I Just Don’t Have Time: Quick Assessments for Band and Orchestra

Jayme Hayes, DOB and Ukulele at Mayberry Cultural and Fine Arts Magnet,
jkhoheusle@gmail.com

Types of Assessments
- There are 6 main types
o Diagnostic Assessment (pre-assessments)
o Formative Assessment (check learning during instruction)
o Summative Assessment (after instruction to check understanding)
o Norm-referenced assessment (compared to the norm, standardized tests)
o Criterion-referenced assessment (against a goal, bar, or standard)
o Interim/benchmark assessment (period check, predictive)
- 3 purposes of assessments
o Assessment FOR learning
 Teacher able to see what students know before or during learning
o Assessment AS learning
 Students monitor their learning
o Assessment OF learning
 Teacher able to see what students know after learning
- Conducting in 2 ways
o Obtrusive
 Students know it is happening at that moment, teacher structure, written
test, playing test, bell work, etc.
o Unobtrusive
 Student unaware, no pacing interruptions, warm-ups, rehearsals, class
participation, playing out of turn
Why Assessing is Important
- Helps with Instruction
- Keeps expectations alive and well in the classroom
- Helps the teacher know where each student is on a regular basis
- Helps the students assess themselves
- Assessments, when done right, improve performance, not just for data/numbers
- Communication
- Advocacy
- Pacing
- Classroom Management
- Know the purpose of what you are teaching
Making It Happen in Real Life
- “The real goal of classroom assessment is to improve student performance, not merely
audit it”
- Let students know everything is an assessment, all the time constantly
- If you can’t assess it, why are you doing it with your class?
Written Assessments – use things that grade for you
 - BOOM cards
- Blooket
- Edpuzzle
- Teachermade
Verbal Assessments
- Questions in class
- Speaking with music vocab
- Note names
- Rhythms
- Theory
Game-ify
- Last One Standing
- Steady Beat
- Meter
- Rhythm
- Intonation
- Scoot
- Among Us
- Clue
- Measure by Measure
- Articulations
- Dynamics
- Scales
- Transposition
What Is the Point of the Worksheet You Are Assigning
- To check understanding
- To give more practice?
- For sub plans?
- For busy work?
If it’s an expectation in your class, it can be an assessment
- If they aren’t using free time in class to practice their parts and are talking or distracting
instead, you can put this in the gradebook as a grade
Individual Playing Assessments (Playing Tests)
- Not recorded, done in class
- 4 measures out of 24
o Make them shorter but more frequent
o They prepare to play anything in those 24, but you only select a random 4 mm.
- 1 Section a day
- Call and response
- Difficulty spot then and there
- Metronome Work
- If you already know they can play it why are you having them do it again?
Group assessments
- Section or full song
 - Everyone same grade (outliers, those who won’t participate)
Partner Assessments
- Provide a rubric and have students work with each other
- Those who need a challenge, give them something more advanced and then the job to
teach someone else
Personal Assessment
- Provide a rubric and allow the students to assess themselves
- Record the group, then they assess themselves as a class
Make it happen every day, all day, and let them know it
Don’t be afraid to hold them academically accountable and not just performance accountable
GET OFF THE PODIUM
Make it simple
- Gradebook with you at all times
- Reminders throughout class
- Objectives (student and class friendly) known daily
- Transparency (let them see you doing it)
Communication
- Let families and students know what the big assessment is or what you are focusing on
that week
- Remind kids and families the expectations and how you are assessing daily and how that
helps their child succeed
How does this save time
- Less grading at home
- Less number of playing tests outside of school honor
- Writing down things you learned
- Allows playing to be more purposeful, helping your students succeed quicker, making
your job easier as they are learning faster
Make yourself a priority
Thou Shalt Not Shout: Voice and Hearing Health for the Music Educator
Melissa Grady, Zack Devin, MacKenzie Wright, Ionna Tsakalakos

Lombar effect: humans tend to raise their voice to 6x the level of the sound around them to
feel like they can hear themselves.

In an 8 hour period, music teachers are at 78% over the NIOSH standards for decibels as
compared to 39% for classroom teachers.

