Philosophy of Teaching & Curriculum

“What am I going to teach?” and “How am I going to teach it?” are two questions that regularly cause many music educators a great deal of stress and anxiety and, along with “Who are we are going to teach?”, are the main components of curriculum development. Generally we don’t have too much control over the who, but the what and how have multitudes of options that are generally subjectively based on the beliefs, values and personalities of each individual teacher.

One problem that arises in designing a curriculum, especially to those who are beginning in an unfamiliar situation, is determining what musical level that students are currently functioning and where teaching should begin. Research has shown that children, regardless of previous instruction, have music in them that is often at a higher and much more complex level than what most experts believe is possible. Other research has shown that students learn best when the new information can be connected to things they already know and are familiar with. Music educators need to figure out what their students’ knowledge base is, how to tap into it, and how to use it in order for the maximum possible learning to occur.

Through keen observations and creative planning, the music teacher can begin to find out what musical abilities the students already possess. One way of doing this is to listen and observe in places where the children are allowed to freely interact with each other – the playground, lunchroom, hallway, school bus, etc. Take detailed notes and possibly even an audio or video recording of the musical behaviors that the children are showing and names of the students doing them. Ask the student(s) if they would be willing to demonstrate their musicking for the class so it can be incorporated into a lesson or a unit.

Another method of finding out what the students already know is to have a music “Show and Tell” day. Many teachers often do this at the end of the year for students to show their competencies and what they have learned, but if done at the beginning of the year, it can be used to enhance teaching and make the information more meaningful by building on what they know and are able to do. On this day, students should be encouraged to participate by singing a song for the class, performing on the piano or other musical instrument, sharing a song they have composed, bringing their favorite CD to listen to, or anything else related to music. This day has a multitude of implications for teaching – songs that students have made up can be used in a unit of teaching notation elements; the recordings that they bring in can be used in listening or evaluating activities; the students who demonstrate some proficiency on an instrument can be used to accompany class songs; and many others depending on what they are willing to demonstrate.

It is also important to offer plenty of opportunities for students to ask questions, make comments and illustrate their knowledge in nonverbal ways. Often students have a good understanding of what is going on, but are unable to communicate it because they do not know how label it or put it into words. When a student does respond, the teacher should be patient and caring in order to show that their opinion is valued and that others should not be inhibited from responding as well. If it is unclear what they are trying to say, ask questions to clarify it. The better they are able to express their thoughts and opinions, the better their understanding.

In 1994, The National Standards for Arts Education were introduced with the notion of giving the arts more of a firm foundation in the public schools by providing content and achievement standards for each grade level. The ultimate goal for these standards is to provide the foundation for a balanced, comprehensive and sequential curriculum in order to achieve a level that is somewhat consistent across all states, districts, and individual schools

Although the National Standards have been put in place and help to narrow down the what of teaching, it is virtually impossible to fully meet each of the achievement standards in each grade level due to the amount of time we have with the children. Most public school music teachers see each class for 30-45 minutes one time each week. This means that we see each class about 18 times a semester (minus days for holidays, testing, school closings, field trips, etc.). Because of this infrequency, many teachers execute a year long series of individual, non-related lesson plans with no clear goal or concept developed for their program. One week, they will work on matching pitch, the next a song, then rhythm, dynamics, composing, etc. with no relation to one another. By the end of the year, the students have not actually learned enough of anything that will be of much use to them.

Each music educator needs to form clear short-term and long-term goals for their program. “What do I want my students to say when they are asked what they learned in music?” and “What do I want my students to be able to do musically when they leave my program?” are two questions need to be critically thought through. Once these are determined, each unit and lesson should revolve around those goals. This is not to say that the standards should not be taught, but rather they should be taught through the overall goals of the music program.

After reflecting on these questions for myself, I determined that singing, repertoire acquisition, and listening are what I value as the most important aspects of music and therefore will be the overall focus of my program.

Nearly everybody has their own unique voice (no special equipment required!) that can be used anytime and anywhere. Unfortunately, as displayed often at social gatherings, many people have never learned to use it properly and singing is considered as a torturous task that conjures feelings of embarrassment and shame. Although fact remains that some children will never learn to use their singing voices properly despite the hardest efforts, most can, and should learn how to use their gift comfortably and confidently. Disciplines outside the arts have nothing comparable that is so unique and personal to each individual.

