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TEP419: Assessment in Creative Arts, English and HSIE

INTRODUCTION

It is essential that students are given the opportunity to explore and experiment with sound

and making their own music. Christensen‟s (1992) states, “the music composition process...is

a powerful means for developing elementary music, students ability to perceive what is

musical about music, their ability to engage in collaborative musical production, and their

metacognitive awareness of the composition process”. The creative aspect is as important to

the understanding of music as listening to and performing the music of others, (Sinclair C.,

Jeanneret, N. & O‟ Toole, J. 2009) Hence, the reason for establishing the following

assessment task:

Compose a song to the tune of a well-known repertoire of your choice that tells your

class about the current issues within the Antarctic continent.

PRIOR LEARNING

This assessment task has been designed for a stage 3, year 6 class and is based on their HSIE

unit of work, “Current Issues: Antarctica”. Students have previously explored the

following concepts:

Learning Sequence 1: The place- Where it is, what is like?

Learning Sequence 2: Significant events in, and interaction with, the Antarctic.

Learning Sequence 3: Human involvement with the Antarctic-the impact and the

decisions.

Learning Sequence 4: Decision-making and the Antarctic.

Additionally, students are required to draw on their previous knowledge from Creative Arts

(music) to explore the elements and concepts of music within the nature of their composed

songs, such as:

Duration: Rhythm, Beat, Accent and Tempo

Pitch: Melody and Harmony.

Tone Colour: Voice.

Dynamics: Pattern of intensity and the volume of sound.

Texture: Layering of voices to create a thin or full feeling.

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Structure: Verse, Chorus, Phrase, Theme and Motif.

Style: Relating the category of the song based on their overarching patterns and

conventions.

The students will be assessed on their ability to recall facts about “the unique Antarctic

continent” through creating a song with application of the elements and concepts in their

previous Creative Arts lessons.

Syllabus outcome(s)

Indicators of learning

ENS3.6

Explains how various beliefs and practices

influence the ways in which people interact

with, change and value their environment.

Examines factors that may give rise to

different views about the care of

places.

Evaluates alternative views about the

use of natural and built environments.

Examines how natural, cultural,

religious, historical, economic and

political factors can influence

people‟s interactions with

environments.

Identifies the different viewpoints of

groups and individuals about the uses

of land.

Examines issues associated with

differing values about natural and

built environments.

Expresses a personal point of view on

an environmental issue.

Students will learn about:

Patterns of human involvement and use of environment

Effects of human and natural changes to the environment

Ecologically sustainable development of environments

Different perspectives about the maintenance and improvement of environment.

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(Board of Studies, NSW (2007). Human Society and Its Environment K-6 Syllabus.

Sydney, NSW: Board of Studies, NSW).

Performing:

MUS3.1

Sings, plays and moves to a range of music,

individually and in groups, demonstrating a

knowledge of musical concepts.

Sings songs demonstrating a greater

awareness of beat, pitch, tone colour

and structure.

Explores basic aspects of musical

concepts in their singing, e.g. varying

dynamics and dynamic contrasts,

varying tempo and tempo contrasts,

varying the beat, exploring repertoire

in different metres and using different

rhythm patterns, changing voice to

change tone colour, arranging musical

material into different structures.

Explores aspects of musical concept

in singing to heighten musical

understanding and perform music

with a greater sense of style.

Organising Sound

MUS3.2

Improvises, experiments, selects, combines

and orders sound using musical concepts.

Improvises and explores musical

ideas based on rhythmic and melodic

and incorporates these into own

compositions and as variations on

others‟ compositions.

Students learn to:

Perform music through singing to a

variety of music, both individually

and in groups.

Organise musical ideas to vary known

Learn about musical concepts:

Through recognising musical features

of the music they perform

By organising sound, listening and

performing.

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repertoire, to create new work and to

notate as a means of recording and

communicating musical ideas.

By responding to music through

performing and organising sound

activities.

THE ASSESSMENT TASK: THE ANTARCTIC JINGLE

This summative assessment task consists of students to work in pairs within their ability

group:

Learning Support group: Making a list of all the issues within the Antarctic

continent. Choose a well-known song of your choice and compose a song about the

unique Antarctic continent to that tune, (Remembering).