10 Commandments of Hearing/Voice Health

1. Thou shalt not raise they voice
a. Instead, thou shalt use they hands more than they voice
b. Use gestures more
2. Thou shalt not neglect thy warm-ups
a. Thou shalt warm-up daily!
b. Physical stretches, arms, shoulders, neck, jaw
c. Stick your tongue out and massage jaw
d. Make faces (lion roar, lemon pinch, etc.)
e. Deep breathing
f. Hum slide
g. Lip trill (like little kids do)
3. Thou shalt not crowd thy children
a. Thou shalt employ appropriate spacing!
4. Thou shalt not model poor behaviors
5. Thou halt not clear thy throat
a. Too aggressive on the folds – the same as shouting
b. Instead, thou shalt address underlying causes
i. If you’re sick, try swallowing or drinking water instead
ii. If it’s a subconscious habit, stop
6. Thou shalt not fry thy vocalis
a. I habitually speak this way, especially at the ends of phrases
b. Find the proper tessatura – probably higher than you want to go
c. Could indicate not enough breath support or some tension
d. Instead, thou shalt speak with efficiency
7. Thou shalt not neglect thy hydration
a. Brings moisture to those muscles and tissues
b. Can’t just temporarily soothe – pre-hydrate, be proactive
8. Thou shalt not ingest with abandon
a. Drink water more than any other liquid
b. Thou shalt practice awareness
c. Your medication may affect your voice more than you expect – let your doctor
know you are a “professional voice-use”
 i. The National Center for Voice and Speech has info about medications and
how they affect your voice
d. Ibuprofen and other blood-thinners can increase chance for vocal
damage/hemorrhage
9. Thou shalt not neglect they hearing
a. Your hearing is one of the few parts of body that does not recover after damage
b. Presbicusus – normal hearing loss
c. Sudden hearing loss – musicians more at risk because of sudden and
instantaneous sounds that create damage to ear drum
d. Instead, thou shalt reduce they daily dose
i. Use musician’s ear plugs! In rehearsal, in movie theatres,
10. Thou shalt not ignore the space
a. Consider more dampening materials, carpets, curtains, etc.
b. Thou shalt dampen the space
c. Have students put carpet squares under their chairs, especially if wooden floor
maybe?

14% of music teachers had signs of hearing loss (compared to 5% of the general population)
Risk is higher for instrumental music teachers
100% of the vocal music teachers with hearing loss were over 40 (expected hearing loss)
45% of the instrumental music teachers were under 40 (not expected, early onset)
Rehearsing in a room that is too small is just as bad as a room that is too cavernous and live

For brass, they reach their daily dose of decibels alone in a practice room in about 15 minutes
For tenor singers, it’s 20 minutes
An orchestra pit has the same DB as a Motorcycle
A concert band is a loud sporting event
Drumline is jet ski
Marching Band is a rock concert

Additional Commandments!
11. Avoid smoking, vaping, secondhand smoke, etc.
a. Every time you breath it in, you are bringing that smoke through your vocal
process
12. Avoid excessive singing or speaking while sick
a. This is the best way to preserve your voice
b. Can’t get rid of it completely, but minimize as much as possible
c. The voice is literally a muscle – it MUST rest throughout the day to recover
13. Avoid excessively loud environments
a. Attenuate the environment by dampening, use curtains, a band shell or divider
14. Prevention of damage is preferable
15. Listen to your body
a. If you have hoarseness that lasts more than a week
b. Changes in vocal production that do not resolve after vocal rest
 c. Pain in singing or talking not related to illness
d. General vocal quality drastically changes
Who can help?
- Otolaryngologist/ENT
- Speech/language pathologist
- Voice teacher

How to project voice more

- Use mic
- Open your mouth
- Think about your voice not living in your throat, but up and forward
- Sing the line – if you speak with legato it carries more
- Practice lip buzzes to find consistent sound

Try custom ear plugs! Much more comfortable to wear for hours. Try 15 decibels so you can still
hear. Also, make it a health issue and get the school to pay for Etymotics for every student

Attention getters without screaming

- Start loud, get soft
- Stop speaking and wait for attention
- Say “Flat tire on 3! 1, 2, 3… hissssssss” and pass it around the room
First Year Teaching Is Like The Movie Groundhog Day
Joan Grover, j.grover @usd492.org

