments – In addition to the scoring guides mentioned above, an analytic rubric is included as well for playing Orff instruments. ➡️ Pitch -Treble clef pitches, bass clef pitches, melodic dictation and melodic direction are addressed in this set. An assessment worksheet is included for melodic direction. ➡️ Recorder – Recorder performance is assessed with these scoring guides. An analytic rubric is included as well. ➡️ Rhythm - Rhythm performance is assessed with these scoring guides. To make sure that these scoring guides work with any rhythm or note value you may be assessing, a second set of scoring guides with a blank for you to write in the rhythm or notes being assessed is included. Also in the set are rubrics for rhythmic dictation. ➡️ Singing - Rubrics for solo singing and ensemble singing are included as well as an analytic scoring guide. ➡️ Steady Beat- Two versions of rubrics are included in this set. One contains emoji faces along with the numbers to help pre-readers understand their score. These files come as PDFs in a zipped folder. You will need to extract or unzip the folder to access the PDFs. Teachers that are using this product had this to say: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ "This rubric and assessment bundle was an absolute lifesaver last year. I love how easy the assessments are to implement, not to mention quick and adaptable to your classroom needs. I especially love the tracking sheets where you can keep track of student growth from pre-test to post-test, as well as how the rubrics are separated by every concept we would use in the music room. The pictures and icons are highly engaging for my students, especially my ELL's who are working on English proficiency or my kiddos that are a little lower in reading skills. Thank you for making this beyond fabulous resource! I will be using this many times more." -Gretchen ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ "These are so comprehensive - I couldn't live without them. I would be spending so much time creating rubrics, but with this resource I can quickly assess my students and adjust my teaching. THANK YOU!" -Kari Teachers Like You Also Purchased: ↪️ What Do You Hear Worksheet Set ↪️ No Prep Music Worksheets ENDLESS GROWING Bundle ↪️ Exit Tickets MEGA BUNDLE ↪️ Read and Respond: Instruments
Please enjoy this free performance rubric, which uses three assessment categories: 1. Note reading and fingerings 2. Rhythmic Accuracy 3. Tone Quality Using the number scale of 1 to 4, (1 being least proficient, 4 being the most) average the three categories and use that as the score. Enjoy!
This is the perfect planning tool for teachers implementing the new National Core Arts Standards in PK-8 general music classes. Use it as a checklist to make sure you are covering each standard, or plan your teaching and assessment of each standard by marking the date for each directly on the form. The entire document comes in Powerpoint format so you can easily edit, add text, and print. This product is included in the Ultimate Music Teacher Organization Binder, which also includes concert planning, seating charts, recorder karate checklist, music classroom inventory, lesson plan template, and the IEP at-a-glance files, and the Music Teacher Entire Life Planner Bundles, which also include a teacher planner, teacher entrepreneur planner, and home management binder. Pages are organized by grade level and anchor standard, with space to note teaching and assessment of each area within each anchor standard. All of the standards for each grade fit onto a 2-page spread for easy viewing and planning. Check out the preview to see an example of the layout. You can get the standards for choir, band, and string ensembles in the same format in the National Music Standards Planning Sheets (ensemble).Similar planning sheets are also available for the Ontario Curriculum grades 1-8 Music Standards and the TEKS K-5 General Music Standards. These standards are available on the National Association for Music Education website, organized by strand, at this link. **Don't forget to leave feedback for credits towards future purchases!** ★ Follow my store to stay up-to-date on new products and get special offers! Other ways to stay connected: Blog:Organized Chaos Facebook: Organized Chaos Facebook Page Pinterest: My Pinterest Boards YouTube: Organized Chaos YouTube Channel #organizedstandards #musiccrewassessment
My district is one that is implementing Student Learning Objectives...which are basically large-scale goals for each student in class based on their ability levels. Teachers have to set target scores/learning outcomes for lower level learners to higher level learners. That means there has to be some sort of pre-assessment in order to determine the level of the students. I really have struggled in attempting to create pre-assessments for orchestra. It has been hard to wrap my head around giving a test to see what I know students don't know yet...since I haven't taught the skill, yet. Anyway, I am focusing my learning objective on rhythm. I want to be sure my students are fluent note-readers and rhythm readers. For my pre-test, I will use the 'I Got Rhythm' form that I created. This can be used many different ways and can be a useful tool in a variety of rhythm exercises. For my pre-assessment, I will perform the rhythm from one box on each line...and I will have students circle the rhythm that they think I played. This will help me see if students are already recognizing these rhythms. The rhythms get progressively more difficult as you move down the page, so I will be able to set some learning targets for individual students. Eventually of course, students will demonstrate the ability to perform these rhythms on their own - by the end of year 1. I can also use this form as a rhythm exercise...students can perform the rhythms across and down each line. They can cut them up to make flashcards. You can use the different rhythms for warm-ups and scales.