Core group: Interpret and translate (summarise) what has been learned throughout

the Antarctic Unit and compose the information into a well-known song of your

choice, (Understanding)

Extension group: Structure Antarctica content from the four learning sequences.

Choose a well-known song of your choice and compose learned Antarctica

information into its sequenced parts to best understand that information within a song,

(Analysing).

Students will be assessed against their ability to remember/understand/analyse the Antarctica

content within the four learning sequences and translate into a well-known tune of their

choice. Students will use the skills they have developed in their previous Creative Arts

lessons to further enhance their learning of the unit, “Current Issues: Antarctica”. Evidence

of achievement of this task will be demonstrated through the musical elements of performing

and organising sound.

The purpose of this task is to provide students with the opportunity to demonstrate their

understanding of the “Current Issues within Antarctica” and their ability to use music to

create meaning for their audience. Further this assessment task has been designed to assess

the student‟s knowledge and understanding on how beliefs about human interaction have

changed over time and differ from person to person, depending on their perspective and

interest in the Antarctic. Collaboratively composing and performing the compositions to

show conceptual and musical understanding will also be assessed.

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In pairs, students will work co-operatively and compose a song addressing the “Current

Issues within Antarctica”. Students will have one 60 minute lesson to plan, develop and

rehearse their performances before performing to the class. Students will be given 3 minutes

to perform. Student‟s ability to creatively link Antarctica information within the song will be

assessed.

A discussion will occur after each performance in which both teacher and students will offer

constructive feedback. Once all performances have been completed, students will complete a

student-self assessment based on their own performance. The teacher will use a marking

checklist to assess the students‟ performance.

Reflection will be encouraged during both the creation of the performance and at the end of

the music lesson when the teacher shows video recordings of the group‟s compositions.

Students will be encouraged to make positive comments on their compositions. Time for

discussion and reflection will be included to allow students to understand the Antarctica

content within the song.

The resources required to implement this assessment include:

Video camera

6 sheets of „learning support group‟ assessment task.

6 sheets of „core group‟ assessment task.

6 sheets of „extension group‟ assessment task.

IWB.

This assessment task cross-references Gardner‟s multiple intelligences (1983) with Blooms

Taxonomy (1956). Firstly, the task is based on the concept of “create” and its position on the

top of Blooms taxonomy (1956) emphasizes that it is the most complex of the cognitive

processes. It is considered the highest-level process because you cannot create something

new unless you can first make evaluative decisions about alternatives, (Anderson &

Krathwohl, 2001). However, it also focuses on recall, the lowest level of cognitive processes,

for the learning support students.

An approach informed by multiple intelligences theory (Gardner, 1983) could contribute to

this process by providing a paradigm for addressing diversity and accommodating individual

differences, (Galitis, N. 2007). Hence when undertaking this assessment task, student will be

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able to contribute through applying different learning styles to the task. For instance, the

assessment task is based on Gardner‟s musical-rhythmic intelligence. Gardner notes that

certain aspects of musical intelligence overlap with linguistic intelligence, for example,

sensing rhythm and the ability to recognize timbre and tonality variations. Music also

involves a symbol system, which relates to logical-mathematical intelligence, (Nolen, 2005).

In addition, spatial intelligence also operates at a metaphorical level, whereby individuals

create and work on products, performances or concepts by thinking about them in spatial

format. Whereas, students who have intrapersonal intelligence are great at information

processing and can derive previous learning experiences. Thus, differentiation is incorporated

within the process of the assessment through accommodating to different students learning

styles, (Maker 1982a, 1982b, 1986).

Moreover, differentiation can be seen through other areas of process modification within the

assessment task. These include:

Higher levels of thinking - involving cognitive challenge using Bloom's Taxonomy

of Cognitive Processes (1983).

Creative thinking - involving imagination, intuitive approaches and brainstorming

techniques.

open-endedness - encouraging risk-taking and the response that is right for the

student by stressing there is no one right answer,

Freedom of choice-involving students in evaluation of choices of topics, e.g.

composing a song based on the students choice of learning sequence:

Learning Sequence 1: The place- Where it is, what is like?