While students are improving their ability to sing, they need to be provided with appropriate and quality repertoire to give them something to sing. The basil series provide a starting point for finding a wide variety of songs including traditional, popular and multicultural, but a teacher should not limit themselves to the songs in the book. One excellent and highly recommended resource is the MENC’s “Get America Singing…Again” books which were compiled with the goal of having a common repertoire of songs that all Americans know and can sing. The singer editions, which contain the melody line, lyrics and chord symbols, are reasonably cheap and an ideal purchase for a general music classroom. Regardless of where the songs are chosen from, range and key need to be taken into consideration for each grade level.

Listening is the third priority and goal for my music program. Children need to be exposed and listen to as many different types of music as possible in order to develop, if nothing else, an appreciation and knowledge of them. Many people have decided on their favorite style of music or composer/artist and preformed stereotypes against others without ever having a true sampling of what they are or sound like. As a child, I asserted that I did not like musicals, but after watching one, it turned out that I actually did enjoy them. The same was true of opera until my freshman music appreciation class. The same was also true of some of the lesser known composers. It is in human nature to like what we know and are familiar with. If we are given the chance to know more different types of music, chances are that we will like more different types as well.

The short-term goals in curriculum development are generally the objectives of each unit and lesson. These need to be made extremely clear and specific in indicating what will be learned, how it will be demonstrated, and who will demonstrate it (specifically every student, certain students, groups or the class as a whole). Without a clear objective, there is no way of assessing the lesson to determine whether or not it was successful or musical understanding actually occurred. The musical understanding of the objective should be demonstrated by the students within a real musical context through one of the three ways of experiencing music: performing, listening or creating. If not, authentic musical understanding may not have occurred.

Once the goals and objectives for the lesson or unit is decided, it must next be determined how the information will be presented to the class. There are many different types of learning styles and the more ways something is presented, the better the chance is that it is going to be learned and retained.

Many teachers have always taught their classes in the traditional, teacher-centered learning environment. Some students learn effectively in this way, but many do not, especially in the music classroom where there are generally all levels of students, from beginning to advanced, in the same group. While the teacher teaches at a somewhat intermediate level, the beginning students will often become frustrated while the advanced students will often become bored, possibly contributing to discipline problems. For a more complete understanding of the objective, the teacher should provide opportunities for the children to work in a variety of instruction settings, including: together as a class, in groups, in pairs and as individuals.

Another method of helping the students to reach a higher level of understanding is to provide learning centers for them to work. Learning centers are simply stations set up across the music room with different activities drawing on the main objective of the lesson. In this model of teaching, the teacher allows the students to work on their own, monitors to make sure they remain on-task, and provides assistance and scaffolding only when needed. Centers, such as the writing center, listening center, performing center, computer center and playing center, provide multiple opportunities for students (individually or in groups) to interact with and better understand the concept. However, it is important to keep in mind that each center should be structured in order to help the student reach the objective. Often teachers who use centers end up with functionless stations that are just there to take up time.

Regardless of which teaching style is used, somewhat of a consistent schedule and class procedure should be followed. Establish a set way for students to enter the room, start and end the lesson, and exit the room. In my teaching, I generally greet each of the students at the door with a handshake allowing them to enter the room and choose their own carpet square, then we begin the lesson with vocal exploration and solfege, follow that with the main bulk and concept of the lesson, do a few minutes of listening and then line up at the door in an orderly fashion. The students always have an idea of what to expect from week to week.

One of the first and foremost things that a teacher must learn to do before any learning can occur is to gain control of classroom management. This is especially true for general music educators because, as mentioned earlier, of the extremely limited time that we have with the children. A plan for classroom management needs to be established and put into action on the very first day of class before any problems have the chance to occur.

In developing a classroom management plan, the first thing that a teacher needs to do is decide is how much they are willing to put up with. The tolerance level will be different for each teacher and situation – some prefer absolute silence during the music lesson while others allow for more noise. Once this has been determined, classroom rules need to be formed accordingly.

