Formative & Summative Assessment in Practice

Formative assessment is a natural part of the daily music rehearsal process, while summative assessment is usually the end of quarter concert.  However, after taking classes this summer I decided to incorporate more summative assessment and see if that helped students take more ownership of their learning.  One example of this is a recent lesson plan in which choir students learned about blending and tone quality.  They completed a formative pre-assessment where they were asked to verbally brainstorm words and ideas associated with blending and tone quality.  Then I recorded the students singing one of our a cappella pieces before launching into the lesson. Formative assessment continued as I listened to students blend and tonal quality during the lesson activities.  I then recorded the students singing the song again at the end of the lesson. Then the students listened to both recordings and made observations and answered targeted questions using the concepts and vocabulary they learned during the lesson. This summative assessment allowed students to see the progress they made and analyze their own performance.  I found that the students enjoyed this assessment and they were excited about what they had accomplished in their performance technique.