Learning Sequence 2: Significant events in, and interaction with, the Antarctic.

Learning Sequence 3: Human involvement with the Antarctic-the impact and the

decisions.

Learning Sequence 4: Decision-making and the Antarctic.

RATIONAL AND JUSTIFICATION

This is a rich assessment task and is appropriate and relevant as students are engaged in a

creative, engaging meaningful task, which allows them to demonstrate their knowledge and

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understanding of issues and decision-making involved in human interaction with a significant

world environment, the Antarctic.

The eight intelligences nominated by Gardner are all actively employed in this assessment.

For students whose intelligence profile predisposes them to working in different art forms,

The Arts learning area represents a rich and satisfying means of exploring the world and for

expressing and communicating their understandings, (Dinham, J. 2011).

Constructive Feedback is the way of supporting learning and improvement that avoids empty

praise and harsh criticism. A feature of constructive feedback is that children are to make

their own observations about the strengths of their work or the strategies they that can lead to

improvements, (Dinham, J. 2011).

In this process-orientated assessment task, the emphasis is shifted away from the assessment

of the final product alone and focused as well on the learning process. Therefore there are lots

of opportunities to reinforce the positive responses children have made to the challenges

presented and to guide their work towards the attainment of more successful outcomes.

Sinclair, Jeanneret and O‟tool (2009) recognise that learning which is based on integrating

the arts invites children into a process of learning that involves the senses, the imagination

and personal experience (Taylor & Andrews 1993). The skills, which will be implemented

through the use of music composition provides students with the opportunity to explore and

develop their imaginations. Students will therefore be able to become more confident in

experimenting with their own creativity and stepping outside their comfort zone. Chiert and

Hunsberger (2008) have acknowledged that developing the imagination can assist in other

learning areas such as communicating.

A rubric will be used to assess and record the student‟s achievement of the task. This

criterion is used to ensure there is consistency within the task and that it is fair as all students

are being assessed against the same criteria. In addition as students are working in pairs, the

teacher will move around the classroom and complete a record sheet to make notes of the

students learning. This allows the teacher to identify any areas, which may require more

guidance, and to also note what the students are doing well. Therefore, assessment will be on-

going throughout this task and will allow for the teacher to also assess their own teaching,

(Killen, 2005).

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In addition students will complete a self-assessment so they are able to observe and reflect on

their growth in their drama skills and understanding of the HSIE content being examined,

(Killen, 2005).

CONCLUSION

The assessment data, recorded from this task will be compared against student‟s previous

learning and how they had performed in order to assess their progress. This is a summative

task to assess students understanding of “Current issues in Antarctica” and the data will be

used as a basis for reporting and identifying the achievement of the outcomes being addressed

in this task.

Reliable testing is the degree in which test scores are free from errors or measurement (Killen

2005). The rubric and on-going assessment strategies will aid to this task being a reliable

indication of learning as this allows the marking of the assessment task to be consistent. A

reliable test ensures teachers know what the students have achieved in terms of the outcomes,

provides useful feedback to their students and are able to use the results to improve their

teaching. The rubric included in this assessment task also contributes to valid testing as the

rubric acts as a guide and ensures the task is measuring what is meant to be measured (Killen

2005).

Other alternative approaches to assessment, could involve informal measures of assessing

students understanding. Questioning is an effective way to gain insight into students thinking

and provides opportunities for students to verbalise thinking.

Furthermore, we must note assessment for learning is an essential and integrated part of

teaching and learning which emphasises the interactions between learning and manageable

assessment strategies that promote learning. Therefore assessment needs to be on going and

embedded in learning activities. Teachers need to reflect on what students have achieved and

modify their programs to improve student learning (Killen, 2005).

To conclude assessment for learning is inclusive of all learners and this is evident within this

developed assessment task. It is imperative that assessment is developed against well-defined

standards that are free of bias, and are made under conditions that permit students to achieve

their best.

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Reference List:

Board of Studies, NSW (2000). Creative Arts K-6 Syllabus. Sydney: Board of Studies NSW.