Rules should be few, short, simple, clearly stated, to the point, and stated in a positive manner. The “do’s” should be highlighted in the rules and the “do not’s” should be avoided. The overall goals of the rules should to be to help form self-discipline and ensure a maximum learning environment for all students to learn. Rules should be clearly and visibly posted in the music room to serve as a constant reminder

Once the classroom rules have been determined, a plan of action for enforcing them needs to be devised. The first and foremost thing to consider is MAKE NO EXCEPTIONS. If a rule is not followed, a consequence (ideally related to the rule that is broken) must occur. They should be carried out in a quick manner not to disrupt the entire class. Consequences related to academics, such as deducting points, should not be used because the two have no relationship.

One method that I have found to be effective is a self-regulated time-out. In this type of time-out, the student is to sit away from the class and look at a sign that states the rule in the form of a question (“Were you___? Are you ___?”) while thinking about their actions. When they feel they are ready to rejoin the class and follow the rules accordingly, they may do so at their discretion, but they may not sit in the same place when they rejoin the group.

Once the classroom management plan has been somewhat finalized, it should be discussed thoroughly with the principal and other school authorities to assure it we be supported and backed up in the event of a problem. Parents, guardians, and students should also be informed of the plan in writing at the beginning of each year. An ideal way of doing this is by sending home two copies of the plan – one to keep and one to sign, date, and return. All letters should be kept on file in the event of a disagreement or conflict of being biased or unfair arises.

The first day of class should begin with discussing the classroom management plan with the students. This lets them know immediately what is expected of them and how they need to conduct themselves accordingly and helps to eliminate many of the “I didn’t know” excuses.

All inappropriate behaviors that seem to be recurring or serious need to be documented promptly and as specifically and accurately as possible. To increase the legitimacy of this, some teachers discuss their report with the offending student and have them sign and date. Others have the offending student write a summary of what happened and follow it up with their own explanations and comments. The more specific the event(s) are documented, the greater of assistance it will be when speaking to classroom teachers, administration, or parents.

The best way to begin controlling classroom management is through preventative measures with careful teacher planning. As a teacher makes out the lessons, each step of class needs to be carefully thought through in order to prevent any confusion for the students. Before the lesson even begins, the following need to be considered:

· How are the students going to enter the room? (all together, one by one, greeted by teacher)

· Where are the students going to sit? (chairs, floor, carpet squares, jump ropes)

· How are they going to choose where to sit? (they choose, assigned seats, gender)

· What should the cue be to begin class? (verbal greeting, rhythm clapping, solfege singing)

Thinking through these things in as much detail as possible can save a tremendous amount of time and confusion. The first day of the semester when I began teaching, a first grade class came to music and I met them at the door as usual to give them instructions for entering the room. I asked the students to sit in four straight rows after they shook my hand and entered the room. After the whole class had entered, I turned around and it was chaos! Some of the students were wandering around trying to figure out what to do, some were sitting in a very haphazard formation, and others were just standing there in confusion. I repeated the instructions to sit in four straight rows and they wandered around a little more. After about another 6 minutes of this, I finally got them in the correct order for the lesson I had planned and nearly 10 minutes of their 30 minute class was wasted.

Before the next class came in, I got several jump ropes from the gym. I laid them down forming the four straight rows as I had wanted and put a large number at the front of each row. I once again met the class at the door and this time told them I will shake their hand and give them a number and they will sit in the row behind the number I gave them. After the entire class had entered, I turned around and there were four perfectly straight rows of children and we immediately began the lesson.

Once the objectives are determined, lesson constructed and classroom management plan set into action, the music educator must now figure out an accurate and meaningful way of assessing their students’ progress.

Assessment, something that has been absent in many music classroom and traditionally been thought of as overly complicated, is an integral, on-going process that helps to determine the student’s progress towards the short-term and long-term goals and assists in deciding what needs to be taught next. Having a solid assessment plan can add great validity and accountability to your music program and provides invaluable information to the teacher, students, parents, and administrators.

Ideally, formal and informal assessment procedures should be used the music classroom. Informal assessment can be as simple as asking if the students understand or have any questions. This should be done continually throughout the teaching progress to make sure the students are following along. Formal assessment is generally more detailed and planned out and can be things such as tests, activity sheets, performance checkups, portfolio, embedded assessment, etc.

Embedded assessment, assessing while teaching, is one of the best techniques to use in a music classroom and should be taken advantage of in order to maximize the amount of teaching time. Before implementing this, a rubric, where each level of success is represented by a simple symbol, needs to be created. While the teacher works with the class and individuals, the rubric level symbol can easily be marked on a class roll or seating chart after assessing each individual. This method of is quick, easy, convenient, and quite reliable.

