M.E403

Quick Learning Performance

Students will be assessed individually according to a prepared schedule. Students will be sent to a location such as a small practice room for 10 minutes to learn and prepare a piece of notated music, 12–16 measures long, that they have never seen before.

After the practice period, students will have their performance of the excerpt recorded. They will also write a short reflective piece on their experience and suggest what they might have done differently to improve.

Students will be evaluated based on their ability to learn the notes and rhythms, and interpretive features (dynamics, articulation) during the 10-minute practice period.
The music for this exercise might be a brief solo piece or excerpt, an excerpt from an unfamiliar ensemble piece (i.e., not one that the student is already performing with his/her class), or a teacher-composed melody.

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
  • Tonal Accuracy

  • Rhythmic Accuracy

  • Attention to Expressive Detail

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • Student plays/sings few (< 50%) pitches/notes correctly. There are frequent errors and/or problems with intonation.

    N/A at this time.
  • Student plays/sings some (50–69%) pitches/notes correctly. There are somewhat frequent errors and/or problems with intonation.

    View Exemplar
  • Student plays/sings most (70–89%) pitches/notes correctly. There may be some errors and/or problems with intonation.

    View Exemplar
  • Student plays/sings all or nearly all (≥ 90%) pitches/notes correctly and in tune.

    View Exemplar
  • Student plays/sings few (< 50%) rhythms correctly. There are frequent errors and/or drastic fluctuations in tempo/pulse.

    N/A at this time.
  • Student plays/sings some (50–69%) rhythms correctly. There are somewhat frequent errors and/or errant fluctuations in tempo/pulse.

    View Exemplar
  • Student plays/sings most (70–89%) rhythms correctly. There may be some errors and/or errant fluctuations in tempo/pulse.

    View Exemplar
  • Student plays/sings all or nearly all (≥ 90%) rhythms correctly and is able to maintain a steady pulse.

    View Exemplar
  • Student attends to few (< 50%) expressive markings found in the score.

    N/A at this time.
  • Student attends to some (50–69%) expressive markings found in the score.

    View Exemplar
  • Student attends to most (70–89%) expressive markings found in the score.

    View Exemplar
  • Student attends to all or nearly all (≥ 90%) expressive markings found in the score (dynamics, articulation, etc.).

    View Exemplar
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