Before sharing what I’ve been doing with regards to assessment in KS3 music I’d like to share a quote I came across with a few days ago by Ron Berger who had this to say about assessment:
“Most discussions about assessment start in the wrong place. The most important assessment that goes on in a school isn’t done to students but goes on inside students. Every student walks around with a picture of what is acceptable, what is good enough. Each time he/she* works on something he/she* looks at it and assesses it. Is this good enough? Do i feel comfortable handing this in? Does it meet my standards? Changing assessment at this level should be the most important assessment goal of every school. How do we get inside student’s heads and turn up the knob that regulates quality and effort” *added by me.
Assessment can be a very tricky thing and it’s arguably one of the most time-consuming parts of any teacher’s career. For the amount of time spent on this It’s become my mission to look for systems whereby I can spend more time with the students giving immediate feedback and less time on spreadsheets. Fortunately for me, the music teaching community is incredible and a couple of posts on a Facebook group lead me to some great resources including a webinar by the head of music at Hayes School Jane Werry where she shared some of her ideas and resources.
I will be referring to year 7 in this post on a unit entitled “Just Play” from Musical Futures.
In this unit students learn to play 5 popular classroom instruments: DrumKit, Ukulele, Guitar, Bass Guitar and Keyboard. They have to show that they are able to follow visual cues as well as play with instrument specific techniques a medley of songs.
Technology is a big part in the way this unit is delivered. I have been using seesaw for 1 year now and find that it’s an incredibly helpful application which helps me scaffold critique and reflection skills. I also flip the classroom using play along videos designed by the amazing teachers at Musical Futures which gives me the chance to see every student and provide immediate feedback as they play. The class is divided into 3 sections:
A brief warm up at the start with a chance to assess some knowledge. The main practical chunk where the students play and I go around giving feedback. Then 15-20 minutes at the end for critique or reflection.
For the last part of the class I use the learning radar adapted to this unit where the students get to self-assess skills on 3 levels (a post on levels soon!). The 3 levels are: Not yet, can do and can do very well. This is what a learning radar looks like once its filled by a student. As the unit progresses the students will move the dot according to their performance.
I also get the students to choose reflection questions which I have set and keep in one side of my classroom. I get the students to record their voice in seesaw. This is what a response sounds like:
In this example we’re using Chair Drumming to work on drum techniques and co-ordination. Again credit to the amazing folks at Musical Futures. When you don’t have 13 drumkits (i wish!) a pair of sticks and a chair can get you very far.