In order for students to be most successful, they should be made clearly aware of the assessment process, especially the criteria of which they are being assessed and the different levels of achievement included in the rubric. This removes much ambiguity and subjectivness from the music grading, which has traditionally been a mystery to most students.

Written tests, although at times necessary, should be avoided when other, more musically authentic, means of assessing a student’s progress are possible. Written tests are merely a snapshot time and are subject to many factors such as nervousness, anxiety, moods, feelings, etc. When it is necessary for a written test to be administered, all efforts should be taken to relieve as many of these factors as possible. Far too often, teachers create unnecessary tension during tests simply by the way they are administered.

One way to reduce the pressure of a test is to present the material in the exact same way that it was presented in class. Students should not be evaluated on how well they are able to adapt to the test. Another way is to make sure the testing environment is the same as the teaching environment. If your students were taught in groups, then test them in groups. If they were taught on the choral risers, test them on the choral risers. Another thing to consider is not to put an overbearing emphasis on it. Instead of “test” or “pop quiz”, call it a “fun sheet”, “activity sheet”, or other less stressful word than TEST. Also, provide multiple assessment opportunities throughout the grading period to avoid too much weight on any one assignment.

Effort and attitude are two important factors in the assessment process. If a student is trying hard in class and still doesn’t meet the objective, they should be given partial credit for their attempts. All students learn in different ways and it is possible that the way the material is presented isn’t an effective way for that particular student to learn.

Improvement and progress are other important factors that should be considered in assessment because of the greatly diverse backgrounds that each student brings to music. Expectations can’t be the same for all students, therefore, as discussed earlier, some kind of assessment should be taken at the beginning of the school year to see how much the students already know and where they need to progress to.

An ideal way of keeping track of a student’s progress is through a portfolio assessment. A variety of samples of tangible materials, including works in progress, completed works, examples of best and typical works, examples of what they find difficult, audio and video recordings, tests and quizzes, and progress reports, should be included. At each grading period or semester, these can be sent home to the parents (through the student or mail) to be signed and returned. This can serve many purposes such as showing the parents exactly what has been going on in music, giving a further explanation of what the single report card symbol grade means (A/B/C/D/F; U/S; etc.), as well as clearly showing the students progress from the beginning of the semester.

The formation of a curriculum and philosophy is an on-going process that is continually revised updated with each new encounter and experience. Keeping up-to-date with the latest trends through conferences, books, journal articles, research publications, etc. and implementing them in the classroom is essential to ensuring that the students are getting the best and most effective musical education possible. To never attempt to introduce new methods into the classroom is to do a great disservice to the students.

Throughout the last several years, I have greatly broadened my knowledge of music education through the classes that I have taken at the University of Alabama and the field experience that I have had in these classes. Through this field experience, I have had the chance to see a little of what actually goes on in the classroom setting. One of the things that I have realized is that the actual situations that are faced in the classroom do not necessarily conform to the cookie cutter ideals that are presented in most of the books and journals that I have read. Experience is the only key to becoming successful at anything – especially in the teaching profession.

Who and what we teach is perhaps one of the most challenging aspects for beginning teachers. Questions like “What should be our overall course objectives be?”, “Should the choir be auditioned?”, and “How do we deal with special needs children?” are questions that need to be answered and require a lot of detailed reasoning.

In my opinion, I think that elementary choirs should include everyone who wants to participate. All students can, to some degree, learn to match pitch and participate at least to a minimal level. Most children at this age don’t have the emotional maturity to handle rejection and not being accepted because they can’t sing can have devastating effects. Music should be fun and the chorus should serve as a tool for musical growth, development and enjoyment. This should lead to students better developing their singing ability.

In order to better prepare students for college, I believe that there is a need for several different levels of choruses in the high school setting. A beginning choir can be for those students that haven’t had a lot of singing experience in the past and for students who want to learn. An intermediate choir can be for those students that are familiar with part reading and music in general, but may not necessarily be up to par at it. Finally an advanced choir can be for those students who have had experience and training in music or who may be interested in studying music in a higher educational setting.

