Formal Assessment

Overview

In order to measure students' progress throughout the week, I created a performance-based formal assessment. It was important to me that this be a performance assessment in order to be both meaningful and authentic for my students. I chose four students of various levels to perform each excerpt individually for a recording device. They recorded each excerpt on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. The students are used to recording playing tests, so the process was familiar to them. Students understood that these were not graded, and that they were only to try their best.

I created the following rubric in order to score each excerpt:

Three individuals graded the excerpts: myself and two other string music educators, both of whom have master's degrees and are actively teaching. Neither of the other two graders know the students, and they were not provided with any identifying information, including their name, age, or gender. I averaged the three scores to come with a final score for each excerpt.

Results

Below, please find visual representations of each student's scores, as well as some background information, including why they were chosen. Note that we rehearsed the following excerpts on each day:

Monday: "March"
Tuesday: "Waltz of the Flowers"
Wednesday: "Dance of the Reed Flutes"
Thursday: "Trepak"

Student A

This student is very hard working, but lacks consistency in her technique. She struggles to play short bow strokes, shift accurately, and is generally unorganized in her left hand. She has recently started private lessons, which will hopefully help her begin to make improvements in the details of her technique.

As you can see, Student A made significant improvement in all excerpts. The most significant increase was after working on "Trepak" in class. I suspect that she practiced at home in between, accounting for the increases in her scores even when we did not rehearse that movement in class.

Student B

This student has recently made significant improvement, and is perhaps one of our best musicians in the ensemble. She has fantastic technique, beautiful vibrato, and easily masters new bow strokes and shifts. She recently began taking private lessons, which I think might account for some of her recent improvement.

Student B has some of the highest overall scores of all participants. She, too, improved over the course of the week. Wednesday seemed to be a weak day for her scores. It should also be noted that she was absent on Thursday when we rehearsed "Trepak."

Student C

Student C is a quiet, reserved student who often seems confused in rehearsals. However, she plays well, especially on playing tests. It is indicated that she has a "special ed disability," but no details have been given, and she does not have an IEP or 504.

Student C made the most dramatic improvement on Friday in all excerpts. Her biggest improvement occured in "Trepak" on Friday, the day after we rehearsed it in class.

Student D

Student D is an outspoken boy who occasionally disrupts class and has had multiple disciplinary issues outside of orchestra, including a suspension earlier this year. When doing these recordings, he repeatedly had to borrow his stand partner's music because he did not have his own copy. That said, he generally performs well, especially in his playing tests.

Student D's scores for "Trepak" most obviously demonstrate improvement after in-class rehearsal: they only increased on Friday, the day after we covered it in class. Of all the participants, Student D most consistently follows musical indications, especially dynamics and tempi. This was most noticeable on his recordings from Friday.

Conclusion

The results from this assessment demonstrate improvement in all students and in all excerpts. Although the assessment cannot determine the exact cause for this improvement, the following factors should be considered:

The effect of concept-based rehearsals
At-home practicing
Playing their instrument every day at school, while they might not have practiced over the weekend prior to the beginning of the unit
The technique in several movements are related, and rehearsal in one movement might affect performance in other movements
Personal factors (illness, stress, etc.)

If I were to repeat this assessment, I would try to control for the above factors by monitoring at-home practice and personal factors through a brief survey before each recording session. I would also consider recording every day, both before and after rehearsal, to measure the direct effect of the rehearsal.