Mary Higgins

Music 512 Fall 2017

Assessment Portfolio Handout

1. Sight reading exams

 Sight reading exams are exams in which the students are given a
piece of music they have not previously seen. The students are
expected to be able to sing or play through the piece with correct
notes and rhythms.
 These exams help the teacher assess the level of musical
proficiency in the classroom. Doing these throughout the year can
also give the teacher a way to document growth in musical abilities
over time.
 Ideally, sight reading exams would be held once per concert (ex. if
during a course, students perform 2 concerts, there would be 2 sight
reading exams). These exams would take one full class period
where each student would perform a short excerpt for the teacher
individually one at a time in an office, a practice room, or
otherwise. While the teacher is testing students, the students who
are waiting for their turn will be in sectionals to practice their
individual parts. This allows the teacher to conduct the exams while
the students are working on their own in groups and don’t
necessarily need the instruction of the teacher. Section leaders
would meet with the teacher after the sight singing exams are done
to discuss what they went over in sectionals and how successful
their group was. Adjustments that can be made to the sight reading
exams might include choosing easier or harder excerpts, choosing
how to warm the students up and what information to give them
before they sing or play, or deciding how long the given excerpts
should be.
2. Exit tickets
 Before the end of class, students have to hand in a “ticket” filled out
with an answer to a question, a solution to a problem, or a response
to what they’ve learned. Exit Tickets are ungraded and mainly exist
for assessment purposes.
 In a music class, the teacher has to constantly assess the students in
order to figure out where they need help and what they should
 work on next. It may also be hard to help individuals where they’re
struggling since so much has to be done as a group. Exit tickets help
the teacher assess if students understand the lesson and also help
the teacher plan for the next lesson.
 Based on how the students seem to respond to the exit ticket idea,
the teacher can decide whether or not to implement exit tickets in
the classroom each day, twice a week, once a week, etc. Exit
tickets would be passed out 5 minutes before the end of class and
students would have this time to fill their exit tickets out. When the
students are leaving the classroom to go to their next class, the
teacher would stand at the door and collect the tickets. Exit tickets
can be anonymous or not, it is up to the instructor to decide. The
teacher can also change the types of questions on the slips to see
what the students respond better to and to test their knowledge of
more specific information or to make sure that what they “taught”
was “caught.”
3. Recording assignments
 This type of assessment consists of assignments in which students
record themselves singing or playing an excerpt of music chosen by
the teacher.
 Recording assignments help music teachers hear each student
individually as opposed to as a group, enabling them to assess
individual growth and skill.
 The teacher would need to utilize technology for this type of
assessment as well as teach the students how to use technology to
record and submit their assignments. If the teacher has access to
an online course management system or site such as Blackboard or
Canvas, he or she can have the students submit their recordings to
the online course site. If access to this type of system is not
available, the teacher can have students submit their recordings
via email. However, some students may not have technology of
their own to use, so exceptions can be made for students to sing
the assigned excerpt in front of the teacher for their grade. Possible
adjustments might be whether or not to allow the students to have
a piano accompaniment track or metronome playing in the
background, choosing longer or shorter excerpts, or having them
record video and audio versus just audio.
4. Peer evaluation
  Students perform for each other and then grade one another
based on a handout given to them by the teacher.
 Peer evaluation gives the teacher a way to think differently about
listening to the students. It also helps the teacher assess the
students’ abilities to perform for their peers as well as their abilities to
evaluate one another and listen critically.
 For this assessment tool, the students would be in groups with the
sizes of the groups depending on the class sizes. Each student would
perform for their group as well as evaluate/grade their other group
members on their performances. Some adjustments that the
teacher might need to consider for peer evaluation include letting
the students choose their groups or assigning groups for peer
evaluation, having the students perform for people of their own
voice part or instrument versus people of the same voice part or
instrument, or deciding whether or not to count the averages of
their peer reviews as an actual grade versus having it be ungraded.
The teacher may also decide to utilize the self-evaluation strategy in
addition to peer evaluation so that the student can see how their
own thoughts and opinions on their performance compare to their
peers’.
5. Journals
 Students can either write freely about a topic or respond to prompts
when journaling. The teacher can then read through their journals
to hear their thoughts, ideas, questions, and concerns.
 Journaling helps music students form opinions and pinpoint their
thoughts on different subjects as well as draw from previous
knowledge to make connections. This can be especially important
for developing a personal taste in genres and styles of music.
 For a journal, the teacher must choose whether to let the students
write freely or to give the students prompts to base their journal
entry off of. Journal entries are often just given a participation or
completion grade, but the teacher can decide to grade the
students on their creativity, grammatical errors and sentence
structure, etc. Journaling is also a private record of students’
thoughts and provides them with a safe way of communicating
with the teacher. Journals can exist as an everyday activity for the
students, or the teacher can choose to have them occur less often
 for the students to write about bigger ideas instead of smaller
lessons.
6. Rubrics
 A rubric is a document that articulates the expectations for an
assignment by listing the criteria and describing levels of quality
from low to high.
 Rubrics help to evaluate music objectively (as much as possible) by
providing written criteria for the students.
 Rubrics can be used in the music classroom for anything from a
singing/playing test to a composition project to a formal paper. The
teacher can decide whether they want to use a rubric for every
assignment or just for a few assignments. The rubrics would be given
to the students before they start the assignment or before they start
preparing for a test. This way they are able to know the criteria the
teacher is looking for in order to award them with a good grade.
Adjustments that may be necessary are adding more or less
categories for the grades or being more or less detailed in the
descriptions of the criteria.
7. Graphic organizers
 A visual display that demonstrates relationships between facts,
concepts, or ideas.
 Many students learn visually and by doing an activity themselves
instead of being lectured by the teacher. Graphic organizers are
especially helpful for complicated and unfamiliar topics such as
music theory and music history since they help simplify information.
 Graphic organizers usually exist as a “map” of information. Because
of the objective nature of graphic organizers, music teachers
usually use them for subjects like music theory, listening, and music
history. The teacher usually creates the organizer him or herself and
then the students fill it out and turn it in. They can be graded or
ungraded. The teacher may have to adjust the organizer to be
more or less vague depending on how abstract the subject matter
is and how well the students do at filling them out.
8. Self-evaluation
 Students look at their own progress, development, and learning to
determine what has improved and what areas still need
 improvement. This type of assessment usually involves comparing a
“before” with an “after.”
 A big part of being able to perform music successfully is evaluating
your performance and improving based on said evaluations. This
type of assessment allows the students to learn to improve without
critiques from other people, which if they end up wanting to be a
professional musician is a very important skill.
 Self-evaluation can take the form of writing a paper, filling out a
questionnaire, filling out a rubric, etc. The teacher may decide what
questions to put and what criteria to emphasize for the students to
grade themselves on. Depending on how the students react to
these self-evaluations, the teacher can have them occur more or
less frequently over the course of the class.
 EXAMPLES
1. Sight Reading Exam

