A Jazz WebQuest

It's post concert series and now I get to look forward to my unit about jazz music. I had to design this WebQuest for a graduate course at Kent State (my online program) and found it actually a lot of fun to do!

1. The Link - https://sites.google.com/a/kent.edu/jazzwebquest/

The first page shows jazz greats Billie Holiday and Louis Armstrong. The students are split into groups and allowed to pick a jazz artist, however they cannot duplicate which artist they want to research. Since we're from Iowa I try to suggest Glen Miller, or even Benny Goodman from Illinois, but a mean jazz clarinet player.

After those artists are picked it was time to go into the next step of the project. I had originally planned to use Google Slides, however my students don't currently have access to that, so I decided to meet with our teacher library Dixie Forcht - (follow her @dixieforcht) to discuss other options. One of these options went from GarageBand, but from there we decided on using iMovie. The students' new task is now to create a movie trailer based on their jazz artist. They are to speak as though they are the producer/director of this film and they will be presenting the information requested in great detail.

That being said I'm working with the students to save their notes through Google Docs, so they may share them with their classmates, so they can access them whenever they need them.

The biography sections requires the family history of the artist. Where are they from? What's their birthday day? Did they have siblings? What other things may they have done?

The next section requires the students to research the instrument that their performer used. What can they tell their peers about it? Was it typically used for jazz band/concert band/orchestra? Also, mind blowing enough, the voice is an instrument! What kind of style do they use? What's Ella Fitzgerald doing? Scatting of course!

The last section requires the students to obtain a video of their performer. Since I'm not exactly sure what is available through TeacherTube, my goal is to have students conference with me about the different pieces and research that specific piece. Where was it recorded? What instruments are included? What makes it unique?

The first time I did this project I had a wonderful teaching moment. I had a group choose Billie Holiday. As many of you know, Lady Day, had well, a colorful past and also some heart wrenching songs to be sung/heard. This group choose the piece Strange Fruit. Now I wanted to see how this tiny school's students would take a piece like this so I allowed it. Eventually a student in the group approached me and asked in greater detail what it was about. This student was African American. The race typically wouldn't matter, unless you were researching this piece. Strange Fruit is a song, sung about "strange fruit" hanging from a tree. Yes a tree. Meaning this had to do with the hanging of members of the black culture. Dang! Right?! To top it off, she sang that in prominent jazz clubs as a black performer to a bunch of white aristocrats. The room feel silent. This was a powerful moment, because we can look at the historical importance of this piece and this event to see where we've come from and how we're still growing as a society.

While students are finding their facts, they will be citing their sources in an MLA format with the help of Ms. Forcht.

The last portion is a self reflection. This allows members of a group to be completely honest with themselves and about their peers. I hope that we have the same results this time around.

The trailers will feature music by the artist and the movie talks with allow the students to see how they could portray the life and times of the performers.

Feel free to comment/share/ask questions. I'll be making changes to this over the summer!

Thanks - Travis @traviszinnel

Developing Standards-Based Report Cards

Thanks to an administrator that has a great deal of educational literature I was able to get my hands on the book, Developing Standards-Based Report Cards by Thomas R. Guskey and Jane M. Bailey. As I'm reading I'm trying to remain open minded about a lot of things; for instance, the use of points and what those points really mean, and how standards-based grading can become a more accurate reporting system from teachers to parents?

So I've only just begun reading the book, but I feel I need to make some major notes and refer to a lot of the author's ideas. This just allows me to better organize my thoughts and my rambling before I write my program design and review of literature. Guskey and Bailey give educators some great guiding premises that I feel need to be discussed or at least pointed out:

1. Developing a standards-based report card is primarily a challenge in effective communication.
2. Accurate interpretation is the key element in effective communication
3. Consistency is essential to accurate interpretation
4. Developing a successful report card involves a series of trade-offs
5. Report cards should be descriptive, not restrictive
6. No report card is perfect
7. Developing a standards-based report card requires teamwork, broad involvement, and initial training or study.

