I definitely feel that situated interest is going to be a teacher's best bet for getting a class interested and involved in what is being taught. Now I realize that intrinsic is where the student is more self-motivated than anything, but I firmly believe that if you get the class involved in the correct way, then there is a good chance for each student to become more self-interested in what is being taught.
Maybe I am completely off base, but what matters is that I think I am capable of encouraging students to become self motivated through the means of situated interest. I feel that if I make my class enjoyable enough, my kids will eventually want to pursue music on their own time. Now, I don't literally mean that I am going to tell them, "You need to get interested in what I am teaching."
No.
I mean more that I plan on getting my kids very actively engaged in what I am teaching them. If it's middle school kids, I am going make class as good of a time as I can, recommend some awesome bands and symphony orchestras to listen to, offer private lessons programs, and recommend some light reading material. I can then hopefully depend on some kids who were maybe motivated to begin with, to take a look at these resources I'm providing and say, "Hey guys, look at this!"
Do you know what gets kids the most motivated? Go on, think about it. Give up?
Their friends! Let's take a minute to think about this. If I can somehow encourage just a few kids initially to take a good interest in music, then I know for a fact that they are going to share that interest with their friends, and hopefully those kids will take a look at what I'm giving them and then become more interested themselves. But I can't rely entirely on the kids. I have to get them started myself. I have to get the situated interest ball rolling.
And that's why it's important for me to be really excited about my classes. My PLE is basically all about how you as the teacher has to be extremely excited, enthusiastic, interested, and whatever else about what you are teaching these kids. And motivation plays right in to that. To get your kids motivated, you yourself must be motivated first.
Monday, September 16, 2013
Tuesday, September 3, 2013
Ideas for Assessment
I am a very firm believer that assessment of students is best used to the teacher's advantage.
How?
By assessing students, you can in fact assess yourself and the progress you are making with your students. It can basically show you how effective of a teacher you are by seeing what your students retain from your teachings.
So according to the diagram on page 505, there 10 different forms of assessment? And they are paired off into groups of two by saying "this form as compared to this form" sort of. I think. Maybe?
Basing my reasoning from the Questions to Consider, I'll just go ahead and assume that I'm supposed to talk about ALL of the forms of assessment and think of my own assessment idea for each. So here we go!
Informal vs. Formal
Informal for me in a classroom setting would probably something along the lines of observing who is prepared for class before it starts, who hands in homework vs. who doesn't, etc. And then a formal assessment would be something more similar to asking the students before hand to bring something specific to class and then observing who did what was asked/required of them. I think I would use these to make sure that I have taught my students that preparation is a must with music, because if you don't prepare for a rehearsal, then that's valuable rehearsal time wasted going over issues that could have easily been addressed on the student's own time with personal practice time.
Paper/Pencil vs. Performance
Since my classroom is most likely going to be some sort of musical environment, we'll go ahead and put these assessments into a musical context. Paper/pencil would most easily be done in the form of a test, musical critique, music theory quiz, what have you. And performance in this case can be taken quite literally to mean that. I plan on encouraging much solo and small ensemble performances, chair auditions will be a norm for concert settings, and musical evaluations of marching music will definitely be a must (that last one will only be in the case of high school marching band)
Standardized Test vs. Teacher Made
No one in my experience has ever like standardized testing, and the implementation of those goes without explanation. And I'm sure I'll not enjoy administering the tests just as much as I didn't like taking them. As for teacher made assessments, there are so many ways to administer your own made tests, and there are different ways to make them and so on. I think I would use them more in a music theory class over a general music or concert band class, simply because tests aren't really something you administer to assess progress in either of those settings. However in a theory class, you definitely would need to keep up with student progress just to make sure they are grasping the concepts of how music is "built" and why it is done so in a very particular fasion.
