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Morgan Higgins
MUSIC 512
Dr. Phillip Payne
2 November 2018

Assessment Portfolio

Annotated List
1. Self-Assessment Worksheet
A Self-Assessment Worksheet is a worksheet that requires students to answer questions
about themselves and their performance on a particular piece or section of music.
Questions include broad questions that focus on overall performance and more specific
questions that focus on a particular aspect of music such as articulation, expressive
elements, diction, etc. This is a useful form of assessment because it allows the teacher to
find out where the students see themselves and how well they understand the application
of a specific concept. Additionally, it allows teachers to find out if students are able to
articulate and define concepts and problem solve on an individual basis.

2. Performance Rubric
A Performance Rubric presents a number of things to be assessed (such as posture,
rhythm, diction, pitch, expression, etc.) and then gives descriptions of specific levels of
achievement that correspond to a numerical score or point value. This is a useful form of
assessment for teachers because it allows them to measure student success on a scale with
specific levels of achievement and to make sure that they are scoring each student on the
same elements or performance and score them all accurately.

3. Written Exam
Written Exams are pencil and paper tests that are traditional in other subjects. They ask a
variety of questions, most commonly over a single subject, concept, or unit, in order to
assess student understanding of that particular material. This is a useful form of
assessment because it allows teachers to see how well students understand a particular
concept and how well they are able to apply that in different set situations, especially on
an individual basis. In music, this would be a good way to assess music theory
knowledge, harmonic analysis skills, ability to write/transcribe musical notation, etc.

4. Sight Singing
Sight Singing occurs when students are presented with a short melody (ranging four to
sixteen measures in length) that they have never seen before, that they are asked to sing
as accurately as possible in that moment, without practice. Tonality is established and
about thirty seconds to one minute is given to students to look at the melody, identify
difficult areas, and practice briefly before singing the melody. This type of assessment is
useful because it allows teachers to assess student ability to read rhythms and melodies
on the spot, the ability to sing numerous intervals and identify which are more difficult
and what musical aspects need more focus or practice in the classroom or on an
individual basis.
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5. Journal/Exit Ticket
Journals and Exit Tickets are short prompts or questions that students must write a
response to before they are allowed to leave the room. This form of assessment is useful
because it solidifies that day’s rehearsal or lesson in their mind and helps them to
remember. Additionally, it allows the teacher to gather information about effectiveness of
that particular class period and if the subjects covered require an additional
rehearsal/lesson or if it would be more beneficial to move on.

6. Quartet Singing
Many pieces done in higher level ensembles have four parts. Quartet singing is asking
one singer from each voice part (Soprano, Alto, Tenor, Bass) to sing their part. This will
be done for a section or an entire piece. This form of assessment allows teachers to see
how comfortable and confident students are on their part as well as how accurate they are
on their part and how well they are able to tune. This will help to identify and fix problem
spots in pieces when large group rehearsal isn’t as effective.

7. Portfolio
Portfolios are a collection of all of a student’s work for a certain period of time, often the
length of the class. They could be quarterly, semesterly, or yearly. This is a great form of
assessment because it allows teachers to document student achievement over a period of
time. Portfolios are comprised of a number of other assignments, such as the ones listed
here, to see student growth and the evolution of student understanding over time. This is
an especially good way to document student achievement for administrators and parents.

8. Projects
Projects are larger, long term assignments designed to assess student knowledge of a
subject in a more informal way than an exam and to allow students an opportunity to be
creative. This is a useful form of assessment for teachers to see how well students are
able to manage time and a larger work load as well as assess the ability to understand and
apply a specific concept or set of concepts.

9. Essays
Essays are longer, applied writings about a specific subject and generally follow a
prompt. Essays are great forms of assessment for student writing skills and grammar, and
they allow the teacher to see how well students understand a particular subject and their
ability to articulate it.

10. Recording Assignments

Recording Assignments are usually specific excerpts from music that are assigned to
students over a period of time. Students are expected to record themselves singing their
part on that particular excerpt. This form of assessment allows teachers to assess student
ability to sing that particular section of music correctly on an individual basis, and the
ability to listen multiple times allows teachers to be detail-oriented and closely assess
rhythmic accuracy, diction, tone, intonation, articulations, musical expression and more.
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Implementation
1. Self-Assessment Worksheet
The worksheet will be passed out to each student in the classroom either at the beginning
of a class period or right before they are to fill out the worksheet. Students will be given
verbal directions as to how they are expected to fill out the worksheet and what
specifically they will be reflecting on. Students will then fill out the worksheet
individually – quietness and individual work is expected. This will be made known to the
students. Students will turn in their worksheets to the teacher after fully completing them.
This is a student based, opinion assessment, so that should be kept in mind when
considering reliability and validity of the assessment. The teacher will read each of these
individually and take note of items the students have written. Based on student responses,
rephrase or adjust questions on the worksheet as needed. After reading and analysis,
place student worksheets in a class or individual file for documentation and record or
progress.

