College of Education

Teacher Education Department

I. Title Page

In Partial Fulfillment of the

Requirements in BEED 33
TEACHING MUSIC IN ELEMENTARY GRADES

A Narrative Report and compilation submitted to

Ms. Diana Umandap
Course Instructor, BEED 31

PERFORMANCE-BASED ASSESSMENT

Submitted by:
RUTHY ANN D. BALBIN
BEED 3-1

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II. Table of Contents

I. Title Page............................................................................................................................1
II. Table of Contents..................................................................................................................2
III. Objective..............................................................................................................................3
IV. Introduction..........................................................................................................................3
VI. Conclusion...........................................................................................................................7
VII. Recommendation................................................................................................................8
VIII. References.........................................................................................................................9

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III. Objective
 define what is Performance-based assessment
 enumerate the examples of performance-based assessment
 develop the performance-based assessment.

IV. Introduction
Assessment of student learning is at the heart of effective teaching. Understanding
student performance, diagnosing what was done well, and what has yet to be improved, and
providing specific feedback to students have the potential to significantly improve your music
program in very real and meaningful ways. Assessment data can become an integral
component of improving any music program if it addresses learning outcomes that are clear
and focuses on the aspects of student performance that are most important.
Assessment is essential because it leads to improved learning, and improved teaching,
and provides information that can be useful for accountability purposes such as teacher and
student evaluations. It is also intellectually engaging as it provides a window into how our
students learn. Students become aware of what they need to work on to improve. They feed
off this information when it comes to them in a clear, timely, and positive manner. Students
become proud of their work and strive to accomplish the next task.
In addition to providing feedback on the group level, it’s vital to provide specific
feedback on individual student achievement. This can be tough to do as music teachers are
usually extremely busy and, in many cases, teach a large number of students. In addition,
teachers are often unsure of what to assess and lack appropriate assessment measures or
training to create their own measures for classroom use. Typically, teachers have also not
experienced or been provided with proven models of assessment for use in performance
classes. Developing, from scratch, assessment procedures along with valid and reliable
measures of student achievement is a daunting task to ask of any single teacher. What follows
is an attempt to provide both experienced and novice music teachers with ideas on how to
assess our students.

V. Content
After you have chosen your educational focus for a particular group of students, you
can begin to make decisions about how and when you will evaluate student progress.

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Assessment must involve the collection of concrete information about musical skills and
concepts accurately and objectively.
Two important elements of educational measures are reliability and validity. Reliability
means that scores are a true representation of students’ knowledge or skill level. You can
trust the scores the students receive. Validity is the extent to which an assessment accurately
measures what it is intended to measure. For example, if your goal is to measure students’
ability to sing a passage using solfege, having them write in the solfege on the notation would
not yield useful information.
Item Alignment and Development
It is important when designing measures of achievement that you align your assessment
methods, items, and tasks to match your learning objectives. The learning objectives will
dictate the type of assessment you use. You also want to develop assessment measures that
are going to be simple enough to be readily used in the classroom and which will provide
data that is useful and can be easily analyzed.
Rubrics
There are many different measures and item types that can be developed and used in
the classroom. As many teachers have music performance as a primary learning goal for
students, rubrics become an important tool for assessing progress. A rubric is a set of scoring
criteria used to measure a student’s performance on an assigned task.
Rubrics are useful because they add a level of objectivity to the assessment process.
One of the most beneficial aspects of rubrics is that they provide a written description of what
a performance at each of the different achievement levels should look like. This helps
students to explore the various achievement levels and what is expected to become proficient
at each one. Rubrics also serve as written documentation of student achievement that can be
used for accountability purposes.
As an activity, you might work to define the levels of proficiency with the students.
Be sure to create descriptions of each achievement level using

terminology that your students can easily understand. In this way, they will be able to use the
information to improve their performance. Rubrics also allow students to more fully grasp
and internalize the learning objectives. Permit and encourage students to use the rubrics to
assess their own performance and that of others.
Other Measure and Item Types
In addition to rubrics, there are many other assessment tools that could be used to
assess music students. These could include portfolios, multiple-choice questions, true/false

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questions, matching, short answers, reflective writing, exit slips, reports and projects, and
more. Many musical concepts can be assessed more easily using one of these item types. This
includes information such as historical context, form, notation and terminology, theory, ear
training, critical analysis, and pedagogy. The options are almost unlimited.
Assessments can be used as bell work and don’t have to be long or interfere with
instructional time. Sometimes only a few questions will provide you with a wealth of useful
information on the progress of your students. Written assessments can provide valuable
information and should not be neglected. They can be created to reinforce the established
goals and objectives and strengthen what students are learning in class.
Formative Assessment
The assessments you have created are then used to monitor student progress during
instruction and to provide ongoing feedback to the students. This is referred to as formative
assessment and is an essential step in the assessment cycle (and is contrasted with summative
assessment which happens at the end of the unit). The feedback from formative assessment
should provide concrete information on how to make improvements toward achieving the
learning objectives. Avoid general feedback such as “good job” or “keep practicing.” This
provides little guidance to students. Students require information that is specific and
individual. They need to know what they have done well and what they have yet to achieve.
Formative assessment is best when it is embedded in instruction and is ongoing.
Music teachers often assume that as ensemble performance improves, students are
learning. However, we often have little formal evidence to know for sure. Additionally, if
learning objectives and specific goals for each rehearsal are not clearly communicated to
students, they have no real way of