Criterion referenced vs. Norm-referenced
Both of these are extremely easily administered and assessed in a middle school band setting. Let's say that I have a sixth grade beginning band. I could use criterion referenced AND norm referenced assessment in the form of a tune from a beginning band method book that teaches how to play accurate eighth notes. I could then have each student play that tune for me as a playing test. I could then easily determine who went home and practiced their eighth notes like assigned to them. This can be criterion and norm referenced at the same time because I am assessing their mastery of this skill and I can compare the performance to that of their peers by making the assessment a chair placement test.
Traditional vs. Authentic
Once again, these assessments can so easily be applied to a middle school band setting. Let's say for instance that I have an eighth grade band that is auditioning for chair placement for an upcoming concert. I can then use the chair placement itself as the traditional assessment, because it is the classroom setting and away from real-world tasks. The authentic assessment could then be the concert which the students had the chair placements for. The concert is a real world application of the skills the students have been mastering during band class, and the chair placements they earned for the concert can show the abilities demonstrated by the students during the chair placements.
How?
By assessing students, you can in fact assess yourself and the progress you are making with your students. It can basically show you how effective of a teacher you are by seeing what your students retain from your teachings.
So according to the diagram on page 505, there 10 different forms of assessment? And they are paired off into groups of two by saying "this form as compared to this form" sort of. I think. Maybe?
Basing my reasoning from the Questions to Consider, I'll just go ahead and assume that I'm supposed to talk about ALL of the forms of assessment and think of my own assessment idea for each. So here we go!
Informal vs. Formal
Informal for me in a classroom setting would probably something along the lines of observing who is prepared for class before it starts, who hands in homework vs. who doesn't, etc. And then a formal assessment would be something more similar to asking the students before hand to bring something specific to class and then observing who did what was asked/required of them. I think I would use these to make sure that I have taught my students that preparation is a must with music, because if you don't prepare for a rehearsal, then that's valuable rehearsal time wasted going over issues that could have easily been addressed on the student's own time with personal practice time.
Paper/Pencil vs. Performance
Since my classroom is most likely going to be some sort of musical environment, we'll go ahead and put these assessments into a musical context. Paper/pencil would most easily be done in the form of a test, musical critique, music theory quiz, what have you. And performance in this case can be taken quite literally to mean that. I plan on encouraging much solo and small ensemble performances, chair auditions will be a norm for concert settings, and musical evaluations of marching music will definitely be a must (that last one will only be in the case of high school marching band)
Standardized Test vs. Teacher Made
No one in my experience has ever like standardized testing, and the implementation of those goes without explanation. And I'm sure I'll not enjoy administering the tests just as much as I didn't like taking them. As for teacher made assessments, there are so many ways to administer your own made tests, and there are different ways to make them and so on. I think I would use them more in a music theory class over a general music or concert band class, simply because tests aren't really something you administer to assess progress in either of those settings. However in a theory class, you definitely would need to keep up with student progress just to make sure they are grasping the concepts of how music is "built" and why it is done so in a very particular fasion.
Criterion referenced vs. Norm-referenced
Both of these are extremely easily administered and assessed in a middle school band setting. Let's say that I have a sixth grade beginning band. I could use criterion referenced AND norm referenced assessment in the form of a tune from a beginning band method book that teaches how to play accurate eighth notes. I could then have each student play that tune for me as a playing test. I could then easily determine who went home and practiced their eighth notes like assigned to them. This can be criterion and norm referenced at the same time because I am assessing their mastery of this skill and I can compare the performance to that of their peers by making the assessment a chair placement test.
Traditional vs. Authentic
Once again, these assessments can so easily be applied to a middle school band setting. Let's say for instance that I have an eighth grade band that is auditioning for chair placement for an upcoming concert. I can then use the chair placement itself as the traditional assessment, because it is the classroom setting and away from real-world tasks. The authentic assessment could then be the concert which the students had the chair placements for. The concert is a real world application of the skills the students have been mastering during band class, and the chair placements they earned for the concert can show the abilities demonstrated by the students during the chair placements.
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