Music In History & Cultures: Music Interpretations
Megan Smith
EDU 645 Learning & Assessment for the 21st Century
Professor Griggs
May 2012
My performance assessment plan is designed for a course called ‘Music In History & Cultures: Music Interpretations, developed to help the students to gain an appreciation and deep understanding overall, of the elements and structures of music through series of musical studies of the history; the times, the cultures, the division, the originations, the incredibly vast arrays, and all the different forms that music has taken on from so many different regions from around the world. The student can take from these lessons, and learn through the history studies, as to what type of music moves them in particular ways, and try to understand why this is, through revelations of relics of cultural and historical music evolution from the past . With an understanding of their inspirational sources, and the song structures and designs that have influenced them, the student learns to compose there own original works, with a greater level of understanding of the history and elements the music is composed of. This makes for a better experience with music and is more mentally rewarding and genuine; when music is pure and free of undiluted thought forms, that the element of music takes over the performer in ways that had not realized the capacities of their mind.
This type of mental processing promotes development of more complex thought patterns while finding the way that variously and symmetrically aligned patterns of music and can applied to patterns of the mind. It accesses what the text calls, cognitive domain, and it states, “The level of an objective refers to the cognitive, mental, or thought complexity called for by the objective,”(p.117) And further down the paragraph the authors continue, “It requires ability to analyze an eyewitness account and to apply some criteria in determining whether statements are observable and objective or subjective and based on inference. Such an objective would be considered higher level,”(p. 117). When the students integrate the history, the cultures, and the originations of music into there memory and into the roots of their inspiration, it promotes growth, intelligence, and patience skills for the mind. It can be arduous, but through it we grow to develop traits we need to learn to utilize come adulthood, and finding a place in this diverse world where, as an individual we can feel safe and successful.
The incorporations and interpretations of historical music elements also adheres to what the textbook calls affective domain of the performance assessment. Since the students are accessing their internal growth stimulating patterns, when music is related to their personal feelings and preferences, the lessons connect to them on various cognitive levels. In the textbook discusses the affective domain, “This taxonomy describes a process by which another person’s, group’s, or society’s ideas beliefs, customs, philosophies, attitudes, and so on, are gradually accepted and internalized by a different person, group, or society. This process usually begins with a minimal, partial, or incomplete acceptance of an alternative point of view and culminates with the complete integration of this point of view into an individual’s personal belief system,”(p.120-121). Therefore, this class also promotes all sorts of cognitive and affective domain assessment elements, and challenges for growing students, and through musical interpretation and studies of past native music from around the whole globe, the students able to evolve their own individual methods of creating music and accessing higher levels of thinking and higher levels of consciousness.
For me, the performance assessment rubric represents a sort of blueprint, by which dimensions of a complex structured course, is necessary and crucial, for the students understanding and organization of the expectations and requirements for the course. The rubric gives precise expectations and keeps the students inline without distracting them into unnecessary overachievement, the rubrics clarifies the point expectations without over stating and understating any requirements. The rubrics also for a complex variety of testing methods to be gagged and enjoyed, without being overwhelming. In the textbook it states, “By giving careful consideration to rubrics, you can develop a scoring system that minimizes the arbitrariness of your judgments while holding learners to high standards of achievement,”(p. 207). This is also why the rubrics are crucial for higher level courses with complexities such as a music course. With my performance assessment rubric, the assessment context is divided into five separate grading criteria’s; the first two assessment being auditory written exams, where samples of music are played, and from students recognition of the samples, they are to understand the culture of the music, the time period, and the composer in order to gain all the points. This sort of exercise is different then reproducing music, this exercise focuses on recollecting pitch and tones in association with the cultures and the times from which the music was written. Here, with listening disciple, any sharp musical ear, can recognize the origin of a type of music or harmony, and is important to develop this sharpness and awareness of the distinctness of sounds when becoming a composer.
The other three assessments are also integrated complexly, but with the rubric is makes it much clearer the necessary requirements for this course and for the students success. The authors in the textbook state, “The best way to measure achievement is to ask your students to demonstrate mastery of a skill under the conditions you specify in your instructional objectives,”(p.117). Although these assessments may not be ever students favorite, it is important for the developing musicians mind to wrap their minds around what they are intimately engaging with. The require that the music be analyzed and evaluated, but by unraveling the compounds of music, we can makes things much easier for musical compositions for the long run for artistic students. The auditory exams are listed clear in the two columns of the rubric, so that the expectations are clearly stated and so the student knows what they need to know to earn the points for the course.
In my performance assessment holistic rubric, I develop and layout the overall performance based assessment plans precisely. The next other three assessments differ from the first two greatly, the all include performing, speaking, and writing parts or pieces of a long essay regarding interpretations of musical genres and histories and how it impacts and inspires them as a musician both in the past and present, and how the network of musical origins and the history of music ties things together. In addition to the essays, the learn to analyze the musical structures and to understand them, and how they related to their time period and cultural background and region, and learn to have greater compassion for different cultures. Here students can develop personal and social skills by understanding their passions and inspirations better and deeper.
