This week's materials were a really great reminder and walk through of instructional design techniques for me. Specifically, I really enjoyed exploring WebQuest this week as I had never used or even heard of this program before. I particularly appreciated how the WebQuest works as a kind of outline and really emphasizes backwards design. As a teacher, I feel I have always struggled in writing lesson plans because I wasn't sold on the value of a written out plan that I would end up changing several times in a performance-based classroom class period. However, the idea of backwards design makes so much more sense to me as a music performer. By determining the end goals, I can design an entire concert circle around a final outcome. This backwards design still allows me the freedom to make adjustments to the daily plan while working towards a solid final goal. I could see myself making a "big plan" lesson plan, but perhaps not as specific of daily plans to better incorporate the "pros" of this system into my instructional design.
I was also pleasantly surprised by how easy WebQuest was to use. I felt like this site really helped me organize my ideas better than a traditional lesson plan and was a great way to incorporate technology. Just writing the outline helped me to better organize my thoughts and put them forth in a more organized, clear and concise way. I was also surprised by how easy it was to incorporate other resources such as videos and reference sites into the lesson plan. My goal was to have a video for each instrument playing the same "popular" song so kids can hear the similarities and differences in the sound and get them excited about hearing a song they love (which is why I chose "Let It Go" from Frozen).
I also found the refresher on evaluations, well, refreshing. Perhaps the concept that stuck out to me the most was how to make musical assessments authentic. This was another topic I always struggled with in undergrad because the assessment methods they taught didn't seem to directly relate to music for me. In reading the Bauer chapters this week, it was really helpful to see musical examples of how some authentic assessments methods in certain contexts are not authentic in others. In the example our text gave us, Bauer stated that if the goal was to see how many major scales a student could play on their instruments, a paper and pencil test in which they wrote the scales out would not be an authentic assessment of the task at hand. This really helped me put assessment into perspective for me. WebQuest also helped me this week in honing my rubric writing skills. Having a rubric already formatted and simply needing to fill in, with the added assistance of other WebQuests as a model helped me create an authentic assessment for this upcoming WebQuest project.
In my school district, we have developed standardized tests for certain grades in general music, choir, and band. These tests are 50 questions and contain all multiple choice type questions. As these were developed, teachers argued that these assessments were not valuable for the arts because many of our classes are performance based. Some of us in the district have been working diligently to help develop assessments that cater to the performance based classes. I really like how Bauer emphasized the use of certain testing instruments like rubrics to create authentic assessments. I'm encouraged to use more technology based assessments with my students in the upcoming lessons. It seems as if this may make the whole assessment process somewhat easier. Like you, reading this chapter helped put some assessment ideas in perspective for me.
ReplyDeleteGreat post! Thanks for sharing.