In my last post, I began discussing assessment in the music classroom. I explained that conceptualizing the assessment must take place early in the planning process, right after the goal, enduring understanding, and essential question is stated, and before the instructional sequence is written. From our example in that post, the goal was stated in the … Continue reading Constructing a Music Assessment
Month: August 2016
Assessment Is Important in Music
Assessment and data collection can be a irksome thing for music teachers. On the one hand, our subject is typically not included in mandated standardized testing, so there are not mandated assessments and reporting systems in place for us. On the other hand, we often feel as though music can not be assessed, because artistic work is subjective … Continue reading Assessment Is Important in Music
How Is Music A Way of Knowing?
Music is sometimes referred to as a way of knowing. On the surface, this may seem like a strange claim. We are used to thinking of music as being expressive, or entertaining, worshipful, celebratory and certainly as fun, but to think of music as a way of knowing seems at first like almost a let … Continue reading How Is Music A Way of Knowing?
Why Music Is More than What We Hear
What follows are thoughts that came to mind while watching this video: https://www.facebook.com/steveweissmusic/videos/10154201499635861/ As I watch these musicians, I realized that while I could simply listen to what they were doing and enjoy the music, for them, their enjoyment and experience of the music was as much in their movements as it was in the … Continue reading Why Music Is More than What We Hear
Seeing the Forest in Lesson Planning
Many music teachers plan their instruction in units. A unit on playing recorder, a unit on composing, a unit on African drum circles, or what have you. This is a good practice. What makes it good is that it gives teachers a structure for a sequence of lessons. The end goal is stated at the … Continue reading Seeing the Forest in Lesson Planning
Supercharge Your Music Lesson Plans
While lesson planning is essential to delivering quality instruction, I must admit that I often don't enjoy writing lesson plans. The task often becomes more time consuming than I would like as I search for materials that will be just right for a particular class and objective. While there is a certain flow from one … Continue reading Supercharge Your Music Lesson Plans
Music Literacy is More Than Reading Music
I saw this post recently on Facebook. "What do you teach?" "Music." "Oh, okay. So, do you read music?" "You teach English, right?" "Yes." "Can you read English?" My first reaction, as a Music teacher, was probably similar to the author of this post. I was irked, maybe even offended. Of course I read music. It seems so obvious … Continue reading Music Literacy is More Than Reading Music
Issues With Expressive Intent in the Core Arts Standards
One of the pervasive threads that is woven through the national core arts standards under the artistic processes of performing and of responding, is the idea of interpreting based on an expressive intent. The pertinent anchor standard for responding is "interpret intent and meaning in artistic work." For third grade, the performance standard is to … Continue reading Issues With Expressive Intent in the Core Arts Standards
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