Music theory worksheets are valuable tools for individuals who are learning or studying music. These worksheets provide structured exercises that focus specifically on note values. With a range of activities and exercises tailored to different skill levels, music theory worksheets help students grasp the concept of note values and their significance in creating rhythm and melodic patterns. Whether you're a beginner or an advanced musician, these worksheets are designed to enhance your understanding of note values and improve your musical performance.
I’ve been told that this is the teacher’s mantra when it comes to resources. Thanks to Pinterest, it is even easier to find other people’s fantastic ideas and adapt them for your…
Develop music literacy skills with engaging spring elementary music activities for all learners. Update your lesson plans with creative ideas!
Walk into an elementary music room and you're likely to see students singing, reading, playing instruments, listening, improvising, and moving. Each of these activities can give us crucial insight into how our students are learning, and how we can help them. That insight is called assessment.&n
How on earth can you effectively do formative assessment on hundreds of students a week in music class? EXIT TICKETS are the answer! Use them for any skill you are working on. Tried and tested tips and tricks are discussed in this blog post.
I am linking up today with Amy Abbott and several other music teachers to share some ideas for surviving the end of the school year. TIPS #1: Keep them moving with singing games and folk dancing Jump Jim Joe This is the closest version I could find to the one I do with my kids.I use the recording from the Amidons and I have the inside circle move because it is a shorter distance to travel. When teaching a double circle dance, make sure you are always on the outside so that you can see everyone! This will eliminate a lot of problems. Our Old Sow I learned this game from Jo Kirk last summer and my kids LOVE IT! TIP #2: Keep them "on track" and engaged in music learning until the end. I usually spend the last 2-3 weeks as review time to practice the concepts we got through that year as well as looking ahead to next year to prepare the upcoming concepts for the fall. I've been using my "Race to the Finish Line" planning guide to keep myself and my kiddos "on track" from January through May. (click the picture above to see it in my TPT store) It includes song lists for each grade as well as an excel file for each grade that lays out the different concepts through the second half of the school year. Since it is in excel, it is totally editable. You can add song titles under each concepts, or move the concepts to a different month depending on where you are in your sequence. TIP #3 Remember the good times! Music should be a JOYFUL experience for your students. It is so much fun to take a moment and reflect on the experiences shared together in music. I created some "Music Memories" pages for each grade level so that I can see what they remember most about our year together, their favorite singing game, favorite piece we listened to and more. The packet is totally editable, so you can add your own questions if you think it is something you would be interested in using with your kids. (click on the picture above to see it in my TPT store) One more fun thing I wanted to share with you was the a bunch of music teachers will be teaming up for another $2Tuesday on TPT. Enter "$2TuesdayMusicFlashSale" in the search bar on TPT to see all of the hugely discounted items from some amazing TPT music teacher/authors. The file from my store will be my melodic flashcards for preparing and practicing sol-mi. (click on the picture above to see it in my store) These flashcards are amazing resources for melodic transitions between songs. I could have a mystery song on the board like this: Starlight Starbright See Saw I don't have cards for "2,4,6,8" but I had my kids construct it using the cards from the other songs. Then we added the rhythms above. Next time we will transfer to the staff. The kit includes 164 flashcards designed to go with the following songs: Bee Bee Bumblebee Blue Bird (1st measure) Come Back Home My Little Chicks Doggie, Dogggie (1st measure) Hey Hey Look at Me Lemonade Rain Rain Go Away See Saw Up and Down See the Old Witch Snail, Snail (1st measure) Starlight Starbright Pitch is shown using: Icons only (can be used in the preparation stage) Icons w/ solfege Icons on staff Rhythm stick notation w/ solfa (where rhythms are appropriate) Icons on staff with solfa Standard notation with solfa inside note head What are your tips for surviving the end of the school year?