I also believe that all students need to take some kind of introductory course in music, such as a Music Appreciation type class. Many people scoff at Music as a career and think that all musicians do is play all day. They need to be introduced to be introduced to music theory, history, basic keyboard and singing skills, analytical listening among other concepts so, if nothing else, they can gain a little bit of respect for how hard musicians really work.

I would also like to offer a more advanced music class for college prep students. Depending on how the school schedule is set up, maybe a combination history and theory class could be offered, which would move quicker and go into more details than Music Appreciation. Or maybe have several levels of an Appreciation type class, each getting progressively more difficult.

To determine what the interests of the students are, a survey could be conducted to find out where the interests of the students lie. This could be done yearly and an attempt could be made to incorporate some of these suggestions into our curriculum. A habit is to teach what we know and how we have been taught. New ideas could help us to broaden our minds and enlarge our program.

Overall course objectives for a music class are difficult to decide. There are so many musical things that the children need to learn and be exposed to before leaving high school. MENC and the National Committee who developed the National Standards for Arts Education have made this process a little easier by developing some general guidelines of objectives that need to be learned in each level. The Music Content and Achievement standards are currently published as The School Music Program: A New Vision[1] and this booklet can be an excellent source from which to base a curriculum.

When I become a teacher, I plan to incorporate some type of unit in which world, multiethnic, and multicultural music can be used because I feel that it is important for children to learn and know about cultures other than their own and the music within them. Although I realized that all three of these have different approaches to music, I hope to be able to combine these and use some aspects of all of them. For instance, I think that the teaching and comparing of concepts is important, but I also feel the songs should be presented as close as possible to their original context.

I also hope to be able to work hand in hand with general education teachers towards a common goal because enhancing the instructional classroom with music can be an excellent aid in learning concepts. I can build some of my music lessons around things that the teachers are doing in the classroom, thus allowing me to work through, across or between music.

As I stated before, all children should have an opportunity to participate in the music classroom, including special needs children. It is far too easy to label these students and assume that they can’t do anything rather than to make accommodations for including them. The music teacher needs to work closely with the student’s teacher and special education teacher to find ways for them to participate to their fullest ability in a music class.

I hope that the school where I teach at has a reasonable budget so I can build a library of resources in which all of the teachers in my school can check out and use in their classrooms. I think it would be a neat idea to put on a yearly workshop for all of the teachers in my school to demonstrate the resources that are available and to give them ideas for incorporating them in their classrooms.

With all of the useful music software that is available, I think it would be wonderful to build a computer lab (or use an existing one in the school) and software collection that the students can use to help them reinforce the concepts that are being learned in music. Most programs allow students to work at their own pace and some even keep records of the student’s progress (such as Music Ace), which would be convenient for me. This would be a good experience for the children—not only to reinforce the music skills, but their computer skills as well.

When I become a teacher, I am not planning to fully implement any one of the primary methodologies (Kodaly, Orff, Dalcroze). I think that they all have their strong points, as well as their downfalls, and believe that using a variety of activities from all of these methodologies is the best solution to having a well-rounded music classroom.

One of the things that I worry about in becoming a new teacher is the children’s current knowledge when I begin teaching. In kindergarten or first grade, this won’t be that big of a problem since that is where the foundations are laid anyway, but I am worried about the older fourth through sixth graders. How do I choose activities that are not impossible for the children without experience and yet are not too simple for the more advanced? The books say that the children should be able to perform concept x at a certain time and concept y at another, but what if I get a job at a school where most of the children have not had any musical training yet? All of these timelines according to grades and ages are out the window forcing me to start from scratch.

Through my experience thus far, I realized that the utmost key factor in teaching is being prepared well in advance and over preparing. There is no greater fear than that of a teacher who is in front of a class and runs out of things to do. Improvisation is a great skill to have, but for greatest success in reaching objectives, a well prepared lesson plan is necessary.

If a teacher is performing an activity where all of the students are responding by raising the correct card or doing a physical movement, it may be best (if possible) to have the students close their eyes in order to get a more accurate sampling of their answers. From my experience, if the students see each other’s answers, they all seem to copy each others responses regardless of weather they were correct or not. Written quizzes or closing their eyes will help to get more individualized responses.

One way to get the students excited about learning is by allowing them to work in teams. An excellent way to divide the class is by playing four to five pieces and having each student choose which piece was their favorite. Dividing the class up like the can have endless possibilities such as being seated, lining up, answering questions, getting instruments, or performing certain tasks. This can help the student to learn about teamwork and can create a somewhat game-like atmosphere to better learning enjoyment.

