3 Easy Ways to Get 1 on 1 Assessment Time in Elementary Music

Assessment in the elementary music classroom is hard, especially when you want a bit of 1 on 1 time with kids to get the most authentic assessment you can. Here are my 3 ways that I get quality assessment time with students in my music room!

1. Centers

Age Group: Gr 3 - 6

I use centers for so many things in my music classroom, but 1 on 1 assessment might be the most powerful of them all. This is the way that I do all my playing assessment for recorder and ukulele, and I’ve used it in other units as well. Choose your other 2/3 centers as you would any time you’re doing centers, but with a bit more thought to making sure students can complete them without needing your assistance (this is why I tend to not start it until grade 3 or 4, although if your students are doing centers they are comfortable with they might be independent enough to do it in grade 2!) One center will be assessment with you. You can have students line up to play/demonstrate a skill for you 1 on 1 (this is how I do my recorder and ukulele centers), or have them play a game or do an activity where the entire center group is performing together and use your watchful eye to assess certain students (this is good for younger students or if you are only needing to assess a few students).

A variation of this method is using an app like FlipGrid and having a center where students record themselves. This method frees you up to roam around and help out at multiple centers but does require you to make time later to watch those videos.

2. Showing a Video

Age Group: Gr 1 – 6

I like to use this method when I’m at the end of a unit and I have a relevant video to show students – they are still engaging with something and learning AND I get assessment time? It’s a win-win! I always do this at the end of our Peter and the Wolf unit (I usually show the Sesame Street version to grades 1 and 2), you can also show composer related movies (Beethoven Lives Upstairs and the like), ballet performances (Nutcracker, anyone?), or even classic music classroom videos like Stomp!

3. When students are “out” in a game

Age Group: Gr 1 – 4

This is one of my favourite ways to assess instrument playing skills – when students are playing a circle game where someone is “out” every round, have the students that are out come sit and play an instrument near you. I find this especially great to use to assess Orff instrument skills if you don’t have many barred instruments to go around!

I hope at least one of these methods helps you out in getting that valuable assessment time with your students!