Assessment is a huge buzzword that we are constantly working to address and improve upon in our teaching. I even did my master's thesis based on surveying band directors and their methods of assessment. Overwhelmingly they discussed Smart Music. It's effective, efficient and challenging for students.
There are a few major flaws in Smart Music however:
1. It costs money for the director/district and the students. For those of us who teach at low income schools we are unable to fully implement or at all implement the program because of this alone.
2. It does not account for expression. Smart Music only evaluates pitch and rhythm accuracy. In fact the pitch accuracy is debatable. Yes students playing right notes and rhythms is crucial, but isn't it important that we emphasize dynamics and articulation as well? It is possible for a student to get a perfect score from Smart Music and never articulate. Now most directors do not score purely off the Smart Music assessment, they listen and evaluate as well, but why are we spending all this money if we have to listen to it again anyway?
I don't have the option of Smart Music at the elementary level. Some of our Junior Highs have it and utilize it well. This year I'm trying an alternative and I'll revisit later how it worked out.
One of the big buzz words with assessments is student growth. In fact starting next year in the state of Illinois student growth will factor into our evaluations. How that will be determined for music teachers is yet to be announced but I decided to be proactive and test run something new that will demonstrate student growth.
My solution: Google Drive
I have created an individual folder for each of my students, basically creating online portfolios. In these I am storing their various recordings throughout the year. I've decided to stick with one playing test per trimester. What I am doing different is actually pre-testing the students as well. I'm calling this their "before" performance. The first time we see the piece of music I record them attempting to play it. Then later I go back and score it using a rubric. I announce post-recording "oh by the way, this is your next playing quiz in two weeks". The playing quiz happens and I use the same rubric, this time the student gets a copy and I observe the growth between the two performances.
Reasons why I am liking it so far:
1. I can see that yes the student has learned/practiced and what I'm doing is working.
2. By having it in Google Drive, I do not load up my IPad or computer with recordings, I can keep them organized AND I can share the recordings with the students (all of our 5/6 students have their own Google accounts) so they can hear their growth and share it with whoever they would like.
3. Additionally, I have DATA. If an administrator asks, how are you assessing your students? how can you demonstrate growth? I can simply share my assessment folder in Google Drive with them and they can see it.
4. It's FREE.
Challenges:
1. It is time consuming. Time must be budgeted for the quizzes during their lessons twice per trimester (due to pre-test/post-test). I have to spend my own time uploading the recordings to Google Drive-this is made pretty efficient with the app I use which allows direct Drive upload-Voice Record Pro for IPad
Really that's the only challenge so far. I like it really. So as a Smart Music alternative, we'll see how it works out, I'll let you know.
Anyone else done something similar?
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