I think that hands on experience and active participation are the best ways for students to learn. One way of doing this is by having students take part in the teaching. In a choir situation, select students can be given the responsibility of working different sections of the choir. This can help them greatly in things such as learning the music better and listening to others better.

Another teaching technique is to select a small panel of students to sit and observe the choir while running a piece. They can then make judgments of what did and did not sound so great and give suggestions of how to fix the problem areas. A teacher may be surprised at some of the comments and troubleshooting. This can get the students really thinking more analytically about music. Similar to this idea, students can be given a video or audio tape of the/a choir’s performance and asked to give a written evaluation.

Using student conductors is also an excellent idea. This can give them a chance to take the spotlight and get some experience. This may change the way that view choir and maybe even influence them to consider Music Education as a future career choice.

One of the most difficult things, yet one of the most important things, for a new teacher to control in the classroom is the discipline.

Adjusting the way questions are asked just a little bit can prevent lots of problems and make the teacher’s job much easier in the long run. For instance, instead of asking a question like, “What is the Italian word for loud?”, a teacher could ask, “Who can raise their hand and tell me the Italian term for loud?” This little adjustment can make a world of difference in the way that the class responds. Instead of some shouting out answers and others raising hands, everyone should raise their hands resulting in less confusion.

A quick method of getting the class to perform a specific behavior desired is by singling out and complementing a student who is already doing the action correctly. For instance, when asking the children to sit up tall in their chairs, pick out a student who is doing it correctly and said, “Wow, look how this girl is sitting so nice and tall with her back against the chair in a good singing position.” In attempt to get the same praise, the other children should all quickly to the action correctly.

Through my observations, I learned that any insignificant word or sentence that comes out of the teacher’s, or another student’s mouth can trigger an outbreak of discipline problems in the classroom. The severity of the outbreak determines the amount and type of attention that should be given to it. One excellent example of this is when a colleague of my was teaching a lesson, he introduced himself as “Mr. Taylor” which caused one child to say, “My mama’s name is Taylor.” He gave reinforcement to this by saying, “That’s nice.” This unintentional attention caused several other children to bust out in comments such as, “My auntie’s name is Taylor” and “My dog’s name is Taylor.” After the second set of comments, he ignored it and continued teaching, which caused the comments to stop.

Even though this teacher had no intention of giving reinforcement to the first child’s comment by saying “that’s nice,” the children took it quite literally which caused them to give their additional comments in an attempt to get praised as well.

This brings me to another issue that needs to be approached with caution – sarcasm. There is no situation, especially in elementary school, in which sarcasm is needed. Young children do not understand the purpose of it and usually take it in its most literal sense. One example of this was when another colleague of mine was teaching a lesson to a kindergarten class. While he was teaching, he noticed a child on the second row kissing his arm. This action, which most likely would have disappeared if it was ignored, was given the very specific sarcasm of, “That’s nice, kiss yourself.” This caused an outbreak of similar actions that spread quickly throughout the class. No further comments were given to either reinforce or stop this behavior, which continued to occur for several more minutes.

Ignoring behaviors is sometimes a good way of stopping some unwanted actions, but it is difficult to do and should be used with caution. The first rule of thumb to remember is never ignore behaviors which can cause physical harm or lead to dangerous situations. A second rule is to take into consideration what kind of student is causing the problem. If it is a student who thrives on attention, then it is best to ignore it and not give them the attention they want. If it is a student who fears being in the spotlight, then it may be wiser to ask them to demonstrate to the class the action they were doing wrong. The child should be a little embarrassed and certainly not attempt the behavior again.

A variation of this is to go up to the child who is doing an undesirable action and whisper how disappointed you are to them and ask them to stop. The students who saw the misbehavior should know exactly what is going on and not make an attempt to repeat it for fear that the teacher will disapprove of them as well. The children who didn’t see the behavior wouldn’t have gotten the idea to start it.

