Authentic Assessment is Not the Enemy of Authentic Musicianship: A Seamless Merge of the Music and the Metrics
Erika Bridge
In the current data-driven environment, general music teachers can easily become overwhelmed by the process of assessing the myriad of skills going on in their classrooms. Te changes in the political climate of our schools over the recent months and years have increased the pressure to ‘demonstrate our effectiveness’ through data. However, many general music teachers have five or more grade levels and minimal passing/planning time. In addition, many programs have a limited or unclear system of assessment in place (either an arbitrary report card unrelated to musical skill or a lack of formative goals outlined for each grade/concept). Tis doesn’t inform the teacher in their planning or help them advocate for the importance and effectiveness of their program, and teachers oſten find themselves creating arbitrary musical experiences in order to assess vague concepts that are without context. As a result, this assessment data oſten isn’t an accu- rate representation of the students’ true musical skills and, more importantly, is oſten devoid of the true musicality that students’ are capable of creating.
So what is a teacher to do? How do we find a marriage between the necessity of assessment and the desire for authentic musical experi- ences? First, we must make a mindset shiſt: Authentic assessment is not, and cannot be, the enemy of authentic musicianship.
Assessment is a part of our reality. We cannot afford to live in a bubble and pretend it doesn’t exist because it seems inconvenient or difficult to fit into our classroom experience. It needs
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to be done, but not for the reasons we are told. It needs to be done because, without it, we are sailing a ship on an ocean without a compass. We must use the data we collect as just one of many tools in our toolbox to constantly refine and improve our craſt. With 500+ students, who come to music one or two times a week for 30-40 min, can you honestly say you know off the top of your head exactly where they are with their development of singing voice, musi- cal literacy, rhythm competency, understanding of ensemble, and instrument playing skills? For each student?
If we are all honest with ourselves, we can’t say yes to that, but we can say that we have data that answers all of that in an authentic way if we have embedded it into the very core of our programs. However, the data is useless unless it is married seamlessly with true musical experi- ences. It cannot be created in a void; it must be incorporated into every facet of our teaching. If we create a beautiful song or activity with the students, and then we stop and say “Ok, students, now we are going to take this assess- ment test”, we have ruined what we hoped to achieve! Te formative and summative assess- ments must take place within the authentic learning activity. Tis is not just so we have true data that is accurate—it is also because we must create an environment that helps students ex- perience a positive connotation of assessment. Assessment must be the friend of authentic musicianship.
Tis should be easy if we have established our system of assessment and then built our mu-
General Music
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