Playing Percussion Instruments at the World of Music Workshop
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Art Escape Pictures
Bill Jenkins' World of Music Workshop at the Anacostia Museum
Playing Percussion Instruments at the World of Music Workshop
Playing Percussion Instruments at the World of Music Workshop
Art Escape: Washington DC
Art Escape: The Smithsonian Institute
Washington, DC
May 14-16, 2010
On Friday, May 14, 2010, I and my colleagues of artsAPS Cohort # 2, under the guidance of Dr. Colette Hopkins, boarded an Amtrak train from Atlanta, GA heading to Washington, DC. Prior to boarding, I had already gone online to visit the Smithsonian website and had made some preliminary decisions about where I wanted to visit upon my arrival in DC. On the website, I discovered a Motown Exhibit scheduled to be housed at the Anacostia Museum during the time of our visit. So naturally, I selected the Anacostia Museum (http://www.smithsonian.org/visit/whatsnew/AN.ASP) as my first experience of the day. The second experience I chose was the National Museum of African Art (http://www.smithsonian.org/visit/whatsnew/nmafa.asp). I planned to visit these two museums.
On Saturday, May 15, 2010, we arrived at Union Station in Washington, DC. The group quickly assembled to go over the plan for the day. We broke up into groups. The Anacostia group got together, got into three taxicabs, and headed for the Anacostia Museum. After taking a series of photographs outside, we then proceeded in.
I entered the building, I could hear the receptionist telling members of our group that the Motown Exhibit was gone. I was a little disappointed but I proceeded to the exhibit that was currently there. It was called The African Presence in Mexico: From Yanga to Present, Who are we Now? Roots, Resistance, & Recognition. The artwork in this exhibit told the story of the existence and contributions of people of African descent in Mexico for almost 500 years. I had no idea until I saw this exhibit, that Africans had arrived in Mexico with the first Spanish conquistadores.
I saw a huge parallel with the Mexicans of African descent and African Americans. Their plights were similar, they were taken from Africa through slavery, a caste system was forced on them by their oppressors, and they still struggle for their unwritten contributions to be placed in the history books where all people can have access to their contributions. I also discovered that there was collaboration between the African Mexicans and African Americans. There was the Underground Railroad in Mexico, the Louisiana Creole Connection, and the Black Seminole Migrations. The Mexican Americans have also provided a safe haven for African Americans and Latinos seeking more freedom than they were offered in America.
The second experience we experienced at the Anacostia Museum was a hands-on music workshop experience with Bill Jenkins. As arts educators, this was a wonderful way to start the day. It was meaningful to us because it connected to who we were and what we do. He had a large variety of instruments from percussion to stringed instruments. Bill Jenkins’ World of Music has over two hundred music instruments. It was a wonderful musical experience and we enjoyed exploring a large range of instruments that we don’t get to perform on in our work environments on a day to day basis.
When we left there, I went on visit the African Art Museum. When I entered, there was a live performance going on in the basement. It was a modern dance presentation and it was very informative and enlightening. I particularly enjoyed the education on the top ten components to look for in a modern dance number.
After I left the modern dance exhibition, I went on to visit several other exhibits in this museum. There one was that stays in my mind daily. It was an exhibit by Paul Emmanuel of South Africa. His exhibit is called Transitions. The subject of his work that I related to the most was A Rite of Passage, which depicted a series of images of young men marching to military camp to get their heads shaved for induction into the military. This drawed me in because my father, who is now deceased, was a military man. The white t-shirts hanging on the clothes line and the men getting haircuts reminded me so much of him. Paul Emmanuel has comprised a series of seemingly photographic pieces of artwork. However, they are not photographs. A museum guide explained to me that he takes a fine steel blade and obsessively scratches away the black exposed and processed emulsion that coats photographic paper. I noticed not only black and gray colors in his work but also rust colored tones that I was told was created by the weight of the blade on the photographic paper. It was remarkable. I was certain that I was looking at a photograph.
