Assessing Student Compositions

Abstract

Many teachers believe in the importance of compositional and creative tasks but don’t find the time to assess those tasks and provide feedback to students. This column encourages teachers to determine why, what, and how assessments will be given. By planning out why (formative or summative), what kind of task will be assessed, and choosing a tool for how assessments will be given, teachers can maximize the amount of feedback they give to students and help students grow as composers. This column provides teachers with solid strategies and methods for implementing student composition assessments in general music classrooms.

Playful Centers in General Music

“…My bars are all identified with colored stickers, so students who cannot read standard notation can still explore music reading by reading colored dots and matching the colors with the bars on their instrument. Some provocations in melody center might be to take a strip of four colored dots, play it, and then finish it by composing an ending; learn a familiar song that we previously learned in music class; play a melody game with a peer (Hatch, 2023); or create original musical works.…”