Mac Randall Beyond The Grade Analysis

“Beyond the Grade,” an article by Mac Randall, in the music education journal, Teaching Music, focuses on assessment in the music classroom. Music educators are constantly and immediately formatively assessing students, but overall summative assessment in the music classroom is not always simple to define. Music teachers have been conflicted on whether to assess students solely on effort, participation, written work, and attendance, or to grade based on musical skills, quality of music performance, and ensemble work. Participation, effort, and attendance at events is easier and more objective to assess for grading students, but the discussion of musical skills or improvement are essential for the development of performance skills. The

I realized the author was referencing my style of assessment when he described the traditional music teacher’s grading system. Since I teach grades 2-12 and much of my day is spent teaching very large class sizes, I tend to rely solely on visual and auditory formative assessments and base my summative assessments on overall effort, participation, and attendance at required performances. I am constantly making “mental notes” of how engaged and self-motivated individual students appear to be while we are preparing for upcoming events. This has left me with scoring and grading in a subjective manner. I do administer written tests relating to music theory, instrument families, music history, and composers, but much of my students’ final grades result in their daily participation and effort based on individual patterns and trends throughout the class period. I also often video or audio record my students’ performances or rehearsals, which we critique and discuss as a group, but I am not usually formally assessing the students during these situations. I now recognize the importance of creating rubrics to aid in scoring and recording assessments so students will be able to visually understand why they are earning the scores they receive. With a simple rubric, the students can assess their own performance, based on

In larger class sizes, it may be beneficial for the class to be video recorded, and watched and assessed by the teacher after the period. Another option would be to have the soprano, alto, tenor, and bass section leaders assess their sections and report to the teacher. These options would make sure the teacher could stay fully engaged and invested in the lesson that involves many students at one