Reflection Post Week 7- Behavioral Objectives and Assessments

In music, a lot of the basic skills to singing/playing/reading must be mastered before students can really dive into the "meat and potatoes" of their literature.  Most of these skills are taught and assessed as behavioral objectives.

1.  Keyboard 1 class - A behavioral objective in a keyboarding class would be the ability to play a melody with the right or left hand (depending on the exercise) using correct notes, rhythm, and fingering.  As the teacher, I can watch and listen to the students play, assessing if they are using the right fingers and are playing the notes and rhythm correctly.  If they are incorrect, I can offer suggestions on what they need to fix, even providing a demonstration for them at the keyboard so they know what needs to be played.

2.  Music Theory - A behavioral objective in a music theory class would be an aural exercise in which students must identify intervals by listening.  For the activity, I play an ascending interval (Major, Minor, Perfect, or Tritone) first melodically then harmonically.  I would play each interval twice.  The students would write the number (2nd, 3rd, etc) and quality (Major, minor, etc) for each interval.  Assessment for these would be based on whether the individual students get the number and quality of the interval correct.

3.  Chorus class - A behavioral objective in a chorus class would be sight reading exercises.  Students would first practice and drill specific skills as a class, with 1-2 measure examples.  The class is assessed as a whole by the teacher as they sing the short exercises, and repeat skills as needed.  The exercises are then extended to 2-4 then 4-8 measures.  For individual assessment, the students are given a 4 or 8 measure sight reading exercise (melodic, rhythmic, or both) and are asked to sing it for the teacher individually. The exercise would cover the specific skills that the students have been practicing in class (stepwise motion, dotted rhythm, etc).  The students are given a starting pitch, 30 seconds to look at the exercise, and the starting pitch again.  They are allowed to restart their exercise once and are assessed on their accuracy.

4.  Marching band/show choir - I tend to equate marching band drill with show choir choreography.  A behavioral objective in both groups would be the execution of correct formations and choreography.  Each individual move needs to be perfected one at a time and then strung together in a larger pattern.  Assessment of this objective would generally be for the entire group as a whole, rather than individually.  The teacher would watch the group and indicate where mistakes are made.  While pointing out individual mistakes can be helpful, it is important that each student is aware of their place in the group and works to make sure every move is correct.  If necessary, the teacher can demonstrate what is expected at certain times during the performance.  Repetition of particular formations until the moves become "automatic" are generally used, especially in marching band.