2. Performance Rubric
The rubric will not be used by students, but by the teacher. The teacher will use rubrics
for numerous assessments, mainly performances. The teacher will observe a performance
and then fill out the rubric to reflect the performance, taking notes as necessary. The
teacher will later use this to assessment to guide future lessons and rehearsals to better the
ensemble in the areas that were lacking.

3. Written Exam
Written exam will be administered individually in a classroom setting. The teacher will
verbally remind students that this is an individual exam and to follow the directions and
do the best they can. They will have the class period (or whatever amount of time was
deemed appropriate) to complete the exam. When the students have completed the exam,
they will return it to the teacher and then they will read or work on other assignments –
there will be no talking to friends or using technology. The teacher will then use plan
time or time outside of class to grade the exams. Grades will be recorded. The teacher
will pass back the exams the following class period (or as soon as possible). The teacher
will go over the answers with the entire class and take questions. The teacher will collect
exams before students leave to file them for portfolios and documentation. The test will
be edited and re-written as necessary over time for clarity and to ensure it stays relevant
to the material learned in class.

4. Sight Singing
As a class, this will occur on a daily basis mostly as a bell work activity and a warmup.
As an assessment, students will be notified a few class periods before the assessment is to
take place. Students will come into the teacher’s office for a 3-5 minute time period. The
short sight singing excerpt will be behind a sheet of paper. There will be 2 examples on
the page – they are the same but written in different keys/octaves. The top will be the
melody written to fit women’s voices, in a range that would fit for both altos and
sopranos. The bottom will be the melody written to fit men’s voices, in a range that
would fit for tenors and basses. The student will enter, be given the tonality and 30
seconds to look at the excerpt and practice. The student will then sing through the
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melody. The teacher will take notes as the student sings, noting what was missed and will
then give a score based on the performance. The student will receive the score at a later
date and will leave the room after singing the excerpt. The teacher will note how
successful the students were with this excerpt and will increase or decrease difficulty of
the in-class examples accordingly.

5. Journal/Exit Ticket
Students will either have a journal/notebook or a small slip of paper to use for their
journal or exit ticket. Students will be given verbal directions as to how they are expected
to fill out the journal/exit ticket and what specifically they will be writing about that day.
Students will then complete the journal/exit ticket individually – quietness and individual
work is expected unless otherwise specified. This will be made known to the students.
Students will turn in their journal/exit tickets to the teacher after fully completing them as
the way that they are permitted to exit class that day. This is a student based, opinion
assessment, so that should be kept in mind when considering reliability and validity of
the assessment. The teacher will read each of these individually and take note of items the
students have written. Based on student responses, rephrase or adjust future
prompts/questions as needed. After reading and analysis, return student journal or keep
exit slips in a class or individual file for documentation and record or progress.

6. Quartet Singing
Students will not be told about this assessment prior. They will come to class and will
come up in quartets on a volunteer basis. The teacher will take one volunteer per voice
type to sing through the excerpt until everyone has performed in the quartet. This allows
for some peer assessment, though not formal, and teacher assessment. The teacher will
take notes of performances and different aspects. They will then be addressed by the
teacher in front of the ensemble as a whole either immediately after all groups have
performed or the next rehearsal of this piece.

7. Portfolio
The contents of the portfolio will be collected over time and organized by the teacher.
This is mostly for teacher assessment of student progress over time, to ensure progress is
being made from August to December.

8. Projects
Projects will be described in full in class and students will receive an instructions handout
both physically and digitally. A composition project would outline the expectations of the
project and what the final product should look like. The teacher will outline the timeline
for the project. The teacher will provide some class time for the students to give
opportunity for access to ask question and for students to work with technology at the
school. Students will then turn in completed projects to the teacher and present their
compositions to the class. Teacher will assess the project based on how well the students
follow the guidelines. The guidelines and process will be reviewed and adjusted as
necessary based on what worked well and what did not.
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9. Essays
Essays will be described in full in class and students will receive an instructions handout
both physically and digitally. The handout will outline the expectations of the project and
essentially what should be included in the essay. The teacher will then either provide
topic choices to students, give all students the same topic/prompt, or allow students to
choose their own prompt and approve them. Students will then have a period of time to
work on their essays. Students will submit two rough drafts before the final copy and will
have peer review time in class. The final submission will be graded by the teacher based
on content, grammar, spelling, and flow. The teacher will keep the essays for the
portfolio.

