Cadet Teaching

Blog Assignment #4: Assessment Practices

Name_________________________
Hour________Teacher___________

Directions: Answers the questions using detailed examples to fully explain you answer. For those of you who completed
cadet teaching with the same teacher in the fall, you should only answer the second set of questions in this document. You
should type your answers directly on the document and submit online through Google Classroom. Please let me know if
you have questions.

Group A: Students new to cadet teaching should answer these questions.

How do teachers measure what they have taught? Create a list

● Playing tests
● Recordings
● Comparison of warmups from the beginning of the year to the end
● Quizzes
● Sight reading
● 1 on 1 lessons
● Sectionals
What 3 different kinds of assessments could you have used?

I could help run ungraded playing tests, individual sight reading or given a 1 on 1 lesson.

Why would you choose these methods of assessment?

It is more effective to track a student’s progress individually. Although students may learn better or worse as a
section, individual work seems to help show the most improvement in a student.

What does the performance of a student on an assessment tell a teacher? What did they tell you?

Performance on an assessment, depending on the type, shows us that the student practices their instrument at
home and applies the information that is taught to them throughout the day, or has taken the time to listen to
their recordings and critique themselves from the perspective of an audience member.

What does it mean if an entire class does poorly and or does well on the assessment? How did your class do?
How can a teacher use the results of an assessment to improve future student learning?

When a teacher can tell how well students are practicing, they can adjust their lessons slightly to focus on
techniques or parts of music that more students tend to be struggling with. For example, if many students in a
certain section weren’t able to play a certain group of measures in the music well, this can indicate that more
time will need to be spent on those parts of the music (both as a full ensemble or as a section).
What did you learn about your teaching from your assessment?
After reading my critique from my cooperating teacher, I learned that although the content I taught
was well thought-out and executed, I need to work on a principle of “more playing, less talking”. This
is because long stretches of lecture can easily bore students, especially those that are holding
instruments. If I can adjust my balance of time to be more open to the students and allow for more
playing time, this will benefit how well the students can learn my lessons.