You will have one minute timed to look through the piece and familiarize
yourself with it. Your starting pitch and an arpeggio in the key will be played for
you. You may take it at whatever tempo you’re comfortable with and sing it in
whatever octave best suits your voice.

Your grade will be based on the following:

- Rhythmic accuracy
- Solfege syllable accuracy
- Note accuracy
- Expression and musicality
- Proper vocal technique

Sight Reading Exam 2

2. Exit Ticket

Name: ______________________ Date:________

Class: _______________________

EXIT TICKET

The sections/excerpts that were covered today in class that

I need more help on are:

The reason why I’m struggling with these excerpts is (don’t

understand rhythm, can’t find my pitch, etc.):
 3. Recording Assignment

Record yourself singing your part on solfege from measure 3 of “Jauchzet dem
Herrn, alle Welt” to measure 30.
Make sure that your voice is heard clearly in the recording. There should be no
piano or other accompaniment or metronome used; only your voice should be
heard.
Listen and re-record sections to turn in the best possible recording.
Editing is okay (not adding effects, but you may record sections and splice.)

Practice links:

Soprano – [teacher will record piano, make a file, and insert the link here]
Alto – [link here]
Tenor – [link here]
Bass – [link here]
All parts – [link here]

Your grade will be based on the following:

- Rhythmic accuracy
- Solfege syllable accuracy
- Note accuracy
- Expression and musicality
- Proper vocal technique
- File accessibility
- Evidence of knowledge of how to use recording equipment
 4. Peer Evaluation

Name of performer: __________________________

Date:_____________

PEER EVALUATION FORM

Criteria:
4 – consistently
3 – most of the time
2 – occasionally
1 – seldom
0 – not at all

Circle the appropriate grade for each of the following. Use the grade criteria
listed above.