Next, the students use the essay they have written to form a presentation of what they have learned with an original song choreographed, and performed before or after the ten minute verbal presentation. This allows for the mind the take what it has constructed in the written form, to be expressed outwardly, and performed as a musical piece that the student has been inspired to write, after learning more about the origins and the ancient humans behind the music. These separate activities develop the performance assessment layers. These variations of activities allow accesses to exercising what the textbook calls ‘habits of mind’ as it states, “Performance objectives in the affective and social domain performance assessments not only require curriculum to teach thinking skills but to also develop positive dispositions and habits of mind. Habits of mind include such behavior s as constructive criticism, tolerance of ambiguity, respect for reason, and apprehension for the significance of the past,”(p.192). So this course access the growth tools needed for working efficiently in an adult world. It deals with social issues of the past and our social development as humans through the course of time. With knowledge and better understanding of the ancestry and the live blood of music, the student can go further into their study of music, and have the wisdom parts of the mind develop and flourish.
Although the performance assessment is complex, as I mentioned before, the holistic scoring in the rubric clarify the requirements, and it is holistic because it rates several different criteria into the score total, and reflects on all different sets of skills, and manages to include all these skills set into a precise blueprint that they student can follow. The textbook states, “Holistic scoring is used when the rater is more interested in estimating the overall quality of a performance and assigning a numerical value to that quality than assigning points for the addition or omission of a specific aspect of performance,”(p.198). Since it clearly defines the necessary elements for the points in the rubric, the student knows from day one what is expected. The point system is divided in a fair manner and allows all skills to be used, while my instructional objectives are laid out and plain and simple terms. Therefore, if I am clear and can provide a holistic rubric for this performance assessment, they the likelihood the students will learn more and gain more from the lesson, and hopefully enjoy them more. As it states in the textbook, regarding measuring learning outcomes, “In summary, ensuring content validity is as simple as making sure that both the learning outcomes and conditions called for by your test items match the learning outcomes and conditions called for by your instructional objectives,”(p.117). Also, scoring will be easier for the educator in this sense that the students on guided on a direct and specific path, and it is easier to avoid errors in scoring when the criterion is presently in the beginning clearly. The rubric below is the breakdown of the point system, and grades range 20-18 points A, 17-16 points B, and 15-14 points C.
The rubric and syllabus will be handed out first day of class, and student will have plenty of time to decide if this is something that they wish to endeavor. Determining the correct testing constraints are tougher with performance assessments because it is much more active and varied. In the textbook it states, “But performance tests confront the designer with the following dilemma: If performance tests are designed to confront learners with real-world challenges, why shouldn’t they be allow to tackle these challenges as real-world people do?”(p.201). Due to the elusiveness of time contraints, the only one that I will have will be the five assessments at the end of the courses. This gives the student the whole course period to determine when or how they would like to put forth their effects. The essay requirements are 10-12 pages, and required three alternative sources. The student must become disciplined to allot the necessary time it would take, and since all the time constraints are in the last two weeks of class, it is up to the student to decide how to handle that time. The essays will be due the Monday, two weeks before courses are finished, before the auditory tests and oral presentations begin. The auditory test will begin the following Wednesday and will go through Friday. Each sample played, the students will have ten minutes to complete their responses. The final week of classes, the oral presentations will be given, and there will be a list by which students may decide what order they want to perform in, and the oral presentation must be at least ten minutes long, and original composition must be at least five minutes long, making the presentation a total of at least 15 minutes. This way each student becomes the own master of their ship, and it up to them how rough the want the ride to be. In all fairness, having everything at the end means the student has all that time to correlate information, compose, practice, and prepare for what they clearly know is ahead of them. This gives times for changes, revisions, switches, so that an art form can be work for obtaining in the end.
My performance assessment plan for course ‘Music In History & Cultures: Music Interpretations‘, was developed to help the students access an appreciation and mastery to the elements and structures of music through series of musical studies of the history; the times, the cultures, the division, the originations, the incredibly vast arrays, and all the different forms that music has taken on from so many different regions from around the world. The performance assessments calls for skills in all sets of the study, and our outlined and rubric, which are handed out on the first day of the course, are the guideline, and it is up to the student to have the will to want to manage their time scholastically, to want to be an active member, to bring a positive to the group of studiers. I always felt like the teachers that showed me how to love what I was learning, to find passion in what answers I was seeking, where the real and pure treasures of my upbringing. I want to hand the tools of knowledge to the next generation so that they can live in a higher thinking world.
References:
Kubiszyn, Tom & Borich, Gary (2010). Educational Testing & Measurement: Classroom Application and Practice (9th ed.). John Wiley & Sons, Inc, 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ. (Kubiszyn & Borich, 2010).
Website: http://rubistar.4teachers.org
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