M.E304

Critical Listening and Assessing Group Performance Skills in the Music Classroom

This assessment has five parts. First, students will review (play or sing) a song or portion of a song that they are presently working on in class. Second, the teacher will record the students’ performance as a group. Third, the students will listen to the recording and then score their performance using a rubric that highlights appropriate musical expression and technical accuracy. Fourth, students will explain their ratings on the Student Rating and Rationale Worksheet, citing specific examples that support the scores they selected. Fifth, students will identify three performance praises and three performance suggestions based on their evaluations. The teacher will score the students work using the Teacher Scoring Rubric.

It is assumed that students have a working understanding of appropriate music terminology encompassing technical and expressive elements in performance.

This item has been voluntarily field-tested by Michigan teachers with a non-representative sample of students.


This is an analytic rubric. The column on the left shows the dimension that is being measured in the student’s performance. The levels across the top row indicate the performance level in the dimensions. Occasionally all dimensions and performance levels are exemplified by multiple students in a single recording.

TEACHER SCORING RUBRIC

  • Dimension
  • Examples

  • Analysis and Rationale

  • Performance Praise and Suggestions

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • Student does not draw upon examples from the performance.

    N/A at this time.
  • Student draws upon some examples from the performance.

    View Exemplars
    View Exemplars
  • Student draws upon many examples from the performance.

    View Exemplars
    View Exemplars
  • Student uses many examples from the performance.

    N/A at this time.
  • Analysis and rationale are not fully formed thoughts, and musical terminology is absent or misrepresented within the response.

    N/A at this time.
  • Analysis and rationale contain some music terminology that describes the presence and quality of some of the musical dimensions.

    View Exemplars
    View Exemplars
  • Both analysis and rationale use correct musical terminology to describe the presence and quality of the musical dimensions.

    N/A at this time.
  • Both analysis and rationale are insightful and use correct musical terminology to assess the presence and quality of the musical dimensions.

    N/A at this time.
  • Student feedback does not draw upon examples from the performance. Feedback is either absent or not adequate to improve the ensemble performance.

    N/A at this time.
  • Student feedback draws upon some examples from the performance. Feedback provides some insight to improve the ensemble performance.

    N/A at this time.
  • Student feedback draws upon many examples from the performance. Feedback provides insight to improve the ensemble performance.

    N/A at this time.
  • Student feedback uses extensive examples from the performance. Feedback is insightful and will aid greatly in improving the ensemble performance.

    N/A at this time.
Having trouble viewing videos?

Leave Feedback for this Assessment


What did you like? Did you need to revise anything? How could we make this assessment better?
Our Assessments are written by teachers for you, so your feedback is important to us!

Comments about items may be moderated and/or reposted in the blogs to aid item improvement and teacher learning. By leaving a comment, you agree that we can use your comment without attributing it to you.

Sign up for our newsletter to stay up to date with all of our assessments.

Sign Up Now!