Please read pp.49-68, the first ½ of the chapter on Assessment in
Robert Duke’s Intelligent Music Teaching:
Please post 1 blog post by midnight on 1/21
and 2 discussion posts on our Student Teaching Blog by midnight
on 1/23 about
an idea you found particularly interesting or helpful.
Wow I learned so much from reading this section. I didn't know that assessment and grading are two different things. Assessment according to Duke is "finding out" while grading is communicating what you've found out. I also definitely agree with Duke when he stated that the teacher needs to demonstrate how the student needs to practice. I think this is so important!
ReplyDeleteDuke is right about the teacher needing to teach the students how to practice. For my first several years of violin playing, I really didn't know how to practice. Practice to me meant play through the piece several times. This is why practicing the assignment with the student is so important. They are learning how to practice.
DeleteI also liked what he said about teachers teaching how to practice. I started out knowing exactly what I needed to practice because I always had to practice what my teacher told me to do, but then when I moved and got a different teacher, my "practice" was playing through the piece and occasionally stopping to tune a note. I was told what to do, but not how to figure out by myself what I was supposed to do.
DeleteThere was so many thoughts in this reading that I found helpful, but one idea that really stood out to me was the idea of student internalization of the material being taught. Duke talks about the need for students to have many opportunities to perform by themselves independently without the guidance of the teacher. Students cannot do the task well if they cannot reproduce it internally. The teacher must lead the student to how to accomplish the task, but there must come a time were the student is able to do the task without the teacher. As I thought about my students, I think that I need to give my students more opportunities to perform the assignment by themselves and internalize the task.
ReplyDeleteI thought this was a really good idea as well because this can apply to so many different professions and not just teaching music.
DeleteWow. Great thoughts Melody! Until they can do it by themselves they haven't learned it. I can really relate to this because there are a lot of times in my college classes that I feel like I am tested over things that I haven't internalized yet. If the student doesn't fully understand what you are trying to teach them then they will never be able to learn it. That sounds really obvious, but I think teachers just don't think about it. That is one of the reasons that feedback and assessment is so important.
DeleteWhen I first started reading this chapter, I wasn’t sure exactly what he was referring to when he mention assessment. I felt like I should know, because that’s what the entire chapter was about, but I had a hard time grasping what he was trying to tell us. The second time through, though, I understood what he meant. I think that he had a valid point when he mentioned that most students who volunteer to answer questions in class are the ones who are most confident. I’ve been in the same struggle as the other students who don’t quite understand the material, but don’t want to ask, or are apathetic to it. After I understood this, I wondered how it applied to music. That’s when I reached the part that discussed group classes, and understood exactly what he was trying to get across to us. I think that this is where group lessons can either benefit children or hinder them. Children can sometimes make it through the group lessons by faking or by letting the others who truly understand the music answer for them and just sitting back and coasting along. This is something I found very interesting.
ReplyDeleteI also thought what he said about practicing practice in a lesson was fascinating. Last semester I realized that for my entire life, I was the one who was told how to practice and what to do, and not coming up with my own way of practicing a certain section. Mr. Rosove has been helping me develop my practicing this way. Duke had a lot of terrific points in this chapter, but these were my favorites.
That is an interesting point about group lessons. It seems like it is up to the teacher to asses each student and make sure that they understand the material and can play it on their own. I haven't seen much playing assessment in group classess though.
DeleteI definitely understand where Duke is coming from when he talks about the group classes. It is definitely a possibility for a student to just coast through and just play with everyone else. As teachers, we need to make sure that every student that we have in a group setting understands what we desire for the group before moving forward.
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ReplyDeleteWow! What a great reading! It is so easy to get caught up in what you are teaching and not think about the fact that not everyone may be catching on to what you are saying. That is the biggest area I think I need to work on. Communicating with my students properly so that I know when they actually understand me should be very important to me. Another good thought is that we shouldn't be feeding our students definitions and facts only, but also teach them the applications of those facts.