Build a Culture
- “Kids don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care” – Dr. Tim
- Start early – ask upperclassmen in the program, find out what was most important to
them in their program last year and don’t touch that thing, find what they loved and
hated
- Ask for help and be kind to every staff person of the school – you will need their help at
some point

Building a program is an evolution, not a revolution

- Don’t come in guns blazing, trying to get them pumped up for your program, and
trample over what is already there
- Don’t try to bring them into your world, go into theirs – it already exists in the kids even
without the previous teacher
- Don’t get in a power struggle – it’s your classroom and you are in charge, no one can
change that
- “Oh!” – this is the best response to things like “This isn’t how we used to do it!” “I don’t
even like you!” etc. – don’t badmouth the teacher, don’t stoop to their level and get
upset, just say “oh” and stop it there
- Apologize when you’re wrong – “Well I guess I’m human!”
- Listen to their side first before you tell them “what really happened”, it may change
your response
- Learn along with your students
- Use incentives so you don’t have to yell at them
o Give them a string that you add a bead to every time they finish a page in the
book on time, if they play for someone over Christmas break and bring back a
signature page, etc. – they have a whole string of special beads to be proud of.
Or start a class bead string that you hang on the board

How not to become a casualty after following a wonderful teacher

- DO NOT change what the kids love about the program already
- Be patient, make small changes around the periphery to start, then the periphery will
focus in each year and you can make more changes the longer you’re there
- It won’t be your program in your first year and that’s ok
If you are following a not competent teacher
- Celebrate frequently!! Have parties
- Set small goals and celebrate when you meet them
- Just open the door and they will run through, you may not even be able to keep up!
- If you give them more celebrations, they will get excited to keep the ball rolling
Choices
- If you don’t click with your mentor, find someone else
- Gradebook
o Total Points
o Category Weighted Grades
- T-shirts
o Order early!!!
o Make forms! For everything
o Have a system for keeping track of money, staple a check-off excel form to the
front of an envelope
- Parents and Guardians agree to – pay for any repairs the music store deems not normal
wear and tear. If you have a signed agreement form, they can’t argue with you.
- Making folders
o Music store will help you
o Put in a fingering chart, a scale sheet, 2 pieces they said they love, and one that
they’ll have to sightread
- How will you introduce the instruments to Beginning Band? How will you decide what
each child will play? How will you order books, supplies, instruments, etc.?
- Make a handbook
o Daily Routines
o Grading Policy
o Calendar
o Google Classroom Code
o John Philip Sousa Award
o Concert etiquette
o Absence procedures (for concerts, for rehearsals)
o Concert attire
o District rules that apply to band
o Marching band/pep band rules
o Lettering
o Using a school instrument
o Tri-M membership application
o T-shirt order form
o Parent signature form!!!!
- First day: rules or icebreakers?

Remember, are you the problem or is the project the problem? Maybe just needs tweaking!

Constant Expectations
- Paperwork!!!!! The first day of teaching is so much paper
o Bring a binder or folder to organize all the papers maybe?
- Don’t do anything permanent in the first few days because students may still change
their schedule
 - KSHSAA Test – State Music Handbook, due by October 1? All music teachers need to
take it
- Script your lesson plans by timing, how long you’ll spend on each chunk
o Sticking to your script even if you didn’t finish the thing before it will train you to
manage time better and give faster comments over time

Time is Precious
- Don’t add any extras in your first year at all
- Inventories suck to make but are so worth it
o Helps convincing administrators with purchases of music and instruments

We Are Performance-Based
- Have kids check your concert programs for you
- Prepare music early
- Logistics of the venue
- Written policy on excused and unexcused absences
- Reflect the day after on how to improve
- Keep track of where you found solos and ensembles
- Accompanist

Unwritten Rules
- Spend more time listening that talking
- Enjoy lunch with your colleagues
- SpEd students have a right to be in your music classroom
- Teach kids to read music!
o Teach them first how to sound good
- Learn to say no
- Watch how your write your emails
- Remember you decide if your glass is half full or half empty

What I Wish I Knew

- Relationships over all
- Teach them to love music
- There is a new obstacle every day, but there is always a solution if you get help
- Keep your priorities straight – your job isn’t your life