10. Recording Assignments

Recording Assignments will be assigned to students in class. Students will be asked to
record their part of a specifically assigned section of a song or a song in its entirety to
assess accuracy or another element that is being observed at the time. Students will then
have a set number of days to record and submit to the teacher via email. If the student
needs technology access, the teacher can work with them on that. Teacher will assess all
students individually, taking notes, and give a completion grade. This will help to
understand why a section isn’t going well as a whole group and help the teacher to know
how to fix it/what to focus on. Recording assignments gauge individual success and
progress as well as accuracy. The recordings will also be included as part of individual
student portfolios.
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Exemplars

1. Self-Assessment Worksheet
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2. Performance Rubric

Category 4 2 2 1
Posture and Student stands Student stands Student is Student rarely
Relaxation correctly and somewhat sometimes demonstrates
sings using a correctly and standing proper posture
proper singing most of the correctly but and singing
stance with no time often shows stance. Tension
visible tension demonstrates a tension or is highly visible
in the oral proper singing improper body in the throat,
cavity or body. stance with during singing. jaw, and/or
limited tension body.
visible in the
oral cavity or
body.
Breath Student takes Student is Student Student rarely
Support full proper usually sometimes breathes
breath and breathing breathes correctly and
supports the properly, but properly and never supports
tone to the best occasionally only the tone until
of his/her does not occasionally the end of each
ability. support the supports the phrase.
tone until the tone until the
end of each end of each
phrase. phrase.
Rhythm The beat is The beat is The beat is The beat is
secure, and the secure, and the somewhat usually erratic,
rhythms are rhythms are erratic. Some and rhythms are
accurate for mostly rhythms are seldom accurate
the passage accurate. There accurate. detracting
being sung. are a few Frequent or significantly
duration errors, repeated from the overall
but these do duration errors. performance.
not detract Rhythm
from the problems
overall occasionally
performance. detract from the
overall
performance.
Pitch Virtually no An occasional Some accurate Very few
errors. Pitch is isolated error, pitches, but accurate or
very accurate but most of the there are stable pitches.
and stable. time pitch is frequent and/or
accurate and repeated errors
secure. and instability.
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Accurate Words or An occasional A few Wrong word

Syllables syllables are inaccurate inaccurate word pronunciations
consistently word is sung pronunciations consistently
accurate. but does not are sung, detract from the
detract from detracting performance.
overall somewhat from
performance. the overall
performance.
Expression Performs with Typically Sometimes Rarely
and Style a creative performs with performs with demonstrates
nuance and nuance and nuance and expression and
style in style that is style that is style. Just sings
response to the indicated in the indicated in the the notes.
score and score or which score or which
limited is suggested by is suggested by
coaching. instructor or instructor or
peer. peer.
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3. Written Exam
(A Quiz on Afro-Cuban Music; other written exams would include other cultural quizzes,
music theory exams, aural skills exams, etc.)
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4. Sight Singing
“Please sing the excerpt that corresponds to your voice part.” *Teacher establishes key: F
Major and gives 30 seconds of prep.

5. Journal/Exit Ticket
Please answer the following.
“Write down one question you have about today’s lesson/rehearsal.”
“Write down two things you learned today.”
“Write down one thing I can do to help you.”
“What is the most important thing we learned/rehearsed today?”
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6. Quartet Singing
“In quartets we will be singing measures 31-42 of Daemon Irrepit Callidus. One person
from each section come down at a time and we will sing through this.”
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7. Portfolio
Portfolios would be comprised of many other assessment examples seen here, including
self-assessment worksheets, other worksheets, written exams, any recordings/recording
assignments, exit tickets, journals, essays, and projects. The portfolio will be kept and
organized by myself.

8. Project
Compose an art song for voice/your primary instrument with a basic piano
accompaniment. It should follow all of the compositional rules we have discussed in
class. It should include At least two suspensions, all types of inversion and the three types
of cadences we have discussed (perfect authentic, imperfect authentic, and half). It will
be at least 32 measures in length, and the final copy must be completed using music
notation software (MuseScore, Noteflight, etc.). If you are writing for voice, you must get
your text approved by me beforehand. You will have a month to complete this. We will
have class time to work on this every week so that I can check on your progress and
answer any questions you may have. Here’s an example of a finished product.
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9. Essays
Write a brief biography and summary of the works of the composer you are assigned.
You should use at least 3 sources and cite them. Use MLA formatting. Here is an
example of a previous essay over Bernstein and his works.
This is an old paper of mine, it isn’t using MLA but the students will as that is what most
of them use in Language Arts/English.
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10. Recording Assignments

Please record yourself singing measures 21-24 of Daemon Irrepit Callidus. Use a
metronome clicking the quarter note at 120 bpm. Use text and correct articulations