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DeleteYou’re right, knowing that you are effectively communicating with your students is a good reason to have assessments. I think it is helpful for the student as well. They can know that they are (or are not) learning what the teacher wants them to understand.
DeleteI agree that communication is very important in the lesson. If there is no communication between the student and the teacher, then proper learning will not take place, especially when the student has to reproduce what the teacher wants in the practice room.
DeleteOne area where I think I struggle is thinking that I know exactly what the student is thinking. I have always tried to figure people out and have, in the past, made some accurate judgments of what my student’s mindset is. I think that gave me some false confidence in that area, but I need to understand that everyone is different and I can't expect to know everything my students are being able to comprehend. I need to implement more feedback strategies so that I can know my students understand what I expect of them.
DeleteI think Duke presented a balanced approach to assessment when he kept the focus on learning and kept grading as a necessary evil.
ReplyDeleteWhat he said about a student not really knowing a subject until they explained it to someone else is very true. It is like trying to memorize a piece of music—you can’t say you have it memorized until you play it without the music.
I like the term “with-it” teacher. It does a good job describing an effective teacher. It is neat to watch teachers who are like this. They know exactly what they are looking for and know how to interpret data into an equitable value judgment. A teacher like that puts a lot of thought into assessments.
Duke brought up an interesting point, but he did not discuss it as fully as I would have liked; he said that some students do poorly on assessments because they are too worried about their grades. This seems like a valid concern, but he did not say what to do with students like this. Just tell them to get over it?
It's so true that you don't know the subject until you have to explain it. I've seen this in my own students. There have been several times where I thought they understood something, but when they have to do it on their own, they couldn't.
ReplyDeleteI appreciated what Duke said about having a goal as a teacher. I think it is very important as a teacher to have an end goal for your student. Having a goal or vision for our students needs to be our starting point. I also appreciated what Duke said about not only focusing on the content of the material during the lesson, but is more focused on the application of skills that will help achieve the end goal. Another aspect that Duke pointed out was that teaching doesn’t just involve telling how to perform a task, but also showing what is desired. This aspect of teaching was definitely important to me since I have had a teacher for most of my life that didn’t show me much, but rather talked. After I found a new teacher, it was like a night and day difference since he would show me what he wanted rather than just telling. One of my favorite parts of my reading was that as teachers we are not only teaching our students how to play an instrument, but we are also teaching them character skills.
ReplyDeleteI highlighted everything that had to do with goals in this chapter. When I started taking violin lessons, I had no goal, but my mom did. I called her before I posted my thoughts, and asked her what her goal was for me. It's really important to emphasize goals; otherwise practice becomes monotonous and pointless.
DeleteThat was a good idea to call your mom and ask her if she had goals. When I started the violin, I saw what I wanted to become, but I think that goal was seen more clear by my mom.
DeleteI thought the sample assessment sheet was helpful because he went on to explain why each point was necessary to make the assessment as close as he could to a real-life application of what was taught. His first point discussed how it’s important for students to know at the outset what is important about what they’re learning and what is expected of them. Too often teachers don’t give this information out to the student and parents right away, so the student is left feeling lost about what they’re working towards. He had another excellent point when he said that criteria must remain the same throughout the entire course. Teachers change how they grade, which confuses students. Finally, teachers need to emphasize what’s important to them. It’s so frustrating for someone to spend an entire week practicing a specific skill, only to find out it’s not exactly what the teacher wanted. This chapter was enlightening and gave me several good tips for teaching.
ReplyDeleteWe as teachers need to know what is important in order to emphasize it to our students. Sometimes teachers can become focused on getting their students through the book instead of developing those skills that will benefit the students long term. We must remember that what we focus on in the lesson is what will get practiced.
DeleteI definitely agree with you that it is very important for the teacher to make sure that the student exactly what to practice. Not only is it important for the teacher to make sure that the student knows what to practice, but it is also very important that the teacher makes sure that the student knows how to practice what they are supposed to practice.
