Adventures in Middle School Music
Music Assessment Tools
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Over the years, I have noticed that most of my students struggle with string technique. The violin, viola, cello and bass are difficult instruments to master. Just holding the instrument correctly is a struggle for most students who are beginners and do not have a private teacher. Below are three technological tools that can help teachers with giving feedback through formative assessment.
Lino: Last year, I did this lesson on google docs but this year I experimented with Lino with great success. I had students create a checklist for incoming 6th grade students for all the things that they needed to remember in order to be successful in orchestra. This year, I used Lino.
Skitch is a great tool for students to get visual feedback. I can take a picture, circle, point, highlight and make comments on it. That way, I can actually point out what looks good and what needs work.
Finally, for little more formal assessment, I give them a rubric that I have created on ForAll Rubrics. While I have not only can students and parents log on to see their grades/feedback, it records and tracks the assessment over the course of the year. It then analyzes the data and makes easy to read graphs for end of the year evaluations or your own personal use. You can make your own rubric, upload a rubric or search for a rubric from their extensive library.
The site also creates graphs and charts to make it easy to analyze the data.