One very effective discipline method that I observed, as well as used in my teaching, was simply putting the hand out (or finger up) signaling for them to be quiet or stop doing what they are doing. If the behavior still continues to persist, then stopping the activity completely and then restating the rules may be necessary. During one of the lessons that I was teaching and we were in the process of learning a song by rote, some of the children sang with me instead of echoing me. When they did this, I patted my chest with one hand (signaling that it was my turn) and held up my finger towards them (signaling for them to be quiet and wait their turn). Most of them dropped out by the time I was done, but others continued to do it the next time. It was at this point that I stopped the song and refreshed the directions to them. The rest of the song went fine and the problem was solved.

Another effective method to stop off-task behavior is by using a control device, such as clapping rhythms or singing solfege patterns. If the class is talking and being disruptive, a teacher who has used this method with the class before can quickly and painlessly get the class’ attention by performing the control device and having them echo back. After the entire class’ attention is received and the class is listening, the teacher can remind the students of how valuable their time is in music and that they don’t want to waste it.

Above all, don’t discredit yourself by saying meaningless threats; always carry through with what you say you will and don’t make exceptions. If you say “The next person who talks is going to the principal’s office”, then send the next child regardless of who he/she are and he/she said. This will show the students that you mean what you say.

Music has probably a greater variety of feedback, assessment and evaluation methods to see exactly how the students are doing than most other areas of teaching. Conventional methods, such as answering questions or completing quizzes can be used, as well as evaluating aspects of their performance in singing, playing instruments, or movements.

I think one of the best methods of assessing student’s progress is with a portfolio assessment. This should be a collection of work compiled by each student that contains examples of the student’s typical and best work. It should also include things that the student finds difficult, has mastered, and something that is in progress. Every couple of weeks, the portfolio should be sent home to the parents so they can see how their children are doing in music class. The difficult thing to decide about the portfolio is what to include in it and how to assess it. At the end of the semester, should a grade be given on how far the child has progressed, the level of the material the child has mastered, or the grades near the end of the portfolio? Objectives of the portfolio need to be clearly laid out in the beginning so that everything included in it has a purpose and does not become busywork.

Embedded assessment can also be an incredibly valuable tool for use in the music classroom. This is a process of assessing behaviors during teaching and constantly altering the lesson in progress depending of the assessment results being seen. I don’t think that this should be used instead of regular assessment, but rather in conjunction with it. Stopping the lesson to take an assessment takes entirely too much time, especially in music class when time is already very limited; so any form of assessment while teaching is a great asset to strive for.

I don’t believe that tests or quizzes should have great emphasis in any educational setting. Putting too much weight on any one assessment can cause high levels of stress and anxiety on the students and possibly cause them to not perform to their greatest ability. Assessments are only snapshots of time and don’t necessarily reflect true knowledge or ability. A student could have done well because they guessed to get the correct answer, or could have done poorly because they were not feeling well.

The only way that a teacher really knows if the children are keeping up and understanding the lesson is through observable (overt) behaviors. If a teacher asks “Does everyone understand?” and everyone nods their heads for yes, does the teacher really know that they understand? No. Understanding is a non-observable behavior (covert) and must be checked through an overt behavior. When writing objectives for a lesson plan or curriculum, both covert and overt behaviors need to be clearly written out so that at the end of the lesson the teacher can truly see whether the objectives have been met.

The arts, including music, are probably the most difficult areas of education to evaluate with concrete criteria for grading (objectivity). Because it is not something tangible, like many other subject areas, the evaluator’s opinion plays a very large roll in assessment (subjectivity). However, there needs to be some kind of balance between these two grading procedures. Too much subjectivity can lead the teacher to have problems with accountability when grades are distributed, but too much objectivity can make the class too rigid and mechanical. Every grade needs to be backed up with reasons of why it was given. In the short term, this may seem like a lot of trouble, but in the long run, it can avoid many problems that may arise.

“Why?” is an important question for any educator. In some cases it can be a deciding factor of whether a question is right or wrong. For instance, if a story was read and children were asked to choose an instrument to go with a certain part of the story and the teacher didn’t think the instrument they choose was appropriate, the teacher could ask the child why they choose that instrument. One may be surprised at the creativity of the child (or lack there of!) according to their response.

There are many ways of evaluating students, especially in the music classroom. However, this is something that must be thought through and carefully organized so that you are, in fact, evaluating and are evaluating what you desire.

A teacher must start with creating their philosophy of what they believe in and how they want their class to be conducted. Questions, such as, “What do I believe is important for students to learn?”, “How to I want to teach my classes”, “How do I want to assign grades to my students?” are a few question that must be answered.