Board of Studies, NSW (2007). Human Society and Its Environment K-6: Syllabus. Sydney:

Board of Studies NSW.

Board of Studies, NSW (2006). Human Society and Its Environment K-6: Units of Work.

Sydney: Board of Studies NSW.

Dinham, J. (2011). Delivering Authentic Arts Education. Victoria: Cengage Learning

Galitis, I. (2007) The right tool for the job? Use of the Multiple Intelligences and Bloom's

Taxonomy grid. Australasian Journal of Gifted Education, 16 (1), 12-19.

Killen, R. (2005). Programming and Assessment for Quality Teaching and Learning.

Melbourne: Thomson/Social Science Press

Nolen, J. L. (2005). Multiple intelligences in the classroom. Education Horizons, 8 (6), 14-16

Sinclair C., Jeanneret, N. & O‟Toole, J. (2009). Education in the Arts: Teaching and learning

in the contemporary curriculum. South Melbourne: Oxford University Press.

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Student

RUBRIC FOR PERFORMING MUSIC COMPOSITION

Criteria Fails to meet criteria

Meets criteria at a

limited level

Meets criteria at a satisfactory

level

Meets criteria at a

substantial level

Meets criteria at a superior level

Draw on

previous

knowledge of

the “Current

Issues within

Antarctica”

and

incorporate

the

information

within the

song.

Unable to draw on previous knowledge and establish a composition

Insufficient information given about the “Current issues with Antarctica” and has difficulty incorporating information into a composition.

A good understanding of “Current Issues within Antarctica” and links the information into a composition

Comprehensive understanding of “Current Issues within Antarctica” and structures the information into a composition

Developed depth and complexity of “Current Issues within Antarctica” and transforms information into a coherent, well structured composition.

Applying

musical

concepts and

elements to

create

meaning for

the audience

and

demonstrates

their

knowledge of

“Current

issues within

Antarctica” in

a concise way.

No evidence of musical concepts and elements

Limited evidence of musical concepts and elements to create meaning for the audience and demonstrates limited knowledge of Antarctica

Musical concepts and elements established to create meaning for the audience and demonstrates a sound knowledge of Antarctica.

Evidence of superior use of musical concepts and element to create meaning for the audience and demonstrates a thorough knowledge of Antarctica.

Outstanding application of musical concepts and elements to create meaning for the audience and demonstrates their extensive knowledge of Antarctica.

Collaborativel

y composing

and

performing the

compositions

to show

conceptual and

musical

understanding

Unable to

work with

partner in a

collaborativ

e way.

Poor

group

cohesion –

time not

utilised

during

each

lesson

Evidence of

collaboratio

n in

performing

composition

to show

substantial

musical

understandi

ng

Students

worked

together co-

operatively

and a positive

and

supportive

learning

environment

was

established.

Comprehensi

All students

worked co-

operatively and

provided

adequate

feedback to

others. A

supportive

learning

environment is

evident this was

shown through

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ve

understandin

g of music.

performance.

Outstanding

knowledge of

music.

Comments:

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CHECKLIST FOR

INDICATOR TOWARDS ACHIEVED BEYOND COMMENTS

ENS3.6

Examines factors

that may give rise

to different views

about the care of

places.

Evaluates

alternative views

about the use of

natural and built

environments

Examines how

natural, cultural,

religious,

historical,

economic and

political factors can

influence people‟s

interactions with

environments

Identifies the

different

viewpoints of

groups and

individuals about

the uses of land.

Examines issues

associated with

differing values

about natural and

built environments

Expresses a

personal point of

view on an

environmental

issue.

Comments

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CHECKLIST

INDICATOR TOWARDS ACHIEVED BEYOND Comments

Performing:

MUS3.1

Sings songs

demonstrating a

greater awareness

of beat, pitch, tone

colour and

structure.

Explores basic

aspects of musical

concepts in their

singing.

Explores aspects of

musical concept in

singing to heighten

musical

understanding and

perform music with

a greater sense of

style.

Organising Sound

MUS3.2

Improvises and

explores musical

ideas based on

rhythmic and

melodic and

incorporates these

into own

compositions and

as variations on

others‟

compositions.

Comments