Assessment Commentary

What assessment strategies were used and why?

Many of the assessments I used throughout this project were informal. Due to the nature of
being an extra-curricular ensemble, I did not want students to feel pressured to meet a certain grade
point or reach a certain level in the 45-minute time period. By doing the pre and post evaluations, I
was able to gauge their growth, not their potential. Based on the improvements I saw between the
first evaluation and the second evaluation, I know that my students acquired the skills necessary to
complete this project.
Furthermore, throughout the course of the project I would create small assessments by
having students review the concepts from the last lesson. Through this quick, through review
sessions, I had a variety of volunteers who demonstrated their individual growth with grasping the
material. These mini formative assessments allow for students to recognize their incremental
process, which allows for the summative assessment of the post-evaluation to feel substantial.

What were your expectations for student learning and how did you communicate these expectations
to students?
At the beginning of the project, I told the students that our goal was to complete an
arrangement by the end of the three-day time period. I did not explain to them how they would be
measured or when they would be measured, but just the fact that this was our end goal. At the end
of the first two lessons, I left students with an expectation of what to work on for the next meeting.
At the end of the first class, they were expected to memorize the five musical concepts of jazz
arranging, and that they could be called on at any time to list off each of the five elements. At the
end of the second lesson, I communicated to students that they needed to notate their comp part or
their transposed melodic part. Without even knowing it, students were being assessed through these
mini “assignments” to have ready for the next course.
The overall goal for this project was not for students to feel pressured by meeting a certain
level or benchmark, but rather to leave feeling a sense of accomplishment and confidence.

How did students accomplish the objectives for the Series of Lessons? Cite specific evidence from
student work to support your claims.

Overall, students were able to apply knowledge of fundamental jazz concepts such as swing
style, blues scales, jazz harmonies, and form in order to complete their arrangement. Students chose
to use a swing style rhythm during the creative process, used jazz harmonies to create comp lines,
and developed an AABAABA form in order to include improvisational sections.
In the student evaluations, the students were able to grow confidence with arranging, raising
the class average by 4.4 points on a 10-point scale. Additionally, students were able to understand
the five main musical concepts for arranging, which also increased tremendously over the course of
the two evaluations, to a 100% score on the post-evaluation. Specifically, in Student #3’s two
evaluations, there is tremendous growth of knowledge of standard instrumentation, which includes
the rhythm section on the post-evaluation.