Assessment Data Tracking in General Music. Organized Chaos. Strategies to make data tracking and assessments in the music room so much easier and more effective!
From time to time, we have checkup days in small groups, where each student plays for me individually and then I can give some one-on-one feedback to each student. I prefer to emphasize the value of the individualized feedback, talking about what's going well and where there is room for improvement, rather than calling it a playing test and emphasizing the grade part of it. I do enter grades from these checkups, but I don't think that's as useful to students as the one-on-one mini-lesson part of it. I try to keep the atmosphere relaxed, low-key, and positive to keep students from feeling too anxious or nervous. I usually pair checkup days with compositions--I get everyone started on their compositions and then I ask who would like to play first while the others begin work on their compositions. I've created a generic checkup sheet that can be easily modified. I like to put the grade level and name of piece on the top. I also add a 4/3/2/1 for each characteristic listed; it's quick to circle numbers for each bullet point. I write in the student name and instrument ahead of time, and I have the sheets already in the order I'll be seeing students that day so I don't have to take any time writing names or digging for the right slip. While students are playing, I will circle numbers, underline phrases, and write specific comments. Afterwards, we have a quick conference, talking through the comments I wrote and trying out the comments I had. It really is like a mini-lesson. I keep the slip long enough to make a copy of everyone's for myself (to record grades into my grade book later), and then I return the originals to students hopefully by the end of the same day so they can be a reference during home practice. My district uses achievement based grading, so I enter 4s, 3s, 2s, or 1s into whichever categories are being recorded. Checkup sheet (generic) Word document Feel free to modify and use with your students!
Music theory private lessons for students on all instruments. Music theory is the written language of music.
Walk into an elementary music room and you're likely to see students singing, reading, playing instruments, listening, improvising, and moving. Each of these activities can give us crucial insight into how our students are learning, and how we can help them. That insight is called assessment.&n
Do you hate drop-everything-and-test days in the elementary music room? We still need to know what students know. Ideas for assessment without stopping.
Excuse our noise... musicians at work! :) After reviewing rhythm patterns at the beginning of the year, 3rd grade classes began working on layering rhythm patterns together. This is one of the more difficult skills that they will work on so I like to start early. By playing contrasting patterns together, students have to show proficiency in steady beat and rhythm counting. After lots of practice, and doing class layering activities like this, the students got into groups and began working on their own composition projects! I always love it when people come into the music room while students are collaborating with instruments. They always say, "How in the world do you stand this noise??" It does get a little noisy but it is so neat to watch the groups collaborate and come up with great ideas together. I guess it is a sound only a music teacher could love. haha! ;) Here's a little sample of their group practice sessions: To give the students a little inspiration, I like to show a few examples before they start their projects. Here are a few that I found on YouTube of a group of music teachers demonstrating their own Boomwhacker group creations: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iU8TPYGpptA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzsG5Ush6uE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BRkIckJzJo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjx2xQLJB9s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fV1qMmrUouo Afterwards, the groups watched a video of their performance and then did a group self-assessment. I used Shannon's idea from "Music Room Magic" to create the rubric. They rated themselves on the following categories: 1. Did everyone know their part? Was everyone involved? 2. Did the rhythms fit together? Was their a consistent steady beat? 3. Was the form clear the audience? 4. Did the piece flow? Did you keep going no matter what? Update: After many requests, I have decided to share my Boomwhacker Project Worksheet! Click here if you'd like to download a copy. :)
Trying to figure out what kids know and don't know is one of the main tasks of educators. It tells us when to move on to the next lesson and when to stay put. It can give us valuable insight into which students are struggling and which students are excelling. It's the core of so much that