I found meaning in the Transitions exhibit. Reflecting on my experience in this exhibit immediately makes me think of Pink’s “A Whole New Mind”, when he talks about meaning . This particular work by Emmanuel gave me a sense of spiritual fulfillment. It took be beyond what I was actually looking at and I began to see other visuals from my own life in my mind as they related tomy father. I see why it is so important for the learning experience to be meaningful. It allows the student to connect to learning in a way that he or she will not be able to forget it. And at the same time, story was evident as well. After viewing these works of art that were meaningful to me, I began to see my own story unfold in my mind. It’s not a day that goes by since I have returned from this Art Escape that I don’t see one of Emmanuel’s images in my mind. To me, that’s powerful.
The Sunday, May 16, 2010, we arrived back in Atlanta, GA. Later that day, my 11 year old daughter had her dance recital, and sure enough, I found myself looking for those ten components of modern dance that I had experienced at the African Art Museum on Saturday. I shared this connection with my daughter.
I really enjoyed this escape and hope to be able to provide some type of arts escape for my students in the upcoming school year. Learning can take place in non-traditional environments. Hopefully I can find some that will impact my students the way this arts escape impacted me.
Action Research Project: Intonation
Action Research Project
How to Improve Intonation for Middle School Orchestra Students
Description of the Problem
Each year, students all across the state of Georgia participate in the GMEA Orchestra Large Group Performance Evaluation Festival. In South Carolina and Georgia, intonation is one of the standards by which judges rate the performance groups. In my twenty-five years of teaching, the groups I have taken to participate in the festivals have done relatively well in the area of intonation. However, over the past five to eight years, I have observed that the groups I have taken to festival have continued to receive mediocre ratings in the area of intonation. I have pondered over what methods or techniques would be more meaningful for my students to help them address this issue as well as what methods I can implement as a teacher to help my students improve in this area.
In Orchestra class, students have been working on scales as an opening activity to the lesson. Most students can play the scale relatively in tune. However, a good number of them do not. It has been my observation that the f sharp on the d string is the note that students have the most difficulty playing in tune. Most students can get the e note on the d string in tune. For most of them, if they get the f sharp in tune, they know where the third finger placement should be. I would like to explore some possible solutions as to how this f sharp intonation problem can best be addressed.
Aim
The aim of this action research study was to identify effective strategies for improving the intonation of middle school orchestra students, specifically the f sharp on the d string, by using a variety of methods and strategies in the daily classroom environment. I sought to answer the following questions:
1) What methods would be beneficial in helping the students in my middle school orchestra classes develop better intonation, particularly the f sharp on the d string?
2) What students are having the most difficulty with intonation?
2) What can I do differently, as a teacher, to help students fix this problem?
3) What cost-effective methods are available to assist students with improving intonation?
4) What methods does the research suggest for improving intonation?
5) What methods for improving intonation worked the best?
Domain of the Project
School Setting and Participants
The setting for this action research study is two middle schools in the Atlanta Public Schools System, Atlanta, GA. Both schools are Title One schools and are considered at-risk schools. Over 95% of students at both schools are on free or reduced lunch. 86% of the students are female students and 14% of the participants are male. The grade level distribution is 6th Grade, 40%, 7th graders, 32% and 8th graders, 28%.
The first school is Turner Middle School (TMS). It has a very small student population of a little over 220 students. Of those 220, 20 students are enrolled in the 6th, 7th and 8th grade orchestra classes. 100% of these students are African-American. Eighty percent are female and the other 20 percent is made up of male students. Classes are held each Monday, Wednesday and Friday for 60 minutes. There are 60 minutes allotted for instruction, on paper, however, movement to and from class and the required written work (thinking maps, opening activities, etc.) that are required of all teachers, only leaves us with about 30 minutes of actual music instruction.
The second school where I conducted this study was Coretta Scott King Young Women’s Leadership Academy (CSKYWLA). This is an all-female student academy, so 100% of students enrolled in the orchestra program are female and African-American. Orchestra classes are held every Tuesday and Thursday for 90 minutes. Students actually spend approximately 70-75 minutes of the 90 minute period on their instruments during the instructional period. There are approximately 30 students who participate in orchestra classes.