DeleteIs this where the post on pages 68-87 goes? I hope so. In this section, Duke gives some clarification about his views on assessment. The first thing that intrigued me was his observation that only meaningful assessment is with while. A meaningful assessment helps a teacher see that students are learning the desired skills, not just a book knowledge about the material. Duke says that focusing on “skills rather than content” is a good way to stay focused on the goals of assessment and not the tests themselves (79).
ReplyDeleteI also liked that Duke explains how studying for well-designed tests help students achieve learning objectives. His high-frequency, low-magnitude tests make the assessment flow well with the learning, and his reduction of test categories to yes/no learning objectives brings clarity and gives the student helpful feedback.
I liked Duke's differentiating between skills and content. Skills are long term. Once they're learned, they can be used in other settings. Content is short term, really, it is only useful in that one setting. When students have developed skills, they can apply them to other situations that come up.
DeleteI agree! I really enjoyed hearing about the need to test over the "depth" of the material rather than the "breadth." We as teachers need to be careful to only cover as much material as we are sure our students can understand and apply.
DeleteI really enjoyed reading this part of the chapter. Duke’s discussion on assessment correlates with Kreitman’s five priorities. Kreitman’s priorities are applicable and necessary to any player at any level. Duke said that teachers should plan their assessment so that the students develop skills that will apply to their playing – not just the piece their working on. Later on in the chapter, Duke said, “If we expect students to come to value excellence, then we must afford them opportunities to cultivate, nurture, and practice excellence… If we expect students to learn to value deep understanding and intellectual and physical fluency, then we should be certain that all assessments, formal and informal, convey that value.” The instruction that we as teachers give in lessons needs to reflect the focus of developing skills instead of content.
ReplyDeleteGreat thoughts! We can't expect our students to get good at something we don't teach them! If we want them to be excellent we have to show them what that should look like on them and guide them from point A to point B.
DeleteAs teachers we need to have that end goal in mind for our students. In the lessons that we teach, we need to have those goals in our minds and that goal will then show forth through the content that we are teaching.
ReplyDeleteThe thought that struck me the most from the reading was that we can get in a hurry in a lesson we can loose focus on our goals that should be important (good posture, musicianship, etc,...). Instead we hurry to the lesson to be sure to cover everything and the kids miss out on the real reason for the lesson. I need to make sure that when I have to hurry for a lesson I cut out talking or explaining and focus on practicing with the student. That way my end goals are not ignored, and the lesson has been profitable.
ReplyDeleteThis chapter is one of my favorites in the whole book. It is such a good reminder to me as a teacher and I should read it frequently. One important reminder that I had was that assessment occurs before the teaching/planning does. This is absolutely crucial. It's actually pretty amazing when you really think about it, we are assessing throughout the whole lesson!!
ReplyDeleteA part about this chapter that I absolutely love is that no two people have the same interpretation to a lesson or even a piece. I think this concept is so amazing especially when you think about two different people playing the same song.
Another important reminder that I had while reading this chapter was the fact that practicing needs to be taught. It was pretty amazing to find out last year after coming here that throughout my whole violin career, I had no idea how to properly practice!! I absolutely think that it is required to teach our students how to practice EARLY!
I thought that the section on teaching my students to practice was an important reminder. I just had a conversation with one of the parents of my students, and she told me how they practice. She is teaching her girls, at a young age, how to practice well. If this continues, these girls will be great practicers when they are old enough to start practicing by themselves. In teaching students early how to practice, the teacher must teach the parent how to practice, as the student will be learning how to practice from their practice sessions at home.
DeleteI enjoyed reading both of your posts! One thought that has been on my mind while teaching is that I can't expect a student who has performed a task poorly in the lesson to go home and practice it well without knowing what the correct task should look like.
