Assessment Rubrics for Music Composition

Abstract

ASSESSMENT RUBRICS FOR MUSIC COMPOSRubrics make evaluations concrete and objective, while providing students with detailed feedback and the skills to become sensitive music critics. hanks in part to the emphasis that the National Standards for Music Education have placed on comprehensive music instruction, composition is assuming a larger role in music classrooms and teaching situations.1 Teachers who involve their students in this creative undertaking often find, however, that the challenge to themselves lies in the area of assessment. Though music educators are usually adept at evaluating the quality of musical performance and levels of musical achievement, the task of assessing intrinsically subjective musical compositions poses special problems. While hearing and correcting inaccurate rhythms and notes or improving poor intonation is relatively easy, the prospect of rating a child's musical composition is often daunting to music teachers. What criteria should they use? What makes a musical composition "good" or "bad"? How can a teacher possibly give a formal letter grade to a piece that a student has composed?One reason why evaluating musical compositions is so difficult is that creating music and responding to it are inherently subjective acts. Beauty can Maud Hickey is assistant professor of music education and technology in the School of Music at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. Recent research has shown that music teachers can come to a reasonable agreement as to what is a good composition and what is not. be in the ear of the listener, as well as the eye of the beholder. However, recent research has shown that music teachers can come to a reasonable agreement as to what is a good composition and what is not.2 Given a variety of children's musical compositions to evaluate on a simple fiveor seven-point scale, teachers are able to agree consistently as to which compositions are the most creative, most appealing, or most technically solid. However, since this "consensual assessment technique" requires several judges, it is not practical for most teachers, who are generally the sole arbiters of musical quality in the classroom. Nor does it necessarily reinforce instruction or learning, since it does not provide useful feedback to students. Guidelines for CompositionFocusing on the challenges of assessment should not obscure an important fact about music composition: Music teachers should not always approach composing as a graded activity. Research clearly supports the notion that the prospect of evaluation or teacher surveillance often squelches children's intrinsic motivation and creativity.3 Composition should be an ongoing activity in the music classroom, providing opportunities for students to experiment freely with musical sound in order to discover how to manipulate and organize it. Students should be encouraged to compose, edit, revise, and "doodle" music as often as possible, keeping their "sketches" as well as final compositions in personal "portfolios" such as those visual artists use...

Musical creativity in Slovenian elementary schools

“…Teachers have to be aware of conditions like clear goals, balance between challenge and skill, constructive feedback, reduced fear of failure for designing composition tasks, as well as contingent teacher support and reflective discussion in relation to goals and tasks (Hickey 2003;MacDonald, Byrne and Carlton 2006). They have to know how to assess musical creativity using clear criteria reliably (Hickey 1999;Hickey and Lipscomb 2006). When they want to develop children's creativity the focus has to be on creative activities and not on writing down their musical ideas, which can limit creativity (Wiggins 1999).…”

Assessment rocks? The assessment of group composing for qualification

“…The last thing an assessment model needs is a surprise, and yet creative artists seek to do just that. This can pose a dilemma for classroom music teachers who may not have a clear understanding of how to go about assessing creative work anyway Hickey 1999). Furthermore, the objective assessment of creative products is fraught with difficulty and controversy.…”

“…He points out that these are not usually appropriate ways to assess music learning and offers some suggested responses to Marzano (2001) that could be used when assessing playing or composing. Hickey (1999) proposes highly structured, standards-based assessment using rubrics, closely aligned to taxonomy, which can help teachers to understand and measure students' achievement. Eisner (2007) warns rubrics require a level of consensus, or validity and subjectivity will be at risk.…”

La evaluación de las actividades musicales

“…También es interesante tener en cuenta, como Young establece, que "el valor de una obra de arte depende de cual sea la perspectiva de cada crítico... hay factores que pueden inducir al crítico al error: su capacidad para comprender la obra, el interés que le suscite esa obra y su valoración de la originalidad" (Young, 1997, p. 207). A pesar de ello recientes investigaciones afirman que es posible alcanzar un consenso entre diferentes evaluadores por lo que esta técnica, denominada "técnica de evaluación consensuada" (Hickey, 1999), necesita varios jueces.…”

“…De acuerdo con Hickey (1999), los criterios generales son: estética, creatividad y coherencia en la cumplimentación del trabajo. La Encyclopedia of Assessment Dimensions editada por el Harvard's Project Zero dice que "los criterios de evaluación ofrecen el medio más honesto y auténtico de medir la calidad del trabajo creativo de los niños en un area que es muy subjetiva".…”