D String Assessment
My classes have been working on D string notes and I want to make sure students have mastered them before I move on to the A string notes. Tomorrow, students will complete this assessment so I can determine if they are ready to learn more. They have to write note names, fingerings, and play an excerpt to determine fluency on the notes. The exercise gets progressively more difficult as they play to give me an idea on the level of proficiency for each student.
This would also work great as an SLO (Student Learning Objective) assessment. I usually evaluate my classes on rhythm for my SLO, but this would work well as a pre-test. Our district is looking for a higher depth of knowledge for student goals, so re-call/memorization isn't good enough for a final test. A good final test would be to compose and perform a piece of music utilizing notes and rhythms which have been mastered throughout the year.
Forgive me....I am a complete and utter newbie at teaching strings....I've been teaching elementary band for 20+ years, and this year we added strings. I'm happy but scared! I really like your assessment sheets, but HOW do the kids notate the fingerings? What does that look like?
ReplyDeleteThey just write the finger used to play each note. Violin notes for example: they write 0 for open D, 1 for E, 2 for F#, 3 for G.
DeleteMakes sense. Easier than I anticipated! Thanks!
ReplyDeleteThis is great! I just inherited an orchestra and after two months in class many students still don't understand the correlation between finger placement and notes. May I please use your idea to help them practice?
ReplyDeleteSure!
DeleteI love this idea. Do you do the first part of the assessment with all student together and then the playing portion one at a time or do you have students record themselves?
ReplyDeleteWe do it together as a class. It is helpful to do the assessment with the pressure to keep the tempo steady. If they are not keeping up I can see that on the assessment.
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