DeleteThis was a really interesting chapter! It was really cool reading it because Mel and I were just having a discussion about how having a small class is sometimes nicer because there are more opportunities to assess each student and what they are understanding. It was also neat having a prime example last week in Shooting stars. Instead of making each student give an answer to the question Mel asked one or two students a question then asked two others if they agreed with their answers. Just like that she was able to assess most of the class understood. Even this, what we are doing now, is a great example of how to assess well! A concept that I want to ponder this week came from page 55. 3 thinks we need to consider in out assessments are “1 do they understand what is being taught, 2 can they perform what we are looking for, and 3 are they “interested enough to care one way or the other.” Assessment is more than listening to my student’s sound and looking at their posture to see if they will do what I ask, it is also making sure they are understanding the concept and how it applies to the bigger picture and it is making sure they are engaged and enjoying the learning. I had never thought about how important those three (especially the last one) really are.
ReplyDeleteThat's an interesting thought that you pointed out that assessing is making sure that they understand the bigger picture and are engaged. Assessment requires that we as teachers remain constantly aware of what the student is doing, not only in relation to the specific task at hand, but also to attitudes and focus.
DeleteI like how you brought up the point of how assessing includes seeing if the student understands how the concept fits into the big picture. It is very important. If the student does not understand, they might not be motivated to practice.
DeleteIf the student does not understand-- the will have NO IDEA of what to practice, even is they are motivated!
DeleteThe thought that keep coming to mind as I was reading this chapter was good assessment requires that students have many "tests" in the class or lesson before the real test comes. As a teacher, I can tell my students all about how to do a particular bow stroke and they can verbally tell me what to do, but until I have them actually do the stroke, I cannot assess their true understanding of the stroke. I am learning in my theory class not just to take a verbal acknowledgement, but to require the students to show their understanding through the activities in class.
ReplyDeleteGreat thoughts Mel. The hard part about that is coming up with creative ways to accurately assess the student. Being a teacher is hard stuff that takes a lot of thought and building of skills!
DeleteI think that giving "tests" in the lesson is important too. It reminds me of being in general psychology. At first when I was studying for the tests, I would study the definitions only. This strategy of studying did not help me in the end. Once I started applying the strategy of knowing how each term fits in the long run and I could "perform it", I had better success. We can apply the same concept in the lesson.
DeleteI really enjoyed reading this section. I definitely agree with the fact that assessment drives instruction. If we as teachers do not assess as we teach, then how do we know that our student has grasped the concept that we are trying to teach them. I like the point that Duke brought out about how our students need to apply the facts of what they learn to their playing. I also found it really interesting about those teachers who “taught to the test.” Growing up I never liked those teachers. I thought it was rather interesting when I thought of teachers who “taught to the test” in the music realm. Does that qualify as “teaching to the platform?”
ReplyDeleteThe section on teaching to the test also interested me. But I was wondering, don't you always teach towards a test of some sort? Maybe it wouldn't be a paper test, but a really life situation, which is like a test.
DeleteGood comments. The concept of "teaching to the test" was also really interesting to me, but I was very interested in the comment that it should be that way. We should be teaching to the test! The problem with that is we have to ,make sure our tests properly assess the knowledge and application of what we are learning.
DeleteMelody- This is Duke's primary point. It is THE TEST that needs to reflect what is important in the discipline!
DeleteDo you think Duke's idea of frequent testing would reduce the pressure to let assessment drive instruction?
DeleteThis reading was really interesting! But I don't think I would have understood it unless I was teaching theory this semester. Seeing the clear organization that heather had for this semester and what she wanted the students to know by the final test really makes the importance of this chapter and what she is doing, clear to me. Another observation - The thought struck me that I am very oriented around the student doing what I want to see in them. In this reading it helped me to shift my focus from seeing them perform what I want to making sure they can understand the concept from their point of view.
ReplyDeleteIf we decide what we want the students to know and be able to do by the end of the class we should use that to help us form tests and lesson plans. I need to make a plan for where I want my students to be at the end of each semester.
If we decide what we want the students to know and be able to do by the end of the class we should use that to help us form tests and lesson plans. I need to make a plan for where I want my students to be at the end of each semester.