All of these thoughts are great, but are a bit a overwhelming to start. The first two premises talked about communication and this is truly a key component of adequate and effective assessment. I'm looking forward to educating my students and parents about what our students are expected to learn and how they should be able to demonstrate that learning. With this type of grading I feel that I will be making a bunch of rubrics, but that's okay - it will hold the students accountable... but it will also hold me accountable. I'm sure that I, like many teachers early in their careers, fudge the lines and give scores that aren't because of content knowledge, but because they try hard. Yeah we mean well, but by giving the score they achieve/earn will allow the rubric to help the student see the work expected and how they can show what they know.

Number 5 - descriptive, not restrictive means that as educators our jobs are to teach our content, assess that learning has taken place, and communicate that with parents. In music our standard could relate to singing a melody on pitch without accompaniment. The student can meet the standard a majority of the time, but has tendencies to go perhaps under or over the pitch. That is where our rubric and grade reports can show parents specifically why the student achieved which score.

Number 6 allows us to be human. No matter how we try to develop the perfect assessment and the perfect report card we just can't. On the plus side, knowing this helps us strive for perfection, which in theory should help our students and our instruction. 

Thanks for reading this musings! Chapter 2 will be coming soon. Please consider following me on social media - @traviszinnel on Twitter. I would appreciate any followers and any insight in SBG and other grading practices. 

Guskey, T., & Bailey, J. (2010). Developing standards-based report cards. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Corwin.

Tracking Students' Progress

Throughout Chapter 5 of "Formative Assessment and Standards-Based Grading" we look at the different approaches for Tracking Student Progress. I read this chapter and became super confused about assigning summative scores, but then I found that 4th approach. This approach is all about Continual Improvement Throughout the Year. I know this seems like a no brainer, but especially for music it is.

When going through this SBG journey, I think my department could benefit from a total restructure of curriculum, or a design. This allows us to examine the whole experience that a student can experience in music education. If we can see exactly what standards our elementary music teacher is covering and assessing then I should be able to do the same in middle school. In middle school new opportunities arise - students can choose after 6th grade to be in either band, choir, or both. From there I do my own sort of tracking through delivering my beginning instrumental and vocal ensemble instruction. My standards will be met through continual assessment of standards. I've been asked to look with my secondary music colleagues at what the expectations are to be successful as a band/choir student in the freshman year.

To ensure that the tracking is well documented, I have already kept a lesson binder with sheets of the student's progress from weekly lesson attendance. On these sheets I can see if a student came prepared to learn and how many excerpts they have passed from their lesson book. My goal is to move to SBG (performance based grading) so I am able to see if mastery is being achieved on different concepts like "Student is able to play basic rhythms - whole, half, quarter, and eighth notes". Student can demonstrate that through the exercises provided in their lesson books.

As I go into the next year, I intend to track my singers a bit more thoroughly. I plan to have a portfolio of sorts that will have what the students' ranges are and what their tone quality is. I hope to check these quarterly so I could potentially learn more about the changing voice and when to anticipate those changes. Those changes will make SBG challenging in the respect that students will be trying to manipulate an anatomical change... so how do we grade appropriately? Also, communicating to parents and students - even to administration that the student is receiving that grade, not because of a lack of trying, but because the students can't, no matter the manipulation. This grade will change hopefully in middle school but can change through high school. Let's be real... How many voices don't still crack?

This continual tracking can be passed on into the high school setting where we can begin to see a culmination of the K-12 instruction. Through the use of Comprehensive Musicianship Project (CMP) we will begin to see students graduate with a well-rounded music education. I'm very excited to provide the foundation in both instrumental and choral music, taking what the elementary music teacher built and continue it. This should overall help with retention and continued recruitment. Educating students and parents of the standards and how they will be tracked allows for a student to start band/choir at any age and be assessed accordingly. Woot!

Thanks for reading folks! Have a great day! - TGZ