Shane Zubek

January 31, 2015

Middle School Grading Policy
Grades will be determined by a combination of the following factors:
Materials - 10%
Mastery Skills - 20%
Playing Tests - 30%
Attendance - 40%
Materials
Students will be expected to have ALL required materials in class everyday.
Random materials checks may be performed throughout the school year. Students
with materials will be given a 100 for the materials check of that day.
The list of materials includes:
Pencil
Music Binder
All Music
Method Book
Instruments
Mouthpieces
Reeds (Woodwinds)
Mastery Skills
Every Monday, students will be given a Mastery Skills Sheet, outlining the
skills that they will be learning in class throughout the week. Students will then be
responsible for practicing these skills outside of class time to work towards mastery.
The following Monday students will be asked to perform everything on the Mastery
Skills Sheet in order to check them off.
Playing Tests
Playing tests are used to measure a student's individual success. Students
will be given tasks to perform in class to the best of thier ability. On most tests,
students will have up to three (3) tries to give their best performance. Their grade
will be the best of the three tries.
Tasks may include:
Playing a note with a beautiful, centered tone
Playing an excerpt from the method book with correct notes and
rhythms and a
beautiful tone
Playing a Major scale
ETC...
*Students may also be able to redo playing tests before or after school under
certain circumstances.

Attendance
Attendance can be further broken into two categories.
Sectionals - 15% of Overall Grade
Sectionals are scheduled times before or after school for like-instruments to
rehearse. Sectionals may be scheduled weekly or bi-weekly, depending on progress
and the amount of work to be accomplished.
Performances - 25% of Overall Grade
There will be five concert performances and one Solo and Ensemble
performance during the school year. There will be a Fall Concert, a Winter Concert, a
Pre-UIL Concert, a UIL Performance, and a Spring Concert. Students are required to
attend and perform in all of these events. Solo and Ensemble is a judged
performance of a student or students performing a solo or small ensemble piece
assigned to them. All band members are required to perform a solo for the Solo and
Ensemble contest. Seventh and Eight graders have an opportunity to perform a
small ensemble AS WELL AS their assigned solo.