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Assessment and Grading Philosophy Assessment Philosophy: Assessment can be done in many ways with the use of numerous strategies. I believe that the most important assessment strategy for a music teacher is listening. I feel the best way a music teacher can help their students learn the most, is when there is time for listening. I find when you take time and pay attention to the music you can find what needs to be worked on. In my own teaching experience, when I took the time to listen to my students, I find I had a lot more to comment on. If I did not plan to just listen, I end up trying to find something to say which most of the time was not beneficial. In my belief, listening is the first key that leads you to the areas in which instruction is needed thus make your students more successful. So why would you not do the obvious and just listen? Grading Philosophy: In my opinion when it comes to giving grades in a music classroom, it should reflect on two areas. The first area which is the obvious one is accuracy. This is how accurate a student performs a predetermined excerpt with a given area of criteria. An example of this would be pitch, rhythm, and technical accuracies. The next area should reflect on the student’s effort. This effort should be largely waited on participation both being present for class/lessons as well as practicing assigned music at home. The reason for these two grading areas is it creates what I believe to be a more precise assessment of music because the students are being grading on both musical accuracy and effort. This provides a student who cannot perform very accurately but gives one hundred percent effort to music, a reasonable grade just as someone who does not work hard but can easily perform music accurately. |