I have found that teaching helps me to understand concepts we have discussed in class. We ran into this on Friday when we were lesson planning for Shooting Stars.
DeleteLove this! I particularly found your comments about understanding vs. performance to be particularly insightful!
DeleteI have found that having an end goal at the beginning of the lesson helps me formulate my lesson plan. What Miss Betsy has us do at the beginning of the lesson plan...write out our end goals, has helped me a lot!!! It really keeps me on track.
DeleteI really enjoyed the last part of our reading. I think that our discussion in class last Thursday reflects what Duke meant when he said, "Once the goals for learning have been clearly identified in terms of how students will demonstrate what they know and are able to do, the instructional objectives and the assessment criteria have been composted in a single stroke." Duke stresses that the goals are made by how the students will demonstrate their knowledge. This reminds me of what Miss Betsy said about incorporating the senses into objectives, assessments, and assignments. By incorporating the senses, students will have to act, whether it be by watching, listening, or feeling. If a teacher plans this way, it will help to guard against the teacher talking instead of the student playing.
ReplyDeleteReally good observations Melody! I definitely agree with you in that we need to guard ourselves as teachers in talking too much. So much time goes into planning out what we want to teach every week and most of what we plan needs to be activities. I also believe that it is important as teachers to remember how our students learn: visually, audioally, kinesthetically. It is our responsibility as teachers to discover how our students learn and develop our lesson plans based upon that.
DeleteThat's a good point. We won't be able to assess students until we have identified clear goals.
DeleteReally good comments Mel! SO much thought needs to go into planning each week, but I have found that when you take the time, not only do the students learn it better, but we feel more comfortable teaching it. The more we plan like this the less time it will take in the future.
ReplyDeleteYou have captured the primary purpose of this exercise, Rach!
DeleteI was surprised when Duke said that assessment should be part of every rehearsal and class. It made a lot more sense when Duke defined a test as an opportunity to demonstrate they understand. Assessment should closely resemble what the teacher wants the student to be able to do in real life.
ReplyDeleteDuke makes two good arguments for testing frequently. First, it gives the teacher an opportunity to know that the student is able to perform what is taught. Second, the student stops worrying about the assessment as an assessment and gets over some of the fear of being graded. (I'm glad none of my teachers have read this part). It seems like frequent testing would have to be much more informal. Bunches of formal tests would take a lot of time on the teacher's part.
Duke takes us back to the importance of goals again. In order to write an effective assessment, we need to know what we want the student to look like. This takes a lot of planning.
There were lots of good points from this chapter. What was most interesting to me was the point duke made about the obsession over assessment. I had a class once with a girl who would constantly ask the teacher questions like"is this going to be on the test?" or if that was a test question, how would you put it? I remember thinking to myself, man, she is missing the whole point! If her goal for taking these classes was simply to pass a test, then she was wasting her time and money. If you are unable to replicate in real life the things you have learned, than have you really learned anything?
ReplyDeleteI think the reading this week was so beneficial for me. I like what he said about teachers and their end goals, "the more vividly we can envision an exemplary student who has successfully accomplished the goals we set out, the more intelligently we can organize our instructional time and activities to facilitate the accomplishment of those goals by all of our students." I find this so motivating for me. I want to be that teacher who has a clear goal for my students. I can even see that coming through when I do my lesson plans. Even this past week, I can see what I want Leanna to do, so it has helped me plan for this week. I'm excited to see how my goal will come to fruition!!!
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed this part of the chapter too. The more clearly we know what we want the students to do, the more clearly we can plan for how these end goals will be accomplished. This is a biblical principle as the Bible says, "Without vision, the people perish". An end goal or vision provides us with direction.
DeleteThe question I have is how do we ensure the students are working hard enough at home? Yes we do need to be doing a better job teaching, but they also need to put their effort in. How do we get that effort?