0 1 2 3 4 Pitch

0 1 2 3 4 Rhythm

0 1 2 3 4 Tone Quality

0 1 2 3 4 Expression and Style

0 1 2 3 4 Diction

0 1 2 3 4 Overall stage performance

Strengths:

Suggestions for improvement:

Name of evaluator: __________________________

 5. Journal

Name:___________________ Date:__________

LISTENING JOURNAL

Name of the piece:

Name of the group/artist/composer:

Have you heard this piece or type of music before? YES NO

Describe the tempo.

What style of music do you think this is?

Name the instruments you hear.

What do you think are some interesting features of this piece?

What do you like most about this piece of music?

What do you like least about this piece of music?

Overall Rating: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
lowest highest
 6. Rubric

Name: __________________________

Excerpt: _________________________

Category 5 points 4 points 3 points 2 points 1 point 0 points

Exceptional Excellent Good Average Unsatisfactory Unacceptable
Rhythm No rhythmic Few rhythmic Moderate About half of the Excessive Total lack of
errors, all errors, less amount of piece rhythmic rhythm, no
measures than 25% of errors, about performed mistakes. At least measures
performed measures 25% of correctly, half 75% of measures performed
correctly. performed measures performed performed correctly
incorrectly. performed incorrectly. incorrectly.
incorrectly.
Musicality All music is All music has Performed Only a few Only one or two No evidence of
performed appropriate mostly with evidences of instances of musicianship.
excellently phrasing, appropriate phrasing, musical
and evokes dynamics, phrasing, dynamics, expression of any
an emotional and style. Feel dynamics, and articulation, and kind.
response. of the piece is style. Feel is little
convincing. somewhat demonstration
convincing. of proper style.
Technique Performed all One or two One or two Three to six Many technical Almost total lack
music with minor moderate moderate or errors. Most of the of accuracy and
perfect instances of technical errors major errors music was proper use of the
accuracy and improper use and/or one where playing is hindered due to voice.
use of the of the voice. brief major hindered due to improper
voice. error. improper technique.
technique.
Intonation Performed One or two Three to five Six or more Excessive Total lack of
every single instances of instances of intonation issues intonation issues pitch center
note perfectly intonation intonation throughout. throughout. throughout entire
in tune. issues. issues. test.
Tone Plays with full, Sings most of Few instances About half of the Almost all of the Total lack of
resonant the time with of notes not excerpt is sung music is sung tone, resonance,
sound and good perfectly in with weak weakly with and vibrato.
expression. resonance. tune, vibrato sound, incorrect tuning Proper
Vibrato is Vibrato is lacking, or resonance, or and/or vibrato resonance is
appropriate mostly incorrect improper usage. ignored.
and appropriate resonance. vibrato.
controlled. and
controlled.
Directions Followed all Strong Good Evidence of Only followed Did not prepare,
directions. evidence of evidence of preparation, one or two did not follow
and Prep Strong preparation, preparation, several minor directions, directions at all.
evidence of minor case of several cases of and/or one obvious lack of
preparation. directions not directions not major case(s) of preparation.
followed. followed. directions not
followed.

Comments: Total Score: ___/30

 7. Graphic Organizer

Name: ____________________ Date: ________

MUSIC NOTES

Use the notes below to complete this graphic organizer.

 8. Self-Evaluation

Name:_________________________ Date:___________

1. Describe two ways in which you have grown as a musician during this
class.
a. __________________________________________________________________
b. __________________________________________________________________
2. Describe two or more music skills that you feel you have made an
improvement in during this class. Make sure to be specific.
a. __________________________________________________________________
b. __________________________________________________________________
3. Describe the most challenging thing for you in this class so far.
___________________________________________________________________________
4. Please honestly assess your performance, ability, and skills in the following
categories.
(1 = Outstanding- exceptional quality; 2 = Competent- what you are supposed to be
doing; 3 = Developing- not quite there but trying; 4 = Beginner- don’t quite understand
yet)
Please circle:
Singing in tune 1 2 3 4
Using correct posture and vocal habits 1 2 3 4
Using appropriate expression (style, dynamics) 1 2 3 4
Demonstrating a steady beat 1 2 3 4
Reading and playing rhythms accurately 1 2 3 4
Understanding meter, counting beats 1 2 3 4
Identifying letter names of lines and spaces 1 2 3 4
Using listening skills 1 2 3 4
Listening to and describing music 1 2 3 4
Connecting music with other subjects (math, history, etc.) 1 2 3 4
Understanding what is expected of me in class 1 2 3 4
Participating in class 1 2 3 4
Cooperating in class 1 2 3 4
Giving my best effort during class 1 2 3 4
Being on my best behavior during class 1 2 3 4

Additional Comments: