Assessment and Curriculum Design

     When I first started teaching, I didn't know anything. I mean, I knew about music, thought I knew how to teach it, and knew I could perform. After all the schooling and practice as a student teacher, nothing prepared me for those first couple of years. "Driscoll (2002) describes learning is contextual, active, social, and reflective" (Bauer, 2014, p. 147). I will testify to this definition whole-heartedly. As a novice teacher, I was not prepared to design curriculums or assessments, differentiate learning styles, or think about teaching in terms of backward design. It was only after actively teaching and reflecting did I begin to understand these principles.
     Designing curriculum and assessment today is filled with so many possibilities. Bauer points out many ways to use technology for these purposes. One aspect I would love to try in the classroom is student response systems. It's one thing to have students give a "thumbs up" or "raise your hand" to tell the answer. It's a whole different level, however, to have students be able to click an answer anonymously! This is genius. It takes so much of the pressure away from students to always be right, not feel embarrassed, and gives even the shy students a chance to participate and see first hand, what they know. Of course, this formative assessment will only work if technology logistics are feasible. Depending on the grade level, students could even use their own phones to log in and participate. Those who don't have their own phones, could use devices provided by the teacher.
     Another use of technology and assessment is Google Docs. I love the ability to "live edit" a document between teachers. This is very effective at a district level when trying to stream-line curriculum. However, I did not even think to send assessments and rubrics to students and parents so they can better prepare. Again, logistics play a strong role in this. At my school, many families do not have access to technology. This is why I give paper copies of rubrics to students.
     As the years tick by, I feel more confident in my teaching practices. It wasn't until this last year, that I truly understood how to plan out a unit. Backward design is really effective for me. My issue before this practice was having so many activities for students, then not having enough time to be sure students understood what they would be tested on. All of a sudden, the assessment had to be completed and neither the students nor I was ready. With backward design, this problem is eliminated. Because the learning outcomes are addressed first, the assessment is designed to answer the learning outcomes, and the activities and how you get there, are simply filtered in. This process has made my life much less stressful. I feel more confident in my classroom. I have seen student improvement with this method and I would advise any teacher to try it.

Bauer, W. (2014). Music learning today: Digital pedagogy for creating, performing, and responding to music. New York: Oxford University Press.