Abigail Huck

MUSIC 512
Assessment Portfolio

1. Formative Assessment
a. Concept Map
i. A Concept Map is a Formative Assessment strategy. This means that the
assessment is done prior to the end of the lesson. This allows the teacher
to watch progress as the class moves along so that they can assess whether
or not their students are grasping the topics or if an adjustment to
instruction needs to be made.
ii. This assessment is easy to implement in the music classroom. Personally, I
use this to discuss different articulation markings and the styles associated
with them. We give the students a dynamic marking, and they are
responsible for defining it, finding out how it relates to other articulations,
and mapping them out in a legible and explainable chart.
b. Group Presentation
i. This is essentially using the Jigsaw strategy but labeling it a different way.
This form of assessment is also a Formative Assessment in the fact that
this project doesn’t signify the end of instruction on a topic. The students
are, instead, teaching each other about the concepts. Each group of
students has a small portion of the topic that they then present to the class.
This way, the students get experience teaching the concept (which helps
them internalize it better) and learning from their peers. This is assessed
by the instructor, normally using a rubric.
ii. An example of this type of assessment is a historical scavenger hunt for
one of the high school band’s program selections. The band will be
divided into small groups, and each small group will be in charge of
identifying a specific historical element in the music, such as the
composer’s dates, the composer’s background, the rational behind the
piece, etc. Then the students come together and teach each other the
concepts that they have discovered.
c. Journal Entries
i. This last method of Formative Assessment is the most common in the
classroom setting. One of the best ways to tell what students are thinking
of throughout the learning process is to ask them to write their thoughts
and then be able to assess them to gain an understanding of what your
students are actually understanding. Another way to approach this would
be to interview the students themselves on the topic. Since a journal seems
less pressured, I decided to go with that.
ii. We require our students to write one large composition throughout the
year. This composition is broken into chunks and the students are given
class time to work on the individual portions before its all due. Each day
that they work on their compositions, they are required to write a journal
article on their accomplishments and struggles throughout the day of
work. Knowing this information will help the teacher more accurately
 assess the understanding of the students and be able to understand how to
best help them. The journal articles are graded on length, content, and
applicability.
2. Summative Assessment
a. Portfolio
i. A Portfolio is a form of Summative Assessment that spans an entire Unit
or Semester rather than just a lesson or topic. This will contain much more
than a project or assignment and is a more accurate assessment of learning
over a long period of time. A Portfolio is a grouping of student work over
certain topics that can be combined to show student growth or overall
knowledge of the topic once the desired amount of study has been
completed. This can be papers, assignments, projects, or other exemplars
of student work.
ii. In the music classroom, the students compose short melodies throughout
the year. They will keep all of these compositions and turn them in with
their final composition at the end of the semester. From these examples,
the teacher can see how much the student has grown in their compositional
technique throughout the course. The key to a portfolio is making sure that
you have given students enough opportunities to create throughout the
semester so that once they are putting together a portfolio, they have
enough representative works to make a comprehensive set of documents.
b. Project
i. A Project is also a form of Summative Assessment, although it is smaller
than a portfolio. Projects are done at the end of a Unit or Lesson rather
than a semester. A project is any sort of cumulation of student’s work over
one topic at one point in time. This can be an electronic project, a poster, a
written work, or even a work of art.
ii. In the music classroom, we have a few projects that we have our students
do. We have them research a composer of one of our pieces for the
upcoming concert. They make a visual representation of this information;
be that a poster, essay, video, or powerpoint. This gives the students an
element of choice while still ensuring that they are focusing on the
important topics and individuals from the course.
c. Composition
i. A composition is a piece of written work from the student themselves.
This type of assessment also occurs after the instruction has been given, so
it is a Summative Assessment. Students are asked to create a piece of
written work based on the elements they have learned in the classroom.
This can be in the form of a paper, a musical composition, a grouping of
poetry, a newspaper of historical events, or many other things.
ii. In our music classroom, we have our students compose a short melody or
section each Unit. This means that by the end of the semester, they should
have 8 short compositions to draw from. Each of these small compositions
includes the concepts that we have been working on in class, be that the
melody or harmony of the selected piece, the musical concept that we
 have been studying, or a specific form or style. These are an excellent way
to measure student understanding and student engagement.
d. Program Notes on a Performance
i. Another summative assessment strategy is to write performance notes.
This can be translated to different assignments in different content areas. It
can be a rationale of a portfolio for another class, notes on a project, or
even an explanation of a composition a student has written. Program notes
are simply a students’ own words regarding all of the elements of a certain
work they have studied that a different person could read and gain an
understanding from. It is essentially a Group Project, but after the students
have learned the concept and a personal assignment rather than a group
effort.
ii. A way to incorporate this in the music world is to have each student write
program notes on the pieces on the next concert. These program notes
should include composer, composer’s dates, any historical significance of
the piece, any fun facts that are associated with the piece, and anything
else that catches the students’ attention. These program notes can then be
graded and the winning set of program notes can be used in the program
for that next concert. This gives the students a sense of achievement when
their school project is used in a professional capacity.
3. Performance Based
a. Rehearsal Observation
i. A Rehearsal Observation is a type of assignment that can only occur in
real time while the event that is being reviewed is happening. It is highly
active and present. This makes it a type of performance assessment. The
students observe an event and then write reflections on the experience,
tying in their observations with what they have been learning in the
classroom setting. The point of this is to create students that are capable of
critical thinking and problem solving.
ii. The use of this strategy is our classroom has been very successful. We
require our students in the accelerated music college ready courses to
observe two rehearsals throughout the semester. Observing these classes
helps them to determine what they have been discussing in class as
qualities of good instruction. It can then be turned into a reflection of the
experience that shows student growth.
b. Student Performance
i. Student Performance is also in the category of Performance Based
Assessments. Since a performance is something that can only happen in
real time, this is also an example of performance based assessment. The
students are asked to present or perform something in front of an audience
(their peers or otherwise) that relates to the content area. It is the student’s
responsibility to have all of the required elements present so that the
performance is truly their own. This gives them a sense of accountability
for the project.
ii. A good example of this is having a solo festival at your school. Each of
the students in the Wind Ensemble is required to work up a short solo or
 small ensemble with or without accompaniment for the solo night. Each
performance is very short, but the students are able to get experience on a
solo or small ensemble performance. These opportunities offer the chance
for the students to experience an authentic assessment rather than a
standardized test. The students are assessed by the teacher in the audience,
but there are also parents, friends, and community members all present
just to cheer the students on.

Creating assessment strategies should always begin and end with furthering student opportunity,
not with student judgement or assessment as a classroom management tool. The assessments are
created for the students, not the students for the assessments.