Pre/Post-Test Assignment

For my tests I decided to teach the jazz band about the blues progression. This ended up

going quite well and gave the band many tools to use in several aspects of their playing, namely

improvisation. I wanted the students to learn how to write the progression using Roman numerals

or in any given key. I also wanted them to be able to recognize the progression by ear. As you

can see in the attached documents, the pre-test was quite simple. I only wanted to see what

knowledge they already had. The results were somewhat expected:

The average for the first question was split right down the middle. The average for ear

recognition was a bit higher at 70%. This told me that I had quite a bit of work to do. I applied

the attached lessons to my teaching and things ended up going quite well. I added extra questions

to post-test just to see what else they had learned along the way, but I did not add them to the

chart. These are the results of the post-test:

 The class was able to label roman numerals perfectly by the end of my last lesson. I made

sure to drill that concept into their heads with much repetition. The ear recognition jumped up to

90% which was really nice to see. I think the many examples I played for them and assigned

them to listen to enabled them to pick out the progression easily. The question most often missed

was a song that was very nearly a blues but deviated just slightly. If I had chosen an easier song,

perhaps their scores would have been higher. The general nature of assessment is something

student teaching made me think about often. I hope that this assignments shows my teaching

ability and the improvement that the jazz band students made throughout my time at the high

school.