Reply To: To test or not to test….

[nafmeadmin]

I test kids a lot in Middle school, not as much in High school. In middle school I have a list of tests in the book. They are pass fail and kids need to pass 6 a quarter for an A on their test grade. More tests count as extra credit. They are the quizzes in the book plus other tunes that are important, even bits of assigned music. They can also propose tunes for a test and if hard enough I let them do it. You may do tests multiple times, I give a bonus if they pass the first time. We save some time during class for tests and kids do them at lunch, after school and during advisory. I also accept test done on video on phones or tablets and via email. When kids make videos of themselves it really helps them. I do tests at hs almost all on ipads. They will typically be the hardest 16 measures of a piece, but could also be a scale with a drone for pitch reference. We also do scales for tests solo/soli. When doing this the whole class plays together then one student, together then one, etc. I usually flim it and grade it later. It takes about 2 minutes for a 30 kid class and everyone is playing through the scale 30 times.