Design of the Project
This project took place over a period of four weeks. Before I started my research project, I created a survey that collected information from the students to find out their level of awareness about intonation ( See Appendix A). . The data was transcribed immediately in order to guide me in the direction that I felt I needed to take to get the students to listen more critically. Before the intervention, I administered a pre-intervention playing assessment to all students. Students were given a composition that included eleven f sharps, spread out over an eight measure passage of music (see Appendix B). The teacher circled the notes that were out of tune as each student performed. This assessment was given to all students on all grade levels. The main materials used in the intervention were from my online research. I tried to find ways to make this task fun and interesting for the students and to also allow them to make some choices about which method they would enjoy and benefit from the most. In my research, I found seven methods that I thought would help students to hear the notes first. This helped to guide me and direct me to a starting point that would get to the core of the problem. Here are seven strategies that I found in my research that were used simultaneously during my action research project. The strategies I implemented were:
1) Sing everything before you play – Students sang the D major scale and music selections before they performed them.
2) Always audiate what you are going to perform before you perform it. – The more advanced students were able to move to audiating without singing aloud. This was evident by the number of students who started making adjustments as they played.
3) Develop proper instrument position and a good, flexible left-hand position – The teacher constantly tapped wrists, took photos, gave verbal cues, etc. to help students remember to check the left hand posture and adjust if necessary.
4) Don’t rely on tapes or dots on the fingerboard. – Students were encouraged not to look at their fingers while playing.
5) Have students to play rote passages so they can concentrate on what they hear and not on what they see. The D major scale was the passage most students liked to play. They were familiar with the tune of the scale.
6) Develop musical independence right from the start. Students were encouraged to take ownership of their intonation and encouraged to adjust the left hand technique and finger patterns if they felt necessary. Verbal praise was given when this was observed.
7) Sing something alone and play something alone.- Students could play and sing a scale or familiar passage for the class.
Methodology and Process
Based on the results of the pre-intervention playing assessment, students who scored less that 70% on their pre- assessment were given small group instruction in addition to the whole group instruction that the entire class received.
At least 30 minutes of each class period was designated for students to work on intonation. The entire class was involved in the intonation focus groups at the beginning of each lesson. Students spent approximately 5-10 minutes vocally matching pitches played by the teacher. The next 5-10 minutes was spent on practicing the D major scale without printed music. The teacher would then divide the class in half. For the next 5-10 minutes, one half of the class would play the scale on their instruments while the second half would sing along with them. Then, they would reverse the roles. Once this was complete, students who showed left hand technique problems stayed with small group sessions with the teachers while the other students worked on sheet music or exercises from the book. Anecdotal notes were kept on a daily basis to track the overall progress of each student. After the work period, students were asked to sing and perform a one-line excerpt from their sheet music or book exercise. Verbal praise was given to students who were able to make left hand finger adjustments while they were performing on their instruments.
Results
Survey
Before I started my research project, I created a survey that collected information from the students to find out their level of awareness about intonation (see Appendix A). The data was transcribed immediately in order to guide me in the direction that I felt I needed to take to get the students to listen more critically. When asked how many students felt that they played in tune, 64% answered yes and 36% answered no, as seen in Table 1. However, when asked if the teacher had ever mentioned to them that they needed to adjust their intonation, 84% said yes and 16% said no as seen in Table 1. What that showed me was that the student’s interpretation of playing in tune and the teacher’s interpretation were not aligned.
How to Improve Intonation for Middle School Orchestra Students
Description of the Problem
Each year, students all across the state of Georgia participate in the GMEA Orchestra Large Group Performance Evaluation Festival. In South Carolina and Georgia, intonation is one of the standards by which judges rate the performance groups. In my twenty-five years of teaching, the groups I have taken to participate in the festivals have done relatively well in the area of intonation. However, over the past five to eight years, I have observed that the groups I have taken to festival have continued to receive mediocre ratings in the area of intonation. I have pondered over what methods or techniques would be more meaningful for my students to help them address this issue as well as what methods I can implement as a teacher to help my students improve in this area.
In Orchestra class, students have been working on scales as an opening activity to the lesson. Most students can play the scale relatively in tune. However, a good number of them do not. It has been my observation that the f sharp on the d string is the note that students have the most difficulty playing in tune. Most students can get the e note on the d string in tune. For most of them, if they get the f sharp in tune, they know where the third finger placement should be. I would like to explore some possible solutions as to how this f sharp intonation problem can best be addressed.
Aim
The aim of this action research study was to identify effective strategies for improving the intonation of middle school orchestra students, specifically the f sharp on the d string, by using a variety of methods and strategies in the daily classroom environment. I sought to answer the following questions:
1) What methods would be beneficial in helping the students in my middle school orchestra classes develop better intonation, particularly the f sharp on the d string?
2) What students are having the most difficulty with intonation?
2) What can I do differently, as a teacher, to help students fix this problem?
3) What cost-effective methods are available to assist students with improving intonation?
4) What methods does the research suggest for improving intonation?
5) What methods for improving intonation worked the best?
Domain of the Project
School Setting and Participants
The setting for this action research study is two middle schools in the Atlanta Public Schools System, Atlanta, GA. Both schools are Title One schools and are considered at-risk schools. Over 95% of students at both schools are on free or reduced lunch. 86% of the students are female students and 14% of the participants are male. The grade level distribution is 6th Grade, 40%, 7th graders, 32% and 8th graders, 28%.
The first school is Turner Middle School (TMS). It has a very small student population of a little over 220 students. Of those 220, 20 students are enrolled in the 6th, 7th and 8th grade orchestra classes. 100% of these students are African-American. Eighty percent are female and the other 20 percent is made up of male students. Classes are held each Monday, Wednesday and Friday for 60 minutes. There are 60 minutes allotted for instruction, on paper, however, movement to and from class and the required written work (thinking maps, opening activities, etc.) that are required of all teachers, only leaves us with about 30 minutes of actual music instruction.
The second school where I conducted this study was Coretta Scott King Young Women’s Leadership Academy (CSKYWLA). This is an all-female student academy, so 100% of students enrolled in the orchestra program are female and African-American. Orchestra classes are held every Tuesday and Thursday for 90 minutes. Students actually spend approximately 70-75 minutes of the 90 minute period on their instruments during the instructional period. There are approximately 30 students who participate in orchestra classes.
Design of the Project
This project took place over a period of four weeks. Before I started my research project, I created a survey that collected information from the students to find out their level of awareness about intonation ( See Appendix A). . The data was transcribed immediately in order to guide me in the direction that I felt I needed to take to get the students to listen more critically. Before the intervention, I administered a pre-intervention playing assessment to all students. Students were given a composition that included eleven f sharps, spread out over an eight measure passage of music (see Appendix B). The teacher circled the notes that were out of tune as each student performed. This assessment was given to all students on all grade levels. The main materials used in the intervention were from my online research. I tried to find ways to make this task fun and interesting for the students and to also allow them to make some choices about which method they would enjoy and benefit from the most. In my research, I found seven methods that I thought would help students to hear the notes first. This helped to guide me and direct me to a starting point that would get to the core of the problem. Here are seven strategies that I found in my research that were used simultaneously during my action research project. The strategies I implemented were:
1) Sing everything before you play – Students sang the D major scale and music selections before they performed them.
2) Always audiate what you are going to perform before you perform it. – The more advanced students were able to move to audiating without singing aloud. This was evident by the number of students who started making adjustments as they played.
3) Develop proper instrument position and a good, flexible left-hand position – The teacher constantly tapped wrists, took photos, gave verbal cues, etc. to help students remember to check the left hand posture and adjust if necessary.
4) Don’t rely on tapes or dots on the fingerboard. – Students were encouraged not to look at their fingers while playing.
5) Have students to play rote passages so they can concentrate on what they hear and not on what they see. The D major scale was the passage most students liked to play. They were familiar with the tune of the scale.
6) Develop musical independence right from the start. Students were encouraged to take ownership of their intonation and encouraged to adjust the left hand technique and finger patterns if they felt necessary. Verbal praise was given when this was observed.
7) Sing something alone and play something alone.- Students could play and sing a scale or familiar passage for the class.
Methodology and Process
Based on the results of the pre-intervention playing assessment, students who scored less that 70% on their pre- assessment were given small group instruction in addition to the whole group instruction that the entire class received.
At least 30 minutes of each class period was designated for students to work on intonation. The entire class was involved in the intonation focus groups at the beginning of each lesson. Students spent approximately 5-10 minutes vocally matching pitches played by the teacher. The next 5-10 minutes was spent on practicing the D major scale without printed music. The teacher would then divide the class in half. For the next 5-10 minutes, one half of the class would play the scale on their instruments while the second half would sing along with them. Then, they would reverse the roles. Once this was complete, students who showed left hand technique problems stayed with small group sessions with the teachers while the other students worked on sheet music or exercises from the book. Anecdotal notes were kept on a daily basis to track the overall progress of each student. After the work period, students were asked to sing and perform a one-line excerpt from their sheet music or book exercise. Verbal praise was given to students who were able to make left hand finger adjustments while they were performing on their instruments.
Results
Survey
Before I started my research project, I created a survey that collected information from the students to find out their level of awareness about intonation (see Appendix A). The data was transcribed immediately in order to guide me in the direction that I felt I needed to take to get the students to listen more critically. When asked how many students felt that they played in tune, 64% answered yes and 36% answered no, as seen in Table 1. However, when asked if the teacher had ever mentioned to them that they needed to adjust their intonation, 84% said yes and 16% said no as seen in Table 1. What that showed me was that the student’s interpretation of playing in tune and the teacher’s interpretation were not aligned.
Table 1. Survey Questions about Intonation
| Yes | No |
| 32 | 18 |
| 42 | 8 |
A survey and pre- and post-intervention assessments were used for data collection. Before the project began, students were given a composition that included eleven f sharps, spread out over an eight-measure passage of music. The teacher circled the notes that were out of tune as each student performed. This assessment was given to all students on all grade levels. The percentage of accuracy became that student’s baseline score. At the conclusion of the project, each student was tested on the same musical passage to see what changes, if any, had occurred.
As shown in Graph 1a, 6th grade students from CSKYWLA showed no gains in the degree of accuracy in which they could perform the music excerpt after four weeks. Graph 1b shows that 6th grade students at TMS made a slight gain of 5% on their post – intervention scores. In Graph 2a, 7th grade students from CSKYWLA showed small gains in the degree of accuracy in which they could perform the music excerpt after four weeks. Graph 2b shows that 7th grade students at TMS made a noticeable gain of 17% on their post – intervention scores. In Graph 3a, 8th grade students from CSKYWLA showed no gains at all. There was actually a 4% decrease in the degree of accuracy in which they could perform the music excerpt after four weeks. Graph 3b shows that 8th grade students at TMS made a noticeable gain of 10% on their post – intervention scores.
Looking at the big picture, the overall data in Chart 4. indicates that 50% of the students increased their scores on the post-intervention assessment. More students decreased in accuracy than those who stayed the same.
Analysis
The results of this action research project suggest that over half of the students who participated in this study showed an increase in the ability to play a selected passage of music in tune after a variety of methods had been implemented into the daily lesson. All classes showed gains in their ability to play in tune except the 6th and 8th grade classes at CSKYWLA, as shown in Chart 1a and Chart 3a. In my daily observations, I observed improvements in students’ intonation. More students were adjusting the left hand technique as they played. More students appeared to make adjustments to finger placement as they performed musical passages, especially when they were playing longer note values. In keeping with Pink’s A Whole New Mind, students enjoyed the freedom to learn and to help others learn. There was a real sense of play during the first 30 minutes of class and students were able to be productive and involved in instruction without the seriousness and tight structure of the regular classroom instructional period. Feedback was provided to students immediately to allow them to make adjustments on the spot. Gardner mentions in his book “The best thing is to invite young persons to participate in synthesizing efforts and to give them regular, useful feedback” (Gardner, H.). Students were encouraged to synthesize the activities in a way that they could remember.
One of the most important results of the action research project, for me, has been the knowledge that I have gained as a teacher on this problem of intonation. I discovered that this problem has existed for some time. As string players, we have all experienced situations where issues of intonation arise, but with no clear answers at hand (Borup, H). In the article Band and Orchestra – Improving Intonation in Your School Program – Part I,. the writer states that there has been very little in constructive and concrete methods to make the director’s task of improving intonation easier. Intonation and ways to improve intonation continue to be at the top of the music director’s list of perplexing problems. I found several views concerning how to deal with this problem. Quite a bit of the research suggested that students need to be able to hear the notes before the notes are played. (Reel, J.). Kato Havas echoed the same position in the book New Approach to Violin Playing (Bosworth, London: 1970). At the ASTA National Conference of music teachers held in Atlanta, Georgia in 2009, Presenter Monte Belknap, shared in his article that some experts suggest that you practice playing from memory as soon as possible to eliminate the dominant sense (sight) so that your hearing and feeling senses are augmented ( Belknap, Monte).
I found an interesting online blog where a gentleman was asking for suggestions on how he could improve his intonation (www.violinist.com). I found that these suggestions were pretty much in line with the other suggestions found on various other websites.
1) Sing to increase your aural sense of intonation
2) Practice scales against open strings
3) Train your ear to play with better accuracy
4) Ear training
5) Play with accompaniment
6) Practice with a tuner that picks up sound
7) Play both melodic and minor scales.
8) Practice scales, arpeggios, and double stop scales in every key
Another important result of this action research project was the increase in students’ awareness of intonation. Students began singing music excerpts without being told to do so by the teacher. When practicing a music passage, I observed students working alone, and in small groups, singing passages before they played them. I have a few students who were able to audiate without singing, which was evident by the adjustment of fingers while they were playing. I also observed students letting their peers know that a note they heard sounded out of tune, or that they noticed the finger placement was not quite right. Some even offered suggestions to other students on what they needed to do to fix the problem. As a teacher, that made me feel good. Not only are students hearing these things from me, they are now hearing it from their peers as well.
One factor that may have affected the results of this action research project is the attitude of the students who participated in the study. The 6th and 8th grade students at CSKYWLA are typically my most difficult students to deal with in the classroom. They are not very receptive to new ideas and they tend to have more behavior problems than my other classes at CSKYWLA and at TMS. My most serious minded and focused class is the 7th grade class at TMS. This class had the largest gains on the post-intervention assessment of 17% (see Chart 2b).
Conclusions and Recommendations
The purpose of this action research project was to explore effective strategies for improving middle school students’ intonation by using a variety of methods. The most important questions the research project attempted to answer was what improvements in intonation might result from using a variety of methods in the regular classroom setting. We were able to experience success with the four-week program. From now on, we will continue to focus on intonation on a daily basis.
In the future, I would definitely like to try using more ear training strategies along with intonation strategies to see if I am able to get increased results. This project has shown me that if there is a problem, you must make time during instruction to work on it, if the problem is going to get better. I will definitely continue to use some of these strategies I have learned over the course of this action research project. Adding singing to daily instruction is probably one of the things that I will implement on a daily basis from here on out. This method has been invaluable.
This action research project will be communicated with other orchestra teachers in the district through a PowerPoint presentation of my findings. This PowerPoint file will be emailed through district email. Teachers will be encouraged to share ideas and offer possible suggestions for additional methods or ideas that they might find beneficial. I will share the strategies that I implemented that were taken from an online article called Sound Advice: Fourteen Steps toward Improved Intonation. (Reel, J.).
References
Belknap, Monte, So You Want to Play in Tune? Retrieved from http://www.theviolinsite.com on
April 12, 2010.
Borup, Hasse. A History of Intonation. Retrieved from
http://www.hasseborup.com/ahistoryofintonationfinal1.pdf on April 12, 2010.
Clapton, Ben, Intonation Practice. Practicing: A request for practice techniques to improve
intonation. Retrieved from www.violinist.com/discussion/response.cfm?ID=7385 on
4/18 2010.
Gardner, Howard. 5 minds of the future. 2008
Havas, Kato. New Approach to Violin Playing (Bosworth, London: 1970).
Norton, Herter M., The Art of String Quartet Planning (Simon & Shuster, 1901)
Reel, James. Sound Advice: Fourteen steps towards improved intonation. Retrieved from
www.stringsmagazine.com/issues/Strings122/strings101.html on April 16, 2010.
Appendix A.
