Chapter 4 # 1,3,5 pg. 213-214

I agree with Brophy when he says that we should not assess our student's creativity level/ process. I think that is is unnecessary. I do not think that I would ever need to test my student's creativity, unless it was on something to do with them composing their own piece. In that case I could assess their musicality.

I think that musical creativity is the way someone views music, and how they use it and work with it. The things that one does with music. I think that musical creativity is a major thing with music and my philosophy. I think that it is important to be creative when performing, and when doing anything dealing with music. I think that it is VERY important to put in one's own personal taste in their music.

I feel that I would be most comfortable teaching improvisation. I think that it takes a tremendous use of musical creativity and I think it is something that my students would enjoy. A way that I could assess this, would be to assess how well they performed their improvisation, how well they used their musical knowledge to it, and how well prepared they were. Possibly have a test on what improvisation is, how it came about, and how to perform it.

Orzolek Article

I believe that I have connected more with Orzolek than I have with Brophy. It is not that I am completely against assessment, but I tend to agree more with Orzolek's views. I think that assessment has in a way taken on different meanings for different people. There are so many different ways of assessment, that I feel it is hard for educators to decide which one to use. As I had said in a previous post, I am not all in favor for assessment/standardized testing. I feel the same way that Orzolek feels on that matter, and that is that we are testing students on content to determine whether schools and educators are doing their job. Not only that but these test ARE normally created by people who aren't familiar with the needs of those particular students. A similarity I have found is when Orzolek was discussing rubrics. There are plenty of examples in Brophy on how to assess the students through a rubric, and I am okay with that. I feel that it can help the student grow and improve if we assess them by rubrics every couple of months. To end my blog I wold like to quote Orzolek. "Assessment should be about what students have learned and not what has been taught to them."

Chapter 3 #3 pg.143

Yes, I do believe that technology can help assess the musical performances. I think that by video taping/ and recording the performance can greatly enhance the assessment process. If you video tape the concert, then the teacher can go back to the performance and assess things on each student that they might not have noticed at that particular time. For instance, posture, placement technique, and the teacher can also go back and look at how the choir had been presenting and behaving themselves. I also feel that it is important to record any concert, so that not only the teacher but so that both the teacher and the choir can reflect on what happened during the concert. I think it would be a good idea to have to students listen to their performances after the concert and possibly write three things they felt were done well during the concert and three things that could have been improved.

I do not think that technology threatens the authenticity in the general music class. Technology is the future, and I think that in general music courses that it would be a good idea to use such things, that can also be assessed. For example, there are so many new things that computers can do that deal with music. You can have your students compose a little tune and then show them how to convert it onto something like finale. Then, you can not only assess them on how their composition came out, but on their skills for using finale. This might actually help some students that may not be wonderful at composing.

Chapter 2 #3,9 pg. 85-86

Yes, I feel that improvisation should be included in the musical skills. I feel that improvisation is not only something that the students would enjoy doing, but something that could be included while teaching a subject such as jazz. Improvisation is something that can be done by any of the students. You could create a lesson explaining what it is, how it can be done, show some examples, and then create a class project by having the students create their own improvisation and perform it for the class. I do not suggest doing this individually, because some students may not be totally comfortable with this type of project. I think that it is something that could be done in groups. I think that improvisation is a phenomenal skill that the students could learn.

To be completely honest, I am not someone who necessarily agrees with standardized testing. It is something that I feel does not work for every student. I know that when I would have to take those tests my grades were never as good as my grade in that actual class, all because I am a nervous test taker. Test taking is not for everyone, and I feel that way even more so more musical classes. I think that having regular tests in the classroom are fine, but once the name standardized test gets put in front of it, it makes the students nervous. I also feel that the teaching would change in order for the students to pass that test. I think that the teachers would teach for the test and not just to share their love and knowledge of music to the students.

Chapter 1 #2 pg.29

My Philosophy of Music Education changes every time I learn something new about it. Since I have been at Westminster, my views have changed at least 5 times. As of right now, the few things that have stuck with me involving my philosophy are as follows. I believe that all students should be involved during their music education class, which means that the teacher, must connect with them to keep them involved in whatever topic is being taught. A way to go about this, would be a use of Critical Pedagogy in the classroom. The teacher should honor their world, and get the students involved. Now music is a subject that can be taught in many different ways, and should be in order to meet all the students needs. Some students may have more knowledge in the subject than others, and that is why while assessing the students I believe that there need to be different standards for each child. I think that the musical growth and knowledge of the student should be assessed. As long as the student comes out of the classroom learning something, then I think that the teacher has done his/her job.

The way that I would assess in my classroom, would be on a variety of things. I believe that my grading scale would be based off of many different factors. One, of course being attendance, because if the student is not there then they would not be learning anything anyway. Second, I think that it should be based on how far the student has grown musically throughout the year. Third, if it is a general music class, I feel that group projects and possibly tests would also be a factor in my assessing. If this was a choir that I was teaching, then I would try my best to create lesson groups and grade the students individually on how much they have improved during the time spent together.

Overall, I think that it is very important to have assessments, and to see the progress that is being made in the classroom.