at least once every quarter. A single measurement is not enough, as it will not provide an opportunity to show growth over time. In addition, any single measurement can be inac- curate; gathering richer, more robust evidence of learning is more meaningful.
2) Develop measurement tools.
Next, teachers must develop or find measurement tools for use in measuring these core instructional goals. If the goals are performance-oriented, the instructional tools typically should be rating scales. Rating scales can be used meaning- fully in the context of an on-going class to evaluate student behavior quickly, because they allow teachers to recognize where a child’s behavior falls on a clearly articulated devel- opmental continuum. An example of a continuous rating scale to measure the pitch-related aspects of singing is below.
1. Student is working toward finding singing voice. 2. Student produces the melodic contour of the song but inaccurate pitches.
3. Student sings part but not all of the song on the cor- rect pitch levels. 4. Student sings the correct pitch levels but with signifi- cant flaws in intonation
5. Student sings all pitches correctly with few flaws in intonation.
The ability to sing is a matter of degree rather than a yes or no question. Therefore, this rating scale and its criteria represent the most important points in the developmental process of learning to sing. One is the least developed musi- cal performance, and five is the most developed. Another continuous rating scale could be developed for rating the rhythmic aspects and/or the expressive aspects of this same song performance, and several of those rating scales could be combined into a single singing performance rubric with multiple dimensions. Each core curricular goal should have a corresponding rating scale or other type of measurement tool for use in its measurement.
3) Design instructional activities for assessment. Next, the teacher should design instructional activities into which assessment can be embedded. These activities should incorporate individual student responses so that the teacher can observe each student perform individually. If students are used to singing alone on a regular basis from Kinder- garten onward, they will view solo performance as a natural part of music class. If students are reluctant to perform, music teachers can remind them that they all are expected to answer questions verbally alone on a regular basis in their general education classrooms. They are just being asked to answer questions musically in music class.
There are several strategies that are useful in designing ac- tivities for use in measuring individual student performance,
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as they make the activities more playful and less stressful for the students. First, designing the activities so that the musical response is brief makes performing less scary and allows a teacher to quickly and accurately assess large num- bers of students in a short amount of time. For example, a teacher could teach the class to sing “Michael Row the Boat Ashore.” Once the students know the song, a student could sing an “Alleluia” and the teacher would sing the other parts of the song. Each chorus of the song has four “Alleluias,” so four students would have the opportunity to respond individ- ually in a single performance of the chorus of the song. Or, a teacher could pause after each phrase of a song and gesture for a student to sing the tonic pitch individually. Likewise, a teacher could gesture to several individual students to take turns echoing or even creating (depending upon whether the instructional goals center upon performing or creating) four- beat rhythm patterns between performances of a short song or chant by the entire class. In only five or six times through a song or chant, the teacher could have heard each student individually.
Making the activities game-like makes them more fun for students. Children enjoy games, and music teachers regu- larly incorporate musical games into their classrooms. These games easily can be “tweaked” to include an assessment component. For example, in “London Bridge,” the stu- dent who is trapped by the bridge might be asked to echo a tonal or rhythm pattern before taking his or her place in the bridge. For traditional passing games, the student at the end of the song who has the object that is being passed could be asked to do something musically. Passing four or five of the objects rather than only one allows more opportunity for individual response in a single performance of the song.
Also, using a manipulative can decrease some students’ reluctance to perform by distracting them from the fact that they are performing alone. For example, if the teacher rolls a student a ball or throws a student a beanbag as a signal that it is his or her turn to perform, that student can get caught up in the excitement of handling the manipulative and forget any nervousness about performing.
To keep on track, teachers might consider incorporating one assessment activity in every class period as an opportunity to keep track of individual student progress on one of the core instructional goals. These activities do not need to last long and can be repeated over several class periods so that every student gets a turn. It is more important that students remain engaged than that the activity gather evidence on every stu- dent in a single class period.
4) Develop a record keeping system. The last step of the process is developing a record keeping system. If tracking student progress requires much time outside of class, the record keeping system is not sustainable and needs to be reconsidered. Many music teachers track student progress
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