ReplyDeleteIt's nice to read this now when I have the perspective of a student in a teacher. I know how it feels on both ends. I loved this quote - "assessment can and should be a regular part of the process of instruction, even to the extent that it becomes indistinguishable from the process of instruction." It is probably easier to do this as a violin teacher, but it is all the more important. If I don't make sure my student understands and can put my instructions into the larger context then how will they ever be able to learn?
You're right about it being easy to incorporate assessment into our instruction as violin teachers. We as teachers, though, need to find a balance between enough instruction and assessment. I think that Heather or Stephanie brought up this importance in Student Teaching a few weeks ago. One said that their teacher always played with them and really didn't let them play by themselves, so the teacher could never really assess how the student was doing because it was masked by the teacher's playing. Yet, on the other hand, students do need instruction. Whether by demonstrating, explaining, or hands on, instruction is important. We as teachers need to find the correct balance for the student.
DeleteOne thing that struck me in the reading was that assessments require "yes" and "no" answers. We cannot give a "half-credit" or almost for an almost perfect performance of a task as it will lead to complications. At first this sounded harsh to me, but later on, Duke said that assessments of this kind require that "students know at the outset (1) what is important about what they're learning, (2) what is expected of them in terms of their own performance, and (3) how their meeting these expectations will contribute to their grade in the course." All this makes sense to me in the classroom setting, but what does this look like in a private lesson, and how to you go about establishing this long-term mentality? (I know that some of this ties in with Kreitman's priorities, but where do you draw the line with spending too much time on a piece to make it "perfect"?)
ReplyDeleteThat's a tough question! It seems like the long-term nature of private lessons makes outlining and following goals even more important.
DeleteWhich of these three requirements for assessment would not work in a private lesson?
I loved your thoughts and Elijah's reply. There are some deep concepts here. I think it has a lot to do with how you teach the material. If you tell the student "we are learning this piece to work on getting fourth finger in tune" that would satisfy #1, if we tell them "I want you to play this phrase with an 4th finger that exactly matches the open string" that could satisfy the second, and if you tell them "We can move on to the next piece when you get all of your 4's in tune with the open strings" that would satisfy #3. In this case the goal for the student (graduating) becomes passing the piece and getting a positive assessment (good grade) becomes something like getting a sticker on the piece. This is just a current opinion and I need to think this over a lot more. It is hard to transfer these concepts from the book to our teaching, but when we take the time to think of specific cases we learn it a lot better. Thanks for that Mel.
DeleteOne thing that duke mentioned that really got me thinking was his emphasis on having a vision of what the student would look like after a certain amount of time. This made me think though, what if our student was not meeting our expectations. With this kind of end goal would we fall into simply teaching methods and exercises and forget that we are teaching students, children, people? As Christian teachers I believe this focus on souls is crucial to our approach to teaching.
ReplyDeleteThat's a good point. If we lose sight of what is really important, we are wasting time.
DeleteI think it's easy to fall into the trap of forgetting that we are teaching students! I love how you ended your post with a Christian viewpoint. As Christians, we need to keep that focus on souls in sight! Great post!
DeleteI really liked the example test Duke put into the book. He reduced everything down to yes/no. This way it lets the teacher make a more objective assessment. It is also faster to decide yes/no instead of 1-5. If you did yes/no, you would have to give very clearly defined expectations to your students.
ReplyDeleteI also like the focus on skills and not content. Duke points out that skills show content comprehension. This concept makes a lot of sense in string playing. For example, if a student is able to perform a crescendo, he understands the definition of a crescendo. Understanding the distinction between skills and content and focusing on content helps assessment relate to real life.
Good thoughts! I also liked the example test, but it was a little overwhelming. There is so much thought put into something like that. You must know EXACTLY what you want to see. I also think the student should clearly know and understand what you expect to, and what you will be assessing them by.
DeleteYou brought up a good point Elijah. It means an entirely different thing to be able to define a musical term and demonstrating a musical term. I agree with you that focusing on content will greatly help in assessment. It will also make better musicians out of our students! Great post!
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