It is my belief that embedded assessment, though sometimes difficult to get off the ground, is one of the best forms of assessment and should be taken advantage of in every situation possible in order to maximize the amount of actual teaching time. One good idea is to use a seating chart form of embedded assessment. A chart can be created and then laminated or put into a sheet protector. After this is done a rubric can be developed and a single symbol can be written for each student with a dry-erase pen. Results can be recorded at the end of the day and that chart can be easily erased and ready for the next time. This method of assessment is quick, easy, fairly reliable and convenient.

Tests, although at times necessary, are not the only way to test a person’s knowledge or ability due to many factors such as nervousness, anxiety, mood, feeling, other internal and external factors. When it is necessary for a test to be administered, all efforts should be taken to relieve as many of these factors as possible.

One method that may help this is to present the material on the test the same way that it was presented in class. Tests should not measure how well the student is able to adapt the information to your test. Before teaching, determine what the overall goal of the lesson is and figure out how you will later want the student to prove their knowledge of that information. For instance, when teaching quarters notes, ask yourself if you want the students to perform, read, identify, write or define them. When you determine what the end result should be, then structure your lesson and test around that.

Another way to help relieve anxiety is to make sure that the testing situation is the same as the teaching situation. If you have the students consistently work in groups, then test them in groups. If you teach them on the choral risers, test them on the choral risers. Far too often, teachers create unnecessary tension during tests simply by the way they are administered.

Unless necessary, don’t call it a test or put an overbearing emphasis on it. Instead of test or pop quiz, call it a “fun sheet”, “activity sheet”, “survey”, “questionnaire” or come up with other less stressful words than TEST. Also have several assessment opportunities to avoid too much emphasis on any one of them. Greater anxiety will have an affect on overall performance if, for example you say, “OK class, this test you are about to take is worth 75% of your grade, so you better do good.”

Three major things included in my teaching philosophy are efforts, improvement and attitude. These factors should have as much weight as the objectives themselves in grading.

Effort should be an important factor in assessment. If you see that a student is trying hard in your class and still doesn’t exactly meet the standards you set, they should be given some credit for trying. All students learn in different ways, maybe the way you are teaching isn’t an effective way for a particular student to learn.

There are many people out there in the world with bad attitudes. This should be discouraged in a classroom setting by putting some emphasis on it in your grading system. A student could be the best sight-singer in the world, but how much is that worth with a poor attitude. Maybe at first it may seem like the student is acting a good attitude to get the grade, but the quote “act your way into a new way of thinking” is something that I have found to be very true.

Improvement is yet another important factor that should be considered in assessment. Because of the greatly diverse backgrounds that each student has and receives in music, you can’t have the same expectations for all students. Is it fair to grade Sally, the daughter of a wealthy banker who goes to a private school with a well-established arts program and has been taking piano and voice lessons since kindergarten, and Joseph, the son of a minimum wage laborer who has just transferred to your school from a poor school system without any arts, in the same way? No, because it is clearly an unfair advantage. Therefore, some kind of assessment should be taken at the beginning of the school year to see how much the students already know and the end result of the semester should, to some extent, be compared to that assessment.

A way of keeping track of the student’s progress is through a student portfolio. Samples of materials, including examples of each student’s best and typical works, examples of what the student finds difficult, what is in progress and what they have mastered, tests and quizzes, as well as progress reports, should be included. At each grading period these can be sent home to the parents (through the student or mail) to be signed and returned. This can serve many purposes such as showing the parents exactly what has been going on in music, giving a further explanation of what the single symbol grade means (A/B/C/D/F; U/S; etc.), as well as clearly showing the students progress from the first examples included to the last ones.

Evaluation is very important is the classroom and must be well though out and organized. It should be based on your system of beliefs and not what someone else tells you. Evaluation should be as objective (as opposed to subjective) as possible and not be taken lightly.

With every field experience setting that I participate in or observe, I learn more and more about how to work with and assess students. Reading can provide some good ideas, but in order to fully understand of what to actually do, or not do, in a real live classroom requires seeing it in action. The rules and philosophy, which is presented to us, cannot be fully understood until it has been attempted.

[1] MENC Taskforce for National Standards in the Arts. The School Music Program: A New Vision. Reston, VA: MENC, 1994.