knowing how to measure their progress. Using the assessment tools you have created will
allow you to measure that progress in a tangible way. Remember also that students can be
helpful in assisting you to gather data and track progress. During the formative assessment
phase, rubrics are an effective assessment tool and are great for providing useful feedback to
students.
Practical Assessment Strategies
One way to decrease the amount of class time required to assess students is to
evaluate them individually as they are rehearsing in class. As they are performing, walk
amongst the ensemble, rating the students as you pass by. Students are performing
authentically within the context of the group. Other ideas might be to have individual sections
play alone, hear students by stand, sing/play one or two on a part, or any other method you
can think of to isolate students. Pick a different group of students each day limiting the
amount of time on any given day taken by assessment. You can also sample the music being

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performed. You don’t need to have students play an entire work. Make comments using an
assessment tool and then provide feedback individually to the students.
At least a few times during each assessment cycle you will want to use a more formal
mode of assessment to collect formative assessment data. Using a recording system that
minimizes disruption to the ongoing class activities would be helpful in this case. Students
record and submit their performances to the teacher. For this, teachers have multiple options.
Recordings can be made during class. For example, you could send students one by one to
have one opportunity to record their performance. Another option is to have students record
their performance tests outside of class. In this way, students could have multiple
opportunities to record and submit their best performance. You can choose whichever method
best meets your needs.
Portfolios
Portfolios are another great assessment tool. Rubrics and other assessments you
administer become artifacts in the student’s portfolio. The options for artifacts are limitless.
Students should participate in the construction of the portfolio and have opportunities to
include self-reflections and assessments of their progress.

Self-Assessment
Provide students the opportunity to self-assess. This can be done at the group or
individual level. Self-assessment provides students with guided opportunities to measure their
own learning in relation to the learning outcomes. Another benefit is that students are able to
articulate course goals and requirements. Peer assessment can also be helpful when you
structure the feedback to be positive and constructive.
Summative Assessment
Summative assessment occurs at the conclusion of the learning process to evaluate
student achievement on the learning objectives. Data gained from the summative assessment
is a way to summarize student learning and is usually formal. It also frequently serves as a
baseline to set future goals. Assessment tools that work well for the summative assessment of
music performance are checklists and rating scales.

VI. Conclusion
Assessing students in a way that truly reflects their learning in the classroom is key to
improving your music program. Assessment should provide information to students on an
individual level that will provide them with clear direction toward improvement. A good
assessment system provides accountability and helps to place the responsibility for learning
on the student.

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Do not reinvent the wheel. Take advantage of the expertise of those around you and
be open to sharing your ideas with others. If you need help or want feedback about something
you are doing, don’t be afraid to ask. In addition, as you create or find assessments that have
worked for you, keep them.
While increasing systematic assessment initially may seem to be an activity that
requires more of a teacher’s time, it may eventually save you time as learning will become
more targeted and students will be provided the tools necessary to help themselves. Don’t
give up: experiment to find a system that works best for you.

VII. Recommendation
Performance-based assessments share the key characteristic of accurately measuring
one or more specific course standards. They are also complex, authentic, process/product-
oriented, open-ended, and time-bound. Here are some techniques using a Performance-Based
Assessment.
1. Identify goals of the performance-based assessment.
In this instance, the teacher wanted to challenge her students to use critical thinking
and problem-solving skills. She also wanted them to exhibit less codependence and more
individuality while completing this assessment. The teacher did not want students to rely on
her direction about how to complete each step of the assessment.
2. Select the appropriate course standards.
Once the goals were identified, she selected the Common Core standards to be
addressed with this performance assessment. She decided that the assessment should measure
students' understanding of conditional probability and the rules of probability.
3. Review assessments and identify learning gaps.
This was a very important step. We looked at the current worksheets that students
were completing for the unit. Two-way frequency tables were a large part of the assignments.
Next, we looked at what was missing and noted that there was very little relevant real-world
application. As a result, we decided to create a performance-based assessment that was also
reality-based. Moreover, this task would require students to analyze two-way frequency
tables along with other charts and graphs.
4. Design the scenario.
After brainstorming a few different scenarios, we settled on a situation where the
students would decide if an inmate should be granted parole or remain in prison. This
scenario included five key components: Setting, Role, Audience, Time frame, Product

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5. Gather or create materials.
Depending on the scenario, this step may or may not be needed. For this particular
assessment, we wanted students to calculate the probability of the inmate returning to prison.
For their review, I created seven different

documents that included pie charts, bar graphs, and two-way frequency tables. All of the
information was based on statistics from government agencies, such as the Federal Bureau of
Prisons and Bureau of Justice Statistics.
6. Develop a learning plan.
We wanted to be careful not to "teach to the test" in preparing students for the
performance-based assessment. We needed to strike a balance between teaching the content
(e.g., probability given two independent events) and preparing students for the task (e.g.,
interpreting the validity of a media resource). We brainstormed six different formative
assessments that would need to be in place before students completed the performance task.
However, we also acknowledged that this part of our plan would need to be constantly
reviewed and revised depending on student learning needs.

VIII. References
 Hamlim, P. (2017). Music Assessment Strategies. makemusic ph.
https://www.smartmusic.com/blog/music-assessment-strategies/