Intonation Survey Results
Number or Responses Received from 50 students
1. What is your race?
African-American- 50 Caucasian-0 Other-0
2. What is your gender?
Male- 7 Female-43
3. What grade are you in?
6th- 20 7th - 16 8th -14
4. What instrument do you play this year?
Violin- 27 Viola- 10 Cello- 8 Bass- 5
5. Including this year, how many years have you been playing a musical instrument?
0-1 - 17 2 - 11 3- 8 4 or more- 14
6. How much time do you spend practicing your instrument outside of class?
0 minutes per week - 23 30-45 minutes per week - 22 More than 60 minutes per week- 5
7. Do you feel like you play your music in tune on a regular basis?
Yes- 32 No- 18
8. Has your teacher ever mentioned to you that you need to adjust your intonation?
Yes- 42 No- 8
9. On a scale of 1-10, how would your teacher rate you on your ability to play in tune?
0-2 Bad - 3 3-5 Fair - 12 6-8 Good- 23 9-10 Very Good- 12
10. What do you do to adjust your intonation when you are playing out of tune?
Move fingers – 17 Fix it – 11 No response – 8 Correct Left Hand – 5
Give it to the teacher – 5 Tune my instrument – 2 Correct Posture – 2
May Blog Self-Assessment
ArtsAPS Self-Assessment of Blog Entries – T. Butts
May 2010
Please assess yourself on the quality of your blog entries (all entries, including reading responses, journal entries, classroom reflections, personal accounts, etc). Please turn in one self assessment during the February class and one during the May class. This tool is designed to help you reflect on how well you are synthesizing the many ArtsAPS ideas and activities you are being exposed to.
Rating | ArtsAPS Content | Personal Reflection | Self-assessment | |
4-5 | My response is thorough. | My reflections are thoughtful and complete. | I describe how my understanding has changed using specific, meaningful examples. | |
3 | My response is adequate but could be more thorough. I make some connections to ideas from the course. | My reflections are adequate, but could be more thoughtful. | I describe how my understanding has changed and give some examples. I make comparisons between what I understood before and what I understand now. | |
2 | My response is incomplete. The connections I make to other ideas or information are weak. | My reflections are brief. | I provide some information about how my understanding has changed. I don't include any examples. I provide only limited comparison between what I understood before and what I understand now. | |
1 | My response is random or unrelated to the question. My writing is disorganized and unconnected to any important ideas. | My reflection is limited or superficial. I don't reveal any personal feelings or ideas. | I don't reveal anything about how my understanding of the issue has changed. | |
Your score/ notes: 4 | I did much better with making meaningful connections from my reading as compared to my daily classroom instruction. I began to see the connection a lot more clearly once synthesis began to take place. | I did a much better job of reflecting on personal experiences as well as probing for better meaning and understanding. | I got pretty good at analyzing what I did before and how what I have learned has altered what I do now. Many questions are raised that will lead to further exploration.
| |
(Adapted from The Shape of Change: A Curriculum for Building Strong Communities and a Sustainable Economy. © 2000 Susan Santone/Creative Change Educational Solutions. http://www.creativechange.net)
Feb Blog Assessment
ArtsAPS Self-Assessment of Blog Entries – T. Butts
Feb 2010
Please assess yourself on the quality of your blog entries (all entries, including reading responses, journal entries, classroom reflections, personal accounts, etc). Please turn in one self assessment during the February class and one during the May class. This tool is designed to help you reflect on how well you are synthesizing the many ArtsAPS ideas and activities you are being exposed to.
Rating | ArtsAPS Content | Personal Reflection | Self-assessment |
4-5 | My response is thorough. | My reflections are thoughtful and complete. | I describe how my understanding has changed using specific, meaningful examples. |
3 | My response is adequate but could be more thorough. I make some connections to ideas from the course. | My reflections are adequate, but could be more thoughtful. | I describe how my understanding has changed and give some examples. I make comparisons between what I understood before and what I understand now. |
2 | My response is incomplete. The connections I make to other ideas or information are weak. | My reflections are brief. | I provide some information about how my understanding has changed. I don't include any examples. I provide only limited comparison between what I understood before and what I understand now. |
1 | My response is random or unrelated to the question. My writing is disorganized and unconnected to any important ideas. | My reflection is limited or superficial. I don't reveal any personal feelings or ideas. | I don't reveal anything about how my understanding of the issue has changed. |
Your score/ notes: 3 | I could be a little more thorough in including concepts covered in the artsAPS class. | I tried to include personal feelings about the topics discussed in order to make a meaningful connection. | I tried to explain what changes I have made in my instructional approach since beginning the artsAPS class.
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(Adapted from The Shape of Change: A Curriculum for Building Strong Communities and a Sustainable Economy. © 2000 Susan Santone/Creative Change Educational Solutions. http://www.creativechange.net)
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