I also worked on creating a pre-assessment for 3rd graders to take that would be fun to work on and also quite easy for me to get data on the students. I used the website Quizizz to help create really fun assessments (much like Kahoot) but I find Quizizz to be a better route because the kids can work directly from their iPad and don't have to worry about looking from their little screen to the SMARTBoard to see what the question is and what the selections are. With Quizizz, students are able to just use their iPads and can work at their own pace too if I set that feature up. 

So, students logged into Quizizz using a 6 digit code (again a lot like Kahoot), but after that it didn't matter if they sat in the hallway or sat in the classroom, they could work as they pleased. I will say the kids got a little loud because they were having fun, but I expected that. I have a classroom set of headphones so that helped keep the music from the game at bay.

Once the Quizizz is complete, it is nicely made into a beautiful spreadsheet where you can see each individual student, what they answered for each question, the percentage correct they had, and their answers are even highlighted in green for correct and red for incorrect. This was immensely helpful to me as I started to set rhythm goals for them this quarter. I was able to look at exactly where most students struggled, exactly what area students did well in. Most of my students needed to work on the number of beats each rhythm gets, some students had to work on a little identification. I used the info to set goals with each student (took 2 class times for each class) and even set kids up with students who were "experts" in a certain area so that my "experts" could continue reviewing what they knew without realizing it, other students could get one on one help from peers, and the "experts" could then move on to a more challenging goal themselves. I am so excited to see how this goes over with my students! They will be re-evaluating their progress at the end of Quarter 1/mid Quarter 2 and self-assessing (with my guidance) whether or not they met their goal. 

Below is a video showing you how I used Quizizz in my class. I also have a video on how to create a Quizizz if you click here

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So, with my 3rd and 4th graders this year, I am really trying to personalize the learning environment. My goal is to know exactly where the kiddos are in the curriculum and help them find activities and learning goals to help them be more proficient in the areas they may need more help in. 

To do this, I set up 3 google assessments: 
Note Name Pre-Assessment (using letter names, we haven't started this so I expected them to fail)
Rhythm Pre-Assessment (featuring review of rhythms learned in the past and some new rhythms we hadn't looked at together)
Music Terms Pre-Assessment (featuring a lot of music vocabulary, some we talked about and some we don't know yet)

   I gave them the assessments and asked them to do their best, even if they didn't know how. I told them there was a lot of new stuff on the tests, but I wanted to see what they knew and didn't know so we could come up with a plan to grow in specific areas. 

Students were able to complete the assessments through www.schoology.com/ in their classroom activities folder. They were given these assignments as a "Must Do" and when they finished their assessments they could move on to a "May Do" activity. 

Google is awesome because it will keep the data in the order it is received, and with their new assessment platform, it is so easy to see scores. I was able to see the scores in a spreadsheet, as well as look as individual results. I called students to conference with me one at a time using the individual results to see what areas they needed to work in. Most of my students needed help with rhythm identification (past the basic quarter note etc.) Then I set up the goal FOR my students this first time. Later in the year I will gradually release them to set their own goals without me. I was also able to see which students could become my "experts" and partnered them with struggling students so that they could continue to review rhythms without completely focusing on them since they were so solid on that area. 

While I was conferencing, students played different games to help them with musical concepts using Music Centers Kit 1 and 2 . Students were totally engaged all the while I had time to focus on one student at a time. All in all, for most classes, conferences took 2 class periods, a total of 60 minutes. I know that seems like a lot to give up, but I am hoping giving students a greater FOCUS in specific areas to work on will pay dividends by the end of the school year!


The Student Music Goal Sheets that I use with my kiddos are available to view and download for FREE in my TpT store!
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